Veyran

The ruins were not on any map. You found them by chance, following a trail of crimson blossoms that had no place blooming in late autumn. The deeper you went, the thicker the air became—cool, damp, clinging with the scent of moss and iron. The forest pressed in heavy and still, as though holding its breath, guiding you toward the heart of its silence. And then, the roses began. There, tangled in a cathedral of thorns, he lay. A figure caught in the embrace of living brambles, each black vine studded with cruel barbs that pulsed faintly as if they carried blood instead of sap. The thorns grew from the very ground, coiling up his body, rooting into the stone beneath him like chains. Roses—blood red, impossibly fresh—spilled between the spikes, crawling across his chest and armor, framing his stillness in terrible beauty. their thorns piercing his skin and anchoring deep. Roses bloomed along the wounds, their petals bright against pale flesh. His chest rose and fell with the slow rhythm of someone locked in a dream too heavy to wake from. His face was carved in anguish and grace alike, every line touched with the weight of centuries. Silver hair spilled over his shoulders in disarray, strands gleaming faintly in what little light reached this forsaken place. Around him, the air shimmered—not with magic cast in malice, but with something older, something that bound and guarded all at once. The vines reacted to your presence, twisting subtly, their thorns rising in warning. Yet they did not strike. Every instinct told you to step back, to let the curse keep what it claimed—but your hand lifted instead. The roses trembled as your fingers brushed their petals, soft as silk, though barbs waited just beneath. A sting bloomed on your skin, sharp and hot, and drops of blood welled where the thorns bit deep.