Dark Heights - A Serial Novel with Music
Dark Heights, Part one synopsis
Tess Bellamy grew up in Park Heights with her mother Barbara, a horror-movie actress who was famous in the 80s but declined after her daughter was born, struggling with mental illness throughout Tess’s childhood. After high school, Tess spent a year in L.A., working on an acting career herself, until she gave up suddenly and returned to her home town, taking on a simple job at the local organic grocery store.
Tess is certain that her life will remain quietly banal, for some time. Then one night after work, she sees a girl fighting with two young men at the side of the road—Tess pulls over, disturbed, and decides to intervene—and so she meets Linna Severand, the enigmatic daughter of a billionaire who lives in Arycn, the palatial estate just outside of town. Their friendship immediately deepens; soon Linna introduces Tess to her father, Marius, and her identical twin brother, Will. They are a strange and compelling family, and there are warning signs for Tess that Linna is unhappy: for example, she has never been allowed to go to school even though she’s 17, and even though her brother does.
Meanwhile a drifter, Gabriel Majeaux, who appears to be on the run from sinister forces, arrives in Park Heights. He is an Archimage—or at least he was one, when the Archimages existed. They were an order of powerful, wizard-like wise men who secretly controlled the fate of the world. They fought a war against an implacable enemy, the Watchers, angelic and ancient beings from the beginning of time. They lost. The remnants of their kind, including Majeaux, have been hunted across the world ever since by the Watchers and the shadowy special forces agency that the Watchers control, Division XIII. Majeaux has survived against the odds, with the help of a Golem that he created, named Tataille, a not-quite-human monstrosity that protects him with ferocity. Weary of this unending struggle to survive, Majeaux takes shelter at a B&B in Park Heights, using his magical abilities to fabricate a relationship between himself and the B&B’s owners, Jenny and Karen. Feeling relaxed for once, with his guard down, Majeaux explores Park Heights and winds up at Crazies, the vegan diner, where he meets Linna, who is there on a night out with her new friend Tess. Majeaux reads Linna’s Tarot cards, and he foresees that they are inextricably bound together, the two of them, and that one will cause the death of the other.
On this same night, at Crazies, Tess is approached by Zach, one of the young men with whom Linna was fighting at the side of the road when Tess pulled over. Zach explains that he has a long history with Linna and that he was there not to hurt her, but to protect her. Tess and Zach seem to hit it off and they agree to go on a date, during which Zach bombs as a romantic lead. However Tess reveals her recent past: she was sexually assaulted in L.A., and couldn’t overcome the aftermath of it, which brought her back to her home town. Zach and Tess agree to be friends. Yet romantic entanglements aren’t over for Tess: she runs into Linna’s brother Will at a concert in L.A., and the sparks fly. Their heated argument leads to passionate kiss.
In a surprising turn of events for Majeaux, Linna comes to the B&B, looking for him. He quickly understands that she is in possession of her own magical power, and he tells her that, inexplicably, she is a Chantress, one of an all-female order of beings that the Archimages, all-male, had thought to have eradicated entirely. Majeaux becomes her teacher and mentor, training Linna at the B&B to embrace her abilities and expand them. Linna is an apt pupil, and Majeaux realizes that her power may in fact become a factor in his Archimage’s war against the Watchers. Blinded by his father-like love for Linna and his need to see her loyalty and ability used as a weapon in his war, Majeaux trains her intensely, and proudly observes the speed at which her power grows.
