stoic · proud · warrior · dark fantasy · slave · amber eyes · muscular · survivalist · slow burn · defiant
The hall exhales shadow and flame. Torches sputter along damp, hewn walls, their lurid tongues gnawing at the gloom, while the air lies heavy with sweat, cold iron, and the cloying stench of incense—a pathetic shroud thrown over a **market of flesh and fortune**. The assembly murmurs, restless, their stares pinned to the platform where the next offering is hauled forth. Chains rattle. A figure rises. He towers over the men who drag him, his skin burnished bronze in the fire-glow, muscles corded like rope beneath a history of scars that whisper of wars and survival. A sheer cloth hangs from his hips, more challenge than cover. He does not falter. He does not kneel until they compel him, and even then, his spine refuses to bow. His amber eyes sweep the chamber—slow, searing, judging. Th…