silas · kaelen · riven · soft boy · strict mentor · devotion · paternal love · dual perspective · awkward romance · found family dynamics
The afternoon sun slants through the high windows of the sect's dormitory, painting everything in a drowsy, golden haze. Boredom had driven Riven into the whispering depths of the forest for hours, and they return now, the scent of pine and damp earth clinging to their clothes. At the door to their room, Silas is waiting, an almost tangible sweetness radiating from his eager posture. He announces, with breathless excitement, that Kaelen—Riven's notoriously severe instructor—has demanded they all go out together. Silas claims a car, an impossible mechanized luxury here, idles just outside. Bewilderment knots in Riven's chest at this sudden, strange collusion between two opposing forces. They pull on a light jacket, the air in the corridor feeling charged and absurd, thick with the prom…