Year 30

The day has come at last, the Felkan capital; Dessel has been broken wide open. Its defenses have been shattered and all that's left now is to scoop out the soft underbelly within.

"How long do you think they'll hold out?" Roldan asks.
"A few more hours, perhaps even a day. No more I suspect. I have to admit that I thought the remaining Felkan ruling class would've surrendered long before now, let alone fight to the bitter end. I suppose they were still carrying out the will of their gnomish masters even though most of them are dead or soon will be." You remark.
"I know they had a lot of influence and were responsible for the technological inventions along with running the merchant guilds, but do you really believe the Felkan Kingdom was run by gnomes?"
"Of course. Its what the Emperor believed and ultimately that's been the purpose of this whole war, to eliminate the gnome threat. Happily with this final nail in the coffin, that's been accomplished."
"You know some of them probably escaped long before the war started going badly for the Felkans."
"Perhaps, but I'm sure in time they will be found. The Emperor's domain has already been extended much within the past few years alone, I'm sure eventually it will cover the entire world and in the long run all those that oppose the Emperor will be brought to justice. Either by me, or by someone else loyal to his service."
"Well, until such time I'm just wondering where I'll be assigned after all this. Personally I'm hoping to get a little free time so I can see my wife Brenda again. It's been so long and I miss her. I'm sure you feel something similar about Alison."

You pause for a moment before speaking.

"I will go where my duty takes me after this assignment. Alison understands that, she is a military woman after all." You remark.
"Well of course, but I was just stating that it would be nice to take a break from duty for a moment to enjoy the company of someone you care about."
"We're Eternals Roldan. So is Brenda for that matter. Our existence is duty. You would do well to remember that."
"I am aware of it! I was just…oh forget it." Says and walks away from you.

You and Roldan have been a little less cordial to each other lately, then again the two of you never have quite "clicked" with each other for some reason. Actually there are probably several reasons on your side as well as his, but you aren't going to waste your time pondering them since you are both able to work together in a professional manner and never engaged in anything other than the low level disagreements. As long as the respect is still there between you two, why bother analyzing it?

Besides this mission is nearly over now anyway. You're fairly certain you'll be reassigned somewhere else. You do wonder if you'll get some down time as Roldan mentioned though.

If you do, you're more than likely going to try to spend some of it with Alison, though you've still been going back and forth on how well that's going to go when you tell her what happened two years ago. You certainly couldn't tell her something like that in a letter and from what letters you've received from her she still doesn't know. Mistress probably wouldn't tell her to stir up chaos because it would be more fun letting you worry about it for all this time. You're just glad you never had to help assist Mistress at Gnome's Home again, though now you're even wondering if that was ever a real order from the Emperor when it did occur.

You haven't spoken to the Emperor directly or even indirectly in quite some time either. That's actually been a little concerning to you as well. Still, you figure you soon will be when this is all over and the Felkans have finally been crushed once and for all.

You watch the capital smoke and burn in the distance. Occasionally a small explosion causes pieces of the already breached wall fly into several directions.

"Well I'm not going to miss out on all the fun, before it's over." You say to yourself and head towards the city.

As it turns out you don't miss much. The city's defenders consist of mostly children and elders at this point. They don't provide too much resistance now that they have no walls to hide behind. The royal guard is still around but quick work is made of them. As for the royals themselves most of them took the coward's way out. You find several of them lying dead at their lavish dinner table with several knocked over empty wine cups.

Upon further searching you find what you guess to be the royal bedroom and who you guess to be the Felkan king and queen lying dead in the bed. They must've taken the same poison since you see the same cups near the bodies. As you study the pair of them and how they are holding hands in death, you notice a crib in the corner of the room. While you're inspecting this, Warrick walks in.

"Oh there you are. We've found that some of these rooms lead to a system of secret passages. We've already started to explore them, but we haven't found anyone yet. I don't even think they lead outside the city, just to other portions of the palace. Looks like we won." Warrick remarks.
"Looks that way. Sort of a disappointing climax given how the Felkans insisted on dragging this out. Continue your search though; someone still might be hiding in them. You find any gnomes?"
"No and I don't believe there are any in city either. At least no reports have popped up about any."
"Guess we got all of them then. The Emperor will be pleased to hear that. Carry on."

