Eternal
You’re going to tell him everything. Yes, it is true that you’ve bonded a bit with the Shadow Guard and you can even understand their motivations, but Mr. Mol is right. You’re an Eternal first and your duty is ultimately to the Emperor. If you suffer any punishment due to not coming forward sooner then so be it.
Mr. Mol sits down in the other chair in the room and before he can even say anything you get straight to the point.
“The Shadow Guard is planning to betray the Empire. They have been for years. Centuries even. They’ve just been biding their time for the right moment to strike, and that moment is supposed to be soon.”
Mr. Mol sits back and exhales deeply.
“Well, I guess that saves me a little time. I certainly thank you for that, your fellow Eternals were disappointing in that regard.”
“Are…are they dead?”
“Dead? Oh no. They’re very much alive. Knew they were hiding something, but I assumed it was just typical Shadow Guard bullshit about their god and rituals. Possibly even manipulating things to benefit their order, but that’s certainly to be expected. (Sigh) We really should’ve been doing something about them a long time ago, and to a certain extent that’s why you Eternals were created. I’m glad at least one of you managed to avoid brainwashing…which brings me to another question. Why didn’t you come forward with this information before?”
“I…I have no excuse…I felt very influenced sir. After I went through the shadow ceremony and their god spoke to me…I…”
“Hold on, you actually spoke to Dendrin?” Mr. Mol stop you.
“Yes, you know the god’s name?”
“Of course I do, it isn’t as much of a secret as the shadows like to pretend. It just isn’t spoken out loud in public because that’s part of the original agreement. Certainly don’t need a bunch of religious fanatics gaining any more power by speaking highly of their god to the masses. Even if said fanatics are loyal to the Emperor, which apparently has never been the case if what you’re saying is true. Now start at the beginning and ALL of what you’ve learned.”
You start from the moment you ran into the portal and continue about your experiences from there. Mr. Mol makes several notes and tells you to explain in greater detail on certain things. As you tell him all the shadow secrets you know, you feel a great weight lifted off of you, but you still feel very anxious since you don’t know what’s going to happen to you afterwards.
“Okay…this is great information. Makes a lot of sense now any past attempts to infiltrate the Shadow Guard have never worked when their own god is indoctrinating them completely in their ceremony. Well except you of course. Guess nobody’s perfect, not even a god. Still, we shouldn’t have been so complacent either, but with this information I think we can get this under control within time.”
“So what’s next?” you ask.
“Next? Well you and your fellows go back to Gloom like nothing has happened. I’ll be in touch with you in the future to give you further instructions.”
“You’re not going to destroy them now?”
“Heh, well we certainly could with this information alone, but from what you’ve told me, the dissention is more than just the Shadow Guard at this point. They’ve got safehouses of dissidents in various locations…this is a big job and ideally, we want to neutralize the majority of this threat in one swoop. If we moved now all it would do is tear the Empire in half sooner rather than later. This isn’t going to be pretty even if our counter plan goes right, but the best thing is we do know that we need to focus internally now. Plans to invade the Felkan Kingdom again will have to wait unfortunately.”
“So, I’m not to be punished?”
“Punished? What for? Oh you mean because you felt influenced? Well, that is concerning, however considering you just told me everything after constantly being bombarded with shadow propaganda not to mention Dendrin’s own words I’d say your willpower is strong enough to resist anything. In fact I need to make a note of that too, it’ll help to know for future Eternals.”
“Future Eternals?”
“Oh yes, the project is still going on. In fact we’ll need more of your type to fill in the gap that will be left by the Shadow Guard when they’re gone. Those that know the value of loyalty and duty to the Empire like you of course. We’ll try to prevent mistakes like Talia and Cyrus this time. Like I said nobody’s perfect, but we can still strive towards it.”
Mr. Mol then sits forward, puts a hand on your shoulder and stares into your eyes.
“The Empire needs you more than ever to defend it from its enemies and you’re in the perfect position to do so. Is your duty clear?”
“Yes, I live to serve the Empire and the Emperor. They will always come first, before everything else.” You confidently reply.
“Good. Good. I’m glad to hear it and I certainly hope now you feel better and less alone knowing that you have the entire might of the Empire supporting you.”
“I do. Thank you.”
“Now then, I want you to go back with your fellows and carry on as normal. As I stated I will be contacting you in the future and your official mission now is to gather as much information of the Shadow Guard as possible. I know you’ve given me a lot already, but there’s always more that can be acquired.”
