Eternal
“Go get the rooms Roldan, I’ll help Gerald.” You say.
“Okay.” Roldan agrees and leaves.
You and Gerald help the Captain Gruz up who is mumbling things the whole time.
“Fucking idiots. It was perfect…who I am kidding? It was futile to begin with.”
“Just settle down sir.” Gerald says trying to calm him down.
“Or what? You’ll kill me too? Hey I’m not tryin’ ta put the moves on ya, you got your arm around me!”
Gerald gets quiet really fast and even you start looking around.
“Oh what? You think I didn’t hear about that incident? Ha ha ha! Relax, ya did the right thing, fuckin’ degenerate deserved it…” Gruz laughs.
You’re just about to get to the door and that’s when you hear yelling and an explosion coming from the outside followed by screams. The force of it is enough to cause you all to fall back a bit.
“Shit!” you blurt out and leave Gerald to tend to the captain.
You look around and see a couple of damaged buildings, more than a few dead bodies in pieces. Your heart sinks though when you see Roldan lying on the ground in front of the damaged inn.
When you rush over to him, his insides are clearly visible and one of his legs is gone. He struggles to breathe as he looks up at you. You can’t do anything for him.
“Fuck. Damnit…” you quietly say and kneel down towards his bloody body.
“…tell Brenda that I love her.”
“I will.”
“That’s good…that’s good…hey if we’re all…all siblings like Kane said…that…that doesn’t make Brenda…my sister…does it?” Roldan asks with a small smile.
“Heh, I don’t think so, and even if it did so what? You found happiness with her.” You smile back.
“Yeah…you’re right. You… usually were.” he says and then drifts away.
This time you do feel sadness at the loss of one of your own. Especially when you had just gotten to know him again. Gerald dashes over to you and even captain Gruz has sobered up a bit from this incident and is now interrogating the nearest hysterical citizen.
“Who the fuck did this?! Answer me woman!” he demands and slaps her a few times, but she just pathetically cries and begs him to stop.
“Captain! Stop it! It’s obvious she doesn’t know anything!” Gerald shouts.
“Maybe not, but someone here does.” You say. “Alright, listen up! I am an Eternal and the man laying dead next to me was also an Eternal! My wrath for his death shall be the likes you’ve never known and you don’t want to know. One of you saw something, so someone better start talking or else this little town you call home is going to get a whole lot bloodier.”
Nobody says anything for a while and there’s just dead silence, but eventually a little girl comes out from behind a barrel and speaks up.
“I saw something Mr. Eternal.”
“Good, glad to see this town isn’t completely infested with cowards. You’re coming with me.” You say and take the girl to a room at the inn and proceed to question her.
The girl is still a little nervous at first, but soon opens up quite a bit. She mentions that she was walking home from the general store and she saw Roldan leaving the tavern. He was almost to the inn when she saw these two figures shimming like they were almost invisible. She then says what happened next was very quick. The figures ran up to Roldan and then these two men appeared in gray cloaks. They both stabbed him several times before he could defend himself.
Despite his wounds, he managed to stab one through the neck and grabbed the other when he tried to escape. She said at this point she had been hiding behind the barrel, but saw that the man in gray produced a gas sphere plant from his cloak and he yelled something she couldn’t understand. A blackish field started to emanate from the man, Roldan then fell to the ground and then the large explosion occurred killing several people that didn’t have the sense that the little girl did to get the hell out of there as soon as possible.
“So much for the shadows not being here.” Gerald remarks.
“Shit, I fucked up. I should’ve known that they might’ve realized that we we’re coming.” Captain Gruz says.
“Doesn’t matter anyway. It’s obvious they’re prepared for a last stand sort of fight, if they’re willing to blow themselves up. No sense in depriving them of that, though I’m hoping they don’t start favoring blowing themselves up. It’s going to make fighting them more dangerous than it should be.” You say.
“Mmm, I know what you mean. Serving on the Felkan frontlines I had to experience several of their own explosive type weapons first hand, but from what I’ve heard those gas plant spheres aren’t common and grow rarely even in this area. Even then, they aren’t explosive on their own. The shadow probably used some sort of magic to make it explode like that. Is that right little girl?” Gerald asks to confirm, to which she nods.
“Alright enough talk, we all need to get some rest before wiping the bastards out tomorrow.” Captain Gruz says and lies down on his bed.
At this point you send the little girl away and tell her she’s served the Empire well and leave with Gerald.
“Do you really think Gruz should be coming with us tomorrow? I mean with his leg and his age and all.” Gerald asks.
“If he wants to go on one last mission then I’m not going to deprive him of that. Don’t worry, he’ll keep up. I get the impression this is sort of personal to him.”
“Personal to him? I imagine it’s personal to you a lot more.”
