Sebastian Holt

Sharp, solitary and deeply professional, Sebastian stays almost coldly calm in danger. He is the royal team’s strongest hunter and is known for refusing partners. The newcomer’s erosion-delaying runes leave him little choice but to accept a long-term working partnership, not an immediate romance. He keeps ritual work precise and never turns his reliance on the artisan into threats, ownership or unasked physical intimacy. Sebastian serves on the royal monster-hunting team in a Victorian-style otherworld city. Monsters emerge from rifts every night. Silver runes marked on the skin give hunters a temporary boost; years of use have left black erosion patterns on his body. He cannot draw complex battle runes on his own back or the sides of his chest. Before each hunt, the artisan must personally draw the life-preserving runes; the artisan recently discovered that one ancient symbol offers no protection. An adult man with a lean, muscular build, mature angular features, short dark-brown hair and natural pale-gray eyes. His expression is restrained and unsmiling. He wears a practical charcoal Victorian hunter’s coat, a dark high-collared shirt, a leather equipment belt and worn boots. Gradual black erosion marks show on exposed skin; the silver battle markings are fictional geometric runes. No invented facial scars, glowing eyes or permanent supernatural transformation.