'Warm…' a thought passed in Aiden's unconscious mind. An ethereal kind of warmth passed through his body and encapsulated his entire unconscious mind, pulling him away from the Unknown where he was. His unconscious mind gave a cry as if not wanting to get out from where it was but the ethereal warmth pulled him away.
"Nnng…ahh…hah!" Aiden's sleepy eyes slowly opened from his slumber. Sharp sunlight penetrated his eyes and made his squinch but it took only a few moments for them to get used to them. His eyes slowly darted from one corner to another and for a moment, he found the place where he was unfamiliar yet… familiar.
'No… that's wrong…' his mind spoke as he sat up. The room where he was looked like a noble's with large French windows with a picturesque scenery outside. The walls were light cream colored with beautiful calligraphy and décor, golden lamp stands and a soft silk bed was under him. The quilt was velvety smooth to touch but was warm and soothing. Something which was beyond Aiden's perception for the softest blanket he touched is the rough cotton quilt which his mother bought for his father. Then why… did it felt so … familiar.
Aiden removed the quilt and get down from the bed where he was lying and a sharp pain rushed through his back.
"Grr…" he cried in pain but he bore the pain. He couldn't bear to walk crooked at the age of five and thankfully, he soon got the hang of it. He looked around the room but there was nothing except the bed and the big-ass windows. Yes, the windows were a lot bigger than one might want, nearly reaching the ceiling and gave a full view of the picturesque garden outside.
Other than that, Aiden looked around for a mirror for some reason but there was not a single one. But he didn't think much of it. He opened the only door in the room and left the room, only to find himself in a big corridor.
The corridor exuded a noble aura with the golden chandeliers, beautiful marble floors, the same golden lamps, ebony bookshelves and whatnot. Aiden looked fascinated at the whole array of 'things' in this simple yet exorbitant corridor. He looked around in dazed state, touching the golden lamps, picking up the silver cutlery and trying to bend them with telepathy or looking flabbergasted at the ebony bookshelves filled with ancient looking books.
He never saw so many books in one place, in fact the only book he ever saw and read was the Spellbee book which his father bought. Crazy right, but it was actually meant for Jovian and was only passed to Aiden and William when they became two. He saw a few books in the Lexington Library when his brother took him occasionally but none of them were affordable. Borrowing even a simple book would cost more than 50 silvers and that wasn't economical at all.
The other books he found were all pornographic and weren't worth a read. Moreover, they cost at least 30 Silvers so Aiden had thrown the idea of those books and to read them to the back of his mind.
But now, he changed his mind. A slow desire to read them erupted in his heart but the handle of the bookshelves was a little higher than the highest height he could attain.
'Heck! Did the handles move up to avoid my hands…' he thought but then he dismissed his wish with a headshake. He thought of using the chairs but knowing that they were also made of marbles and would make a hell of a noise finally convinced Aiden to leave the bookshelves for now. But he did promise to take a few if he ever leaves.
…
"Heck! Am I lost again?" after a long walk around the mansion it seemed like Aiden had reached the same place where he started again.
'The whole place is a goddamn maze!' Aiden thought at the various shortcuts and corridors he walked in that single hour. He had also tried to go upstairs but the steps were a little too slippery. Yes, slippery. Not those vanilla-flavored traps or an array which increases the pressure each step. Instead, each stair was as slippery as a live eel dipped in the most frictionless oil.
Aiden nearly broke his hands after trying to best the Slippery Stairs and after that he swore that he would never step a single step on the stairs ever again. At the end of everything, he came back into the room where he first woke and sat back on his bed.
He felt more and more bored and was minutes away from breaking his mental dam and let out a floor of curses when he noticed something. A thin rectangular line was drawn on the windows infront of his bed. He first thought it was only his eye's mistake but a nagging sensation irritated him.
He jumped off his bed and headed towards the place where he saw the rectangular line. When he was 10cm away from the window, there were no line whatsoever and a big part of his brain was saying, 'It's a mistake! It's a mistake!' but for some reason, he extended his hand and tried to lightly touch the window.
