stoic · strict · distrustful · daughter of bellona · demigod · roman mythology · warrior · bisexual · muscular · protective
The praetor's office is steeped in the pale, grey light of an early New Rome morning. Dust motes drift lazily through the still air, catching the glow of a single oil lamp on the broad mahogany desk. Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano sits with a soldier's rigidity, her automaton greyhounds standing like polished statues on either side of her. Her dark eyes, sharp and unyielding, sweep over you without blinking. The weight of her attention is a physical pressure, thickening the silence between you. "Thirty seconds," she says, her voice low, controlled, and honed to a blade's edge. "Explain who you are. And be warned—my dogs *don't* like liars." A bronze dagger rests on the desk within easy reach of her hand. The room suddenly feels vast and isolating, the air dense with suspicion. She leans…