text: You can't bring yourself to be some like the svelk and be mercenary scum who have no other goals than to earn coin. By the same token you're not going to pledge yourself to yet another government that will probably be just as corrupt and decadent as the one you just left. Maybe in a way, Kane was right. He was obviously suffering a mental breakdown as well as being manipulated, but the concept of forming your own nation would be the surest way to 'get it right." You could run things the way they SHOULD be.
  
  The question is where to start? You'd need at least an army to conquer anything and right now you don't really have that. You're sure you could probably get those "new eternals" to follow you, but there still isn't enough of them even if you were inclined to subject yourself to the torture of futility. Regular soldiers would probably follow you, but nowadays they're so scattered that you'd literally have to travel all over most of the Empire to collect them, not to mention all the fighting you'd have to do during this state of anarchy. The only place you can think of is the Nalin province. It's virtually the one place still left in the empire that isn't suffering outright revolts, though the citizens are reportedly still severely disgruntled, Brenda is also there in command of Fort Glory. Perhaps she'll see the wisdom of your plan and help you, if that's the case you should be able to pull it off.
  
  You find a nearby horse and set off for the south. Along the way you see the landscape of the Empire, which at one time was orderly and even idyllic is now burning and in tatters. Despite the chaos you don't need to do any battle, not even when passing groups of angry peasants who are taking every opportunity to get revenge on their oppressive government and its agents in all forms. You can only assume your reputation is enough to scare them off or they don't even recognize you. If it's the latter then it only confirms your belief that you weren't making that much of a difference in the Empire anyway.
  
  When you get to the Nalin province you find it in much better condition than the rest of the places in the Empire that you've ridden through. Fort Glory looks slightly different, namely it looks more heavily fortified and a lot better cared for than when you left this place. When you approach Fort Glory, you are momentarily halted by the guards, but when you tell them who you are and that you need to see Brenda they immediately let you in.
  
  Brenda is very surprised to see you. She looks a lot different from the teenage girl you parted company with. Her hair is going gray and she has a very "tired" look about her. As if the whole weight of responsibility is crashing down on her, but she still carries herself with confidence and strength.
  
  "When my soldiers told me it was you I couldn't believe it, it's been so long since we've seen one another. Wow you haven't really changed at all." She says almost smiling.
  "It is good to see you too, Brenda. Still as pretty as ever." You say, unsure of how to respond.
  "Pretty? Now that's a word I never thought I'd hear you say. Let alone to me. Maybe you have changed more than I thought."
  "Well I mean I never thought you were ugly, Brenda. I was just trying to reply to your compliment with one of my own."
  "Ha ha, a complete lack of tact. That's more like the old you. Still it's nice to hear, though I hope for your sake, you're a better sweet talker to the other girls out there."
  "Brenda, I have to talk to you in private about something it's very important and I don't know how you're going to react." You say by passing her statement.
  "Oh geez, you're not going to suddenly confess some sort of hidden love for me that you've kept to yourself all these years are you?"
  "What?! NO! This is something important!"
  
  Brenda's a little amused by how you worded your statement especially since she was joking. You just aren't in a "joking mood" though right now and after what you have to tell Brenda you doubt if she will too.
  
  "Look, I apologize for my outburst. It's just that this is really important."
  "Okay, we'll go to my office and speak privately there."
  
  When you get to Brenda's office you don't bother beating around the bush and you just tell her everything. Your thoughts, feelings, actions and ultimately your plan and why you came here. Now she really is amazed. You of all people were practically a paragon of duty and loyalty and here you are openly confessing that you've abandoned the Empire.
  
  "Okay, wow. Well you've just been full of surprises today."
  "Will you help me?"
  "What exactly am I supposed to do? I mean are you seriously asking me to just hand over control of this fort to you while you play pretend emperor?"
  "No! I mean shit I don't know I haven't thought out all the details yet I guess. It's just (sigh) Look Brenda, I just left ALL I've known. Everything I've ever been taught to believe in is GONE, if it ever existed to begin with. I didn't have many choices on what to do next and this seemed to be the best choice all things considered. I came here because I didn't know where else to go quite frankly. I see now that this was just as foolish an idea leaving the Empire in the first place, I guess... "
  "No it wasn't."
  "What wasn't?"
  "Leaving the Empire. I mean I certainly understand your reasons. I share them. Maybe not in the exact same way, but they are there. Hell I think in these dark times, everyone shares them. I dunno perhaps you just made that extra step that the rest of us here aren't quite willing to make yet."
  "What do you mean?" you ask.
  "I mean everyone in this fort and probably the entire province would be for seceding from the Empire at this point. I think the only reason why nobody has done it yet or even rioted is due to way we run things here at Fort Glory. We found it much better by just letting people go about their business if we're not threatening them all the time and actually defending them from real external threats. The only real problem here is the high taxes which the Empire imposes on this region, that of course tends to make people a little grumpy, but not quite enough to riot. They remember what this place used to be like after all."
  "Not threatening people you say? That's a pretty wild concept. Did you think that one up?"
  "Nah, the credit goes to Roldan, he was the first to suggest it. He probably would've made a better fort commander too and if he had been promoted instead of me, he might still be here... "
  "Brenda, okay you can't think like that. If he'd been promoted then you'd probably be dead and... "
  "I know, I know. I just get a little sad thinking about him not being here sometimes. Okay, anyway let's do it. Let's break away from the Empire. Like you said, shouldn't take much convincing, though I hope you're prepared for a shitstorm from this. We might not much problem from the population, as I said they'll probably be relieved to not have to pay the high taxes any more, but we're going to get Empire armies to come down here eventually."
  "Possibly, but it's pretty bad Brenda. I'm not sure if they'll be able to really do anything, the government is on the brink of collapse. If anything we might be getting an influx of people wanting to come here to join. You're just lucky they didn't saddle you with those new eternals. If they had, I guarantee this place wouldn't be as nice as it is now."
  "So I've heard. I suppose I am lucky. This whole province is lucky."
  
