Episode 111: Dark Waters
Written By Karl White
Sara Ivy hadn’t heard from Uti in two days. That was unlike him. No matter the distance between them, he always checked in. His final message was brief. He'd found the Light Bearer, Bess Bishop, and was taking her somewhere safe. After that, there was only silence.
Her fears were confirmed when Death appeared to her, the samurai vampire Renmaru Okayama, and the Eternal monk Heng Shao, at a safe house.
DEATH: The Chronicler is no more. He fought to the end. The Processions are nearing their conclusion. One remains on the horizon...and one waits at the point of no return.
A Procession awaits in 2032 - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
The first, he was referring to would be the prophecy later fulfilled by Win Wheeler in 2032. The second would come during the final war between Light and Dark...the Seventh Procession, could only be realized amidst that conflict. Death knew the details, but Universal Law forbade him from revealing what lay ahead. Warning was all he could offer.
For the warriors of the Light, Uti's death was a painful reminder of how little separated them from the end. Their numbers were dwindling, and worse still, every effort to derail the Dark seemed to fail. The future was closing in on a fate none could escape.
Many among their ranks had lived centuries. They’d watched generations rise and vanish into history, accumulating far more losses than wins. Immortality, romanticized by those who’d never experienced it, was far less kind. Every passing year was the reminder, eternity was not a gift, so much as a burden. As Uti joined the long list of those who’d fallen, the Dark's victory began to feel less like a possibility and more like an inevitability.
Yet other mysteries troubled them. The rise and fall of civilizations could be watched, even predicted. But the fate of an individual remained stubbornly unknowable. But the Dark repeatedly demonstrated an ability to predict, not merely the course of nations, but the actions of specific people decades before their choices were ever made. They maneuvered events with an impossible accuracy. Something about it felt wrong.
An equally troubling question lingered in the minds of those still fighting. Who was looking out for them? By Death's own account, there were no angels watching. The solitary entities responsible for maintaining creation served the Universe, not humanity. There’d once been a God watching over existence, but He’d been absent for a very long time. A creator who, for reasons unknown, abandoned His creation. Despite the silence, countless individuals throughout history felt compelled to oppose the Dark. An unseen hand, guiding them to the fight. And a clue lay in their dreams.
The vision of the man in the field - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
The vision of the man in the field, blood raining from the sky, started with Reginald Black. To him, it was a warning. A prophetic inflection point in the fight between Light and Dark. The dream inspired the creation of the Order of Wormwood, but also set in motion the chain of events driving Orem Black toward the Book of Amar and ultimately into the service of the Dark.
Kasson planted the nightmare in Reginald's mind. A demon steering pawns toward their destined role. But the dream didn’t end there. Banerjee, Veera, and other members of the Order had it. Broderick Zayne had the dream. So did Sara Ivy, Uti’s maker Obec, Ren, Flora Mae Watkins, and many others whose lives would become intertwined with the fight. None of them were part of Kasson's designs. Which left only one conclusion....someone else was spreading clues to what the Dark intended, and was preparing humanity. But who was it?
Life for Joseph Frost had been transformed. At 150-years old, the face staring back at him in the mirror seemed improbable. The Book of Amar, fused to his soul in 1894, preserved his life far beyond nature's design. His youth was restored when Kasson made him a Harvester, and by siphoning Orem’s power, Joseph possessed magic bordering on monstrous. The energy coursing through him made him feel alive.
But for all he gained, guilt lingered. Joseph was convinced he had no choice but to kill Orem. His fear was real, the hatred Orem forged in Oblivion could be turned against him at any time. But inheriting Orem’s memories made his own actions hard to justify. He witnessed decades of suffering, betrayal, and despair through his friend's eyes. And along with those memories came another burden...Orem’s unfinished business...his enemies still lived. If Joseph hoped to make peace with what he’d done, the least he could do was ensure Orem's wishes didn’t die with him.
Orem’s banishment to Oblivion in 1951, made the world feel safer. A significant piece of the Dark's design was removed, and the group responsible for his exile gradually went their separate ways. Veera Sarin and Aolani built a life together while re-establishing the Order of Wormwood in Banerjee's honor. Broderick Zayne and Gérard Roux continued their vigilance against threats hidden in the shadows. Herakles, however, struggled to find a place in the world.
