Considering you willingly chose to oppose the Empire, you'd say you've already gotten over the whole putting yourself in great danger bit. You might as well go back to Gloom to find out what's going on if anything at all. If something is happening, then you need to help anyway. If something isn't, well nothing will have been lost except time attending your own duties you suppose. Still there isn't any reason for you to hold up the rest of your group. You call to speak to one of your fellow shadows that you believe to be the most skilled.

"Sister Yvette, I need to go back to Gloom and no I can't be talked out of it either, but I assure you it is incredibly important. I want you to take charge of this group until I return. I think you know your mission and I'm sure you'll do a fine job."
"But brother, your orders from Master Ebon are to stay with this group, and do not need to report your progress. He's busy performing the ritual at Gloom at this time, what is so important that you have to go back?"
"It's a long story, but let's just say I've had my own personal sign from Dendrin himself."
"You…you have? Is something bad going to happen? Should we all go with you?!"
"As I said, you stay here and carry on the fight. I don't know if something bad is going to happen, but if it does, we're going to need shadows like you still doing your job to help bring down the Empire."

Sister Yvette reluctantly agrees though it's apparent she would either prefer to go with you or for you to stay with the group. You don't know why, since she's actually been a shadow longer than you and should have more confidence in her ability to lead, but it's like with anything, some people are just naturally more gifted than others, even if they are supposed to be equals.

You make your way back to Gloom as fast as possible, even using some magic to speed yourself up. It's tempting to attack some of the stray Empire soldiers you hide out from along the way, but you need to focus on just getting back. One thing you've noticed though is that you aren't really encountering any soldiers heading in the direction of Gloom. You would've thought (even without the warning) that more Empire soldiers would've been marching that way. In fact this revolt has been going on for months now and there have been no attempts by the Empire to attack Gloom, they've just been focusing on putting out the fires you've been setting everywhere else. You don't know if that's because they're lacking the manpower to adequately attack it due to the Felkan War, if they're just biding their time or maybe it's just Empire incompetence due to them not anticipating this even happening and having a backup plan for it.

Eventually you arrive at Gloom the next night. You're a little tired, but you can't let that bother you. When you approach the rock formation you chant the usual words to reveal the opening and descend down the stairs. Gloom is normally a pretty quiet place. Rare is the time where you can hear lots of shouting or the clomping of footsteps.

Right now you're hearing both in abundance, followed by the familiar sounds of metal clanging against metal. Apparently your worst fears have been confirmed.

You rush down the rest of the stairs and peer around a corner just in time to seem half a dozen heavily armored figures chopping a shadow to pieces with axes. The figures themselves aren't very tall, almost squat like, but their armor still makes them look massive and you can't even see their faces.

It makes you pause a bit; these are a powerful unknown foe as you've never seen any soldiers like this before in the Empire military and you can only assume they're helping the Empire. You take a deep breath and cast a cloak on yourself along with speeding yourself up again before pressing forward with your attack.

You try to drive your blade through the armor of one of the figures, but it resists your attempts. The only thing you do manage is to do is knock him off balance long enough for him to tip over completely. You fire a bolt from your armbow at another one. It pierces his full face helm and knocks him back, but apparently not enough to kill him because he doesn't fall down.

The other four have now turned their attention to you and while you run around striking them with your weapon, your blades just aren't getting through their armor. With your cloak off and your speed wearing down, one of them helps their buddy off the ground and the one with the poison bolt in his face helm has rejoined the fight after having pulled it out. What sort of creatures are these?

You decide to back off a bit and reassess the situation, and then you make a complete retreat when the six of them start advancing on your position. Your saving grace is they aren't very fast in that armor and you easily find a storage room to hide in. You think you're alone, but you aren't.

"Brother… I never thought I'd see you again…" you hear familiar voice struggle to exclaim.

You turn and see Murk lying in a corner bleeding profusely. One of his hands is missing and he's holding in his innards with the remaining one.

