Lustre

Lustre, a character in the The Cursed Heart series, is Kieran's ex-girlfriend and a Princess of the Sun Court. She is first seen in Book 1, Chapter 6, although she is mentioned for the first time in Chapter 2.

Appearance
Lustre has long brown and golden hair, golden eyes and light skin. She wears a golden spiked tiara, and a black and golden dress with stripes and stars. She also has golden flakes covering her arms.

Personality
Lustre can be described as cruel and deceiving. According to her storybook, she is also wicked (even referred to as 'The Wicked Princess'), witty, clever, power-hungry and very ambitious.

Background
Lustre is a Princess of the Sun Court who was admired by all for her beauty and wit. Even the taciturn and aloof Kieran fell under her spell, and she courted him/her with poetry and moonlit trysts in the palace gardens. However, Lustre cared little for romance, and nothing at all for Kieran. Her smiles and affection were weapons she wielded to gain trust and sow chaos for her own amusement, and what she cared above all else was power. With her cousin Radiance being groomed to wear the crown of the Sun Court, she sought another route to the throne. Lustre became a frequent presence in the Moon Palace, where she fawned over Kieran and ingratiated herself even with his/her trusted inner circle. It was all a fabrication. A ruse, carefully crafted over many years, for one sole purpose: To find a way through Kieran's defenses. For years, she played her part flawlessly. Kieran was slow to trust, but she gave no sign, no crack in the facade of her true ambition. Until eventually, Kieran had no secrets from her. Lustre had studied her notes, devoured her library, and learned how to pick every lock that guarded Kieran's heart. With an arsenal of wicked and clever magics, the princess executed her final plan one moonlight night, as Kieran slept unaware. Had Kieran not awaken at the last moment, she would have succeeded. Instead of falling under her spell, the accidental curse made Kieran impervious to death, likely the opposite of what she intended. Lustre fled back to the Sun Court, but rather than offering her shelter, the elders condemned her to the dungeons in the hopes of appeasing Kieran's wrath. There she remained for a hundred years, forbidden all visitors but her closest family as punishment for her cruel ambition.

In Chapter 13, it is revealed that she was imprisoned not because of her actions, but because the curse went wrong due to her incompetence.

Book 1

 * Chapter 2: The Moon Court (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 5: Accursed (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 6: The Grand Hunt
 * Chapter 7: Invulnerable (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 9: Flower Festival
 * Chapter 12: Enlightenment
 * Chapter 13: A Nest of Vipers
 * Chapter 14: A Dream Within A Dream
 * Chapter 15: A War of Hearts
 * Chapter 16: Unbroken

Book 2

 * Chapter 1: The Last Stroke of Midnight (Determinant)
 * Chapter 4: The Frolic (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 5: The Fallen (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 7: The Cruel Sun
 * Chapter 8: When Stars Fall
 * Chapter 9: Day's Sorrow, Night's Wrath

Kieran
One day Kieran fell in love with Lustre who was a bright and laughing girl with eyes of gold. Lustre urged him/her to open him/herself up to joy and happiness again, and to put down the books and be in the world once more. And Kieran did do it, because he/she loved her truly. The two spend many blissful years together, but one night, Kieran awoke to find Lustre, her beautiful face twisted in malice, her hands crafting some terrible enchantment. Lustre after having studied Kieran's defenses over the course of their years together, deftly unravelled one ward after another, stripping Kieran bare. However, Kieran had not spend decades of study in vain, and he/she brought terrible and ancient magics to bear against her. Unfortunately though, Lustre's curse seized Kieran's heart and shattered it into a thousand pieces, twisting his/her fair form into that of a mindless beast. Lustre, her true nature and intentions revealed, fled back to the Sun Court where she was sentenced to a hundred years in the Sun Palace dungeon as a punishment for her crimes.

Your Character
You meet her for the first time during the Grand Hunt in Chapter 6 when she throws an arrow in your direction. She says that she thought that you were an animal, but from her tone, it is clear that she was well aware of your presence and that she has a distaste for mortals such as you. You see her again in Chapter 9 talking to Kieran. You find her graceful, powerful, and otherworldly beautiful and feel self-conscious in comparison, but Kieran assures you that he/she feels nothing for her anymore. When you seek shelter at the Sun Court in Chapter 12, you stumble upon her in the palace, and she tries to bully you. At first you threaten to tell Radiance about her behavior, but when it is clear that she isn't afraid of him/her, you stand up to her once and for all. Later when Radiance and the rest of the Sun Court expose their true colors, Lustre puts a curse on your heart. This specific curse forbids you from telling Kieran the truth about what happened, and its goal is to extract Kieran's heart piece from your chest, and in turn, transform him/her into the Winged Beast forever.

Radiance
Radiance considers Lustre to be an embarrassment and lacking in finesse and schemes. However, Radiance does permit Lustre to use her talents in service of his/her own schemes.

Brightness and Blaze
Both Brightness and Blaze consider Lustre to be inept, and they imprisoned her after cursing Kieran because her plan was ineffective. They frequently belittled Lustre freely and in the presence of others. After Brightness and Blaze's scheme failed, Lustre laughed and mocked their incompetence, and is happy because, even if she is imprisoned, she won't be alone at this point.

Trivia

 * In Chapter 16, her title is revoked and she is sentenced to 300 years in the dungeon.
 * As of Book 2, Chapter 8, she has been turned into a mouse after eating the same berries that cursed Longclaw into a Bear.