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anyway! He had come to find answers to the questions burning in his head; who was he and why could he not remember anything?
    In an instant, he stood on the crushed rock surface of the shoreline. There were little geological wonders here; the entire continent was only five hundred miles long and less than three wide. Looking around he saw the way the landscape had been altered by the inhabitants; there were ancient pillars reaching up to the sky, towering over the rocky path. The first few were broken; the tops and more missing; but a few rows in they were more complete and led to a roof structure over the path that led to an ancient-looking pagoda-style temple in the distance. It was a rock structure that looked to be miles tall that loomed in the distance. There were no guards or anything to greet him; just the barren surroundings of a world untouched by the modern Empire. Aen highly doubted anyone even knew this place existed so the need for protection was obviously never required.
    Slowly, he began the long walk to the temple and took note of the crisp northern air that cooled his lungs. It had been so long since he had breathed anything but the stale air provided by life support systems on the station or his newly acquired ship, that he had forgotten how it felt to have fresh air in his lungs. His body seemed to respond to the sensation as his heart raced sending surges of power through him. It was exhilarating; he felt truly alive for the first time since being rescued from the ice and snow. His body seemed to be on automatic now; his mind swooned from the sensory overload he was feeling his body carried on towards his destination and before he knew it Aen was standing at the foot of the highest set of stairs he could remember seeing!
    Stretching more than a mile into the clear blue sky, the rock staircase rose high and unobstructed before him as the sound of flapping prayer flags lining the entire way up brought him out of his trance. When his foot touched the first stair, his mind began to flood with images he couldn’t place. Quickly, he removed his foot from the stone stair and stood once more at the base of the temple wondering what the hell just happened! He tried again; and once more he saw images of a woman and little girl running through a grassy field with the wind in their hair. There was a feeling of peace and belonging connecting him to this vision, but he could not place them in his fractured memory. Instead of backing down, Aen decided to continue the long climb and take what this place threw at him.
    Step by step, the climb triggered a different vision with each footfall; each different and still alien to him. One was of a child frolicking in the shore waters of an ocean; the next holding a new born infant; another kissing a beautiful woman and swooning with lust. One by one the visions struck him in a barrage he was unable to deflect, but Aen persevered through the assault on his mind and quickened his pace. Over and over, strange memories tore him emotionally apart and as he neared the apex of his journey he found himself with tears rolling from his burning eyes.
    Standing but two steps from the summit, Aen toiled with the thoughts of leaping up the last stairs or simply teleporting himself up to avoid any more of the visions. But before he could do either, his body reacted itself and took the last two stairs as two new and familiar images struck him. First was the face of the woman with blue eyes that had haunted his dreams for the past few years as she stood on the opposite end of the Council chamber staring back at him. Then there was the same creature with her amazing eyes just locked on him as the two had a conversation through a holo-link that he couldn’t make out. Once he made it to the top of the stairs, the visions stopped and he was once again alone on this world as he stood before an open doorway. Inside, he could make out a grand chamber with six figures kneeling in prayer on either side