Nothing Is Eternal (Book One)

VI

Kate stood outside of Jon Knight's door, feeling like a schoolgirl called before the headmaster.

Her throat tightened as she feared a dismissal. Hard work and relations wouldn't mean anything if she brought trouble to the paper's doorstep. She didn't know what she would do without the paper. Writing the truth was in her blood.

Her father, Daniel Sullivan, had been one of Jon Knight's earliest disciples. Almost thirty years earlier, a young Jon Knight had sent Daniel Sullivan to the Hikari Region to investigate rumors of the Eternal Light disappearing from the land.

Because different regions were isolated, the only way to get news was to travel there. It wasn't something that Daniel had been able to just visit the region to take a look around and then return home. His investigation had lasted nearly ten years. He ended up marrying Kate's mother while trying to work out the mysterious happenings in the region.

His reports were smuggled out, reports of how the previously stable region was erupting in riots as Eternal Light continued to fade. Areas and people were lost overnight; people were crowded in the remaining Illuminated areas. People were desperate to get passports to travel to a safer region. And the Sacred State seemed unable to do anything to stem the growth of the Dark.

Despite the danger, Daniel had remained. Kate's older sister Vanessa was born there, and so was Kate.

But she didn't remember the region at all.

When she was two years old, the Hikari Region was totally Darkened. All Eternal Light had disappeared from the entire region in a matter of hours. Cities, towns, and countryside—lost in the Dark forever.

Her father had shadows in his hazel eyes whenever he spoke of it. And he never spoke of it too much. Kate learned most of the Incident from reading his reports.

It was estimated that two-thirds of the region's citizens were lost. The rest barely made it. Authorities seized anyone suspected of contamination by exposure to the Darkening. It was generally understood that those seized were the ones who might have explanations for the sudden Darkening of an entire region. All the other survivors were sent to refugee camps until they could be relocated. Not that other regions wanted them, as unfair suspicion lingered around them.

The only reason Kate's family had been spared was on account of her father. Daniel Sullivan was a citizen of the Star Region. Since Kate was little more than a baby when it transpired, she didn't have any memories of the Incident. Her sister had been nine, and the Incident imprinted stronger memories.

Shin claimed to remember the Incident, but he had only been a little over three at the time. His strongest memories were of the refugee camp where his family ended up. He hadn't made it out of the camp until he was nearly eight and had seen things no child should ever see. It kindled a lifelong hatred of the Eternal.

Daniel Sullivan's reports of the Incident and the aftermath—along with accounts of other people—made Jon Knight's paper famous. The allegation that the Sacred State hadn't attempted to save the Hikari Region had incensed the government.

But there was irrefutable evidence that the majority of the priests had abandoned the region. It didn't matter whether they wouldn't or couldn't save the region, either possibility left people just as terrified. And, since the Sacred State wouldn't or couldn't supply people with answers, they turned to alternative sources. Jon Knight's paper was one of the only places that dared to look for answers.

It had been two decades since the Hikari Region Incident, but the repercussions still haunted the Illuminated World. Almost every region, practically every city, had survivors of the Incident. That made the Incident impossible to forget. And people's built up anger over rigid laws and taxes to the Sacred State was just kindling. The sanctioned slavery for private companies that supported the Sacred State, the missing and mysterious deaths were a geyser of fuel.