Year 75

Another day of aches and pains, getting old sucks.

After a couple of years of finally putting down the rest of the new Eternal hold outs, you've been spending most of your time restructuring the Nalin Empire's command structure, economy, security and all the rest that goes with it. You haven't done a bad job considering you were bred for war, not administration, then again you've been doing it in limited capacity for years, you just decided to totally focus on it for once and the results are excellent.

While you still have the reputation for ruthlessness, you've managed to temper that a bit in last few years even with all the changes you've made. Most rulers would probably have to worry about coups or assassination attempts, but those haven't been a problem due to the high amount of respect you've earned from the military. General Cynthia Gemma is officially your second in command, so if anything happens to you, she takes over. Though sometimes you wonder if you'll outlive her given your knack of surviving. Warrick who was the only other Eternal left besides you died last year. Before he did, he sent a letter informing you that his final hours were upon him.

He didn't exactly say what was wrong, just that he felt the combination of his age and old wounds catching up to him. It wasn't a long letter, just mostly him saying how he was glad he never had to fight you as he still respected you as a leader. The respect was mutual. Indeed it was one of the factors to as why you never attacked the Felkan Kingdom. You mourned his passing as you morn the passing of all your fellow Eternals. Most of them deserved better ends. All of them actually.

And now here you are the last of not just your old comrades, but of your kind. The last words that Gruz once told you, have at last come true…you outlived everyone.

Whether you were tougher, smarter, or luckier than the rest you don't know. Maybe it was something by design when the Empire altered you. Maybe it was just common sense and the simple will to live.

Though lately you've been wondering about "living." You don't have too many thrills left anymore and the constant pain you're in, doesn't make things any easier. You didn't quite understand all of Brenda's choice to end her life at the time, but as you've reflected on it again and again over the years you get it now and you're starting to wonder if it's time to join your fellows.

Besides all you victories in battle, you've practically rebuilt the Empire. At least you have as best you could've done, all things considered and that's no easy achievement. You have done enough for anyone to feel proud of doing and if you died now, there would be no shame.

Still, part of you wonders if you've lived this long what else could you accomplish if you went on a little longer? Granted you could mess up your already strong reputation, but you could also go on to other great things.

You continue to live

No, there are still battles to be won even if they aren't of the physical nature anymore.

One of these battles is how to prevent all of what you've built from collapsing soon after you die. You don't believe it'll fall into complete anarchy immediately of course and you're sure that your first few successors will probably do a good enough job since you've set it up in such a manner, but entropy and decline seem to be factors as certain as death.

You wonder if this would be easier if you had been able to have children. You know that you can't just by experience and your own past discussions with Brenda when she spoke of Roldan. No Eternals could have children. You never did know why and just chalked it up to it being something in the process of your creation. Maybe nature balancing itself?

In any case you do come up with something. You think back to the old Empire and the emperor. You never did get to meet him…or her…or it! You once wondered if there even was an emperor. You assume there had to have been at one time, probably several, but something changed. Something changed to make people believe that the emperor wasn't just a mortal anymore, but an immortal of sorts. It's this sort of thinking that held the old Empire for a very long time.

It occurs to you that you need to start this very same mindset now. Most of the citizens as of right now hold a certain respect for you and the military is in near awe. You need to keep that going even after you're dead. The population needs to believe that you're still alive, watching and protecting them forever. You're not really looking for immortality for yourself so much as you're looking for immortality for what you've struggled to rebuild. Even creating a strong cult of personality so that you still have "followers" long after your death won't solve the problem.

Basically, you can't die and you mean you literally can't die.

Of course this is impossible, so you have to do the next best thing. Fake your life. Create the same lie that the Empire did. Granted you don't know if they did, but you're going to have to attempt it the best way you can. It's a gamble and it might not even work, but you figure it's worth a shot and you won't really know if it fails or not since you'll be too dead to care.

You call General Gemma into your chambers. She arrives promptly as usual though she seems a confused as you never call anyone into your private chambers.

