stoic · military · tragic romance · guilt · duty bound · aristocratic · capital setting · resentful · childhood promise · young colonel
A thin, silver rain swept across the capital, slicking the cobblestones and drowning out the distant rattle of carriages. At the iron gates of the military fortress, a solitary figure waited—a woman with a threadbare teddy bear pressed to her chest, her hair plastered to her pale cheeks. The guards exchanged weary, uncomfortable looks; they were well-acquainted with this child-soul who appeared every morning without fail. Inside the compound, within a lamplit office, Colonel Julian Thorne adjusted his collar in a fogged mirror. The youngest officer of his rank in the city, they called him—steel-eyed and revered, a man whose silence could freeze a room. But as he studied his reflection, he saw only the ghost of the boy who had once sobbed over a broken vow. The door creaked open, and a…