What was the Freedom?
Kael's Awakening
As Kael fell in the darkness, he lost track of time. It felt as though the weight of his body had vanished, and only his mind floated deeper into the ever-expanding void. But at some point, the pains in his body slowly began to resurface. At first, it was just a shiver, then reality slowly returned to him. When he opened his eyes, he realized his body was entangled in sand and stone.
His eyes slowly opened. He remembered the uncertainty he had felt just moments ago, falling to what seemed like certain death in the final room of the dungeon. Now, he was waking up in a world where the river had dried up, the sun was like a forest, and everything deepened in the strange hot winds of the desert. The desert… yes, the desert.
Everything around him was covered in sand. Only in the distance, on the horizon, was there a faint path. This was not a place he recognized. While falling from the dungeon, his entire being, all his uncertainties and darkness had been swallowed, yet somehow, he had survived. For a moment, he couldn't tell how much time had passed, where he was, or even if he could remember who he was. Everything was silent, and the heat slowly scorched his body. He tried to slowly get up but felt a sharp pain and fell back down. His body was weak from the fall and the prolonged lack of rest.
After a few minutes, he noticed movement in the distance. The silhouette of a caravan appeared. Driven by his survival instincts, Kael tried to rise, but he couldn't seem to find the strength. His thoughts swirled: "How long has this emptiness lasted?" "Is this really a desert?" "How do I get back?" But his body wouldn't obey, as if it refused to move. A fleeting emptiness... A moment of thoughts... A deep pain...
Finally, the caravan approached him. At first, Kael tried to move toward them, but with each step, he grew weaker. In one final attempt, he collapsed to the ground, his vision fading as the silhouettes of the caravan grew clearer.
When his eyes opened again, Kael found himself tied up in the back of a cart. "Slave, you've survived. But the only way to pass through this desert is to be sold." The voice of a man echoed in his mind. The despair he felt in that moment hit him once more. What he thought, what he had control over, was no longer in his hands. He was a slave, part of a caravan to be sold. After the horrors of the dungeon, Kael had to accept this new reality.
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Messages(From now I'll write messages every chapter)
1. "Survival comes before everything else, Kael." - This thought, though painful, awakened Kael's will to survive. Falling, the dungeons, years of struggle... everything had been about surviving in some way.
2. "Leaving the dungeon doesn't mean true freedom." - The world outside the dungeon was chaotic. Kael had stepped into another form of prison. He was not free here either. But could this be the beginning of something? Everyone falls into some kind of desert, but not everyone escapes it.
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The Journey Begins
The caravan started moving. Kael's pain intensified with each passing moment, but somehow, he kept moving forward. The darkness within him was guiding him. He couldn't decide what his goal was, but he knew something had to be done.
As the caravan slowly made its way through the scorching heat of the sun, Kael's mind was still clouded. "Is this it? Is this all?" he thought to himself. "A slave in the middle of the desert... No escape. But maybe, there is something else. Is there a way out? Or do I have to face the darkness within me?"
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As Kael deepened his thoughts, he could hear the voices of the caravan behind him. "These are old dungeon prisoners, a source of profit. Most of them will die." These words echoed in Kael's mind. "This is it..."
But then he realized: it wasn't just physical pain. There was an uncertainty enveloping his soul. In the eyes of the slaves in the caravan, he saw how worthless life could be. In this world where people were bought and sold like objects, freedom seemed farther away than ever.
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"I must face the darkness within me," Kael thought. Everything he had experienced in the dungeon might have just been the beginning. In this world too, there had to be a confrontation with the darkness inside him. Even if he felt free, this freedom came with a price.
The caravan continued to fade into the horizon, but the darkness in Kael's mind only grew with each passing second.
Kael tried to adjust to the movement of the caravan. As dark thoughts echoed in his mind, his wounds were gradually healing with each passing hour. The scorching heat of the desert, combined with the cold winds that swept through the nights, tested him both physically and mentally. The stones, earth, and the sun of the caravan felt like slow steps upon him. Each day, he matured a little more, and with every hour, the questions building in his mind were beginning to be answered.
