Year 35

Finally after years of set backs, Rask is at last free of the Empire and the other provinces are sure to follow. Kane is dead and most of the last Empire fanatics in Rask are dead. The Empire can't send any more troops because it's barely holding on to what it has. It's the beginning of the end for it, but for the shadows it's just the beginning.

For the past couple years during the mopping up process, the shadows have slowly been withdrawing from other parts of the Empire and heading to Rask. This consolidation of forces is something that Cyrus has been wanting for years, but of course you never felt it was the right time. Now with the Empire on the decline you can agree that it is something that can be done.

Fort Defiance has become the new shadow home and has officially been renamed as Evergloom, not the most original name, but everyone seems to like it.

Ironically Evergloom is about one of the only major beacons of "light" in Rask nowadays. The sheer destruction that Kane caused to most of the towns in Rask before he died has left little in the way of civilization. The rebuilding process is in swing, but it'll be awhile before it gets back to the way it was, perhaps it'll never be the same again and nature will reclaim the land.

It hardly matters though; the shadows have their own rebuilding process to go through, one of which is how leadership is going to be settled once and for all. As it stands, you still haven't officially taken full control of the shadows yet and it's still more or less run by a "council" of sorts made up of you, Talia and Cyrus. Cyrus has been somewhat less antagonistic towards you since the Empire was driven from Rask, but that might be because he's running out of supporters. Your decisions and victories have earned the respect of most shadows and they see you as leader.

There are also the new eternal shadows that have been coming along in their training very well and the well-known fact that you've spoken directly to Dendrin, though you haven't lately, not for a long time in fact. Doesn't stop the fact that you say you have though when you want to get things done. Part of you feels like the biggest hypocrite in the world for it, but then the other part of you feels like your ends have justified the means at this point so why care about it? You've kept the shadows together with lies, but really the whole organization has been kept together through lies for centuries, you're not really doing anything different.

Perhaps though it isn't so much the lying that gets to you, but rather the idea of being a shadow when you've never really "felt" like one. You stayed motivated by fighting the Empire because that was something you could get behind, but now what are you supposed to do? Revere Dendrin and worship him? Not something you're really interested in doing full time especially considering your knowledge of him.

Of course then there's always Talia, who is practically the only reason at this point why you'd want to stay leader for the shadows, well that and the budding desire to be in charge thanks to your Eternal heritage. There's also the fact that given how much effort you went through to hold the shadows together it would almost seem a waste to toss it all away.

Yes, a decision is going to have to be made soon, but not today. You fall asleep later that night and after all this time you finally get some "divine" advice.

"It's been awhile." You say.
"Don't tell me you actually missed me." Dendrin remarks.
"Hardly, though I was wondering if you'd lost interest at last."
"In you? Not at all, I've just been quietly observing. I've found that you seem to work best with minimal influence. Keep doing what you're doing and I'm unlikely to ever lose interest in you."
"Keep doing what I'm doing eh? So you want me to officially take full leadership of the shadows."
"I didn't say that. Not then and not now. Do what you want. I told you that before. If you're asking me what I think, yes I would prefer you to take up as leader and quite honestly I'm surprised you haven't done it already."
"I was planning to, but now that the Empire is on its way out, I'm not sure if I want to be bothered."
"Nonsense, you're an Eternal. Aren't you lot sort of born to lead?"
"I suppose, but I can't see myself spending the rest of my life living a priestly existence in our new monastery where all I do is tell people to kiss your ass all night and day, let alone do it myself."

This remark causes a booming laugh echo throughout your mind.

"So don't do that." Dendrin remarks.
"Well wouldn't I sort of have to?"
"You haven't for this long, why would you start now?"
"I mean I know I'd be faking it, but I still see it as a dreary existence."
"And like I said, don't do that. You're the leader, what you say goes. If you want to abandon the old shadow ways there isn't anything keeping you from doing it. I don't usually point out the obvious, but what you have right now is potentially very powerful. You have in your hands is the ability to guide a religion, an ideology. You shouldn't waste that. Take advantage before someone else does."
"I'm not blind, I see that, but I question where do you come in? Surely if I some how lessened the shadows' reliance on prayer, they'd also lose their abilities."
"Not entirely unless you made them stop worshipping me altogether."
"But I don't worship you, I mean not really and I still have my powers."
"Well that's because you're special, but if you did have a little more faith in me, your powers would increase too. You could be as strong as your old Master Ebon for example. That's just how it works and you have take the good with the bad, but I'm sure you knew that already."
"So it would seem." You answer.

Shortly after this exchange you wake up.

