“But parrots are squaking/ I am summoned/ to shoulder/ this place like a pallbearer.”

–Shadab Zeest Hashmi, Swat

Your world is powered by the “light:” an orb that is kept hidden by the dictator. But recently strange things have been happening. Buildings disappear over night, lakes dry up, people are morphing into bugs. There’s gossip that the light is going out, but no one knows for sure. One day you come home and your mother is talking to a strange woman. She is cloaked in a black veil and many gold chains and necklaces. She tells you that you are the only one who can stop what’s happening. Your mother looks afraid. You want to vomit. You’ve worked at the market your whole life, you have no training in fighting, or sorcery, or anything really. How can you save anyone let alone the world?