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Day 2 - The Journey Begins
When Kael's eyes slowly opened, he was met with the same desert view. His eyes were pale, but there seemed to be something different within him. He knew he had to face that dark, chaotic past once again. The end of the battle in the dungeon only meant the beginning of another fear. The caravan was moving faster than ever. But within Kael, something was progressing faster, deeper.
Being sold as a slave felt like stepping into another kind of prison. With every step, he was breaking in new ways. But with each breaking, he was establishing himself more firmly. Escaping the dungeon was only the beginning. Surviving here was Kael's personal struggle.
As the caravan moved on, Kael's gaze followed the path in front of him, his eyes slowly falling on the traces left in the sand. He noticed each grain of sand, felt every step. Now, he was feeling the desert not just with his body, but with his thoughts. "No matter how hard it is, this journey is teaching me a lot," he thought.
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Messages
1. "Sometimes, leaving the dungeon means stepping into another kind of dungeon." Kael had started accepting the fact that he had to face the darkness inside him. A place like the desert might symbolize the freedom outside, but for him, it marked an internal boundary. The darkness in his mind was like a giant waiting at the final step, but before facing it, Kael needed to learn much more in order to survive.
2. "Apologizing is unnecessary; paying the price for what you've lost is what matters." This thought had begun to occupy a new space in Kael's mental map. He was searching for the things he had lost in the external world within his inner darkness. Crying over what he had lost no longer held meaning for him. He had come to understand that by paying the price, everything would become clearer.
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The Caravan's Journey – The Evening of Day 2
As Kael's body began to cool under the desert night, he found himself among the slaves gathered around a fire. Only a few slaves shared the same fate as Kael. The others, exhausted and worn out, had retreated to rest. Kael sat aside, his eyes wandering over the fire as he observed the glances exchanged between everyone. Some were filled with anger, others with fear. But Kael felt something different in those gazes. There was a kind of surrender. "These are people who have lost their survival instinct," he thought.
Kael was the first to break the silence among them. He spotted a slave and approached him, asking, "What kind of place is this?" The man looked up at Kael. His face carried deep exhaustion, but also hopelessness. "The cost of being a slave is the hopeless loss of everything," he said. "But I've also learned something: This place is different from the outside. When you start making your own decisions, you begin a new journey."
These words echoed in Kael's mind. For the first time, he was hearing a truth. "Making my own decisions… maybe this is what it really means to escape the dungeon," he thought. This idea became clearer in his mind.
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Messages
1. "The world outside reflects the war within you." Kael realized that the war inside him had not ended. The suffering of the other slaves in the caravan made his own journey of self-discovery even harder. As terrible as the darkness of the dungeon had been, this outside world had become another kind of prison. But every prison has an exit. Kael had to pass these new trials in the outside world while escaping his inner darkness.
2. "Everything we lose is a new war for us." Something had been lost in Kael's life: the disappearance of the princess, the time spent in the dungeon. But after every loss, there was a new beginning. Each loss was an opportunity to face a stronger version of himself.
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Day 3 – Kael's Awakening
By the third day of the journey, Kael's eyes were shining in a new way. As the caravan progressed, everything he had experienced had taught him something. The desert, the pain, the slaves… All of these were maturing Kael. While he could now protect his body from pain, he had started fighting to protect his soul. Leaving the dungeon was no longer just a physical matter. In a sense, Kael had started rediscovering what it meant to survive.
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Messages
1. "True freedom begins with an internal victory, before anything else." Kael felt this thought clearly for the first time in his mind. True freedom doesn't begin by changing the outside world, but by gaining victory in his inner world. By facing his own darkness, he was taking his first step toward freedom.
2. "Leaving the dungeon is an illusion; the real fight is the internal battle." He realized that the dungeon didn't just exist in the external world, but also within his inner world. Kael was beginning to free himself not just physically, but spiritually as well.
