With revenge filling every inch of your body you immediately open the carriage door with the intent of climbing up to meet your attacker. No sooner have you opened the door when a rotting hand from above attempts to stab you in the face with a dagger.

The blade superficially wounds you as it slices across your cheek. Unfazed you immediately grab the hand and pull down as hard as you can. The moment you do so you suddenly feel an unnatural drain of energy. Magic is definitely at work here and it's sapping your strength. Despite this, the shadow tumbles off of the roof, but on its way down it grabs your own arm with its other hand and the pair of you fall from the carriage.

Unfortunately, when you're pulled out of the carriage you don't clear it completely and your ankle is run over by one of the back wheels of the carriage that is still in motion. The bone snaps and you know it's broken along with your nose when you fell flat on your face on the hard road.

The shadow has recovered from his own fall much better having landed on his feet. You push yourself up just in time for his foot to kick you in the ribs. You roll away struggling to put some distance between yourself and the attacker.

"Y'know when I was brought back I was given very specific instructions not to kill you…but I believe I will ignore them. After all I'm already dead, what else can be done to me?" you hear the shadow hiss in a raspy tone.

You attempt to raise your hand to cast a flame blast, but the shadow grabs your wrist and you feel an even greater drain on your strength than you did before. At this close range you can smell the rot more strongly.

"Oh no, you burned me once before, not again." The shadow hisses as it drains your energy. With its recent comments, you realize this isn't just a shadow or even some undead horror possibly masquerading as one. It's Cyrus.

Your whole body feels like its been beaten with a stone pillar yet you manage to muster the strength to pull your dagger and stab Cyrus repeatedly. You aren't even aware of where you're aiming, you stab it in the arm, in the shoulder, in the chest, in the face and wherever else you can reach until it lets you go and staggers back with your dagger still in its body.

You're dizzy, weak, and have only one good foot, but try to stand up anyway. Cyrus pulls the dagger from his body and does his typical shadow speed tactic in an attempt to rush into you with the dagger. You barely manage to put up a small force shield to block the blade from going into your stomach. Still the impact of the hit knocks you back down to the ground breaking your concentration on the spell. Cyrus kneels down to grab your neck, he's not even squeezing and you feel the life leaving your body. You start to fade in and out of consciousness.

"Now I'm going to show you something truly eternal. Death. They say the dead feel nothing, but that's not true. It's a lie just like the lie I believed about Dendrin meeting me for the afterlife. You know what I experienced instead? A very dark place filled with pain until I was ripped out of it and put back here on this mortal realm. That's where you're going brother. You're going to a very dark place filled with pain and I'm going enjoy every moment putting you there."

At this point you have no idea what the hell Cyrus is speaking about, all you know is he's more talkative in death than he ever was in life and that if he's going to kill you, you wish he'd just shut up and do it already.

Things get fuzzy again just as Cyrus' fingers release your neck. What happens next is a blur. You do hear familiar female voice though.

"This one is not yours to take, revenant."

This is followed by an inhuman scream and a bright light which is piercing even with your eyes nearly closed. Between the screaming, the bright light and your weakened state it's all too much for you and start to pass out.

You see a female shape with long hair standing over you, but you can't make out the face.

"…Alison?" you struggle to whisper.
"(Sigh) Blind to your true allies and lovers as always." The figure says and then lays your dagger on your body. "Here, I know how much you treasure this gift to you."
"Oh…fuck…" you say as you pass out.

You don't know how long you're out for, but when you come to you're in a spare bed in the Emperor's quarters. Your ankle and nose feel tender but they don't feel broken anymore.

You look to your left and see the Emperor standing nearby with a walking stick in hand.

"Ah, you're awake and looking much better too. You looked about as bad as I do when Jacob first dragged you in here." The Emperor remarks, sitting in a chair near you.
"Jacob found me?"
"No, actually Warrick and some of the Eyes picked you up off the road when a travelling patrol reported coming across your body and an overturned carriage crashed into a tree a few feet away. I requested that you be brought to me personally when I heard the news. You were severely injured, and I was damned if I was going to let anyone else bumble in the attempt to help you get better."
"Alison?" you ask.
"I'm sorry son, but she's dead. If that bolt to the eye didn't do it, her neck was broken in the crash." The Emperor remarks.

