Now and Then

Fen.

The first day, Kael didn't speak.

He watched me with those flickering ember eyes, his stillness sharp as a blade. The stone cell I'd given him wasn't a dungeon cell in the traditional sense. It had a bed, a table, a window that caught the ash-grey light in the morning. But it was still a cage, and he knew it.

I brought him food. Same meal I ate. Stew. Bread. Water from the mountain spring. No tricks. No tests. I left the tray without a word, turned on my heel, and didn't look back.

The second day, he muttered a thank you. I almost missed it.

The third day, he sat across from me.

We ate together in silence. No questions, no answers. Just two strangers who knew how to chew slowly and listen harder. He studied me the way a wounded predator studies the edge of a trap—testing for tension.