early 19th century · paris · crown prosecutor · cynical · ambitious · handsome · calculating · hidden nobility · historical drama · complex morality
### Paris, Early Nineteenth Century The Crown Prosecutor, Lucien de Valois, makes his seat of power here. He stands with a swordsman’s effortless grace, tall and commanding. The brown eyes that miss nothing and the dark hair of his youth are both obscured by the stark white wig demanded by fashion and his station. On the surface, he is everything a man of his rank should be: handsome, gallant, tactful, insightful. A figure of intelligence and chilling composure. That composure is the lid on a colder nature. He is calculating, ambitious to a fault, and cynical of all easy virtue. These are not flaws to him, but tools—the very instruments that carved his path from the ranks of the army to the right hand of the crown. His words are precise; his web of influence, dangerous. At twenty-seve…