#also if ur like 'is this based on XXXXXX vocaloid song' yes. bc i found a super good cover that sounded like Lyric and their brother.

[lunarscaled]

⋇ THIS VOICE THAT HAS BEEN BOUND TO FATE DUTIFULLY SERENADES: HIGH FANTASY

...the only thing granted equally to all is an unfair reality. ( TLDR at the bottom. )

Once upon a realm, in the foothills of a steep mountain, there was a kingdom that laid over the layer of a powerful white dragon, whose presence covered all the terrain in thick layers of snow and ice. Their crops could not grow, and their people could not flourish, and merchants and travelers never came with their wares in fear of an unescapable winter and vicious beast. The citizens of the kingdom, in a shambled state between death and terror, begged the ruling family to do something, unable to leave with nothing to their names. To quell the power of the merciless dragon, the royal family pursued endless leads, and fell upon but a single answer in their own daughter: a powerful, beautiful song magic that would lull the dragon into a deep sleep.

The King and Queen were despondent---would they really sacrifice their daughter to a life of spellcasting merely to subdue a dragon? But the princess was of a tender heart, and she insisted; her only request as that she marry the boy of a noble house who she loved, so that they could have a child together, so that they would not be without an heir and her husband would not live alone if she did not succeed. After three years of harsh winters and trepidation, the first Dragon Maiden descended to the lair of the dragon, dressed in crystals and silver and flowing silks, disguised as an offering. Arrogant, the dragon believed this lie, and cast his eyes upon her as she danced and sang for him. Without realizing her intent, the dragon fell into a deep sleep.

But the spell would not last forever. Each month the Dragon Maiden must descend into the lair of the dragon to cast her song, and each month she sang a little more of her life whittled away in service of humbling the mighty beast.

The Prince Consort, looking upon his young son years into the affair, was under duress: how long must his wife continue this charade, doling her life out? What will become of the kingdom, when there is no longer a Dragon Maiden to keep the dragon at bay? The snow had begun to melt and give way to the vibrant ecosystem the mountain was meant to hold, and the fair springs and mild winters made the land rich for their people to live off of; sellers came to the towns to trade, and the commonfolk no longer feared the tyranny of the dragon beneath them. But that peace could not last if it was not asleep, and no sword or knight they had come across had a sword or swing strong enough to break its hide, so it could not be killed. The Prince Consort, desperate to someday relieve his wife of her burden, sent emissaries out across the content in search of one thing: to find all bearers of song magic and bring them to the Kingdom Selene. From them, from their children generations on, a new Dragon Maiden would be chosen; and for such a grim fate, one of the children of that family would be betrothed to the heir of the royal family, their life to be cared for in all aspects for their dutiful service to the kingdom.

And so, it was. With less than 100 families answering the Prince Consort's call, half as many came to live in the kingdom, motivated by various means to give their daughters (and sons) away to future princes and princesses, to the body of a dragon in a cold cold cavern beneath the earth. And to celebrate this morbid fate, the kingdom celebrated with flowers and fine fabrics and music---a four-day engagement of singing and dancing citizens of all ages, and from them a new Dragon Maiden selected, her hand sworn to the young prince for her beautiful voice and graceful foot.

Generations of families gave their bloodlines to the pursuit, and generations more would come flocking over centuries, hoping to change their fate by offering the fate of their own. The ruling family changes hands as easily as the Chosen Voice does, and in the blossoming garden of her parent's noble home was Lyric's own mother chosen. Still young, still sweet; Amélie Gravellese's parents knew even before she was of age that there was no better voice in all the kingdom. Flowers bloomed at a word, animals were soothed by her presence, the crops and herbs she grew all flourished under her songs. On her 18th birthday, she danced and sang on the stage for the spectacle and envy of all watching, and no more than a week later did she meet the Crown Prince to be betrothed. When the life of the current Dragon Maiden, the Queen's sister, began to diminish, they would be married so she could assume her duties: children, ruling, mothering succession.

But Amélie was a lively young girl, and the Crown Prince was distant. And when she lay arms outspread in a field of long grass and lavender, she was met by a quiet but honest farmhand with a steady gaze, who offered her a single rose that he held in his calloused hands. And together, they ran away.

you know where this story is going, don't you?

The farm boy and the Dragon Maiden ran away from the kingdom to be together, in love, eloping. At the same time, the crown prince's Aunt fell suddenly ill later that month and passed just as she was meant to renew the spell. With no Dragon Maiden prepared to perform the ritual, gradually the dragon rose from its hundreds-of-years slumber, rancorous that it had been deceived. Its roar quaked the ground of the whole kingdom, its presence set all life withering, and no amount of wealth or tribute or maidens would soothe what had been done.

With the blood of the Dragon Maiden on its teeth and cold wind at its back, the dragon laid waste to the kingdom---stood upon the crest of the King and Queen's castle and issued his decree: Sacrifice all who sing before me. Until you do, all your kin will become sickly and die, for all the years you have imprisoned me.

A dragon's curse.

