Dark Light -

He didn't hesitate. He smashed the sphere against the stone floor.

When Elias looked through the violet haze of the sphere, the ruins of the observatory vanished. In their place stood a towering structure of glass and steel, bathed in a blinding, natural gold. He saw people laughing, their skin bronzed and healthy. He saw green things—vast, waving oceans of emerald leaves that he had only ever seen in tattered picture books. Dark Light

But the vision came with a price. Every time the Dark Light pulsed, Elias felt a piece of his memory slip away. He forgot the name of the street he lived on. He forgot the taste of the synthetic nutrient paste that kept him alive. He forgot the face of the sister he was scavaging for. He didn't hesitate

Elias lived in the Gray, a world where the sun had long ago been choked out by a permanent, soot-thick sky. In the Gray, "light" was a resource, mined from the bioluminescent veins of deep-earth crystals and sold in heavy, lead-lined canisters. In their place stood a towering structure of