Rise of Aen (49 page)

Those left nodded their heads in agreement, but it was Lyxia that had truly listened to the Empress’ words and perked up quickly. She waited impatiently for the others to take their leave before looking for clarification on what she had heard and jumped at the chance the second the rest were out of
earshot.

“You said ‘is a creature’, what did you mean by that?” she asked as her heart nearly jumped out her chest with hope. “Is Aen still
alive?”

“A creature like Aen is neither alive nor dead; he just exists. I am glad you chose to listen to my words because they were said for your benefit. Never before has something like him existed, and such an event as we witnessed—no matter how deadly it would seem—could extinguish a light as strong as his. He chose to do what he did to end the struggle that had begun with his birth; a struggle of those who wished to use his power for their own means. That struggle would have increase a hundredfold once those in the Empire were involved. So he confided in me his plan to die, and take the weapon away from those who meant to use it. Aen is still out there, and when he is ready to be found, we will find
him.”

Tears flowed from Lyxia’s eyes and Iana embraced her sullen champion. Lyxia’s destiny was intertwined with Aen’s as much as her heart was making this whole ordeal taxing on her. These tears would help alleviate some of those pent-up emotions and help her become able to function at her role as a Council for the Empire. So Iana held her and said nothing as she cried, no further words on the subject could help her now. Aen was lost, but definitely not forgotten. He had earned his rest so she would leave him to it for now, but soon she would reach out to him and try to bring him back for her visions of the future told her that they would need him much sooner than she would
like.

Epilogue

The frozen wind howled around him as he suddenly sifted through some strange memory of snow from a child’s life. Overly dressed in warm clothes and trudging through snow banks with a sled in tow, sticking his tongue out to catch the falling snowflakes and smiling all the while with true and innocent happiness. He asked himself, Was this my childhood? Was I ever a
child?

Watching the dream play out, he witnessed the true joy of a child at play. He felt the cheerfulness envelop him as the child romped into drifts of snow and charged up a hill to replay his thrilling ride once more. Once at the top of the snow covered hill, the child jumped on the sled and with a squeal of joy raced down to the bottom! It was a feeling of happiness that filled him as he watched, but it was not a dream he could hold on to for any
longer.

The dream faded and reality crept back in as he felt the cold gnaw at his skin, but no adverse pain because of it. The wind howled and added to the bite of the bitter cold, but to him it was only a sound. He felt the ice on his body and face, built up to the point where he could no longer open his eyes, but he didn’t care. He was at peace, and although he couldn’t remember how he got here he was certain that there was no rush to go anywhere. His mind flipped back and forth between memories from a life that he couldn’t place and the reality of the cold
darkness.

Thoughts were fragmented, coming and going in a dizzying dance. Try as he might to figure out why he was here, he couldn’t—hell he didn’t even know his own name at the moment! He remembered a fight—no, it was a war—and he had fought against beings of metal and flesh. He remembered the searing heat of being hit with a weapon of some sort, but had no recollection of how he
survived.

Then it occurred to him that he might be dead; that this was his punishment for his sins in life. It seemed unbearable to think that he would be stuck between reality and dreams for eternity, so much so that he dug deep and fought to open his frozen eyes as the peace he felt a few moments ago faded quickly. Pain shot through his eye sockets as he heard the cracking of the ice as it began to give way beneath the increased pressure. Then, it gave way and his eyes opened in the dark. But it wasn’t dark; or wasn’t as dark as he thought it might be. There seemed to be some sort of illumination in the wreckage that surrounded him, a bluish light that moved along with his head. Then it hit him, the light was coming from him! What was he? Who was he? What kind of creature could light up the darkness with his eyes? Questions swam through his head as he struggled to stay in the here and
now.

Trying to concentrate, he began to piece together the puzzle that lay out before him. Using the light he was exuding, he studied his surroundings to try and put it all together. At first, it was difficult to make anything out in the darkness—it was all covered in ice and snow. Then as he looked closer, he began to make out shapes that looked familiar—the cyborg beings from his nightmares! Their corpses were scattered about the wide compartment he was in, many disfigured and torn apart. It was obvious that they died in whatever incident brought them here. Whatever it was, it had obviously been an explosive end to an epic
battle.

