p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"It took nearly two months for Dagbert to realize that his fingernails had stopped growing, though it only took him a few more seconds to guess that the rest of him had as well. His hair was fairly obvious: it still fell precisely to his shoulders, though he couldn't recall when it was last cut. He didn't grow fast enough for a lack of change in height to be noticeable, but that stood to reason. Dagbert wasn't as surprised by his exemption from time as one might have expected. To his mind, it explained quite a bit. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Like every firstborn son in his line, he was doomed to kill or be killed by his father in his thirteenth year. Instead, it had been Lysander, not Dagbert, who had defeated Lord Grimwald with the aid of his spirit ancestors. Lord Grimwald had been swallowed by the Sea Globe and presumed dead. Dagbert had never understood how that worked: a curse claimed its victims for centuries, only to be averted when another did the deed. Now, it made sense. The son or the father had to perish at the other's hand…so, by extension, neither could die before then, or in another way, and he could not age, having survived without killing his father, and his father was alive inside of the globe, where he could not reach him. If he could not age, or be killed, except by one who could do nothing, then, Dagbert supposed, he must be immortal— forever young, like Peter Pan, or that song, which he was now guaranteed to have stuck in his head for the next week or possibly millennium. It would be terrible to watch all those he knew die and limiting to never change, but there were worse things. Like an early death. Or committing patricide. He was "something more than merely mortal now". Even his mother, who could have lived for seven square years in the sea, had died, and young. emLet us die young, or let us live forever. /emHe had always thought that he would find her, in the other sea. Now he never could. emWe don't have the power, but we never say never… Do you really want to live forever? /emThat song could haunt him for centuries, long after all other evidence of Alphaville was gone. An eternity of '80s earworms would drive him mad, if he wasn't already. He didn't particularly look forward to it./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Ah, well. For now, Mrs. Kettle was expecting him down for dinner. She had made brisket for the first time and he knew she'd worked hard on it. He would tell her about his immortality another time. No sense in taking attention from the meal. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Welcome to eternity, Father," he said to the globe. "You'll be in there forever, so I hope you get used to it. I'm still getting used to this myself, though my accommodations are probably more comfortable than yours."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"'My names are as endless as the ocean and so am I.'/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"em Do you really want to live forever? /em/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Perhaps he was in shock./p
p style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"* * * * */p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Ironically, immortality was't a problem which Dagbert had for very long. He had been wrong to believe that his father had been rendered powerless. When Dagbert realized that his father was, in fact, still very much capable of killing him—and, indeed, attempting to do so—he wondered why he hadn't started trying to sooner. Perhaps Lord Grimwald hadn't realized what was going on until Dagbert himself had. Perhaps he had still been getting used to life as an in caged spirit. Whatever the case, it was during the third month after his alleged thirteenth birthday that Dagbert fell ill. As the month wore on, he began having coughing fits, fevers, and fainting spells and reeking of old fish. Day by day, slowly enough that he briefly thought he was imagining it, Lord Grimwald's face took form in the globe, growing clearer and clearer as Dagbert grew weaker and weaker. The sea-sorcerer was draining his son's life force like a basin. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"One day, on a weekend back from school, Dagbert collapsed on his bed, feverish, and began to choke. His throat… his lungs…the pain…it was like…drowning. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Slowly, in the globe, Lord Grimwald opened one eye. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Dagbert realized that there was no alternative which he was willing to accept. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Somewhere in another world, one of Guanhamara's granddaughters smiled as her curse claimed its latest victim. The seas, all of them far away, stayed still for a moment in honor of their new master. The lordship of Tethys Castle had changed hands, as it was always meant to./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"The fragments of the sea globe glistened on the floor as the parricide, feeling vastly recovered, went to get a dustpan./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Like every firstborn son in his line, he was doomed to kill or be killed by his father in his thirteenth year. Instead, it had been Lysander, not Dagbert, who had defeated Lord Grimwald with the aid of his spirit ancestors. Lord Grimwald had been swallowed by the Sea Globe and presumed dead. Dagbert had never understood how that worked: a curse claimed its victims for centuries, only to be averted when another did the deed. Now, it made sense. The son or the father had to perish at the other's hand…so, by extension, neither could die before then, or in another way, and he could not age, having survived without killing his father, and his father was alive inside of the globe, where he could not reach him. If he could not age, or be killed, except by one who could do nothing, then, Dagbert supposed, he must be immortal— forever young, like Peter Pan, or that song, which he was now guaranteed to have stuck in his head for the next week or possibly millennium. It would be terrible to watch all those he knew die and limiting to never change, but there were worse things. Like an early death. Or committing patricide. He was "something more than merely mortal now". Even his mother, who could have lived for seven square years in the sea, had died, and young. emLet us die young, or let us live forever. /emHe had always thought that he would find her, in the other sea. Now he never could. emWe don't have the power, but we never say never… Do you really want to live forever? /emThat song could haunt him for centuries, long after all other evidence of Alphaville was gone. An eternity of '80s earworms would drive him mad, if he wasn't already. He didn't particularly look forward to it./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Ah, well. For now, Mrs. Kettle was expecting him down for dinner. She had made brisket for the first time and he knew she'd worked hard on it. He would tell her about his immortality another time. No sense in taking attention from the meal. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Welcome to eternity, Father," he said to the globe. "You'll be in there forever, so I hope you get used to it. I'm still getting used to this myself, though my accommodations are probably more comfortable than yours."/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"'My names are as endless as the ocean and so am I.'/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"em Do you really want to live forever? /em/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Perhaps he was in shock./p
p style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"* * * * */p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Ironically, immortality was't a problem which Dagbert had for very long. He had been wrong to believe that his father had been rendered powerless. When Dagbert realized that his father was, in fact, still very much capable of killing him—and, indeed, attempting to do so—he wondered why he hadn't started trying to sooner. Perhaps Lord Grimwald hadn't realized what was going on until Dagbert himself had. Perhaps he had still been getting used to life as an in caged spirit. Whatever the case, it was during the third month after his alleged thirteenth birthday that Dagbert fell ill. As the month wore on, he began having coughing fits, fevers, and fainting spells and reeking of old fish. Day by day, slowly enough that he briefly thought he was imagining it, Lord Grimwald's face took form in the globe, growing clearer and clearer as Dagbert grew weaker and weaker. The sea-sorcerer was draining his son's life force like a basin. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"One day, on a weekend back from school, Dagbert collapsed on his bed, feverish, and began to choke. His throat… his lungs…the pain…it was like…drowning. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Slowly, in the globe, Lord Grimwald opened one eye. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Dagbert realized that there was no alternative which he was willing to accept. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Somewhere in another world, one of Guanhamara's granddaughters smiled as her curse claimed its latest victim. The seas, all of them far away, stayed still for a moment in honor of their new master. The lordship of Tethys Castle had changed hands, as it was always meant to./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"The fragments of the sea globe glistened on the floor as the parricide, feeling vastly recovered, went to get a dustpan./p