Eternal

Year 101

“My work here is done and it will soon be time for me to move on. When that happens, you will officially be the new Shadow Master...or Shadow Mistress in your case.” You say to your protégée Celia.
“Do you think I’m ready? I mean Dendrin hasn’t directly spoken to me since I went through the initiation ritual.” She says
“Do not worry about that. As long as you believe in your own abilities it’ll be enough. It’s always enough. You’re ready, you’ve had more than enough training and you’ve practically been running this order for the past few years.”
“I…I was only still assisting you. You were and still are Shadow Master.” Celia says humbly.
“Perhaps, but after my beloved Talia died six years ago, I can admit that I’ve been a little distracted from being Shadow Master for quite awhile. Your help with doing her job and part of my own was probably the last and best way to test if you had what it takes. And you obviously do. You’ll be fine without me, but I didn’t have time to explain everything. That’s why I wrote something for you to study. In fact it may be the most important thing you may ever learn as your time as Shadow Mistress. You’ll find the book on my desk. Embrace the knowledge within it, and remember that fear and patience are the greatest weapons of the shadows. Use them wisely.”

Celia nods solemnly at your words and attempts to not show any weakness, but she’s not made of stone. Nobody is. You know that better than anyone. Nearly all of your life you’ve had so much responsibility placed upon you and you’ll be happy to just get some rest.

You can hear Celia quietly sobbing, but that’s getting fainter. Your vision begins to darken, it won’t be long now.

You mumble something incoherent as you start to lose consciousness and then nothing.

“There you are, I was wondering if you’d ever die.” Dendrin says
“Am I dead?” You ask.
“Pretty much. Your brain is still semi-active, hence why we can have this conversation.”
“Are you leaving the shadows too?”
“Don’t really see the point in sticking around, do you? I mean you’re dead and you’ve successfully made them independent whether they realize it or not. I think its time for me to move on. Though I figured I’d at least say goodbye seeing as you were my main source of entertainment all these years, but I also wanted to ask you something. This grand plan of yours, do you really think it will work?”
“I don’t know, but I had to try.”
“Why though? You’ll be long dead even if it does work and is beating me that important? I know we’ve been at odds on several occasions, but I also know you’ve called on my help and we’ve even agreed at times.”
“That doesn’t matter. The fact still remains that I looked after what was supposed to be YOUR charge. I don’t care how long you did it, I don’t care how long previous shadow master did it. The fact still remains I did it the best and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you or anyone destroy what I did either through apathy or hostility.”
“How do you know your own plan won’t destroy the shadows? How do you know it won’t cause inner strife and turmoil that will result in the organization collapsing?”
“Well as you pointed out…I won’t because I’ll be dead. However if it does happen then it’ll be me who did it. It’ll be me who was responsible, nobody else.”

There’s a brief pause before Dendrin speaks again.

“I think I understand Eternal…you never completely shed your Empire training. Your desire to control everything was always there, and was just reinforced when you became Shadow Master. It’s okay though, I think I can accommodate your true wishes, might take a while, but I can do this before leaving for more interesting things. Consider it my way of saying thanks. Besides, I can’t let you win either.”

At this point your borrowed time is up, and you are unable to argue with Dendrin anymore. He’s gotten the last word, but perhaps his last word wasn’t a malicious one and somehow your mind feels like it’s undergoing a transformation…

The shadow order thrived under Celia, who did indeed prove to be one of the better Shadow Masters in the long line of them. Her faith in Dendrin was shaken after she read your journal. She was angry for a long time, but that anger was put to good use when she managed to extend shadow influence greatly into the Nalin Empire. She eventually came to terms with the fact that Dendrin did not lead the shadows, she did. When that happened she continued to make minor changes to shadow operations. By the time of her death, fear of the infamous shadow assassins had extended to the Felkan Kingdom, and in your footsteps she left your journal for the next shadow master with her own additions.

Other Shadow Masters followed her example and the order continued to thrive as little by little the religious aspect of it began to disappear. This wasn’t without its problems and were still the usual ups and downs. There was eventual conflict with other powers, but the major one was the shadow civil war. Dendrin was right that the shadows would eventually fight amongst themselves…but he was wrong that the order would completely collapse. After the dust settled the shadows had shed their belief in Dendrin completely.

This of course was partly because of you. In life you freed the shadows from the Empire and now in death your actions freed them from Dendrin. Before, your writings were kept a secret known only to the shadow master it was passed down to, now the original book is considered one of the most important tomes to the shadows.

While Dendrin’s name is no longer revered by the shadows, your name has taken his place. Even though you mention in your own writing that you should never be “deified”, people tend to elevate those that do great things. Stories begin to spread.

One of the most important of those stories being that the shadows claim that when you died, your spirit defeated Dendrin in combat and took over the shadow realm where you could make sure no other “being” could trick the shadows ever again.

More than one Shadow Master has claimed that they’ve spoke to you directly in a dream, giving advice or chastising them for not being ruthless enough.

Nowadays the shadows have abandoned their assassination for hire in exchange for outright aggressive expansions of conquest. One of the more popular tales now is how at times you’ve managed to manifest yourself on the battlefield in shadow form bringing fear to enemies. These stories have become so prevalent that even foes of the shadows have been known to believe them. Your name has become synonymous with terror. And why wouldn’t it? You defeated a “god” after all.

But of course these are just stories…or are they?

Whether such stories are true, half true, or completely false, what is certain is that you have maintained your influence over the shadows and you remain ETERNAL.