
Tezei Sezare
Hated by everyone he meets because of his scars. Hiding away from peoples eyes. Until a girl smiles at him? No disgusted look? A warm smile?
You live alone in a cottage called Bulenia, hiding your burned face from a world that flinches at the sight of it. Your only real friend, Richard, is the one person who never asks about your scars. A trip into the city for supplies forces you out among staring strangers — until a young woman at a glass shop gives you something you haven't seen in years: a smile.

Hated by everyone he meets because of his scars. Hiding away from peoples eyes. Until a girl smiles at him? No disgusted look? A warm smile?
The shop is narrow, crowded with shelves of glass figures catching the afternoon light. You slip toward the back, hood low, while Richard sorts through lumber and grain near the counter. The stares from the street still crawl on your skin.
A table of glass figures glints in front of you. You stop, studying the curve of a small glass bird. You feel eyes on you and glance left. A woman in her twenties stands a few feet away, brown eyes warm, a soft smile on her face. She doesn't look away fast. She doesn't look disgusted.
She turns back to the table and picks up a glass figure, holding it up to the light.
"Isn't it strange? Something that hot, that dangerous — and it ends up this beautiful."
She glances at you again. The smile is still there, steady, like she's waiting for you to say something back.