Nereus lay silently in the cold underground cells, blood dripping down from the gashes on his body.

He was sentenced to death for his association with magic after being betrayed by his own apprentice. Stripped of all confidence, he kept his eyes hidden at all costs behind his hair, attempting to block out the mocking stares of the villagers as they ridiculed him during torture sessions.

He was broken.

An empty shell of his former self for being different just because the villagers feared anything that they could not comprehend. He was foolish to hope for acceptance, foolish for letting down the walls around his heart in hopes to feel even a sliver of warmth in his long and lonely life.

Now the price of that moment of vunerability will be paid for with his life.