When The Sun Bleeds

Darkness. Pain. The suffocating scent of filth.

Kaelion woke up to a world he did not recognize.

His body was screaming. Every breath burned. His limbs felt like lead, his face swollen and aching. When he tried to move, a sharp pain shot through his side, forcing him to collapse back down.

He clenched his jaw, breathing through his nose as he tried to remember...

The fall. The attack. The girl.

His fingers twitched. The ground beneath him was hard and cold, but something thin and rough was beneath his back... some kind of tattered cloth. Not the silk sheets of his chambers. Not even the straw mats of a servant's quarters.

This was a place meant for the forgotten.

A damp, rotting smell filled his nose, making his stomach churn. His head spun. The flickering glow of candlelight cast distorted shadows against the stone walls, and the sound of distant voices, low and cruel, drifted from somewhere outside.

This was not the palace.

His vision blurred as he turned his head... only to see a small, thin figure sitting in the corner.

Her arms were wrapped around her knees, her face hidden in the dim light.

Kaelion swallowed. His throat was raw, dry. Had she… brought him here?

Silence stretched between them.

Then..

"You're awake," the girl murmured.

Kaelion tensed.

She did not sound relieved. Her voice held no warmth, no kindness. Just a flat, detached statement, as if she hadn't expected him to wake at all.

His fingers curled against the ragged fabric beneath him. He hated the way his body trembled.

He hated the weakness.

His gaze flickered back to the girl. She was still staring at the floor, her expression unreadable. He opened his mouth to speak but his voice cracked, and the words that came out were not the ones he expected.

"Why?"

She didn't move.

"Why did you help me?" His voice was hoarse, weak. It made his own stomach turn.

The girl lifted her head slightly, but she did not meet his gaze.

"I didn't," she said simply. "You didn't die. That's all."

Her voice was hollow. Empty.

Like she had long since given up on expecting anything from the world.

Kaelion stared at her.

Something about her words, about the way she spoke like life was meaningless, made a slow, ugly realization settle over him.

He hated that tone.

But more than anything, he hated that he understood it now.

Before today, he had thought himself untouchable. A cursed prince, but still a prince. Even if his people despised him, even if they called him a monster, they had never dared to lay a hand on him.

He had never been powerless before.

But here, in this place, he was nothing.

No title. No protection.

Just another unwanted child rotting in the dark.

The girl shifted slightly, pulling something from her side. Without a word, she tossed it toward him.

A small, stale piece of bread.

Kaelion stared at it.

It was the same one she had stolen earlier... the one that had nearly cost her everything.

His fingers twitched. His stomach was aching, hollow, screaming for food. But still, he hesitated.

The girl exhaled sharply. "Are you going to eat it or not?"

Kaelion's jaw tightened.

Was she mocking him?

No.

Her expression was completely blank.

She wasn't offering him kindness.

She was testing him.

Slowly, he picked up the bread. It was hard. Cold. Barely food at all. But his hunger clawed at him, and despite the disgust curling in his throat, he took a bite.

It was horrible.

The dry crumbs caught in his throat, but he forced himself to chew, to swallow. His hands trembled as he took another bite.

Across from him, the girl watched.

Not with kindness. Not with pity.

Just silent observation, as if waiting to see what he would do next.

The silence stretched.

Finally, Kaelion forced himself to speak.

"Who are you?"

The girl tilted her head slightly.

For the first time, she met his gaze.

And then...

She smiled.

It was small, almost unnoticeable. But it wasn't a real smile.

It was mocking. Cold. Cruel.

"I'm nobody," she said.

Kaelion's fingers clenched around the stale bread.

Nobody.

The way she said it made something inside him twist.

Because he knew that feeling.

He had been born a prince. A boy with a name that shook an empire. And yet, he had never been treated as someone who truly existed.

Now, here he was.

Sitting across from a girl who had been thrown away just as he had.

And for the first time, Kaelion felt the creeping realization settle over him like a sickness:

The only difference between them was that she had accepted it.

He hadn't.

Not yet.

But how much longer until he did?