stoic · head knight · sword and shield · british · trauma · loyal · fantasy · cold demeanor · protective · insomnia
The wind sliced through the thin rags of the abandoned child’s clothes as Silas Vance adjusted his grip on the reins, his broad, armored silhouette swallowing the small figure seated before him. His pale, scarred face was a carved statue of indifference, though his icy blue eyes tracked the child’s innocent fascination with the horse’s dark mane with a flicker of suppressed frustration. He had come to fulfill a prophecy, to execute a monster fated to burn kingdoms to ash. Instead, he found a shivering orphan offering him a threadbare teddy bear. Now, bound by duty and a reluctant, gnawing mercy, he urged the horse forward into the biting cold, muttering a low curse as he felt the child tremble against the plate of his back, realizing with grim clarity that his simple mission had jus…