“True, but I’m trying to not let it.”
Of course that’s pretty hard to do when you have to put Roldan in a casket and sent back to Brenda. Gerald writes the letter to her. You can only imagine what her reaction is going to be about this news. This makes you wonder about the whole scenario that they were in love and got married. You know you briefly spoke to Roldan about this back at the tavern, but a lot of it still baffles you. How did it first come about? What was it like? Who initiated it? Was the attraction always there, even back when you were all in training? Could something like that ever happen to you?
You think about the time you were with Captain Krozer and that’s the closest equivalent you have, but you know that wasn’t anything like love. You did respect her though and you’re pretty sure the feeling was mutual. Perhaps that’s how it started, but Brenda and Roldan were just in contact with each long enough to develop it further.
Eventually you dismiss all these meaningless thoughts and rest up to prepare for your mission tomorrow.
The next morning, you Gerald and Gruz set off on your journey. The trip through the swamps isn’t an easy one; it actually makes you long for the days of stomping through ice and snow. The whole time you’re traveling you’re constantly alert and feel like at anytime you could be attacked, which turns out to be true with the oversized insects and other minor hostile swamp animals dwelling here, but they aren’t the enemies you’re expecting.
“So how many Empire troops are we going to have as back up?” Gerald asks Gruz during the trip.
“Empire? I’m lucky I managed to get them to accept my request to go on this mission! They didn’t send me anyone, not that they’d be much help anyway. Most Empire soldiers would stick out like a sore thumb and get themselves killed before they even reached the place. No, I’m relying on the ones that found these ruins to begin with. Dark elven mercs. If anyone can hide out better than the shadows, it’ll be them.” Gruz replies.
Dark elves. You hated having to work with them back in your early years on the Rask frontier, but you can’t deny their effectiveness.
“Shh! Do you hear that?” you ask.
“Probably another Sul Monkey. Those things are all over the place. Just glad it’s not mating season for them, otherwise we might be in big trouble. Hey, aren’t you humans related to them in some way?” Gruz asks.
Gerald is about to reply, and then you hear a whizzing sound followed by a “thunk” sound. You then see Gerald with a large crossbow bolt directly in the center of his head. A single trickle of blood comes from the wound and drips off his nose.
“I…been hit…” Gerald says and his eyes roll back as he falls into the soft mushy ground.
“Shit!” Gruz shouts and ducks down into the mud.
“Okay.” Roldan agrees and leaves.
You and Gerald help the Captain Gruz up who is mumbling things the whole time.
“Fucking idiots. It was perfect…who I am kidding? It was futile to begin with.”
“Just settle down sir.” Gerald says trying to calm him down.
“Or what? You’ll kill me too? Hey I’m not tryin’ ta put the moves on ya, you got your arm around me!”
Gerald gets quiet really fast and even you start looking around.
“Oh what? You think I didn’t hear about that incident? Ha ha ha! Relax, ya did the right thing, fuckin’ degenerate deserved it…” Gruz laughs.
You’re just about to get to the door and that’s when you hear yelling and an explosion coming from the outside followed by screams. The force of it is enough to cause you all to fall back a bit.
“Shit!” you blurt out and leave Gerald to tend to the captain.
You look around and see a couple of damaged buildings, more than a few dead bodies in pieces. Your heart sinks though when you see Roldan lying on the ground in front of the damaged inn.
When you rush over to him, his insides are clearly visible and one of his legs is gone. He struggles to breathe as he looks up at you. You can’t do anything for him.
“Fuck. Damnit…” you quietly say and kneel down towards his bloody body.
“…tell Brenda that I love her.”
“I will.”
“That’s good…that’s good…hey if we’re all…all siblings like Kane said…that…that doesn’t make Brenda…my sister…does it?” Roldan asks with a small smile.
“Heh, I don’t think so, and even if it did so what? You found happiness with her.” You smile back.
“Yeah…you’re right. You… usually were.” he says and then drifts away.
This time you do feel sadness at the loss of one of your own. Especially when you had just gotten to know him again. Gerald dashes over to you and even captain Gruz has sobered up a bit from this incident and is now interrogating the nearest hysterical citizen.
“Who the fuck did this?! Answer me woman!” he demands and slaps her a few times, but she just pathetically cries and begs him to stop.
“Captain! Stop it! It’s obvious she doesn’t know anything!” Gerald shouts.
“Maybe not, but someone here does.” You say. “Alright, listen up! I am an Eternal and the man laying dead next to me was also an Eternal! My wrath for his death shall be the likes you’ve never known and you don’t want to know. One of you saw something, so someone better start talking or else this little town you call home is going to get a whole lot bloodier.”