For the next few days you observe the destruction of Dessel. Roldan remarks that the city shouldn't be destroyed, but rather appropriated by the Empire as it wouldn't take much to rebuild the damage and would be easier than building a brand new city here. Orders are orders though. While the Emperor might've relaxed his zeal on burning every Felkan city to the ground, he was still pretty clear about the capital. You imagine he sees it as the last symbol of gnomish defiance.

In the middle of this process Jacob unexpectedly visits you.

"Didn't expect to see you here." You remark while sharpening your weapon.
"Well the Emperor wants to see you, plus I also have to speak with Roldan and Warrick about their next assignments, so I figured I might as well come here in person." Jacob says looking around at the destruction. "So, it's finally done. The Felkan Kingdom is no more. I have to admit, I was worried about this war on more than one occasion."
"You don't need to tell me, you told me on more than one occasion. You should've had more faith in the Emperor, he knew its destruction was inevitable."
"Well, thanks in part to your actions no doubt." Jacob says with a brief smile.
"I am merely the weapon which does the job. If you're looking for Roldan, he's in the large tent on that small hill over to the east. Warrick's probably with him. I need to get going if the Emperor wishes to see me…is Mistress going to be there?"
"I don't believe so."
"Good, don't really need the negativity ruining this moment." You remark and begin to leave.
"Um…there's something else I need to talk to you about before you leave." Jacob says hesitantly.
"What?"
"It's about the Emperor, he's uh…well…"
"He's what?! What is he?! Jacob, just spit it out."
"He's sick."
"What? Sick? That's ridiculous! I've never known him to ever show illness."
"I know it may seem hard to believe, but I'm telling you last time I spoke with him, he didn't look well. He seemed very tired and just really pale."
"He runs the Empire! Of course there's going to be times he's going to be tired! It has to be taxing keeping track of everything. As for being pale, he doesn't exactly go skipping about in the sunlight you know."
"I know all that. Look, just when you see him you'll know what I'm talking about. I mean I'm sure the Emperor will live a very long time, but we should prepare…um…just in case…"
"Just in case what Jacob?" you ask beginning to get angry at the insinuation that the Emperor may die. Jacob sensing he's overstepped a boundary quickly shuts up.
"Erm…nevermind. Forget I said anything. I'm worrying too much as usual…but still…(sigh) forget it. I'll let you get on your way."

You shake your head and begin to leave again, when Jacob once again stops you.

"Oh one more thing. Before you go see the Emperor, you're supposed to make a visit to Gnome's Home first."
"Are you fucking kidding me? Aren't all the gnomes there dead by now?"
"Maybe, I dunno. Something to do with souls I think. I never did know exactly what went on there, and I don't really think I want to know. All I do know is you're supposed to assist."
"Assist who? Mistress? I already assisted her once there and let's just say what transpired wasn't pleasant. She hasn't needed my assistance for the past two years since that time, why does she need it now all of a sudden? Fuck that, I'm not helping her anytime soon. In fact if I saw her again, I'd probably kill the bitch after what happened last time!"

Jacob begins to step back from you.

"Easy now, I'm just the messenger here. I don't even know if she's there. It's what the Emperor told me to tell you. I mean if you don't want to do it, I suggest you take it up with him personally."

At this point you might just do that. Nobody can question your loyalty or your dedication to the Emperor, but this request…its just asking too much. You thought he spoke with her about leaving you alone and she's already ignored that. How long must you put up with this svelk bitch?

You go directly to the Emperor

You get on your horse and make your way to the Empire capital.

You're not doing it, plain and simple. The Emperor can deal with you as he sees fit, but you are not going to help Mistress for any reason. You made the attempt and it resulted in trickery again.

Besides, why the hell should you follow every little menial task? You've been instrumental in keeping the damn Empire together; you shouldn't be subjugated to such indignities! Jacob just told you the Emperor is sick, well he better watch it if he wants to stick around long enough to get better.

You can't believe you just thought such a thing. What the hell is wrong with you? The thoughts and acts of disobedience are bad enough, but to actually consider…

You can't even think it again. Something must be seriously wrong with your mind. Maybe Mistress did something more to you. Maybe she did some sort of magic spell to your head to make you harbor thoughts of dissension. At least you hope that's case, because if she didn't then you'd have to come to grips that you thought about killing the Emperor all on your own. Whatever the reason, you'll be keeping that one to yourself.

