Time stalls when nothing moves. At least that was what Zemlya once believed. In the absence of everything else, the heart beats. She was alive, time went on. Even after she'd been taken away and placed in this room.

The first day passed without sleep. She spent her waking moments listening to the screams and cries echoing down the palace corridors. She tried uselessly to run to their rescue, but her only exit was sealed shut from the outside.

The next day the screams ended. The door opened, but no one entered. Then the doors closed before she could attempt an escape. Soon after a tray of food arrived. But she didn't eat, didn't care to. Not that she could when there were people out there dying. Her father among them.

As soon as the sky dome had collapsed the king had her taken away, to be kept somewhere deep under the palace, somewhere safe. A foolish attempt to protect the one he loved. Zemlya had resisted. Struggled with every fibre of her being against the guards who dragged her off. But by the time she had been locked in the room, the screams had begun.

Another day passed, or so she assumed another day had passed. She measured time with every heart beat and refused to sleep because only when she slept time slipped past her grasps. Every moment of consciousness she thought of her grandmother and Harran, her siblings and parents and more than anything a certain boy from the surface.

The next day a visitor arrived.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, your highness." It was a voice she had never heard before. A man, but that was all she managed to decipher.

"Who are you?" Zemlya was calm. A fight would be futile, fear was no help and stubbornness would bring her no answers. She had to be strong, Harran wanted her to be.

"I'm either of two things. But if I was the least desired of the two, how would you react?"

"How do you expect me to react?"

Silence. Then a slight chuckle. "You really are blind, aren't you?"

"My eyes are as good at seeing as my hands."

"I suppose that's what makes you fearless."

The familiarity of those words made her bristle. But he wasn't him. "What is there to fear? You're just like me, we're all the same, aren't we?"

"Of course. But do you truly believe that, you are indeed royalty?" He stepped closer. She planted her feet and refused to move an inch. He halted.

"I am the last daughter of King Zev and a peasent woman, Riella Dove. But I was blinded and burnt by the sun's raw light. I'm far below royalty and even further below peasantry but I am human. And if that means anything than that makes me equal to everyone else."

"You amuse me, your highness." She heard him smile through his tone. But his voice made her skin crawl. "I find you peculiar."

"What might that mean?"

The bed sunk beside her thighs, his breath was hot on her cheek. He brought with him the scent of the sea. Salty sweet sea breeze. But his words chilled her to the bone. "That means, you get to live. For now."

Her heart beat flooded her ears, she feared he'd hear it just from his proximity. She steeled herself. He stepped away. She wouldn't allow him the satisfaction of fear. Anything but fear. "You haven't told me who you are?"

"For now I am Huo, the surface dweller who spared your life."

"Huo, may I ask what you intend to do with me now that you've spared my life?"

"Don't worry I'll make sure you're put to good use, while you still live."

"I am a scarred woman, without the ability of sight. What use could I be of to you?"

"Oh but you forget that you are the daughter of the king."

"I do hope you haven't been led to believe that, that title means anything in Dhulka. I hold no sway over the people."

"In times of crisis, people scramble after a leader. Someone familiar, someone who understands their struggles, someone who will fight at all cost to keep the people safe."

And then he was gone. The door locked and room empty. Save for one heart, one living heart beating into oblivion. She barely slept, the same collection of questions running rounds through her mind.

What did this strange man from the surface mean? Why had he kept her alive? Where was her family? What had happened to the people of Dhulka? What could she do? And where was he in midst of all this?

She needed answers. Or else, she feared she'd lose all sanity. And as the days passed, that reality drew closer and closer, till she was on the edge of desperation. When her tray of food was delivered the next day, slid under the door towards her, she reached further clawing at anything she could get ahold of when she found a wrist.

"Please, wait," she said. But even with all her strength, they managed to pull away. She fell against the wall, the unanswered questions, the closed door and the empty room overwhelming her. "Please."

In the stillness of the moment, distorted only by her pounding heart beat she heard a breath. Then two. Then another heart beat, besides her own. They were beside her, beyond the door.