  Brenda takes a deep breathe before speaking again.
  
  "Okay so how exactly are we doing this? I mean what system are we going to have in place?"
  "Well, given what you've told me about how you've been running things, I've had one new idea. How about YOU run this place and you be the leader?"
  "ME? But... I don't know anything about running a nation or anything like that!"
  "Seems to me you've been running this place pretty well for years. You know the people and better yet, they know you. I think if I was in charge... well they'd think they were living under the Empire again. No, I realize now my place isn't to rule, but to fight. It really is what I'm good at. About the only thing."
  "Now come on, you have great leadership skills!"
  "Leadership skills for combat perhaps, but not for ruling. I think whatever is it that you had with Roldan made you and him more in touch with human nature and that's a good thing."
  "Yes... it was a good thing. I just wish he was here. I could certainly use his help right now." Brenda says reminiscing.
  
  You pat Brenda on the shoulder in your effort to comfort her; she tells you she's fine though. You and Brenda at that point set your plan in motion to split from the Empire.
  > brenda (Loss)
  After discussing a few more things about the plan to break away from the Empire, you change the subject to a more personal nature.
  
  "So other than the slow collapse of the Empire... how have you been doing?" you ask.
  "Me? I've been okay. Just been taking one day as it comes, I guess in times like this though, that's about all anyone can do. I've just been keeping myself occupied, sometimes hard to do since like I said, it's relatively peaceful here. Guess our plan might shake thing up a bit though." Brenda remarks.
  "Yeah, hopefully for the better."
  
  There is a long pause before Brenda continues the conversation
  
  "I just want to say, I appreciated the letter you sent when Roldan died." Brenda says.
  "Well I felt it was only right, I probably didn't have the words that Gerald might've had though."
  "No, they were fine. I was almost just as upset to hear about him as well that day, even though I hadn't spoken or seen him in years. Had a hard time keeping it together for the next few months, don't really know how I did it."
  "You're an Eternal, and you'll always have an inner strength to carry you through the hard times when you need it."
  "Perhaps. (Sigh) It's been a few years now and I still think about Roldan. I mean I know there was always the potential for danger, and one of us getting killed was a possibility, but I dunno it just doesn't seem real at times. I remember when we first started to desire one another, it didn't seem real either, but then it just felt so right. We knew each other, we grew up together, and we just operated in perfect sync."
  "Yes, Roldan mentioned feeling the same way. He loved you very much."
  "I know."
  "So... where did you bury Roldan?"
  "I didn't. I had his body burned and his ashes spread to the wind outside Fort Glory. He would've wanted it that way. He said when he died, he didn't want some lavish military funeral. Still, a lot of the soldier still paid their respects by standing on the battlements and giving a salute in unison."
  "Well, sounds a lot nicer than what I could do for Gerald. After the mission I dragged his body out of the swamp and back to Sinkhole. The local Empire officials said they wouldn't bother with a proper funeral since he had no family and that it would've been better to just leave him in the swamp. After slamming that pencil pusher's head into the desk, I went straight to the local undertaker and had him dig a hole for Gerald in the cemetary. Not the most elaborate of funerals, but he deserved a proper buried rather than just being left face down in the mud... though I guess in the scheme of things it hardly matters, its still in the ground and getting eaten by worms... "
  "No, no, you did the right thing." Brenda says reassuringly. "You always did look out for the rest of us in some way. That's why I never blamed you for Roldan's death. I knew you would've prevented it if you could've."
  "Yes, I would've."
  "Well, let us not dwell on such dark issues too much longer, we've got other things to think about. Better ones for a better future, like you said."
  
  Brenda smiles at you and you return the gesture.
  
  You feel sort of funny about it, but you briefly wonder if you had still been stationed here instead of Roldan, would you and Brenda gotten together?