Tinhuviel Artanis

Long before I ever write anything solid regarding the resurrection of Faust as Kallum McCreary, I'm trying to get the perfect picture of him in my mind, how he will behave toward those who brought him back and make him crave the Blood, and especially how he'll handle working closely with Cadmus in retrieving the Augury of Gideon. The song that seems to be working for me right now is "Come Tenderness' by Lisa Gerrard. Kallum will have the memories not only of his extended murder as Faust, but also as the Sainted Confessor, brought to his singular heaven by his angel Roesetta, who also allowed him to see the Face of God, the one thing Faust wanted above all.

All this bit on Cadmus is far far down the road. I'm looking forward to November to hopefully get the gumption to finish The Blood Crown and continue work on The Augury of Gideon. In the meantime, my focus on Kallum will continue to develop so that, when I'm ready to write him the way he wants me to write him, everything shall be in place. In the meantime, here's pictorial progress on the character first known as Faust and later called by his peers Kallum the Confessor. Enjoy!**

( cut for mucho pictorial content )

**Thanks go out to James McAvoy and Scott for helping to anchor Kallum/Faust down and flesh him out in the strangest and most unusual ways.

The oddest thing is driving me to finish The Blood Crown: The Augury of Gideon, specifically the character of Kallum McCreary, the mortal incarnation of the Vampire Faust. I'm about to get to "The Sainted Confessor" section of The Blood Crown. Despite falling victim to Dengue and not hardly writing at all for the past three days, I'm still current on my word count with The Blood Crown. I even have added some of the cushion that allowed me to fall deathly ill and not suffer stress from being behind on NaNo. In the past two hours, I wrote over 1700 words. It's like I was possessed. Then again, I was writing Cadmus. I was actually writing as Cadmus, so I was kind of possessed.

But then iTunes decided to play "True Colours" by Cyndi Lauper. This is the song that helped create the Angel that began to visit Faust during his tribulation. She always came to him in a kind of a rainbow and would disappear by descending into his body. This song also said a lot about the character of Faust. Despite his Vampiric nature, he never lost his human spirit, which was inherently good. He was a genuinely good soul. I want to show this in The Augury of Gideon, even though his mortal self returns as a little wounded. He returns with memories of what Cadmus did to him as Faust and he finds himself being forced to align with the entity who visited such agony upon his person.

Then again, had it not been for Cadmus, Faust would never have been sainted. He would never have returned to his mortal state as Kallum McCreary. I'm wondering if Kallum will purchase a Triquetra to wear in The Augury of Gideon. Not only would it be a nod of appreciation and honour to Bear McCreary, but it would also fit in the story, representing the three Vampire Relics and the fact that Kallum will be the key to unlocking the Augury of Gideon. I'm thinking it will be Cadmus who actually finds it, who lays his hands upon the relic first. He's the one who is in possession of the first relic, the chalice of Kelat, and he's the one who claims the Blood Crown, even though it eventually goes into Kelat's possession, since she is the only who can touch the thing without falling into a kind of coma.

But that's a story for later on in The Blood Crown. I have the feeling that I may actually win NaNoWriMo because I'm so eager to finish The Blood Crown so I can get back to Kallum. Watching the movie Wanted has not been a great help to me. James McAvoy's secondary anchorage to the character is stronger for the mortal Kallum than it was to the Vampire Faust. One thing that won't change is Kallum's cerulean eyes. James McAvoy gifted those to the Vampire and he'll continue to gift them to the sainted mortal.

So strange that a plot device has become so important to the overall story. Then again, Cadmus was a plot device at one time. Now he's the main character. Funny how the characters demand their place in the world of my making. Do we do the same with God?

 

 

 

“Me?” the man said, his voice drenched with mockery. “Me?”

“You…you are different.” Cadmus bent down and inhaled Faust’s breath, then backed away in a kind of disgust. “How can this be? You are…human.”

“Mortation?” the young moppet offered, smiling merrily.

“Mortation is a myth. It cannot be achieved…You are what you are.”

“Yet here I am, you bat-clad Abomination. Here I am.”

Cadmus frowned, his vast black eyes studying the healed and naked form on the ruined bed before him. Faust was mortal again. The Blood, if given to him in any quantity would kill him and a sip would only serve to addict him to the chalice. Cadmus could not vivisect the youngling without killing him. The boy was of no use to him. He looked down at the chalice of Blood, taken from another child running wild and free in the streets of Brooklyn. He’d brought it to fortify the Vampire before ripping into him again and bathing in the agony and Blood.

How had he done it? How had he achieved the impossible? Mortation…no Vampire had ever achieved mortation. It was a myth brought about by rumours and scattered prophecies said to be found in the Augury of Gideon. It was all rubbish to Cadmus, who believed nothing but the reality before him.

But that reality right now was a Vampire turned mortal.

“How did you do it, Faust?”

“Don’t call me Faust, Cadmus. I am Kallum again. After all these years, I am Kallum.”

“How did you do it?”

“I…had…faith.” Kallum said slowly, deliberately, and with not a small about of contempt for Cadmus.

( incorruptible )

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A note about Faust's mortal name: being of pale blue Scottish blood myself, I have a certain fondness for All Things Scottish. Early on in the story, it was pretty much determined in my mind that Faust would be of mortal Scottish descent, thanks to his secondary anchor James McAvoy. At first the name was just Kal, but I changed it Kallum, because the name is the Scottish variant of the name Calum:

Variant spelling of Calum, the Scottish Gaelic form of the Late Latin personal name Columba ‘dove’. This was popular among early Christians because the dove was a symbol of gentleness, purity, peace, and the Holy Spirit. St Columba was one of the most influential of all the early Celtic saints. He was born in Donegal in 521 into a noble family, and was trained for the priesthood from early in life. He founded monastery schools at Durrow, Derry, and Kells, and then, in 563, sailed with twelve companions to Scotland, to convert the people there to Christianity. He established a monastery on the island of Iona, and from there converted the Pictish and Irish inhabitants of Scotland. He died in 597 and was buried at Downpatrick. The name has recently enjoyed considerable popularity throughout the English-speaking world.

His last name, McCreary, is a nod to the extremely talented composer, Bear McCreary, who is prone to wearing a Triquetra pendant he picked up at the Highland games in Washington State.

So that's just to say that, over the course of this composition, Faust became an amalgamation of souls and heritage, not to mention a vessel into which I poured a good bit of my own soul. I guess what I'm saying is that he's become like Cadmus Pariah, indefinable in a way and, therefore, a sentient being unto himself.

And, no, we haven't seen the last of Kallum McCreary.