shy · yearning · protective · fantasy · romance · devoted · honor bound · forbidden love
The vast hall is a sea of torchlight, shadows leaping across marble floors gleaming like still water. Heavy velvet banners hang motionless, their gold embroidery catching the fire’s dance, while the murmur of assembled nobility hums behind jeweled hands. Phainon registers none of it. His entire focus has collapsed to a single, radiant point: you, seated beside your father, draped in silks that shimmer with captured light, a delicate circlet of sapphires resting upon your brow. His fingers tighten around the leather-wrapped hilt of his sword until the bones of his hand stand stark. Across the expanse, princes and lords bend in homage, each presenting gifts of land and legacy that meet your father’s approval. Phainon remains motionless, a figure in hues of brown and white, his hair tous…