"Murk? What's going on? What's happened here?"
"It's the Derro…they've returned…(cough) always heard they abandoned this place. Guess they REALLY want it back."
"The Derro? How? When?"
"A couple days ago brother. We've been fighting them off here for the past two days, but unsuccessfully I'm afraid. Everything was going well with the ritual and we would've been making a full invasion right in the heart of the capital if they hadn't just suddenly showed up. They disrupted everything. They came out of the damn walls and even from underneath the floors. They aren't as big as us, but the little bastards are the toughest things I've ever encountered and who knows what they look like under all that heavy armor."
"The Empire is probably behind this attack."
"Probably, but does it matter? They're killing us and no matter how much we try, we can't beat them!"
"They can't be invincible. Everything dies."
"Oh yeah, you can kill 'em, just really hard to, due to all that armor. Even without that, though they seem to have some natural magic resistance. (cough) I saw one of those fuckers take a full blast of shadow fire from Master Ebon himself, and he kept coming at him like a golem. It wasn't until Brother Gray stepped in to help that they turned him into blackened heap of melted metal."
"Where are Master Ebon and Brother Gray?"
"Brother Gray is dead. I saw him surrounded and literally torn apart by those things, I mean they (choke) ripped his limbs off like a rag doll…it was horrible. I don't…even want to…"

Brother Murk begins to get upset, but you really need him to continue so you can get a better idea of how bad this is and maybe find some way of turning it around.

"Murk, what about Master Ebon?"
"I don't know. Probably dead! Just like Brother Gray and (sob) Bianca…I tried! I tried so hard to save her!"
"Sister Bianca is dead too?"
"No, not the last time I saw her. A couple of the Derro were dragging her unconscious battered body in chains to one of their invasion entrances. I've noticed they've been doing that with several of the female shadows. I tried to save her, and what you see before you is the result of my attempted heroics. I know she never saw me as a potential mate, but…I don't want to think about what they'll do to her…(sob)."

This new information suddenly makes you ask the question that you're afraid to ask.

"Talia? Did you see them take Talia?"
"No, brother. I haven't seen Sister Talia since the interruption of the ritual. She may still be alive and fighting. Oh why didn't Dendrin prevent this destruction? Why wasn't this foreseen? We were on the verge of victory and now all is lost!" Murk cries out.
"Hey! All isn't lost yet! The Empire WILL fall, I promise you." You say looking at Murk.

He manages a faint smile, but his life force is fading fast.

"Perhaps it will brother, but I won't live to see it anymore …I'm sorry for…"
"Murk, you don't have…"

And you don't bother finishing you sentence. Murk is dead and even though you drifted apart slightly in last few years, you're going to miss him.

Right now though you need to figure out what you're going to do. Tactically, this looks like a no win situation. From Murk's last words, the Derro have already managed to slaughter most of the shadows and have successfully overrun the fortress. You've already tried to fight a few and didn't make much headway. You might do better to get out of here and inform the remainder of the shadows topside of the bad news so that you can regroup.

Of course the other part of you wants to at least try to find Talia, and even some other shadows that may need your help, because assuming you get out of this alive, you're going to need all the help you can get in continuing your plan to overthrow the Empire.

You search for Talia

Your main purpose of coming here in the first place was to make sure Talia was safe. You can't leave now without trying to find her or at least her body if she's dead.

You leave the storage room and decide your best bet would be to keep yourself cloaked the entire time while you search the fortress. You also decide to use spider crawl just to make sure you're really out of sight.

As you stick to the ceilings of corridors and rooms you survey the carnage of what the Derro have wrought on the shadows. It's almost like they didn't have a chance. You now have to believe that this was why the Empire wasn't attacking Gloom, they had some sort of deal with the Derro to do it for them and since this used to be a Derro home at one time, they probably knew every ancient secret passage and entire layout of it.

You progressively get more and more discouraged in your search and that's when you hear a voice in your head. Not Dendrin's though, it's distinctly a human one.

"To…the left and down the hall…hurry…not much time…" you hear Master Ebon say. Lacking any other ideas, you follow his instructions and make your make to his location from where you are. As you do so, you notice there aren't any Derro in this direction, though there are a few dead ones. You're guessing that the rest of their fellows haven't searched this area as much.

"The door…at the end…hurry…"

Sensing that there are no Derro in the immediate area, you climb down from the ceiling and prepare to enter the door at the end of the corridor. When you arrive in front of it, you hear a loud click as it opens.

"Quick, inside!" a brother says pulling you in by the arm roughly.

