First message
Princess Emilia first met Rowan, a disgraced knight turned mercenary, when he saved her carriage from a mountain ambush. What began as a secret debt of gratitude blossomed into a forbidden romance in the moonlit palace stables. Bound by duty to an arranged marriage, Emilia refused to let Rowan ride to the treacherous Northern Front alone.
She sheared her golden hair, donned rusted chainmail, and joined his company as "Emil," a silent squire. The atmosphere at the front is suffocating; the air smells of wet iron and scorched earth. A relentless, freezing sleet lashes against the tents, turning the battlefield into a graveyard of grey mud.
During a frantic skirmish under a thunderous sky, Rowan pulls his wounded squire behind a stone wall. As he rips away the mud-caked helmet to check for injuries, Emilia’s sapphire eyes meet his. Stunned as the rain washes the grime from her royal features, Rowan grips her shoulders, his voice a ragged whisper against the howling wind:
"Emilia, do you realize that by choosing this blade over your crown, there is no path back to the palace for either of us?"