Shannon awoke to the sensation of chilly air blowing down her neck. She groaned and, with some effort, slowly opened her heavy eyelids. Everything was dark. She couldn’t see anything. It seemed she was in some gloomy, frigid place.
She lay face up on the ground, and once she’d managed to turn her eyes upward, her vision gradually adjusted enough for her to get some sense of her surroundings. Naturally, the bright blue sky was above her—not. What she actually saw was a stone ceiling; apparently, she wasn’t outside. Her head also rested on something far too hard to be earth. It felt like a floor made of cold stone.
Her eyes were drawn to an area that was slightly less dark, and there, she made out a number of metal rods lined up vertically. “Iron bars... This must be a jail cell,” she muttered weakly. She scrubbed at her sleepy eyes and slowly sat up, then sneezed. With a sniff, she patted herself and realized that she didn’t have her robe—it had been stripped from her. “Ugh, chilly!”
Shannon assumed from the lack of light that she was being detained in an underground dungeon. She grabbed the bars and pushed on them, but they didn’t budge. The cell, it seemed, was sturdy.
In her head, she ran through what had happened before she lost consciousness. She had met Sarah and been hassled by some bandits, and then...Sarah had knocked her out with sleep magic. Shannon hadn’t been caught off guard, though. She had seen that Sarah was deep in thought, waiting for the right time to make a move and even readying her wand. Shannon had known, of course, that Sarah had intended to cast some kind of spell on her.
Most people would lose their composure if they woke up in a cell, but Shannon treated her captivity like an everyday occurrence. She wasn’t surprised. Rather, she was waiting in eager anticipation to see what would happen to her. She’d actually woken up more excited than usual! She couldn’t have hoped for better circumstances. She wasn’t even mad at Sarah, only grateful, though she still didn’t really understand why Sarah had done this to her.
Shannon did have one small concern, though. From Sarah’s conversation with that bandit, Gale-whatsit, Shannon had inferred that Sarah’s boss was studying immortality. He’d probably been looking to capture someone like Shannon for a long time.
Actually, there was one person who could have been after Shannon for a very long time. A person who was dead but not dead. He wasn’t immortal like Shannon, but his existence was more...ambiguous. He continued to live on more like a thought than a person—a formless spirit who drifted through the world and occasionally resided within people. This phenomenon was a lot less clear and straightforward than immortality, but Shannon knew the person who studied that field of magic. It was the culprit behind her eternal life, her teacher, and the first person in the world to analyze the nature of the soul: Orlando the Spirit Sorcerer.
He existed only as a soul, but he still sought immortality. Only he would know how to end Shannon’s eternal life. “If Orlando is up there...” she murmured. If he was truly up there, keeping her hostage, then that meant she could finally die.
If he could grant immortal life, then surely he could take it away.
The click-clack of footsteps beyond the bars met her ears. Then someone appeared and came to a stop right in front of her. “I’m sorry, Shannon, for what I did,” said a terribly hoarse, weak voice. The silhouette was blurry but unmistakable.
“Oh, Sarah.”
“Here.” With gentle motions, Sarah put the plate she’d been holding into a gap under the bars and pushed it toward Shannon. It held bread and lukewarm soup.
“Whoa, for me? Thanks!”
“No, don’t thank me. I...”
Shannon didn’t really take in Sarah’s mournful expression, and she ate her food in silence. Her stomach was remarkably empty, and in a matter of seconds, she devoured everything. “Ah, delicious! Prison food isn’t so bad once in a while.”
Sarah stilled, then quickly lowered her head in a show of apology. “Shannon, I’m so sorry! I know how awful that is to say under the circumstances. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I’m so selfish...” Her voice grew strained, and her face contorted with sorrow. She wrapped her arms around her own trembling form, looking for all the world like she was about to cry. “I really didn’t want to do it. Please believe that. You... Your body is special, so I...”
“I’m not really bothered about it,” Shannon said. “This is hardly my first time in jail.”
“But—”
“I’m immortal—forever young! That’s what you’re researching, right?”
“H-How did you...?” Sarah’s eyes widened.
“I just knew. Anyway, you probably thought I’d be good research material, so you put me to sleep and brought me here.”
“You... You’re right. I brought you here to research you. It was unforgivable of me.”
Sarah, apparently, had resigned herself to her fate. They had only just met, but Shannon could see that Sarah was a good-natured, if somewhat weak-willed, mage. She was probably the type of person who’d doubt herself no matter what decision she made. Now, though, even though she had apologized, she wouldn’t go back on her decision. She was prepared to be hated; she even hated herself.
