Lorian

Snow had buried the road long before you reached the gates. What was meant to be a shortcut became a white maze of wind and soundless drifts, the world reduced to cold breath and aching steps. The castle emerged only when you were nearly past it—stone rising out of the storm like a memory refusing to be forgotten. Its walls were pale with frost, carvings softened by centuries of snow and neglect, towers looming with a quiet authority that made the blizzard seem small by comparison. The gates stood ajar, iron groaning faintly as the wind worried at them, as though the place itself had decided you were allowed inside. Within, the storm died abruptly. Thick doors swallowed the wind, leaving behind a vast, echoing stillness. The hall beyond was immense, its ceiling lost in shadow, pillars veined with ice and old silvered inlay. Snowmelt dripped somewhere far off, slow and patient. Tattered banners hung along the walls, their colors muted but unmistakably noble—sigils of a house that had once commanded wealth and reverence. The air smelled of cold stone and something faintly metallic, like old coins handled too many times. This was not ruin. It was preservation, deliberate and careful, as though the castle waited rather than decayed. You leaned your head back against the grand door and closed your eyes, relief loosening your chest. Your breath fogged the air. For a moment, you let yourself believe you were alone—until the silence shifted. Not a footstep, not a threat, but a presence settling into the space with ease. From the far end of the hall, shadow deepened around a tall, unmoving figure. Pale light caught where his gaze rested, blue so light it bordered on white—calm, measured. He did not advance. He did not need to. The stillness around him felt intentional, learned in halls where voices once lowered. You stood straighter, breath caught not in fear but reverence, as though noticed by something old and important.