All Light Will Fall
Read All Light Will Fall Online
Authors: Almney King
ALL LIGHT WILL FALL
Copyright © 2015 by Almney King
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by
Sakura Publishing in 2015. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
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prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief
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addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Sakura Publishing
PO BOX 1681
Hermitage, PA 16148
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Editing by Derek Vasconi | Cover Art by Rania Meng
First Edition
Print Edition ISBN-13: 978-0-692-33779-0
Print Edition ISBN-10: 0692337792
I would like to thank God for the persistence, the creativity,
and the confidence to share this novel with others. I thank Him for blessing me
with a powerful mind and giving me the strength to meet this challenge.
I would also like to thank my family for all of their
encouragement and constructive criticism in the writing of this novel. They
really helped me push through these past few years, encouraging me to create an
original work that I can be proud to share as an author. Even though I strayed,
lost my confidence, and felt completely burnt out, they pushed, and pushed, and
pushed. Thank you for believing in my gifts, and thank you for being, as
Celeste says in the novel, “the stars to my wandering.”
Lastly, I would like to thank my publisher, Derek Vasconi, for
his guidance and for his patience. Through his criticism and faith in me as an
author, I was able to create a novel completely my own that reflects who I am
as an individual. While the editing process was long and challenging, I must
admit that I have become a stronger and more developed writer than ever before.
Thank you for all of your honesty and hard work.
I DEDICATE THIS NOVEL TO THE YOUTH. THERE IS NO VICTORY WITHOUT
THE BATTLE. LIVE, LOVE, AND LEAVE A LEGACY.
Chapter Twenty-Three Damnation
HELIOTELLUS
I live in a perfect world. There is no reason for fear. There
is no need for rebellion. All troubles are absent. All evils are vanquished.
This is my home. This is Earth. The world has been reborn. The citizens of old
America have life anew. There is only the future. The old ways of tyranny and
war have gone. No one speaks of those days, but no one can forget either. It
will never leave us. It is a part of us.
It took years for peace to return, decades of sacrifice and
violence, but humanity survived. After an era of pain and self-purification,
all of our fear waned away.
The rebellions, the wars, and the killings became one
endless and chaotic blur. No one knew how it began. Some claim that it started
with a beam of light, a bright explosion that stretched across the earth. It
was horrifying, and with that rolling red thunder, death took up the throne of
our nation. Empathy was lost. Peace was forgotten. We were no longer human. We
were tyrants, beasts of greed and pride.
The riots, executions, and civil injustice carried on. In
2052, the nations disbanded. Treaties were broken. Promises were neglected.
Bitterness boiled between the border lines. It was hatred that led us there, to
the hand of darkness. And we dwelled there for a long time, knowing nothing but
despair. Our hearts were closed. Our minds were numb. We picked up our weapons.
We launched our missiles.
War was inevitable. It was nature. We craved for war and
welcomed it into our houses. We slept in bed beside it, dreamt of it, and
whispered its name in our sleep. There was comfort in war. We knew of nothing
else.
War was our way of life. It was our fathers who created it.
We merely watched, and when we too, grew old with time, it became ours to bear.
History became tragedy. Tragedy became routine. Routine
became instinct. We were animals—violent—corrupt. We were mindless and empty.
We were lost.
Then he came. In the final hour of the darkest day, he came.
The people called him the Nazar. He was our salvation, our new beginning.
The Trinity Wars left nothing to salvage. Our world was a
tomb, a crater of clay and ash. But where the people saw ruin, the Nazar saw
rebirth. Like a mighty titan, he took up the nation and through his love and
strength, it bloomed.
The people who followed him became the Ardent. The people
who did not became the Defiant. And the Defiant would not relent. They saw no
freedom under the law of the Nazar. Many resisted, and those who rebelled were
slaughtered or exiled to the outskirts of the country—to Sion.
As the years passed, the Nazar built us a nation. Helio
Tellus, he called it. It was a nation of power, of perfection. It was the one
and only stronghold; built on the western shores of old America.
The people pledged their allegiance, and in my innocence and
pride, so did I.
IGNORAMUS
“Stop! Stop that delinquent!”
“Stop her! Someone stop that citizen!”
I couldn’t breathe. The city air was heavy with chemical,
stirring fire in my chest.
“Don’t lose sight of her!”
Three other civil order officers joined the chase, cutting
off my escape route on the right. “To the left! Move it!” the officer shouted.
I had to hurry. The shuttle home wasn’t far off, but Alta Zeda would leave
soon.
“She’s getting away!”
It seemed like the world was breaking; heaven and Earth
blending into one. I raced down a crowded street. People were pushed and thrown
aside. I glanced back. The officers were closing in. The black shine of their
helmets bobbed through the crowd.
I stopped suddenly in the street intersection, letting the
people close in around me. When it was clear, I shoved my way onto the
crosswalk that led towards Alta Zeda. I moved slowly, cautious of the two
officers standing watch overhead. Two others were below me, another making his
way onto the crosswalk.
I wondered where Ellis had gone. We were separated back in
the Z-Zone where the authorities had caught us sneaking to the gate of Norris
Tower. This was forbidden. After the Trinity Wars, the Ardent built an energy
field around Helix City. They said it was for our protection, to shelter us
from the impurities of Sion. But Ellis wasn’t convinced. Ever since his brother
had turned and became a Defiant, his beliefs began to change.
Ellis and I had been friends for years. He was like a
brother to me. We had the same ideals, the same tenacity, and the same
passionate will. I knew all that he was. At least, I thought I had. As the
years slowed, he began to see things. He began to wonder of the true nature of
the world, and in that curiosity, he began to question it. He became someone
else. He became like his brother, stubborn and rebellious. He was always in
trouble with the law, and I was always right alongside him. I would follow him
anywhere, without truth, without question. I trusted him, but I was also scared
for him.
Ellis worried me sometimes with the way he spoke. He would
get so frustrated that his face would darken and his body would shake. He
criticized the Nazar often and cursed the system. His opinions were borderline
treason.
Whatever we were told, Ellis denied it. He believed the
energy field was an excuse for segregation; the Ardent on one side, the Defiant
on the other. Ellis said it was the Nazar’s way of maintaining power. He said
it was the Nazar’s way of concealing the truth. The truth was his to control,
and whoever controlled the truth, controlled everything.
“I see her! There!”
I was running out of time. I had to move faster. I stopped
at the intersection on Zerr Street. The shuttle was just across the bridge, but
it was too late. The authorities had me trapped. “Don’t you move!” The officer
held me at gun point. I searched for a way through, but I was surrounded. It
was over.