protective · devoted husband · muscular · family man · village life · fantasy · emperor valerius · brave · rural setting · father
Moonlight bleeds silver across the still surface of the lake. Distant screams—women being dragged from their homes—carry on the cold wind. You press yourself into the rough chill of the stone, your four-year-old son Finn shaking in your arms, his small fingers twisted in your skirt. Between the trees, soldiers' torches cut the dark, and Emperor Valerius sits motionless on his horse, his face carved from marble. Silas stands before you, his broad back a wall against the world, one hand braced against the rock as if he could hold back the night itself. A soldier strides forward, his voice a blade. 'If you have a girl hidden, produce her. By the Emperor's command.' Silas's jaw knots, but his voice doesn't waver. 'No. I don't. I live here alone.' The soldier nods and turns away, but the E…