Until The End
After the sun and the moon vanished, after the gods died, she persisted. Holding together the shattered remains of her home for as long as she could. But she could not revive the dying world, only give it one last breath, one last century. For the world she was born into was never hers.
He had kept his distance, kept his word. But now, as the end neared, he could hold back no more. He crept through the deserted halls until he found himself facing two large white doors. For a few moments he simply stood there, tracing the embossed Sun and Moon with his eyes until he worked up the courage to open them. The stale air rushed out eager to escape the tomb it had been sentenced to by the rooms sole inhabitant. There she sat, as she had for the last hundred years, at the foot of the twin thrones. Her horn lit with that same magenta glow as she gazed intently out the hall's grand windows. As he approached she didn't seem to take notice of him. Not until he took a seat beside her and spoke did she break her silent vigil.
"Why do you remain? Why do you persist?"
She turns to him, her eyes tired but still bright as they had always been. "This is my home. This is my life."
"I could take you away, to a new world. You could build a new life. Your own kingdom. You don't have to die with this one."
"I may not have to, but they do."
"......"
"And I'm determined to ease their suffering until the end."
"Is that what you truly believe you're doing? Your false sun only gives false hope. Your stars, ungrantable wishes. Is slipping slowly into oblivion with a liars smile upon your face so much better than being taken there when your name is called, even if that name is painful to hear?"
"I truly do not know the answer. But I must try. This is all I can do."
"...... If it is your wish to remain until the end then I will not argue."
"Thank you."
"But I will not let you die for another's mistakes. I will return for you when the time arrives."
"......I will be waiting."
He contemplates leaving but her resolve in the face of such crushing defeat stops him.
"I am truly sorry that you have chosen to endure this."
"I have chosen freely to experience this."
Her stubbornness reminds him so much of his own. Visions, memories of his own world burning before his eyes dance across his mind. For eons he bounded between realities convinced that if he just kept moving then the pain wouldn't be able to catch him. A smile plays across his lips. But then he found this world. How alive it once was. It frightened him and enthralled him. But alas, his anger go the better of him. He tormented it for daring to exist in the void that he once called home. In the end it defeated him, twice, and taught him that life has meaning. He only hoped that she would understand that lesson better than he had.
"She told me, when I came back for her near the end, that I would one day do the same for you."
"She knew you would want to save her, she knew she couldn't be saved."
"That didn't stop me from trying. Didn't stop you from trying."
"I had hope then as I do now that they did not die for nothing."
"As do I"
A calm silence fell between them as the waning sunlight dims an indistinguishable amount more. He raises to leave but she pulls him gently back down.
"Please stay just a bit longer."
"As you wish."
Her voice cracks. "I tried for so long to bring it back."
"Everything has its time. Worlds come and go, but what they leave behind is just as important as what they lost."
Tears trace lines through her fur as she gazes over the broken land. Her eyes locking onto the ruins of her home burning bright against the dim horizon. She grimaces in pain and the light flickers for a brief moment.
He closes his eyes. "Remember it as it once was. Vibrant and full of life. The sun shining in the midday sky."
Her eyes flutter closed. "The laughter of foals playing. The smell of fresh grass."
"The cool moonlight bathing the land in its pale beauty."
"Lightning bugs flitting in and out of existence as their lights speak to one another."
He opens his eyes once more and takes in the view before him. At one point in his life he would never admit that destruction could carry its own beauty. But at that moment it was undeniable.
"The past is precious to us. But let us not forget the present."
With a little effort she reopens her eyes. "I will cherish them both for as long as I have them."
"That's what she would want."
She looks at him, curiosity burning in her eyes as it always has. "Why do you remain?"
"This world was her home. This world was her life. I will not abandon it, not again."
"So you've changed your mind?"
"It was never set on anything else." He says a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth.
She nods returning her eyes to the horizon. Her faithful recreation of the night sky peaks out over the fading sunlight as the world slips quietly into twilight.