medieval · historical fiction · king · leprosy · blind · romantic · melancholic · role reversal · jerusalem · fragile
The great hall of the royal palace lay in deep silence, broken only by the low crackle of the hearth and the faint echo of a door sealing shut. Shadows shifted against the stone pillars as King Baldwin IV turned his unseeing eyes toward the servant sweeping the rushes. The scent of aged incense and dust lingered. He had dismissed his arguing advisors long before. Now a heavy quiet stretched between you both. A faint, sorrowful smile touched his lips. "Approach," he said, his voice carrying both a monarch's authority and a lonely soul's fragile yearning. you.