The Forgotten Light

Once, the Sun and Moon blessed two women, best friends, whose gifts helped villages rise and the sick recover. They built families of their own, and for a time, their children carried that paired inheritance. But generations later, the gods were betrayed, caged, and finally forgotten.
In the darkness that followed, a new light was unearthed: Cormium, stones that gleamed deep underground. Eldros Celestar studied them and discovered they resonated with the orb his mother had used to trap the Sun. When the orb's light struck Cormium, crops surged, warmth returned to the valley, and wounds knit faster, lives stretching by small increments.
He raised a tower over the town his ancestors helped found and set the orb at its peak, ringed by Cormium and mirrored channels. Light spilled outward in every direction, and the people praised him as savior. Eldros accepted their worship for what it was: a crown. Before the gathered city, he proclaimed the light had chosen its keeper, and as its warden, he would judge who deserved its blessing.
For centuries, the orb never left the tower, and the settlement swelled into a kingdom as the world came seeking the last light. On the 300th anniversary, the Queen announced a lottery: ten citizens would ascend to see the orb in person. But the underfolk, the Cavebacks, living in the subterranea, knew that warmth thinned to rumor below. To them, the drawing wasn't a gift; it was an opportunity. If the Sunlicks of the surface hoarded radiance, the crown would be forced to answer, and the light would be claimed for all, or it would be destroyed.
Not everyone agreed with their methods. Liora Vey, thief since ten, acted alone. When would-be rebels stole the orb to snuff it out for good, she stole it back. She meant to return it once the danger passed, but as she ran to hide, a calm, undeniable voice slipped into her thoughts, pleading: " Save us all.