Prologue
I was twenty-four when I fell from the Light. A budding Akari,, I was at the top of my class and well on my way to standing in the ranks with my brothers and sisters to guide our world through the Darkness.
But then she was taken from me.
My sister, the last of my bloodline, was walking back to the pantheon one night from a nearby orchard when she was attacked and brutally murdered. When they finally found her body she was unrecognizable save the silver pendant clutched in her hand, a waxing crescent moon, the symbol of our people. Because even in Darkness there was always Light.
But I didn't see the Light in her death. I didn't see the lessons I could learn or how much stronger the Light would make me for moving on and continuing to fight the Darkness.. I hated the Light. It should have protected her. The Light took away the only remaining family I had and I no longer trusted it to protect me,
I would no longer fight for its cause.
I ran. Faster than I have ever run before. Just past midnight, the Darkness consumed my sight as well as my soul. The waxing moon gently tried to guide my way but I lost my footing and before I knew it was free falling deeper into the Darkness. My body tumbled down a slope and a sharp rock pierced my leg as warm blood began to gush down it.
The warmth didn't last long as I rolled into a cold lake, needles of ice piercing every inch of me. I didn't scream. I wished for this to be it. I wanted to die in the Darkness and rejoin my sister in a world where there was no Light...no Darkness...No pain. My head began to spin as I let the water fill my lungs. I closed my eyes but could still see a small glimmer of the waxing moon glowing above me.
Then I woke up.
