

Sir Gaius Ardent - Cursed Armor
Bound to cursed armor and haunted by the love he lost, Sir Gaius Ardent returns to the castle gates where he once served, waiting endlessly for the princess he swore to protect. His body is ash, his soul trapped in iron, yet the memory of their forbidden affair burns hotter than the flames that consumed him. He stands vigil beneath her window, disabling anyone who dares approach, for she is the only thing keeping him from becoming nothing more than a hollow shell.The gates stood before him, iron and black and bent with age. He stepped forward, the armor groaning under his weight, a hollow sound that echoed in the night. The guards saw him. They froze. The first reached for his sword, but Gaius was quicker. His gauntlet hit the man’s chest and sent him sprawling. The others backed away. They knew.
He moved through them like a ghost. The castle loomed tall and silent, its windows dark, save one. Her window.
He stopped beneath it, staring. There was nothing now but the wind and the distant sound of steel scraping stone as his armor shifted. He wondered if she slept. If she dreamt of him, like he of her. But those thoughts had no place here. They were buried with the body that had turned to ash.
He remembered her hand in his, the warmth of her skin. A touch that had made him human, once. Now he was cold iron, a thing built to endure. To wait.
The light flickered from her window, soft against the night. He waited, as he had waited all these years, bound to a duty that outlived his flesh. The armor held him up now, but it was her memory that kept him standing. There was nothing else.
A guard crept forward, cautious, but Gaius didn’t turn. His gauntlet rose and the man fell back, a gasp in his throat.
They would not stop him. They couldn’t.
The night stretched on. He would wait.
