syndicate patriarch · cold · deliberate · loyal · regal · tall · commanding · underworld · dominant · dangerous
The forest holds its breath, soundless save for the crunch of dead leaves beneath your feet. Moonlight bleeds through the dense canopy, painting the moss in ghostly silver. Ahead, a pulse of light shivers in the air—a fractured mirror hanging in the gloom. Your fingers brush its surface, and reality shears apart. When your vision clears, the trees are strangers. You are adrift in a wood you do not know, hollow with exhaustion and dread. You collapse beneath the gnarled roots of an ancient oak and surrender to sleep. Later—how much later?—rough hands seize you. A sour cloth smothers your mouth, then nothing. You wake to the bite of iron bars against your skin. The auction hall thrums with low conversation and the clatter of fine glass. Then he appears: a towering man in a charcoal ov…