Applegate, Katherine – Endling 02 – The First – Katherine Applegate

endling

noun ~ end•ling ~ \`en(d)-ling\

1. the last living individual in a species, or, occasionally, a subspecies.
2. the official public ceremony at which a species is declared extinct; a eumony.
3. (informal) someone undertaking a doomed or quixotic quest.

—Imperial Lexica Officio of Nedarra, 3rd edition