Other characters have their introduction in Part One. Kevin Cho, Tess’s friend from high school, works as a sound engineer for several L.A. area bands; while seeing a therapist at the Wellness Centre, he becomes aware of a group called the Circle. He observes Tess’s mom Barbara lining up with others to experience whatever it is the Circle is offering in their own secretive wing of the Centre. Charlie Mill, who went to high school with Tess and Kevin but dropped out after his Uncle nearly beat him to death, now travels around Park Heights on his BMX bike, closely watching everyone—he wears a Mexican Wrestler’s mask to hide his disfigurement. Priya Mehta, an FBI agent seconded to Division XIII, arrives in Park Heights with her partner Juan Garcia Madero, a man who encountered Gabriel Majeaux in San Francisco during a battle between the Archimages and Watchers. Madero has hunted Majeaux for decades, and has had partners killed in the line of duty, including Priya’s former lover. Priya is uncertain of the truth but she is only beginning to understand the extent of the supernatural reality hidden beneath the everyday world.
Events converge during Nightfall, a one-night charity event for the Wellness Centre held on the grounds of the Arcyn estate. While exploring the mansion, Tess has a strange encounter with a woman named Kismet—their conversation is interrupted by Will, who shockingly yells at Tess to leave immediately, and slaps her hard in the face when she fails to do so. Tess decides to get away from these people, the Severands, and never seem them again. She walks through a stand of woods to get to her car in the parking lot, where she is brutally attacked by a stalker, Bradley Ledler, who has been waiting there, just for her.
Linna Severand, meanwhile, is enjoying the party, especially since she has arranged for her mentor, Majeaux, to attend with his identity hidden. All at once she becomes remotely aware of Tess’s dire situation. She uses her powers to manipulate the mind of Tess’s attacker, freezing him before he can stab Tess with his hunting knife. Tess reverses the attack, punching the knife into her attacker’s paralyzed body. Then she flees the estate and drives her car in a state of panic and post-traumatic stress. She runs out of gas. Luckily there is a payphone at a closed-down gas station in the mountains. She calls Zach for help. When Zach arrives to pick her up, she tells him that she has to return to Arcyn to take responsibility for what happened, what she has done, even if it was in self-defense. Zach drives them back to Nightfall—yet when they approach the estate, one of the Severand’s limousines hurtles toward them on the road, explodes into the air, and crashes down onto their car.
Back at Arcyn, Majeaux has been enjoying his pupil’s use of her abilities—she is unconscious after expending herself to protect Tess, and he watches over her. However, when Linna wakes up, she tells him he has to leave immediately, that he is in danger. Finally, for Majeaux, understanding dawns. Linna is not a Chantress and never was. When pushed, she confesses to him that the Severands are, all of them, Watchers. Even though the Archimages never came across Watcher children—the Watchers are immortal beings, unchanged since antiquity—Majeaux knows that somehow, impossibly, his student is his enemy.
Juan Garcia Madero and Priya find Majeaux and Linna at Nightfall. In a rage, Linna uses her power to throw Priya back violently. At the same time, Majeaux’s alarms at Jenny and Karen’s B&B are set off. He transports himself instantly back there, and begins the defense of his Sanctum from armed commandos grouped in threes, the Trinities that Division XIII deploys against supernatural threats. When Majeaux is done with them, he goes into Jenny and Karen’s bedroom to see if they are alright, and he discovers his Golem, Tataille, feasting on their freshly-slain bodies. Majeaux attempts to un-create the Golem, but Tataille shakes it off and escapes through the bedroom window. The B&B is on fire, and the sirens close in. Majeaux transports himself away.
At the end of Nightfall, Tess is struggling, alive, limping from the scene of the car accident outside the estate to the mansion at its heart, Arcyn. She encounters the woman who spoke with her earlier, Kismet, who is a Watcher. It was Kismet who threw the car at them, intending to kill them both—and Zach is indeed dead—yet something protected Tess and now Kismet is not allowed to hurt her. Kismet believes another Watcher has done this, having broken ranks to oppose her will. Finally, Kismet gives Tess a bracelet called an ouroboros, and tells her there is a ritual taking place at Arcyn called the Cynosure, in which Tess has a starring role. Tess progresses through the estate and the mansion, aided by robed figures who have gathered for the ritual alongside an audience that watches the proceedings while praying, enraptured. Tess is undressed and washed and prepared.