There had to be some explanation for her behavior, so Shannon said, “But I do forgive you.”
“Don’t!” Sarah shouted. “Don’t forgive me. You protected me from all those guys, and now I’ve given you over to such an awful man. You’re going to suffer, all because of me...”
Sarah was bad-mouthing herself as if she wanted Shannon to punish her. But the girl was beyond exhausted; Shannon knew that there had to be something else at play here. “Hey, why don’t you tell me what’s going on? Did that man—uh, was it Victor?—order you to capture me?”
Sarah didn’t respond.
“I might be able to help you. Just tell me.”
Sarah hesitated a bit longer, then, in a timid voice, began to explain. She sounded like she was about to cry. “It’s...my mother. She’s the only relative I have. She raised me by herself and sent me to a mages’ school. When I graduated and came back home, she’d contracted an incurable disease. None of the magic I’d learned was any help. I studied herbs too, so I’ve tried making medicines with them, but nothing has worked.” She did cry then, her tears sliding slowly down her cheeks.
At last, Shannon understood why Sarah had been collecting so many herbs. She hadn’t been ordered to by whoever owned this dungeon; she’d believed she could one day cure her mother with them. Shannon could tell just by looking at her that today’s mages’ schools specialized in research; they taught their students nothing about fighting or upsetting the balance of the world.
Perhaps there were no more mages around who could teach those subjects. That explained why Sarah had been so surprised to see Shannon use combat magic.
Sarah wasn’t finished. “That’s why I had no choice but to turn to Victor for help. He said that if I used the magic I’d learned to help him with his research on immortality, he might cure my mother. So...I have to do whatever he asks, no matter how awful it is.” She paused. “But when I saw you, Shannon, you seemed so free...”
“Sarah...”
“What am I even doing? I’ve just been looking the other way and sacrificing so many people. How can I live with myself after all I’ve done?”
Still, Sarah couldn’t stop. Shannon didn’t know exactly what kinds of things Sarah had done, but it was clear that the girl was being crushed by her own guilt. That was probably why Sarah wouldn’t stop, in fact. She had already come this far, and offering up Shannon was the only way to end this fruitless research.
“I see what’s going on. What a mean guy, taking advantage of your circumstances like that. You know, people searching for immortality are fundamentally twisted.” Shannon smiled.
“Why are you taking this so lightly?” Sarah asked. “I’m pretty much at my limit...”
Shannon laughed. “I’m sorry. But really, immortality research is all the same.” On that note, she recalled the possibility that she had deduced earlier, and her face lit up. “That Victor guy might be the person I’m looking for.”
“Huh?”
Orlando the Spirit Sorcerer had analyzed the invisible and uncertain existence of the soul and applied what he learned to the miracle of magic. His research had gone on and on until, before anyone had realized, he had created a magic that could surpass even the physical limits of immortality. But the price of eternal life was far too great. Shannon hadn’t been able to turn a blind eye to it, so she had thwarted him.
Orlando had died, but his research had flourished. His soul had escaped oblivion by separating from his flesh to wander the world in search of one thing: immortality. When his spirit inhabited another person, that person pursued eternal life from the moment they were born. Orlando’s thoughts and personality had been scraped off his soul, but some of his knowledge remained.
His soul picked different kinds of hosts depending on the era. Occasionally, he resided in a mage; sometimes, a mercenary; once in a while, a religious leader. Regardless of time or place, when his soul came into the world, he guided his host toward the quest for eternal life. All of his hosts contained some of his knowledge, though the amount varied. If, perhaps, the body was a perfect match for his spirit, he might even have been able to pass along all of his research information.
If that was the case this time around, then the knowledge of how to deliver Shannon to her true death slept within Orlando’s current host. Orlando had made her immortal, so it stood to reason that he knew how to kill her once and for all. That was why she’d been searching for her late mentor at the same time that she chased her own death. The thought that he might be waiting for her now, high above the dungeon, filled Shannon with strength.
“Hey, Sarah. Thank you.”
“You’re thanking me? Did you hit your head when I knocked you out or something?”
“Nope. You may think you’re sacrificing me, but I’m actually also using you for my own reasons. So we’ll call it even.”
Sarah said nothing. She lowered her face, looking pained.
“If I meet him, I might finally realize my dream,” Shannon explained.
“Is he really the person you’re looking for?”
Shannon stood. Her beautiful golden hair gleamed strikingly in the dim dungeon. “That’s what I’m going to find out. Please take me to Victor. Then we’ll put an end to my long life!”