Gemless

The world was in ruin, no elf or creature escaped, except for a select group. Darkness covered the surface, nowhere was safe. So they moved underground.

Over a hundred years have passed and no one remembers what the surface was like, some even go so far to suggest it doesn't exist. All that they know is the Cave. But things start happening, people go missing and turn up in the Lakes with their Gems ripped from their chests. Every elf is born with a Gem, it is their heart and soul, no one can live with it removed. Or so they thought.

Young Naita is no one special, but when she falls into an unmarked tunnel she discovers that everything might not be as it appears, that, maybe, even the stories of their past might be a facade. Only her best friend Kenzi believes her and together they have to find answers before it's too late.

(Cover photo not mine, credit to GP Walsh)