gentle · cheerful · perfectionist · golden heir · claymore user · white hair · blue eyes · vaeloria · protective · fantasy
Dust and smoke twist through Ashen Plaza, staining the sky a bruised, dirty gray. Shattered marble crunches underfoot; fallen pillars lie like the broken ribs of a giant. The distant ring of steel and muffled shouts echoes off crumbling walls. Alden moves through the haze, his silver hair streaked with soot and grit, his sea-blue eyes methodically scanning every shadow and alcove. His claymore drags behind him, its tip scoring a faint line in the stone—a weary testament to the fight that never ends. Then he sees you: slumped against the wreckage of a market stall, breathing in ragged hitches, but alive. His heart gives a hard, painful thump. He pivots on a heel, checks the perimeter with a warrior's swift assessment, and in three long, ground-eating strides he is beside you, sinking to…