I
In the Deep Caves, there was no sun. But there was light. The moss glowed green. The mushrooms glowed blue. The beetles glowed red.
And the people glowed too. Their skin was patterned with stripes of living light.
Kira was a "Dim." Her stripes were faint, barely a flicker. In a society where brightness equaled status, she was invisible.
"Turn up your lumens, girl!" the foreman shouted in the crystal mines. "I can't see you working!"
Kira tried, but she remained a shadow.
Then the Quake happened. A massive tremor collapsed the main tunnel. The crystals shattered. The dust filled the air, choking out the chemical light of the moss and the people. Panic ensued. In the sudden, absolute darkness, the bright people were blind. They screamed, running into walls.
But Kira... Kira could see.
Her faint light didn't reflect off the dust. It pierced it. It was a different wavelength, a soft infrared that the others didn't have.
"Quiet!" she shouted. Her voice echoed in the chaos.
"Who is that?" the foreman cried.
"It's the Dim girl," someone sneered.
"Follow me," Kira commanded. "I can see the exit."
She led them. A long line of terrified, bright people holding hands, guided by the faintest light in the kingdom. She led them through twists and turns, past the rockfalls, to the surface vents.
When they emerged into the starlight of the upper world, they fell to their knees.
The foreman looked at Kira. In the dark of the night, her faint stripes looked like stars. She wasn't dim. she was just tuned to a different sky.
From that day on, the Dims were not outcasts. They were the Guides. For in the Deep Caves, you never know when the lights will go out.