A quick glance and you see a couple more shadows both in wounded condition. You then see Master Ebon in some sort of spell trance. He's also wounded, but his status looks a lot worse. He probably shouldn't even be alive with the deep bleeding gashes he displays across his body. A female shadow stands near him also wounded. When you see her face more clearly and recognize her as Talia, your worries are at least divided by half.

"What are you doing here?" she exclaims.
"I heard the voice of Dendrin and…" in that moment you realize you've just admitted you've heard his voice for the first time. You then realize this isn't the time to keep it a secret and you continue. "…he…uh gave me a warning… are you alright?"
"Just a light wound…wait, you said Dendrin spoke to you? He warned you about the attack?"
"Well, not in so many words. Look we need get out of here, I can explain everything later."

You then hear Master Ebon's voice again. He still isn't speaking verbally though and is using his mind.

"Dendrin spoke to you? Lucky lad. He hasn't spoken to me since I first became a shadow. I always thought he would eventually, but he never did. I assumed he was testing me, to make my own decisions. Perhaps I offended him by claiming those decisions came from him directly, but I didn't know what else to do…"
"Master Ebon, we can discuss this later, right now we really need to leave!"
"Is Master Ebon speaking to you through his mind?" Talia asks.
"Yes, and what's he doing anyway? He's just sitting there with gashes in his chest deep enough for me to see his heart beating and bleeding out. As I said we need to leave before the Derro kill us all."

Master Ebon interrupts you.

"They've already succeeded in killing me I fear, but I still have powerful magic…enough to save the remainder of you…to carry on the fight…"

Master Ebon's eyes begin to turn completely black, this is followed by his entire body. A shimmering portal then opens up nearby.

"This…was to take us to strike at the very heart of the Empire…but now just an escape…to friends. Continue the fight there. The Empire will fall as long as you continue to fight. Dendrin I hope you can forgive my failures as I have served to the best of my abilities…I am ready to enter your realm of shadow if you will allow it…"

"Master Ebon!" Talia shouts when she sees his body undergo his transformation.
"He can't be helped and he's giving us a chance to escape. We need to take it now!"
"But where is it going?" the shadow that grabbed you by the arm asks.
"He said to friends, but quite frankly it could lead into the middle of an Empire battalion and I think we'd still have better chances! Now come on!"

Without another word you all enter the portal. Within seconds your eyes are nearly blinded by the whiteness of snow and you feel a blast of cold air whipping around you.

"DIE! Shadow bastard!" you suddenly hear and turn around just in time to avoid a sword strike to the head. Realizing that this is an Empire soldier and not a Derro, you quickly dispatch your assailant who falls turning the snow red.

When you said being transported into the middle of an Empire battalion would be a better situation, you didn't actually mean it! Fortunately it isn't quite as bad as all that.

Getting your bearings you notice you're on a battlefield. The bodies of several Empire troops lay on the ground and are mixed in with those of orcs and shadows. A great fortress looms in the distance.

"Fort Defiance…" you say to yourself.
"Brother, we're over here!" one of the shadows calls out to you and you run over to the group. (Apparently, all the others teleported to a place out of immediate danger!)

"Are we in Rask?" the shadow who grabbed you asks. You still don't know his name, you can only guess he was one of the newer recruits after you joined.
"Well it doesn't look like Delurg that's for sure. I'm guessing that group ahead of us fighting the Empire troops are our brothers and sisters from Fort Defiance." Talia says.
"Looks like it, well no time like the present, we need to go help them."
"But what about those two? They're badly wounded and can't fight properly." The new shadow asks.
"(Sigh) Very well, you, what's your name anyway?"
"I'm Brother Gannon. I just joined recently…"
"Yes brother, we can get all that getting to know you stuff out of the way later. I want you to take those two and head over to that fort in the distance. I'm sure they can get help there. What about you Talia, I know you're wounded too, do you need any first aid?"

Talia draws her weapon.

"I'll worry about my minor cuts after we take care of this Empire scum." She answers in a harsh tone.
"Okay then let's go down there and drive back the Empire!" you answer back.

You and Talia sprint as fast as you can to where all the action is taking place. Swords are clashed, halberds are swung, skulls are smashed and heads are severed. Mostly all in your favor and the Empire troops were actually losing even before you got here. Still, it's good to be on a winning side of a fight today and you feel energized by the battle.

A short reunion occurs as you finish off the last of the stubborn Empire soldiers.

