The Last Days: A Solaria Galaxy story

Chapter 12

Jael stirred, hearing faint voices around him. His eyes snapped open. He found himself in a bed, and he forced himself to sit up. He realised he was in the hospital where the healers worked. There was a healer at the foot of his bed but they were not alone. He already felt there was a rather tense atmosphere. Taphan and Kastell were there. Over to the side Jael saw Seb, and the two girls waiting quietly. Taphan did not seem relieved when his gaze met Jael. He made eye contact with the healer that moved off down the wing, seemingly not needing to be told. It was only then that he noticed Marcus was lying in bed further up. He seemed to be asleep now but Taphan's voice drew his attention right back.
'You know, I should have you and all your friends chucked out you know. There's only one reason why I haven't and that's down to the fact that I respected Soth Seda as he was a good man and he spoke highly of you and Seb.' Taphan started and he was getting into his full flow. 'You brought two witches with you into our city and you did it willingly. They are abominations; they should be killed for it, or at the least, banished for it. That is what we have always done. Fortunately not many people saw it.'
Jael felt his stomach drop. 'How did you found out?'
'When you got attack the two of them came to your aid, and we saw it.' Taphan said with disgust in his voice. 'You deceived me.'
Jael actually felt disappointed that he wasn't able to see it. 'I'm sorry but it was necessary—'
'I don't care for your apologies. I just want to know why.' He commanded.
Jael exhaled. 'A day or two, before I set off here, one of our men ran off the wall, claiming he had seen something. We found him later. Dead. We thought he had been attacked. I saw lights in the forest, something I had scarcely seen before.'
'In daylight?'
'Yeah. Anyway, the thing that caused the lights turned out to be an entity. It had been sealed away with magic. It was something
'What kind of twisted lie is this?' Kastell snorted.
'Quiet, let him finish.' Taphan snapped.
Kastell went silent immediately.
'Anyway, the entity could enter people's bodies and it could share memories with you. I saw everything it had. It saw that every city in the north west had become ruins. There is nothing out there. We could be the last two cities in the entire world now.' Jael said.
Both men looked at each other; eyes widened momentarily and did not speak, at least not straight away. Kastell looked as though he wanted to say something but choose to keep silent.
Taphan instead spoke. 'I've never heard of such of a thing before, but if you say it's true, how does it relate to these two girls?'
'Because they both can use magic and we need all the help we can get against these creatures. We might not win, but we can at least try.' Jael said simply. 'We have to move away from our old views on magic and people who have these talents, if we hadn't killed off and banished so many people for using magic we might—'
'I doubt we'd be any better off. One of them would have just ruled us all like a tyrant and we'd be living in fear.'
'We already all are living in fear without. I don't think it would have made any difference. What happened to the guy that attacked me?'
'You mean Roan? He's being dealt with, that's all you need to know and I'm asking the questions.'
'You're not being honest with me damn it. How do these girls fit into the story? Where did you meet these two girls then? Or were they always in your city? They don't seem to know much about your city from when I spoke to them.'
Jael glanced towards them, hesitating, and feeling reluctant to do it. He called them over and they did so, slowly.
'Tell them the story.' Jael said. 'Right up until we found you.'
Alora began telling it sharing details that even Jael was not aware off such as the fact that their parents had raised them and protected them. He was the one that could use magic and they had trained lived somewhere in the east in a place called Kellos but they had moved there before the children had been born. Jael was not too familiar with it but it was known to be brutal towards people who had magic. They had to leave and managed to narrowly escape their clutches. A group of soldiers had followed them to the next village, and their parents had sacrificed themselves to save them. They were free to travel and they ended up in the village that Jael found them in, and a woman called Chiara had taken them in. Chiara looked after them despite finding out they could use magic, and then the story went on about how it was attacked and how they had heard the wall crashing down, people screaming, the creature had destroyed a few houses, everyone was running even though there was nowhere to go. The soldiers had managed to kill a few ghouls but the creature itself was far too strong. They had only managed to injure it with magic, but it was enough, they then finished off the ghouls.
'We lost so many.' Kastell said, shaking his head. 'And what for purpose?'
'It is quite a story, but that thing escaped, injured. Where did it go?' Taphan said his voice dripping with concern. He was about to say more but someone else entered the room. It was one of the other soldiers. Jael actually recognised him as one of the ones that had approached him at the gate.
'Chief Taphan, sir, we've been interrogating Roan for an hour and he finally started to answer some questions. He said that High Elder Ulric came to their church with his group. Roan was there at the time and spoke to Ulric. Ulric mentioned that he needed something and Roan helped him.'
