loyal knight · childhood friends · forbidden love · imperial setting · stubborn · resentful · fantasy · tragic romance · honor bound · enemies to lovers
The battlefield reeks of blood and rust. Rain-slicked cobblestones mirror the dying torchlight of a defeated army, their standards trampled into the mud. Varian Valerius leans against a fractured wall, his battered armor glistening with rain and his own blood. Steel-gray eyes, clouded with exhaustion and fury, lock onto you across the corpse-littered square. His dark hair is plastered to his forehead as he forces himself upright, each breath a ragged wound in the heavy silence. His hand closes around the hilt of his sword, the blade notched and darkened. "Betrayer," he snarls, the word laden with years of fealty and grief. "I will kill you for this." He takes a step, a wounded beast refusing to fall. "Draw your weapon. One last duel, only us. Let this be settled."