I have not arrived here by accident. I have not come here to this far-flung place out of curiosity. I have come here after a long journey, both physically and mentally. In a life as long as mine, there are naturally hundreds and thousands of events that have brought me here. Of course, there was a major one. A catalyst if you will. But this is not about that. This is about a conversation.

When I was first brought into the Eternals, I was introduced to those members who were nearby when they held one of their meetings. Imagine the most elegant, most luxurious hotel you have ever seen. The meeting place is basically that. Run by robots, controlled by a true AI, it serves one purpose and one only; to house the Eternals as they travel through eternity. Some of the Eternals spend all their time there, others never go there, but on occasion, when they feel like it, they gather for a meeting. Normally when they are introducing a new member, sometimes when politics in the Universe are running out of control, but mainly just because they feel like it.

Now, do not think that this group of Eternals acts as some sort of peacekeeper. When you live forever, you have an unlimited amount of time to gain wealth, through a range of means that is equally unlimited. Perhaps I will tell you about them, but not right now. Honestly, most of those machinations bored me, although I was again a rarity amongst them. Most of the Eternals valued wealth and luxury above all else, and few had any scruples about how they gained such wealth.

Ahh, the stories.

However, this is not about that. This is about a conversation I had with the eldest of the Eternals, at least that is what they claimed. Certainly, none of the other Eternals challenged the point. Jilan their name was, or more likely is. From a civilisation that had apparently moved past gender, they were more like an organic robot; each body piece being replaced endlessly, growing new ones as they needed them. Over time, they had seemed to lose any real identifying features, and since their face and body changed multiple times since I first met them, I do not know if there is any real way to describe them. Humanoid, although only in the most general sense of the word, a body that changed from a dull blue colour to a golden colour in the time I knew them, Jilan was certainly one of the oldest people I have met, possibly one of the wisest.

Also one of the most annoying, but that's not relevent right now.

Regardless, the conversation that led me to where I am now, was the very first time I met them. It was short, sharp and mostly unpleasant, but it has stuck with me ever since.

"Which sort are you?" they almost snarled at me.

"Excuse me?" I replied, flustered.

I claim your empathy for this, as this was one of the strangest days of my life. By that stage I had spent at least a thousand years thinking that I was the only one like me, the only one living forever. On this day, that thought had been shattered, destroying my sense of uniqueness, and, I admit, my sense of specialness.

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"Which sort of Eternal will you be? Will you be one of the aimless, like those useless piles of flesh that live out their eternities here in this gilded prison? Or will you be an explorer, trying to discover new things? Ha! Pointless aim that it is. The Universe has been explored, at least in any meaningful way. Or will you be a conqueror? Rule a planet with an iron fist, killing all who stand beneath you? A cruel existance, but not the least of them."

"Ah, huh, I don't know?"

"Bah! Of course you don't. Useless lump that you are."

They glared at me, seeming to stare into my soul, before finally their eyes softened.

"Know this, lad. I am the eldest of all the Eternals. I have seen more lives come and go than you have seen days. And all Eternals end the same way. All of them, every, single, one, has eventually given up. Some spend the rest of their lives on a planet, some stay here, doing nothing for the rest of eternity, some seek death. But all eventually surrender to time."

As I said, an unpleasant conversation.

However, they were right. In all the time that I have been an Eternal, and I have lasted longer than most, I have seen most of the Eternals that I knew give up. Some still live, waiting out eternity in that place, every need met by the robots. Others have taken lives on some far off planet, living out their lives doing whatever it is that they do. Others has sought out death.

Of all the Eternals that I have known, only two have died through violence. Once was my greatest love, that was killed by my Greatest foe. The other was when I killed him.

But overall, most Eternals get bored of living and try to stop it eventually. Even me. Unfortunately, this is much harder for me than the other Eternals. Because of this, I have spent much of my time trying to discover how I became immortal, in order to learn how to undo it. During this time I have spent more time visiting people and worlds who claim to have uncovered the secrets of immortality and other secrets of the universe, hoping that one of them might be able to help me. 

Unsurprisingly, most were complete wastes of time. The worst were the frauds, who knew nothing. Some rare ones were natural traits of the people, still useless to me. The rare few who had discovered a secret for themselves were of occasional help, but little. A few, a tiniest amount of them, occasionally had something useful for me. However, I do not begrudge this time, this effort. I had little else to do with my eternity, so this was at least a way of accomplishing my aim. And I did learn something. I learnt that immortality is a tricky thing. It is often more a view point than an actual fact.

There is an old story about death. That a man does not die until everything that they had done had stopped having an effect on the world. That when the people stopped speaking your name was when you died. And this belief is oddly common around the universe, particularly on less-developed planets. I cannot count how many times I travelled to a planet like this, having heard that they all lived for thousands of years, only to find out that it was merely people saying that they lived forever. And in all my time, I have found that this is the better way to gain immortality. Not to live forever, for that is exhausting. But to be remembered forever, for your name to live down the ages, that is immortality.

When I finally finish this quest of mine, when I finally achieve the ending of my life, I will be forgotten by all but a few. In my life I have done things that changed the course of lives of millions, if not even more. Some of these actions were good, others were not. But none of those affected by me will remember me. The only ones who would have missed me are already gone.