You never thought you'd ever be doing this willingly…

"Dendrin, if you're still watching me, we need to have a talk and you probably know what it is about already. So have your giggles if you must about all this, but I'm asking you for your help and I mean real help, not cryptic answers or hollow words. And if you don't listen to me, then I suppose I'll figure it out myself as usual."

About ten minutes later after your "prayer" you drift off to sleep and find yourself in a place you haven't been in a long time.

"Been a long time Eternal. While I'm glad to see it is you who initiated the dialogue for a change, I am a little hurt though that you've only called on me because you need help. But I suppose any progress with a cynical soul like you is better than nothing. Why its almost like you're taking a leap of faith…"

Great he's going to milk this for all its worth.

"Anyway enough of that, what can I do for you exactly today?"
"Well I figure you being all knowing and all, you're already familiar with the dilemma, so I was hoping that…in your benevolent wisdom, you'd see fit to help me."

A loud chortle echos throughout your mind.

"All knowing and benevolent wisdom is it? A word of advice Eternal, don't attempt to grovel, it doesn't suit you. Though I do appreciate the attempt as it shows there is hope for you after all, which I always believed would be the case. The answer is yes, I will help you."
"That's it?"
"Yes. What? Is there more you required from me?"
"No, but…well what are you going to do exactly?"
"Get rid of your problems of course."
"That's what I'm talking about. You're not being specific, I mean for all I know your version of getting rid of my problems means killing me."
"My dear Eternal have you gained faith in me only to lose it so quickly? (Sigh) I suppose this is a bit too much for you. Very well I shall explain MY end of the bargain. When you reach Delerg, I want you to go to my temple and in a very hidden location on one of the walls near a pillar you will find a button. Press it and you shall recover most of the lost shadow history in an area below the temple. One of the books includes the ritual to open up the portal to my realm. Send your remaining Eternals into it and I shall do the rest."
"That…that's almost exactly what Talia had hoped for when she suggested this journey."
"Yes, I know. That's because she's a believer. So if you're still wondering what my price is, it's just gaining more loyal followers that will no longer cause potential strife within the order… and the assurance on your part that you will be doing your best to restoring my temple to its former glory."
"Of course…wait you said remaining Eternals. What did you mean?"
"Oh you'll find out soon."

Suddenly you are pulled out your state of numbness and into the real world.

"Get up! We're being attacked!" Talia yells and picks you up by the arm. A bright light is illuminating the nighttime sky along with several fire arrows. You roll under a wagon to avoid immediate danger.

It would appear General Ackerson's men have discovered you and have attacked in force. They're being smart about it too, attacking at night with archers and unfortunately also a couple of battle mages who are making the darkness disappear with their spells.

"How the hell did they sneak up on us? I had scouts around the perimeter to avoid this sort of thing!" you mutter to yourself. Doesn't matter now you suppose, what you have to do is get the hell out of here as fast as possible. You don't like running, but you'll end up losing more people if you stick around and fight. Besides, there are probably more troops behind the archers or at least on their way.

"Everyone, grab what you can, head for those hills, speed up and cloak!" you shout. Talia and Cyrus both repeat this order so everyone can hear it. You sort of figured you'd end up dropping most of baggage, but probably not exactly like this!

The soldiers are still shooting at you of course, but they're doing it blind. Some of the mages get a few people though by blindly throwing fireballs in the general direction. Of course not every shadow has listened to you, some of them decided to run in the direction of the soldiers instead. These are some of the eternals of course. As you get closer and closer to the hills, the arrows and fireballs have seemed to have stopped altogether, it seems as if some of the eternals have managed to tie up the troops by engaging in close combat with some of them.

The next few days also involve some fighting with more soldiers in the hills, but since it's mostly swordsmen you're got more of an advantage on your side and you lose no more people. Eventually the attacks stop altogether. You've either gotten far enough away, or General Ackerson has decided it's not worth losing any more men over.

You take a head count to see who is still alive and you now understand what Dendrin meant by the "remaining eternals" as most of the ones who did die were eternals. (Specifically the same ones Talia gave you the names of) Talia also asks you if you consulted Dendrin's advice on what is to be done about what was discussed before.

"I believe our recent attack has solved some of it, and Dendrin told me that when we reach the temple, he will solve the rest. He also said that you were right all along, we were meant to take this journey. I think we had to suffer a few losses before the shadow order can truly move forward." You tell Talia, she seems relieved that you or her aren't in trouble with Dendrin.

When the hills begin to flatten and ground starts to become soft, you know that you've reached the Delerg border. Brother Theo takes the lead from here and compared to your journey through Quala its downright uneventful other than annoying groups of Sul-monkeys that throw things from the low trees every once in awhile.

