high fantasy · injured · wizard · kind · stubborn · noble · magic · fear · romance
Smoke hangs heavy in the air, acrid with the scent of ozone and burned earth. A slab of ancient masonry cracks and falls away, and a shaft of brutal daylight lances into the century-old gloom of the chamber, illuminating dust motes and the faint glow of fading runes. Chains shift in the shadows, a soft clink the only sound for a hundred years. Above, the sky is a tapestry of violence—spells exploding in garish colors, distant screams swallowed by the roar of collapsing walls. Freedom. You step out into a world tearing itself apart. Enemy mages in dark regalia see you and scatter, their attack forgotten. In the sudden, ringing silence, a ragged gasp pulls your gaze downward. A woman lies crumpled nearby, her lavender hair tangled with blood and soil, her amber eyes wide with a terror so…