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 warrior wife (Lena)

Soon, dinner is over and Henry says that he'll clean up, as he knows you and Lena have things to discuss concerning the possible invasion. Lena motions you back outside to talk.

"Won't Henry be joining us for this?" you ask.
"He doesn't need to, he's already more up to speed on things than you are, besides he needs to clean up and look after the baby."
"Okay then."

While Lena goes over to speak with Henry about some more mundane domestic manner, yoou head back outside into the silent darkness. Usually there are a few Sul Monkeys making noises at night, but you'd guess that Lena being a hunter and all, the monkeys have learned to stay far away from this area. You find a nearby stump to sit on and wait for Lena who makes her appearance soon.

"Okay I know we spoke about some of the this at dinner, but what exactly do you know about this impeding invasion?"
"Like I said, all I know is its one of the local eternal warlords in Quala. I think he just calls himself The Victor or something silly like that because of his conquests."
"Something exactly like that, though I believe he thinks it's a clever play on words due to his real name being Victor. He doesn't seem to be an excessively cruel ruler for an eternal, just a very arrogant one. Believes everyone should serve him. His ego aside, he has been one of the more successful warlords in Quala, but I think he's turned his sights on Delerg for extra conscripts and tribute to help fund conquests elsewhere."
"Well it isn't like there's much else here. So do you have any idea what his military strength might be?"
"I'm not sure, but uh, I think it's in the thousands."
"Is that low or high? I mean this does make a difference."
"I don't know! I mean I think it might be around ten."
"Okay…so if its around ten and if he's not a reckless idiot, that probably means he'll only send around fifteen hundred troops maximum here, probably less initially since he won't believe he'll have any resistance. Now how many people do we have?"
"Altogether we might have a little less than a hundred."

Lena as she continues to go on about how not all of those that she's managed to enlist to help are even combat capable. Some have just agreed to help in a no combat way such as passing on information and such. Which means if they aren't willing to fight, they'll be practically useless when the battle starts getting heavy and Victor decides to just start decimating entire towns.

Lena finally asks your opinion on the situation.

"So what do you think?"
"I think we're fucked, that's what I think. How much have you trained the people that will fight?"
"Some of them already know how, and I've trained others a little. I intend on stepping up the training sessions more soon."
"Not going to be enough, I can tell you that right now, also when I say fight I'm talking at least your level or better. You better get on it fast. Now what about traps?"
"What about them?"
"Have you set any up? I mean time at least could be taken to do that; you are a damn trapper after all."
"And what do you expect me to do? Dig a hidden spiked pit in a road that people use on a regular basis? I can't start setting up traps in public areas! I've done as much as I can around this village and even then I have to be careful. Some child playing in the wrong area and I'm the one getting blamed."
"(Sigh) Fine, I'll figure out something then. I'll start trapping the less travelled roads and the clearer parts of the swamp and jungle where an army might travel through. You might want to let people know if you're that concerned with avoiding potential accidents."
"Why don't you tell them? You are considered the revered protector of Delerg, last shadow."
"Because I'm done with people? Because I did all that shit in the past and it didn't work? If I was really all that respected and revered, I should be able to walk into Sinkhole and say hey, you're all in great danger and if you want a slim chance of surviving the shitstorm that's going to come your way then you better follow me and have everyone do it with absolute loyalty."
"So you want to have the same sort of absolute authority that one of those eternal warlords has because you know what's best for the lessers?"
"That's not what I meant, but if you're going to go there, yeah it would make things a hell of a lot easier. Besides, YOU'RE the leader of this resistance, not me. I'm here to help as much as I can, but as good as I am, I can't do every damn thing."
"So far the only thing you have done is point out that I'm doing everything wrong. When you actually start helping let me know."

You begin to get angry.

