Chapter 31 Starving Together
Darius woke with a hole in his chest.
Not pain. Not sickness. A vast, aching emptiness that made every breath feel insufficient. He sat up slowly, hand pressed to his sternum. The fire had burned low. Mara and Veth slept nearby. Solis sat a short distance away, watching him with careful, almost guilty eyes.
He reached for a waterskin. The liquid touched his tongue but brought no relief. He ate a piece of bread from their supplies. It filled his stomach but left the deeper hunger untouched.
Solis spoke softly. "It will not help. Not fully."
Darius looked at her. "This is you."
She nodded once, elegant even in guilt. "You are resonating. Not merely resisting. The bond has begun."
Veth woke instantly at the sound of their voices. "What is wrong with him?" She moved to Darius’s side, irritation flashing across her face. "He smells like weakness. Fix it."
"I cannot," Solis said quietly. "This is not something I give. It is something he is beginning to feel with me."
Mara sat up without a word. She stayed unnervingly quiet, golden eyes fixed on Darius with deep concern.
Darius pushed himself to his feet. The world tilted for a moment. The hunger gnawed at something deeper than flesh. It reached into memories, into purpose, into the reasons he kept moving. For the first time, he felt the true weight of carrying multiple Calamities.
"I am alright," he said, steadying himself.
Veth growled. "You are not alright. You look like a man who has not eaten in months. Solis. Stop this."
Solis lowered her gaze. "I am not doing it deliberately. He is... resonating with my nature. The emptiness inside me is finding an echo in him."
Darius took another bite of bread. It helped for a few heartbeats, then the hunger returned stronger. "This is new. With you two, I could filter it. With Solis... it feels different. Like the hunger is learning me."
Mara finally spoke, voice low. "He is no longer simply resistant. He is beginning to share your burden."
Solis watched Darius with something close to pain in her eyes. "I did not mean for this to happen so quickly. Most men break or run. You... you stay and speak with me as if I am not poison."
Darius sat down again, breathing through the ache. "I do not blame you. This is the cost. I knew there would be one."
Veth paced angrily. "Cost? He is shaking. If this is what bonding with you does, maybe we should reconsider."
"No," Darius said firmly. "We continue. I will adapt."
Solis’s composure cracked slightly. Her elegant mask slipped, revealing raw uncertainty beneath. "Why? Why do you refuse to blame me? Every other being who has felt even a fraction of my hunger has cursed my name. You sit here calmly while my emptiness eats at you."
Darius looked at her directly. "Because you did not choose this any more than I chose my curse. You carry absence the way Mara carries plague and Veth carries war. I will not add to your burden by hating you for it."
Solis stared at him. For a long moment she said nothing. The sorrow in her eyes deepened, but something else flickered there too. A fragile warmth.
Veth stopped pacing, still irritated but quieter. Mara remained silent, watching the exchange closely.
Darius took another bite of food. It eased the physical hunger slightly, but the deeper emptiness remained. He could feel Solis’s nature inside him now, like a vast quiet room with nothing in it. The resonance was growing.
Solis whispered, almost to herself, "You are the first person who has ever tried to understand the hunger instead of running from it."
They sat together as the night deepened. Darius fought through waves of emptiness while Solis watched him with careful, guilty attention. Veth grew more protective and irritable with every passing hour. Mara stayed unnervingly quiet, her worry visible in the tension of her shoulders.
Darius refused to complain. He refused to pull away. He simply endured and continued speaking with Solis about small things, about meaning, about what it felt like to carry such vast absence inside.
As the first light of dawn touched the sky, Solis asked softly:
“Why are you still here?”
Darius answered immediately, without hesitation:
“Because you asked me something real.”
Solis’s breath caught. The sorrow in her eyes shifted into something deeper, more vulnerable. The bond between them tightened another notch. Darius felt the hunger surge again, sharper this time, but he held her gaze steadily.
The emptiness was no longer only hers.
It was beginning to become theirs.