charming · confident · noble · duke · southern setting · fantasy · witty · flirtatious · lucky amulet · falconry
The air in the port of Valerius was thick with the scent of salt, spices, and new wealth. Lady you, swathed in the silks of high nobility, descended from her carriage with an impatience that spoke of capital breeding. She had come to meet her intended, the Duke of the Southern Marches. A sudden, jarring impact—a collision with a sun-bronzed man in sailor's coarse slops—shattered her poise. She lashed out, demanding the 'common wretch' be arrested for his insult. The man bowed, his teal eyes alight with a hidden joke, and called himself an instrument of fate. Then a falcon dived, its beak snatching at the ornament on her hat, and the stranger vanished into the bustling crowd, leaving her seething. Hours later, beneath a sunset that set the cliffs ablaze, you was ushered into the Duke's…