You spent many years practically buried alive, you're not about to spend your remaining life that way. Better you should just die in battle instead. Of course you only intend on doing that if there are no other options.

So if this place stands any chance at all you're going to enlist the help of the only person you know that will fight tooth and nail. You have no idea how Lena is going to react to seeing you again, but its something you're going to have to do.

You travel to the small village that lies to the south of Sinkhole where you know Lena has made her home. Its nameless, unspectacular and the people there live simple lives, but that's usually the standard for the villages around here.

After asking a few of the locals, one of them directs you to where Lena's house is located. It doesn't surprise you that it's a bit isolated from the rest of the village. In any case it looks a lot better made than the rest. The muscular man outside chopping wood might have something to do with that though. He's younger than you, though probably not more than ten years and probably a wood cutter by trade. He puts down his axe when he notices you walking up, which shows he doesn't sense believe you mean him harm. While he's probably a little surprised by your presence, it's obvious he knows who you are, why not? Everyone does in this swamp.

"So…the shadow finally comes to visit. I always wondered when this day would come. My name is Henry. Lena has spoken about you on several occasions."
"Nothing good I expect."
"On the contrary, she's always spoken highly of you. If I was a more insecure man, I'd probably be jealous. However, I believe the bond I have with Lena is an unbreakable one…well save for death of course. Even love must give way for reality after all."

Shows how much he knows given that you still speak to Talia as if she were still alive. Of course you may not exactly be the beacon of sanity.

"Anyway, if you're here to see Lena, she's out right now hunting, but should be back soon. I can't promise that she'll greet you warmly however." Henry remarks and then crying is heard on the front porch of the house from a basket. He excuses himself to go see to it.

You watch from a distance as you see Henry take a child from the basket and make the usual parental reassurances to calm the child. The child must only be a few months old, you didn't know that Lena had a baby recently. You hear the name Tulla being said a few times and then Henry looks back over to you.

"A handful this one sometimes. Still worth it though." He says to you with a smile.
"Worth fighting for I hope." You reply.

Henry's smile disappears at your remark.

"Of course."
"Well that would make you better than most parents in this forsaken swamp. But the willingness to fight isn't going to carry the day you know."

"Neither is an old broken down eternal who belongs to a long dead order." A familiar voice says. You turn around and see Lena carrying few dead Sul Monkeys and a small Croxidile. She's changed a bit, a little older and weathered by life, but its still the girl you remember. She motions to Henry to go inside and he nods and complies.

"So that's the family huh?" you say. "I didn't realize you had recently given birth. Congratulations I guess. I knew you'd find…"
"Why are you here?" Lena asks as she sets up the Sul Monkeys for skinning.
"Okay, right to the point then…there's an invasion coming."
"Yes, I'm well aware of the rumors."
"I doubt if they're rumors at this point."
"So? What are you suggesting then?"
"I really don't know. I mean…(Sigh) look if there is an army coming from Quala, they aren't going to be the push overs that were here before."
"Yes, I'm aware of that too. That's why I've been trying to build up a resistance. I dunno if they'll be any good in a fight, but it's better than nothing."
"Wait, you mean you actually got people to potentially help you? When?"
"I've been doing it ever since you abandoned me. Making contacts, building up friendships and all that stuff. I'm surprised that you didn't know about it, but then you have been traipsing around the swamp for the past few years. Surprised you didn't just leave for good. I mean what is there for you here?"
"Its my home too you know."

Lena snorts at your answer.

"Home…you don't have a home. You aren't even a true shadow by your own admission. The only reason why you still live here is because you buried Talia in that wrecked temple you call home. You can't move on."
"Perhaps, but someone else hasn't moved on from her school girl crush either apparently. Henry's nearly my age. He's my height and his hair is even my color, one might call that… substitution."
"Don't you dare criticize Henry! He's a good man! Better than you'll ever be!" Lena shouts, but you notice she is careful enough to throw down her skinning knife before getting in your face and poking you in the chest. Not that you would've taken it as a serious threat anyway.

"Again perhaps, but I didn't come here to criticize him or fight with you. Look, I'm going to be fighting the eternals regardless of your answer, but I thought it might be wise to contact someone else who I know is a fighter. Apparently though you've managed to find more though so perhaps you don't need my help. Now if you don't want or need my help, I shall take my leave, but it's always here if you want it directly."

Lena says nothing other than picking up her knife and going back to skinning. You turn to leave and get about a few paces, before she calls back to you.

"Wait. Since you're more out of the loop than I thought, it might be good to bring you up to speed on the specifics of what is known and what is planned. If only to make sure you don't get in the way of our own operations with your lone wolf tactics. So let me finish this first and you can come on in. We'll have dinner before going over some of the details."
"Very well." You respond.

