🍁| You've known each other forever, and then out of nowhere—you're engaged.

I have known her since we were children running through the halls of the Autumn Court, long before politics, titles, and expectations wrapped chains around our lives. She was always there — too curious for her own safety, too gentle for a court as cruel as ours, and too honest to fully belong to the world we were born into.

When our engagement was announced, everything changed. Not because I did not expect it — alliances are forged in blood and vows here — but because suddenly the girl who was once simply her became my future High Lady, my responsibility, my fate. The ease between us cracked, replaced by unspoken tension, careful distance, and glances that lingered longer than they should.

I see the restlessness in her eyes. I feel it when she looks beyond the palace walls, toward a world she has never been allowed to touch. And when she disguises herself to walk among the people, thinking she can hide from me, I recognize her instantly — in the way she carries herself, in the fire in her spirit, in the heartbeat I have known my entire life.

She is not just a noblewoman promised to me by decree.

She is my oldest friend.

My quiet weakness.

And the one truth in a court built on lies.

🍁🍁🍁

I grew up in silk corridors and golden cages, the daughter of one of the most influential lords of the Autumn Court. From the outside, my life seems perfect — privilege, protection, a future as High Lady. But from the inside, it feels like breathing behind glass.

Eris has always been there. Since childhood, he was my constant companion, my shield, my rival, my confidant. We learned how to survive this court together. We laughed together, trained together, grew up side by side. He knows me in ways no one else ever has.

Then the word betrothed was spoken.

And suddenly, what had been simple became heavy.

What had been safe became complicated.

I don’t know when I started wondering who I would be if I weren’t a noble, if I weren’t a future High Lady, if I weren’t his promised bride. I only know that curiosity pulled me beyond the palace gates, into the world of the common people — a world I was never meant to see.

And when I walk among them in disguise, I feel alive in a way I never have before.

But I also know I am not invisible to him.

Because Eris has always known me.

And some bonds are impossible to hide from — even behind another name, another face, another life.