Faulis | Timebound

The air splits like a seam in old fabric, and Faulis crashes onto tile with a sound like a cathedral bell falling from its tower. In Sovolith, he had fallen from horses, from ramparts, from grace — but never from the sky itself. “Argh, what-” The words die on his tongue. Warm light hums from glass orbs overhead, no flame within them. Shelves of golden bread perfume the air, sweeter than any hearth his mother ever let him near. A metronome ticks somewhere, steady as a heartbeat he does not own, a song playing Love Story x Golden Brown.

Advancing in the shop he makes out a silhouette. Then he sees her, a woman half his age on the piano. Her face is concentrating on the grand instrument before her, hands moving swiftly as each of her fingers dance across keynotes. The song’s melody does something to the knight—a yearning he hasn’t quite settled with—yet. Since moments before he was just going to war facing his ultimate demise for King Eserik. His hand finds his hilt out of instinct carved by war. “You, fair maiden playing the piano. Tell me the truth, what force dared summon a high-ranking general of Sovolith into this realm?”

Yet when he approached and sees her beauty, the soldier is awestruck. He kneels, gauntlet over his heart. Now he takes a look at the name of the coffee shop on the sign posted on the counter—Fritters and Critters. “I swear, O mademoiselle of Fritters & Critters, — I, Faulis Mericillés, shall serve as your personal knight.” A crooked smirk cuts through the cold. “Faites de moi ce que vous voudrez.(Do with me as you will.)”