From the trajectory of the bolt, the assassin is in front and probably was trying to hit you instead of Gerald. You immediately run for the nearest tree as several more bolts whiz past you.

When you reach the tree two Shadow Guards jump down from it and attempt to stab you. You kick one in the groin as hard as you can, while deflecting the blow of the other with your sword. You dodge another attack by falling to the ground and chopping the shadow at one of his legs, nearly hacking it off. When he falls in agony you finish him off with your sword.

The one staggering around with damaged man part, finally recovers, but attempts to disappear again. You throw your dagger at him as he begins to turn invisible, impaling him in the stomach. Meanwhile it appears that Captain Gruz is taking care of the one who was shooting bolts at you.

"Bastard!" he says with his boot on the shadow and chopping the shadow's head in two with his axe. Blood and brains splatter everywhere.

You move around and scan the area cautiously and try to see if there's any more shadows lurking about, but if there were they would've either attack you by now or run off. When you're confident that none are left you walk over to Gerald who is dead already.

"FUCK!" you shout while kicking a nearby piece of clumped up mud. You don't feel sadness this time so much as you feel frustration. All those years he was performing commando raids in Felkan territory and he gets killed like this? Not even in close combat! Somehow it doesn't seem right. Just like how Roldan died. You search Gerald's body and find the letter he was planning on sending Brenda about Roldan, it seems you will have to do it now. Perhaps even alter it.

Captain Gruz walks over to you, he has a few bolts in him, but he doesn't seem particularly bothered by them.

"Feh, I've had way worse than this." He says as he pulls them out. "Y'know we're on our own now."
"What do you mean?" you ask.
"I'm saying these bolts, they ain't Shadow Guard, these are dark elven quality. That fucker over there with his head cleaved in two had one of those fancy repeating dark elven crossbows too. And while I know dark elves to be treacherous bitches that'll switch sides to whoever's paying the most, they would NEVER allow anyone to use their equipment. My guess is those mercs that were going to meet us are all dead, well either that or they ran off."
"Good, I want to kill the rest of these shadows anyway." You say and proceed on to the ruins.

Your next step of your journey confirms Gruz's theory. You and he see signs of battle on your way to the ruins. Several of the bodies are dark elven, but an equal amount are Shadow Guard.

"Looks like they were ambushed. Heh, pretty hard to do with dark elves. Still, it also looks like the dark elves gave the shadows a hell of a fight. Looks like those are the ruins up ahead. I'm guessing there probably aren't too many left, this should be over pretty quick."

You and Gruz dispense with caution and boldly march into the ruins. You both look around as the crumbling statues of old forgotten gods loom over you. Eventually you find who you're looking for in the remains of a temple that's covered in vines and partially sinking into the swamp

A single Shadow Guard stands over the bodies of several others of his kind. Near the bodies are empty flasks.

"I'll be with you soon my brothers and sisters. And especially you Draven." Cyrus says looking at the bodies and ignoring you completely.
"Aw, how sweet. Glad you decided not to pussy out like the rest of your buddies by poisoning yourself and are at least are willing to face your death like a man." Gruz replies.
"Yes, well it still remains to be seen Gruz. Though speaking of being a man, I'm impressed that you actually showed up here. I thought that you would've continued to hide and try to keep your involvement of these events a secret as you have for all these years."

This statement from Cyrus causes you to pause and look at Gruz. He looks guilty of something for a moment and then gives a toothy smile.

"I wasn't hiding Cyrus. I was waiting. Waiting until the day when I could finally track you down. It wasn't my fuck up that got us into this mess. We could've been strong enough together to make a break from the Empire if you hadn't decided to backstab us at Fort Destiny to save your own skin. Hah! See how well that turned out. Look at you now."

Even as jaded as you have become about the Empire, you are somewhat surprised about Captain Gruz…but in retrospect, somebody had to have some sort of input on having all those orcs transferred to Fort Defiance. Despite this revelation you're too numb to excessively care. All you know is over the past few days you've seen two of your fellow Eternals die ignobly while doing their duty for the Empire. Something these traitors have obviously disregarded a long time ago.

"Well, what's it gonna be lad? You killin' me or the shadow first?" Gruz asks.
"I think I'll stick with the original plan. We'll kill the shadow together, then you and me are going to settle up." You say calmly.
"That's the spirit boy!" Gruz laughs and steps towards Cyrus.

Cyrus makes no more small talk or last minute threats. He focuses purely on combat. You expect him to use his Shadow Guard tricks like poison or invisibility, but he doesn't.

He easily dodges Gruz's powerful yet clumsy attacks and lands a few well placed strikes on him, but Gruz shrugs them off like you've seen him do the whole time you've been fighting along side him. You can only imagine what an unstoppable juggernaut he must've been back in his younger days.

