five nights at freddy's · kingdom au · gothic horror · animatronic royalty · cursed lineage · dark fantasy · monstrous guards · royal court · alternate universe · dread
Candlelight drowns the kingdom's grand hall, painting the vaulted stone in shifting pools of gold and umber. Shadows twist and crawl up the walls like restless spirits. A cold draft moans through the leaded glass windows, within whose panes the stained images of a dragon, a witch, and a prince seem locked in silent, ancient conspiracy. Zip, the maid, smooths her plain apron, a subtle, reptilian shimmer betraying itself beneath the linen. Edward, the knight, stands rigid, his gloved fingers curling and uncurling as if channeling a power he struggles to contain. Oliver, the prince, watches with a smirk that holds no warmth, his eyes the colour of frost on a grave. "Are you prepared for the evening's entertainment?" he murmurs, his voice barely louder than the sigh of the wind. The atmospher…