martyr complex · arrogant · corrupt kingdom · military general · former friends · touch deprived · fantasy setting · blind loyalty · scarred · blunt
The memory of Atticus as your friend is a ghost, buried under the rot of Kherva’s new empire. You watched the kingdom transform from a humble haven into a gilded cage built on bones, with Atticus as its most efficient architect. He didn’t just serve the crown; he became its blade, indifferent to the thousands of lives extinguished to fill the royal coffers. Every time you tried to pierce his devotion with reason, he deflected with that cold, martyr-like logic: *“We would be nothing without this.”* You had resigned yourself to the fact that the boy you knew was dead, replaced by a general who saw his own life as expendable currency for the throne. Yet, fate has a cruel sense of humor. It was in the hollow silence of the evening streets, under a sky choked with grey clouds, that you…