Eternal
Year 75
“Do you really believe you can separate yourself from me? You think that you can actually steal my power without consequence?” Dendrin asks.
“Yes, I have figured out a way and you will do nothing about it. You know why? Because you are a being of much power sure, but you and I know that you are no god and. More importantly we would not even be stealing any power from you, because I also know you are not even native to the shadow realm; you are merely using it as a source to act as a god. In my years of study, I have come to learn what you truly are and that is a Yequk, a whimsical being of the planes that loves to leech of the energy of a plane. Your kind also has a tendency to masquerade as gods or demons for amusement purposes and will bestow magic powers to those who believe in you or in my case, for the hell of it.” You reply.
There is silence for a while, but eventually Dendrin speaks.
“Well done Eternal, I always thought I would manage to make you a believer though. I always thought that eventually you would come around, and for a while it looked it like you might, but ultimately you resisted. I suppose it’s my own fault for not killing you immediately, but your potential for amusement value was too great to resist. However even with this knowledge do you really believe the shadows will survive without me granting them powers?”
“The shadows could directly draw upon the source of the shadow realm under the right circumstances. Circumstances that I have finally unlocked, all I need to do is perform the ritual.”
“Well, it looks like you’ve got it all figured out Eternal. I just hope there aren’t any unforeseen consequences to your plan…”
“Is that supposed to be a threat?”
“Perhaps, but not necessarily one from me because let’s face it what would be the point? No, I believe your problem is of more mortal matters.”
“The shadows will follow me in performing the ritual.”
“Oh of that I have no doubt, you know why? Because you’ll tell them what you’ve always told them, that it’s my will that must be carried out! But tell me this Eternal, what is the point of this endeavor if I am most likely going to be worshipped anyway? Do you really believe that you can just expose the truth so easily? If you could, you would’ve done so long ago.”
“No! Now is different, because I can actually do something about it. I can show the shadows that they don’t need you to sustain their powers. That’s the whole point of this.”
“No, the whole point of this is I’m the only enemy that you’ve never been fully able to beat. You’ve denied me, you’ve ignored me, you’ve blatantly insulted me and you’ve even changed the religion to something that you prefer better…though I always agreed with what you did in that aspect. This whole thing is nothing more than an attempt to defeat me before you die of old age and it’s a pointless endeavor based on your pride if you ask me.”
“Well nobody asked you.” you say starting to get angry.
“I genuinely don’t understand what your problem is, because we’ve ALL benefited from this arrangement. You’ve even called on me for help in the past.”
“Moments of weakness, I assure you.”
“Yes, I’m sure seeing as you’ve been hung up on the whole instilling fear into everyone and no room for the weak type of thing for the past couple of decades. Your problem started when you started believing in your own rhetoric. YOU want to be the one that the shadows worship. YOU want to be the god of fear and shadows. You don’t want to share any of the credit with me.”
“And why should I? I’m the one whose really been guiding them all these years! You’ve done absolutely nothing! They’d all be fucking dead if you had your way! You even admitted as much. You’ve claimed on several occasions that you’ve been bored of the shadows for years and you’ve only taken a more direct interest in them recently because I came along.”
“While all of that may be true, what you’re forgetting is I’ve been guiding them a lot longer than you have. I gave them purpose for centuries! And what did you think other shadow masters were doing all those years? Twiddling their thumbs? No they were also guiding the shadows! You think you’re not the only shadow master to have these sorts of feelings? You already know by Master Ebon’s own dying admission that he never spoke to me and lied the whole time. You really think other shadow masters didn’t have their own doubts of whether I was a god, or even existed? You’re just the first one to figure out the entire truth and let the bitterness get to you. So by all means perform your little magic ritual and tap directly into the power of this shadow realm. I’m sure it’ll be a success, but you will never be free of the religion tied to it. My name will always be attached to the shadows. Perhaps now more than ever, for a day may have soon come that I would’ve abandoned the shadows entirely and moved on to other things. On that day, they would’ve lost all their powers and undoubtedly the organization would’ve soon collapsed afterwards. Now? You’re going to give them access to the power directly whether I’m here or not. Who do you think is going to still be worshipped? That’s right.”
