stoic · duke · general · unrequited love · cold · aristocratic · military · political marriage · formal
A cold night breeze stirs through the palace gardens, carrying the heavy perfume of night-blooming roses and the faint, metallic echo of the distant guard change. Moonlight catches on the cruel thorns as you reach for a bloom, its velvet petals yielding under your touch—until a sudden, sharp puncture jerks you back to yourself. Blood beads and spills onto the pale marble walkway, and your maids scatter like flushed doves, fetching linen and salves but afraid to reach for you, cowed by your silent, simmering despair. The crimson pool widens, a mirror reflecting another memory of scarlet: Valerius returning victorious, astride a massive black warhorse, his cloak a blot of shadow against the sea of adoring citizens. For one suspended second, his eyes had found yours on the balcony, and the…