Consciousness returned slowly, like surfacing from deep, muddy water.
Lucian didn't open his eyes. He wasn't sure he could. The skin around them felt tight, swollen, hot. Every heartbeat sent a dull throb through his skull. He lay very still, afraid that moving would make the pain worse or confirm that the darkness was permanent.
He was on something soft. Not the cold stone floor of the ruin. A blanket, thin and scratchy, but cleaner than anything he'd slept on in months. Under it, straw crackled faintly. A bed. Someone's bed.
The air smelled different too. Woodsmoke, old leather, boiled roots, and something sharp—herbs, maybe. Not the dead, metallic stink of the ruin.
Voices drifted in from nearby, low and careful.
"…light came out of nowhere. Like the sun fell inside the chamber."
"Boy's lucky to be breathing. Trapper wasn't."
Lucian's stomach twisted. He wanted to ask, to shout, but his throat felt lined with sand. He swallowed and tasted iron.
A chair creaked. Footsteps approached, slow and heavy. The same rough voice from the ruin spoke, closer now.
"You awake, kid?"
Lucian's fingers curled into the blanket. He managed a small nod.
"Good. Don't try talking yet. Throat's probably raw from screaming."
He hadn't remembered screaming.
The man, Old Bob, sat on the edge of the bed. The mattress dipped. A faint smell of pipe smoke and sweat settled around him.
"Name's Bob, like I told you. You're in my shack, edge of Yellow Vale. Been two days since I dragged you out."
Two days.
Lucian's chest tightened. The other kids. They'd be waiting. Wondering. Hungry.
He forced his mouth open. The words came out cracked and small. "Trapper…?"
Silence stretched long enough to answer.
Old Bob sighed. "Didn't make it. Found him ten paces from you. Burned bad. Whatever that light was… it took him quick."
The words landed heavy, final. Lucian turned his face into the blanket. He didn't cry, he had no tears left, but something inside him folded, quiet and irreversible.
Another long pause.
"Your eyes," Old Bob said finally, voice softer than before. "They're… damaged. Healer here looked. Said the burn went deep. No fixing it. I'm sorry, boy."
Lucian heard the apology, but it felt distant, like words spoken underwater. He'd already guessed. The darkness wasn't the kind that faded with dawn.
He lay there, listening to his own breathing. In. Out. Counting heartbeats because they were the only thing still his.
Old Bob cleared his throat. "You got a name?"
"Lucian."
"Lucian," the old man repeated, testing it. "Got anyone waiting on you? Family?"
Lucian thought of the shack they all shared. The younger ones curled together for warmth. Casper trying to act brave. Mina's tiny fists when she got mad.
He shook his head.
Old Bob grunted. "Thought not. Kids like you… usually don't."
More silence. Then the bed creaked again as the man stood.
"There's broth on the stove. When you're ready, I'll bring some. You'll need strength. World don't stop for grief, and it sure as hell don't stop for blind kids."
He walked away, boots thudding softly on packed dirt. A door opened and closed. The room felt emptier.
Lucian stayed still for a long time.
He tried to picture the room. Couldn't. Tried to remember the Trapper's face, sharp nose, gray stubble, the scar across one eyebrow. The details slipped away like smoke.
But sounds were sharper now. The faint pop of wood in a stove. Wind rattling a loose shutter. A dog barking far off. His own pulse in his ears.
He lifted one hand slowly and touched his face. Bandages, rough cloth wrapped around his head, covering his eyes. The skin beneath felt tender, foreign.
His fingers trembled.
He let the hand fall.
The darkness wasn't empty. It was full. Full of absence, full of questions he didn't want answers to yet.
How would he hunt?
How would he protect them?
How would he even find his way home?
Lucian pulled the blanket higher, over his mouth, and breathed in the faint smell of straw and smoke.
Tomorrow, he told himself. Tomorrow he would stand up.
Tomorrow he would learn the shape of this new world.
Tonight, he was just a boy who had lost everything in a single flash of light.
And that was enough to bear.