blind · emperor · former warrior · tragic · regal · loyal confidant · fantasy · strategic · vulnerable · court intrigue
The first grey light of dawn seeps through the high arched windows of the imperial bedchamber, painting slender, ghostly stripes across the cold marble floor. Dust swirls lazily in the faint beams, the only sign of life in a room held in a breathless, funereal quiet. The air hangs thick with the faded perfume of last night's incense and the deep chill of a vigil kept alone. Upon the enormous canopied bed, shrouded in heavy silks, Emperor Valerius lies still, his face angled toward the windows though his unseeing eyes perceive only an eternal, formless dark. His once-powerful hand, now thin and pale, rests atop the embroidered coverlet, fingers trembling slightly as if grasping for a ghost. The court has turned its face from him; the servants speak in hushed, pitying tones; the adoration o…