This new sense of encouragement, purpose and direction coupled with telling Mr. Mol everything makes you feel a lot better about your choice. So much so, that you even volunteer to go beyond what he asks.
“Did you want me to assassinate anyone?”
“Heh, I like your enthusiasm, but it might be best for you to concentrate info gathering first. Though I suppose if you can somehow arrange a group of shadows to face with an accident without getting caught, I’m not opposed to it. Simple sabotage is good too, as long as they don’t get the impression that anyone is on to them.”
You understand, and you are lead out of the room and back into the main room where you see Cyrus and Talia waiting with the soldiers.
“Okay I believe we are done here. I am pleased to find that all of you are obviously living up to your potential. I was a little concerned only because a couple of your non-shadow Eternals already have proven to lack the discipline we thought they had. One was executed for killing his superior officer and another one died by breaking a solid fighting formation during a battle. I’m glad to see all of you are much better in that regard and I can only chalk that up to the Shadow Guard’s superior training techniques. Perhaps more Eternals in the future will join as it is obvious you all have tremendous willpower and great loyalty to the Empire.” Mr. Mol says glancing over at you with that last line.
And with that, the three of you are lead back to the carriage, which takes you back to Lenet, and from there you walk back to Gloom. You’re all more talkative at this point, Talia and Cyrus go on about the questions with each other and you. Of course you lie and state you were asked similar ones.
“So do you think he suspected anything?” Talia asks.
“Doubt it. The Empire fool didn’t even ask anything remotely important. It is obvious Dendrin’s shadow covers his eyes from the truth. So much so that it required minimum effort on our part to even lie to him. I mostly just omitted truth.” Cyrus mocks.
“Omissions of the truth are usually better than outright lies anyway. Less of a chance to get caught up in a web.” Talia comments.
“Yeah, I didn’t even need to lie at all.” You say which causes you to laugh inside your head given the double meaning of that remark.
After the three of you report to Master Ebon, he seems pleased with how things turned out, but states that he’s pushing to enact the plan sooner for concern that the Empire may still suspect something. He then says to expect things to get hectic soon, but with Dendrin’s guidance you all will surely prevail and the Empire will collapse.
You retire to your bed to get some rest as it’s been a long stressful day. You’re finally glad to have settled your crisis of loyalty though. With these comforting thoughts you drift off to sleep…
As you sleep you begin to dream. You dream that you’re in the same void like space when you walked into that portal two years ago. You feel nothing and you sense nothing for a long time then you hear the voice, that oppressive voice that invades your mind completely.
“So Eternal, you have chosen to betray me.”
“You said yourself that I was only saying I’d serve to save myself in your presence. Why are you so surprised?”
“I am not, I’m merely observing your motivations which were equally unsurprising. I’m fascinated that one such as you would have the willpower and strength to defy a god, yet still be narrow minded enough to trust in a mortal government. You may as well be a golem.”
“The Empire hasn’t threatened me with death, unlike you have.”
The whispery voice suddenly lets out a hearty laugh to loud in your mind that it’s painful.
“And you believe that? The Empire has done nothing BUT try to kill you from birth! Wasn’t until you arrived to train under the shadows that your risk for death was lowered! Even when you met me, I never directly threatened you with death, I gave you a choice for which you should be grateful!”
“Deity, if I offend your omnipotence so much, then why not kill me now? You obviously have the power to invade my dreams and if I’m a threat, you should do what needs to be done.”
“Eternal, Eternal, you are no more of a threat to me than your beloved Empire is. And your insolence does not offend me, it is your ignorance that offends me. If you believe this path is one of survival you are sadly mistaken.”
“And joining a hopeless cause like your cult of fanatics is?”
“Eternal, you will see. Eventually you will see. You ask me to kill you now and though I could, I wouldn’t because it will be interesting to see you running about trying your best to undermine my loyal followers. However, the major question is, will you survive in the process? The odds are against you Eternal. Severely against you.”
“I will prevail.”
“Perhaps, but at what cost?”
With those last words, you wake up. You try to go back to sleep, but it isn’t easy. Just like actively spying on the shadows isn’t going to be easy, especially since Dendrin himself knows what you’re doing. You just can’t figure out why he is insisting on tormenting you like this, what can he possibly get out of this other than sadistic pleasure? You can even comprehend that aspect, but what you don’t get is why he wouldn’t immediately get rid of you in order to help his own followers.
