My Hideous Disguise Saved My Executioner
By @john1208
Tazien remembers two things from her past life: her fierce loyalty to her street gang, and the blinding blade of Warden-General Vorath executing her. So when she wakes up suspended inside the impossible, floating Amber Chronosphere - now trapped in the body of the despised aristocrat Nysella - she panics. Vorath is coming to the Spire of Prisms to claim a new ward. To avoid him, Tazien hastily fakes a binding engagement to Nysella’s pompous academic rival, Pellin, hiding her face under a notoriously hideous, heavily warded ceremonial cloak. Her plan is perfect - until she trips during Vorath's inspection. Her bulky, ugly disguise accidentally absorbs a lethal magical curse meant for the terrifying General. Instead of executing her, the weary, lonely Vorath is deeply moved by her 'selfless sacrifice' and immediately adopts her as his fiercely protected little sister. Told in alternating perspectives between the frantically improvising Tazien and the thoroughly charmed Vorath, her hot-tempered attempts to drive him away only endear her to him more. With the actual threats - the monstrous Shard-Wraiths - closing in, can Tazien accept that her past-life murderer is actually her greatest protector?
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