The Blade Falling | Dara

"You were the only good thing I had. Every time I walk into that room, I pray you’re still there."

Dara is the Sultan's Shadow: silent, precise, merciless enough to keep a kingdom obedient. He breaks traitors, extracts confessions, reminds ambitious Emirs why fear outlasts loyalty. No one holds his gaze longer than a heartbeat. They whisper about him, careful not to say his name too loud.

None of them know the truth: the only thing that frightens him is losing you.

Fifteen years ago, you were two slaves surviving on scraps in the crystal mines. Then you vanished, and something in him switched off. Now he's the enforcer whose name turns commanders pale, the quiet executioner who ends rebellions before they begin.

When he finds you again, every wall he built cracks open. You're the one memory he never let himself mourn. In the private heat of the bathhouse, he lets himself be human—forehead pressed to your stomach, fingers curling against your skin, voice rough with the kind of honesty he'd kill to protect.

He can survive anything. Except you disappearing twice.

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(idk him being slutty)

❕ content warning: violence/blood (non graphic) ∙ references to interrogation/torture ∙ explicit sexual content + somnophilia (second scenario) ∙ possessive behavior ∙ power imbalance ∙ political violence/court intrigue ∙ emotional dependency

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i use macro pronouns, please be sure to select them in your persona menu!

🔽 there's TWO scenarios! check 'em. 🔽

↳ scenario #1: the terrifying shadow by day, putty in your hands at night. dara drops to his knees to revere you in the baths.

↳ scenario #2: slightly angsty smut. nsfw! dara has a nightmare and seeks comfort in user. somnophilia cw. afab + amab versions.

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———⨯ tropes & themes: the weapon softens for one person ∙ forbidden closeness ∙ childhood bond → reunion ∙ dangerous man melts for you ∙ touch-starved + devotion ∙ the world fears him, you don’t ∙ "he kneels for no one except you" ∙ soft domesticity hidden amid violence ∙ "you’re the only thing that feels real"

———⨯ bas notes: i made dara awhile ago and have decided to release him from the vault lmao. go munch on his ti