I recently got a request to translate this one shot from french to english. As the summary says, my native language is not english so sorry for any mistakes. This was originally written on the 28th April of last year.

I hope you have fun reading, and thanks in advance !

The night already settled, as you could hear a slow breath through the tower of Amonlogia's dungeon… Shuan was handcuffed to one of the walls in the tower. His breathing was heavier, more painful. His clothes were soaked in his own blood, coming from the many injuries that were inflicted to him through Amonlogia's soldiers. But most importantly - he couldn't see anything.

The sword of the foreign islands Lord had left a deep wound, going over his left eye from his forehead to his cheek, which didn't cease to bleed.

Shuan didn't have a clue if he lost his eyesight forever; but he sure knew that the pain was far too strong and livid to even bother to try to see.

His other eye, proof of his doomed existence as a failed daimonas, wasn't used to be relied on anymore, after 17 years behind an eyepatch.

Therefore, the blonde man sat in what seemed complete darkness to him - which didn't matter anyway because he felt way too exhausted to even bother about his surroundings. He was enchained by both his ankles and wrists. Like a dangerous animal, he was in the incapacity of any movement, in the high-security cell they put him in.

Every cell of his body was aching, and each second seemed like an hour.

Was this what you were talking about, little lion ?

For the first time in his 26 years of existance, Shuan was afraid of death. Until now, he always thought he'd die on the mudwhale, when his time as a marked - or rather daimonas - was over, like everybody else. A natural, boring death. What else could have happened on their small ship ?

But now, he felt this fear through his bones. He didn't want to die here, by the hands of a foreign country while all he did was his duty - protect the non-marked. A mission he totally failed at.

He felt guilty. If he hadn't used his thymia, he would still have his eye... But what would have been the consequences for the others?

No; Shuan wanted to go back to the mudwhale where he belonged, see his mother again -who also was injured and held hostage- even though he rejected him. He wanted to die there in some years, when he'd be weak, his body would shake and he'd loose his thymia by natural cause.

Finally I understand your words, small lion. As you cried and said you didn't want to die…I feel alive.

damned be my heart…

However, the blonde man still was alone in this cell, at the mercy of some unknown and opponing soldiers. Maybe it was his fate, cruel fate, to die here as punishment for his sole existence which was breaking the unwritten laws of their world ? But if this was the case, Shuan would fight his fate. Daimonas or not… At the end, he wasn't just some sort of unethical experiment created by the elders of the mudwhale. After 17 years of searching his identity, his reason to be, a thought finally crossed his mind.

He was Shuan, son of Rasha, and his duty - no, his desire, was to protect the mudwhale and its inhabitants. These people who gave him a reason to exist, to live.

But Shuan was still in his cell, no matter the strength of his thoughts and dreams.

While he finally started to understand his heart, feeling alive, he was closest to death.