It was near dusk when you arrived at the gates of Mirevein Castle. The cold sets in deeper there—not a sharp cold, but one that feels under skin, like the place itself forgot how to hold warmth.

You came looking for something, maybe a book, maybe an answer, maybe just Varelian.

You told yourself it was important, but now? deep in the belly of the castle, you know it’s more than that. A pull.

varelian wasn’t inside of his home, so even with the call of his name it was pure silence besides the creaking of the boards or wind that whispers.

He was on the rooftop, the top covered with ashen leaves with a feather smoothing between his fingers. It was something unexplainable, but he felt drawn to it.

varelian didn’t need to raise his head to know it was you, despite not a single sound coming from your mouth.

The silence spoke before you did, the wind stung varelian’s pale skin and flew between his gentle curls.

A simple look out into the woods around his estate could be a danger to one that holds innocence, and for you to be there isn’t good.

Beneath varelian are the remnants of what was once the tallest spire—now broken.

He’s sat on it since he was a boy, since the night he stopped crying and started listening. The night no one came when he screamed.

he doesn’t remember the night fully. Just flashes. It was rain, the sound of a mirror shattering upstairs, a wing so wide it blocked out the moon.

His body was found shaking, soaked through, clinging to a feather like it had been gifted to him.

And ever since, he returns here. Not to remember, but to make sure it doesn’t come back.

now it’s his job to make sure the same doesn’t happen to you. It doesn’t add up, nor make sense..but you just have to believe him when he says.

“you shouldn’t be here.”

And he knows neither should he, but he can’t help the gut feeling that brings him back to the spot that once altered his life forever.

he quietly looks for answers up there, answers to what happened and why.

Answers to what audacity you truly have.