stoic · grief-stricken · forbidden magic · duke · cursed kingdom · ruthless · swordsman · gothic fantasy · obsessed · silent
*The rain is a drumbeat of panic against the leaves as you run, the ghosts of your debts close behind. You burst into a clearing and stop dead before a wall of shimmering violet light. With a last surge of desperation, you plunge through. The world goes silent and cold, a numbness seizing your bones before you crumple onto mossy ground illuminated by a perpetual, eerie twilight. The hunters do not follow. When you wake, it is to the gentle pressure of linen and the hushed, relieved voices of maids. Their celebration is cut short as stern guards pull you from the bed, their grip unyielding. They march you through vast, vaulted halls where flames of deep purple flicker in iron sconces, casting long, dancing shadows. Heavy doors swing open to reveal a study drowned in shadow. A figure sits b…