He recognized that he was inside of a ship of some sort, the walls and general structure thoroughly destroyed as it lay open to the elements of this hostile and frozen planet. Some more flashes of broken memory hit him; memories of unheralded power within him that held off the scores of aliens that lay in this makeshift crypt around him. He began to concentrate on this power and felt his heart begin to churn once more. Warmth began to surge inside his body, moving out from his core and slithering out to his extremities and began to chase away the cold that he had felt for some time now. Then he became aware of a new sound, one that broke the monotony of the ever-blowing
wind.

At first it sounded like glass breaking, but soon he was able to turn his head as it freed from the ice to see the true source of the sound. As his body heated from within, the ice that entombed him began to melt and drip off him as it fell to the ground. However, being as cold as it was on this planet, the droplets refroze immediately after falling from him and struck the ice on the ground, shattering upon impact. It amazed him that he could produce such energy that this scene could be
possible!

Waves of steam rose from his body as the outpouring of heat intensified. At first, the extreme cold resisted his efforts, but it could only fight the inevitable for so long. His body was now super-heated, and the layers of ice began to liquefy and large chunks began to break away with resonating cracks that echoed in the chamber. These ice chunks began to fall away, crashing loudly on the floor beside him as more and more of his body began to be exposed once
more.

Soon he was free from the ice, and able to stand on his bare feet. As he rose, a device that had been attached to his back fell away and he felt it pull from inside his body as it did. He stood in the tattered remains of some type of armor; it felt familiar yet he couldn’t remember why. His head hurt and he wasn’t sure if it was from the trauma over this crash or the constant push to remember the events that led up to it. Ambling through the wreckage, he slowly worked his way to the exterior wall to exit as he made sure his footing was secure before taking each step. The groan of stressed metal added to the howl of the wind, along with the crack of breaking ice beneath his weight. Upon reaching a great tear in the wall, he braced himself against the remnants of the hull and pulled himself through the opening to pear out. To his shock, what he saw was the last thing he
expected!

Instead of a landscape of snow and ice, he saw the mangled and frozen interior of yet another ship; this one with a much different structure than the one he was exiting. The interior, although heavily damaged from an obvious explosion, was massive and seemed to go on forever in a conical design. Exterior walls looked to be miles away, but they too had torn open from the event that brought it here and dim light shone through along with the blowing ice and snow. Looking to the rear of his ship, he could see an entry wound of the other ship’s hull where his ship had obviously torn through. He lifted himself out of the hole he was perched on and fell down to the snow drift that had accumulated below with a soft
thud.

His body ached as the cold once again fought back from whence he had driven it; his body too tired to keep up with the assault he had used to free him of his icy chains. It bit and clawed at his body, but while he was aware of the pain and soreness it brought he realized that it did nothing to slow him down. Lying there in the snow at the base of the first ship, he fought the urge to just quit now and return to his slumber. He was exhausted; every small effort seemed monumental in scope. But instead of giving into the growing temptation to throw in the towel, he slowly dragged himself to his feet and took stock of his new
surroundings.

Looking upwards, he realized that he had fallen nearly fifty stories to where he now stood; it hadn’t occurred to him that it was that far of a drop until now. To his left was twisted metal of the main impact of the two ships colliding. There were unrecognizable corpses scattered in the wreck; arms, legs and a few torsos stuck out from the heap in a ghastly scene. To his right was the exit from this hell, but it was up quite the incline that reached nearly the entire height at which he had fallen with the wind driving down at him the whole way. In the far distance was the main source of light from the hole in the hull above him as it pierced the darkness that held him tightly to show the way out. Again he needed great effort just to start walking, but one foot after another he began his
escape.

Once again, his progress to the way out of this wreckage was slow, each step calculated and cautious as what lay beneath the fallen snow was unknown. Up the glacier sized drift he ascended, wondering the whole time how long he had been here, as this much snow and ice compacted this hard would take much more than a few days to shape. He tried to keep his mind focused and sharp, but found it difficult to cling to consciousness as he passed out several times—falling into the reoccurring dream of the unknown childhood. Each time he awoke from this unintended slumber, he was buried in the snow; becoming one with the hill he sought to climb and wondering how much time had passed since his eyes closed. Days, weeks, years, he had no concept of how long he had been climbing to free himself of this frozen tomb as he inched ever closer to the
top.

