Epilogue: The Old Man and the Sea

[Scott of Hyperborea]

[This is part of the Morimoto Cycle, and comes directly after "The Only One I Have Ever Loved"]

50 years later...

The name "Nereus" meant "old man of the sea" in the old legends, and Nereus Rotenaard had chosen it for his Straylight persona with a wry humor, for he was first and foremost a shipwright, and he was very, very old. But before now, he had always seemed a healthy 35, passing the centuries not only immortal, but heedless of the ravages of age.

Now...now it was otherwise. His once black hair was white and frosty, and his skin was wrinkled and dry. His insides, too, were showing signs of age; his thoughts were not as quick as they once were, and he knew in an intellectual way about the cancer in his stomach that would take only a few more months to end things all together.

He wondered, often, whether he had done the right thing in taking Kender's "cure". The executors of the estate of Kender Ly'Sakerdoet had found it in a package, addressed to Nereus, and given it to him when he returned from the confrontation at Full Circle. It had been a vial of liquid, and a scrap of paper bearing a terse explanation. That it was a cure for the virus he had contracted from Maria Morimoto many years ago, and a countervirus that would reverse the first one's effects. He had no idea how Kender had developed such a thing, but the knowledge of the technomaezji was not like the knowledge of other men, and the old Prelate had clearly been considering the problem for a long time.

Besides the short explanation, nothing else. Nothing on why Nereus would want such a thing, what Kender intended for him, why he had put in all the work for something a well-aimed bullet Nereus' brain could have done much faster.

But it had always been Kender's contention that immortality and suicide were both sins against Mors and Vivantia, both attempts to control a sacred passing that should best be left to the gods. What Kender had offered him, Nereus slowly realized, was a chance to atone for his original sin. He had offered him the gift of old age and death.

And Nereus had found himself strangely attracted to it. Between Maria and the dolphins, immortality had begun to seem almost crass. Whoever lacked it wanted it, and whoever had it started wanting everything else. He was tired. He had finally found a life's work - thwarting Maria's plans for world domination - but now that the work was over, it had taken him with it. So one night, he had gotten very very drunk and he had taken Kender's potion.

By that time, he was living in exile on Amity, a pleasant enough spot to spend one's declining days. Age had taken its toll. His sight and his hearing were no longer what they once were, and he, long a wanderer and loner, had bought himself a nice house on the southern beaches and a dog. With his Ducal pension and the support of the Yardistani government, the affairs of Straylight concerned him little. He heard they had finally gotten themselves organized again and were pushing to regain independence, and in a quiet noncommital way he wished them luck. He himself was content to take long walks along the shore with his dog, and stare out to sea. The old man of the sea, indeed.

And then he'd been diagnosed with the stomach cancer. He knew it was coming, death. It had just been a shock, to hear it was to be so soon. But he had no regrets. He politely refused the delaying tactics his doctors suggested, returned to his home in Amity, and waited for the end.

It came late one evening. He was lying on his beachside chair, staring out to sea, with a full moon overhead. Something caught his eye. The dog - Thetis was her name - began to bark. It was a dolphin, swimming through the waves directly toward them. As a wave pushed it forward onto the dry beach, it began to change, until it was a naked woman, young, dark-haired, and very familiar.

"Maria," said Nereus.

"Nik," said Maria. "You've changed."

"So have you," Nereus said. "You're not supposed to be able to become human. You're not a magic user."

"Everyone's got a little bit of magic inside of them," said Maria, and smiled. "Anyone says they don't just isn't looking hard enough. Oh, Nik. You've been so silly. I'm here to help you."

"What do you mean?"

"You tried to cure your immortality? Nik, life is fun and you don't want to die. Billions of people across Micras would give an arm and a leg to have the chance you did, and you threw it away. Nik, you've earned your immortality. I wouldn't say that about anyone else, but I'll say it about you. I have the rest of eternity, and it will be much less interesting without you to share it with. So I've come here to give you the same gift, a second time."

"You have?"

"Yes," said Maria, and she walked up to Nereus, so close they were nearly touching. "Eat. This is my body. Drink. This is my blood. And whosoever taketh of them, he shall gain eternal life." And she stood there, dripping wet, Maria full of grace silver in the moonlight.

And for a second, Nikolas Raesin, the Last Audente, was tempted. And for a second, he might have taken her, there and then, and regained the gift of life without end, and in another reality perhaps he did. But after a second, he shook his head. "I'm ready, Maria. I can feel the breath of Mors on my neck, but he's coming to take me somewhere, not just to lead me away. Just let me ask you one thing."

"Shoot."

"If you can turn into a human...are you going to..."

"Take over the world again? I think not. There was something in what you said before. There's still a lot I haven't seen. A lot I don't know. The kelp forests of Florin'Sara, the Porpoise Leaps, the source of the high magics. It may very well take me the rest of eternity before I'm done. That whole world domination thing, it was fun while it lasted. But in the end, just a phase. Happy?"

"Yes," said Nereus. "Yes, I can die happy now. Wait. Thetis. The dog. I don't have anyone to take Thetis. Will you take care of her after I'm gone?"

Maria considered it for a second. Then her face brightened. "Yes! I can do that!"

"Then that's all," said Nereus.

Maria bent down and gave him a quick kiss. When she opened her eyes again, he was dead.

"Well," Maria told Thetis. "You don't know it, but you just witnessed something very special. Nik Raesin was quite a man. You should feel honored to have known him."

Thetis looked at her quizzically, then hesitantly began to wag her tail. Then she went over to Nereus' body and sniffed it.

"Where did he go?" Maria asked the dog. "I know more than anyone else who's ever lived, but I don't know any more about that one than you do, pup. But you and I, we like it right here, isn't that right?"

Thetis, again, began to hesitantly wag her tail.

"Well, come on now. You're family now, and we Morimotos don't spend a lot of time worrying about what could have been. He was a good friend. But you'll find others. Meanwhile, if you're going to travel with me, you'll need to let me just change one or two little things, okay?" The dog nuzzled up against Maria, and she pat its head. "Good. Now, just stay still a second..."

Again she waved her fingers. The dog began to shed her hair, and her paws broadened and changed shape. Her whiskers grew, its head rounded, and her ears retracted back into her head. After a few seconds, Maria pat the newly formed sea lion on its head. "Go on, then," she said, pointing to the ocean. You'll like it. Trust me. I'll catch up with you in a minute." The sea lion jumped into the ocean, and began spinning acrobatically in appreciation of its new aerodynamic body.

Maria Morimoto eyed the corpse of Nik Raesin one last time. "Goodbye, Nik" she whispered. Then she waved her fingers, and it burst into brilliant silver flame from within. In an instant, it was consumed by its own fire, and a wave leapt forward and swept the ashes into the sea. From beyond the breakers, a sea lion barked.

"Huh," said Maria. "I seem to be becoming a goddess. Well, about time."

She dove into the water, transformed into a dolphin, and disappeared beneath the waves.

[roll closing credits]