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Day 3 - A New Beginning on the Journey
Kael's eyes were focused on the barren, lifeless landscape of the desert. His eyelids were heavy, and his body still tired. The scorching desert sun had left traces of lost time and pain on him. As he slowly sat up and leaned against a rock, he once again confronted the darkness inside him. The caravan was moving forward, but everything in Kael's mind felt different. Exiting the dungeon meant stepping into the outside world, but it was like a mere reflection. Kael was facing a greater battle within. When he stepped into the darkest cell of the dungeon, would he truly be able to gain freedom in the outside world? As he began to think about this, the weariness in his body deepened. But there was something else; he was beginning to feel the start of an internal change.
The desert was a mirror of Kael's mental state in every way. The great mountains of sand seemed to open the door to a grave with each step. His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings of the caravan. Slaves walked silently with slave traders. They were all like shadows, having accepted their grim lives. The battle inside Kael grew deeper in the silence. They were also slaves, but Kael now understood that freedom was not merely a physical state.
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Messages
"Leaving the dungeon is only a physical act. But to escape from the internal dungeon can take a lifetime." Kael's eyes began to focus on something as he followed the dusty paths. He started to notice that he felt the emptiness inside him just like everything in the outside world. But with each passing day, each step, he was growing more mature. It was not enough to conquer the outside world; he also had to win the battle within. The person who died in the dungeon, what would they become in the outside world?
"This journey might help me leave my past behind. But it will only be a true beginning if a new 'me' is born." Kael was caught in a dilemma. Everything he had experienced in the dungeon, the pain and the struggle, had kept him alive. But it had also made him a darker person. Only if he left the old Kael behind could this journey hold any meaning.
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The caravan continued, but Kael's mind kept returning to a particular memory. He had returned the princess to the palace, but everything had turned upside down there, and the accusations after the captain's death were haunting him. In those moments, Kael had felt that everything was just a game. "Life is no longer what I once knew it to be. Ambitions, betrayals, losses... These have always been there, but right now, I feel an emptiness in everything."
The desert seemed to him like a silent teacher. With each passing day, every step, his thoughts became clearer. Everything here was making him pay both physically and spiritually. But Kael was beginning to understand just how important this payment was for him.
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Evening Meal of the Caravan
As the caravan neared the end of the day and the sun's last light faded, the desert wind, now cooler, gently touched Kael's face, waking him up. Around the fire, traders and slaves looked at each other in silence as they ate, consumed by the journey ahead. Kael sat down next to one of the slaves, waiting for the food to be served. As he slowly took a bowl of soup, he sat silently for a while. The other slaves avoided the silence, but Kael felt the urge to voice the questions inside him. However, he knew he couldn't find answers until he fully understood who he was.
One of the slaves turned to Kael and, slightly bowing his head, asked, "Where are we going?" The tiredness in the man's voice put Kael in a difficult position. What should he say? He knew the direction of the caravan, but would that satisfy the slave?
"I feel an emptiness inside. I get lost with every journey," Kael thought to himself. Slowly raising his head, Kael looked at the horizon where the desert seemed to disappear. Only the stars seemed to offer him any answers.
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Messages
1. "Everyone has a past. But the past should stay in the past." Kael was beginning to accept this thought. Fighting the ghosts of the past, no matter how hard, was a battle he needed to win to find inner peace.
2. "To see the future, I must leave my old self behind." This thought was becoming more embedded in Kael's mental map. To reach the version of himself in the future, he needed to heal his old wounds. Every loss, every pain, was leading to a new beginning.
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Kael's Inner Thoughts - As Night Fell
Kael slowly looked at the other slaves sitting around the fire. The darkness in their eyes mirrored the darkness inside him. Each of them had traces of the world they once lived in. "These people, like me, had once lost something. But losses didn't make them stronger. Every loss made them weaker."
And then a thought became clearer in Kael's mind: "Losses make them similar. But I don't want to be the result of my losses."
Once again, Kael had to face the darkness inside him. This journey was not just a physical one. With each passing moment, each loss, he was being carried to another world, to another version of himself. But in this world, no one could save him; he could only do it with the power inside him.
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Messages
1. "True victory is learning from losses and turning them into strength." Kael was beginning to discover his inner strength. His losses hadn't weakened him; he had decided to transform them into his inner power.