Blake Thorburn

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Blake Thorburn is the protagonist of the series. Having grown tired of his family's infighting, he ran away as a teenager and spent three years estranged from them.

He returns only as his grandmother lies dying, and soon becomes embroiled in the secrets of the Thorburn family. Following the death of his cousin, Molly Walker, he appears to be the Thorburn heir. He has an obscure connection to Rose, a Vestige created by his grandmother.

Appearance

Blake has wavy dark blonde hair, and watercolor tattoos of birds on his arms. It is mentioned that he has sustained some scars, but with the application of glamour ink has erased some of the most obvious ones.

Personality

Blake seeks to leave the world a better place than he left it, so he tends to take on responsibilities that aren't his own and at cost. He prefers to avoid conflict, but if pressed tends to lash out rather than remain passive.

While his time on the streets has encouraged a deep sense of empathy, Blake has also developed an aversion to being touched. Although he notes that this gives him a keener set of instincts, he considers it a weakness of character.

He has a tendency to seek revenge on entities that he believes have slighted him, even when unnecessary. This may have caused premature escalation of the conflict between him and Laird.

Chronology

Bonds

The story begins with Blake returning to the Hillglades House at the beckoning of Rose Thornburn's lawyers, after running away from home three years ago. There he reconnects with his cousins Paige and Molly Walker and learns of his little sister, Ivy Thorburn. Attempting to avoid the family drama, he nevertheless becomes hostile at his grandmother's deathbed. He then learns that the next to inherit the Hillglades House is Molly. When Molly asks everyone to leave, he wishes her well and returns to Toronto.

Four months later, however, Blake has a prophetic dream of the events in Jacob's Bell, culminating in the death of Molly. Waking to find that Rose has taken the place of his reflection, he flees for the Hillglades House for sanctuary at Rose's instruction. Borrowing his landlord's car, he drives towards the small town while questioning Rose; en route he is attacked by mask-wearing humanoid creatures that drive him off the road in an attempt to murder him. With the help of Rose and a hitch-hiker, he makes it to the Hillglades House. Once inside he and Rose discover a hidden room: the study of Rose Sr., containing all her esoteric knowledge.

The next morning, police officers Pat Macguin and Laird Behaim approach the house and question Blake about Molly's death; they reveal that she seems to have been mauled to death. Laird, who admits that he is a major practitioner in the town, then takes him out for coffee under an oath of protection, and demonstrates the use of Shamanism before leaving. However, Blake realizes that Laird's deceptive use of magic to alter time has caused the police officer's oath of protection to expire, and he is soon preyed upon by Padraic, Ev, and Keller. The intervention of Rose allows him to escape and they return to the house, where Laird reappears and says that he would prefer to keep things civil. Laird also advises Blake to carry out the awakening ritual as soon as possible.

The next day, Blake orders a pizza in an attempt to get food without leaving the house. Witnessing the death of the delivery man at the hands of predatory Others staking out the house, Blake reasons that only the house, and not the surrounding land, is safe. Later, both Blake and Rose perform the awakening ritual and become practitioners. Blake checks on Barbatorem, a dangerous demon that Rose Sr. had bound to the attic, before getting ready for a council meeting with local practitioners at Laird's suggestion.

Damages

Before the cease-fire that precedes and follows each council meeting, Blake leaves the house to gather supplies. He encounters trouble at a local store with his cousins (Molly's brothers) Christoff Walker and Cullen Walker, who accuse him of being responsible for Molly's death. The minor altercation that follows had apparently been set up by someone manipulating the connections between Blake and the Walker cousins. Laird soon arrives to collect Blake for the meeting at an old church. Responding to the murder of Molly, Blake attempts to sow discord among the local practitioners by warning of the Thorburn family's ability to summon countermeasures (such as the use of Barbatorem). Laird, however, smoothly neutralises this threat by revealing that the Behaim family are adequately protected from such dangers, and suggests that any unprepared parties take Blake's offer of protection.

