The Books of Blackwater

A tumblog dedicated to the original novel series "Blackwater".

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The Redmoons of Crescendo

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The Blackwaters of the Leviathan

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One warrior, one psychic

...the sounds of the battle ringing overhead. They were coming too close--the blood was pounding in his ears and he coughed painfully. Everything sounded muffled by that sound. The pounding overpowered all. But he didn't feel injured, armor still whole, and when he moved his arms, he felt but a dull throb of when he landed.

"Are you alright?" came the voice echoing through his mind desperately. "Caleum!! Are you alright?!"

Caelum coughed and opened his eyes--the world was hazy, but his focus went to a pair of golden eyes that looked down at him in alarm, face streaked with blood. "Caelum!" came the muffled voice, getting clearer along with his vision. 

He felt his body shake. "Caelum!"

And Maren--Maren was looking at him, breathless and shaking him. He reached out and saw his hands were shaking as he clasped his gloved hands, warm with blood, onto Maren's shoulders. "What happened?" he choked.

Maren exhaled in relief.  It lasted only a second. Then he started screaming into his face. "What ails you?! I warned you!! I told you that there was an ambush!! I told you--!!"

"What?!" battle continued. And Caelum's rage began to glow within him again, like embers being fanned to flame. He remembered where he was--and the attack. "Why should I have?! You've done nothing but fail to properly guide me throughout this exercise--"

"Prince Caelum!!" he heard Phaeton shout behind him.

The two princes looked up and heard the blades arc and slice through the air before they even saw it's gleaming edge. There was the sound of metal connecting to armor and a crash of preternatural strength--Maren vanished instantly.

"Maren!" Caelum was on his knees just as Maren hit the ground with a sickening crash, his armor clattering, and he fell still. Blood roared through his ears--My psychic--!--Caelum felt that rage expand within his chest and take full control as he turned to look at the onslaught approaching him. . He was on his feet and running with a roar of fury, slashing out at their attackers.

A single swing set two flying. The greater vampires gasped from their vantage point as the Blackwater prince went on a rampage. Phaeton and Ignis had to do everything they could keep up with their prince. Without a shadow of a doubt--the rage of the Blackwaters was a fearsome aspect.

"Prince Maren! Sire!" Orpheo threw himself to the ground next to the Redmoon heir on the earth. "Sire, please!" He closed his eyes. A small shock of psychic power raced through his veins, and he sensed his prince wake. "Are you alright?"

"It's not over yet," Maren coughed as he hauled himself off the ground. He looked livid with rage. "Where is that barbaric imbecile I've been tasked to guide?!"

"Er--attacking, sire."

"I'd hate to intrude, sires--" came Corona's choke as the cluster tightened around them. "But please get off the ground and help us!!"

Maren drew his sword and ran out of Orpheo's grasp before his friend could stop him. He ran straight towards the idiot he'd had the misfortune to call his warrior. When this was all over, he was going to have words with the greater vampires for this mismatch--!

There was the ring of steel against steel, and Caelum whirled around to see Maren throwing back one assailant and slashing at another as though he knew it was going to happen. The Redmoon prince glared at the Blackwater one. "You're useless out here! Aren't you supposed to be winning yet?! You have the gall to call yourself--" a grunt and a slash of the sword, "--a warrior?!"

"And you should be up with the psychics guiding--you're worth nothing in this field with such swordsmanship!" Caelum roared back even as he continued fighting.

They landed with their backs together, a ring of opponents around him. Caelum was panting, furious--furious at the world around him. "I can't have this conversation with you right this minute--!" Caelum snarled as he parried blows. "I'm otherwise occupied with these peons--!"

"Then end it quickly!" Maren snarled back, fighting with all his might, back still straining against' Caelum's. "Break their ring by taking out the men to your left side. And then we'll take them!"

"You're certain you can see this--?!"

"It is your duty to listen to me!!" Maren screamed back. "Or do you want us both to lose and shame our faces?!"

That was all the authority Caelum needed at that moment--and both princes raced forward to attack.

- The First Book of Blackwater

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Maybes

"We'll win, you know. Over the Hive Queen?" The dull sun was just beginning to rise.

The Blackwater prince let out his breath and glanced at the Redmoon heir. "...it's just about as impossible as it gets, Maren. How do you sound so sure...? Have you seen it in your visions?"

"No." He turned to smile at him. "I don't need visions to know that. You and our fathers would rather not return than lose. And all of you are too good at what you do to lose."

Caelum laughed softly, dropping his gaze. "If we could actually win..."

"Oh, if we could..." Maren agreed with a smile on his lips as he watched the dull sun send its rays through the sky, faded lances through the gray.

After a moment, Caelum looked at the vampire next to him. "What do you think it will mean, if we return victorious? Such a combined effort... Surely even my father and yours cannot push it aside."

He received a nod in answer from Maren, whose golden eyes scanned the sky still. "Perhaps the truce can last a little longer."

It was hope as unlikely and as dull as the dawn. But Caelum had always looked forward to those odds. He looked to the horizon, in the distance, where the sky and the sea met.

"Maybe a little longer."

- from the first book of Blackwater

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The Psychic guides...

Caelum! Behind you!

