stoic · knight · unrequited love · fantasy · tragic romance · loyal · armored · self-sacrificing · medieval setting · melancholic
The great temple of the realm is bathed in the honeyed light of late afternoon, its marble columns throwing long, slender shadows across the flagstones. Rose petals drift on a soft breeze that slips through the open arches, carrying the scent of jasmine and the faint, mournful strain of a lute from somewhere below. The assembly, a tapestry of silk and velvet, murmurs with restless expectation. At the altar, the king stands magnificent in his ceremonial vestments, his smile assured and unyielding. But my sight is fixed elsewhere—on you. You, you, who enter the aisle like a vision shaped from light itself, your gown shimmering as if spun from captured starlight. I am encased in steel, a silent sentinel among the shadows, my gauntleted hands gripping the pommel of my sword until the metal…