The Lands of Light and Dark

'Kindness. The strength of your bond. The care you have for each other will keep the light alive.'

Tev always puts what he deems right before anything else, even himself. A noble trait some would say, and others frown upon it. With that character trait he seeks to correct a mistake: a girl sentenced to exile in the Lands of Dark, from which no one ever returns.

Unable to change the powerful Minister's mind, he shares the fate of the girl and is banished, dragged to the Divide of the Lands of Dark like an animal taken to slaughter.

In the strange land, the girl, Aya tells Tev of a way out of the Lands of Dark, derived from the stolen Book of Laws. They venture to find the landmarks stated in the book, which will lead them to Orta-a doorway back to the Lands of Light.

Along the way they encounter a crystal. Its glow is linked to their bond, and keeps the evils of the land at bay, but the light isn't enough. Tev loses in an encounter with a beast, it bites off his left hand, and is about to claim his life. Aya shines the light in the creature's many faces and they make a narrow escape.

Aya trustingly confides to Tev about her purpose-she had purposefully gotten herself banished in the Lands of Dark to search for her father. She intends to choose death if she fails. Tev returns the trust and vows to assist her.

Aya acts hastily-she becomes separated in a maze of tunnels while they're being hunted by a formless darkness, that consumes all hope and dreams when latches on. Tev eventually finds Aya and discovers her father buried next to her. He manages to convince Aya to give life a second chance.

Finally, inside a hollow mountain, after all the hurt and hardship they endured, they find Orta to be non-existent. A monolith stands in its place. A mixture of despair and anger takes Tev, he feels cheated of his escape and Aya feels robbed of her second chance at life. Aya convinces Tev not to smash the monolith, and at her reasoning they touch the monolith, revealing the story of Tev and Aya's past lives.

We enter a flashback. Taeve (Tev) and his parents are living in temporary housing; he is overwhelmed by burdens and with difficulties, sacrificing his childhood to take care of his elderly parents while maintaining school. He thinks about death more often as days pass by, that was until Aryana (Aya), entered his life. A girl he befriended and soon discovered she didn't have long to live. Taeve's only friend would die and then he discovers his mother had been diagnosed with cancer and her chance of survival is slim.

With the deaths of his mother and Aryana, he can bear life no more. A life without loved ones is no life worthy to live at all, and so he commits suicide.

Tev and Aya discover each other for the second and last time. The Lands of Dark had been pushing them, forcing them to recall their connection. And as the story comes to an end, the mountain breaks and falls around them, leaving only dust to settle amidst the silence.

From the Back Cover
>Unjustly exiled by a powerful Minister to the strange, all-consuming Lands of Dark, the girl, Aya tells Tev of a way out of the lands, derived from the stolen Book of Laws.

They venture to find the landmarks stated in the book, which will lead them to Orta-a doorway back to the Lands of Light. Keeping the evils of the land at bay with a glowing crystal-its light strengthened by their bond, a bond stronger than life itself.