Dear future
Look at the mirror

What do you see first?

"The Empire lives! The Empire lives! The Empire lives!" The chants were loud enough to shake the earth. All in the honour of a single man.

Seven months ago...

Farad stood in front of a statue, his eyes looking over and judging every element of its creation, then finally reaching to the conclusion that it was good enough. Faran Aveler did have that solemn expression on his face all the time.

Holding the weight of his sins, he had no one to help him. He was a man willing to go against the gigantic and relentless wave of history, and finally succeeding in redirecting it, by giving away his life. Would he be happy with the Salic of today? Farad asked himself.

Only he could answer.

Farad turned away and saw Walom running towards him. "I..." he said while catching his breath, "... need...some cigarettes."

"Why do you think I would have some?" Farad said with a straight face. Sometimes it became extremely hard for Walom to figure out if he was joking or not. The thought crossed his mind that maybe Farad actually didn't have them, but he was not the kind of guy to think over things too much.

"C'mon man. You wont lose a fortune by helping your friend out."

Farad finally smiled and reached into his pocket. Taking out a box of some Salician made cigarettes. "Barely..."

"Remember the time when I saved you from drowning?" Walom said while moving his cigarette closer to the lighter Farad was holding, "...don't expect that from me again."

"Finally showed your true colours."

Walom laughed. "I see you're restraining yourself from having one. Suddenly lost the urge?"

"Going to meet with the President today."

Walom raised his eyebrows. "Well then, mister clean breath, I hope it goes bad."

Farad looked at the tree above him, then noticed that it was getting dark. "What time is it anyways?"

"Going to be six so-."

Farad ran as fast as he could, "I'll be eating dinner at your place tonight!" He shouted without looking back.

A few moments later he was in the President's room, but the President had not yet arrived. Thank goodness. Only Doroteya and Haeve were present. He greeted them and then sat down, at equal distance from both of them.

For some reason, Haeve was quiet, and so was Doroteya. Farad didn't like to prod so he remained silent as well.

The door to the room opened and Farad only saw a hint of black before he got up. The President was an old man. There was barely any hair left on his head and he required the help of a cane, but he could still fight with Farad and win every single time if he wanted to. He had been in more battles than Farad had read about, and he certainly was the spirit of military might that Salic projected on the rest of the world.

"Sit." He said with a wavering voice. He placed his left hand on the chair and used the other one to give the cane to his servant. With quite a lot of difficulty, he finally sat down. "...you all can see how old I am. And my hands can tell you how tired. Taking that into consideration, I have decided to hold presidential elections in Salic."

Farad imagined spitting out all of the water that he would have been drinking from his hypothetical cup. Doroteya looked like someone had told her that her hair was not done well. As for Haeve, he didn't react at all, except for

"Bu-" He interrupted.

"They will be held in seven months from now." The President didn't let Haeve finish. Aware of what he was going to say. "They will be the first in the history of Salic, but they will have some restrictions. The candidates will be chosen by me. Three of them, to be precise."

Doroteya and Farad looked at each other in complete disbelief, but Haeve was still embarrassed about not being able to state his point.

"Haeve, Doroteya, Farad. One of you will be selected by Salicians to become the next President."

Haeve raised his head, now with a completely changed expression. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were laser focused on Doroteya and Farad. Determined to follow the President's command if he couldn't change it. Doroteya, in turn, was lost in thoughts. Reveling in the fact that what she had worked for, for so long, had finally come into fruition.

Farad was the only one to smile after hearing the news. "Well then, we should start preparing."