The Never Ending Tails

Since the dawn of mankind, humans always tried to figure out the meaning of their world. They developed science for the sole purpose of continuing the quest of knowledge, and religions in order to reassure themselves. This strange mixture of changing and unchanging believes made them reach certain answers; what they failed to notice is that their world was older than they imagined. With each thing they learned, they discovered a million other still far from their reach.

Some believed that before the universe, only void and silence prevailed; then at some point for some unknown reason, light started to appear in that chaos shining through the void. The first Lights to appear were thought by many to be the stars. This unlikely mix gave birth to so many things that it is impossible to grasp them all.

Time broke through the silence under the shape of the origin’s music; a melody that never stops and brings motion to everything.

Chaos was also believed to be one of the first elements of the universe: the element of uncertainty. In this mass of things that humans failed to recognize was their own ability to shape the chaos.

Without knowing it, they were able to manipulate another element of the universe: Order. This order was realized through the control that humans had over the chaos of the universe and was far greater than the mere control that they believed to have through their actions.

Through the element of order, the world changed several times; it existed under the guidance of the time watch, a whole earth with its own history, slightly close to this new one. But then chaos took back it rights and came the time of the world modern world. This world knew many human perturbations as well; it knew magnificent moments such as the global empathy of 1969, but also moments of justice like the rise of the order of the Moon. But justice run its course leaving place to a serious turn in the very nature of humanity. The balance was brought back again under the eclipse around 2215, and the world seemed to be finally at peace, but was it really?

The knowledge of Order end up reaching humans, but those who knew were hidden in the shadows for centuries; it is only during 2229 that one of them finally took action. He was known as Master Sadar Shims; his origins or past whereabouts were unknown to most.

The rare people who had the chance to meet him described him as a quite young man for his reputation; they say that he always wore a long black trench coat, and a green fedora. Under his hat they saw short wicks of white hair which would normally indicate an advance age; however, in the case of Master Sadar, they all swore that he had the face of a thirty years old at maximum. They also said that he had child’s eyes of a strange golden color, but that his words were the words of a man who lived forever. Some said that he was an immortal just like Simon Dice or Sélas Prime, but no one could really tell for sure.

Panchi Svazada was a brilliant young girl from India; she has always been considered very beautiful by her peers, but failed to give any kind of attention to herself; it was this natural nonchalance she was irradiating that gave her all her charm.

She had long wood brown hair that was getting clearer as it goes. It had the potential to be perfectly straight if she just cared to straighten it, but she never did; the result was a lightly curly mane that was particular to her and her alone.

She had a peaceful face, although sparks could be seen in her ebony eyes. Panchi was neither too long nor too short; her skin was lightly tanned giving the impression to shine like waxed bronze.

Panchi has always been very keen of science; she was very brilliant in biology and pursued her higher studies in California in the High Institute of Bio-Engineering. By 2229, she was a highly respected Bio-engineer; she wrote a big number of influential articles and gave lectures in many universities while she was only twenty six.

Panchi met the mysterious Master Sadar during a conference about the potential dangers of mass bovine living tissues for the consumers, she was about to leave when she noticed that the only other person in the conference room left was a shady man with his face hidden under a fedora. Without think twice, she walked towards him.

“Sir! The conference is over!”

The shady man stayed still. Panchi didn’t know what to do with him; after a second, she reached for his hat. She was eager to see how deep this man was sleeping. As she touched the fedora, the hand of the stranger grabbed hers. She lightly screamed, surprised.

“You shouldn’t touch others’ belongings when you think they are in a deep sleep young girl.”

The voice of the stranger was incredibly calm; like he had seen the whole ordeal coming before it even happened.

“Well I told you that the conference was over. It’s your fault if you weren’t listening.”

The man let go of her hand. As Panchi stepped back, he got on his feet. For the first time in her life, she felt small and helpless.

“I was listening the whole time; brilliant presentation by the way.” The man said taking off his fedora and finally showing his face.

All Panchi’s anxiety disappeared as she crossed his golden gaze.

“Who are you?” She asked while still mesmerized by this strange coloration in the stranger’s irises.

‘Is he even human?’ She thought while thinking that such eye colors doesn’t exist. It was clear it wasn’t color contacts, she could recognize those any time. ‘Who the hell is this man?’

“My name is Sadar Shims; I am afraid there isn’t much I can tell about myself; I give my privacy the highest importance. I believe that a scientist such as you would understand my point” The man said.

“A private investor!” Panchi said sure of her guess.

“Quite close, but not exactly that.” The man said with a warm laugh.

Panchi frowned, she felt awkward. Why was she even feeling awkward? That rarely happened to her before.

“I am a sort of researcher as well” The man said. “Not exactly a Bio-engineer, but my specialty extends to that field as well. After all, Chaos and Order alter pretty much everything.”

Panchi started thinking fast; ‘was this man for real? Chaos and Order! who study that?’

“What kind of Chaos and Order are you talking about? Scientific, Economic, Social?”

“Multiversal” He simply answered.

“What? Like in quantum physics?” She asked again.

“That and even more!” The man responded.

Sadar Shims stopped looking at the young scientist and looked at a golden watch he took from his trench coat.

“I am afraid I must leave for now, but!”

