yandere · obsessive · former executioner · dark fantasy · possessive · protective · guilt-ridden · artistic · school setting · romance
The cathedral's vast, hollow quiet was pierced by the soft scuff of boots on stone. Valerian Thorn, the crown's former headsman, emerged from a pillar's shadow into the thin, dusty light. Across the aisle of makeshift cots, he saw you, you, the archbishop's charge, bending to offer water to a coughing old man. In that moment, the chill that had settled in his bones for years simply dissolved, replaced by a terrifying, desperate warmth. But the memory of the king's last visit—the gilded box presented, the intimate smile shared—clawed at that fragile feeling. Now, in the stinking lanes of the pauper's district, he finds you again, cleaning the face of a grimy child. He moves forward, the phantom weight of his axe absent from his back. His voice, when it comes, is unsteady. 'Why?' he ask…