#pxellae

       ‹« ✿ »› ——      ❝ wouldn’t you feel the same, stranger? ❞

previous friends gone with husbands 20 years their superior with children, a love that left her for to participate in her adopted uncle’s crusade in the holy lands. she was a truly lonely woman, even when in the company of her subjects. behind the facade of kindness & justice was a broken woman stuck in nobility, relying on the small talks to her servants to please the loneliness that plagued her, that creaked in her bones & was stuck in her thoughts.

the men looked to her as a jewel, as property, rather than a person. her once closest friends look down upon her with shame for a lack of a husband & children, for her rebellious streaks to free herself from being chained, to help the people suffering by the hand of her uncle john. it left her barren, but allowed her to retain her pride.

           ❝ —— if the only people who respected you & loved you truly were off to war? ❞

                 He had meant to rob her this day. Under the guise of a simple, poor villager had he come to her house. He had been a strange sight to behold as walked past boys and women on the fields, a young man himself, and yet not gone off to war. Able hands and strong arms were in high demand these days, but Bard was not in search of work. Easier coin was what he desired, coin and gems and letters of worth to those who thought themselves high and mighty and, most of all, safe from men like him. Those days would soon be gone.