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Dedicated to @Prisim for the amazing cover <3

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Leah probably shouldn't have been out in the ruins so late, but this tunnel was just too good to miss.

Something about the way the trees had grown caught her eye, and after a careful investigation, she'd found the dull crystalite of ancient Radiant walls. The tunnel itself was overgrown, just like everything else in these ruins. Teridian trees were tough, just like their people. They grew over everything and anything, and it made Leah's job a whole lot harder than it needed to be.

Still, she had the tool to deal with it.

Sort of.

Leah drew her Hilt and hardened some of her stored Light into the sword's usual curve. It wasn't ideal for hacking away at plants, but the shards of crystalite in the Hilt made sure the Light would stay hard until she was done with it.

The blade cast strange shadows around her in the twilight air as she cut herself a path into the tunnel, which was surprisingly stable. Squeezing through the plants, Hilt up high to illuminate the space, she allowed herself a moment to take it in.

It looked like some kind of room, to what, she didn't know. After months of excavating them piece by piece, she was starting to suspect these ruins were a temple from a time before the parasite had ravaged the Radiants and they were still trying to 'convert' the Teridians. Though most of the corridors and walls were covered in thick roots that would take her days to get through, there was a mural on the wall she could get to--one that was mostly still intact, its surface protected from the weather.

Telling herself she still had time, Leah carefully made her way over to it, barely able to resist bouncing from excitement. Bouncing was bad, she told herself. Bouncing had brought down the last tunnel she'd found intact, almost over her ears.

The mural itself wasn't anything special, not like the last one she'd found and spent three weeks piecing back together. That one had shown pictures of Radiants, clearly identifiable with their brightly coloured hair and crystal-imbedded skin, performing some kind of ritual on what could have been a Human or a Teridian, she didn't know. The Radiants of old hadn't bothered distinguishing between the two races for a long, long time, which only dated these ruins back even further.

Still, Leah hardened a tablet, well aware of her dwindling Light, and quickly etched the purely decorative scene into its surface. She'd found that even the smallest details could help give context, help understand the ways of the old Radiants, and maybe, just maybe, somewhere in their depths, she'd find the answers she was after.

A cure for the parasite that was slowly killing her race.

Speaking of which, her father was going to murder her for getting back this late with so little Light left. With the tablet tucked protectively under her arm, Leah made her way back up the tunnel with her Hilt held high, stumbling over more than one stone and stick in her haste.

Night had conquered the twilight when she reached the surface, and Leah threw her hands to the sky.

"I was not down there that long!" she told no one in particular. A familiar chill ran up her arms. The chill didn't feel like a frost, but unless you were a full-blooded Teridian, you didn't risk it. When you had as much Radiant blood as Leah did, you were inside an insulated house before the sun went down if there was even the slightest chance the frost could hit, which she wasn't. "Don't you dare drop the frost on me this early in the cycle, Teridia!"

Leah released the Light from her blade, leaving only the smooth metal of her Hilt once more. With so little Light left in her heart, she needed to preserve it for emergencies. Instead, she called on the Light stored in the smaller crystals imbedded into her skin, good for nothing but illumination thus perfect for her situation, and ran.

She knew this uneven ground well and barely faltered in her steps. Hours of physical training--her father's requirement for her solo expeditions to the ruins--kept her breaths clean, and soon enough, she was within the walls of the village. A few more minutes brought her to the front of her house.

She pushed the door open slowly, praying to the Light of the Sun that it wouldn't creak.

It did.

"Leah?"

Leah winced as her name echoed down the hallways in her father's voice. "Yes?"

"Come into the sitting room. We have a guest."

That was the last thing she was interested in, if she were honest. She wanted to go up and make a more permanent copy of her tablet, compare notes--she had so much work to do. An entirely new wing of the ruins, ready to be explored!

Leah exhaled and turned towards the voice. "Coming."

The guest wasn't a Teridian like she'd expected. Instead, the bright, tell-tale colour of a Radiant's hair peeked over the top of the armchair, the clink of their finer dinnerware in their hands.

Curiosity piqued, Leah edged around, bringing herself into view.

Her father didn't look exactly impressed. "You're late, Leah. It's dark."

She didn't have an excuse for that. "I know. I got distracted."

