thesisFrom the unnatural long lives of Old Testament prophets and Gandalf the Grey, to the immortality of Elves and The Highlander, I am fascinated by stories of longevity and immortality. I chose medieval fantasy as a genre to answer my own question about immortality: How far into hell can seven people take a world and still hope to be redeemed? The day Sylva's favorite student graduates from his military training, she is murdered in her home. An investigation ensues. When her student, Ustin, sees her alive the next morning, the investigation turns into a "man-hunt" for the victim. Sylva has survived her own murder. For Ustin, this means traveling outside his homeland with the menacing Prince Endegar. For Sylva, it may mean dying all over again. The novel spans three weeks and thousands of years, from the age in which The Six were first made immortal, to the day Sylva is found by her husband and pupil, only to be lost again. In the time leading up to that day, Ustin must decide what kind of man he will become. When he realizes what his backwoods warrior-society has turned him into, he seeks an alternative to the violent culture from which he comes. Ustin lives in a microcosm created to protect its inhabitants from a world that struggles against a cycle of its own natural and unnatural destruction. The Six ruled for thousands of years, testing every method of dictatorial government. When cataclysms occurred, The Six were sure to survive and lead the remainder of humanity into the next cycle of destruction. The vacuum created when they choose to leave ruling and live in obscurity has the power to destroy the world yet again. Through a mixture of chance and choice, Ustin, Sylva, and Endegar become players in the world struggle for redemption