“So I’ll risk exposing the truth.” You say in an attempt to continue to be defiant.
“Before or after the ritual? If its before, you’re not even going to get a chance to complete it because you’ll be strung up as a heretic or you’ll be forced to kill them all. I doubt even your own mate would side with you even if she and possibly a few others might suspect you’re right. Faith is a powerful thing and you know this. If it’s after the ritual, you might have better success, but I doubt it. At best you’ll end up getting utter chaos because you’ll get rogue shadows that will see no reason to be part of the group anymore. Just think about those in the past that dared to oppose the status quo like Theo, Yvette or even Shade. Don’t you think there will be MORE dissident types when they know there is absolutely no chance of them losing their powers now? The shadows will eventually splinter apart through selfishness. Of course perhaps you don’t care, but I think you do care about the shadows more than you let on sometimes. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be making such a grand effort of trying to free them from me.”
You hate it when Dendrin makes good points and this time he’s made several.
“I’m…not going to win this one am I?” you say.
“My advice? You’d be better off letting this one go. You’re a mortal and have limitations. Enjoy what little time you have left. But it’s your choice, and I’ve always believed that you work better without guidance, so do what you will.”
You wake up from your mental ordeal and sit up placing your head within your hands trying to come to grips with your own short sightedness. It’s almost enough to make you cry.
“What’s wrong? You seem upset. Bad dream?” Talia asks when she sees you after rousing from her own sleep.
“No…I…no. I’m fine. Just still tired I guess.”
You lay back down and Talia soon goes back to sleep. You’re left wondering what you’re going to do, but it all seems so pointless now no matter what you decide.
If you go ahead with the ritual anyway and expose the truth, you’re going to face all the potential problems Dendrin mentioned. Of course you could just keep up the lie about Dendrin, but that seems to be defeating your original purpose.
“Do you really believe you can separate yourself from me? You think that you can actually steal my power without consequence?” Dendrin asks.
“Yes, I have figured out a way and you will do nothing about it. You know why? Because you are a being of much power sure, but you and I know that you are no god and. More importantly we would not even be stealing any power from you, because I also know you are not even native to the shadow realm; you are merely using it as a source to act as a god. In my years of study, I have come to learn what you truly are and that is a Yequk, a whimsical being of the planes that loves to leech of the energy of a plane. Your kind also has a tendency to masquerade as gods or demons for amusement purposes and will bestow magic powers to those who believe in you or in my case, for the hell of it.” You reply.
There is silence for a while, but eventually Dendrin speaks.
“Well done Eternal, I always thought I would manage to make you a believer though. I always thought that eventually you would come around, and for a while it looked it like you might, but ultimately you resisted. I suppose it’s my own fault for not killing you immediately, but your potential for amusement value was too great to resist. However even with this knowledge do you really believe the shadows will survive without me granting them powers?”
“The shadows could directly draw upon the source of the shadow realm under the right circumstances. Circumstances that I have finally unlocked, all I need to do is perform the ritual.”
“Well, it looks like you’ve got it all figured out Eternal. I just hope there aren’t any unforeseen consequences to your plan…”
“Is that supposed to be a threat?”
“Perhaps, but not necessarily one from me because let’s face it what would be the point? No, I believe your problem is of more mortal matters.”
“The shadows will follow me in performing the ritual.”
“Oh of that I have no doubt, you know why? Because you’ll tell them what you’ve always told them, that it’s my will that must be carried out! But tell me this Eternal, what is the point of this endeavor if I am most likely going to be worshipped anyway? Do you really believe that you can just expose the truth so easily? If you could, you would’ve done so long ago.”
“No! Now is different, because I can actually do something about it. I can show the shadows that they don’t need you to sustain their powers. That’s the whole point of this.”
