The Rise of The Powers vol. 1

Chapter 9: Ruins of Aeden

Chapter 9: Ruins of Aeden

"Duke! Duke, wake up!" I slowly opened my eyes. A bright morning light cast down into the hole from far above. Lilith was looking at me. "We need to get out of here. Now. Before the final sunrise."

"Final sunrise?" Lilith didn't stop to explain, she was already slinging on weapons and tools that certainly hadn't been there the night before. She handed me my blade and pointed to the name.

"Maybe someday you can tell me who she is, but now is not the time."

"Listen, Lilith-"

"Quiet." Lilith was listening intently on something above. Voices. The Shae.

"What should we do with them?" One asked.

"Eternal tahamquen?" Another one offered.

"No, let's have Nyx decide, he's the best at this. Besides they can't escape with those thorn, collars one. It's impossible." Their voices faded into the distance as they walked away.

Lilith laughed. "Think again losers." I could just barely make out in the dim light of the hole her swinging her collar around her fingers. "No one can imprison a Power." When she saw my expression she stopped laughing and muttered, "Not that I like being one of course." She stepped towards me and said, 'Well let's get yours off." She pressed her fingers on my neck and muttered something under her breath that I couldn't comprehend and within milliseconds my collar was off.

Satisfied with her work, Lilith smiled. "Now, let's get out of here shall we?" Lilith grabbed my hand and we were hurtled into darkness.

I woke up in a very different place than where I had been before. Lilith was standing a couple hundred feet away. I slowly stood up and surveyed my surroundings. We were in a city of some sort or at least what had used to be a city. It looked as if this city hadn't been occupied for years. The buildings were corroded with neglect, moss and weeds growing through the cracks in the pavement. The trees and grass were years over grown, the windows had all been smashed, trashcans were turned over and I could almost detect dead bodies laying around. And we were most certainly not in the desert anymore.

I walked over to Lilith. "Where are we?" I asked.

Lilith turned to look at me. "We're in the Ruins of Aeden." When she saw my blank expression she shook her head, but continued. "The City of Aeden was where all different types of Shae combined, it was the only place. The Shae at the time where omnipotent over humans because just about twenty years earlier they had attacked all the surrounding human cities and left them to burn. Some humans escaped however, but not much. The humans were angry, seething, they hated the Shae and they wanted their power back and they wanted it now. So they planned an attack on the City of Aeden, which was the Shae's main headquarters. Without it the Shae would crumble."

Lilith paused and opened her mouth as if to say something, but then decided against it. "That night Edinite led an attack on the City of Aeden he wiped out almost every Shae that lived there and led separate attacks to other smaller Shae cities. The Shae were defeated. Their main center in ruins the humans rose to power again, but not in the way they had been before. Edinite herded everyone over to where The Empire is now. He thought that having everyone in one place would make it easier. The Shae kept it low they were the ones now afraid. No one known had seen them since you and I saw them today. They were known to have gone completely extinct. They obviously didn't. They're not done though. They're obviously alive and thriving. They're waiting for the day when they rise to power again and they're in no hurry. After all they have all the time in the world."

"Was Edinite the first Power?" I asked. I had always wondered that I wasn't sure if last names had existed back then.

"No, Edinite had his ancestors. After all, last names were started after the Shae's first rebellion against the humans. The humans wanted to be as different as the Shae as possible, so they invented last names."

"Oh." We walked in silence for a while. Trudging around what used to be one of the best cities in Alembria, which was now just a pile of forgotten rubble.

"Why do the Powers and Partials hate each other?" I asked. It was something that had been bothering me for . . . well as long as I had been with a soul and known about all these things.

Lilith looked at me, interest and surprise flaming in her eyes. "I know many things, Duke. Things that very few people know, that have been forgotten through history, but that is one of the few things that I do not know."

We walked in silence again. The broken buildings illuminating ominous shadows on the old and forgotten roads. Nothing stirred. Nothing moved. There was no wind. There was no sound. The only movement, the only sound came from Lilith and I, like we were the only people left in this whole twisted world.

Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw something flicker. It was a small and subtle movement, but I saw it. It happened.

"Lilith, look." I pointed towards the building where I saw the movement. Lilith opened her mouth as if to say there was nothing there, but then in the old and broken window came the shape of someone or something and he was pointing an arrow right at my face.