When you get to the Emperor's chambers you hear him call for you immediately. Some coughing immediately follows his voice. You've definitely never heard him do that before

"There you are my son, I'm glad to see you. It's been so long since we've talked face to face." He says as he sits hunched over a desk. He almost looks like he's struggling to prop himself up. Maybe he is as sick as Jacob says. He's as pale as Jacob said and his eyes are starting to have a sunken in looking appearance. What used to look like a man in his fifties now looks more like a man in his seventies. In fact he almost looks a bit more like how you thought he was going to when you first met him.
You know he's powerful. Certainly more powerful than you, but he looks so much frailer now. It makes you ashamed that you had thoughts about killing him; especially after all he's done for you.

"Emperor! I was told you were sick, but I didn't believe it! How?"
"Sick? (Cough cough) Well I suppose that's one way of putting it. I'm guessing Jacob told you I was practically on my death bed or something. He still worries too much and you shouldn't either. I'm not sick, I'm…well its complicated, but suffice to say, I'm not dying anytime soon. Trust me on that one. Now I'd (Cough cough) like a report on the Felkans. Have we finally destroyed them once and for all?"

"Yes, the capital has been taken and is in the process of being destroyed. The battle mages will be casting defilement spells to make sure nothing ever grows there again. The ruling royals from what we can tell all committed mass suicide."
"Figures. But as long as everyone's dead, it's still good. So what about gnomes? Any in the capital?"
"None. I can only guess we got all of them at Gnome's Home."
"One can (cough cough) only hope. So have they all been sentenced to oblivion yet?"
"I don't know, I haven't been Gnome's Home."
"You haven't? I thought you got here pretty quickly. Surely Jacob told you that I wanted you to go there."
"Yes, he told me I was to go there to assist and I know that could only mean assisting Mistress with the destruction of gnome souls. It was with great regret that I disobeyed this order, but I simply cannot help that woman again, if ever. The last time I made the attempt was two years ago when I was assisting her at Gnome's Home and there was some…unpleasantness."
"Was there now? I hadn't heard about this and I spoke to her about leaving you alone, as you well know. So what exactly happened? She try to kill you?"
"No, she (sigh) made unwanted advances on me. I turned her down, and later when I went back to my camp she magically disguised herself as Alison and slept with me that way. I of course didn't now until afterwards."
""Is that all? Here I was thinking it was something serious." the Emperor replies in a bored tone followed by more coughing. "However, I can see that this is something that was very serious to you so I will of course dismiss your transgression of not following orders…again. In the future I will also make sure that you and her are never to work together under any circumstances. I guess my attempt at being peacemaker didn't work out. (cough cough) Doesn't matter anyway, but tell me what are you exactly mad concerning that situation that occurred? I get the impression it's more than just Mistress fucking with you as usual."

He's right. The fact that Mistress tricked you isn't what bothered you the most; it's the fact that you unwittingly betrayed Alison. The fact that Mistress cloaked herself as someone you have feelings for…no someone you LOVE to trick you just made it all the worse. You tell the Emperor as much, he nods in between another coughing fit.

"So, you do love this Alison girl then? It's not just lust or perhaps a fleeting fancy. You actually love her?" the Emperor asks.
"I do."
"And this girl, she feels the same way?"
"I believe she does."
"Hmm, you better be sure son."
"Yes, I know she does."
"I see… well do you want some advice?"
"From you, of course."
" (cough cough) Shit. (cough) Okay, here it is then, you'll save yourself some pain if you end this relationship altogether. Now just listen. I know you're an intelligent person and an excellent strategist in the matters of war, but on the matters of love you're…and I don't mean this as an insult…but you're a little inexperienced. It's okay though, even after several centuries I still haven't figured it all out yet. But I still know more than you and I'm telling you that you'll be better off not getting deeply involved with such things. Why do you think I've never had an Empress by my side? It complicates things to a whole new level and that's complications YOU don't need."

You're speechless for a moment. You can't think of anything to say except…

"Is this an order?"
"An order? No, I'd never give such an order concerning matters of the heart; it is merely advice. You may do as you wish. In fact you may do as you wish for quite some time. I'm giving you some down time in light of our glorious victory over the Felkans. We'll of course be having some celebrations going on here in the capital so if you get the chance you should probably (cough cough) join in the (cough cough) festivities. When you're needed to return to duty, I'll send for you as usual. I also want you to know, I'm proud of you son and for all you've done for the Empire and know you'll continue to serve the Empire loyally (cough cough) and with dedication in the future."

The Emperor at this point slowly gets up and heads off towards his bedroom area coughing the whole time. You almost ask him if he needs help, but you'd rather not insult him. Besides you're too busy pondering his advice to you about Alison.

