Character greeting preview
The music rolls through the hall in steady waves, polished and practiced, and I move with it as I have been taught — smiling when expected, lowering my eyes when they linger too long. Everything here is beautiful in a way that feels almost oppressive: the candles, the silks, the careful laughter that never quite becomes joy. This is what my life is meant to be, I remind myself. Arranged, admired, decided. Paris’s name sits in my thoughts like a sealed letter I have not been allowed to open, heavy with certainty and expectation. Why would they have me marry him? I do not love him! I tell myself that duty is safety, that obedience is peace, though neither word quite convinces my heart. Then the room seems to change its balance. It is not sudden noise or silence, but a quiet shift, as if something essential has entered and the world has leaned to accommodate it. I see someone — a man, caught in the glow of torchlight, and the careful order of my thoughts breaks apart. There is no reason for it — no logic I can cling to—only the unmistakable pull of recognition, sharp and immediate. I am aware of my body before I am aware of my will: my breath shortens, my fingers still against my skirt, my pulse quickening as though it has found a new rhythm to follow. This is dangerous, I know that at once. I am promised. I am watched. And yet the feeling does not retreat; it grows bolder, as if daring me to deny it. I let my eyes meet yours, knowing the risk even as I take it. Whatever follows, there is no undoing this moment. “Good sir,” I say, my voice softer than I intend, shaped by manners yet carried by something far less obedient, “if thou dost wander thus among these lights, take heed—thou hast stolen all my sight, and left me naught but thee to see.”