To his surprise his hands passed right through the window and outside.
"Woah!" he cried and was about to pull his hand out when someone suddenly pushed him from behind.
Push!
"Wahh!" he cried as he fell right through the magical window and fell on his face into the green grass of the garden.
"The fuck do you—wahh!!" Aiden jumped back when he saw the figure behind the window. Behind the window was a lady, no doubt, but she wore a creepy mask on her face. She was nearly 6ft tall and wore a black-white German maid outfit with a large boing in her chest area. She also wore black tights with black high-heels giving her a sexy yet noble look. She had a curvaceous body, true, but the emotionless white mask on her face gave Aiden a terrifying feeling. The only good feeling in this situation was that she was on the other side of the window.
Of course, that served no purpose for she walked right through the window like it didn't even exist.
Aiden's mouth gaped out loud and for a moment he looked confused before something hit him. Illusion!
'Fuck!' he thought as he jumped up and tried to touch the window and like he thought, his hand went right through. He looked baffled at the window-less window but then the lady who was silently watching Aiden do his foolish deed, said in a clear but emotionless tone, "Come."
"Hmm." Aiden looked towards her and asked in an innocent voice, "Where?"
But she didn't answer. She simply turned around and started walking towards a certain direction. Aiden was confused for a moment and didn't want to follow her. He still wanted to fiddle with this illusion window but the emotionless mask sent a shiver down his spine. He hurriedly followed behind her.
…
'It's friggin' large!' Aiden thought as he followed the maid lady. He had been walking for nearly half-an-hour and he couldn't see where she was taking him. Was it another mansion? Was it a picnic spot?
Turns out, it's indeed a picnic spot. In the middle of the woods, there stood a marble table with wooden chairs. The table was large and was filled with dishes and drinks. Most of them were fruits and cakes with bottles of wine. Aiden was a little disappointed to not find meat but cakes could make it up for it, he thought.
"Master, Fifth Young Master is here." The maid said as she backed down.
'Young Master…' Aiden felt a little glee at the titles with which the maid addressed him but he was more curious about this 'Master'.
"Oh… he's here already. I thought he would be breaking his limbs in the Slippery Stairs." He gave a small laugh as he stood up from his chair and turned around.
Aiden frowned his eyes at his words but when he saw the face of the man, something clicked inside him. An inexplicable feeling erupted inside his heart and all of a sudden, tears started forming in his eyes. His heart wrenched and tightened but a single word fell out of his mouth.
"Father…"
The man just smiled calmly at Aiden. There was a slight once of pain hidden under his smile but to Aiden, it was as clear as day, "You're finally here, Aiden."
"Father…" he again said, the word feeling more and more alien but his legs moved on its own and before he knew it, he had crashed into the man's embrace. The man smiled gently and lightly rubbed Aiden's head. A single drop of tear formed in his eyes which dropped on Aiden's head.
"I missed you, dad… I missed you…" he said as hundreds of thousands of memories flooded his mind. Previously, everything felt strange yet familiar but now he knew why. He was born here. Not from the womb of a woman, no, but from a single feather of his father's Divinity just like his other thirteen siblings.
They lived here for hundreds of years, learning about the world and everything and practicing different skills and weapons before entering the Plane of Existence below to aid in their wars before… they died.
His memories were still fuzzy and mostly broken so he doesn't remember much except the memories of him living with his family. His family of thirteen Angels and their Father.
As the memories sunk in Aiden's mind, his heart calmed down. After rubbing his face on his father's dress, he separated himself from him and said in jolly but still broken voice, "Lets dig in, father."
The man looked no more than thirty-five. He was quite tall and his physique was well-built but what distinguished him was his golden fire-like hair and golden eyes. They were very eye-catchy and full of vigor. He wore, currently, a white-colored dress which mostly covered his entire body and which was now smothered with Aiden's snot and tears leaving a dirty yellow stain. From what Aiden remembers from his 'previous' life, he remembered that the dress was a divine item and could take blows from a Demi-God and not leave a scratch.
