Character Bio for one of the two main characters in a planned urban fantasy novel.

SEB CASSIDY

Sebastian ‘Seb’ Cassidy has lived for eighty-one years, but has the appearance of a young man in his twenties. This is because, at the age of nineteen, he was tricked into making a pact with what turned out to be a Soul Broker from another dimension, which eventually culminated in him being granted endless wealth, eternal youth and invulnerability to death, in exchange for his soul. This pact was later modified to include eternally defending his world from creatures escaping from other dimensions via a portal, which mysteriously keeps re-appearing wherever Seb happens to be living – a phenomenon which has only been occurring since the Soul Broker acquired his soul.

Seb soon found a partner – in both business and love – when he met Nathaniel ‘Nate’ Addison, an enthusiastic dreamer who was happy to be a part of Seb’s strange world. They set up their Paranormal Investigation Agency together, as a cover for the job assigned to Seb by the Soul Broker, and spent sixty years keeping their little corner of Chippenstowe safe from creatures from other worlds. Thanks to his gift of immortality, Seb retained the youth and vigour of a man in his twenties – but Nate, as a mere mortal, aged normally.

Seb himself is a serious, world-weary man. Being eighty-one years old on the inside, but looking barely twenty-five on the outside, he’s seen as a handsome young loner with the personality of a curmudgeonly grandfather. It’s for this reason (plus the fact that his village of Chippenstowe has a population that’s very conservative in its thinking) that he’s something of a hermit, preferring to stay in his home with Nate and not socialise much with the villagers. This, unfortunately, only added to the gossip about him and Nate – which is also compounded by the fact that Nate appears - to the villagers at least - to change his ‘business partner’ every ten years or so, and always for a man in his twenties, despite getting older himself. In reality, each of those young men have been Seb, who is forced to completely change his identity and appearance every ten years or so, to counter the suspicion that would otherwise arise from a man who never appears to age beyond his mid-twenties. This means Seb (who was previously Aaron, and before that Jacob, and so on…) has been repeatedly living a lie, constantly having to re-invent himself, but hiding the fact from everyone around him except Nate, the only other person who knows about his immortality.

Seb is a skilled and fearless fighter – not least because he can’t die from any injuries he sustains (although he still experiences the same level of pain they would cause.) He is quick and adept at thinking on his feet, and wiser than his apparent youth, but also with views that are somewhat old-fashioned for a man (apparently) in his twenties. He’s also fiercely protective of those he cares about – like housekeeper, Mirabelle, who has been a loyal friend for longer than even she knows. He has no interest in the research and documentation side of their investigation cases – he'd always left that area to Nate. And while he did handle some of the legal and paperwork aspects of the business, this was only when necessary because Nate cared even less about them than he did.

 

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The story begins just after Nate has tragically succumbed to cancer at the age of eighty, and Seb is at his funeral. He’s devastated, and it occurs to him that, thanks to his immortality, everyone he ever loves will eventually leave him… over and over again. Does he want to feel this pain so many times, for so many people? On the other hand, what terrible fate might await a man who dies without a soul? He’s in a terrible place; hating the thought of living forever alone, but terrified that the afterlife might be a worse form of eternal hell for him.

At Nate’s Will reading, he learns that he will only be a co-owner of both the house and the business they created together. Nate has bequeathed his portion to a long-lost niece of his – one Joanne Parker. Seb knows little about her, except that she and Nate kept in touch via regular letters and cards at Christmas and birthdays, and she is now a suburban wife and mother in her late forties.

He’s not exactly thrilled about having to share ownership of both the house and his highly unorthodox business with some middle-aged, middle-class woman he’s never met – especially once he discovers her husband of some twenty years has recently left her for a younger woman, and now she’s looking for a new purpose in life. It appears she’s decided being an active co-partner in her deceased uncle’s business is exactly the venture she’s looking for – but how does he even begin to introduce her to such a bizarre and often dangerous world?