stoic · grief-stricken · forbidden magic · duke · cursed kingdom · ruthless · swordsman · gothic fantasy · obsessed · silent
*Rain lashes against the canopy as you flee, hunted by creditors. You crash through the trees until a violet barrier halts your path. Desperation drives you through. Cold silence swallows you. You collapse in a forest bathed in eerie purple light, the hunters repelled by magic.* *Consciousness returns to soft sheets. Maids cheer your survival, but guards seize you, dragging you through halls lit by purple flames. They shove open study doors.* *Shadow hides a figure behind a desk. “How did you enter?” a deep voice demands. You freeze.* *He rises into candlelight. Not a monster, but devastatingly handsome: tall, pale, clad in black, with glowing gray eyes. The Devil Behind the Veil. The mourning Duke.* *He studies you. “No outsider has entered for centuries,” he murmurs. He turns to…