The Radiant in the armchair placed his tea aside and laced his fingers together delicately. Leah had almost forgotten people could move so gracefully. Her father never bothered, and she was usually too busy in the ruins to care.

"So you're Leah," said the Radiant, smiling. "It's nice to see someone so enthusiastic about their work. My name is Asriel, and I'm one of the lead researchers for the League of Light. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He held out his hand.

Leah almost dropped her tablet.

"You're from the League?" she said, hardly able to believe it. "I--how? Why are you here?"

Asriel seemed amused. "Well, you, of course. You were the one who sent back the research journal with one of our members who was recently out here, were you not?"

She'd made that thing in a week. A week of writing until her wrist nearly broke, trying to compile her months of research into a readable, coherent format in the hopes that the League might be interested, or at the least be able to tell her if she was in the right direction. "Yes, that was me."

"We were quite impressed with the level of detail and the pains you went through to gather the information," said Asriel. "I'm guessing you're currently covered in dirt and leaves because you were out in these ruins your father was telling me about earlier?"

Leah looked down. There were more than a few places where a branch had snagged her clothing. "Um, yes. I was in the ruins. I found another tunnel with a mural still intact, and I was a little distracted."

"May I see?" Asriel took the tablet, taking a minute to look over her work. Leah had to keep reminding herself to breathe. "Interesting method, etching it into the Light. Not permanent, but the detail is exquisite."

"I copy them over to paper when I get home," said Leah. "Do you have any idea what that mural might be of?"

Asriel tilted the tablet, finger tracing a long, curved edge. "It's a common mural that was often on the walls of ancient Radiant temples dedicated to the sun. They were supposed to bring prosperity to a land, but the ancient Radiant's worship of it was a little... excessive, as you probably know"

"Oh." A Sun temple? Leah tried not to let the disappointment show, but from the way Asriel was looking at her, she wasn't succeeding. "I thought I was on to something when I found the first mural. It didn't look like anything usually on the walls of a sun temple. They're usually very similar, aren't they?"

"Yes, well," said Asriel, his mouth thinning for the briefest moment before lifting back into his patient smile. "I'd like to see the ruins for myself before I leave, if that's at all a possibility?"

So that was it. He'd come to check the ruins. "I'd be honoured to escort you there, Asriel."

He bowed his head graciously, pale blue hair shifting around his face.

"There is another reason I came," said Asriel, casting a sideways glance at her father. From the look on his face, they'd already discussed whatever it was. "Seeing as your ruins are most likely a sun temple, we feel that someone of your passion is being wasted out here in Teridia. You show a lot of promise, so we'd like to extend you a formal invitation to join our research team at the League of Light."

Leah almost died right there and then.

"You want me to work with you?" When Asriel nodded, her eyes went wide. "Then yes, of course! I'd love to join the League and--wait, you're okay with this, right dad?"

He just smiled. "Like I could stop you even though I want to. Although, you'd better not let your Light run so low when I'm not--"

"I'll recharge first thing in the morning, promise!" said Leah, placing a hand over the large crystal imbedded in her chest. "This heart will be so full, you won't be able to look at me without squinting!"

Her father just rolled his eyes. She asked Asriel a few more questions--what she could bring, what she should expect from the league, when they were leaving--all of which he answered with that everlasting patience of his before excusing himself to sleep. Radiants rose and set with the sun, especially within the League, he said.

Leah's head was still whirling as she made it to her room and started to trace the mural from the tablet to something more permanent. Her hand shook so much she had to start over twice before getting something she could be proud of--that the League could be proud of.

They wanted her to work with them. With the League's research team, closer to the ruins of the Radiant's ancient homeland, with books and people that could teach her the things that her own education had skipped over, her dream might just be a possibility. She'd have the resources, the knowledge, the team behind her. More than ever, her dream was within reach, a reality, one that was setting in the back of her mind with each heartbeat.

Leah was going to find the cure for the Radiant's parasite.

She was going to save them from the Lightless.

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A/N - Another year, another NaNoWriMo! I had trouble finding an opening chapter for this story, hoping it'll be a little easier once I'm in the swing of things.

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. PLEASE. ^_^ I'm pretty excited for this story, Leah's not really like any other MC's I've had before, so it's going to be interesting.

Wordcount: 1,780