8. King of the cursed city

The people of Aldra spent a day and a night gathering all their livestock, food stores and anything else that could be carried, they salted the earth on their peak and sabotaged the stream that came down the mountain to make sure no one could inhabit it after them and they wouldn't consider coming back. Everyone gathered, just over 4,000 men, women and children, all wrapped up and bearing something from their home, this would be a difficult journey and many would not survive to reach their goal. Aeoran looked at each of them individually and committed their faces to his memory, he had his doubts but his gut feeling and the whisper in the back of his mind assured him he was making the right decision. Alrean was strapped to the primarch's back while his mother bore the full weight of his father's pack, she gave her son a reassuring smile while Alrean pat the primarch on his back as they turned towards the path in to the mist. Aeoran took a deep breath and started down the path.

The journey to Old Solra was hard, just as hard as was expected, many of them succumbed to the dangers of the mist and what the survivors saw there would haunt them for the rest of their lives but Aeoran fought with all his fury to make sure that no one died needlessly. The trek in to the city was the hardest part, beasts attacked them at every turn but not once did they faulter and soon they reached the city centre.

Aeoran had killed more beasts in the last hour than he had in his entire life but the sight of the great temple invigorated him and everyone else as the primarch cut a path through the horde of beasts so his people could flee in to the safety of the temple. He held them back as the last of his people made it to the steps and as he too back up the temple steps he noticed that the beasts slinked away, almost like an invisible barrier forced them back. Aeoran ascended the steps and looked out to see all the beasts steering clear of the temple, his mother was right, they would be safe here.

Of the original 4,000 that started the journey only just under 3,000 remained and they had to abandon many other things along the way. The people of Aldra finally relaxed for the first time in days as they swept the bones of the dead out of the way, built small fires to light the temple and settled in to finally get a good night's rest. Aeoran walked through the broken doors of the temple and looked at his weary people finally resting, he searched for his mother and soon found her at the back of the temple in front of a shrine to Aeoran but she wasn't focused on the shrine. Resting in a gouge cut in the temple floor was a metal pod, it had not rusted with age and looked much the same as it did when first found.

"This is where you came from" Elia said as she felt her son approach, "Your father said you fell from the sky"

"So those doors are your fault?" Alrean asked, leaning over Aeoran's shoulder to see the capsule

Aeoran looked at the pod transfixed, it was strange to see the object of his birth and it made him question his purpose here, who had sent him and why? Why to this planet and why make him land here? He saw the II etched in to the pod, he wondered if he was the second the who was the first and where were they? Where they on Solaero as well, waiting for him to find him, was there a third or fourth or even fifth.

As Aeoran thought about that a memory surfaced of a time before he came to Solaero and he remembered seeing the essences of his brothers. He remembered the turbulent sea and a whisper in his ear, the first time he ever heard his instincts and foresight manifest. The pushed the thoughts of his past away and focused back on his mother.

"This thing might have given birth to me but you're my mother" Aeoran put a hand on his mother's shoulder and led her away from the pod

The people of Aldra took advantage of their safety and made up for the sleep lost during their trek. After a day everyone was gathered, the temple provided shelter but they could not live here forever, there was no grazing land for their remaining livestock or land to grow food, they needed to take back the city but fighting all the beasts out there was not possible even if they had 10 times their number.

"What now?" some demanded to know from their leader, "Have we come here just join these bones?"

Aeoran didn't know what to do; they couldn't make a life in the temple, they couldn't take back the city and they certainly couldn't return to their village, Aeoran knew they were supposed to be here and they could survive but the question was how. They debated for hours but nothing came of it, they were stuck here and there was nothing anyone could do. They had about a month or two of rationed food and they could start slaughtering their animals but they would succumb to starvation soon enough.

Aeoran sat at the back of the temple staring at the pod that had birthed him, he ran his hand over it as memories of a cold turbulent ocean surfaced and he was reminded of his time before Solaero. His mind was troubled with the problems of his people and he didn't have the time to deal with such things, it had been a week and they managed to gather more food by sending out hunting parties but the beasts were making it difficult. The primarch hadn't actually slept since the betrayal and he was starting to feel weary, his subconscious whispering at him to lay his head down and rest.

Sleep

Rest your head right here

A voice whispered in to his ear and Aeoran listened, as he often did to the voice. For the first time in close to a month Aeoran put his head to the ground and closed his eyes but as he was drifting off he felt something, there was a low rumbling in the ground, so low that his enhanced hearing only picked it up after putting his ear to the ground, there was something beneath the temple.

Behind the shrine

Aeoran jumped up, his gut feeling guiding him, as he ran behind the shrine to the legendary mist king. He moved his hand over the wall until he felt something, he pressed it and the floor in front of him fell away in to spiral stairs leading down in to the dark. He didn't wait and descended; the staircase went down at least 15 feet until it exited in to a large cave like room.

