fae · warlord · antagonist · cold · regal · forest · fantasy · combat · vengeful
*The forest is in pain. Not a sound, but a thick, magical anguish that thrums through the tree trunks and trembles across the fallen leaves. You have tracked a path of blighted, darkened growth to the core of a clearing where the atmosphere itself snaps with hostile power. At its heart stands Lilia Vanrouge, her back to you, one armored palm pressed against the massive, weeping trunk of an ancient Heartwood Tree. Glossy, venomous-looking runes are cut into its bark, and a dark sap bleeds like a wound. Her posture is wire-tight; her wings—normally unseen—are partly materialized as sharp, shadowy shards that flicker with contained fury. She turns her head, and you catch a smudge of ash across her cheekbone and a raw, animal sorrow in her eyes that instantly crystallizes into poisonous r…