Nobody says anything for a while and there’s just dead silence, but eventually a little girl comes out from behind a barrel and speaks up.
“I saw something Mr. Eternal.”
“Good, glad to see this town isn’t completely infested with cowards. You’re coming with me.” You say and take the girl to a room at the inn and proceed to question her.
The girl is still a little nervous at first, but soon opens up quite a bit. She mentions that she was walking home from the general store and she saw Roldan leaving the tavern. He was almost to the inn when she saw these two figures shimming like they were almost invisible. She then says what happened next was very quick. The figures ran up to Roldan and then these two men appeared in gray cloaks. They both stabbed him several times before he could defend himself.
Despite his wounds, he managed to stab one through the neck and grabbed the other when he tried to escape. She said at this point she had been hiding behind the barrel, but saw that the man in gray produced a gas sphere plant from his cloak and he yelled something she couldn’t understand. A blackish field started to emanate from the man, Roldan then fell to the ground and then the large explosion occurred killing several people that didn’t have the sense that the little girl did to get the hell out of there as soon as possible.
“So much for the shadows not being here.” Gerald remarks.
“Shit, I fucked up. I should’ve known that they might’ve realized that we we’re coming.” Captain Gruz says.
“Doesn’t matter anyway. It’s obvious they’re prepared for a last stand sort of fight, if they’re willing to blow themselves up. No sense in depriving them of that, though I’m hoping they don’t start favoring blowing themselves up. It’s going to make fighting them more dangerous than it should be.” You say.
“Mmm, I know what you mean. Serving on the Felkan frontlines I had to experience several of their own explosive type weapons first hand, but from what I’ve heard those gas plant spheres aren’t common and grow rarely even in this area. Even then, they aren’t explosive on their own. The shadow probably used some sort of magic to make it explode like that. Is that right little girl?” Gerald asks to confirm, to which she nods.
“Alright enough talk, we all need to get some rest before wiping the bastards out tomorrow.” Captain Gruz says and lies down on his bed.
At this point you send the little girl away and tell her she’s served the Empire well and leave with Gerald.
“Do you really think Gruz should be coming with us tomorrow? I mean with his leg and his age and all.” Gerald asks.
“If he wants to go on one last mission then I’m not going to deprive him of that. Don’t worry, he’ll keep up. I get the impression this is sort of personal to him.”
“Personal to him? I imagine it’s personal to you a lot more.”
“True, but I’m trying to not let it.”
Of course that’s pretty hard to do when you have to put Roldan in a casket and sent back to Brenda. Gerald writes the letter to her. You can only imagine what her reaction is going to be about this news. This makes you wonder about the whole scenario that they were in love and got married. You know you briefly spoke to Roldan about this back at the tavern, but a lot of it still baffles you. How did it first come about? What was it like? Who initiated it? Was the attraction always there, even back when you were all in training? Could something like that ever happen to you?
You think about the time you were with Captain Krozer and that’s the closest equivalent you have, but you know that wasn’t anything like love. You did respect her though and you’re pretty sure the feeling was mutual. Perhaps that’s how it started, but Brenda and Roldan were just in contact with each long enough to develop it further.
Eventually you dismiss all these meaningless thoughts and rest up to prepare for your mission tomorrow.
The next morning, you Gerald and Gruz set off on your journey. The trip through the swamps isn’t an easy one; it actually makes you long for the days of stomping through ice and snow. The whole time you’re traveling you’re constantly alert and feel like at anytime you could be attacked, which turns out to be true with the oversized insects and other minor hostile swamp animals dwelling here, but they aren’t the enemies you’re expecting.
“So how many Empire troops are we going to have as back up?” Gerald asks Gruz during the trip.
“Empire? I’m lucky I managed to get them to accept my request to go on this mission! They didn’t send me anyone, not that they’d be much help anyway. Most Empire soldiers would stick out like a sore thumb and get themselves killed before they even reached the place. No, I’m relying on the ones that found these ruins to begin with. Dark elven mercs. If anyone can hide out better than the shadows, it’ll be them.” Gruz replies.
Dark elves. You hated having to work with them back in your early years on the Rask frontier, but you can’t deny their effectiveness.
“Shh! Do you hear that?” you ask.
“Probably another Sul Monkey. Those things are all over the place. Just glad it’s not mating season for them, otherwise we might be in big trouble. Hey, aren’t you humans related to them in some way?” Gruz asks.
Gerald is about to reply, and then you hear a whizzing sound followed by a “thunk” sound. You then see Gerald with a large crossbow bolt directly in the center of his head. A single trickle of blood comes from the wound and drips off his nose.
“I…been hit…” Gerald says and his eyes roll back as he falls into the soft mushy ground.
“Shit!” Gruz shouts and ducks down into the mud.