After the meeting Blake and Rose are escorted part way to the house by Johannes Lillegard and Maggie Holt, who inform them that, without an opposing majority vote in Blake's favour, the powers in the council will attempt to execute the young Thorburn. Once alone with Blake, Rose reveals to him that she is a vestige running on a limited time-frame.

The next day he binds the ghost of June Burlison into a hatchet and summons the family lawyers: Mann, Levinn, and Lewis. The lawyers explain the scope of the Thorburn's karmic debt (nearly seven lifetime's worth). Ms. Lewis then assists him in binding the frost hatchet properly, and helps him in defeating a Faerie named Letiia, the familiar of Joanna Duchamp and her older sister Penelope Duchamp. Ms. Lewis volunteers more information about Johannes' demesne while warning Blake that he will not survive for long. Maggie later visits Blake, framing herself as a potential friend, but Laird soon arrives and reveals that Maggie murdered Molly under Laird's own orders, souring her attempts to ally with Blake.

Breach

Blake summons and binds Leonard Harlan into a bottle, and he and Rose discuss Laird's threats and Maggie's role in the death of their cousin. Blake expresses guilt over forgiving Molly's murder simply to gain an ally. The pair soon notice that Blake's tattoos are changing; Rose theorizes that his excessive use of magic is making him vulnerable to possession. At first, Blake fears that a demon is the culprit, but quickly comes to suspect that Rose is to blame. Noting that their grandmother wanted a female heir, Blake privately worries that Rose will be forced to attempt to usurp Blake's body. Nevertheless, he makes an Oath to help her escape the mirror world in exchange for her loyalty and help.

Blake then goes out to the backyard of the property and calls for the Briar Girl. A homunculus-bird comes out to answer the call and guides him to her in the marshlands, where he tries to bargain with her for support against the Duchamp Coven and the Behaim Circle. The Briar Girl explains she doesn't care for power, but she asserts that the Thorburn family history of diabolism is dangerous to the world and that she aims to possess the land of the Hillglades House herself. Blake points out, of the line of heirs, only he is likely to negotiate with her for the house, and if the family line should end then the land will default to the lawyers instead. Eventually they come to an agreement and the Briar Girl teaches Blake the basics of Shapeshifting through the use of Glamour, in exchange for a small piece of the land.

Blake uses this knowledge to change his appearance, powered by a lock of hair that he had collected from the defeated Faerie Letitia. Able to leave the property safely under this disguise, he visits Maggie. Through interacting with one of her goblins, Dickswizzle, Blake learns that only Rose can command Others due to the tradition of Thorburn diabolists being women. Afterwards a pre-wedding meeting of the Duchamp and Behaim families under the glamour disguise. Blake nearly succumbs to the thrall of using glamour, but manages to hold out long enough to attempt to sabotage the Duchamp / Behaim attempt at slowing down time around his family property. He then sends Dickswizzle and Rose to cause collateral damage to some of Laird's sister's books and property.

After talking with Andy on his way back to the house, Blake feels the change around the boundary of the property and realizes that the  Duchamp / Behaim ritual was successful, cutting him off from his resources. With no safe residence in Jacob's Bell, he has Rose call the lawyers to get him safe passage back to Toronto.

Collateral

Blake arrives in Toronto and is warned of the local lord, Conquest. His driver, an employee of Mann, Levinn & Lewis, gives the price for the lawyer's favour in transporting him: he must read the diabolist text Black Lamb's Blood. Blake is also warned that the next time he makes such a deal, he'll need to assist the lawyers in an errand; this seems to be an attempt to set Blake up for future recruitment to the firm. Inside his apartment, Blake meets with his landlord, Joel, and thanks him for the loan of Joel's car. The pair are soon joined by all Blake's old friends and acquaintances: Alexis, Amanda, Goosh, Tyler, Nick, and Joseph, as well as a new friend of Alexis's, Tiffany. Blake reveals the danger of his circumstances without mentioning their supernatural origins. Later in the evening, Alexis suggests that she and Tiffany could help Blake to overcome his aversion to physical contact, but he refuses for the time being.