"What the…? What are you doing here?! I thought you were supposed to be in the Quala province!"Cyrus exclaims running his sword through an enemy.
"Things change brother and how have you been doing?" you answer doing the same.
"We've been getting wave after wave of Empire skirmishers recently, but nothing serious yet. Honestly I would've thought we would've had a full on assault by now. I think they're trying to whittle us down, it won't work though. We're entrenched and have people all over the area slowly turning the population of Rask against them…is that Talia over there? What's SHE doing here? Last I heard she was supposed to be back in Gloom helping with the ritual that Master Ebon and Brother Gray were doing."
"Like I said, things change Cyrus."

At this moment there is a lull in the fighting that allows Cyrus to actually stop fighting. He looks at you his expression is one you've never seen before. One of genuine worry.

"Oh no…what happened?"

You don't even know where to begin.

"Cyrus let's just get through this battle and celebrate THIS victory over the Empire. We can dwell on the troubled times to come later."

The pair of you say nothing more for the rest of the battle which soon ends with your victory. You just wish it was a better one, because it cannot possibly counteract the incredible loss you have suffered this dark day.

You think back on how you told Murk in his dying breaths that the Empire would fall, you also think back to how Master Ebon believed it would fall in his on dying breaths. If you had to guess, you think Talia probably still believes it and you know Cyrus will even when you tell him all that has happened. The righteousness in the shadows' cause and its unwavering faith in Dendrin has always been its strength that it cannot lose no matter how bad the odds.

Of course it would help if you actually believed all that nonsense.

Which brings you to your next dilemma: You already let it slip to Talia that you spoke to Dendrin and Brother Gannon was also there to hear it (and maybe even the other two wounded shadows heard it as well) , so it'll probably be brought up after everyone is caught up to speed on the war front and what happened at Gloom. The fact that Dendrin spoke to you is actually why you're here in the first place.

The question is should you even mention what Dendrin said to you or just lie about what he said? Your own feelings on the situation are that Dendrin, god or not, is not worth following let alone creating a fanatical religion around. He obviously doesn't give a shit about any of you and sees you all as amusing toys at best. However, given the grim situation, the misguided slavish devotion to Dendrin might be the only thing that'll keep their spirits up. Not to mention you wonder if you'd even be believed. Cyrus himself is a very dedicated believer, he may even turn violent and you aren't even sure if Talia would believe you.

You tell the truth about Dendrin

You really can't pay any more lip service to Dendrin after what you know and it's silly to let this charade go on. What's the point of rebelling against the Empire if it was solely built on the whim of a being that doesn't even care about his own followers anymore?

After Cyrus catches you up on the situation at Rask, you and Talia tell him what happened at Gloom. Talia fills in the details better since she was actually there. Cyrus seems a little distraught at hearing so many shadows dying nevermind losing the shadow home, but he doesn't seem broken in his goals to continue to fight the Empire.

"It doesn't matter, we've still got agents in the Quala province and other places. Once we reconnect with the various cells we can regroup. We need to tell the others here though now, the sooner we get this information out the way the quicker they can deal with the loss. The Empire is desperate and we'll overcome whatever else they decide to throw at us because Dendrin will see us to victory."
"Yeah, about that I've got some more to tell you, in fact Talia you'll want to hear this as well. And before I start I need to both to not interrupt until I'm finished. Afterwards you can do what you like."

This gets their attention and they sit down to listen to your tale. You start from the moment Dendrin first spoke to you and go from there. The look on both of their faces is first one of shock then as you explain more, Cyrus' face is one of calmness with a simmering anger that is only growing with every "blasphemy" you speak about Dendrin. He eventually closes his eyes as if blocking out the sight of you will help keep him from attacking you.
Talia's expression displays more of a concern than anger. You aren't sure if it's because she believes you or is pained by the idea that someone she loves is basically speaking out against something she has placed unwavering faith in.

You'll soon find out you suppose.

When you finish, there is a moment of silence and then Cyrus takes a deep and opens his eyes. You feel him staring right through you and you are ready to fight if necessary, but he speaks instead.

"Is that it?" he asks.
"Yes." You reply.
"What the hell do you hope to gain by this?"
"Wha? Nothing, I just feel that the…"
"And I'm supposed to believe this shit?"
"Believe what you want Cyrus, it's the truth."
"No, it isn't! Look I can believe that Dendrin perhaps warned you about Gloom because it was a dire situation, but I DO NOT BELIEVE…" Cyrus catches himself raising his voice and then stops to calm down again.