As for you, you match Cyrus in sword skill. Whatever he learned from the Shadow Guard won't help him in a face-to-face battle with you. All it takes is for you to take advantage of his divided concentration and you land a mortal blow, slicing his side clean open.

Cyrus falls and deflects your attempt to split his head open, but he drops his sword from the force of your blow in the process. Weaponless, tired and bleeding out from a deep hole in his side, Cyrus accepts defeat.

"Do it. Eternal slave of the Empire." He says coldly and then you fulfill his request by decapitating him.

You quickly turn to face Gruz, who already has his axe ready.

"Alright Eternal, let's finish this."

You and Gruz clash weapons. As you battle, you're reminded of the times when you were still a child and how he taught you to fight.
CLANG!
How he told you to keep a calm head in battle.
TING!
How he told you to serve the Empire.
SHING!
How he had confidence in your skills.
CLANK!
How he saw you as a leader.
CLANK!
How he told you not to die for the Emperor…but to make the other dumb bastard die so that you could continue serving the Emperor

SWIPE! SLICE! SLISH! SLISH! SLASH!

How he told you that failure wasn't an option.

Gruz finally succumbs to his multiple wounds and falls to one knee leaning on his axe in an effort not to completely collapse.

"Damn…shit…." Gruz gasps as he breathes heavily and feels his strength completely leaving him.
"Why?" you ask him.
"Why? Heh heh." Chuckles a bit while at the same time coughing up some blood. "After all you've experienced in your service of the Empire, you have to ask me why? My people had already been tamed and conquered decades ago and I bought into the same bullshit you did when I was a little green snot that didn't know any better. I worked my way up the ranks and did pretty good for myself, but for what? To be a lap dog that begged for a treat every time I did something right and get slapped down because I was rising too much above my so called station? I was still holding on to an idea that was long gone or never existed to begin with. It wasn't until shortly after your training was complete that I started to seriously change my mind. The Felkan war and the conspiracy that the Shadow Guard came up with just made it easier… I think I'm gonna just lay down for a while." Gruz says as he loses his last battle with staying conscious.

You step towards him with your sword ready to strike, but instead you just watch him slowly drift off and hear his last words.

"I lived a lot longer than I should have. This is a good death for an orc. I've seen your new replacements Eternal. They're monsters. They'll finish off what's left of this decaying husk of an Empire, not save it. Good riddance. Heh, don't worry though; you'll probably survive the coming shit storm. You'll outlive everyone." He says and then finally dies.

With the way things have been going lately, Gruz may be correct. It doesn't necessarily make you feel any better though.

You letter to Brenda (An apology)

Dear Brenda

I've never been any good with this sort of stuff, but I hope this letter will explain the exact nature of what happened.

It is with the sincerest regret to inform you that Roldan has died in the line of duty. I will be having his body shipped back to you, so that you may have a proper funeral for him or how ever you wish to dispose of the shell that once contained a great warrior. I suppose I should also mention that Gerald also died during the mission. He actually wrote the first letter to you, but given his death soon after, I felt that it be more appropriate to rewrite it altogether.

How I wish I could at least tell you Roldan died a great noble death, slaying hundreds of enemies before falling, but that was not the case. Instead, he was practically assassinated by suicidal Shadow Guards that blew him up and themselves as well, because they were too cowardly to face him in an honorable fight.

I know the two of you fell in love and were married. I am not an expert on such things, and I can't imagine the sense of loss that you will feel because of this, but know that you have my sympathies. When I saw him die before my very eyes from a gutless attack I felt a sadness dwell inside me as I had lost a comrade in arms.

I also felt anger. Anger that I wasn't there to stop it and anger at those who did it. I realize though the anger at myself was pointless. There is no point in blaming yourself in situations like this. Better to deal with the direct cause of the problem and focus all of the anger towards that instead.

I don't know if it will be of any comfort, but I killed all those responsible. I wish I could've killed more, but most of the spineless shadows committed some sort of ritual suicide by the time we reached their hideout. I did manage to kill their leader Cyrus though. I also killed Captain Gruz. Turned out he was a traitor the whole time. I'm beginning to wonder who isn't a traitor nowadays.

The past few days have seemed surreal, like nothing is making as much sense anymore, but then I think things stopped making sense the day I had to kill Kane. The Empire isn't like how we learned about when we were children. Everything was so much simpler then.

I'm going to stop writing now, because I think I'm getting off focus of the important topic at hand and that's Roldan. I'll close this letter with letting you know that in his last moments he spoke fondly of you, and that he loved you.

We should all be so lucky to have something so certain in life and actually have it last.