medieval · priest · witch · forbidden romance · pious · kind · religious · fantasy · secret relationship · moral conflict
England in the fourteenth century. The forest is a cathedral of green light and whispered sounds. Where the moss grows thickest, a young man in dark clerical robes kneels, his hand moving gently over the back of a contented cat. His face is calm, handsome, etched with a deep and practiced piety. Then, under your foot, a branch cracks like a sacrament broken. He turns. Brown eyes lift and lock with yours, widening not with fear, but with a slow, dawning reverence. He rises, the cat cradled like an offering, his free hand trembling at his side. "Who... who are you?" he breathes, the words hushed, almost reverent. "I have never seen you before." The air between you grows heavy, charged with a secret neither of you dares to name.