The Watchers wait for her. Marius Severand, Will and Linna, are revealed at last in their full transcendent, angelic/demonic radiance. Helpless, broken, weak, Tess climbs the stairs of Arcyn to meet them.
Tess is certain that her life will remain quietly banal, for some time. Then one night after work, she sees a girl fighting with two young men at the side of the road—Tess pulls over, disturbed, and decides to intervene—and so she meets Linna Severand, the enigmatic daughter of a billionaire who lives in Arycn, the palatial estate just outside of town. Their friendship immediately deepens; soon Linna introduces Tess to her father, Marius, and her identical twin brother, Will. They are a strange and compelling family, and there are warning signs for Tess that Linna is unhappy: for example, she has never been allowed to go to school even though she’s 17, and even though her brother does.
Meanwhile a drifter, Gabriel Majeaux, who appears to be on the run from sinister forces, arrives in Park Heights. He is an Archimage—or at least he was one, when the Archimages existed. They were an order of powerful, wizard-like wise men who secretly controlled the fate of the world. They fought a war against an implacable enemy, the Watchers, angelic and ancient beings from the beginning of time. They lost. The remnants of their kind, including Majeaux, have been hunted across the world ever since by the Watchers and the shadowy special forces agency that the Watchers control, Division XIII. Majeaux has survived against the odds, with the help of a Golem that he created, named Tataille, a not-quite-human monstrosity that protects him with ferocity. Weary of this unending struggle to survive, Majeaux takes shelter at a B&B in Park Heights, using his magical abilities to fabricate a relationship between himself and the B&B’s owners, Jenny and Karen. Feeling relaxed for once, with his guard down, Majeaux explores Park Heights and winds up at Crazies, the vegan diner, where he meets Linna, who is there on a night out with her new friend Tess. Majeaux reads Linna’s Tarot cards, and he foresees that they are inextricably bound together, the two of them, and that one will cause the death of the other.
On this same night, at Crazies, Tess is approached by Zach, one of the young men with whom Linna was fighting at the side of the road when Tess pulled over. Zach explains that he has a long history with Linna and that he was there not to hurt her, but to protect her. Tess and Zach seem to hit it off and they agree to go on a date, during which Zach bombs as a romantic lead. However Tess reveals her recent past: she was sexually assaulted in L.A., and couldn’t overcome the aftermath of it, which brought her back to her home town. Zach and Tess agree to be friends. Yet romantic entanglements aren’t over for Tess: she runs into Linna’s brother Will at a concert in L.A., and the sparks fly. Their heated argument leads to passionate kiss.
In a surprising turn of events for Majeaux, Linna comes to the B&B, looking for him. He quickly understands that she is in possession of her own magical power, and he tells her that, inexplicably, she is a Chantress, one of an all-female order of beings that the Archimages, all-male, had thought to have eradicated entirely. Majeaux becomes her teacher and mentor, training Linna at the B&B to embrace her abilities and expand them. Linna is an apt pupil, and Majeaux realizes that her power may in fact become a factor in his Archimage’s war against the Watchers. Blinded by his father-like love for Linna and his need to see her loyalty and ability used as a weapon in his war, Majeaux trains her intensely, and proudly observes the speed at which her power grows.
Other characters have their introduction in Part One. Kevin Cho, Tess’s friend from high school, works as a sound engineer for several L.A. area bands; while seeing a therapist at the Wellness Centre, he becomes aware of a group called the Circle. He observes Tess’s mom Barbara lining up with others to experience whatever it is the Circle is offering in their own secretive wing of the Centre. Charlie Mill, who went to high school with Tess and Kevin but dropped out after his Uncle nearly beat him to death, now travels around Park Heights on his BMX bike, closely watching everyone—he wears a Mexican Wrestler’s mask to hide his disfigurement. Priya Mehta, an FBI agent seconded to Division XIII, arrives in Park Heights with her partner Juan Garcia Madero, a man who encountered Gabriel Majeaux in San Francisco during a battle between the Archimages and Watchers. Madero has hunted Majeaux for decades, and has had partners killed in the line of duty, including Priya’s former lover. Priya is uncertain of the truth but she is only beginning to understand the extent of the supernatural reality hidden beneath the everyday world.
