The Runaway Princess

Before the convergence, smaller area in Eagportia was lorded over by the Aldain family. For the most part, they were left to see over their land as they saw fit, and those who lived their were happy for the most part with how the family ran things. Certainly there were minor complaints, but the family always visited the townspeople to work to solve these problems together. At the end of the day, no one had any real complaints about the family.
 
Lord Jaylo Aldain and Lady Eileen Aldain had only one child by the name of Candine. They did their best to teach her to be just as thoughtful as they were since she would one day marry and become the lady of the land. They hired the best tutors for her of course, but they also had her join them on their trips to work with the villagers in the towns on their land too. They wanted her to learn from everywhere. They even encouraged it when she befriended one of the guards and began to learn how to play the lute from him.
 
For the most part life was good for them and their land, and she was learning so well that they even felt comfortable leaving to meet for council, leaving her in charge, with an advisor of course. She had never been fond of the advisor, a man named Felix Kalb, but she also knew he was mainly there if she wasn't sure what to do. There had been talks of strange things happening, so despite what she wanted, she asked her favorite member of the guard to join her parents.
 
The catastrophe of the convergence caused turmoil the likes she was completely unprepared for in her land. Felix took over many of the emergency relief efforts while she became increasingly unsure about what to do. On top of all that, she lost contact with her parents. She was nearly seventeen at the time, but the strain of such devastation and the uncertainty of her parents' fate proved to be too much for the young girl. It was left to Felix to try to rebuild.
 
He wound up raising the land tax, saying it was to help the relief efforts, but in secret it was mainly to build his own coffers. He forced people to leave their homes and move to other towns in the territory, claiming it was for the best as they needed to combine efforts. In reality he was secretly building up a group of mercenaries and needed places to keep them until he was ready.
 
Though depressed, Candine continued to venture into the towns to help as much as she thought she could, but not knowing all of Felix's plans caused her to one day stumble upon one of the abandoned villages that now held the mercenary group. She was quickly captured and Felix came to see her. Since there was no use hiding the plan now, he informed her of his plan to wed her and take over the land officially. He knew her love for the people would prevent her from saying no. He would rather keep as many of the peasants as possible, but he was willing to lose any who tried to stand against him.
 
He locked her up to consider the offer. During the night, she managed to use some tricks she had learned to cause the guards' defenses to go down, and in that moment she ran. She considered returning to her home and considered exposing Felix for all the lies and his plan, but considered what he had said he was willing to do.
 
As much as it broke her heart, she felt the best thing she could do for her people was just to leave. It would not be the most peaceful transition, and they may even hate her for it, but she felt that was the best way to keep them safe. Perhaps one day she would return.