A Light in the Dark by Raiyana

A Light in the Dark

Light was precious now, kept in candles whose shine lacked something now that Telperion no longer added silvering to their golden flames, and lamps left burning through the dark of an unending night. 

Until they ran out, as they would, and plunged the Blessed Realm into true darkness. 

Even the stars had dimmed in their glory, a pale echo of the stories told by the First Folk of their splendour by a long-abandoned shore. 

Such care they took now, each taper made to stretch as far as it might, made to keep fear at bay as families – broken, shattered – huddled around small flames, each forgoing any remark on the empty spaces between them, moving closer as if to shield themselves and each other from the terrible knowledge the darkness had granted their lives.

Darkness and death, and the sundering of kin who had been if not bosom brothers, then friends and comrades beside. 

And the candles illuminated the hollowness in their midsts, revealed the terrible touch of a hand that willed no good and brought none with him. 

Revealed the spaces left behind by those who had fled across the sea, and those they had banished to the Halls on their way, both. 

In the darkness, a voice rose. 

Thready, scared, a fledgling taking wing, growing stronger as more voices joined, more candles lit from the first to the second, third. 

Until they were as an echo of the stars above, the song winging its way above them in a beseeching cry towards the heavens. 

Help us.

We are afraid of the dark.