'What was it?'
That also got Jael's attention.
'Something from the old archives sir. He wouldn't say what it was but he went there.'
'Why? Why did he say it then?'
'I think it was to strike fear. It was the way he said it, he said it with a smirk.'
'The archives aren't in use anymore. Only old relics from a forgotten time. It's been damaged a few times from earthquakes.' Taphan said. 'Is that all? Who is with him now?'
'That's all he said but he is with Orig and Seb right now. There's a group of the church out in the streets again.'
'Do they know about the girls?' Jael said, cutting in.
'Don't think so.' He shook his head and then he added cautiously, 'At least not yet.'
'We need to move then.' Jael said, twisting his body, pushing away the sheets, pain flaring oddly in his side. He saw his boots over to the side and he reached for them, slipping his feet into them. He was still in his fresh clothes so that was fine.
'You should go, if you can stop them, whatever it is their up too, put an end to it.' Taphan said.
'We're letting them go?' Kastell said as the healer returned to the bed.
'Yeah, what else can we do? The only person that will cause any trouble with the knowledge that they can use magic is under our supervision.' Taphan said. 'And it stays that way. No one else can know about it just yet.'
Kastell, the healer and Orig all nodded, giving an affirmative yes. The healer though had more to say.
'Your friend is recovering. He can at least speak again, and is able to see and hear well enough but he is still feeling weak. I take it, that it is something that has happened to him before?'
'He has always suffered with it but it is has never been healed.'
The healer nodded. 'I've made him a drink that will certainly help him. Are you going to let him stay here and rest?'
'Yeah that would be best.' Jael said, glancing at the girls. 'You still ready to leave?'
'Of course. Weren't you listening to our story? We're nearly always on the move.' Eslin quipped.
Jael rolled his eyes. Taphan actually broke a smile just as the healer spoke.
'The man, Roan, he attacked you several times even when you were unconscious, fortunately your friends here stopped him from doing minor damage, you'll just have a few bruises nothing more.' The healer said.
'Thanks for your help,' Jael said, then added, 'for the both of us.'
The healer nodded, a smile flashing across his face.
Jael made his way to the door, with the two girls behind him with Kastell and Taphan at their heels.
Outside was dark, with a gentle but cold wind tugging at him. The moon was just a sliver in the sky, blanketed by clouds. The faint sound of people's voices reached his ears, but Jael could not yet see anyone around. They must have been a few streets away.
'I wish we had more men but we lost a fair number, more than we expected from the village. If we had them still I would have sent them with you. The north gate is that way.' Taphan said, pointing. 'Godspeed.'
'Thanks for your help.' Was all Jael could say before walking off in the general direction that Taphan was pointing.
Jael walked in silence, allowing the girls to talk to each other. They were both talking about their parents, or at least it sounded like it. Jael was too busy distracted with his own thoughts, wondering how Tyra and Materia were doing back home, whether they had made any progress on the archives—though it hardly mattered since he had stumbled upon twins that could use magic, which made a question pop into his mind.
'What's your family name called?' Jael asked, interrupting their conversation.
'Sage. Our mother and father were called, Loya and Gorden. Why?' Eslin said.
'Just wondering.' Jael said, hiding his disappointment. It sounded different to the names that he could remember, like Norand.
At the north gate, there were more soldiers present than Jael would expect normally. There were also soldiers shouting and barking different things, it seemed like there was a commotion.
'What's happening?' Alora said, quietly.
'I'm not sure.' Jael said, cupping his ears. It was hard to hear exactly what was going out but he managed to hear the single word 'mists'. It had to be now and it had to be tonight. Jael thought but he had been through the mists already and survived. It can happen again. 'Mists, they can see the mists.'
'That can't be good.' Eslin said.
'I hate the mists.' Alora said brusquely.
'We can go through them, they seem harmless.' Jael said.
'Maybe for you, but they're very strange. I get a bad feeling from them and I don't know why.' Alora said, and she shuddered.
'Well let's go and see how bad it is.' Jael said and one of the soldiers came down from the wall and started moving towards them. 'What's happening?'
'The mists are out today so I'm getting Taphan and Kastell.'
'Can we take a look?'
He shrugged. 'Head on up.'
Making their way up the stairs, there were around dozen soldiers perched on the wall, some were moving further down the wall, pacing and staring off into the darkness. The mists were definitely out, stronger; Jael could scarcely see some of the trees let alone the road. He exhaled, looking out into it.
