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CALLUM

The First Revenant

Court: Dalos

Click here to see a full-size image of Callum by art.bymikki.

Hair: Golden. Shoulder-length.

Eyes: Pale blue—almost colorless—with eather.

Body type: Tall.

Facial features: Golden skin. Delicate curve to cheeks and chin.

Distinguishing features: Mole beneath his right eye. Soft lilt to his voice.

Preternatural features/abilities: Able to come back to life. Telekinesis.

Personality: Apathetic. Flippant. Cruel. Arrogant. Thick emotional walls.

Habits/Mannerisms/Strengths/Weaknesses: Wears gold. Is often seen with gold-winged face paint—an homage to Kolis. Knows Primal magic. Wears a sword strapped to his back and a dagger on his thigh at times. Also two swords on his back—pommels down—and a black dagger strapped to his chest at others. Loves the word scampered.

Other: Incredibly old.

Background: Showed Isbeth how to make Revenants. Ezmeria thought he was a god. Told Calliphe how a Primal could be killed.

Family: Sisters = Sotoria † and Anthea †.

CALLUM’S JOURNEY TO DATE:

If I had to pick someone who both intrigues and terrifies me, it would be Callum. He’s incredibly enigmatic, but as someone even older than I, who has been in league with some of the vilest of the vile, he admittedly scares me.

Callum first entered my radar when I saw him in the visions I had when Sera was attacked by the guards. I, like Ezra, thought he was a god at first. He immediately rubbed me the wrong way, taking obvious pleasure in Sera having killed the guards and then lying about it.

He later appears in Dalos when Kolis meets with Sera, peeking through the curtain and telling the draken Davon that they have something to take care of.

After that, I suspect that I caught a glimpse of him lurking in the shadows during Kyn’s ordered Cimmerian attack at the House of Haides, but I don’t have anything to confirm that definitively.

Callum is there when Sera wakes after being abducted by Attes, revealing that she’s been unconscious for two days, and that Attes wasn’t supposed to hit her so hard. He then tells her that it’s no longer a secret that she’s a mortal with embers of life in her, then greets her by her full name and asks if she remembers him.

Callum insults Sera, telling her she stinks of the Shadowlands and the Primal there, then warns her not to disrespect Kolis. As talk turns to her life in the mortal realm, Callum says that he got the impression the Queen wasn’t much of a mother to Sera and then tells Sera he’d had regular contact with Calliphe for years and was the one who told her how to kill a Primal—make them fall in love and then end them.

He adds that Kolis knows all about her and has since the night she was born, then says Sera’s father, King Lamont, summoned the Primal of Life to make another deal. He remarks that it was clever of Eythos to hide embers in a simple mortal, especially someone who would one day belong to his son.

Sera asks why Kolis didn’t just take the embers. Why wait for her to be taken to the Shadowlands? Callum and Kolis reveal the prophecy and reiterate the Blood and Ash bit.

As they talk and explain more, Callum laughs when Kolis says how silly Sera’s question is about wanting more power and then warns Kolis to watch out for Attes. He tells him that the other Primal is trying to trick him and not to trust him. Attes threatens that he knows how to kill Callum—draken blood—and will do so if he disrespects him again.

Callum keeps watch over Sera as she’s held in Dalos. He doesn’t for one minute believe that she’s Sotoria and makes it abundantly clear to her. All the while, they argue and do things to provoke the other.

They really do fight like siblings—if that brother and sister constantly had murdering each other on the brain, that is.

When Kolis reveals that he’s actually Sotoria’s brother, Callum gives his sister the credit she’s due, calling her sweet, and fierce, and caring. But he takes great pleasure every time Seraphena is knocked down a peg and plans to do whatever is necessary to make sure that Kolis rises to the power he was always meant to have. He owes Kolis, after all. The King forgave him for letting Sotoria down and gave him eternal life.

My next sighting of Callum is actually in my more recent visions of Poppy and Casteel. I first saw him entering the dungeon with five Handmaidens and Isbeth when the Blood Queen held Cas. He remarks that Casteel is clever when he figures out what Isbeth is and then takes interest when she asks what Cas knows about Malec.

After Poppy beheads King Jalara, Callum is a bit stunned. He’s careful not to touch his head as he steps forward to confront her.