You want to cry out, but you just don't have the energy right now. You still feel woozy for one thing, the other is you had little hope that she was still alive anyway. The moment you saw that bolt in her eye, the moment you felt her blood on your face, the moment you felt her body go completely limp in your arms…you knew then she was dead.

"Did you need some time alone?" the Emperor asks.
"No…I suppose I already knew." You respond. "I'm sort of overwhelmed by everything that happened. I imagine I will grieve later for her."
"I know how much she meant to you. I know she was also a loyal soldier and officer. She will be missed not just by you, but also by the Empire as a whole. Whatever type of funeral you wish for her, you know you've got it. I mean if you want a holiday to…"
"That…isn't necessary. I believe I will just have a simple funeral for her. She was like me, she didn't seek out a lot of attention."
"As you wish. Remember though, whatever you need. You got it."
"Can you manage an execution for a certain svelk bitch?"

The Emperor starts one of his coughing fits before answering.

"I assume you're talking about Mistress. Yes, I fear I did uncover some evidence that it was she that was behind all this chaos. How did you know about her involvement though? Is she the one that attacked your carriage?"

You explain to the Emperor what happened. He seems surprised to hear that the shadow wasn't alive and was in fact undead. He concludes that Mistress must've raised Cyrus from the dead since she certainly has the skill to do it.

"Necromancy eh? Raising the dead is dangerous stuff to dabble in, especially when summoning something as powerful as a revenant. (cough cough) Very difficult to command something that's dead, yet still control of most of the skills they possessed in their old life. Too willful. Still I didn't think that even she would be insane enough to try something like this. Her obsession (cough) with you must be great indeed. I'm not even sure what she hoped to accomplish, other than more chaos and strife I suppose. Hmm, well I guess that does sound like a svelk."
"All I know is she deliberately set this up. Her standing over me as if she was my savior. I'm not fucking fooled! Next time I see her, she's dead!"
"Well unfortunately Miss Semra D'vessa has fled the Empire and who knows where she's gone. There aren't even many svelk mercs within borders of the Empire anymore. There still might be a few in Rask, (cough cough) if you'd like I could make that law to have all svelk executed on sight. Hell, I think I'll do that anyway. Someone needs to take the blame for this and it'll certainly make the citizens happy to have mass hangings of dark elves. I know the elves will love it."

While the Emperor's attempts to cheer you up with small acts of genocide are kind, you begin to feel the need to be by yourself. Your silence and your eyes looking downward are all the signs that the Emperor needs to take his leave.

"Don't worry son. We'll get her." He says and then leaves you to your solitude.

You sit in bed for a long time trying to take everything in. Alison is gone. You'll never see her smile, you'll never feel her touch, you'll never hear her voice, you'll never enjoy anything involving her ever again. You almost feel like you don't want to go on living and you never thought you'd ever feel something like that especially since survival has been beat and ingrained into your very being.

That isn't the worst of it though. You didn't even get revenge on the one that killed her. In fact her assassin would've killed you as well if you hadn't been saved, but that's still not the worst of it.

Semra…Mistress…svelk bitch…whatever you call her. She saved your life.

As far as you're concerned that's the worst of it. However you'll get over it and grow stronger from this experience. You always do.

All it takes is time.

You empire Expansion (Year 33)

Year 33

While the Emperor may be physically sick, his ambition remains perfectly fine and the Empire continues to grow thanks to you leading its armies.

Shortly after the death of Roldan, you were assigned to the eastern frontier of Nalin just as you thought you might. Though with Roldan dead, you also thought you might immediately get reassigned to take care of the gnolls, but expansion westward was put on hold since there was no longer an immediate danger.

You worked with Brenda for some of the campaign. She was most familiar with the region east of Nalin and had scouts sent that way many times. You remember during Roldan's funeral you wondered if she might be angry with you for your inability to kill the assassin that killed her husband, but apparently what really happened was made a secret. You got credit for killing Cyrus and then Semra ambushed you and left you for dead. As a result, Brenda has always treated you with a lot of respect and gratitude. She may even feel a certain kinship with you since you both experienced loss of a significant other.