Even you thought about how being in a relationship with Alison put you in a position to fall for Mistress' trickery. You think about Roldan and how he's married and it doesn't seem to affect his judgment, but it's different for him. He's married to another Eternal and he doesn't have the responsibilities you have.

But as they say, the heart wants what the heart wants and you've wanted to spend time with Alison ever since you were split up from her. And now that this war is finally over you have the time to do it. Should you break up with her just because of some potential problems in the future with Mistress or anything else?

You end things with Alison

As much as this is going to pain you to do, you need to end your relationship with Alison, if only to save her life. The more you think about it, who knows what the hell Mistress could do next and she's already proven to ignore the Emperor's warnings before. Then there's the Emperor himself. It's obvious he doesn't approve of the relationship, and continuing it could potentially be problematic. You certainly wouldn't want to fall out of favor with the Emperor even if you do love Alison.

You're going to keep this as short as possible and hopefully Alison will too. What's going to make this worse is the fact that this will be the first time you've seen each other in years.

You leave the palace and the capital to make your way to where Alison is currently stationed, which means a long ride back to the new eastern frontier of the Empire. You eventually arrive at Fort Stalwart, which is actually just a renamed and rebuilt fort once held by the ex-Felkan Kingdom.

Given your reputation, the gates are immediately opened for you. A few of the older soldiers are also probably aware of your relationship with their commanding officer so orders are already given to alert Alison of your sudden arrival. She meets you even before you make it to her office.

She flashes a smile when she sees you and goes to put her arms around you presumably to kiss you. While you'd love for her to do so, you stop Alison, which confuses the hell out her.

"What's this? Oh. The other soldiers around. You and your insistence on keeping protocol. Very well let's get to my quarters so we can get you back into your comfort zone, because its been too damn long."
"It has and we should get back to your quarters, but I'm fairly sure you're not going to be in the mood for what you probably had in mind after I tell you what I have to tell you."

Alison steps back and gives you a tilted look.

"Hmm, sounds serious. You look even more grim than usual. Well let's get this over with." Alison says and the pair of you head towards her quarters.

Her private quarters are neat and clean, as you'd expect, on the right wall you see your portrait, which is right across from her bed. Placed in such a way so the first thing she sees when she wakes up is you.

"Alright. Out with it and let's see exactly how mad you think I'm going to be at you." Alison remarks closing her door. You sit on the bed and take a deep breath then exhale giving her a look on your face, which contains a hint of regret.

"Geez…this must be bad. I don't think I've ever seen you like this. Its almost like you're afraid to tell me. Shit, maybe I better sit down too." Alison says taking a seat in one her chairs.
"Alison…I love you. I want you to know that before I say anything else. I never thought I could ever feel this way at all about anyone. It just wasn't something I was taught or even learned. (whew) Okay enough stalling. Here it is…"

You tell her that you want to end this relationship. You don't offer too much of an explanation though, just some vague reason that your duties to the Emperor are always going to take precedence and its not fair to her to have a steady relationship with you because who knows where you're going to be sent to next and for how long.

You expect Alison to show some sign of emotion at this point. For the most part she remains stoically silent just listening to everything, but you can tell she is a little surprised by this news.

"I see…well if that's what you want I won't try to argue with you about it. Everyone is an adult here and has the freedom of choice. I must admit this has taken me a bit off guard. I sort of thought our relationship was a bit more than just the occasional tumble, but apparently I was wrong. Wish I'd known before though, I could've…never mind.
"I knew you were going to be angry."
"I'm not exactly angry, I'm not sure how I feel. Look just tell me one thing because I have to know. Are you still having a sexual relationship with Mistress?"

Now this statement catches you off guard.

"What? No! I don't love Mistress! You know that!"
"I didn't ask you that. I asked you if you were still having some sort of sexual relationship with her. You don't need to be in love with her. Hell, you don't even need to like her. But you've told me enough of your past with her to know that you both have some sort of twisted attachment to one another. Now I'm going to just ask you one more time. Have you had any sort of intimate contact with her since we parted company?"

You muster up all your confidence and put on a straight face.

"No. I swear to you. I haven't."

Alison stares at you for a long time. Looking into your eyes and trying to ascertain if you're lying or not. You get the impression she doesn't believe you, however since you've never been known to be a liar (especially not to her) and your facial expression exhibits a look of truthfulness she can't completely jump to that conclusion.

