Daylight's End

        The Solari marched decisively, heading to the Temple of The Sun. The crimson light of the late dusk reflected on her armor and colored her long curls in a ruby red. Soon, she entered the Temple, and wandered around the familiar corridors. Her steps led her to her final destination, the Main Room.
        "Ask not the Sun, why she sets. Why she shrouds her light away. Or why she hides her glowing gaze..." a familiar, yet still captivating, voice echoed in the vast hall. A voice the woman expected to hear.
        "When night turns crimson, gold to grey...I knew you would be here, Diana." Leona continued.
        The other lady was standing in the middle of the Room. She was also in full armor but hers seemed almost otherworldly, as if it was tainted with blood. into the clear scarlet light of the sunset. Her white hair, a pale white, though blood-stained rose. Her dark eyes were its thorns.
        "You still remember the song, Leona?" the fallen Solari asked, but it was more of a statement than a question.
        " 'Daylight's End' How could I forget? The Solari elders insisted it was heretic, yet you would sing it everyday." Leona answered reviving common memories of the recent past. A past that seemed strangely distant. Back then, Leona was just a Rakkor girl that narrowly escaped the claws of Death. And Diana was still a Solari.
        "Maybe that's why I liked it that much, after all. Heretic, just like me." Diana added and in her frozen, decisive eyes a hint of irony appeared. Irony and cruel bitterness.
        "Back then Diana, you were not heretic. You were different. You were my friend." Leona responded, bitterness and sadness imminent in her voice. The image of the young, beautiful, blond Solari with the dark captivating eyes and the most passionately convincing voice she had ever heard still lingered in her mind. It was her Diana.
        " You were different too Leona. But now you are nothing better than them. Blinded by the Sun you worship. Just like them." the other woman said. In her voice anger was struggling to find a way out.
        "Just like the Elders you killed?" Leona asked.
        "After they sentenced me to die. And after you did nothing about that." Diana's words were, at least part, true but she didn't spoke them as an excuse. Leona could feel she didn't regret a thing. Not even how much she had hurt her.
        "How could you say that? I did everything I could, I defied the people that saved my life. The only reason I wasn't condemned to join you in death were my powers." now Leona felt fiery anger inside her too.
        "The Chosen of the Sun... You still play your role pretty well Leona. Ever after all this." Diana answered, her face turning into an emotionless mask again.
        "It isn't a role, it is solely who I am. Who I have always been." Leona admitted.
        "You were allowed to be yourself. I wasn't. I am the Chosen of the Moon. But I have to carve my own way through blood and death. Not everyone is as lucky as you, Leona." Diana added.
        "I made my choices." Leona said referring both to her childhood in Rakkor and her training with the Solari. She was only 15 when she chose to be killed rather than kill. And she was 20 when she witnessed her dearest friend choosing the opposite.
        "I made mine too." Diana responded. She had spent her entire life avoiding decision making, hiding behind the clouds just like the Moon in a storm. But when she finally stood for her beliefs there was no going back. Nothing could stop her, just like the orbiting moon. She had no fear.
        "Why are you here Diana?" Leona asked though she already knew the answer. Diana wanted to see the Solari fall just like the Lunari did. In the same temple, under the setting sun, Leona's alleged ancestor denied the darkness and defeated the previous Chosen of the Moon.
        
        "I would ask you the same thing." Diana responded.
        "To finish this."
        "We agree on that."

        Diana rose up and drew her scythe, unleashing a powerful attack. Leona used her shield to protect herself from the rapid hits. Diana was quick and lethal but Leona's steady defense was impenetrable. The fight seemed like a well-synchronized dance as both women knew each others fighting technique just like their own. Back in the day, they would train under the same setting sun until they lied unable to breathe anymore.
        "For silent falls the guilty sun..." Diana kept reciting with bated breath.
        "As day to dark does turn." Leona continued only to let the other warrior finish the verse.
        "One simple truth she dare not speak: her light can only blind and BURN!" Diana almost screamed the last word and threw Leona back with her attack. The Solari stood in her feet again.
        "I didn't come to fight you Diana." Leona said, trying to catch her breath.
        "Then what did you come for?" Diana was confused but avoided to express it.
        "To end this." Leona answered calmly and dropped both her shield and sword. It was neither surrender not defeat. It was her choice, once more.
        "If my blood will end your crusade, then I will die here." she continued. It was the choice she had made long ago still a Rakkor. Pay the blood of others with hers.
        "Then fall on your knees." Diana ordered cold and certain. The light of the sunset was now pale and surrounded by obscurity. The shadows on her face were darker and more threatening. Diana expected and desired a fight. But her lust for revenge was more blinding than any light. Absolute. The Lunari were to be avenged no matter the cost or the means.
        Leona didn't hesitate a second. She fell on her knees, her amber eyes still remained locked onto Diana's nocturnal gaze, without a hint of fear. Only sorrow. This woman standing in front of her, deadly like the shadow of death himself, now an executioner, was once her most loyal friend. And she couldn't but feel guilty. Diana was the one that approached her in her darkest hour, her time of need, and showed her the path to the sunlight that soothed her pain. The Elders might have saved her life but Diana had saved her soul. She ignored her own pain and suffering, to ease hers. And Leona felt most guilty for ignoring it too, until it fed on secret and denial, like a beast devouring who her friend once was. Diana might have never been a true Solari. The power of the Moon was deep within her heart. But she didn't have to discover it this way. She didn't have to discover it alone. The was room for both golden and silver light in the sky. Both days and nights in one's life.
        But now it was over. Leona could reminisce all the mistakes she had ever made, but she chose not to. Her last moments were too precious for that. She just wondered if in some hundreds of years, a girl of the Lunari this time, would miss the sunlight she hides within and finally discover Leona's armor, still tainted in her blood, to revive the ancient worship of the Sun.
        "The Sun always rises." she thought calmly. But did she really want it to rise again?
        "Blood will be spilled on both sides. It already has." she realized. She didn't wish to stain her hands with the blood of innocents. Not again.
        "I only wish my blood to be the last to be spilled."
         Diana grabbed Leona from her honey brown curls and pressed her scythe onto the back of her neck. The Solari felt its frozen embrace and realized it could slice through her neck with ease.
        "Forgive me, my Sun." she whispered in a silent prayer.
        "I was not your Chosen one." she added and more guilt filled her, bitter like a poison in her veins.
        "No mercy for the guilty." she ended up whispering, condemning her own self, as a tear fell from her golden eyelash. The sun reflected onto it, and Diana noticed. She had to take a deep breath to smother her emotions and continue the words.
        "Bring down the lying Sun. Blood so silver, black by night. Upon their faces pale white." she continued and slid her scythe along Leona neck, enough for a creek of warm blood to flow onto her back.
        "I know how the song ends Diana." Leona interrupted, pleading for only one thing: some moments.
        "Just let me say one last thing: I never lied to you." she continued referring to a specific verse of the song, aware that she might be speaking her final words. But she was not scared. She was sorry. Sorry for putting Diana through this. Because in the eyes of the fallen Solari, for a split second, she saw hesitation. Hesitation and a silver tear.


        Cruel Moon, bring the end.
        The Dawn will never rise again...