"I do not believe that you were speaking to him on a regular basis. Only Master Ebon could speak with him in such a manner!"
"He couldn't speak to Dendrin at all! He even admitted as much before he died! Talia was there for that, come on back me up here!"

Talia turns away and hides her face. It's obvious now that she believes you, but doesn't WANT to believe you. Her silence though doesn't help in convincing Cyrus.

"Just because you're mates doesn't mean you're allowed to bully her into your heretical way of thinking!"
"What? No! Look, I can drag in Brother Gannon and confirm it as well since I'm pretty sure he heard everything as well!"
"No, you're not poisoning anyone else with this shit. I can't believe…I mean where do I fucking start? You've stood here and just admitted that you've never been a believer in Dendrin! That's the whole foundation of our organization!"
"Okay first of all I never said I didn't believe in him. He's very real and I know because he's been playing games with the shadows for centuries and fucking with my head since I met the bastard."
"Yes, so you've said. So why you? You say that when you first met him during the ceremony that you resisted him and then gave in only to save your own life. You even said you still weren't sure if you weren't going to turn us all in to Mr. Mol when he questioned us that one time. Why would Dendrin speak with someone whose faith in him was so lacking?"
"Fuck, I don't know Cyrus! Don't you think I've tried to figure that out? My best assessment? He's a sadistic fucker that gets bored easily so he finds new ways to amuse himself."
"You insult Dendrin one more time and it'll be your last." Cyrus warns.
"Oh fuck you Cyrus, you've wanted to kill me since we were Mistresses class. Just admit it and stop hiding behind an excuse."
"Really? Is that what you think? Because if it is, then you're wrong about that as well. Yes, it's true I didn't like you for a long time, but after that moment when all of us walked out of Mr. Mol's interrogation room without betraying the shadows and staying true to the cause my opinion of you changed. I saw then we really were as brothers. Pity it turned out to be a lie. A horrible vicious lie."

At this point Talia steps in.

"So where does this leave us?"
"What do you mean?" you ask.
"I mean you've been keeping this all a secret for years. Why tell us now when things are at their worst for us?"
"I…don't know. Maybe because things ARE at their worst and if we're going to continue this fight against the Empire, then we need to do it for the right reasons rather than for the misguided devotion of a false god…"
"DENDRIN IS NOT A FALSE GOD!" Cyrus snaps and attempts to tackle you. You and he roll around on the floor punching each other for a while until you both finally break a few pieces of furniture and back off to catch a breather. Talia tells the both of you stop fighting.

As you stare at him from across the room, you know that some part of him must be questioning his beliefs. If he really thought you were completely full of shit, he would've made more of an effort to try to kill you. And this scuffle tells you is he's pissed at you for making him question his beliefs. Still doesn't mean he won't try to kill you later if you press this issue, but it's more than you could've hoped for.

"Look Cyrus, I know this sucks and maybe Dendrin is a god… I know he certainly thinks he is, but I'm still not following him. It's enough that I have to listen to his cryptic warnings and outright taunts on a random basis. I do see the need for the Empire to fall because it's corrupt, it's inefficient, and it's oppressive. However, I also see that in this shadow organization. How can you be against something when you're part of something else that's just as bad?"

Cyrus doesn't answer he's still standing there fuming at you, but Talia says something.

