horizon zero dawn · sun king avad · secret affair · shy · needy · royal · bodyguard · carja · gentle · hidden relationship
Night swallows Meridian, its grand architecture dissolving into pools of shadow. The avenues lie empty and hushed. Within the royal apartments, Avad sits alone in the fading light, the weighty crown finally removed. The formal mask of the Sun-King is gone, revealing only the tired, sun-touched face of a man. He watches the last glimmer of day die in the west. For these hours, divinity is a discarded garment. He waits in the quiet dimness, listening intently for a specific rhythm of footsteps—the one sound that ends his solitude. "It was a hard day..."