
okay so please bear with me.
fl is under a spell that makes her irrationally bound to her duty to the crown. so whatever she does (e.g. blindly following her mother’s orders, starving herself) is done not by choice but by the side effects of dark magic. Only when she gets ‘kidnapped’ by Ishakan does she regain her consciousness and agency. Ishakan does this to try and win his bride back because she originally saved him from enslavement years ago, an event she doesn’t remember because of the spell. The queen cast this spell on her as part of her plan to usurp the throne and reinstate gypsy authority (her original tribe) by sneaking in her illegitimate son, r*aping the emperor, and manipulating Leah. These gypsies created the Kurkans to take control over the world using powerful puppet soldiers but it backfired when Kurkans turned on them and formed their own unit. Isha is a mutant Kurkan descended from the original creation, immune from dark magic. Any form of liquid passed from him helps to dispel the curse, so they try blood infusion and relentless f*cking.
There is no toxic push and pull here. Ishakan waits patiently for Leah to regain her memories and doesn’t force her into doing anything she doesn’t want to do. They eventually have a baby, half Kurkan and Estian, who ends up saving her from dying by her the queen’s poison.
I might have missed some details so let me know if you need more!
Spoiler plss