He reached for another of his pockets and took a small memory drive.

“You’ll find out about my field of study if you check those documents. If you are interested in learning more about it, I’m sure you will.”

He reached again this time for his upper pocket and presented Panchi with a sort of professional card.

“Once you feel ready, just use the card; I’m sure you will know how by then.”

Panchi lost herself in her thinking, by the time she got out of it, she found the card and the drive in her hand, and no sign of the mysterious Sadar Shims.

Two weeks after this bizarre encounter, Panchi resigned from all her teaching contracts, and stopped all her Bio-Engineering research to get enrolled in a new PhD in History of religion at UCLA, California.

A sermon was hold at the High Church of the Eclipse in Rome. The church was like a modern Babel tower, all made in steel and violet glass. It was so Big in fact that the mighty Museum that the Vatican has become seemed quite small in comparison.

At the center of the church, in the highest level, all the important actors of the world who were members of the church-and they were almost a thousand-were gathered in a large disk formation. The glass on top of them was open in the middle and replicating the form of a solar eclipse. In the middle of the disk, on a slightly elevated platform, the priestess of the day was speaking the words of the eclipse.

“Long long ago, when the world was still young, the sun rose upon us, bringing us heat and light. The sun guided our lives and soon became our god. Men Worshiped the Sun and declared it as theirs; they started the age of Foxes! They burned women down and were cruel to them for eons; but women never really bent the knee, they started the secret faith of the moon and under the shadows of the night, they plotted against the foxes! After a long and tiring struggle, the foxes ended up nearly disappearing as the moon was rising, and with it, the mighty silver falcon. A new age started where the foxes paid for their misdeeds of the past. The world finally reached a balance with the actions of the immortals, and peace finally reigned among us with the eclipse!…”

The sermon went on like that for ours, and no one showed any sign of tiredness, everybody was irradiating peace, tranquility, and especially happiness; true happiness that can’t be faked.

Among the thousand people gathering, A young man was standing at the very limit of the disk, avoiding contact with anybody around him. His name was Mark Ensis. He was the second heir to Marcellus Ensis, a very well-known and respected Astrophysicist. Mark was 24, and a full time member of the church of the eclipse, even though he rarely talked to anyone.

As the church wasn’t really stipulating any kind of religious outfit for the sermons, Mark was wearing a Black jean, A light blue T-shirt with a white sword shape in the middle, and a black leather jacket. His half long black hair was partially hidden under a dark mustard baseball cap. The cap was partially shading his face, but under the shadow he had vivid brown eyes that seemed to see through everything around. His face was a bit long, but sharp and he had what seemed to be a week old mustache and beard.

Mark wasn’t feeling well that day, he had been out the day before with some friends, and ended up drinking until down; ‘not really the smartest thing I’ve ever done’ He thought, but if it was to be repeated, he would do it gladly again. He excused himself near the end of the sermon, and quietly broke the disk without any one really noticing. A minute later he was throwing up in the church’s bathroom.

“I’ll repeat yesterday night, but totally with less booze,” he said to himself out loud between two barfs.

“Wise words my friend,” said a voice from the outside his stall.

Mark took some toilet paper and wiped all remaining traces of barf from his face; it took him a little while due to the dry residue on his beard. Then throwing the pieces in the toilet, he flushed and waited for a moment. When he was sure that the stranger was gone; he finally opened the door of his stall. He passed his head out first to check if the stranger was still there, but he saw no one. He took the time to refresh and took a few mints before leaving the bathroom. As he was walking out, a voice rose behind him.

“Feeling better?”

It was the same voice Mark heard just a moment before. He instantly turned facing it source; it was coming from Sadar Shims. The mysterious Sadar was wearing his trademark black trench coat and green fedora.

“Mr Ensis, Mark Ensis I presume. My name is Sadar Shims.”

Mark stayed silent as his eyes were quickly scanning the stranger. After a little while, he finally spoke.

“Are you here for the sermon Mr Shims?”

“Not really, I know enough about the church of the eclipse, a sermon would only be a repetition of an already acquired knowledge.” The stranger responded calmly.

“So you are not a believer?” Mark Asked.

The stranger started laughing and laughing.

“Something funny about our faith?” Mark asked innocently.

“Not at all; I am truly sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I do believe in fact, but I do believe much much more than the teaching of the church of the eclipse alone,” The stranger apologetically responded as he stopped his laughter.

“Are you some sort of theologian?” Mark asked, suddenly invaded by a wave of curiosity.

“Some might say so, but my area of expertise is much larger!” The stranger answered.

Sadar took a little memory drive and a card similar to the ones he gave to Panchi, and offered them to Mark.

“You should look up the information on the drive, I am sure you will find them very enlightening! Once you do, you will want to recontact me, you’ll need to use the card for that effect. You will know how by then. Well, I don’t want to seem rude or anything, but I must be on my leave.” Sadar said.

Without adding a word, he quickly vanished before Mark could even notice.

Two weeks later, Mark Ensis stopped going to the church of the eclipse, and started what his father tried to convince him to do for ages: getting enrolled at the High Institute of Quantum Physics in Geneva.

Panchi Svazada and Mark Ensis were the only disciples Master Sadar Shims ever took; their contact with the master changed their lives in ways they never imagined…