The prince’s eyes flew open and with a single burning blast triggered by his powerful eyes, his attackers disintegrated. He felt pain throbbing through his head—the force of Maren’s psychic cries were becoming desperate, and that only ever happened when he wasn’t receiving Maren’s full attention.

Caelum—go that way!

This had to be because he had to guide everyone else—where were the other psychics?! Snarling, he whirled around and a powerful blow nearly smashed a vampire’s head fully within itself. There was another jet of pain coursing through his head as Maren struggled to keep a hold of him.

“Where do I go now?!” he demanded.

Where… Maren felt himself weakening. He could feel life draining out of him, flowing out his body, down the swordpoint that protruded from his chest—ripe, scarlet blood pooling beneath him. He was losing strength, at the worst time in the world. “Caelum…”

“Maren, where do I go?!” the prince cried out when he didn’t hear his first call answered, his cry echoing through the vaulted hall he fought in, and through Maren’s rattled psyche.

Tears stinging like venom were falling from Maren’s eyes. He tried to catch his breath when there was none. He was going to guide him to the end. He would guide the prince to the end. Live or die.

Forward… Maren whispered. Forward, Prince Caelum…

“Maren…?” Caelum wasn’t sure if he’d heard. It suddenly sounded faint. Maren was having even more difficulty than usual now. Was it the palace? Was it the many minds under his control?

- From the First Book of Blackwater

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Alone

A powerful grip snatched at his wrist and the world whirled into a haze. He saw himself staring at Caelum’s stern gaze—so intense it threatened to burn him where he stood.

“I had warned you,” Caelum said softly, and when his voice was soft, Maren knew that he had crossed a line that Caelum did not allow. “That if we are to remain friends…you cannot look into my mind.”

That grip on his wrist tightened—so tight that Caelum must have been able to feel the blood pulsing softly there. Blood that Maren did not even know if it had been his own, after all his victims, all his kills.

The Redmoon son looked up at he who would find the throne of the Blackwaters as his own one day. “Why can’t I…? I’ve seen a glimpse, sometimes when you are not aware. Yet when I look in…I only see myself. Or that which appears as myself…and I never see my own face reflected in your mind.”

Caelum’s gaze remained on his, the princely strength that was so his in full force upon him. He released Maren’s wrist. Maren continued, undeterred, “…I am always alone in your mind.”

“Yes…you’re always alone in my mind,” Caelum responded in a strange tone—of one who chose his words just to say enough, saying everything without saying more. “You alone, locked away.”

- The First Book of Blackwater

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Enthralled

Omen dragged a hand down his face, down the stubble of his beard and felt frustrated. He looked it as well. He raised exhausted eyes to his son who continued to gaze to the water, buried in the blooms that had been, for centuries, a luxury, even to their kind. “What are you doing, son? You are my heir, you are the successor. You’re far greater than any other in our lineage—”

“—save for you—?”

“What are you doing? Why are you so enthralled to the Blackwaters’ son? Why must you go through these lengths to convince us to give them allegiance when we have been at each others throats for so long?”

The smile Maren produced seemed as bitter as any other he had given his father in the days when he claimed he was “fine,” after the days he would wake screaming, tortured by the voices that assaulted him with the psychic gifts he’d never asked for.

“Enthralled?” he echoed.

“Isn’t that the word?” Omen asked.

Maren smiled sadly at the waters. “Enthralled. Do you think he notices? That I’m so compelled?”

- The First Book of Blackwater

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The Noteworthy Personae

The Blackwater Clan

Atra Blackwater - Patriarch, ruler of the lowlands (turned)

Sidel Blackwater - Matriarch, wife of Atra (turned, missing)

Caelum Blackwater - Prince and heir to the Blackwater seat of power (born)

Eden Blackwater - Princess, sister to Caelum (born)

The Cruxis Clan (vassals of the Blackwaters)

Helio Cruxis - Patriarch, friend of Atra (turned)

Phaeton Cruxis - heir to lordship, friend of Caelum (born)

Cara Cruxis - lady, sister of Helio (turned)

Roan Cruxis - second commander, cousin of Caelum (born)

The Redmoon Clan

Omen Redmoon - Patriarch, ruler of the mountains (turned)

Elara Redmoon - Matriarch, wife of omen (turned, killed)

Maren Redmoon - Prince and heir to the seat of Redmoon power (born)

Lapis Redmoon - Princess, sister to Maren (born)

The Ravine Clan (vassals of the Redmoons)

Fortuna Ravine - Patriarch, friend of Omen (turned)

Orpheo Ravine - heir to lordship, adopted son, friend of Maren (turned)

Alain Ravine - lord commander, nephew of Fortuna (born)

Stella Ravine - lady, daughter of Fortuna (born)

The Hive Queen - Matriarch of Atra and Omen

Magda Duran - Ruling sorceress of the town of Alon

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The Leviathan, Castle of the Blackwaters

Crescendo, Castle of the Redmoons

Oracle's Point, Castle of the Ravines

Gladius, Castle of the Cruxis

The Cradle, Castle of the Hive Queen

Shore's Rest, the abandoned castle

White Scepter, the training castle

La Torre, the island town