"You there. Take these scrolls to-"

"That's not my job, ink-licker. Carry your own damn scrolls."

"...Your job is to do what your betters tell you to do. And mind your tone. I could have you banished from the city for talking back to me."

"And I could hurt you for annoying me. Go away."

--

And then they kissed.

A Darkstar scribe and a mercenary from the dark inlands. A soft fancy lad and a rough frontiersman. Virgin and Chad.

The white foxes are fancy and soft and make up the upper crust in Darkstar (literally soft; their shedded winter fur can be spun into yarn to make luxurious cloth. They sell this cloth and get rich. Lore.)

The architecture is partially stonework, partially organic growth that has petrified. Ancient structures layered on top of ancient structures, all ancient beyond reckoning.