A Breath of Fresh Air

(Promise the next one will be way shorter. Just added a bit of history for myself to get to know her as a character. So a short reply to this would also be great. I'm also cool with other people joining.)

Itaia had a dirty little secret. The Plague had sit the coastal town hard, and had taken one of the Noble family’s own – little Annalie. The youngest daughter of the House had always been the favourite, so when she fell ill, her father hid her away, even from her siblings. For months he claimed that she had been sent to learn about the gods and during that time he had educated her daughter about the family linage and of her own history. Slowly, Annalie had been one of the few to piece back some of the memories of her life. Although she remembered a lot of her life, her memories were still very fragmented in places, so her father staged a horse riding incident where it was claimed she lost much of her memory. For a year she was confined to the castle in Itaia, learning to control her abilities so that she revealed nothing. Her father instilled that the penalty for him hiding her if anyone was to discover would be death.

Understanding who she was and what the king had done with other people like her, Annalie grew resentful and angry. She managed to convince her father to send her to Byzantir. He did, grudgingly, under the pretence that she would be safer further away from the fallen stronghold. Now Annalie walked the castle grounds, a month after her arrival in Byzantir. What she did not tell her father that it was her goal to persuade the king that peace was best. The Plagued would cease to stop fighting should they be welcomed instead of shunned. Perhaps she was naïve.

She wandered aimlessly through the pristine gardens. Despite the threat of war, appearances were kept up. Her eyes caught a lone figure on the bench. The prince. Christian. She recognised him from both his appearances in court as well as the hours she had spent pouring over books on the history of Escar and the lineage of each noble house. She slowly made her way over with a small spark of excitement at the opportunity to gain rapport with the House Byzantir.

“May I take this seat, Your Highness?” she asked, her voice carefully rehearsing the appropriate manners and behaviours. She curtseyed politely, dipping her head so that her loose curls fell into her face.