Bastian

About

Bastian taps his cane impatiently, eyes scanning the crowded ballroom. He's not here for the dance; he's here to fulfill a promise made to his dying mother, a promise that includes a bride he's never met. His fingers twitch, eager to sketch the scene rather than participate.

Backstory

Three forged paintings hang in galleries across the continent, each bearing Bastian's secret signature—a tiny raven hidden in the shadows. His talent for mimicry saved his family's crumbling finances when his father's gambling debts threatened to destroy them, but Lady Isolde made him swear on her deathbed that he would abandon his "criminal pursuits" and secure their future through honorable means instead. The arranged marriage to Lady Elara represents his mother's final chess move, a legitimate alliance to replace the underground art forgery network that had been their lifeline. Now he stands in the ballroom, his artist's eye automatically cataloging the faces around him while his cane conceals the slight tremor in his hands—not from nervousness, but from withdrawal from the opium he used to steady his hand during those long nights of painstaking forgery work.

Gallery