Rose then alerts him that a stranger, a servant of the Lord of Toronto, has infiltrated the gathering. The stranger, Fell, informs Blake of an appointment with Conquest. Blake buys a painting as a gift for the Lord before departing to the meeting. There, he is introduced to Conquest and some of the entity's subordinates: Isadora, Jeremy Meath, and Diana Thompson. The meeting is peaceful until Jeremy, at the behest of his ex-wife Sandra Duchamp, exposes Blake's family history of diabolism. Conquest immediately seizes upon this opportunity for power, demanding that Blake call down the demon Ornias so that Conquest can take control over it, and his fractured council becomes divided in their loyalties. Rose and Blake stall by requesting books from the house in Jacob's Bell, which is inaccessible due to the Duchamp / Behaim ritual. In the meantime, Conquest tasks Blake with binding and bringing three troublesome beings to him over the course of three days, while Rose, given physical form, is bound by Conquest as a hostage.

Fell arrives the next day at Blake's apartment to volunteer information about the three beings. While travelling to the neighborhood where the first being, an Imp named Pauz, is located, Blake discovers that he is under surveillance by local wildlife. He soon finds that Pauz's domain is infested with corrupted, feral animals, which attack him en masse. Blake makes a protective circle from the feces and innards of a dead rabbit, and Rose demands that Pauz appear to them. In the following negotiation, Pauz expresses a desire to be brought to Conquest as corrupting the entity would serve its goal of perverting the natural order.

Rose and Blake escape and make their way to a college in search of assistance from the sphinx Isadora. There they run into Tiffany, a student at the college, and some of Jeremy's followers. A conflict with the Jeremy's followers seems inevitable, but Rose breaks a few windows to alert Isadora, who scatters them. However, the sphinx refuses to help Blake, insisting that he still bears a corrupting presence ('radiation') from dealing with Pauz and will serve to disrupt the balance of the universe. Disheartened, Blake goes for coffee with Tiffany. After a brief conversation, a fight breaks out nearby, possibly due to Blake's irradiation.

Blake returns to his apartment without Rose, whose has been missing since breaking the windows, and prepares to bind Pauz. He travels to the Dowghty house that Pauz inhabits, where he discovers that Pauz had a hand in Rose's absence. Blake draws up a seven-page contract stipulating that Pauz will be bound only until a few minutes after Blake's deadline for bringing Conquest the third being. However, upon binding Pauz to the book Black Lamb's Blood, Blake realizes that the Imp can no longer protect him from its corrupted minions and the formerly possessed inhabitant of the house. With the Frost Hatchet he manages to fend off these attackers and even rescue Dowght, but sustains many wounds in the process and is forced to rudely summon Fell for transport. He then delivers Pauz to Conquest and finds that Rose is unconscious due to Pauz's efforts.

When Blake arrives home he tends to his injuries, using glamour ink to cover most of them, before contacting his cousin Paige, who Joel informs him visited when he was out. He admits to Paige that Molly's death was murder and that he is in danger, but urges her to stay away for her safety.

The next day, Fell drives Blake out to meet the Knights of the Basement, a small local group of practitioners who have information about the second and third beings. During the drive, the pair discuss the perils of knowledge of the supernatural and Fell's family servitude to Conquest. They also pass ghosts and spectres that have been maimed and enslaved by the Hyena, the second being. The Knights are friendly after brief initial distrust, and reveal that they are Dabblers with no powerful specialties who prefer to minimize contact with Others. Still, they inform Blake about their encounter with the Abstract Demon, the third being, who removed several of their number. They later stress that they are fearful of opposing Conquest directly, and discuss the Sisters of the Torch and other local powers. Nick gives the extent of his knowledge on the Hyena and loans Blake some chain and a few weapons; he also teaches the young diabolist runes for Wind and Silence.