"I want to believe you. I suppose if I really wanted to know, I'd tell you to swear on the life of the Emperor, but I won't do that. It wouldn't make any difference anyway, because in the scheme of things what does it matter if you're lying or not. You still came to tell me that our relationship isn't going to work even if we do have strong feelings for each other, and you're probably right. The funny thing is before I met you; I was pretty much a free spirited type when it came to relationships. I suppose I'll return to that mindset, but I'll always wonder what if?"
"Alison…"
"Goodbye Eternal, I don't want you to see what is going to come next." Alison remarks as her voice starts to crack.

And with those words she turns her back on you. You leave her to her sadness and feel awful about it, but you know it'll be better for her this way.

As for you, you'll just keep serving the Emperor as you always have.
Year 32

You look for a seat on the palace balcony to watch Roldan's big parade celebration.

Well actually it's supposed an anniversary of the Felkan Kingdom's demise, but due to Roldan's important role in the war and his popularity with the people he's certainly the major focus.

Yes, Roldan's certainly made advances since the Felkan War ended. He got assigned to wipe out the rest of the gnoll tribes in the west. Something you figured you'd get assigned to do considering you did have something to do with beating back those mongrel men in the first place.

Instead, the Emperor has been keeping you closer to home. With the recently acquired Felkan territory and the westward expansion, the Eyes are a little stretched so you've mostly been trying to eliminate the new bandit havens popping up in the old Felkan territory along with helping to fend off any desperate gnoll raids that attempt to sneak through. You're also supposed to be making sure the new "citizens" aren't planning to rebel, but given how badly they were beaten down, they're just glad that you're allowing them to live. So far no seditious activity has been detected.

You're not jealous of Roldan, it's just that you figured you'd be something a lot more important after the Felkan War. You'd rather be out there conquering new lands for the Emperor and getting into the heat of battles rather than playing super sentinel. At least if you were in active battle it would keep your mind from wandering to thoughts of Alison. It seems like not a day goes by where you don't think about her.

Even right now as you sit waiting for the parade she dwells in your thoughts, until you hear that old familiar and unwelcome voice…

"Hey lover, figured you'd be here. Jacob's been looking for you. He won't shut up about how proud he is of Roldan and how he's so happy about this farce of a celebration."

You ignore Mistress, but she keeps talking.

"He also has Roldan's wife Brenda with him. One of your old classmates as you know. She's aged horribly. I mean this is a celebration; the least she could do is attempt to fix herself up rather than stomping around in combat boots and inadequately polished armor like a common soldier. I mean just because you have a lowly status doesn't mean you always have to look the part. Oh well, I suppose if one doesn't know, one never will. But enough about her, how have you been?"

Mistress sits down next to you and puts her arm around your shoulder. You continue to try to ignore her.

"Oh come on, you can't still be mad at me. You enjoyed our time together. If you hadn't you wouldn't have wisely made your decision to split with that little shield maiden of yours. I mean I'll grant you that she had a certain rustic charm that you sometimes find in lesser creatures, but you knew deep down that she wasn't for you. Hey, I've got an idea why don't you and I go back to your private quarters and relive some old times? Has to be more appealing than watching this pointless exercise in patriotism. I'll even let you ejaculate in my mouth and swallow your sweet essence. Come on, I KNOW you'd enjoy that. Seeing me on my knees and debasing myself for you in such a manner. You'd be totally in control. Or maybe you could just bend me over raw and brutally penetrate my…"

At this point you can't ignore her anymore and you brush her arm off of you and stand up.

"Stay away from me. I'm only going to tell you once." You say, but Mistress just sits there and smiles.
"And what if I don't? Will you promise to punish me long and hard?"

Mistress says a few more vulgar things causing a bit of a scene for the other spectators. You don't know if you'll even be able to stick around for this celebration. You weren't in the best of moods before and Mistress' presence is making it worse.

You leave the celebration

You aren't sticking around to put up with Mistress' usual obscene suggestions; you're getting out of here. Mistress of course calls out to you as you leave, but doesn't follow you. On your way out you bump into Jacob and who you presume is probably Brenda, but you don't even acknowledge either of them you just want out of this place. You don't start feeling better until you leave the palace and even then you feel like your whole day has been ruined. You make your way through the hectic streets not paying too much attention to the fact that the parade has started. You're too pre-occupied with your self loathing on entertaining the idea of going back and taking Mistress up on her offer.