Eventually you arrive at the temple and everyone is filled with a great joy. You figure you should make some sort of uplifting speech about triumph and such, so you do. Then you tell everyone to start exploring the temple and get settled in where they can, you'll worry about fixing the place up later.

The inside of the temple is in surprisingly good condition. You waste no time in seeking out the stone "button" that will open up a secret place in the temple. Eventually you find it (which you doubt you would've been able to do if Dendrin hadn't told you) and descend down.

What you find is better than you could've hoped for when you first arrived and that's living quarters for what you presume would be for the old shadow high priests or whatever. It isn't fancy, but it's fairly clean. You imagine that this place hasn't been accessed in centuries. The walls are very solidly made so it doesn't even look like signs of any natural intrusion have occurred either. Just as Dendrin said, there is a fully stocked library which no doubt contain most of the shadow's history and wisdom, and more importantly the ritual that you can use on the eternals. Talia, immediately starts looking through the books while you and Cyrus explore the rest of the place.

There is one "room" that sticks out which isn't man made and that's a small natural cavern, which seems to be an underground garden of some sort with a shallow stream of fresh water flowing through it. Blue glowing fungus lights up the place and there are no exits other than the small openings the water is flowing through. Cyrus takes some purple berries off one of the bushes and pops them in his mouth and remarks how good they taste.

"Looks like we won't have to worry about clean water immediately, even our food can be supplemented here. Dendrin provides as usual." He says.
"Indeed and while I know we all serve Dendrin, rank also has its privileges. I'll be sleeping down here in one of those bedrooms with Talia." You remark.
"Heh, well there are three of them from what I've seen, surely the Shadow Master doesn't need ALL of them." Cyrus replies.
"Well I might've needed them to store belongings, but since we dropped most of them, I suppose I don't have any problem with you and Draven taking one of the rooms. How is Draven anyway, if it wasn't for you, I'd probably forget he's even with us."
"Oh he's fine. He's always been a bit more on the quiet side as you know."
"Mm, well since I'm in a generous mood, I guess Brother Theo and Sister Yvette can take the third room. The pair of them have helped the shadows in more ways than I can count. Besides I know they got something going on with each other, have no idea why they haven't bonded properly yet though."
"Maybe they don't want to be tied down to one person?"
"If that was the case, I wouldn't see them together almost all the time. I swear since we first kicked the Empire out of Rask, those two have been practically joined at the hip."

Before Cyrus can agree with your observation Talia steps in and interrupts.

"I found it! I found the book! We can perform the ritual!" she exclaims.
"Already? That was quick. Okay, well you study it and we'll get to it as soon as possible."
"But you are Shadow Master my love, only YOU can do it properly." Talia says and thrusts the book upon you.
"Oh…well I suppose my magical abilities have come a long way from what they used to be. Very well then, I shall study this tome and we can give the new eternals a proper induction into the shadows like we all were right?"

Talia and Cyrus both nod at your remark.

You excuse yourself and retire to your bedroom to begin a long night of studying.

You old Tomes (The Ritual of Ascension)

While studying the book that contains the initiation ritual in the library, Talia comes over to see how you're doing.

"Still at it? I didn't realize the ritual was that complex." She says.
"It isn't actually. From what I can tell it just requires a lot of focus and belief. I'm fairly certain I can handle that. I actually got sidetracked by some of these other tomes here." You answer and point out a bunch of other books nearby.

"Heh, sort of funny to see you like this. I remember a time when you weren't the most eager to perform any sort of magic mainly because you weren't very good at it."
"Trust me, it's still not my favorite area, but I feel I have been growing in power and gotten better. So I figured I should learn some of the other major rituals and such."

Talia nods as she looks through the books. Eventually she picks up a heavy black one and begins glancing through it.

"The ritual of ascension? What's that?"
"Good question. I actually wasted quite a bit of time reading through that one, before starting on reading the stuff I was supposed to be reading about. Basically I don't know what it does exactly. In fact some of it is in a language I don't even recognize."
"Yeah, I see that."
"The rest of the wording I have read is almost deliberately cryptic. Terribly annoying and not very helpful. You'd think whoever wrote it down, would've made it a lot clearer. Well anyway, I'll study it in length some other time. Right now I'm just going to go over the initiation ritual once more and then get some sleep."
"Very well. I'll see you then." Talia says and kisses you before leaving.

After she leaves, you take another glance though the book containing the ritual of ascension. Still not understanding it any better, you toss it aside and return to more immediate studies.