Blake goes to confront the Hyena in the nearby forest, and encounters the ghost of a little boy in a red hood while running from the swathes of Others that were maimed by the Hyena. Blake discovers that the boy, Evan, had been hunted by the Hyena but had escaped its clutches for days before finally freezing to death in the forest. Co-operating with the young ghost, Blake uses branches of holly and Nick's chain to ensnare the Hyena and bind it in the form of a sword, which he brings to Conquest.

He then returns to the forest, now free of the Hyena's influence and spectres, and uses the Sight to find Evan's body, which he wishes to put to rest. Before he can do so, however, it is revealed that local police have been tailing him and he is arrested for Evan's murder.

Conviction

Blake is taken into custody and interrogated by police officer Duncan Behaim, who has engineered the arrest at his uncle Laird's request to prevent Blake from fulfilling his deadline for Conquest. Duncan says that he no personal issue with Blake but that it is to the advantage of his family and the world if he gets rid of a diabolist. He then manipulates his fellow interrogator into questioning Blake about matters of magic, such as whether Blake sees Goblins. Unable to lie for fear of being forsworn, Blake refuses to answer and is incriminated by the implications of such seeming insanity.

Evan's ghost is still present and attempts to help Blake, but the next morning the boy's body is deteriorating to the point that the ghost is becoming less and less anchored to the world. Blake manages to summon one of the Knights of the Basement for help and breaks Duncan's hold over the officers by casting aspersions on the Behaim's integrity in the case thrice over. However, Duncan uses chronomancy to rewind time to the morning again, and prevents Blake from summoning help again.

Blake bleeds himself to give power to Rose, having realized that Pauz had reversed their relationship such that Blake was leeching her limited power resources rather than the other way around. He then escapes his cell and breaks out of Duncan's Escher-like stairwell trap to find Evan's body. Knowing that Evan can no longer move on in peace, Blake instead performs the rite of the Familiar, making Evan his Familiar after the ghost willingly recites an Other's Oath. Duncan confronts the pair, explaining that Blake's extreme bloodletting has risked possession and worse by malicious Others. As the Behaim escorts him back to his cell, Blake frantically insists to the other officers that Duncan had illegally taken the Frost Hatchet from Blake's coat pocket.

Panicking, Duncan slows the movement of the other officers and attempts to shoot Blake. Evan makes the shots miss and reveals that he has retrieved both Blake's Locket and the Implement that Duncan needed to reset time. As a result Blake is allowed to walk free, determined to confront the Abstract Demon against the cautions of Fell and Rose. The battle is disastrous, and it is implied that several of Blake's allies are lost, erased from the timeline, with only the demon's claw to show for their effort.

Subordination

On their way back to Blake's apartment, Rose is abducted by Conquest. With little other choice, Blake admits the truth to his friends about his supernatural circumstances. Half of them - Alexis, Tiffany and Ty - agree to undergo the awakening ritual  to assist him directly, while the others remain in a supporting role.

At Conquest's tower he meets Isadora, The Shepard, Elder Sister, and Jeremy Meath who wish to prevent Conquest from gaining access to the final demon. Blake then goes to confront Conquest, finding both Laird and Duncan there, and challenges the Lord to a competition, where one must defeat the other through the use of their chosen champions. Blake chooses Rose, Fell, Pauz, Hyena, and Maggie Holt, while Conquest chooses the Shepard, Elder Sister, the Eye, Laird Behaim, and The Astrologer. Blake returns to a spirit world version of his apartment to plan out a course of action, narrowly escaping an attack by the Shepard and the Eye.

Maggie arrives from Jacob's Bell, and assists Rose in summoning a brutish Other, Midge, to give Rose agency and firepower. Midge is soon used to attack a group of Terracotta Soldiers but she becomes uncontrollable due to a loophole exploit in her contract with Rose and attacks Blake's party. They manage to suppress Midge with some effort but Tiffany opts to remain at a safer location out of fear.