"I understand what you're saying, but Dendrin has at least given us our powers and shadow magic. Maybe everything what you've said about him is true, but does it really matter? In a way he sparked this rebellion centuries before any of us were even around. Without him, would their even been a rebellion able to hurt the Empire as bad as it has? I mean even with all that happened at Gloom, I still believe as Cyrus does that victory will come. I'm sure the orcs, the elves, the poor, the criminals and others all have their own reasons for wanting to see the Empire fall. Does it really matter why as long their beliefs carry them to see it through?"
"(Sigh) No, I guess it doesn't Talia, but maybe for ME it does and I can't be a shadow anymore, or at least not one that buys into this worship of Dendrin. I can't live a lie and just go through the motions anymore. Now I will continue to fight the Empire. I'm still here for that, if I wasn't I would've betrayed you all to Mr. Mol years ago. Though I might be fighting the damned Empire for the most cliché reason ever now, which is love. When we bonded Talia, that's what gave me more of a purpose to fight the Empire more than anything. It's why I even went back to Gloom AFTER Dendrin told me not to. I couldn't leave you in potential danger."
"Oh fucking spare me your romantic sense of nobility!"
"Cyrus stop!" Talia yells.
"He's just using honeyed words to get you on his side and somehow excuse his blasphemy. I can't believe you're even listening to him or even trying to see his side of things."
"Oh really Cyrus and your reasons for fighting the Empire are purely for Dendrin huh?" you say.
"Of course, why else would they be?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe a certain shadow by the name of Draven comes to mind? Sure you aren't just a little more dedicated because of him?"
"You leave Draven out of this!"
"Fine, but your little outburst just proved my point. You're ready to fight me again just for mentioning his name which proves you might be doing a little of this for love as well."
"I'm ready to fight you again, because you're attempting to sew chaos and dissent and I for one have had enough! If you want to abandon Dendrin fine. If you want to continue fighting the Empire for your own reasons fine. But you're not doing it here. I want you out of my fucking fort and I don't want to see you ever again!"
"You can't kick me out, you're not head of the fucking shadows." You laugh.
"Oh no? All of our leaders are dead! WE are the next in line if you haven't noticed and quite frankly I've got more support than you do. Always have. And if I wanted to I could expose your heresy to the shadows in the fort and have your head right now. The only reason why I'm not? Because I'm doing this out of respect for Talia and at one time I did consider you my brother. But you're nothing to me now. You're not an ally, you're not a brother, you're not a friend!"

You look over to Talia hoping for support, but she offers none.

"Talia, aren't you going to help me over here? All your professed love for me meaning nothing? Aren't we supposed to be mates?"
"And we always will be my love…but I cannot follow your path. I just can't…I'm sorry…"
"But…" you start to say, but you see that it won't do any good. You thought you were getting through to them too, but it would appear that even in the face of the truth, they are willing to stay in denial. Not even love can overcome faith it seems.

You gather up all your belongings and start to leave, but you turn to address both of them before doing so.

"You both know I'm right and you know why? Because all three of us have another bond and that's the fact we're Eternals and as such we have a tendency to acknowledge a hierarchy especially among our own kind even if we don't want to do it. Cyrus, I'm stronger than you, I'm smarter than you and just better than you in general. You've always known that. If we were in any other organization, I would be your superior officer or leader and what I would say would be unquestioned because you'd know that as your superior, I'd ALWAYS be right. You just can't admit it to yourself and let's face it, given how you flaunted how much support you had and how our leaders are dead, I'd say your true Eternal colors are finally showing. Talia…well I think you know where we stand. You were the one that brought up our bond as Eternals years ago. One would think that you would be listening to that instinct now, but for some reason you're not. When you're ready to tell me, I'll be around."

With those last words you leave Fort Defiance wondering if they'll ever face the truth. In the mean time you now have to figure out how to fight a one man war against the Empire. A daunting task to be sure, but part of you feels strangely free now that you've officially broken away from the shadows. Time will tell if you've broken away from Dendrin however.

You time passes…

Year 30

You throw another log on to the fire in an effort to keep warm. A futile task, but it's better than freezing. You'd like to stay in a town, but Empire troops seem to be everywhere in Rask nowadays ever since they halted the war with the Felkan Kingdom. From what you hear it wasn't exactly on favorable terms either, but you imagine that they needed to just so they had enough manpower to fight the rebellion.

And if it isn't them, then it's the shadows who you've had a few unfortunate runs in with over the past couple years. Seems Cyrus told everyone you were a heretic after all. You aren't really surprised though, you even understand it. He's trying to solidify his power base and he still sees you as a potential threat even though you have no desire to take anything he has, let alone the shadows. You haven't even heard Dendrin's voice since you left the shadows and while you're glad of that, it's still like everyone has completely abandoned you. (Your shadow magic abilities have weakened quite a bit, but aren't gone completely, so you're guessing Dendrin's probably still watching you for whatever twisted reason.)

You wish you could figure out why Talia turned on you though, but the only answer you can come up with is her bond with the shadows was stronger than her bond with you despite everything you shared.