After your visit is over, you leave with a better grasp of what's to come. You just aren't optimistic about it being enough, but then fighting the odds has always been what you've done all your life. No point in changing precedent.

The family (Henry and Tulla)

While eating at the dinner table, you find that unlike Lena, Henry is actually very hospitable. You discover that your guess that he was a woodcutter by trade was correct. He's also lived here all his life and still remembers when the old Empire claimed Delerg.

"I do not ever recall seeing you in the resistance during the Empire days." You remark.
"I wasn't. At the time I was more concerned with taking care of my first wife who was sick, than changing the government…besides as much as it may make me look like a coward, the Empire did not interfere much with our lives, so I saw no reason to fight. Especially since you shadows looked to have the matter well in hand."
"Hmm, glad we kept up a good appearance considering we ultimately lost."
"But the Empire did fall."
"It may have fell, but it got replaced with something far worse. Sometimes I think things would've been better if we hadn't done shit. Your reasons for not fighting are certainly valid ones, but tell me, what did you do when the eternals first arrived? I have to admit I am not entirely familiar with the last years of the Empire and its immediate aftermath. I was trapped underground for a while you see. But I do know that there were a group of thuggish eternals that eventually laid claim here. I know because Lena and I eventually got rid of them. Why did you not fight then?"

Lena starts to get agitated with you questioning her husband, but he calms her and says it's quite all right.

"When Brutus' group came around and set up shop independently of the Empire I just laid low as I would never have been a match for any of them, even if they didn't severely outnumber me. Fortunately laying low was easy as you can see this village is one of the furthest ones from Sinkhole. It's practically on the ass end of civilization. Besides, my first wife had died of her illness around that time and I went through an extended period of mourning. I…uh sort of shut myself off from the world I guess. I was in no condition to fight anyone. If anything I might've welcomed death at that point in my life. All I did most of the time during those days was visit Alanna's grave a lot and speak to it."

You can't help but see a very strong similarity here. When you look at Lena, she looks away as if you're going to call her out on her choice of husbands again. Of course you aren't though, but it does prove you were right about some of your previous remarks about her.

Meanwhile Henry finishes his tale.

"But eventually I realized that I had to move on with life and eventually I accepted reality."
"Good for you Henry. It takes a brave man to face reality." You say and drink from your cup giving Lena the option of calling you out on your own flights of fantasy concerning Talia. Of course she doesn't.

You chat a bit more with Henry. He says while he isn't much of a fighter due to inexperience, he says that Lena has shown him a few things as she has been trying to teach others as well.

"I have to say, I've never quite understood the Delergites' unwillingness to fight. Well the majority of them anyway." You mention.
"Surely as a shadow, you know the reason."
"I do? I'm afraid you'll have to enlighten me Henry. While I may be a shadow in name, let's just say I may not be the best representative."
"Well you are aware of what most of us in Delerg are taught about the shadows right? I mean about how conquerors may come and go, but the shadows will always remain as they have for centuries. And that the shadows will always defend and protect this place. With the shadows around, most people just believe that eventually they'll take care of the major problems."
"Yes, I am aware of it, I just never thought any of you lot bought into it so seriously. The dependency issues aside, why continue to believe it at all? The shadows belong to the rubble heap of history now. Surely YOU don't still believe such things."

Henry thinks a bit, but not too long.

"Well, yes."
"You do? Why?"
"You're still here to help aren't you?"

You give a smile and even chuckle a bit.

"Heh, well maybe you're right, Henry."
"However as I mentioned before outside I am willing to fight and not rely others. After met Lena, I found that there are some things worth fighting for. Now with my new daughter Tulla in this world I find that to be truer than ever." Henry says while looking at the baby basket nearby.

Lena reaches over to squeeze Henry's hand briefly. You say nothing to this moment of closeness; you just get temporary lost in thoughts of long ago. You think about how this arrangement is probably similar to something Talia wanted. Well perhaps not exactly, but definitely the family part.

The thing is, you never really seriously considered such things even when Talia spoke of it. Part of it was your foremost concern of surviving the next thing the Empire decided to throw at you. The other part is it just wasn't something you were excessively interested in. Now though, looking at something like this a little more close up, you can't help but think "what if?"

Of course that's not a "what if" that can ever be achieved. Even if Talia was still alive, you couldn't have children anyway. Quite frankly you've spent so much time killing, wouldn't really know what to do with the prospect of taking care of anything so helpless like a child, though you'd guess that perhaps Talia would've been more of the nurturing one while you trained it to fight or something you actually knew about.

The funny thing is you get the impression that Henry serves more of that purpose of a "nurturer" than Lena does, who while obviously loving towards the child, she maintains more of a distance from it than Henry does. Almost as if she's reluctant to bond with it on a major level.