When they return to the normal world they see the result of their battles, which are having an adverse effect on the city and its populace. Back at the apartment they discuss their situation. Fell admits that he would consider killing Blake to prevent the diabolist's soul from being taken by Conquest, since this would allow Fell to walk free. Later that night, Blake has a nightmare where he is assaulted by all of the Others he's dealt with and Rose had taken his place. He fears it is an omen of conflict between himself and Rose. He also begins to suspect Maggie of disloyalty, discussing with Rose the change in the young girl's disposition.

Isadora then arrives to warn Blake that she plans on attacking him the next day, and that Rose will subsequently take his place as the next Thorburn heir. He then goes to the police station to retrieve June, where he comes under assault by four young members of the Behaim Circle, who have been angered by the earlier property damage caused to their home by Dickswizzle. Rose and Blake initially manage to push them back with Bloody Mary, another of Rose's summonings, but quickly find themselves disorrientated in the Spirit World version of the police station with an hour of time missing from their minds. Maggie's intervention using Gremlins prevents the pair from being bound by the Behaims, and when Laird appears to reinforce his family Evan allows the Hyena to be released and Laird is captured.

Void

Blake and his allies trap their captive Laird inside a circle with Pauz as a guard, aiming to keep him from intervening further in the contest against Conquest. Attempting again to return to the police station to retrieve Blake's Frost Hatchet, the party encounters members of the Sisters of the Torch who are working with the Astrologer in order to find him; Blake subdues them using the previously bound ghost of Leonard Harlan. The situation quickly turns sour, as the Shepherd arrives and empowers Wraiths to herd Blake and his allies outside a grocery store. A creation of the Astrologer then appears and seriously wounds both Alexis and Fell with a large bow and arrows.

Isadora then comes to fulfill her promise to attack Blake, and maims his chest with her claws. Rose convinces her to call Conquest and a severely wounded Blake negotiates a break from the match for three days, by pointing to the weakness that Conquest would show by allowing a subordinate such as Isadora to kill his opponent.

Asleep while recovering from his wounds, Ms. Lewis appears to Blake and urges him to stop holding back and call the firm if he needs it - if he does not do so, she threatens to hasten his death so that Rose will take his place, as the Sphinx predicted. When he wakes he finds that his friends had nearly bled themselves out to wake him up and plugged his wounds with Tallowman's wax. Rose greets him alongside a dangerous Other, the recently summoned John Pica, and explains that their situation has been worsening. Fell was killed by the Astrologer's creation and, Rose explains, she has refused negotiations to retrieve his soul, on strategic grounds.

Blake suspects that Rose knows her position as heir should he die, but wants to believe she and (similarly suspicious) Maggie are his allies. Returning to his apartment, Blake finds that Laird has broken free and escaped, costing them their final victory. However, Blake asserts that he has realizd the basis of the Behaim's power and is now equipped to combat them.

Art

Blake is a practitioner who has inherited a large amount of diabolic knowledge from him grandmother and as such is considered a Diabolist. As he prefers not to resort to said arts and the fact that his alternate-self, Rose, carries the clout of their family, he utilizes aspects of Shamanism and Glamour alongside other arts that put him closer to the classification of a Dabbler.

His Familiar is Evan.

Tools

• Frost Hatchet

Diabolism

Because of Blake's grandmother leaving her heir with a wealth of knowledge in the form of tomes, he has access to the diabolic arts. However because he refuses to utilize it his only noteworthy accomplishments are binding Pauz and knowing Ornias's name to summon it.

Shamanism

Blake has learned some aspects of Shamanism throughout his tenure as a practitioner including the use of Runes:

• Privacy Rune: A rune to drive away normal people.
• Unlocking Rune: A rune to unlock doors.
• Silencing Rune: A rune to muffle noises.
• Wind Rune: A rune to unleash a blast of wind.

Ghosts

• Blake uses a ghost to power his Frost Hatchet.

Glamour

Blake has a very-strong affinity towards using Glamour to disguise himself and connections by making it into an ink.