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
“He doesn’t need to, you’ll be able to sense what the best course of action is on your own. Keep the faith and don’t worry, if something is important enough he’ll intervene in his own way. 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 my heart hasn’t been quite in 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. You’ll all be fine without me. I’m ready for death.”

Celia tries to put on a brave face, but she’s obviously upset. She won’t be the only one; you imagine there will be an elaborate funeral after you do finally die. You’ll be glad to do so, as you’re so tired. Nearly all of your life you’ve had so much responsibility placed upon you and you’ll be happy to just get some rest

Then you remember, Dendrin said he was going to speak to you before you die. You wonder what it could be about. You just hope that his realm is free of any more responsibility. You can’t imagine what you’ll be doing there, from what you can tell it’s just a black void. Maybe you just float around? Anyway, you’ll know soon enough.

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.”
“Well I’m sure if you really wanted me to, you could’ve found a way to speed up the process.”
“Kill you? Don’t be silly, why would I kill my favorite mortal?”
“Well you did say I was becoming boring to watch.”
“I did? I don’t even remember. Oh well, I was probably in a bad mood at the time. I do hope you haven’t been worrying about that all these years.”
“Well…maybe at first as strange as that may seem, but I got over it.”
“Ha ha! That’s my mortal! Never one to let things get you down, anyway on to important things. I’m leaving this world as well. I’ve been watching this place too long and that’s why I’m incredibly bored all the time, so I’m off to seek out new ones, maybe walk the planes, that sort of thing.”
“So basically the shadows will truly be without a god anymore. Will they lose their powers as well?”
“No, I came up with a solution. It’s why I was gone so long. You’re taking my place.”
“What? How? You can’t make me a god…can you?”
“Hah! You wish! Eternal let me just confirm something you always believed even when you made your leap of faith. I am no god, at least not in the way a true god exists whatever that means…it’s actually all very metaphysical and confusing, it’s best if you don’t think about it. What I’m trying to say is while I’m not a real god, I am indeed very powerful enough to grant you gifts such as the shadow magic that my followers use. But this you already know.”
“Basically, but I’m still foggy on how I can take your place.”
“Yes, yes, I’m getting to that. I’m going to infuse you to this shadow plane and you’ll be able to more or less perform most of the things that I was able to do. Well, okay so about the only thing you’ll be able to do is maintain the link between this place and the shadows so they don’t lose their powers, but that’s really all about what I did most of the time anyway as you well know. Hmm, I guess the initiation ritual that the shadows perform will be different without me scaring them with that disembodied voice thing I do. No matter, the results will be the same, those strong enough will survive this place will disintegrate into the void as usual.”
“But what about all the other shadow who ever died? Aren’t they here in spirit or something? Wouldn’t I be fused with them as well?”
“The other shadows that died? They’re dead of course and nowhere around here, it’ll just be you. Oh wait, you thought they wound up here? Yes, I suppose you would think that. Well I don’t know how to tell you this, but I haven’t the faintest idea WHERE they go. Maybe they go to whatever plane depending on the type of person they were. Maybe they all go to the realm of the dead. I mean for all I know, they don’t go anywhere and they just rot in the ground.”

This is a hell of a thing for Dendrin to spring on you after you’ve died, but then you’re not really surprised at this point!

“Wait, wait, so what happens to me exactly?”
“Well that’s the rub, you’ll essentially BE the plane, or at least a portion of it, but “you” as you know it will cease to exist. You won’t even be “aware” really, you’ll just be pure instinct. This isn’t even my original home after all, I initially stayed because I just liked the peace and quiet.”
“So you’re basically offering me a living death? How does that remotely sound appealing?”
“I assure you, you wouldn’t be in pain, you wouldn’t even be suffering from anything because you wouldn’t be aware. Think of it this way, you’ll still be helping the shadows. I know you trained a successor and I know after your mate died you lost what remained of your enthusiasm for the job, but I know you Eternal. You can’t help but be in a position of power. Even if you’re never aware of it ever again, you can go into this knowing that you’ll forever be the true protector of the shadows. Now that should be somewhat desirable I would think. Of course if you would prefer to go to a proper final rest, well we can forget this plan and I’ll release you. Your choice as always.”

While in the last years of your life, you wanted nothing more than to finally rest. In the last few moments of your life you thought you were finally going to get that wish. But now it looks like all of that isn’t going to happen.

You could of course decline Dendrin’s offer, but then you’d be leaving the shadows to flounder. Granted most are still accomplished fighters, but a lose of their powers would be a great blow to them. You can imagine the worry and chaos that would come when they can’t cast their shadow magic anymore. True they could rely on other forms, but it just wouldn’t be the same for them. It would basically destroy the order. Why continue following a god when there really IS no proof that he exists anymore?

You worked too damn hard to keep them all alive in life; you can’t abandon them even if Dendrin is willing to.

“I’ll do it.” You say.
“I knew you would. Pity that I can’t make you a proper god; you’d actually be a good one. Farewell Eternal.”

And with those last words your transformation begins…

The shadow order thrived under Celia, who did indeed prove to be one of the better Shadow Masters in the long line of them. She managed to keep the peace more or less.
In time other Shadow Masters followed her and the order continued on very much like it always has, though there were still the usual ups and downs. There was eventual conflict with other powers such as the exapansionistic Nalin Empire or disasters such as the war against the surface world by the Derro, but history never repeated itself and the shadows were never forced to serve as they did with the original Empire let alone ever wiped out.

This of course was partly because of you; a “living” plane that continues to give its power to the shadows, which helps them to survive as an order. In the normal world nobody knows this of course, but your deeds in life were enough that even today your name is still revered and forever known in some of the most important books in the shadow library. Even historians on the shadows from other countries know that you’re an important figure to them, even if they don’t believe some of the stories that go along with it.

One of the most important of those stories being that the shadows claim that when you died, Dendrin was so impressed with your deeds that he allowed you to continue to help the shadows directly during dire times of conflict. Whenever the odds seemed impossible it is said that a few times that you physically appeared on the battlefield in shadow form destroying those that would harm them.

More than one Shadow Master has claimed that they spoke to you directly in a dream.

Nowadays the shadows are in a period of peaceful isolation and the common doctrine is that you will arrive one day in physical form to lead all the shadows back home to Dendrin and everyone else on this world with the capability of faith will finally see his wisdom and join the last pilgrimage into the shadow realm as well.

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 do maintain protection over the shadows and you remain ETERNAL.