The Never Ending Tails

The sun was falling over the great city of Washington as it had so many times before. It was a warm day of summer, but with uncanny grey clouds that covered the sky the whole day. They only stopped filtering the solar aster when the golden disk fell down over the horizon, letting go of a strange illumination, shades of reds going from dark crimson to light pink, an explosion of warm dimmed light.

The red waves of the falling sun felt on the Silver keep, the official palace of the high order of the moon. On the balcony of the highest steel and glass tower; someone was leaning over the edge, lost in the vision of the dying sun. It was the most important person on earth in that current year 202 of the Silver calendar. She was none other than the High Silver queen, Frederica IV, the regent of human kind and the highest political authority on the planet.

The wind came disturbing her silent sight, toying with her silky brown hair. It made her silver crown move sideways freeing short wicks of hair dyed silver; the official color of the faith and order of the moon. She didn't really feel the disturbance of the wind as her mind was miles away from such trivial happenings. Her jade green eyes were lost in the diffusion of colors produced by the falling sun.

She sighed as if she was carrying the faith of the world on her shoulders. Never had this statement been so true. She had to make a very drastic decision, a decision that would change everything she ever cared for, everything she wanted to keep...

She knew ages ago that the day was to come, but now that it was there, she felt all the pressure of the situation; however, she needed to take the final decision and go on with Project 'Prime'.

Her face got paler at this very thought, but she couldn't let her emotions reflect on her appearance, so she got control of her reaction, switching back to a wondering state. She couldn't stop herself from frowning a little bit though.

"Erica ! What are you still doing here?! The high council is already gathered at the moon chamber, stop zoning out!" A voice said from behind her.

The person who was talking in such openness and authority to the High Silver Queen was the High Silver Priestess Arianna, also called silver edge by some behind her back. The nickname was a reaction to her very direct and intuitive speech. Arianna was very slender, with long golden hair dyed silver at some extremities. Her face was serene but her wide blue eyes had something lethal.

Arianna and Frederica were the same age; both of them twenty. Both of them have grown together when they were chosen for their future tasks as babies. The designation of the silver queen and silver priestess is random, but they are trained for as long as they can remember which make them at the end the best to fill those positions.

Frederica tried to hide her disappointment from her friend, but she already knew it would be of no use.

"I needed to take some air before the meeting." She said.

"You are against it, right? But you know we can't change that… right?"

"I don't care! I will do what I have to do..."

"If you say so."

"I am the High Silver Queen of the sacred order of the Moon Arianna! I can't put my own selfish wishes before the good of our society. We have come so far since our ancestors, the great sisterhood of old has founded the hidden faith of the moon, and has sworn to bring men down, and to put an end to their tyranny, to kill the patriarchy, and for once give us women the lead. We flew high above men with our determination; we changed the tides when the order of the moon became the center of all power on the planet. We won."

"But at what cost? Men are dying out; soon enough, they won't be any left if you don't do what you have to do."

"Don't they deserve to disappear? After all they did to us, after thousands and thousands of years of misery!"

"Are you hearing yourself?! It is the only thing to do, by doing it, we will give the filthy gender the final blow, a last reminder of what they used to be and what they have become."

Frederica couldn't hold her tight control anymore, her face frowned in sadness. She whispered:

"But Arianna...Could I really do that? To him from all people..."

"You can't change that Erica... It hurts me as much as you, but we are the will of the people; we are the wings of the silver falcon, and it can't fly to its right path without us leading it where it needs to go!"

"It's Sélas we are talking about Arianna. We knew him all our life, he has always been there for us, he rightfully served as the Golden Paladin, our own personal knight Arianna! The person that swore an oath to protect us as long as he would live! Would that even matter anymore after we take action?"

"Something happened recently? Right Eri? Something that I am not aware of yet."

Frederica blushed; she couldn't stop the flow of memories invading her mind; a stolen moment, a moment that she shared with the knight that she knew since birth; a break in the thread of duty and roles, and a second of bliss.

She felt a spark going through her skin when she remembered the contact of his skin against hers, and that kiss, that sole kiss that they had. She felt that that moment had passed like an eternity. So much held feelings have been released through that lone kiss.

She remembered his warmth as well, the fire burning inside him that he was always hiding away. But she also remembered all the fear and confusion. She was the Silver Queen and Sélas was her Golden Paladin; that romance could never be, she asked him to stop.

She saw the surprise and the deception in his eyes for a second, but it all vanished swallowed by the depth of his pupils. She remembered him getting on his knee and saying that sole sentence: "For you my queen, I shall do anything." before he completely switched back to his dutiful self.

Arianna looked at her friend, instinctively understanding what was going through her mind. She chose to not say anything for a moment, letting the silver queen in peace.

“How can somebody live forever, does anyone really want to be immortal?" The silver queen said with sorrow in her voice.

"That's the price men have to pay through their last avatar to be, Sélas’s life will surely stop making any sense after a while..."

Frederica took a deep breath, before whispering to her friend,

"There is no other way Arianna, right?"

"I am afraid not…”

"We will long be dead, both me and you, and he will stay the same, trapped in this life that is not his. He will be so alone…"

"I know..."

The sun completely disappeared dimming the sky in darkness. The dark clouds fell apart letting the full disk of the moon illuminate the sky by its silver light. Frederica and Arianna looked at the astral body for a while before walking towards the room of the moon, without saying a word.

After the meeting was held, the decision was taken. Sélas the golden knight was chosen to be the last man. The superior number of female birth had led to a potential extinction of the male gender and very few specimens where remaining.

Sélas was one of them, and he was to be made immortal through the genetic material of the glitch; a man who first acquired that gift in the 1960s of the fox era but ended up shattering his mind in an attempt to make the world a better place. The order already found a solution for the preservation of the species through selective cloning; the last man would be the eternal bearer of the downfall of men, the eternal living symbol of the falling sun.

The project was to start that same night. Frederica and Arianna visited the installation as it was expected from them. As soon as she entered the room, she saw Sélas waiting there, with a confused look on his face.

When he saw her, she glimpsed a spark in his eyes. She remembered again, but this time, she took good hold of her emotions and so did Sélas, he rose from his chair and bowed a little putting his hand in front of his heart.

"My Queen! It is an honor to have you visiting my humble person."

He turned toward the high Priestess, and bowed again although a little less that time.

"Lady Arianna."

"I am only fulfilling my duty. As you are my Golden Paladin, I need you to know that the high order of the moon is thankful for your contribution in the greater scheme of things."

She felt awful saying that. He kept looking straight in her eyes as he bent his right knee to the ground and said:

"For you my queen, I shall do anything."

He then got back on his feet, bowed again to both the silver queen and the silver priestess, and turned to the door of the room where his life was to change forever. As he opened, the door, he slightly turned crossing the sight of Frederica for a second, then disappeared closing the door behind him.

"The things we do for peace..." Frederica whispered.