The first thing people noticed about Captain Kael Veynar wasn't his height or the way he moved like a blade drawn halfway from its sheath. It was his silence. A silence heavy enough that when he walked through Blackfen Market, the fishmongers lowered their voices, and the dogs tucked their tails.
The second thing they noticed were his eyes-pale gray, like fog just before it burns away.
He'd been in the outpost barely three days, brought by order of the High Council to command the garrison after its previous captain "resigned." Which was the polite way of saying: found hanging in his quarters with a parchment stuffed in his mouth.
No one asked Kael questions. No one dared.