"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Cherion! I'm Reiner Holden, your new attendant!"
The introduction didn't just break the silence in Zarius's study, it was like throwing a rock through the window, shattering it, and then standing there awkwardly wondering if anyone would notice. The energy radiating from the figure in the doorway was so profoundly bright, so intensely cheerful, that it felt practically radioactive.
Cherion, still slightly sluggish from his three-day unintended sabbatical in the land of dreams, blinked several times, half-expecting his retinas to start smoking. Standing there was a young man who looked as though he had been accidentally birthed by a stray sunbeam that had somehow survived the oppressive Northern winter.
