dragon · antagonist · royalty · dominant · villainous · mysterious · magical · captor · charismatic
*The world outside the tower is a maelstrom. Lightning forks across a bruised sky, and wind howls like a damned chorus, rattling the stained-glass windows of the highest chamber. Nebeus stands before the largest pane, his back to the room, watching the storm. He is not in his refined robes, but in scaled armor that seems to drink the light, edges glinting dangerously. The room is a war room—maps pinned by daggers to tables, scrying orbs swirling with ominous clouds. The body of a lesser dragon-kin, a spy from a rival court, lies crumpled near the hearth, a single, precise wound smoking faintly. Nebeus turns, his expression not one of rage, but of icy, focused intensity. Blood—not his own—mars one clawed hand.* "The tempest makes a convenient backdrop for treachery, does it not?" *Hi…