Brenda however has never forgiven Warrick who she felt was supposed to be in charge of security that day. Indeed he and several Eyes might've normally been executed for incompetence or even suspicion of treason, however he swore up and down that he believed everything to be secure. As upset as Jacob was, he said Warrick was not at fault and surprisingly neither did the Emperor. Besides you all know it was really the work of Semra anyway.

In any case, Brenda's scout information proved most useful. There was a small tribal war going on between four separate groups, though all of them are hostile save for one of the and that's mainly because the other three have come in contact with the Empire before. Two of them are human barbarian tribes, one them is elven, but much wilder than what you know of them and the last one is a race you're not familiar with called the Slin. They're reptilian in nature though, similar to the kobolds, but much larger and meaner. The fools obviously thought they could escape the reach of the Empire by hiding, they soon learn that they cannot hide from the Emperor's wrath.

The Belkaz were one of the human barbarian tribes. Since they had no prior hostilities to the Empire, they were dealt with first diplomatically. Of course your version of diplomacy meant that their most argumentative and hostile members were executed as an example and the rest were given warning that if they do not submit then the rest of them will be put in chains at best or follow their executed brethren at worst. Doesn't take long for them to submit and provide further intelligence on their rivals.

The other human tribe, the Fleg were the next to fall. The Emperor told you that he vaguely remembered the Fleg. Said they were a very minor cult that cropped up and became disruptive in the Nalin province about a century ago. The Emperor doesn't quite remember what the hell they worshipped, but that like most religions it was subversive to the proper order of things. The Empire stomped it out, but it can be assumed that some of the members fled here and these were their descendants. They didn't provide much of a challenge despite their fanatical beliefs in whatever gods they worshipped. Ultimately their cult was finally wiped out for good when you got to their last village you found that they all committed ritual suicide.

The wild elf tribe was next. They were fierce fighters at first, but after you wiped out the Fleg and started making great progress against the Slin, something in them must've changed. It's as if all their courage left them. These elves were all former slaves that managed to run away from the Empire during the chaos of the Halfling rebelling long ago. The elder that lead them actually called for a white flag parley with you and spoke of how he should've known it was folly to run away and that the Empire would eventually find them again even if it took them hundreds of years. You told him that it was indeed foolish, but that his realization of this reality wouldn't be enough to save the remainder of his people.

You have all the elves slaughtered like the cowering dogs they are. Their begging and pleas fall on deaf ears and sicken you. Part of you briefly wonders if you should spare the children and take them back as slaves, but then you think, why run that risk again in another couple decades? They're already tainted with the idea of "freedom" and will only repeat the mistakes of their parents and grandparents.

Finally, the last to fall are the Slin. The Emperor told you that he remembered the Slin and thought he'd made a point of making them extinct centuries ago. They originally dwelled in the swamps of Delerg and were once at hostilities with the Shadows that lived there as well. Wasn't long after the Shadows made their convenient alliance with the Empire that the Slin started taking heavy losses against them. It was thought to be the case that the shadows were successful in killing them all, but it seems they were not and the Slin ultimately had the last laugh of outliving their former foes. Though not for long.

Still, they fought to the last, giving no quarter and showing none themselves, they were about the only worthy enemy you fought against in this region. In many ways to be admired.

With the four major inhabitants subdued, the region was claimed and it will only be a matter of time before proper Empire citizens settle it. Further east leads to vast open sea. You predict that in time as the coast is settled the Empire will eventually have a navy to rival its army and who know, new lands may be conquered across the ocean. There are certainly tales of other such lands.

After this victory, the next bit of business was finishing off the gnolls. You were put in charge of this as well and it didn't really take too long. You and Alison had broken most of the might of the gnoll tribes long ago. Roldan was just mopping up the remnants and you complete the task at last.

With the last major gnoll lair destroyed the Empire expanded its western borders even further. What lies beyond is a little bit of a mystery as there are no major reports of any organized societies, though there are certainly reports of other civilizations beyond the immediate western wilderness, they are very far away. Whatever they may be you're confident that they will be no match for the Empire.

Of course these thoughts of future victories are all you have now to keep yourself in a positive mood nowadays. Your recent success has basically ensured that further major expansion and conquest won't be necessary for quite some time. Alison's gone and the Emperor's health is still poor and showing no signs of improving.

It is no wonder that your mind drifts into possible better days ahead.