“No, the whole point of this is I’m the only enemy that you’ve never been fully able to beat. You’ve denied me, you’ve ignored me, you’ve blatantly insulted me and you’ve even changed the religion to something that you prefer better…though I always agreed with what you did in that aspect. This whole thing is nothing more than an attempt to defeat me before you die of old age and it’s a pointless endeavor based on your pride if you ask me.”
“Well nobody asked you.” you say starting to get angry.
“I genuinely don’t understand what your problem is, because we’ve ALL benefited from this arrangement. You’ve even called on me for help in the past.”
“Moments of weakness, I assure you.”
“Yes, I’m sure seeing as you’ve been hung up on the whole instilling fear into everyone and no room for the weak type of thing for the past couple of decades. Your problem started when you started believing in your own rhetoric. YOU want to be the one that the shadows worship. YOU want to be the god of fear and shadows. You don’t want to share any of the credit with me.”
“And why should I? I’m the one whose really been guiding them all these years! You’ve done absolutely nothing! They’d all be fucking dead if you had your way! You even admitted as much. You’ve claimed on several occasions that you’ve been bored of the shadows for years and you’ve only taken a more direct interest in them recently because I came along.”
“While all of that may be true, what you’re forgetting is I’ve been guiding them a lot longer than you have. I gave them purpose for centuries! And what did you think other shadow masters were doing all those years? Twiddling their thumbs? No they were also guiding the shadows! You think you’re not the only shadow master to have these sorts of feelings? You already know by Master Ebon’s own dying admission that he never spoke to me and lied the whole time. You really think other shadow masters didn’t have their own doubts of whether I was a god, or even existed? You’re just the first one to figure out the entire truth and let the bitterness get to you. So by all means perform your little magic ritual and tap directly into the power of this shadow realm. I’m sure it’ll be a success, but you will never be free of the religion tied to it. My name will always be attached to the shadows. Perhaps now more than ever, for a day may have soon come that I would’ve abandoned the shadows entirely and moved on to other things. On that day, they would’ve lost all their powers and undoubtedly the organization would’ve soon collapsed afterwards. Now? You’re going to give them access to the power directly whether I’m here or not. Who do you think is going to still be worshipped? That’s right.”
“So I’ll risk exposing the truth.” You say in an attempt to continue to be defiant.
“Before or after the ritual? If its before, you’re not even going to get a chance to complete it because you’ll be strung up as a heretic or you’ll be forced to kill them all. I doubt even your own mate would side with you even if she and possibly a few others might suspect you’re right. Faith is a powerful thing and you know this. If it’s after the ritual, you might have better success, but I doubt it. At best you’ll end up getting utter chaos because you’ll get rogue shadows that will see no reason to be part of the group anymore. Just think about those in the past that dared to oppose the status quo like Theo, Yvette or even Shade. Don’t you think there will be MORE dissident types when they know there is absolutely no chance of them losing their powers now? The shadows will eventually splinter apart through selfishness. Of course perhaps you don’t care, but I think you do care about the shadows more than you let on sometimes. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be making such a grand effort of trying to free them from me.”
You hate it when Dendrin makes good points and this time he’s made several.
“I’m…not going to win this one am I?” you say.
“My advice? You’d be better off letting this one go. You’re a mortal and have limitations. Enjoy what little time you have left. But it’s your choice, and I’ve always believed that you work better without guidance, so do what you will.”
You wake up from your mental ordeal and sit up placing your head within your hands trying to come to grips with your own short sightedness. It’s almost enough to make you cry.
“What’s wrong? You seem upset. Bad dream?” Talia asks when she sees you after rousing from her own sleep.
“No…I…no. I’m fine. Just still tired I guess.”
You lay back down and Talia soon goes back to sleep. You’re left wondering what you’re going to do, but it all seems so pointless now no matter what you decide.
If you go ahead with the ritual anyway and expose the truth, you’re going to face all the potential problems Dendrin mentioned. Of course you could just keep up the lie about Dendrin, but that seems to be defeating your original purpose.