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Summary
His father spoke of it once, years ago, with the same care he used when explaining a wound that never quite healed — factual, respectful, and deeply mindful of the person beneath it.
Someone who cannot be touched. A person people fear before they know him. A boy made into a boundary long before he could decide what he wished to be.
Standing here now, looking at Joshua through silk and distance, Clive finds himself wondering what kind of person grows inside that shape. What it must be like to learn restraint before desire, composure before comfort. To be watched not for what one does, but for what one is. He wonders how much of Joshua’s stillness is choice, and how much of it is learned survival.
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The Phoenix--a boy cursed by fate from his first breath, Heir to a nation that fears him beyond measure-- is once more in need of a Shield to guard him. Someone good. Someone trustworthy. Someone steady.
Clive Murdoch, son of Rosaria's Lord Commander, has returned from the military on honorary dispatch, with healing scars and idle sword hands. He is no trained Shield. But perhaps it is time unorthodox measures be taken.