Morimoto Cycle

The Morimoto Cycle is a series of stories in Shireroth centering around two immortal characters: Maria Morimoto and Nik Raesin. It takes place mainly in Straylight.

Plot

A genetic engineering experiment in Straylight sought to create an immortality virus. The experiment was generally a failure; however, one subject, young biologist Maria Morimoto, did become immortal and concealed the success from the researchers. Morimoto leveraged her immortality to become rich and powerful, and eventually to buy out the pharmaceutical company testing the immortality drugs, which she then concealed from public knowledge.

Two thousand years later, mercenary Nathan Ross recovers from an injury suffered during the Amokolian War. Ross has a secret: he is the same person as legendary Audente admiral Nik Raesin. Raesin is on the record as having died two thousand years ago; in fact, he has survived over two thousand years, though he has no idea why. During that time he has developed a healthy paranoia and system of frequent identity changes, assuming that if anyone discovered his secret he would be locked up and subjected to endless medical experimentation.

Maria visits Nathan in the hospital, and reveals the secret of his immortality: the two made love in a hotel two thousand years ago, allowing the immortality virus to pass from Maria's body to Nathan's. This has happened several times in the past, but Maria, driven by the same paranoia, has always discovered, hunted down, and killed potentially "competing" immortals. Nathan is the only person she has consistently been unable to locate; now she has caught up with him and intends to kill him. Nathan gives an impassioned speech about their similarities, and Maria appears moved. The two make love again; this turns out to be an opportunity for Maria to deliver a deadly illness which she hopes will kill him; instead, thanks to a lot of luck and the skill of his doctors, he barely survives. He arranges for the hospital to fake his death and creates a new identity under which he intends to discover Maria's secrets and thwart her.

Under the identity of Nereus Rotenaard, he opens a shipping business in Straylight, becoming a pillar of the community and eventually rising to the rank of Duke. This is part of his plan, as it will give him the accesses he needs to discover Maria's plots. The day before his coronation, he meets Kender Ly'Sakerdoet, a priest who gives him oddly prescient advice before revealing himself to be a teknomaezj, part of the shadowy, government-sponsored order dedicated to eliminating magic from the world under the banner of human science. He admits that the teknomaezji have their own reasons to want Maria dead, proposes an alliance, and reveals that her final plan is nothing less than world domination.

In order to smoke out Maria, Nereus signs an underhanded deal to deliver Straylight to its old enemy, the Duchy of Yardistan. The Yardistanis invade, prompting a civil war. In the chaos, it is simple for Nereus to disable Maria's defenses, which reveal she is hidden in an undersea base. He launches a military expedition to destroy the base and capture Maria, but Kender, who has joined him, behaves out of character. He confronts the priest only to discover it is not Kender at all, but a mysterious creature who turns into a dolphin and swims away after making vague threats.

Upon reaching Maria's underwater lair, Nereus discovers that the fortress has already been breached, and Maria abducted. The culprits are the dolphin-creatures, about whom he soon learns more. They are the remnants of the ancient So-Saran Empire, which destroyed itself through the overuse of magic, eventually begetting the teknomaezji crusade against magic users and the current anti-magic sentiment. THe most powerful mages in the empire escaped underwater as dolphins to escape the catastrophe, and live on; however, their magic is limited by being constantly depleted to maintain their immortality. They want the secret of Morimoto's virus to give them natural immortality and free their arcane resources.

In a daring raid with the help of the Yardistani navy, Nereus attacks the magic users' hideaway in the seas near Istvanistan. In a climactic battle, he manages to steal a magic knife from the leader of the users, which he recognizes as an artifact with the power to transform people into dolphins. Escaping with Maria, he eventually leads the users into an ambush by Yardistani infantry, who arrest them on charges of "transporting a girl across state lines for immortal porpoises". Maria is taken captive, and they return to the Straylight capital of Discontinuity.

On the trip back to Discontinuity, Nereus makes a decision. He is unwilling to let Maria live, since her quest for power poses a grave threat to Shireroth and beyond. But during his encounters with her, he has come to care for her, and cannot bring himself to kill or imprison her either. In an impulsive decision, he stabs her with the magic knife, turning her into a dolphin; she jumps over the side of the boat and swims away. Nereus assumes that, without the ability to use tools or communicate, she will be neutralized.

Fifty years go by. Nereus, tired of immortality, has taken a chemical formulated by Kender Ly'Sakerdoet that has neutralized the immortality virus. He grows old and is diagnosed with cancer. One night on the beach with his dog, he sees a woman rise from the sea. She identifies herself as Maria Morimoto, and claims that everyone has latent magic powers; rather than be trapped as a dolphin forever, she identified and developed them and can now transform at will. She offers Nereus the chance to re-contract the virus and live with her forever; he refuses, bequeaths his dog to Maria as a last gift, then dies. Maria turns the dog into a sea lion, then vanishes into the ocean, with the cryptic remark that she seems to be becoming a goddess, and that it's about time.