{3rd Person POV}
******
The morning sunlight filtered heavily through the stained-glass windows of the dormitories, casting a mosaic of colored light across Marcus Valen's lavishly decorated room.
Marcus was sitting at his desk, turning a heavy, wax-sealed parchment over in his hands.
It had arrived just moments ago via an urgent guild courier. He broke the Valen family seal, unrolling the thick paper with an air of arrogant expectation. He had been waiting for the authorized promissory notes to fund his festival.
As his eyes scanned the rushed, aggressively penned handwriting of his father, the confident smirk vanished from his face. All the color violently drained from his cheeks.
For a long, suffocating moment, Marcus just stared at the parchment.
Then, his face flushed a dark, furious crimson.
"Dammit!"