Is this an elaborate trick or does he just not give a shit about his worshippers? You don’t know. The best you can do is what you can achieve in the mortal realm and leave the motivations of any gods out of the picture.
Mr. Mol sits down in the other chair in the room and before he can even say anything you get straight to the point.
“The Shadow Guard is planning to betray the Empire. They have been for years. Centuries even. They’ve just been biding their time for the right moment to strike, and that moment is supposed to be soon.”
Mr. Mol sits back and exhales deeply.
“Well, I guess that saves me a little time. I certainly thank you for that, your fellow Eternals were disappointing in that regard.”
“Are…are they dead?”
“Dead? Oh no. They’re very much alive. Knew they were hiding something, but I assumed it was just typical Shadow Guard bullshit about their god and rituals. Possibly even manipulating things to benefit their order, but that’s certainly to be expected. (Sigh) We really should’ve been doing something about them a long time ago, and to a certain extent that’s why you Eternals were created. I’m glad at least one of you managed to avoid brainwashing…which brings me to another question. Why didn’t you come forward with this information before?”
“I…I have no excuse…I felt very influenced sir. After I went through the shadow ceremony and their god spoke to me…I…”
“Hold on, you actually spoke to Dendrin?” Mr. Mol stop you.
“Yes, you know the god’s name?”
“Of course I do, it isn’t as much of a secret as the shadows like to pretend. It just isn’t spoken out loud in public because that’s part of the original agreement. Certainly don’t need a bunch of religious fanatics gaining any more power by speaking highly of their god to the masses. Even if said fanatics are loyal to the Emperor, which apparently has never been the case if what you’re saying is true. Now start at the beginning and ALL of what you’ve learned.”
You start from the moment you ran into the portal and continue about your experiences from there. Mr. Mol makes several notes and tells you to explain in greater detail on certain things. As you tell him all the shadow secrets you know, you feel a great weight lifted off of you, but you still feel very anxious since you don’t know what’s going to happen to you afterwards.
“Okay…this is great information. Makes a lot of sense now any past attempts to infiltrate the Shadow Guard have never worked when their own god is indoctrinating them completely in their ceremony. Well except you of course. Guess nobody’s perfect, not even a god. Still, we shouldn’t have been so complacent either, but with this information I think we can get this under control within time.”
“So what’s next?” you ask.
“Next? Well you and your fellows go back to Gloom like nothing has happened. I’ll be in touch with you in the future to give you further instructions.”
“You’re not going to destroy them now?”
“Heh, well we certainly could with this information alone, but from what you’ve told me, the dissention is more than just the Shadow Guard at this point. They’ve got safehouses of dissidents in various locations…this is a big job and ideally, we want to neutralize the majority of this threat in one swoop. If we moved now all it would do is tear the Empire in half sooner rather than later. This isn’t going to be pretty even if our counter plan goes right, but the best thing is we do know that we need to focus internally now. Plans to invade the Felkan Kingdom again will have to wait unfortunately.”
“So, I’m not to be punished?”
“Punished? What for? Oh you mean because you felt influenced? Well, that is concerning, however considering you just told me everything after constantly being bombarded with shadow propaganda not to mention Dendrin’s own words I’d say your willpower is strong enough to resist anything. In fact I need to make a note of that too, it’ll help to know for future Eternals.”
“Future Eternals?”
“Oh yes, the project is still going on. In fact we’ll need more of your type to fill in the gap that will be left by the Shadow Guard when they’re gone. Those that know the value of loyalty and duty to the Empire like you of course. We’ll try to prevent mistakes like Talia and Cyrus this time. Like I said nobody’s perfect, but we can still strive towards it.”
Mr. Mol then sits forward, puts a hand on your shoulder and stares into your eyes.
“The Empire needs you more than ever to defend it from its enemies and you’re in the perfect position to do so. Is your duty clear?”
“Yes, I live to serve the Empire and the Emperor. They will always come first, before everything else.” You confidently reply.
“Good. Good. I’m glad to hear it and I certainly hope now you feel better and less alone knowing that you have the entire might of the Empire supporting you.”
“I do. Thank you.”
“Now then, I want you to go back with your fellows and carry on as normal. As I stated I will be contacting you in the future and your official mission now is to gather as much information of the Shadow Guard as possible. I know you’ve given me a lot already, but there’s always more that can be acquired.”
This new sense of encouragement, purpose and direction coupled with telling Mr. Mol everything makes you feel a lot better about your choice. So much so, that you even volunteer to go beyond what he asks.
