Eternity - The Seeking Researcher / Mikiya Shirogane

Along with his later wife Stephanie Strange, Mikiya Shirogane made a terrible sacrifice for the human race. Using a magical ritual, they subverted the Naki cloning process; their bodies were replaced with new ones, but their minds remained the same, and they were able to act as agents for the resistance within the Naki administration. Thus they were twice false, neither the humans they appeared nor the slaves the Naki thought them.

To his horror, Shirogane found that the blood of his new body did not course with the power needed to fuel his magic, and he could no longer feel it in others. Alongside sabotaging the efforts of the Naki to produce cures for the various plagues unleashed upon them, Shirogane set to collating all of the information he had gathered about over the years into a single text for distribution to members of the resistance who had shown interest in learning magic. The text was dedicated to Professor Richter, whose loss had been of great sadness to Shirogane.

During the Union-Alliance war, Shirogane and Strange’s duplicity was discovered. They managed to flee to join the resistance, where they threw themselves fully into training the next generation of magical rebels. Living together, they adopted the orphan of two resistance members killed in the attack on the Dragon Roost.

Without the information that Shirogane was able to pass to the resistance in the early stages of the invasion, the rebels would have been quickly infiltrated and destroyed by Naki agents. Though his part in the saga ended with the discovery of his treachery, he lived on as one of the resistance’s most notable members.

The Twice False run through the tunnel, Mikiya carrying Adele and Stephanie grasping the books that were too valuable to leave behind. They had known the attack was coming; Simon's skills at prediction had been increasing by the day under Stephanie's tutelage. Nevertheless, the cell had stayed active until the very last minute, waiting for their agents to return before departing. Some had, some hadn't. Perhaps those left behind would find shelter. Echoing down the tunnel comes the sound of a detonation, as the Naki forces blow off the steel hatch. But now the heroes arrive at the underground dock, and the boat is there just as Hannah had promised. The six survivors pile into the boat, and it casts off, speeding away towards the ocean. Mikiya meets Stephanie's eyes. Despite the fear, despite being on the run once again, he cannot help but smile.

They have not found their happy ending yet, but the story isn't over.

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it. - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965