The Story: (book is due for publication between Dec 2024 and March 2025)
Book Summary: In a fictional world that is not so different from our own world in some respects, Reingard lives as a mortal being amongst other mortals and some immortal beings, the latter of which are treated as superior life forms due to their ability to replenish, their lack of mortal death and their super human abilities. Since mortals are regarded as far less important life forms because their human existence has an expiry date, they serve their immortal masters and have a mortal mark on their forehead to protect them from any possible premature life termination at the hands of any immortals who often hunt and duel with each other for sport. This societal hierarchical tradition has been the norm In Continunia for centuries and so, it is rarely challenged by anyone and especially not by the main city's immortal or mortal residents and neither are the mechanics or powerful status of immortal lives ever questioned.
Each mortal that resides in Continunia attends a Mortal Training Academy until the age of seventeen when they are assigned to the service of an immortal who they will serve for the rest of their mortal life. Since the main protagonist Reingard is a mortal, he serves his immortal master Banisher dutifully and he also attends to his other mortal duties but at times he yearns to be an immortal because that existence does seem to offer more than his own. One day however, due to a major event, Reingard somehow saves Banisher from being absorbed by a Dark Deimmortalizer and for that brave deed which is deemed to be a superior act of immortal service, he is suddenly considered for the ultimate reward that can be given to a mortal which is the possible transition to an immortal being.
Meanwhile Calista, a mortal with a rebellious edge who harbours a love interest in the immortal Banisher, remains in Reingard's sphere of existence purely due to his mortal duties to Banisher who she clearly has an interest in. Due to many factors, Reingard knows that Calista's interest in Banisher will never be because immortals do not join with mortals however, Calista wants to defy the structural fabric of mortal and immortal society, so she tries to do whatever it will take to become Banisher's temporary, mortal love interest but is quickly rejected and cast aside.
Later, Calista starts an actual rebel movement against immortals and she solidifies her position more fully with mortal rebel attacks however, due to mortal restrictions and the limited scope of those rebel attacks, she then forms an allegiance with the Dark Deimmortalizers who become an ally to her rebel movement. Unfortunately, since Calista now hates immortals and Reingard is on his way to becoming one, this puts Reingard in an awkward position as he attempts to walk a tightrope of uncertainty between his newly found status on the brink of immortality, his dutiful service to his immortal master which is still operational until his transition to immortality occurs and his love for Calista which seems to have grown since their initial encounter.
Just before Reingard is due to make his final decision as to whether or not to transcend to immortal life or to remain a mortal for the rest of his mortal life, he visits Cornelius' parents to seek their forgiveness for his cowardly abandonment of Cornelius in their youth when under attack from a shadow collector which cost Cornelius, who was Reingard's best childhood friend, his mortal life. Due to Reingard's visit, he makes several discoveries, one being that Calista is some kind of distant relative to Cornelius and that due to a lineage issue that was hidden from Calista, one of her descendants four generations ago was actually immortal and denounced their immortality to join a mortal woman and to live a mortal life.
After this point, Reingard offers Calista the chance to become an immortal alongside him to restore her rightful position in society and to secure her heart due to his love for her. The fact that Calista has also made a deal with the Dark Deimmortalizers now however, presents an issue to Calista because Reingard will soon become an immortal and if she agrees to be his joining partner, so will Calista herself which means that she will cross over the line of agreement and common goal that their alliance was based upon and the Dark Deimmortalizers as she already knows, will not overlook any immortals purely due to a former alliance which may or may not still hold true. In some ways, Calista still wishes to retain the alliance because if anything as far as Calista is concerned, Reingard's discovery about her immortal lineage has created more hatred in her heart for the immortal beings that she will now be existing alongside, partially due to their disassociation with her own descendants but her position as an immortal would topple and destroy that previously mutually beneficial agreement which would also put Calista herself at risk of becoming their absorption prey.
Additional info: On graduation each mortal enters the Dragohap Rider Match Challenge where they are set challenges and Dragon hybrid creatures that they complete challenges with most successfully, are given to the respective mortal as their assistant to perform their duties. Some of these hybrid creatures are herbivores and some are carnivores and some protect their riders and do battle with other creatures on the surface of the planet.
Dangers on Continua:
Immortal duels: happen every single day and an unfortunate mortal can at times, be caught in the crossfire.
Shadow Collectors: who are some kind of immortal being but their origins originate from only dark matter energy and they can change shape or form as they lurk in the shadows at night and pick of any mortals that they feed upon and consume our souls and devour their flesh within an hour.
Mortal Mark Hunters: who are a group of immortal bandits and law breakers that seek out mortals that have a mortal mark because our mortal mark provides them with a source of power and our mortal nature is a source that they can drain. However, mortals can usually recover from a mortal hunter's attack but it often takes about a year and that year is often spent in a mortal care center.
Replication Hunters: often present themselves as a known immortal or even as a mortal to trick mortals into a position of weakness. Usually, the mortal hunters lure mortals to a place where they can attack them easily and can devour their flesh, organs and minds and although the danger from this group is not as immediate, they do hunt in packs and plan the execution of their death traps which means, they can be just as deadly.
Spear Spectres: carnivorous dragon like creatures with spear like claws that can grab a mortal from ten meters away and take their life in an instant.
Dark Deimmortalizers: immortals that absorb other immortals.
All immortals can shape shift and have special powers but their powers depend upon the type of dark or kind of dark and light energy combinations that they are made from.
Genre: Science Fantasy
This book is due for publication between Dec 2024 and March 2025