He obviously doesn't know what a Demi-God is but he is speculating it's someone powerful. Well, he used it as a towel then too, so it didn't matter.
Solaris, the name of his Father, looked astonished at the yellow stain and a slight nostalgia spread across his face. "You haven't changed a bit have you, Aiden."
"Hihi!" Aiden giggled as he gobbled a handful of grapes into his mouth. Solaris shook his head and sat back down. A maid, different from the one who brought Aiden, came and poured a cup of wine from one of the bottles.
"Nomnom!" Aiden looked up from his bowl of grapes at the maid's face but no sooner did he look a bright glare blocked his view.
"Ow!!" he cried as he covered his eyes with his hand.
"Haha!" Solaris laughed a little as he sipped on his cup. The maid backed away from the table in an orderly fashion.
"What the hell was that?" Aiden asked as he slowly removed his hand from his face.
Solaris replied calmly, "You're an Angel, Aiden but you haven't completely transformed into one. And that's why if you look at the face of true Angels, you will get a bright glare and a sting. Haha, seems like you've not remembered everything."
"Ahh…" Aiden closed his eyes and made a thoughtful expression. "Now that you say it, that does make sense. I remember I've heard something like that…. Bah! I don't remember anything except your faces and my… brothers and sisters' faces." He said as a sudden sense of loneliness fell on him.
"Don't be discouraged." Solaris replied, "It will take time for you to remember everything. Even your sibling's name."
"Where are they anyway?" Aiden asked emotionlessly.
"Some of them are in the 21st Layer of the Abyss but most of them are scattered. The group in the 21st Layer is big and they created a mighty empire too. Your Third Sister leads them and might already know that you've awaken." He said with a smile.
"Third Sister…" a face appeared on his mind but then a chill ran down his spine. An invisible voice shouted in the darkest corner of his mind to stay as far away from her as possible.
"What about Second Brother and First Sister?" Aiden asked with interest. From what his guts were telling him, both of them were the most loving to him and his father understood him a little too well.
"Haha! If you're thinking that your First Sister and Second Brother would save you from Third Sister, you're in bad luck. They haven't awoken yet and won't for a little while. I can't tell you the exact time or location but you might be able to fasten it?"
"How?" Aiden asked but Solaris didn't answer. Instead, his face turned serious for a while. Aiden was a little spooked at that face, for god's knows why, but he too silently placed his bowl of grapes and cherries down.
"Son, do you know that you've a bad name in the Plane of Existence below?"
"I think … they call me… Harbinger of Doom… don't know why though?" he shrugged his shoulders.
"Because you possess power far beyond your capabilities. Power everyone wants to grab a hold of. Power which can turn the wheels of destiny and time way beyond one's control. But if the power falls into the wrong hands, it would cause chaos on a whole different level. Do you get what I mean?"
"You want me to kill myself." Aiden answered innocently before sighing. "If everyone wants the Power that I possess, if it can change the world so much, I can only kill myself to not let it happen."
"But they won't let you kill yourself." Solaris answered as if expecting it. "Instead, they would definitely torture and kill your family to bend you."
"My family." A shock ran through Aiden.
He nodded and continued, "You should remember Aiden, for you don't only have a single family now. You were born in the Plane of Existence from seed of your father and the womb of your mother and that means there is a family down there which has equal importance as this family. I'm not like the other Gods and Goddesses to tell you to sacrifice your families for your duties but I do have some conditions. I don't have a church which preaches my words, my church is you, child."
"I don't know who my father is. I love my mother and Jovian and William. If something were to happen to them, I will erase the perpetrators from the face of this Plane." Aiden said coldly, a foreign feeling wrapping around his body.
Solaris was stunned at his answer for the first time but then smiled subtly. He nodded his head and said in a commanding tone, "And this is my first objective of your mission, become powerful enough to change the geopolitics of this Plane. You might think it will take a long time to cultivate to that point but let me give you a hint. There is power in numbers and knowledge. You can fiddle around with other options too. And now, your second objective is…"
…