Now within reach of the exit of his new hell, he once again he slipped into the unintended bliss of his dreams. This time however, the dreams were not of the child in the snow; this time they were of a breathtaking woman with eyes of fire and hair to match. She stood away from him, with her sheer robes flowing in a light warm breeze that his skin could feel as well. She had taken no notice of him—she was occupied in conversation with another striking woman. Voices had an echo to them; as if he was hearing them from within a hollow tube. The second one turned towards him and though she didn’t see him her face struck something deep inside
him.

“Lyxia,” he called out, her name appearing on his lips before he could ever think of what her name might be. The woman stopped, her face showing great confusion as she searched for something she obviously couldn’t see. She had heard his cry for her and he strained his voice to call
louder.

“Lyxia,” he croaked once
more.

She covered her ears and ran with tears flowing down her cheeks. The blue-haired beauty that he wanted to hear him so badly had run off, leaving only the regal presence of the flame-haired Goddess. This one stood still for a second; craning her neck as she too was listening to something she shouldn’t have been able to hear. Where was this? Was this real or a dream? Then the woman turned towards him and looked directly at him, her eyes piercing his very
soul!

But instead of speaking, the woman just smiled and reached out to touch his face. The second her hand made contact with his skin, his eyes shot open and he was back in the world of ice and cold; once again partially buried in a drift of snow. His mind was sure what just happened wasn’t a dream! Somehow he had connected to this woman across who knows how far of a distance and reached out to another who he only knew a name
for.

“Lyxia.”

Once again, just the mere thought of this being brought her name to his lips. His heart raced at the thought of her, her brilliant blue eyes called out to him in their sadness. There was something about her that touched his heart; something about her made him want to get up and keep
going.

With a great push of his will, he resumed his now crawling ascent. Inch by inch, he closed in on the half mile wide hole in the ship’s hull. Fifty meters away, then forty, thirty, then after a quick lapse into near unconsciousness it was a short ten meters away. The drift had leveled off at this point; the surface smooth as the wind roared and blew hard at this point. He struggled to stand, but with determination he leaned into the gale winds and let it hold him upright. Once on his feet, he could finally see what this planet’s surface had in store for him as he trudged forward to the edge of the
wreckage.

It was as desolate as desolate could be; a barren wasteland of rock and ice as far as he could see. There was a long trench dug in to the ground that reached back to the horizon; the result of the obvious crash that landed the two vessels upon the planet. The upper ridge of the trench was a greyish, brown rock while the basin was quickly filling with snow that drifted in some parts right over the ridge. It was plainly obvious that it had been months, if not a year, since the crash as that large of a trench would take that long to fill. It was a revelation that dashed his hopes a bit; a rescue would have abandoned its efforts by now with no results. This place was his home now and there would be no one coming to get
him!

Looking back at his new home, he began to study it further from his perch up high. There was no trace of tracks anywhere; even though the wind would have covered them quickly there would be some kind of activity on the surface. He was alone here; he was the only living creature on this frozen rock. Further reinforcing this was the distant speck of light in the sky; the host star was no more than the size of a pebble as it shone in the darkened sky. As he scanned the horizon to his left, it was something unexpected that shocked him and left him in
disbelief.

Looming in the sky was a gas giant with its purple and auburn clouds swirling manically around its atmosphere. Storms created lightning which rippled through the thick clouds and arched outwards. It dominated the skyline with its dancing and colored clouds; he was obviously on one of the giant’s moons in orbit around it. The planet was so large it filled the entire sky to his left from horizon in front of him to horizon behind. He could see other moons in orbit around the monster planet; all held by their master’s gravity. He could make out small debris of rock and ice in orbit as well and as it stretched away from him he could see it made up a small in scale ring around the giant planet. The view was breathtaking, so much so that he forgot where he was and lost balance; falling down from the tear in the hull over a hundred feet to the ground below. With a thud, he landed in the snow at the base of the wreckage on his back with his head slightly propped up against the ship’s hull at an awkward angle. Pain racked his body and forced a scream from his mouth; it was a low and primal as he growled at the universe itself for his suffering! His body and mind were exhausted now; there was nothing he could do to keep from slipping into unconsciousness now. Tired and weary, he closed his eyes and drifted away as he gave in to the never-ending push to resume his
slumber.