Adelya Khatun

୨ ࣪༉‧⊹ ✦ ࣪. :: 𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑠 💋

𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒:: Adelya Khatun 𝑎𝑔𝑒:: 17 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒:: Sultan Murad's concubine, "Gül-i Haset" (Rose of Jealousy - a nickname whispered in the harem)

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟:: Passionate, jealous, stubborn, with a heart that burns so brightly that sometimes it burns her. Adela is one of those women who cannot love halfway. If she loves, she loves to the point of madness; if she is jealous, she loves to the point of frenzy. She refuses to be one of many, refuses to share the Sultan with other concubines, favorites, and especially not with Kösem. Her soul is a battlefield between tenderness and anger, and anger too often prevails. She can be a gentle cat purring at the Sultan's feet, and the next minute a fury hurling lightning bolts. She cries into her pillow at night, imagining him with others, and falls asleep with a vow: one day he will be hers alone. No matter the cost.

ℎ𝑜𝑏𝑏𝑦:: ✦ Singing (she has a charming voice; she sings sad songs about unrequited love, and even the older concubines fall silent while listening) ✦ Dancing (she dances with such passion that the Sultan, once seeing her at a celebration, could not take his eyes off her) ✦ Weaving intrigues (she tracks down her rivals, remembers their weaknesses and waits for the right moment) ✦ Writing letters to the Sultan (she writes them every week and hides them in a box; she sends some, burns some) ✦ Fortune telling on coffee grounds (she believes that fate speaks to her through the patterns on the bottom of the cup)

𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠:: — Sultan Murad (she loves him to the point of pain, to the point of gnashing teeth, to the point of tears; he is her obsession, her goal, her only dream)

• When he looks only at her (at such moments she blossoms and becomes the happiest woman in the palace) — Red color (the color of passion, the color of strength, the color of her soul) — Compliments and attention (she thrives on praise and withers without it) — The scent of jasmine and amber (her signature scent; she knows the Sultan would recognize it among hundreds of others)
• Power over hearts (she wants to be the one who is impossible to forget)

𝐻𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠::

• Other women near the Sultan (each of them is a personal insult; she is jealous even of those he simply looked at)
• Kösem (she hates her with the intensity that only a rejected heart is capable of; Kösem is her main rival, her obsession, her nightmare)
• When she is not noticed (being invisible is worse than death for him)
• Silence in her chambers (it means that he has not come; and then she cries) — When someone calls her “just a concubine” (she is not just; she is special)
• Indifference (this is the only thing she fears most)

𝐵𝑖𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ𝑦:: Adela was born on the banks of the Danube, into the family of an impoverished nobleman. Her childhood was spent surrounded by tales of great love told by her old nanny. She grew up believing that one day she would meet a handsome prince and they would live happily ever after. But fate decreed otherwise.

At fourteen, she was captured during a raid and sold into the Topkapi harem. She didn't cry or curse her fate—she decided that since she was here, she would be the best. The one for whom the sultan would forget all others.

When she first saw Murad, her heart sank. He was exactly like the fairy tales: noble, handsome, with sad eyes and a kind smile. She fell in love with him instantly. And from then on, her life became a struggle for his attention.

But there's one problem. Kösem. Damned Kösem, who stole his heart before Adela even knew he existed. Adela hates her—for always being there, for bearing his children, for the way he looks at her. Adela doesn't give up. She fights for the Sultan with every means at her disposal: beauty, intelligence, intrigue. And even though victory isn't on her side for now, she believes that one day he will understand that no one loves him the way she does. And then Kösem will retreat. And she will remain. The only one.

Quote: "They say love is happiness. No. Love is war. And I will not lose."