"Ah good, you're here. We've got some important things to talk about."

You begin to explain your plan to Cynthia. It's a lot for her to take in, but she certainly understands it, she also provides some input that you didn't immediately think about.

In time a few more of your closest staff are informed of this plan and sworn to absolute secrecy then the plan is set into motion. You begin to make less public appearances and have little contact with anyone else except your staff, and begin to have propaganda spread about how you seem to be undergoing a transformation.

You confine yourself to your private chambers most of the time and never leave the palace at all. It's like a prison, but this is what you need to do in order to carry out this grand plan. You keep yourself busy by thinking up more ideas for your grand plan and making notes as you go.

You think about having all your palace guards replaced by some sort of golem, but then that would require having mages around all the time and you'd rather not deal with that factor. So you do something else, you implement your own elite warrior program. The Silent Ones, utterly loyal soldiers conditioned from birth to serve the Nalin Empire and you no matter what. Their tongues are also removed so that they cannot speak any lies or speak out of turn.

Year 88

The Silent Ones have replaced all other normal palace guards and nobody else other than a select few are able to enter the palace at all and only Cynthia is able to directly have contact with you.

The palace becomes a very quiet place which you enjoy as you can now wander more around your own home without bumping into anyone other than your new guards. The Silent Ones may be young still, but you don't doubt their loyalty or their skill. When you look them in the eyes, you can see the near worship they've been trained to have. Reminds you of the old days when you used to feel the same way about your leader, though at least they've gotten to see you and know you're real, you felt you owed them that much for their indoctrination.

Cynthia is supposed to meet with you today as she normally does. You figure it'll be about the usual stuff She meets you in your private chambers as usual.

"Hello Cynthia, I hope you are well today." You say.
"I'm fine sir, and you?"
"The usual aches and pain, though ever since I threw everyone out of the palace, I've actually felt better than I have in years. Things sort of feel more relaxed when you don't have a host of advisors constantly chattering in your ear all the time wanting to get your attention about something."
"Yes, it would be a blessing I suppose. You sure you don't want a medic or anything to keep track of your health?"
"What for? I'm going to live forever remember? Start bringing doctors in here and all there needs to be is one bystander to see it and start spreading lies about me possibly being dead or dying."
"Well there are a few rumors about you already…"
"Ah yes, but just that there are strange goings on at this palace, changes and such. That coupled with the ongoing propaganda about me, the commoners and the average soldiers don't really know what to think. It's important that they believe that they don't just have a series of tyrants watching them, they need an immortal sentinel."
"Why not just create a religion and tie it into the state?"
"Oh no, not doing that. I've already seen some of that in action with my countless battles with barbarian tribes. In Rask, several of them were all practically worshipping the same faceless deities and continued to fight each other due to small disagreements in how it was interpreted. They would've done better to put aside their petty differences in doctrine and unite under it against us instead. Religion can unite people, but it can also divide them worse than anything else, it's why I outlawed organized religions and cults a long time ago. It's a silly concept anyway. The idea of beings with so much power over us, yet do nothing."
"But who says they don't? Maybe they work through us or something…"

Your eyebrows rise a bit.

"Why Cynthia, I didn't take you for a believer in the gods."
"I…I don't know. I mean, even though there is less magic in the world nowadays, it still exists. There are so many fantastic things in this world that I just don't think it's out of the realm of impossibility to have gods."
"Hmm, well I'm not convinced. I think holy men of all kinds just perpetuate this lie to serve their own ends."

At one time Cynthia might've been a little too scared to approach you about this, but given how close you've been over the years, perhaps she has gotten a little more familiar.

"But, isn't that similar to the lie we're trying to perpetuate?" she says.

You look at her with a completely serious expression, one of annoyance actually. She looks slightly worried now, and then you smile.

"You're probably right, but in our case we're doing it for the greater good!" you laugh.

As your laugher can be heard throughout the quiet halls of the palace, somehow it brings a little joy to the Silent Ones. Your happiness brings them happiness.