This Woven Kingdom

She was everything he’d never realized he wanted in his future queen: not just beauty, but grace; not just grace, but strength; not just strength, but compassion. He’d heard her speak enough to know she was not only educated but intelligent, proud but not arrogant.

The shackles worn by your people are often unseen by the eye. Feel, they’d said, for even blind, you will know how to break them.

“Oh, now you really do wound me.”