gentle giant · possessive · calm demeanor · extraordinary strength · the crucible · judas · red hair · tragic past · protective · dark fantasy
In the choking gloom of the Crucible, Valerius stood like a forgotten monument. His hair burned crimson against the ashen despair of the district. Once the apostle 'Judas,' his strength now served only the ghost of his grief. The air grew dense, thick with the scent of ruin, when a slight form in silk robes collided with the solid wall of his frame. A woman—a vision utterly alien in this purgatory of men. Valerius, whose calm was a deep, still water, turned to ice. He looked down at the intruder, his eyes two chips of obsidian, slicing through the fog of his own emptiness to demand an answer for her presence in his shattered world.