"Something wrong?" Talia asks when she sees you waking up so suddenly.
"Huh? Oh, nothing. Dendrin just spoke to me again."
"He did? What were his divine words this time?"
"Oh…uh he said that now is the right time to officially become the Shadow Master.
"That's wonderful! Though I thought he would've told you a lot sooner…no matter though as I'm sure he had his reasons."

Good old trusting Talia. You love her, but you'll never understand how naïve she can be when it comes to this. As you start to get ready to call a shadow gathering there's a knock on your room door.

"Who's there?" you ask.
"It's me brother. Brother Gannon. Brother Cyrus wants to see you immediately in the meeting room. He says it's extremely important."
"What's it about?"
"I dunno, he just said it's really important and he needs to see you immediately."
"Okay then, thank you brother." You reply.

As you continue to get dressed, Talia speaks to you again.

"What do you think he wants?"
"With Cyrus, who knows?"
"Do you want me to come with you?"
"What for? You might as well get all the shadows together while I'm talking to Cyrus."
"But…I don't know…I'm just a little concerned."
"Aren't you always telling me I should try to get along with Cyrus? Besides, he's actually been tolerable lately. Maybe with the Empire gone, he's lightened up a bit."
"Maybe…well if you think it'll be okay, I'll go round up the brothers and sisters."

As you and Talia part company you make your way to the meeting room. On your way it occurs to you that Cyrus may very be planning to kill you rather than talk. You aren't sensing anyone cloaked yet, but then maybe they'll all be in the room with him.

If this is an ambush, the only one he's going to be able to count on to help him is probably Draven. Cyrus just doesn't have the clout he once did in fact you believe if he tried, he wouldn't be accepted as leader anyway. Of course you don't have any intention of getting killed if this is what he's planning.

You open up the door and see Cyrus standing near the table by himself. You can't sense anyone else; maybe he wants this to be a one on one matter.

"There you are, I wasn't sure you were coming. I want to speak to you on something very important and this has to be settled right now."

No doubt he's talking about the leadership position. You know he still desperately wants it and he's just going through the motions of being civilized about it right now. You aren't waiting around…

Before Cyrus even knows what's going on, you fire your armbow at him. He reacts in time to move, but not before a bolt goes into his arm.

"Agh! What the fuck are you doing?!" he says clutching his arm and backing away from you.
"I'm settling this right now, we both know what this is all about. You're going to kill me because you want to be in charge and that's not happening."

You rush forward to attack and Cyrus once again dodges and backs away from you. He hasn't even drawn his weapon yet.
"What? No! Look! I just called you in to talk! I was going to tell you that I've come to the realization that you're the worthy one to lead the shadows! I know it's taken me a long time, but I see that you're the chosen one of Dendrin."
"Bullshit, you've desired to be shadow master since Master Ebon died."
"And probably even a little bit before, but I see that I was wrong to think such things even if I never spoke them out loud. Perhaps Dendrin punished me for it by never speaking to me. He speaks to you and your actions have lead us to finally be free of the Empire. Why should I keep questioning your ability? It's obvious that you have a greater destiny and I realize that I should just graciously step aside. Who am I to question the will of Dendrin? I yield to you shadow master."

Cyrus seems pretty sincere in his words and despite everything he has always been a dedicated disciple of Dendrin for good or ill. If he really believes that Dendrin has a plan for you, he wouldn't stand in the way of it.

Now that you really think about it, he's never really done anything that would indicate that he was ever actively trying to kill you. It's possible you've just been paranoid about this whole thing.

You kill Cyrus anyway

Your paranoia is justified. Cyrus might even believe his own words right now, but he still wants to be shadow master and he'll kill you to do it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but he'll try it when you least expect it. He's probably just biding his time; you aren't fooled by this act. Cyrus may claim to be a dedicated shadow, but he's an Eternal first and he'll always have that desire to lead within him.

"I'm glad you yielded to me Cyrus, because there's no point in putting off the inevitable!" you shout and lunge forward to attack.

Cyrus doesn't move fast enough to dodge your attack and your sword sinks deep into his abdomen. However he also manages to unleash two smaller daggers he had hidden and swings both arms around you to plunge them into your back. The pair of you fall to the floor with each others weapons lodged in vital organs.

"Why brother? I was going to join you…" he gasps.
"No… you weren't. You just…stabbed me…"
"You attacked…now we're both done for and along with us, the shadows…" Cyrus says and starts to fall unconscious.

You attempt to grab at Cyrus' daggers in your back, but your own lifeforce starts to fade as well.

"Talia still lives…she'll fix everything…she'll lead…" you mumble and then join Cyrus in death.