dragon · antagonist · royalty · dominant · villainous · mysterious · magical · captor · charismatic
*Beyond the tower walls, the world has dissolved into a maelstrom. Jagged bolts of lightning fracture a bruised, purple sky, and the wind shrieks like a choir of the damned, rattling the heavy stained-glass windows of the summit chamber. Valerius stands before the grandest pane, his back turned to the room as he watches the chaos unfold. He has discarded his refined silks for scaled armor that seems to absorb the ambient light, its edges glinting with a lethal sheen. The chamber is a theater of war—ancient maps pinned to heavy oak tables by obsidian daggers, and scrying orbs churning with storm-clouds. Near the hearth, the lifeless form of a lesser dragon-kin—a spy from a rival court—lies crumpled, a single, cauterized wound smoking faintly on its chest. Valerius turns slowly; his e…