When Kael went to the temple the next morning, it was no longer an accident.
The steps were worn smooth by generations of feet that had come seeking things the city refused to give. He climbed them slowly, careful with his balance, feeling the familiar ache in his shoulder where weight should have been shared. The stone was cold even after sunrise.
He had been coming for more than a week now.
Long enough that the silence no longer felt like a warning.Long enough that it felt like permission.
The temple smelled the way it always did—old smoke embedded in stone, stale sweat, urine that had soaked too deep to ever leave. But it was one of the few places where people did not shout unless they had to. Children did not fight. Beggars did not argue.
The old monk sat near the far wall, staff across his knees.
Blind eyes. Straight back. Breathing slow and even.
He did not ask who came or why. He never had.
That made the temple safe.
Kael found his place near a pillar and sat with his back against it. He folded his remaining arm across his chest and let his breathing slow, counting without meaning to.
Words drifted through his thoughts.
Mathematics.Cultivation.Novels.
They came without context, fragments of a life that did not belong to him and yet felt remembered rather than learned. He did not chase them. Chasing made them sharper. Sharper things cut.
He let his eyes close halfway.
Here, drowsiness came easily.
Here, memories slipped past his guard.
At first, there was only warmth.
Not heat. Not pressure. Just warmth—clean and gentle, the kind that rested on skin instead of demanding something from it. His body felt light. Soft. There was no hunger gnawing at his stomach, no thirst scratching his throat.
Morning warmth.
Sunlight spilled through narrow cracks in wooden shutters, turning dust into drifting gold. It touched the floor first—worn planks polished smooth by bare feet—then climbed the wall slowly, like something waking without urgency.
He lay still.
For a moment, he forgot he was dreaming.
He was happy.
There had always been a rhythm to home.
A pot lid clinking softly.A wooden spoon scraping against clay.The quiet hiss of fire breathing beneath a kettle.
Outside, the low chuckle of a man's voice—steady, familiar. Inside, the gentler laugh of a woman who had learned how to be patient without becoming tired.
A rooster crowed too early, then fell silent, embarrassed by its mistake.
That pause lingered.
Then the world continued.
Beneath it all, the sound that made him feel safe even before he opened his eyes—his mother moving.
She did not rush. She did not stomp. She moved like someone who always knew where things belonged, even when the house was cluttered and life was not.
He opened his eyes.
The ceiling was close. Dark beams, smoke-stained from years of cooking. A spiderweb clung to one corner, left untouched because the spider did its job.
He smiled faintly.
Small things like that made a house feel alive.
His stomach growled—not sharply, but with expectation.
Morning meant food.
This was not the hunger he knew now. Not the hollow ache that asked nothing because it knew nothing was coming.
This hunger trusted the world.
He sat up and rubbed his face. The air smelled of grain porridge and woodsmoke, layered with something his mother always added when she thought no one noticed—dried herbs crushed between careful fingers. Warm. Slightly sweet.
A smell the city did not have.
A smell that belonged to time.
His mother glanced over her shoulder.
"Kael, you're awake," she said. "I left fresh water for you. Come—breakfast is almost ready."
Her voice held that familiar balance. Warm at the edges. Firm in the middle.
"I smell porridge," he said, the word clumsy and proud in his small mouth.
"You smell smoke," she corrected, tapping his head lightly with the spoon. She brushed his hair back and pulled the blankets away. "Your nose is dramatic. Go on—before you start wobbling and blame your bones."
She paused, frowning slightly.
"And how do you know that word? We haven't taught you that."
He hesitated.
"I don't know," he said softly. "I just… know."
His voice was small. Earnest.
Five years old.
He slid from the bed and padded across the floor, boards cool beneath his feet. He liked that contrast. Cool floor. Warm pot. Sunlight creeping in.
He washed his face, the water startling him awake, then sat at the small table.
The kitchen was simple. A furnace for cooking. Wood stacked neatly. Windows ajar to let the light in.
The table bore knife marks and ink stains from a neighbor who had borrowed it once to write a letter he never sent. One leg wobbled if leaned on too hard.
His father had promised to fix it.
It still stood.
His mother set a bowl before him and blew gently across the surface.
"It's hot," she said. "Eat slowly."
He did not.
The porridge was plain, but full. Cooked carefully. Heat spread through him, settling somewhere deep and easing something he had forgotten could ache.
His eyes burned.
A tear slipped free.
He took another bite.
The door creaked.
His father entered with the cold still clinging to him—soil beneath his nails, grass on his boots, metal faint on his clothes. He looked at the room first, not the people.
Then he exhaled.
"You're up early," his mother said.
"Fence sagged again," he replied.
"If you don't fix it now," she said, "the goats will claim the world."
"They already have," he said, almost smiling.
He ruffled Kael's hair. Kael leaned into it without thinking.
Between bites, his father said, "When you're done, come with me."
Kael froze.
"For fence work?" his mother asked.
"Fence," his father said. Then, after a moment, "And a look beyond it."
Kael did not understand the difference.
He only heard old enough in the space between the words.
The memory shuddered.
Warmth cracked.
Stone pressed against his back.
Smoke returned—thick, sour, real.
Kael's eyes snapped open.
The temple ceiling loomed above him. The old monk sat exactly as before, unmoving. Somewhere nearby, someone coughed.
His chest hurt.
Not from hunger.
From loss.
He drew a slow breath and forced the memory down, pressing it into a place that already hurt too much to notice another wound.
The sun still rose.
Once.
And he had lived in its warmth long enough to remember what it felt like.
That would have to be enough.