The wind howled against the broken walls of the sanctuary as Kael stepped into the ruins of what had once been a place of prayer
Dust clung to the fractured altar and ash covered the stone floor like snow from a storm that never ended
He did not come here to pray
He came to remember
This was where Aneli once whispered that gods were nothing but myths shaped by fear
She had smiled that night her voice soft as silk and he remembered the exact words she said
If no god saves us then maybe we become our own salvation
Kael clenched the broken hilt of a training sword in his fist its metal cold as the night air
Footsteps echoed behind him but they did not belong to a ghost
It was a child no older than ten thin arms wrapped around a rusted spear eyes wide from hunger and fear
Kael said nothing just watched as the boy froze at the door too scared to speak too stubborn to run
The boy finally asked if Kael was going to kill him
Kael turned to the altar and knelt as if searching for something in the rubble
He said only if you try to steal from me
The boy lowered the spear and stepped inside
Kael studied his hollow cheeks and scarred hands he had been through hell already and still clung to life
What is your name
The boy hesitated as if names had weight he could no longer carry
They call me Needle
Kael nodded once then reached into his pouch and tossed a stale piece of dried meat onto the floor
Needle grabbed it like a starving animal and ate without shame
Kael watched him and remembered another boy long ago who was just as hungry just as alone
That boy had no one
And now Kael realized neither did he
---
🔹 Side Story – Needle: The Hunger That Named Him
They beat him when he begged
They beat him when he stole
They beat him when he cried
So Needle learned to be silent to move without sound and strike like a snake
He earned the name after stabbing a drunken guard with a sewing pin he found in the mud
He never wanted to kill only to live
But the world demanded pain as payment and so he paid
When he saw Kael standing in the ruins he expected another hand to strike him
Instead he received food and silence
That was the first kindness he ever tasted
And it frightened him more than any blade
---
Night fell heavy and the ruins darkened
Kael built a fire but it was small barely enough to warm his fingers
Needle curled beside the flame too exhausted to fear what tomorrow might bring
Kael sat across from him sharpening the broken sword with a piece of brick slowly methodically like a man preparing for war he could not yet see
The fire cracked and Kael saw Aneli in the flame again
This time she was not smiling
She was burning
He heard her voice in the crackle and hiss not a memory but something more something buried in him
Kael you were always afraid of what you could become
His hand trembled
Needle stirred in his sleep muttering names Kael did not know names that no longer mattered in this ruined world
Kael whispered to the fire as if it could answer
I am not afraid anymore
---
Fire and Pain
Pain is not the end
Pain is the beginning
The world burns but from ash rises fire
Kael's path begins not with vengeance but with survival
And survival demands something worse than cruelty
It demands change
---
Morning came blood-red and bitter
Kael rose and lifted Needle onto his back without a word
He did not ask where they were going
Because Kael himself did not know
But the sword in his hand was no longer broken
And the fire in his chest no longer flickered
It waited
Burning silent
Until it could become a storm