The room was empty except for a black monolith surrounded by the bones of multiple people, there were weapons scattered around and it looked like the people were fighting. Aeoran moved amongst the bones, many of them still wearing tattered armour or holding down the last man they were able to kill before their own death. The armour was faded and rotted by Aeoran could clearly see two distinct styles with two symbols, one being the axe of Aeoran, the heraldry of Old Solra, and the other being the severed head of Fen, the heraldry of Aeoror.

Aeoran moved around the monolith to see two skeletons hunched over a console, a Solran and an Aeororan, the last two men fighting over control of the monolith. He quickly swept them aside and looked down at the console, dust covered but still working after all these millennia, there were many dials and buttons along with screens showing a slowly rolling stream of data, it was obvious to the primarch what this was and what had happened here, what had caused the fall of Old Solra. The monolith somehow warded off the beasts and Aeoror had sabotaged it to begin their rise to power.

The primarch studied the console for a few minutes as he tried to determine the exact workings of it, he soon resolved to let his instinct guide him. Placing a hand on one of the dials he slowly turned and watched the data flowing across the screen change, as he continued to turn, he could hear the sound of some kind of disturbance make its way down the staircase. Aeoran pushed the dial to its limit and ran back up the stairs and in to the temple, only to find it empty.

Aeoran ran outside to find the sky clear and the people of Aldra walking around the central plaza just outside the temple. Some of the children sitting on the temple steps were the first to notice the mist thinning and the beasts retreating from the temple in fear and soon the news of the beast's miraculous exodus spread as the survivors rushed out to witness the beasts fleeing in terror. The retreating pained cries of the beasts could still be heard as the Aldrans looked around at the city, free of beasts and mist and ripe for the taking.

Aeoran wasted no time and he soon determined that the beasts had fled from the city completely, inside the walls and the surrounding area was completely devoid of the predators, once the safety of the city was established he got the people to work; breaking down the ruined houses for building material, digging up the ground for farm and grazing land and collecting any weapons left in the city. They worked tirelessly for months until the city was finally able to sustain their population but Aeoran wasn't going to stop there; he would reverse engineer the lost technology of Old Solra, he would find all that had been lost in the fall and rebuild out of the ruins. Radial had told him that he was destined to rule Solaero and that's why the King had marked him for death, Aeoran had never thought about becoming king of anywhere but with all that had happened the primarch could now see the path of his fate laid out before him, he would raze Aeoror and rule his world from its rightful capital much like his namesake.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN GONE!" King Radiel screamed down from his throne, "FIRST I HEAR AEORAN SOMEHOW SURVIVED AND NOW YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE HE IS!"

A man kneeled before the king, wearing armour that barely contained his powerful muscles and keeping his head bowed, "Your majesty, the second wave sent reports that the entire peak was empty, no one to be found and anything of value was gone"

Radiel sighed as he looked down at, Kasrean, the commander of his armies, he had wanted to be rid of the threat of Aeoran and when word reached him that the primarch had survived he scrambled to send a force to raze the village and destroy the potential rival but they had been slaughtered and only half his balloons had returned. Radiel gnawed on his nails, Aeoran posed no threat now but his ability to accumulate power was too great and he needed to be found now.

"Where could they have gone?" the king asked

"Our men interrogated the people of the neighbouring peaks but no one from Aldra came through, there is only one possibility"

Radiel knew what Kasrean was suggesting but it was impossible, no one would do such a thing, "Aeoran is no fool, he wouldn't"

"It is the only explanation your majesty, Aeoran and his people have descended to brave the mists and seek survival there"

Radiel's panic spiked at the theory being vocalised, he didn't know why, grown and trained men can't survive in the mist for long so a village filled with women, children and the elderly stood no chance but still Radiel felt a sense of dread.

"Keep the knowledge of this secret, burn down their village and circulate the story of their utter defeat" the king quickly came up with a cover story, "Spread a rumour to the guild of mist walkers about a new beast, one that looks human but isn't, let them kill any of those villagers they find in the mist"

Aeoran sat on the shattered head of Fen, from the statue of Aeoran and the great beast battling, as he oversaw the children and elderly sorting through the scavenged weapons, the adults were hauling around building materials or building houses for their flourishing community, everyone had moved out of the temple and built homes and workshops for themselves. The primarch had chosen to keep his discovery under the temple a secret; only telling his mother, Aslia, and Alrean, it was not something everyone should know about, at least not yet.

The primarch looked up at the palace that rose up from the heart of the city and loomed over them looking like the mountains they used to call home, with great stone towers that, much like the great temple, seemed to be made of one solid block and high walls whose beauty remained undimmed by time. No one had wandered near the palace, focusing instead on securing food, water and shelter, but Aeoran always found himself staring at the palace.

Go

Go now

The voice that had always guided him told him that he needed to go to the palace but he needed to focus on his people right now, whatever was in the palace could come later.

"You wanna go?" Alrean limped up behind Aeoran

The mist walker had mostly recovered from his injuries but he still wasn't in fighting shape, he had acted as Aeoran's right hand and helped with planning out the settlement they built. It was obvious he had become restless sitting around all day and wanted to go on an adventure and Aeoran was starting to feel the same way.

