The Blessing of Krozem: A Tale of Ziraf's World

This fantasy tale is an expansion of the author's novelette The Blessing of Krozem, still free here on Smashwords.
What would it really be like to be immortal? And how important is the power of friendship and the need for communion with one's fellow humans?
On Ziraf's World, a planet in a universe far away from ours, an old priest named Gilzara decides to ask the Dreamers for the gift of immortality, and Krozem the Creator of Humankind grants his request, including giving him the power to make others immortal. However, things go tragically wrong; Gilzara's dying wife refuses the gift, and Gilzara is left to live his immortal life alone. The Troil, incorporeal spirit beings who also inhabit this world, take it upon themselves to save Gilzara from destroying the token that holds the key to his immortality, but he continues to see himself as a freak and an outcast, unable to relate to any mortal. The Troil teach him the power of venwara – wizardry – and thus fortified, he returns to the human world, desperately searching for a connection. He finds it in Halrab, a young novice priest, and together they set out to climb the Starbell, the highest mountain in Ziraf's World, the symbol of an unattainable goal.