Modern day Herakles - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Conflict had always given his life purpose. Without it came an unfamiliar silence, and Herakles discovered he was ill-suited for peace. He traveled the world over, reinventing himself more times than he could remember. But no matter the path, he’d find himself returning to the same calling -- protecting others. And so, the natural fit was to join forces with the Nightwardens.
Though the Great Vampire War ended in 2005, and the last remnants of Elizabeth Jovan’s brood were killed in 2009, there was still a need to keep the night safe, so Herakles enlisted. And among the ‘Wardens ranks, no bond proved stronger than that between he and Flora Mae Watkins. On the surface, the pairing seemed unlikely, but Herakles felt an undeniable responsibility toward her. Part of that obligation stemmed from both having heard the voice of Kharos.
Satan once sought to place Herakles at the head of his dark army. Instead, the warrior recited the Hero's Prayer and summoned Kharos to the Underworld. As the Seraphblade moved to strike down the Devil, Death intervened, halting the confrontation as such a battle was forbidden by Universal Law. Before departing, Kharos whispered to Herakles.
Kharos whispers to Flora Mae - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Centuries later, he did the same with Flora Mae. Appearing throughout her life to save her from harm before finally speaking to her on a bridge in New Orleans, after slaying the vampire Royce. Though their lives unfolded in different ages under vastly different circumstances, both had been touched by the same power, entrusted with the burden of eternity.
By the end of the 2010s, the Nightwardens had evolved into investigators of the supernatural, pursuing hidden threats while searching for answers surrounding the remaining Processions. Herakles worked faithfully beside Flora Mae, determined to see her safely through whatever trials lay ahead.
Then, in 2019,the Tenebris Commission, a secretive arm of the Vatican that investigated the unexplained, quietly requested the Nightwardens examine a decades-old mystery. The case centered around a remote island known as El Infierno Está Oscuro, off the coast of Fernando de Noronha.
1832, Illustration of El Infierno Está Oscuro - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
In 1973, a plane carrying twelve geology students from the University of Oxford crashed there. The sole survivor, Nicole Kass claimed amphibious "Fish-Men" emerged from the island's lagoons and slaughtered her companions. Authorities dismissed her account as madness, convicting her of murder, and she died in prison maintaining her innocence. Decades later, after Church investigators sent to re-examine the island disappeared without explanation, the Nightwardens were asked to uncover the truth.
The moment they arrived, Herakles sensed something profoundly unnatural about the island. As the team examined the largest lagoon, the clear water suddenly darkened. Shapes raced upward from impossible depths. Seeing Flora Mae standing dangerously close to the shoreline, Herakles lunged toward her just as the surface exploded.
An army of amphibious humanoids burst from the water. They were Lymnades, ancient guardians of waterways throughout the world. Though typically peaceful unless provoked, they were vulnerable to demonic possession.
Lymnade - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Resembling distorted versions of humanity shaped beneath the sea, they possessed scaled flesh, elongated limbs, black eyes, and fluttering gill slits along their necks. This shiver, however, had been thoroughly corrupted. Individually they posed little threat, but together they attacked with overwhelming numbers.
The ambush quickly revealed a darker purpose. The possessed Lymnades swarmed Herakles, dragging him relentlessly toward the lagoon as its center churned open, exposing a depth that should not have existed. Beneath the surface opened a passage descending into impossible darkness. Looking into it produced the unmistakable sensation one was not gazing into deep water, but into another place entirely.
Dragged under - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Again and again Herakles broke free, only to be overwhelmed once more. Flora Mae and the others fought desperately to reach him, but the creatures continued pouring upward without end. Eventually even the great warrior was overcome, dragged beneath the surface and into the darkness below. Moments later the water became perfectly calm, as though nothing had happened.
The Nightwardens searched every shoreline, cave, and lagoon without finding a single trace of either Herakles or the creatures. A warrior who'd survived nearly five thousand years had simply vanished.
What Flora Mae and the others didn’t know was the tragedy had been carefully orchestrated from afar. Joseph Frost, despite his immense power couldn’t easily kill an Eternal. But he could widened the breach hidden beneath the lagoon and allow forces on the other side to accomplish what he wanted. And with a single calculated act, Joseph removed Herakles from the fight. Casting him once more into the endless void of the Abyss.
TO BE CONTINUED…