"I don't understand, Matthew.", Lasiter admitted.
Matt took a small sip of his cognac. It really *did* evaporate on the tongue.
"There's no way to break this kind of news gently, so I'll just blurt it out. I
was born in what is now County Shannon in Ireland, as close as I can determine,
in 326 AD. Well, CE now, for common era. After nearly two millenia of the old
term, I'm having trouble with CE, let alone stardates. I'm an Immortal, though
to be honest, that term isn't entirely accurate. I can be killed, it's just
damned difficult to do so."
"But you're human...", he answered as if he were not completely sure.
Matt took a small sip of his cognac. It really *did* evaporate on the tongue.
"There's no way to break this kind of news gently, so I'll just blurt it out. I
was born in what is now County Shannon in Ireland, as close as I can determine,
in 326 AD. Well, CE now, for common era. After nearly two millenia of the old
term, I'm having trouble with CE, let alone stardates. I'm an Immortal, though
to be honest, that term isn't entirely accurate. I can be killed, it's just
damned difficult to do so."
"But you're human...", he answered as if he were not completely sure.
"As human as you, Sam. Only, with a really long lifeline." He put the cigar to his lips and opened the humidor lid to offer Sam one. After he had chosen (or decline) Matt reached for the large silver ornamental lighter and used it to light his cigar and then Sam's (if needbe).
"I don't know how we get here," he said. "I don't know if we're a genetic mutation, or what. I've studied my own blood and DNA, and I can't find the key difference." He looked to Sam almost apologetically. Well, there was no almost to it. "Believe me," he said, "if I could have found how this worked, I'd have exploited it. This is not my first stint as a physician. All told, I've spent well over seven hundred of my two thousand years as a healer. I've lost more patients than I can even keep track of. And with every one of them, my survivor guilt mounts."
(eh?)
"Apparently we really are just like other humans at first, but we have that spark of Immortality with us since birth, or hatching, or creation or whatever. But I do have a belly button, so I have to assume a birth. It takes a violent death to awaken the spark of Immortality. And once that happens, there are only a few simple rules to guide us. We fight with each other, always one on one. The challenger, and the challenged. Holy ground is our only refuge and, they say, that in the end, there can be only one."
(eh?)
"Helluva life," Matt said, exchanging the cigar for some cognac. "Having to kill your own kind in order to survive. There are those among us who hunt other immortals. I am not one of them," he said. "But if someone comes for me, I will, and do, defend myself. And so far, at least, I've managed to do so effectively."
(eh?)
--
Randy
Randy
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