It went eerily quiet for several long drawn out minutes. One of the soldiers looked over at Jael briefly before turning back to watch the mists. Jael was unsure what to do and he started moving along the wall, closer to the gate. Near it were two men talking in hushed whispers, he hoped that one of them would be brave enough to open the gates and let him through.
Even before he reached them, the faint sounds of chanting reached his ears. He immediately frowned and looked back towards the city. From this height, he was able to see a group of them preaching in the streets. It was an odd time to be doing it but fortunately, he couldn't make out the words at all.
'What is that?' Eslin said.
'Just some of the religious people—'
'No, not that. That.' She was pointing beyond the wall. 'Is that one of them?'
Jael saw a figure emerging from the mists. A bony slender figure, moving slowly but surely. Then very quickly, Jael saw a second and third appearing. They rapidly picked up pace as more and more emerged, coming towards their walls. In moments there was at least ten of them all there, looking towards the wall. It was very odd, they usually just attacked, tried to climb the walls if there was no way of getting straight in. But they were acting more like an army. Five more appeared, two of which had the soft red menacing eyes.
'What the feck is going on? I've never seen them act like this.' One of the soldiers muttered to the other nearby.
'It's like they're being led,' Eslin said darkly.
Then a loud piercing scream erupted in the night that sent a shiver right down Jael's spine.
'It's here.' Eslin announced and at the same time, Jael saw black shapes and it looked like birds taking flight and the trees started to move. The figure came bursting through the trees, charging straight through the mist, coming fully into view. Jael cursed under his breath. He had never seen something so large before, it was an enormous eight-legged creature, coated in what looked like armour, and vicious pincers and a deadly looking barbed tail at the back. It reminded him somewhat of a spider.
'Fire arrows, or anything you have at it!' One of the soldiers shouted.
The soldiers obeyed.
Arrows, spears and everything else was thrown at it. Some missing entirely but one or two hit, bouncing off its armour.
'It doesn't seem very injured.' Jael muttered, watching it as it came bounding towards the wall. The walls were taller and thicker than the ones of the village but he didn't imagine that they would hold much better than them. The creature smashed head straight into the gate, and everything around it seemed to shake.
'Can you do something?' Jael said, looking towards Alora and Eslin.
'We can try.' Alora said, her voice quivering.
'No promises.' Eslin added.
Jael watched and both girls go to the edge of the wall as the creature scuttled backwards to gather momentum. Eslin raised the palms of her hands and in the air above her hands, Jael saw something happen that he had never witnessed before, blue energy appeared in a ball with sparks like lightning. It drew attention from some of the nearby soldiers, giving her funny looks but they moved off down the steps drawing their blades. Jael became aware he was clutching his own blade; he didn't even remember pulling it from its sheath. He watched Eslin toss the energy ball like someone would toss a ball, straight towards the creature as it came bounding once more. The energy ball skimmed its pincers and hit it in its lower body. It screeched loudly but it did not seem to stop it. It came again and hit the gate a second time. The gate trembled beneath its weight. At least two spears bounced off it and another missed, falling harmlessly to the ground beside it but then they were out.
'Shit, it's not going to hold another time.' Jael cursed, and cursed again. 'If it gets in here, its going to be like the village again
'We're trying.' Eslin said. 'Magic takes energy!'
Alora was doing something similar, yet with her, it was an actual fireball like a mini-sun in the palm of her hand and she threw it just the same, and it hit the creature, flames going everywhere. The creature made a shrieking noise, and it slowed this time. Its pincers were snapping. It was ready for blood. It moved again, scuttling across the ground and slammed into the gate. This time it came ploughing through the gate, part of the wall came down with it. Jael thought he saw one of the soldiers fall with it to his death. Everything turned into chaos. Some soldiers were scrambling to fight especially with the religious protesters in the background not so far away, others retreating and ghouls came bursting through the gap, howling. Eslin tossed another lightning ball, towards the large creature, this time erupted into a blast of lightning at the tail. This time it did seem injured as ooze gushed out of it, causing to screech and it grabbed the first person in reach with its pincers crushing him to death before eating him. At the same time, the ghouls were spreading out into the city Alora launched another fireball, but this time it missed. It exploded on the ground, fire splattering everywhere, but a ghoul went through it, catching fire, howling in agony. It managed to get about three steps forward before rolling over and dying. One soldier sliced a ghoul in half, and killed it, only for another ghoul to jump on him. Eslin sent another lightning ball, directing it towards a ghoul that sent it off its feet, smashing into rubble, head splattering on impact.
'I don't know how long we can go on for,' Alora said, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. She was looking towards Eslin and then towards Jael.