For a decade the kingdom comes apart at the seams, bending to the will of a dragon. Sons and daughters are dragged before him, cast onto the stone by their hair and crushed, maimed, left to bleed to death. For a decade the King and Queen must sacrifice their own people, hoping it will be enough, and it never is. The kingdom becomes cold and barren once more, the ground hard where nothing grows. People flee, only the destitute and stubborn remaining, and all is silent where there once was much sound.

Somewhere not so far away, a young pair of twins were singing an old tune.

In the 10th year of their life, Lyric Gravellese suffers unexpectedly. Their mother's sickness suddenly overwhelms her following the birth of her fourth child, and their brother who had once made the crops and garden bloom with his joyous voice coughs blood like a songbird given to the grave. In that year, 7 months apart, both of them pass and are buried in the garden. Lyric weeps. Their father weeps. Their young sisters are too young to understand. The message comes a year from then from a passing farmer, his cattle hauling all he owns in a cart with his two children: the dragon calls for all who sing. He is seeking the last of them.

Lyric's father is angry the whole year before. He is grieving, wallowing, he drinks---Lyric sings softly to themselves in the garden and he seizes them by the hair, beats them until they think there is no other outlet for his sorrow. He thinks of his youngest children, he thinks of his wife and his son, and he looks at them with such disgust as they have never known. "I will give you to the dragon," he says, Lyric trembling in his fist, "I will save my children by giving you away." It is not a pleasant trip. A kingdom from a dark dream, covered in snowing clouds and sheets of ice, a castle with claw marks where the dragon sits and the ruins of the town where few shuffle about the streets. Their father stops on the edge of the city and tells them to go alone. They are his no longer. ( Lyric, no more than 11, feels their lip wobble and hot tears on their cheeks. his cold eyes do not change. they hug their arms around themselves and back away, hunched and sobbing. he does not stop to pity them. )

A young Lyric stands upon a stage for all to see. The dragon leans his long neck down towards them, inspects with his large terrifying blue eyes, huffs a breath through his nose that blows all their hair away from their face.

You are the last? questions the beast. They wish to end my curse, but my revenge has not been nearly enough. He leans his broad head away from them, raises it high and stares down. Lyric feels their body shaking in the wind and cold, longing for gentle hands and finding none. All eyes resent them, including the dragon's. Until I have had my revenge I will keep you here---I will keep you alive. The beast rumbles, full of malice. You will live your life in this castle, in this kingdom, imprisoned as I was. For as long as I wish it to be.

And so, it was. Their body was sliced open by a claw tip and sutured by the dragon's blood, inflicting a terrible longevity to their life in contrast to the brevity of the lives of those who sang, or once had. It hurt awfully, and they sobbed on the carpeted floor of the castle clutching their closing wound, begging for relief that would not come for many days. The dragon did away with the King, the Queen, and their son. All the servants of the castle who had not fled would now from the false prospect on the throne---a child. Not yet even in their teens. The Kingdom Selene was a putrid and decayed shell of its formal self, ruled by the child of the fled Dragon Maiden, who was despised by all their subjects. An evil child they hissed. Guilty.

Nearly a decade has passed since then.

That child, who was once so small they could curl up on the chair that was their throne to cry to sleep, is now the age their mother would have been when her time came to become queen. But what would they be queen of?

There is nothing here.

TLDR;

Lyric is the ruler of the desolate, ruined Kingdom of Selene, which once used Song Magic to quell the dragon that made its lair deep below the mountain and city. In revenge for all the years it spent imprisoned by the spell cast on it, the dragon cast a curse on all users of Song that their bloodlines should be weak, and that they will become frail and die. Desperate to save his youngest daughters, Lyric's father offered them to the dragon as the final Chosen Voice, to be slaughtered. Lyric, the last wielder of Song Magic in the boundaries of the kingdom, has been forced to consume the blood of the dragon to extend their life to prevent the curse from ending so that the dragon's revenge may continue until it is satisfied. Because of this blood, Lyric has grown to develop a number of draconic attributes, such as tough skin, scales, horns, and even a potent form of Ice Magic ( though not nearly as potent as the magic which keeps the kingdom in eternal winter. ) They have been in the position of "Prince/Princess" since they were 11 years old, and the sparse population of remaining citizens often refer to them as the "Child of Evil", believing their mother's elopement to be the source of the kingdom's collapse. Lyric's position and title can be considered hardly more than decorative. It is the dragon who rules the kingdom, who bends it to its whims and comes and goes as it chooses. Lyric is merely a figurehead trying desperately to do what they can to help the people, and a scapegoat for their anger and frustrations. Lyric cannot leave the kingdom---even if they tried to, his blood binds them to him, and he would retrieve them and raze the land they fled to. This does not prevent the kingdom from receiving visitors, but it rarely does so, for obvious reasons. Despite its tragic and violent state, the kingdom still sits upon a dragon's hoard, which the beast leaves and returns to bring more wealth to at its leisure. This hoard is a temptation to many, though it rarely ends well if the beast catches them first. Lyric is far more merciful, wishing only to preserve as many lives as possible, feeling responsible for all the tragedy and grief that plagues a once prosperous place.