Children of the Light
Divine kinship means responsibility, not rank
Chapter 218 passages164 words
1After a border war, Darya gathered children from both sides in the same fire house. Each group had been taught that the other had begun the cruelty. 2A boy asked which children Ahura Mazda loved. Darya handed every child a lamp and extinguished the central flame. 3“Now the room depends on all of you,” she said. “Tell me which lamp is foreign.” 4One girl lifted hers higher and declared it brightest. The others copied her until oil spilled and several flames went out. 5Darya relit them. “Light is not a crown. Raise it only high enough to help another see.” 6She called them children of the Light—not because darkness could not touch them, but because darkness did not have the right to decide what they became. 7They repeated: “The Father of Wisdom has no favored orphan. Whoever protects one child protects the future from the Lie.” 8When they grew, some forgot the lesson. The story preserved it for those willing to remember again.