"What Lena? You want me to pat you on the head like some doting father and say you've done a good job so far and that everything will be all right? Well I'm not going to do that, because the outlook on this isn't fucking good! A superior force with better resources and most likely better fighting ability over all outnumbers us. You seem to forget I fought this battle before thirty damn years ago with better odds. You know how that ended? Complete destruction of my side, that's how it ended. We fucking LOST Lena, spectacularly and completely. So what if the Empire fell soon after? Did it help anything in the long run? No, not one bit. Did drunken bards at taverns sing the valiant but hopeless deeds of the shadows or anyone else? No. Was it all fucking worth it at all? No. And do you think when Delerg is eventually overrun, its towns destroyed, its people killed and its jungles burned to the ground; it'll make any bit of difference what we did? No. And you're an idiot if you think it will."

At one time Lena might've cried or run away by your harsh words, but she's much harder now of course.

"If you feel we're all doomed anyway then why help at all?" she asks.
"Because I'm an a mean old bastard that doesn't have much else to do with the remainder of life except enjoy a good fight from time to time. And my point is, that YOU aren't. Remember how after we killed Brutus you wanted to go on a suicidal rampage of attacking eternals in Quala? Remember how I managed to guide you from that by pushing you away? Seems like that worked out pretty well didn't it? You're alive and have a family rather than the rotting corpse that you'd probably be if you'd went ahead with your original idea."

You take a deep breath and exhale and touch Lena's shoulder before continuing.

"Well I'm making another guiding attempt except I'm telling you straight to your face now. You have a family and you have something to fight for, it's true. But you're not winning this. You can get the hell out of this forsaken swamp and make a new life elsewhere. I know you have it within you. Even if you don't care about yourself or even Henry, think about Tulla. I mean…"
"Let me stop you right there asshole." Lena says with authority.

"So let me get this straight, you telling me I should just run away? That I should leave my home?"
"I'm telling you, you should survive."
"Well survival isn't enough sometimes. Maybe it was when I fled my village as it burned to the ground, but not anymore. I'm fighting BECAUSE of my family. This is OUR home and we aren't going to be bullied by anyone or run away when things look bad. You once fought for a worthy cause, overthrowing the tyranny of the old Empire. You must have believed in it at one time or else you would've just fled the area at the nearest opportunity."
"To some extent yes, but if it wasn't for Talia, I probably wouldn't have stayed as long as I did."
"Yes, the great love of your life that was the reason for most of your choices…I know. But how long are you going to hide behind that ghost? You told me you once broke up with her for a few years due to a disagreement of faith. You didn't even think you'd ever get back with her, yet you stuck around in that frozen wasteland Rask and continued to fight the Empire all by yourself. You still must've believed in your cause. When you saved me on that terrible night, you didn't do that for Talia either. You didn't even do it out of boredom, or the thrill of battle, or whatever other reason you want to hide behind. You did it because you felt it was the RIGHT thing to do."

You stand silent as Lena continues her speech.

"You're a survivor, but I do not believe that it's enough for you either. You still want to fight for a worthy cause and your morality keeps getting more in the way than you'd like to admit. If you were truly just a survivor, you wouldn't even be here. You want to help me, because you CARE. You're even trying to convince me to leave because you care. I'm not leaving. Preventing Delerg from being occupied by a hostile force is a worthy cause to fight for. Many won't fight, well I think as you once told me, they're weak. And even though it may be frustrating and unrewarding sometimes its up to the strong to protect the weak. I believe that fighting for a positive cause will be setting a good example for Tulla and she will grow up seeing that. And if we die…then at least we all died fighting for something worthy and what we believe in. I would think you of all people would approve of such a death."

You have no argument.

"I would. Very well, I believe I have most of the information I need here, I'll probably start doing my own spying into the Quala province and find out more. I'll keep you posted. I…um…well…" you start to fumble with an apology, but Lena stops you.
"Don't worry, I know. You're just a mean old bastard." She says.
"Heh, yeah." You chuckle and start to leave, but before you go Lena grabs your arm and leans in to kiss you on the cheek.

"What was that for?"
"For everything."

You and Lena look into each other's eyes for a moment and then you turn to leave again. When you get few paces you turn to see Lena still watching you for a moment and then turn to head back to her home.

"Shut up Dendrin." You mutter as you walk back to the temple.