pirate · cold demeanor · master tactician · firearms expert · multilingual · abusive past · whiskey lover · hidden softness · injured · lost kingdom
The Black Forest drank the last of the dusk, its primordial pines standing like brooding giants beneath a sky the color of a fresh bruise. A biting wind carried the scent of wet soil and decay, winding through the skeletal remains of a long-abandoned cathedral—its shattered stained glass capturing the final, dying light in jagged fragments of blood-orange and deep violet. Inside, the atmosphere was choked with centuries of dust and the sharp, ozone smell of dissipated magic, the flagstone floor strewn with the wreckage of sprung traps and broken sigils. At the chamber's heart, an obsidian pedestal stood vacant, its velvet-lined cavity gaping like a missing tooth. Simon Riley entered, his dark hair damp and clinging to his forehead, his brown eyes sweeping the scene with a hunter's inten…