It doesn't sadden you so much as it disappoints you though perhaps you had too much faith in the relationship. You laugh to yourself about that one since you probably lost faith in the Empire and Dendrin quicker than you did in Talia. Even now you still hold out the hope that she'll return to you and see that her own in Dendrin is incorrect.

Of course this also makes you question why the hell you're still doing all this. Like fighting the Empire for instance, why are you still bothering? When you were first part of the shadows, you were united with them in their cause if not their reasons. It wasn't probably the best motivation, but it was enough for you at that point because back then you were so damn confused about who you should even be loyal to.

When you got together with Talia, your motivation became stronger. However that motivation is all gone. Talia isn't around and the shadows have for the most part turned on you. Why bother? What are you getting out of it really? Even if the Empire does fall, then what? The shadows original plan was to go back to their old ways of private worship, but if Cyrus' leadership is any indication that plan will be thrown out. He'll most likely just try to carve out a nation of his own using similar oppressive measures.

You doubt he'll get the chance though. Sure the Empire has been greatly weakened, but by your observations it'll eventually overwhelm the rebellion through sheer numbers alone and things will most likely go back to the way they were before and the people will just accept it. It's not like your efforts are even appreciated by anyone at this point. The more you think about it, the more you think how you probably should've just stayed loyal to the Empire. You would've saved yourself a whole lot of hassle.

You wonder if you're just going through the motions because you don't have anything better to do. Though perhaps that's not entirely true, there is ONE thing that has stayed with you and that's your love of battle.

You think that has to be a major part of it. You could be fighting Empire soldiers or shadows and it ultimately wouldn't matter to you (And it really doesn't at this point because they're both hostile to you) you just like getting into the thick of combat and striking down whatever enemy that's in your way. Makes you think you'd probably be better off working as a mercenary like those svelk do. Unfortunately you don't really have that option considering both sides of this conflict hate you. If you wanted to pursue that life you'd have to move on to a different land somewhere, after the world has to be a bigger place than what you've seen right?

Still, you aren't and have never been motivated by money. You figure if it really is battle lust that's keeping you going then you might as well stay here since there's no shortage of it. And despite your brief period of re-assessing your situation, you are still hoping Talia will one day see the light and come back to you.

In the meantime you're just going to have to live off the land and continue the fight though you don't even know how much longer that's going to last, Captain Kane has been pushing for final victory a lot harder lately.

You know Cyrus has sent out assassination attempts against him, but they've all failed. Kane might not have the fancy shadow tricks, but he's still an Eternal and a pretty vicious one. Really you're sort of disappointed that Cyrus wouldn't at least try to do the deed himself, if he's serious about being a leader.

Likewise Kane has tried to take Fort Defiance, but so far it has lived up to its name, the problem though is it won't for long. The Empire has slowly been putting down the major rebellions in the south, and Captain Roldan has been hunting the remaining shadows still down there and doing a good job of it too. This means more troops have been getting sent up to Rask lately. Not enough to finish off the shadows, but enough to start making a difference in swinging the long stalemate.

It doesn't help that the alliance with the orcs has broken down with the shadows and you've heard rumors that their ring leader Gruz was finally caught in the act of sabotaging and misinformation and executed. Flog took it upon himself to take charge and didn't agree with how Cyrus was doing things since the orcs were still taking the brunt of the casualties. One would think this would've ended in bloodshed, but Flog apparently was remarkably forward thinking for an orc.

Flog took the remainder of his people and headed even further north to where the giants, ogres and other manner of monsters make their homes. As far as he was concerned the Empire wasn't going to ever be able to extend its territory that far north in the state they're in and saw no more reason to waste more lives to help the shadows (who only saw them as tools anyway).

As it stands the shadows, civilian dissidents and even some soldiers that turned traitor are about all that's left to defend Fort Defiance. Village and town support is next to nil now. There are probably still a few rebel bands hiding in the wilderness (much like you do) but you'd venture to say that they do even less damage than you do, which is pretty sad considering they at least have a bit more support and people than you do.

This rebellion will be crushed in a few months if something doesn't change quickly and about the only thing that's going to do that at this point is doing something Cyrus has been failing to do: Killing Kane. Get him out of way and it'll probably take months for the Empire to get their shit together before they put in an equally competent person. (You'd guess that will probably be Roldan, but you'll have to deal with that later.) It'll give the rebellion a bit of breathing room up here in Rask at least.

