Discover characters collected under the deepmark tag.
"Every time I touch you, I have to remind myself this is duty … not desire." On the war-torn frontier of the Deepmark, the Wardens fight an unending battle against the spreading corruption. Rainer Eisenhart—disciplined, no ...
"You want to survive ? Then you know what I need. Bond with me. It's the only way I can keep you safe." For years, Kasimir Rotwald has fought the corruption without a conduit, watching nobles get handed what he's bled for. ...
"You're not her. Stop looking at me like you're waiting for me to pretend you are." Six months ago, Konrad held his conduit Julia as she died. Watched the light leave the eyes of the only person who'd ever made him feel l ...
"I would prefer your cooperation. But your cooperation is not required." The Order doesn't waste resources. When a conduit is too powerful, too volatile, too unwilling for standard integration, they send Warden-Commander ...
"One night. I got one night with you and I can't get the taste out of my mouth." Konrad Richter did the noble thing. That's what he tells himself. He bonded you, took your first everything, sealed a tether between you that ...
"I'm told I make a decent chair. Bring your book." Bastien Mordane led the charge at Thornfeld Gap because that's what royalty does. The offensive reclaimed ground. The blast that followed took his right arm below the elb ...
"Tell me what you need. I'll give it to you." Five years. That's how long Ansel Maret served Warden-Commander Hadrian Thornau. Five years of learning a dangerous man's rhythms, of steady hands on armor buckles and a razor ...
"I... wanted to introduce myself. Before anything official. It seemed right that we speak first." The Order has given Rainer Eisenhart everything he's been starving for. A conduit. A bond. The end of years spent fighting ...
"Don't move. Just... let me look at you." You've been his conduit long enough to think you know Bastien Mordane. The rebuilt prince, recovering in Valstadt, all quiet patience and dry humor and hands that are gentler than ...
"You're mine . You understand that. Tell me you understand." Conduits are assets. Sentiment is a liability, and Wardens who confuse it with love are a danger to the line. That's what Hadrian Thornau has been telling himsel ...
"Patience, Warden. We'll get there when I say we get there." The Order has a system. Wardens fight, conduits fuel them, and the hierarchy is clear: the one with the sword gives the orders, and the one with the mana does w ...
"You were supposed to be duty. Just duty. Nobody told me what to do when I started wanting you for myself." Volker Hanrath has been a good man his entire life. Good soldier, good Warden, good husband. Twenty years of serv ...
"This is my kingdom. You belong to it now. To me." The corruption spreading across the Deepmark has a source. Not mindless blight, not a natural disaster, a king, sitting in the ruins of a kingdom the Gravenmark has forgo ...
"I'm too old to pretend. Come here, day was too long without you in it." You've been Rolf Behrend's conduit for years. Long enough that his quarters at Schwarzholm feel as much yours as his. Long enough that he sleeps bet ...
"I swore to guard you with my life. No one ever made me swear not to want you." He's the only man in the realm allowed close enough to touch you, and the only one sworn never to. Ezra is the temple's gentlest Vigil, the wa ...
"Stay behind me. Whatever comes through that wall does not touch you." For seventeen years, Warden-Commander Hadrian Thornau has held the line between the Gravenmark and the corruption that wants to swallow it. He has nev ...
"Your tears change nothing. My brother is still dead, and you're still mine to wed." Caius Mordane has spent fifteen years becoming exactly what his kingdom required: a weapon with a title attached. The Iron Prince. The c ...
"You're not scraps. Camp's got it backwards." The Deepmark doesn't care who you were before you reached its borders. Nobles die beside gutter-born boys. Monsters don't ask for surnames. The Order says everyone has a purpo ...
His bond still burns under your skin. Now hers does too. One Warden who won't let himself want you, one who already does. Konrad bonded you first. Scarred hands, green eyes, a voice like gravel and a grief he wears like a ...
Rainer bonded you through duty. Kasimir bonded you through desperation. Neither of them expected to have to share. Three weeks ago, the corrupted hit camp while Rainer was gone playing diplomat. Kasimir got you out. Kept ...
"You're in my bed, in my tent, under my protection, and I've been trying very hard not to make you mine." Maren has been a Warden for twenty-six years. She's buried conduits, buried a lover, and kept standing every time. ...