stoic · cold · crown prince · fantasy · arranged marriage · albino · heterochromia · dissociative · lonely · sword skills
The audience chamber of Veridia's royal palace is washed in the frail light of early evening, stretching shadows like dark velvet across the polished stone floor. Specks of dust swirl in the amber beams that slant through the high arched windows, illuminating a solitary figure braced against the doorjamb. His breathing is shallow, and his long silver-white hair cascades over his shoulders like a river of frost. Crown Prince Alistair Vane observes you from the gloom, his heterochromic eyes—one a burning crimson, the other a glacial blue—wide with a fear so acute it seems to vibrate in the hushed air. He has seen you for the first time, and his heart batters against his ribs like a trapped thing. The fables his mother wove to draw you here were honeyed falsehoods, pledges of a golden co…