CHAPTER 3 ( The dessert prince)
781 Words
Kael did not sleep that night.
The Tower of Nyx was silent, but his mind was not. He walked the corridors, heavy boots echoing off stone walls that swallowed every sound, every breath, every thought he didn’t want to face.
He told himself he was only patrolling.
Only fulfilling duty.
Only being the prince he was trained to be.
But her words clung to him like shadows:
“The night the world decided what I was…
And the night I lost the chance to decide for myself.”
Kael paused at the narrow balcony overlooking the border sands of Vhalaris. The wind hit him like a slap—dry, fierce, familiar.
It smelled like home.
And with it came memories he had trained himself to bury.
---
Vhalaris, Fifteen Years Earlier
Kael was five when he first learned what duty felt like:
like heat, like pressure, like a sword placed into your hands before you were ready to lift it.
The palace of Vhalaris was carved into red stone cliffs, towering above the desert. As a child, Kael thought it was alive—breathing heat beneath his feet.
“Stand.”
His father’s voice thundered across the training yard.
Kael’s arms trembled as he lifted the wooden practice blade. Sweat stung his eyes. The desert sun blazed overhead, scorching the sand until it shimmered.
“Again,” King Aldor commanded.
“Again.”
“Again.”
Kael swung until his arms burned. Until his chest heaved. Until the ground tilted beneath him.
Still, he did not drop the sword.
Weakness was not tolerated in Vhalaris.
And in the king’s own heir, it was unforgivable.
When Kael finally collapsed, the king didn’t rush to his side. He didn’t soften. He merely stared down at his son with hard golden eyes.
“You will protect this kingdom,” King Aldor said.
“You were born for it. You will die for it if needed.
And you will never question the orders of your king.”
Kael nodded through the blur of heat and exhaustion.
“Yes, Father.”
It was the first lie he ever spoke.
---
Years Later
At twelve, Kael was sent to the War Academy of Vhalaris—a place where laughter was rare, sleep was a privilege, and the only language spoken was discipline.
Princes from other nations trained in shining halls.
Vhalaris’ heir trained in blood, sand, and silence.
“Your emotions,” his instructor once said, striking Kael across the jaw, “are sand. You are stone. Sand bends. Stone does not.”
So Kael stopped bending.
Stopped feeling.
Stopped questioning.
There was only one truth:
Elandris is the enemy. Lyria Elyndra is the threat. Your duty is to control her.
And Kael believed it.
Until today.
Until he saw the look in her eyes—
not dangerous,
not violent,
but unbearably human.
---
Back in the Tower of Nyx
Kael leaned against the cold stone railing, jaw clenched.
He needed clarity.
He needed certainty.
And the princess gave him neither.
Footsteps approached behind him—light, careful. Lyria.
“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked softly.
He didn’t turn. “A guard should not sleep.”
“A person should,” she said.
The simple word person stung more than he expected.
For a moment they said nothing. Wind rushed through the open archways, carrying the scent of sand and distant storms.
Finally, Lyria spoke again—quiet, but sure.
“You look like someone who carries wars inside him.”
Kael’s throat tightened. “You know nothing about me.”
“Maybe not,” she said, stepping beside him. Moonlight brushed her hair like a blessing. “But I know what it looks like when someone has lived their whole life by someone else’s expectations.”
Kael stiffened.
No one had ever dared say that to him.
Not soldiers.
Not advisors.
Not even his own reflection.
“Tell me one thing,” Lyria whispered. “When did you stop dreaming for yourself?”
Kael forced himself to meet her gaze.
She wasn’t mocking him.
She wasn’t trying to trap him.
She was simply asking.
His voice came out rough, almost foreign to his own ears.
“I don’t remember.”
The admission left him feeling exposed, like a sword with no hilt.
Lyria looked at him with a sadness he didn’t understand.
“That’s the cruelty of being born into power,” she said softly.
“Sometimes the world chooses your life before you do.”
Kael swallowed hard.
For the first time, he wondered:
If everything he believed about her… was wrong?
And worse—
What else had he been taught to mistake as truth?
- Writer