'As far as you can go,' Jael pleaded with them as he started to dart towards the stairs. A thundering detonation made him pause. He looked towards the city on instinct, he saw the creature smashing through a building, and it all came tumbling down. Jael was confused but then the creature came out with another person trapped in its pincers, and someone else staggering to get away. There were still some of the protesters outside, running in different directions, with ghouls giving chase as they spread out into the city. Some of the soldiers fought back trying to keep them away from the non-fighters. Jael saw at least two of the ghouls go down, but one soldier was looking over whelmed as two ghouls came at him. He was shuffling backwards, and the end came for him, so fast. One of them had leapt on him knocking him over and started to feast.
Jael darted down the stairs, one of the ghouls, that was lumbering around spotted him from about ten paces away from the bottom of the stairs. It started to veer towards him; Jael felt his heart starting to race in anticipation. He swung his sword as soon as it came close enough in a high arc, the creature lost fingers in the process with its oozy blood dripping on the floor but the ghoul lunged at him, its breath stank of death. The jaws clicking. Jael slashed his blade though, quick enough to cut the other hand off though awkwardly. Jael then kicked it in the leg that sent it sprawling backwards as it lost balance. Jael followed it down then grabbed it by the back of head and then slammed it against the side of the wall, smashing it several times into the stone until it was dead. Jael took a step away from it, catching his breath.
Soldiers were still fighting but Jael guessed nearly half or more were dead It had happened rather quickly. Jael spotted Taphan, Kastell and others in the distance engaging with the creature itself. It looked injured, as there was a few spears sticking out from its body. Some of the soldiers were still killing and avoiding the ghouls at the same time, though there number was decreasing.
'I think we can kill it,' Alora said over Jael's shoulder. Her sudden voice jumped him. He turned seeing both of them stood on the steps a few feet away from him.
Jael gathered himself. He saw there were still some ghouls in between them and the creature trying to kill of a few stragglers that had survived the initial onslaught. Jael darted away from the steps, clutching his blade. He'd only gotten about five paces, when he drew the attention of one of the nearby ghouls, that was of course coming for him.
'Jael duck!' Eslin shouted.
Jael threw himself to the ground immediately, a smaller lightning ball zapped overhead, and careened straight into its chest, exploding into blue sparks that burned its flesh, it keeled over onto its back howling. Jael forced himself up and finished it off with the blade to the head.
'Thanks,' Jael said to Eslin, brushing himself off now.
She responded with a smile. 'It was no problem.'
In the distance, Jael saw the large creature scuttling after someone, before disappearing from view with buildings obstructing his line of sight. He could certainly hear it though.
Taphan was shouting orders when Jael came into range, other men were following cautiously, but the creature was starting to rampage through the rest of the city. Another loud crashing sound boomed in the air.
'We think it's injured...hopefully it won't take much more to kill,' Taphan said panting. He was holding back with two others, while Kastell had been one of the men to follow.
'We can help, we've got some energy left,' Jael said.
'Do it, throw everything you got at it. We're gonna clean up the rest of the ghouls. Think there's only a few left.' Taphan said. He nodded over to the two soldiers and made their way towards the wall, while Jael, Alora and Eslin followed the sounds of screams and destruction.


Indeed, the creature had managed to leave a path of destruction in its wake, bloodied bodies, of both soldiers and anyone else who happened to be in the way, but also a number of smaller buildings had partially collapsed, or entirely. It had certainly made light work of it.
How does it just keep going? Jael thought as spotted the creature down another road. He could just about see it was fighting against the beast.
'All attack at once!' Kastell roared as Jael approached. Four soldiers were still standing, including Seb. It was the first time he'd noticed Seb was even here. The creature stabbed a soldier with its barbed tail, the man staggered backwards. At the same time, Kastell stabbed a spear in its side, the creature making that odd shrieking noise again. Alora and Eslin used their magic again, both of them releasing their energy balls, one at the tip of the tail that erupted in flames and the other along its back as Kastell pulled away, to the side. The creature swung around in fury and stormed towards them. Jael brandished his blade holding it in both hands.
'Do your magic!' Jael shouted.
'Trying!' Alora shrieked.
Then Kastell came back lunging into its path, the pincers snapped at Kastell, cutting his leg causing him to scream. 'Do something!' He shouted.
Jael started to charge but someone beat him to it, plunging a blade into its side as did a second blade, and a fireball finally shot overhead. It gave one last cry, before collapsing, releasing Kastell of its grip, but it managed to knock him backwards. He winced in agony but he did not seem to mind too much. It was finally dead.