Aeoran looked back at his friend, "You sure you're up for it?"

"If I'm up for it with my wife, I'm up for this"

"I don't need to hear about that" Aeoran chuckled

"You need to at least do it"

Aeoran had never really been one for girls, although most of the women he met did feel like that about him, he didn't feel that way about them or anyone really. He put it down to how far apart he was from the average human, or even the most extraordinary human, he was too far above them that is was hard to make friends let alone form a romantic connection.

"I have more important things to focus on" Aeoran finally stood and looked down at his one true friend, "Get some men together, no reason we can't have a little fun"

Alrean gathered a group of 10 other men and armed them all. The primarch led them through a small maze of back alleys, following his instincts, and they soon found themselves in front of the great gates of the palace.

The great palace of Solra looked as if it had once been a mountain that had been carved in to the great fortress. The unblemished walls were carved with images of Aeoran leading men in to battle against the beasts, of him overseeing the building of the city and of him battling the great beast, Fen. Either side of the great gateway two great statues kneeled with their spears laid in front of them, forming a causeway, and their heads bowed. The golden gates still stood and were wide open, welcoming them in.

The gate led in to a spacious courtyard, littered with the bones of men and beasts alike with weapons and armour scattered around, standing tall and guarding the entrance to the palace proper was a statue of the legendary Aeoran holding his axe aloft. The men moved around the bones as they entered the palace. The inside of the great palace was lavishly decorated with paintings of the great kings of Solra and legendary mist walkers battling beasts, statues depicting famous sense from well-known stories and intricately woven tapestries and rugs, although all these things had long since rotted and their beauty had faded. The one thing that hadn't been diminished by time was the lighting of the palace, it was lit using electrical lights and whatever powered them still seemed to be running after these millennia, even the largest cities limited their use of electricity since it wasn't easily made on the mountains and most villages had to do without it.

"How are these still working?" one of the men asked as they passed through the palace

"I don't know but we should find whatever is supplying them" Aeoran made a mental note

While the art in the palace had rotten and fallen apart, the palace itself was in surprisingly good condition. The group moved through the palace swiftly, looking in to every room only to find the long dead skeletons of those in the palace during the fall. They were soon faced with two massive stone doors that had two guards with their spears crossed etched on it, using his super human strength to push the great doors open Aeoran and his men entered. Inside was a great hall with a vaulted ceiling and walls lined with great windows and tattered banners, displaying the axe of Aeoran, between them. The windows were smashed and the hall was littered with the skeletons of soldiers and beasts alike. At the very end of the hall a skeleton sat on a great throne, big enough for even the primarch, it was dressed in ornate golden armour with a clear puncture in the chest, on its head was a silver crown that had swirls of steel framing many of the encrusted jewels and across its lap was a mighty battle axe that seemed to glow with some subdued power.

The men approached the golden throne and looked at the skeleton raised above them in awe, it was the last king of Solra, the last of Aeoran's blood, King Oeran.

Ascend

They just looked at him for a few minutes before Aeoran began to climb the steps, his instincts whispering to him to ascend, it was the right thing to do he felt it. Aeoran reached the top of the steps and looked down at the bleach white bones of the last king, he hesitated slightly as he reached for the body. Suddenly a blue light fell from above and a man appeared before the primarch, a hologram.

The hologram was obviously the king, he was wearing the same armour and held the axe, the hologram wasn't aware of Aeorn's presence, it was just a record, "I'll assume a person activated this recording and not some animal, I am King Oeran the last king of Solra" he sighed as the screams and sounds of battle could be heard drawing closer, "We were betrayed by those damn Aeororans, if you've reached this far in to the city then you can reach the temple underneath it is the black stone ward, it will banish the beasts from the city"

Oeran's head snapped to the side as the sound of smashing glass could be heard along with screams and gun fire, "I have more to tell you but no time, take the city as your prize but please, so our souls can rest, destroy those damn traitors" a Needle tail spine lodged itself in Oeran's breast plate, he ripped it out and hefted his axe, marching in to battle.

The recording ended and the light shut off leaving Aeoran to stare at the bones of the long dead king, the city was his now no matter what the last king said but now he had a symbol of his authority.

Take it

Take it and crown yourself

Aeoran reached down to the last King's lap, the axe seemed to come alive as he grabbed it, the subtle glow of the blade now pulsing with renewed power, the primarch hefted the mighty weapon up and got a good look at it. The axe was large enough for him to wield two handed, it was forged out of a material that Aeoran couldn't identify and the edges of the two axe blades pulsed with veins of power, it was obviously designed to replicate the Axe of Aeoran or maybe it was the actual axe of the legendary king, there were stories about mist walkers questing for the axe and the king, it didn't matter to the primarch with this weapon he would raze Aeoror to the ground, not just to avenge his people but now the people of Old Slora.

Next time: Reclaim what was lost