“Did you want me to assassinate anyone?”
“Heh, I like your enthusiasm, but it might be best for you to concentrate info gathering first. Though I suppose if you can somehow arrange a group of shadows to face with an accident without getting caught, I’m not opposed to it. Simple sabotage is good too, as long as they don’t get the impression that anyone is on to them.”
You understand, and you are lead out of the room and back into the main room where you see Cyrus and Talia waiting with the soldiers.
“Okay I believe we are done here. I am pleased to find that all of you are obviously living up to your potential. I was a little concerned only because a couple of your non-shadow Eternals already have proven to lack the discipline we thought they had. One was executed for killing his superior officer and another one died by breaking a solid fighting formation during a battle. I’m glad to see all of you are much better in that regard and I can only chalk that up to the Shadow Guard’s superior training techniques. Perhaps more Eternals in the future will join as it is obvious you all have tremendous willpower and great loyalty to the Empire.” Mr. Mol says glancing over at you with that last line.
And with that, the three of you are lead back to the carriage, which takes you back to Lenet, and from there you walk back to Gloom. You’re all more talkative at this point, Talia and Cyrus go on about the questions with each other and you. Of course you lie and state you were asked similar ones.
“So do you think he suspected anything?” Talia asks.
“Doubt it. The Empire fool didn’t even ask anything remotely important. It is obvious Dendrin’s shadow covers his eyes from the truth. So much so that it required minimum effort on our part to even lie to him. I mostly just omitted truth.” Cyrus mocks.
“Omissions of the truth are usually better than outright lies anyway. Less of a chance to get caught up in a web.” Talia comments.
“Yeah, I didn’t even need to lie at all.” You say which causes you to laugh inside your head given the double meaning of that remark.
After the three of you report to Master Ebon, he seems pleased with how things turned out, but states that he’s pushing to enact the plan sooner for concern that the Empire may still suspect something. He then says to expect things to get hectic soon, but with Dendrin’s guidance you all will surely prevail and the Empire will collapse.
You retire to your bed to get some rest as it’s been a long stressful day. You’re finally glad to have settled your crisis of loyalty though. With these comforting thoughts you drift off to sleep…
As you sleep you begin to dream. You dream that you’re in the same void like space when you walked into that portal two years ago. You feel nothing and you sense nothing for a long time then you hear the voice, that oppressive voice that invades your mind completely.
“So Eternal, you have chosen to betray me.”
“You said yourself that I was only saying I’d serve to save myself in your presence. Why are you so surprised?”
“I am not, I’m merely observing your motivations which were equally unsurprising. I’m fascinated that one such as you would have the willpower and strength to defy a god, yet still be narrow minded enough to trust in a mortal government. You may as well be a golem.”
“The Empire hasn’t threatened me with death, unlike you have.”
The whispery voice suddenly lets out a hearty laugh to loud in your mind that it’s painful.
“And you believe that? The Empire has done nothing BUT try to kill you from birth! Wasn’t until you arrived to train under the shadows that your risk for death was lowered! Even when you met me, I never directly threatened you with death, I gave you a choice for which you should be grateful!”
“Deity, if I offend your omnipotence so much, then why not kill me now? You obviously have the power to invade my dreams and if I’m a threat, you should do what needs to be done.”
“Eternal, Eternal, you are no more of a threat to me than your beloved Empire is. And your insolence does not offend me, it is your ignorance that offends me. If you believe this path is one of survival you are sadly mistaken.”
“And joining a hopeless cause like your cult of fanatics is?”
“Eternal, you will see. Eventually you will see. You ask me to kill you now and though I could, I wouldn’t because it will be interesting to see you running about trying your best to undermine my loyal followers. However, the major question is, will you survive in the process? The odds are against you Eternal. Severely against you.”
“I will prevail.”
“Perhaps, but at what cost?”
With those last words, you wake up. You try to go back to sleep, but it isn’t easy. Just like actively spying on the shadows isn’t going to be easy, especially since Dendrin himself knows what you’re doing. You just can’t figure out why he is insisting on tormenting you like this, what can he possibly get out of this other than sadistic pleasure? You can even comprehend that aspect, but what you don’t get is why he wouldn’t immediately get rid of you in order to help his own followers.
Is this an elaborate trick or does he just not give a shit about his worshippers? You don’t know. The best you can do is what you can achieve in the mortal realm and leave the motivations of any gods out of the picture.