The Shadow Keeper (A Land of Shadows Novel- Book 1)

-7-

July 4

The Town of Grounder

Shade Tower, Med Bay

Taro sat in her bed in the medical bay, staring at the master console she had created for herself. The game information for the new update releasing the new contact access was displayed perfectly before her. She smiled.

"I never thought it would be this hard to be 'okay,' but here we are," she mumbled to herself. The ache in her chest was horrible and she vaguely considered contacting her doctor before the others returned. It wasn't a bad idea because, if she was correct, they wouldn't like what the doctor would say. "It's all coming to an end, but I'm glad I had a good run."

"You're not dead yet, Taro. I don't think we'd let you die either," Soren said, leaning against the door frame. Taro glanced away from the code to look at Soren before looking back down. "Masa is talking to Benji. Probably about not stressing you out."

"Yeah." Taro sighed. "Hey Soren, you aren't going to like it, but I want you to promise me something, no matter what."

"Sure. You put your faith in me this far, so why not lean on me a bit more. I'll promise you anything."

"If I die, and that is an if, I want you to go into my apartment and find a small gift boy. There's a button in it with a code. It has information on dark players and an imperfect immortality spell set for all players. I don't want to press it now because it is so imperfect, but it isn't deadly, but I figured it would be a good parting gift."

"An immortality spell," Soren said. "Why not release it now?"

"Because... it would hurt them to know what it cost. This world comes at a cost, and so does that spell."

"In other words, you placed the take on your heart... or rather, your life," Soren said, his voice quieter than before. "How the hell did you do that? Scratch that. Why?"

"Soren, one life is better than all, but there are flaws that I couldn't fix. How I did it isn't important, but at the very least it provides extra armor if I'm not around. It's already selfish that I'm not releasing it now, but I-"

"Idiot-"

"Taro," Masa said, coming up behind Soren with his hand firmly gripping Benji's shoulder. Taro replaced her serious look with a light smile. Benji nodded in greeting, concern obvious on his face as he observed how weak Taro looked. Masa smiled back, but it looked forced. "Are we ready now? I got Benji for you."

"Yeah. I wanted everyone I love to be here, minus the younger ones," Taro said, exiting out of the master console and pulling up a screen-like holographic, the name 'RLink' popping up. "Original name for it, right," Taro asked, trying to lighten the mood. The others chuckled quietly.

Taro scrolled through the main menu on the side, reaching 'favorites' and tapping on the name 'Coraline Cardiac Unit' as the others observed with interest, minus Soren who had already known about the video link long before as he had helped keep it out of the public eye in order to not get any player's hopes up. The link began, a charcoal gray screen popping up with 'loading.'

"Hello, Miss Kagemune," said a rough male voice seconds before a young man's face popped up on the screen. "I was expecting you to call, but maybe not with so many people. Did you clear this with Towa? Why am I asking that at a time like this?"

"Good afternoon, Porter. Or is it already evening over there," Taro said quietly.

"It's around 9 o'clock around here, but that's not what you called about is it?"