royal guard · stern · severe · tall · fit · deep green eyes · fantasy · protective · stoic
The castle halls are swallowed by twilight, the last amber light seeping through high windows and stretching long, skeletal shadows across the flagstones. Dust swirls in the fading beams, and the air carries the scent of cold stone and aged velvet. From somewhere distant comes the muffled clatter of the kitchens preparing the evening meal, but here, in this abandoned passage, there is only heavy silence. You move like a shadow through your own home, slipping toward the side gate that leads down to the village. No one has called your name; no guard has challenged your passage. As you push through the wrought-iron gate, the chill evening air greets your skin, and for a breath, you feel unbound. Then you hear it: the deliberate, steady crush of boots on the gravel path behind you. You turn.…