The pendulum swings between Light and Darkness, and depending on which side it is when you're born determines whether you'll be born a Light or a Dark.

Lights create life, Darks destroy it.

Darks used to live among us Lights until their abilities were seen as a threat and they were banished below the sea, now called the Kingdom of the Darks. It was the opposite of our Kingdom. It was void of colour, life, love, light.

I'm the princess of the Light Kingdom, but I feel like I'm constantly in the dark. I have no freedom, no voice, no purpose but to support everything my father does even if I don't agree with it. According to my father, my life was always at risk, so I could never leave the palace without at least 15 guards.

For the past 19 years, I'd tolerated it, I'd allowed myself to be suffocated by my father, but now I needed air. I needed to know what freedom felt like, so I decided to sneak out of the palace after dark in a disguise.

I went to the market and was surprised to see it was still bustling with people even at this hour. I bought a couple of artefacts and roamed around before finding a solitary place to lie down and watch the stars. It was so peaceful that I'd even fallen asleep, but when I'd woken up there was an eerie silence that uneased me. I sat up to find the market was empty. I stood, wrapping my cloak tighter around me before making my way back to the palace. I heard footsteps but every time I looked back there was nothing.

I increased my pace until I found myself at a full sprint and—

A dark figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, standing in front of me and blocking my path.

"Princess," the figure bowed mockingly before disappearing and reappearing behind me.

My heart stopped.

He'd just manipulated the darkness, and that could only mean one thing.

"Who are you?"

The man appeared in front of me again, and my eyes trailed down to his neck. "I'm sure you've already guessed."

He was a Dark. Not only could he manipulate the darkness, but he had a pendulum mark on the left side of his neck. We were all born with a birthmark on our neck, if it was on the right side, you were a Light, if it was on the left, you were a Dark.

"How?"

"That doesn't matter," he said. "The only thing that matters is you, princess." He removed the hood of my cloak and grabbed my jaw, "the King has taken so much from me, from all of us, so now I'm going to take you away from him."

His grip tightened around my jaw, and I felt myself growing weaker with every second. He was draining me. I tried to harness my light, to overwhelm him with it, but failed. I'd never been taught to fight a Dark, to call upon my light in situations like this. I'd never been taught self-defence because my father said the guards would protect me, but now I had no guards. I had no one to protect me.

Stars dotted my vision. This was it. I couldn't believe I was going to die. That—

The Dark was suddenly tackled and I fell to my knees, too weak to support myself. The Dark disappeared as soon as it hit the ground, and the one that had tackled him disappeared as well. The Darks were manipulating the darkness as they fought, appearing only to disappear again. I couldn't keep track of their movements as they flickered in and out of sight. My breathing was ragged and slow, and I felt my eyes flutter shut.

It was morning when I woke up. I was in some cabin and I wasn't alone. Before me sat a boy who looked to be my age with cocoa brown skin, short-cropped curly black hair, and light brown eyes. My eyes slowly trailed down to his neck and when I saw the pendulum birthmark on the left side, I screamed, scrambling backwards.

He was a Dark.

The boy snickered, revealing slight dimples, "for the daughter of the King, I thought you'd be slightly more intimidating."

"Who are you?" I demanded.

I half-expected him not to answer me, but he said, "Aryn, and I'm not going to hurt you. I need your help."

"Lights don't help people like you," I spat.

Something unidentifiable sparked in his eyes. He stood and approached me. I shuffled backwards until my back met the wall. He was taller than he looked, and had an athletic figure. He stopped before me then bent down, focusing his eyes on mine.

"Careful what you say," he threatened, streaks of dark matter curling around his fingers. "I could kill you right now."

I gulped, my heart beating tenfold but still said, "I won't be any help to you if I'm dead."

His jaw tensed visibly, but he grinned, revealing his dimples, "at least you're not completely a coward."

"What do you want?"

He sat before me. "You're going to help me reunite Darks and Lights."

Despite the situation, I couldn't help but laugh. "And why would I help you do that?"

Aryn crossed his legs and interlaced his fingers, "do you know what goes on outside of the palace? What happens in all your villages? No, you don't," he answered the question himself. "Because you're pampered and ignorant."

"Excuse me?"

"Were you aware that Darks born in your Kingdom are killed?" He asked, "did you know that for fear of more Darks escaping, they kill the babies rather than banishing them beneath the sea?"

"That's a lie."

"In the Dark Kingdom, if a Dark gives birth to a Light, their child will be at risk," he continued. "We don't execute the baby, but they are likely to be killed before they even turn one because of what they are. Your Kingdom won't even take the children born as Lights just because they came from Darks."

"No," I breathed.

"This division is killing so many lives."

"No, you're lying, my father would never allow that," my voice broke, tears threatening to spill.

"Your father is a King who doesn't care about his people," he said with disdain. "He keeps you locked up, not to protect you, but to stop you from learning the truth about him and the Kingdom."

"That's not true."

"He knows that if you knew, you'd stand against him and want to make things right."

"No."

"He knows that you have values and morals, unlike him."

"And how do you know all of this!" I demanded. "You expect me to just trust you?"

"I mean, I did save you."

"That could have been a set-up."

He grinned again, "at least you don't believe everything you're told." He stood, throwing me my cloak and putting on a cloak of his own before heading towards the door, "follow me."

I put on my cloak, followed him and couldn't stop the gasp that escaped my lips at the sight before me. The people. The dirt. The poverty. Everyone was thin, starved. Some were idle, some were searching for food in the most unlikely places. They all wore rags, ripped and worn. Their homes were as tiny as the cabin I'd exited, and there were also tents made of plastic.

"This is what most of your villages look like," Aryn told me. "This is what your people go through."

"Why are you showing me this?"

"Because you're the only one who can make a change."

"I can't do anything," I admitted, tears blurring my vision.

"You can. Your father tells you to be silent, not to speak up. Well, forget about all of that," he told me. "Do not be silent. Raise your voice. Be a light in the dark."

"I can't change this!" I shouted. "If what you said was true about my father, then he won't hesitate to kill me, and now I know that Darks want me dead too. And even if I could change anything, Lights and Darks hate each other, they'd never reach peace."

"They would, eventually," he hesitated but placed his hands on my shoulders. "There are too many innocents dying not to at least try."

I lowered my eyes, "but I'm not a warrior, I'm not built for this. I'm just Jemima."

"Courage does not always roar. Valour does not always shine," he said, reciting a famous saying. "You may not have physical strength or armour, but you have heart. All that matters is you, Jemima. Work on yourself and everything else will come together. There are good Darks out there," he gently wiped away my tears, "not all of us are bad. So please, help me bring things back to the way they were before, to a world where Lights and Darks lived together, to a world where a mark on your neck didn't doom you."

More tears surfaced but I made my eyes meet Aryn's, and I was surprised to see so much determination and concern in his eyes.

In this short period of time, Aryn helped me realise what it was I truly wanted.

I wanted to be a light in the darkness.