"I know you're there," she said, hoping the space beneath the door would carry her voice. "I, I'm, my name is Zemlya. You don't have to tell me your name. If you could just be there, for a moment."

And for a moment, they sat side by side separated only by the wall against their backs. And in that moment, she felt the fog in her mind settle.

~~~

The King of Dhulka had been reduced to mere skin and bones, an empty, broken man with nothing but regrets. But perhaps he had always been like this.

He never once believed he was good enough. An unworthy ruler, a terrible husband to all his wives, a good for nothing father. Everyone loved him because they were obligated to. And that made him feel even more alone. The silence and empty space of his cell felt all too familiar.

"Good Morning, Your Majesty." A familiar young man stepped into his cell. But the king didn't know this surface dweller with the bright blue eyes. "I don't think we've been formally introduced, my name is Huo."

The King regarded the man with what little strength remained of him. "Have we met before?"

"We've never met, but perhaps I remind you of my father, Chief Shan."

King Zev shook his head weakly. "No." He squinted up at the man. "You look nothing like him."

His bright eyes narrowed. His jaw locked. A blistering anger brewed beneath, the king could see it as clear as day. So this is your other son, Shan?

"I would never desire to resemble such a man either." Huo spat. His cool and calm facade fell apart at the mention of his father. This boy would break, King Zev noticed, he'd erupt and fall apart at any moment. "He liked to think he was righteous and just but he was every bit evil. He found joy in division and war. He never cared for peace. Never knew love even when it was standing right in front of him!"

The King chuckled. A forgotten memory resurfaced. He didn't remember when, but all his children were little then. They'd banded together and raided his office, pulled him out of his chair and took him off to a park where he'd laughed and smiled and lived and loved for what felt like the first time.

He was every bit a failure as Huo thought his father was. He was alone not because the love he'd been given was forced and fake but because he'd made himself believe that it was. It wasn't any of their responsibilities to make him feel loved, when he couldn't see love when it was right in front of him.

"He loved you, you know that right?" King Zev wished his children knew too. "Even at your worst, he loved you. He only wanted the best for you."

"You're right." Huo grinned. But an emptiness lingered behind his eyes. "That was the one flaw that made it so easy to kill him."

"You don't believe that!" The broken king lept at the boy, but his shackles only allowed him so far before they yanked him back. "You know you don't want to do this. You know how disappointed your father would be. You know your brother wouldn't want to see you this way. This isn't you, you're a better man than this."

"You're a crazy old king!" Huo lunged at the shriveled man. Rung his hands round his throat and in that moment every bit of anger and frustration, bottled up and sealed away was released onto the King of Dhulka. "What do you know about me? I'm neither my father, nor am I my brother. And I don't have to be either of them. What could be better than who I am right now?!"

"Sir."

Breath entered his lungs like a knife sliding down his throat. Fear flickered in the boy's eyes briefly then died. Shan's eldest son put on his mask once again. The king found that he wasn't angry. He deserved this. This was only right.

"The preparations have been finished."

Two new men entered the king's cell, unshackled him and led him off, most likely to his death. "Huo," the King said, before he was beyond Huo's sights. "It's never too late to change. That's why regrets are so sour."

A public execution. They planted fear and nursed it to full growth. Plucking out any weeds of strength and courage that might hinder its ability to control men. That's right fear makes men do scary things, even the murder of your own father.

In a little white room, he'd breathe his last breaths. How unfair, he thought, when so many of his citizens must've suffered a death far worse.

"Dear citizens of Dhulka." Huo stood behind a glass wall, but his voice was amplified over speakers and carried through every tunnel and fold, quarter and district of Dhulka. "Here is your King, a senile old fool who couldn't even defend his people. Now behold, Dhulka's downfall in his death. And with it the dawn of a new Dhulka."

For every ounce of regret. Every missed chance. And every failure. For his blindness to all his blessings. "I'm sorry." 

Then like the bag of blood and bones he was, the king exploded.