The Never Ending Tails
Dawn before the Symphony

When the Music of Time started flowing in the newly born multiverse, it formed several junction points in the center of the first stars. The first star to receive the flow of time was Arcturus. The giant aster formed a world where a sentient race named the children of time lived; this world was called Arcadia.

The children of time had a very strong bond with the music of time and to some extent could also use the other five elements. They had a natural way with time; however, for void, light and so forth, they used Arcadian artifacts as mediums to channel them.

The children of Time lived in peace for eons, but greed for power started spreading among them. Selfishness grew within the children of time as some of them were seeking more power. Factions appeared and war started in Arcadia; a war like no other where the destruction cost the lives of millions.

After years of annihilation, only two factions remained: The worshipers of the eternal Silence and the Chosen of the Symphony. The first group believed that bending time to their will was their birthright, and started time wars beyond their own world. They possessed weapons fueled with pure Silence to completely erase their opponents from existence, but as the war lasted, they ended up using all the Silence of their world.

The Chosen of the Symphony on the other hand were working according to a different philosophy; they believed that the flow of time was their responsibility and that they were the guardians of its right progression. They worshiped the Goddess of Music and Time and had as ultimate goal to serve her by protecting her element and all the people affected by it.

The Worshipers of the Eternal Silence were more powerful and more spread in Arcadia than the Chosen of the Symphony, and war was quite common between the two; however, both of them managed to keep existing together until the last hours of the planet.

The Chosen of the Symphony also interacted with other worlds, but never for war. They saw themselves as guides for all worlds in their quest of understanding time. They sent many of their kind to those worlds where they Monitored time directly through the Symphony of their stars.

Earth was also chosen to be monitored, and for this task, a young man under the name of Liviano Iskatel was chosen. Liviano was trained during his childhood in the mastery of time. He grew in a temple of the goddess of Time and was raised by the monks. At the age of 15, he was able to pass the highest test of time bending and received Lys, the sword of Light as a reward.

Liviano was quite honored to be part of such a plan, although sometimes, he felt that his life was already set for him, and it frustrated him to have little to no agency in the matter. He always managed to get over of those feelings by replaceing meaning in his role, it was a big responsibility after all, and he needed to fulfill what was asked of him flawlessly.

By the age of 23, Liviano reached the rank of Silver Knight, and his training was almost over. It was around that time that he met the Queen of Years for the first time.

Their initial meeting was in the temple of the Goddess; she was looking at the giant statue of the deity and was standing right in the middle of the room, under the skylight. Her golden hair was shining as bright as Arcturus itself, and her bright blue eyes were lost in the vision of the statue. It was the most beautiful sight Liviano ever had; he completely froze at the sight of her.

She stayed in that state for a moment before noticing him; when she did, she crossed his gaze. His heart started to race, he kept looking at her for a moment before awkwardly disappearing. As soon as he was away, he stopped a moment to rethink the encounter; one thing was sure, he needed to see her again.

His wish was fulfilled sooner than he anticipated; he was appointed to a special program that had as purpose to clarify his future guardian mission on Earth. As he showed up the first time to the meeting room, he was focused on the importance of the knowledge he was about to receive. As he entered, he noticed with a bit of surprise that the girl he saw under the skylight was there. It was strange for him to see her that close. He couldn’t really do or say anything as the lecture was already starting. Liviano did his best to keep in track with what was going on, but his attention was shifting; he knew nothing of this girl; the only thing he learned was the sound of her voice, a sound that seemed like music to his ears.

The second time, Liviano came early; for some strange reason, he felt that he would know more about the mysterious girl with golden hair. His feeling was right as only seconds after he had that thought, she entered the lecture room.

“So many people in here!” She said out of the blue.

“It’s pretty crowded; we can hardly fit,” Liviano responded.

Just like that, they started talking. She introduced herself as Regina Artal, the current Queen of years. She was from a farther north region and came here as a part of her journey to represent the Goddess of Time in other worlds; It was, as she put it, her sacred duty. Liviano immediately noticed a very gentle vibe within her, he introduced himself as well and they started discussing those meetings they were attending; for some weird reason, even if it was the first time they actually spoke, it felt to them like they knew each other from long ago.

Liviano was completely amazed by the Queen of years, he could hardly wait for the next time he would meet her. Things were a bit different though; the following time he attended the lecture he wasn’t able to speak with Regina again, she seemed like a fleeting glimpse of Light, he felt her spirit, heard her voice and saw more of her wit, but it was like an echo coming from far away.

Liviano eventually met her back, and spoke a bit with her, he noticed that she was getting lost due to all the pressure that her role as the Queen of Years was putting on her, especially the new part of her training that was way more confusing than anything she had to do so far. Liviano tried to help, but he didn’t have much to say; he put himself in her position and saw how hard it was. His words only had as effect to confirm the dramatic state of things; he felt awful being part of that negative wave Regina was going through, even while he only stated the facts.

As time passed, the interactions of Regina and Liviano became more recurrent, they started meeting outside the temple’s lectures, and had the occasion to converse a bit more about things out of their usual lecture related topics. Regina was a strong believer in the rightness of the faith’s ways; that peaceful interventions of such were necessary for improving things. However, she was also a free spirit in a way and believed that life should be fun as well; she had something unique, something special.

Around the very end of the training; everything went wrong in Arcadia. The Actions of the Worshipers of the Eternal Silence lead to the end of their world. In an attempt to make more Silence to fuel their weapons, they damaged the Symphony of Time in the center of Arcturus, their star. Time started vanishing.

At that Moment, Regina and Liviano were together; Liviano witnessed something that no one else ever saw. Regina, the Queen of Years Gazed at the collapsing star and sighed before turning to Liviano.

“What must be done must be done…” She said.

“What do you mean?”

Regina just smiled then turned back toward the star in the sky. She then started glowing as Music rose all around them; it was a strange melody that was reassuring and happy, but also troubled and uncertain.

“You must go now!” Liviano heard Regina’s voice in his head.

“Where to? What’s happening?” He asked.

“The Goddess has taken over; time is dying in this world! You must go!”

“Will I ever see you again?”

“Maybe…”

Liviano tried to step forward, but as he did, everything became dark around him. When He got back to his senses, Liviano was lying in a forest that seemed like nothing he knew. Worst, he couldn’t remember any forest. He knew that something very important just happened, but he couldn’t focus on anything. Memories seemed to him like distant blur objects that were very far from his reach. He remembered only three things, His name, the name of the sword he had with him, and that time was music.

‘Time is on my side, Time is music breaking through the silence.’ He told himself.