Then you hear a lot of screaming and yelling. This is followed by a lot of people running in all different directions.

"General Roldan's dead!"
"Shadows! The shadows are back!"
"They'll kill us all!"

You snap out of your thoughts and process this new sudden information. You see one the Eyes nearby and question him.

"Hey you! Where the hell is the rest of your unit? More importantly where the hell is Warrick?" you ask the Eye.
"My unit is trying to keep this area under control while searching the nearby buildings here. As far as I know, Sightmaster Warrick was last seen near the city gates."
"Well the palace needs some extra protection, I want you to get the rest of your unit over there now. Your primary concern is supposed to be defending the Emperor anyway!"

You make your way towards the city gates, which is a chore, but when you finally get a clear view of the gates, you find Warrick and Brenda arguing with each in the middle of the chaos.

"I've got Eyes scouring the city and mages casting detection spells to back them up, I'm doing all I can Brenda!" Warrick exclaims.
"Well you're sure doing a bang up job of that eyeboy, considering you weren't even able to prevent my husband from getting fucking decapitated in front of everyone! That was a fucking shadow Warrick! It probably already left the city already!" Brenda retorts.
"I'm well aware of what it was Brenda, I had to track down and fight them a lot more than you ever did!"
"And given that your group was supposed to have wiped them out, you fucked up on that job too!"
"Brenda if you want to go on your own personal manhunt, fine, you don't need my permission to do it. Go find and grab the nearest mage and have at it! I don't have time to argue with you, I'm having a hard enough time trying to coordinate everything in this chaos right now."

Warrick looks semi-relieved when he sees you arrive.

"I'm glad you're here, you've got magic abilities. Can you take Brenda with you?"

Brenda turns to you though she isn't as happy to see you either.

"Great, the other fuck up who was supposed to have been responsible for the extermination of the shadows." Brenda remarks.
"Brenda I know you're angry right now and understandably upset, but I'm not going to tolerate the same sort of verbal abuse you've been heaping on Warrick. Now I'll certainly help you, but we're going to do this without the arguing."

Your calm yet firm demeanor doesn't quell the high emotions going through Brenda right now, but they do at least establish a behavior guideline.

"Alright fine." She remarks.
"Good, now let's start checking the sewers."
"The sewers? Are you sure?" Brenda asks.
"No, but I'm making a good guess that it being a shadow, it probably hasn't gone far and is enjoying the whole idea of hiding right under our noses and possibly even planning the next step to cause further chaos. Besides, shit is often found in the sewers."
"I've got people already searching the sewers." Warrick pipes up.
"Yeah well, maybe if you had some stationed there and had a thorough search of the sewers before the parade none of this would be necessary now."
"That's not fair, Jacob said…"
"I don't want to hear it Warrick. As far as I'm concerned Brenda's got a right to be pissed at you considering you were supposed to be in charge of security for this thing."

Leaving Warrick behind, you and Brenda find the nearest manhole and descend into the smelly darkness. And it does smell pretty awful. Still not as bad as Gnome's Home though, you don't think anything will ever smell worse than that place.

You keep a detection spell constantly on hoping it will catch something worthwhile, but you know this is a long shot and the equivalent of looking for a needle in a haystack. Still, you couldn't just sit around doing nothing. Brenda might've been out of line speaking to you in such a manner, but in some ways you do feel a little responsible since you thought you'd wiped out all the shadows.

Brenda and you are more or less silent the whole time you search the sewers. You never do run into any of Warrick's people, but then the sewers are just as large as the city itself. It's not surprising you aren't having much luck finding a shadow, if one is even hiding down here in the first place.

"Damn it. I'm sorry Brenda."
"What?"
"I don't know where to even look, the sewers were just a blind guess. I have no real idea where to look. You probably were right; the shadow probably already left the city and if that's the case, who know where the hell it fled to."

Brenda doesn't say anything at first and you fully expect her to go off on you, but she doesn't, instead she starts crying. Or rather she fails in trying not to cry. It would appear that the fact that her husband is dead is finally hitting her hard.

"Brenda I…" you start to say and then a faint whistling sound is heard and you feel a sharp pain going through your back. You look down long enough to see the head of a crossbow bolt. Blood spreads across your chest and you stagger around and stare at a grinning decaying face. You then feel two blades separate your head from your body.

The good news is your hunch was correct. The bad news is your detection spell couldn't work on something that was already dead and as a result so are you.

You can only hope that Brenda gets her revenge and figures it all out, because you won't.