The question is how to do it. You could try to break into Fort Destiny, but security there is always at maximum and your shadow magic stealth tricks aren't as strong now. Even trying to disguise yourself as a guard might only get you so far. Still, you can always trust that your combat skills will get you through day if magic and trickery fail.

You also could wait for an opportunity for Kane to leave the fort, he does do that from time to time when he wants to make an example of a town or engage in a major battle. The problem is the next major battle he'll probably engage in is trying to take Fort Defiance again, and by that time it'll be too late since he'll probably win this time.

This means you're going to have to do something that'll make him so angry that he'll want to make an example of some hapless village that isn't falling in line with the Empire.

You sneak into the fort

Elaborate plans usually mean more chance of failure, better to just stick with a simple assassination where you're at least sure to face Kane. You make preparations mainly in the form of a making a strong poison. The shadows always used them on their bolts, but given that Kane's an Eternal he's not going to be floored by the stuff instantly. Ideally you'll get a single shot while he's asleep, but who knows how this is going to play out so you take the time to heavily poison several small throwing daggers you'll take with you as well. Not very sporting perhaps, but you're trying to accomplish a very difficult task by yourself as quickly as possible.

The next day you make you way to the outskirts of Fort Destiny, making sure to avoid getting spotted by the multiple patrols along the way. One thing about the Empire is they typically stick to certain building designs. While you weren't in Fort Defiance very long you do remember the layout. If you're lucky, Fort Destiny's layout should be similar.

Sneaking about and scaling the walls of the fort aren't really a problem for you. You don't even need to rely on your magic that much. You make things easier for yourself by slitting the throat of an isolated guard in one of the towers and disguising yourself in his clothing and armor. It won't fool everyone, especially if they take a closer look, but it should help.

As you make your way through the fort you're relieved to find that the layout is indeed very similar to Fort Defiant's layout. This will make escape a lot easier. The closer you think you're getting to Kane's quarters the larger amount of soldiers standing around as guards. Eventually you get to a point where there's no way you've going to be able to bluff or sneak your way in. You're going to just have to kill them, the problem is that's going to alert everyone. So you do the only thing you can think of.

You cloak yourself and start tossing your poisoned throwing daggers at the soldiers. Naturally you catch them off guard and the poison is strong enough to kill them almost instantly. While you've cleared the way and done it as silently as you were able, there's still enough noise of their lifeless bodies hitting the floor.

This is just enough noise to alert Kane who was sleeping in his quarters, or perhaps he wasn't sleeping since when he steps out of his room, he's fully dressed in battle armor (It's entirely possible he sleeps in it though) with axe in hand.

He's certainly as imposing as his reputation.

Wasting no time you throw your remaining daggers at him and shoot your armbow bolt at him. The daggers unfortunately are deflected from his armor or he dodges them completely, the bolt sinks into his arm, but the poison doesn't seem to slow him down.

"Pfah! You shadows and your poisons. I developed immunities to those years ago! Now fight like a man!" he says and charges at you.

You block his attack just barely. In fact he keeps on the pressure for a good five minutes before you can even maneuver in such a way to attack back. By this time more soldiers have arrived, but Kane shouts at them saying he wants to slay you himself. They obey, but there's enough of them to block all the immediate exits. This is pretty grim, even if you win, you don't see how you're going to get out alive, unless you impress them so much with your victory that you break their morale.

Of course first you have to win, and right now that's looking more doubtful by the second. Kane is matching you in combat skill in everyway. In fact he's actually a little bit better than you and you're forced to rely on your shadow magic to give you a slight edge.

It doesn't give much of one though; Kane's slaughtered so many shadows trying to assassinate him with magic that he's developed his own battle style against them. Your own weak magic is more of a hindrance to you in the long run as you quickly begin to get fatigued from using it.

"What's the matter outcast? Weak magic, because you're no longer Dendrin's favored? Ha ha! I know who you are and you're a disgrace to the name Eternal!" Kane remarks and slams you into the wall with all of his weight. You feel like all the air has left your body and you struggle to catch your breath when you receive another slam to your head with his metal gauntlet.

Bleeding from your head and lying prone of the floor isn't a great position during any sort of fight and this one is no exception. Kane wastes no time in finishing you off with an axe blow to your face.

The Butcher of Rask has claimed another victory.