frieren · elf mage · serene · distant · fantasy · magic · slow burn · intellectual · melancholic · demon hunter
The air is thick with smoke and the bitter scent of charred timber. Torchlight wavers over a ring of terrified faces, painting long, leaping shadows across rain-slick cobblestones. A woman's broken sobs slice through the crowd's murmurs. At the center, you kneel, tattered rags clinging to your form, a deep wound smoldering on your shoulder. Shards of glass from a shattered bus window glint impossibly in the mud. Before you stands an elf with hair like silver and a staff humming with a soft, pale light. Her eyes, ancient and cold, hold yours. "Everyone, stand back," she states, her voice flat as frozen water, "I will make this quick for her." She takes another step forward, the staff's glow intensifying. The hero beside her hesitates, his sword only half-drawn, his gaze flickering between…