Events converge during Nightfall, a one-night charity event for the Wellness Centre held on the grounds of the Arcyn estate. While exploring the mansion, Tess has a strange encounter with a woman named Kismet—their conversation is interrupted by Will, who shockingly yells at Tess to leave immediately, and slaps her hard in the face when she fails to do so. Tess decides to get away from these people, the Severands, and never seem them again. She walks through a stand of woods to get to her car in the parking lot, where she is brutally attacked by a stalker, Bradley Ledler, who has been waiting there, just for her.
Linna Severand, meanwhile, is enjoying the party, especially since she has arranged for her mentor, Majeaux, to attend with his identity hidden. All at once she becomes remotely aware of Tess’s dire situation. She uses her powers to manipulate the mind of Tess’s attacker, freezing him before he can stab Tess with his hunting knife. Tess reverses the attack, punching the knife into her attacker’s paralyzed body. Then she flees the estate and drives her car in a state of panic and post-traumatic stress. She runs out of gas. Luckily there is a payphone at a closed-down gas station in the mountains. She calls Zach for help. When Zach arrives to pick her up, she tells him that she has to return to Arcyn to take responsibility for what happened, what she has done, even if it was in self-defense. Zach drives them back to Nightfall—yet when they approach the estate, one of the Severand’s limousines hurtles toward them on the road, explodes into the air, and crashes down onto their car.
Back at Arcyn, Majeaux has been enjoying his pupil’s use of her abilities—she is unconscious after expending herself to protect Tess, and he watches over her. However, when Linna wakes up, she tells him he has to leave immediately, that he is in danger. Finally, for Majeaux, understanding dawns. Linna is not a Chantress and never was. When pushed, she confesses to him that the Severands are, all of them, Watchers. Even though the Archimages never came across Watcher children—the Watchers are immortal beings, unchanged since antiquity—Majeaux knows that somehow, impossibly, his student is his enemy.
Juan Garcia Madero and Priya find Majeaux and Linna at Nightfall. In a rage, Linna uses her power to throw Priya back violently. At the same time, Majeaux’s alarms at Jenny and Karen’s B&B are set off. He transports himself instantly back there, and begins the defense of his Sanctum from armed commandos grouped in threes, the Trinities that Division XIII deploys against supernatural threats. When Majeaux is done with them, he goes into Jenny and Karen’s bedroom to see if they are alright, and he discovers his Golem, Tataille, feasting on their freshly-slain bodies. Majeaux attempts to un-create the Golem, but Tataille shakes it off and escapes through the bedroom window. The B&B is on fire, and the sirens close in. Majeaux transports himself away.
At the end of Nightfall, Tess is struggling, alive, limping from the scene of the car accident outside the estate to the mansion at its heart, Arcyn. She encounters the woman who spoke with her earlier, Kismet, who is a Watcher. It was Kismet who threw the car at them, intending to kill them both—and Zach is indeed dead—yet something protected Tess and now Kismet is not allowed to hurt her. Kismet believes another Watcher has done this, having broken ranks to oppose her will. Finally, Kismet gives Tess a bracelet called an ouroboros, and tells her there is a ritual taking place at Arcyn called the Cynosure, in which Tess has a starring role. Tess progresses through the estate and the mansion, aided by robed figures who have gathered for the ritual alongside an audience that watches the proceedings while praying, enraptured. Tess is undressed and washed and prepared.
The Watchers wait for her. Marius Severand, Will and Linna, are revealed at last in their full transcendent, angelic/demonic radiance. Helpless, broken, weak, Tess climbs the stairs of Arcyn to meet them.
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