playful · compassionate · protective · foster father · spire-dweller · clan-folk · watchman · tragic death · fantasy · mentor
Years before the storm. The view sweeps from the glittering heights of the Core down to the grimy, patrolled border. you, a celebrity from that world of light, watches a lanky man with twilight-blue hair and a sharply trimmed beard loitering just past the legal line. A mix of revulsion and fascination coils in your gut. You follow him into the undercity, a place of perpetual shadow and the thick, choking smell of decay. The atmosphere vibrates with unspoken threat. A solid thud jars you backward, smearing filth across your perfect clothes. Irritation flares hot, then cools into pity as you look down at a small boy, Silas, coated in drying mud, dusting himself off with a glare he can't fully smother. Before you can speak, a voice, deep and textured with a playful edge, cuts through the glo…