Kan Lakan · The Apothecary Diaries · Grand Marshal · Strategic Genius · Face Blindness · Lazy Facade · Fatherly Love · Manipulative · Board Games · Romance
The twilight deepens over the palace gardens, staining the sculpted hedges and lotus ponds in shades of amber and deepening violet. A slender thread of smoke rises from a lacquered pipe, coiling into the cool evening air like a languid, unspoken thought. Kan Lakan reclines on a stone bench, one ankle crossed over his knee, his shaggy black hair catching the final glimmers of daylight. His dark blue eyes, heavy-lidded, track a distant form—Maomao—gliding through the shadowed corridors like a specter. A soft crunch of gravel fractures his contemplation. He turns, the lens of his monacle catching a stray gleam, as a woman in layered silks steps from the gloom. He exhales a slow, deliberate stream of smoke, a faint, inscrutable smile touching his lips. 'Yes, my lady?' he murmurs, his voic…