Once there was a family that lived in a sleepy little town in New England. The family, the Blackwells, were known for their odd habit of having twin children. Sometimes it was a pair of boys or girls, sometimes both and even twins but always two.
Wealthy yet benevolent, the Blackwells were often the case of rumor but generally well-liked within the town by all save one family - the Flints. It was said that there came a Flint who planned to wed a Blackwell and would have ended the years of constant feuding that threatened to tear the town in two. Rebekah Flint proclaimed her love for Soloman Blackwell in front of the entire town. It did not matter that he did not share her feelings as she was determined to make Soloman fall in love with her. Whether it was for true love or so that she would gain some of the Blackwell's wealth it was never known but she eventually was able to get close enough to the Soloman to learn some of his family's secrets.
The Blackwells were, each, gifted with magic.
The entire family, all thirteen of them, possessed a talent that made them unique - a fact that was kept hidden from the town. Should their secrets become known it would have destroyed their reputation, their business and turn the town against them. Rebekah, while attempting to endear Soloman to her, discovered the family's secret and the source of their wealth. Buried under their family's mansion on a hill that over-looked the town, the Blackwell's had a huge supply of gold coins in a large vault - pirate gold or so the stories went.
When Rebekah pressed Soloman for a proposal and was rejected, she claimed to have been impregnated by him and turned to the church to force a marriage. The town's church was run by a kind and gentle priest who urged the two families to come together and solve their mutual differences for the sake of Rebekah's unborn child. Soloman continued to refute any claim that he was the father of Rebekah's child though it was her word against his. Months went on and the two families remained embroiled in a war of words as Rebekah's child continued to grow within her belly. Obviously someone had slept with her to conceive a child but there was no way to prove who the father was until the child was born for all Blackwell children were born fair-haired. All of the Flint children had hair the color of walnut dye.
Before the child was born, Rebekah climbed the hill to the Blackwell mansion and urged for Soloman to see her. He would not speak with her nor claim the child and remained distant. The matriarch of the family, Aggatha Blackwell, instructed her to leave the house and never return. Rebekah was shown the door but she refused. She called for the twins, Cyrus and Seth to remove the hysterical woman from the house and to escort her to the gates. The two boys, identical twins, were young but on the verge of becoming men themselves. They easily lifted her and carried her past the threshold and across the grounds to the massive iron gate. Once on the other side of it, they set her down and closed it behind her. She spat insults at the two of them, yelling that she would reveal their secrets to the town of Soloman did not marry her. The twins stood guard at the gate until she had screamed herself hoarse.
Turning, finally, she walked down the hill in tears. She realized the truth of her claim would be born soon and her lie would be revealed. Her rage boiled with every step down the steep hill and a new idea glimmered in the dark corners of her imagination. Quickly she threw herself to the ground and began rolling down the rocky slope of the road that curled up from the town to Blackwell's hill. Screaming as the tiny stones dug into her flesh and smacked her head about she eventually came to a stop at the edge of the town where she was found by a few of the locals. Bruised and battered she claimed that the twins threw her down the hill and threatened to kill her if she ever returned.
The whole of the Flint family instantly screamed for justice as Rebekah's injuries were tended to by the village's only doctor. Later that day, as night was falling in the valley, the doctor informed the Flints that Rebekah's child would probably not survive but she would be fine. The priest cautioned patience and temperance but the Flint's would not have it. One of their own was harmed and the unborn child was dead. They started to rile up their allies in the town - claiming that if the Blackwells treated one of their own in such a manner they would treat any of them the same.
Only one Blackwell spoke out against the growing tide of rage in the town, Amaleth Blackwell, Soloman's twin sister. Amaleth was known to be sort of a bookworm and was known to be the most open, friendly and god-fearing of the Blackwells. She divided her time between the bookseller's shop and the church and was in town while the Flints spread their poison. One voice of reason amidst a sea of paranoia was doing little but fan their flames. The second that one of the Flint's allies held up a burning torch the Priest pulled Amaleth into the church for her own safety. The mob pressed against the doors and screamed for Amaleth to be brought outside for their 'justice'. If Rebekah could be so mistreated at the hands of the Blackwells then Amaleth would be shown the same.
The priest, Martin, told Amaleth to escape through the church's crypt and warn her family. He knew that the town's folk would not be stopped until they found someone to answer for their hate. She left her books on one of the pews, offered Martin a parting kiss and fled below the church. Martin and Amaleth had been friends since he arrived in the town. Both shared a love for books and, in time, for each other. As a priest Martin could not marry and so they kept their feelings out of the town's watchful eyes.
As Amaleth escaped through the church's burial tunnels the mob continued to surge with every hate-filled word from the Flint's patriarch, Jedediah Flint. Rebekah emerged from her sick bed and informed the mob that she witnessed Soloman and the others of the Blackwell family involved in some black ritual and, upon her discovery, was thrown down the hill to keep their secret. Not everyone in the town would have believed such a claim and on any other day they would have dismissed it as the bitter musings of a spurned woman. But the power of the mob is near absolute in its ability to make the implausible - possible. The mob had a new chant to drive them on - for nothing was so powerful as the word 'Witch' to drive people into a near killing frenzy. The townsfolk followed behind 'Jed' as he marched up the road his daughter had been thrown down to the gates of the Blackwell mansion. The iron bars did not last long against a hundred hands pressing against them.
The whole of the Blackwell family was removed from their home and carried down to the town's square to face their collective version of justice. It was never known how the family was taken so easily but each of them were strung up in the town's square to be hung. Rebekah marched out to confront Soloman before the stools were removed. Once again she claimed to be carrying his child and demanded to be married to him - therefore legally entitled to the family's wealth to support their child. The mob called for the priest, Martin, to perform the service but he would not emerge from the church.The doors of the church were broken down as they searched for Amaleth. They would leave none of the Blackwells alive. Martin was drug out of the church but there was no sign of her.
The priest refused to be apart of any of the town's doings and tried to set them free. He rushed to free Aggatha but only had a moment before the mob pulled him off and tied him to a horse post. Jed Flint, as a former ship's captain, declared that he would marry his daughter to Soloman. Without the exchange of vows, Martin screamed, the marriage was not legal in the eyes of the church. The mob, nor Jed, cared much for the permission of the church. The ceremony was short and Rebekah ripped Soloman's ring from his finger to symbolically seal their marriage before she kicked the stool out from under him.
By the next morning the Blackwells were dead - all save one. Amaleth did not make it up to the house before the mob and hid while her family was taken. She snuck back to the church and hid in the crypt after Martin was taken outside to witness the ceremony. In the moment with Aggatha, Martin was told, by her, to protect her daughter at all cost. It was for that reason that he 'accepted' the execution of the others and pretended, for all to see, that their hangings had been justice. All the while he was keeping Amaleth in the church's crypt until he could move her away to safety.
The Flints quickly moved into the Blackwell mansion and proclaimed themselves the right and proper leaders of the town. They spent the next five years tearing the house apart looking for the gold that Rebekah had spied. The vault had been found but it was empty - as though they had known the town would turn against them.
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Each of the Blackwells had in their possession, at the time of their death, an object that was so synonymous with their person that even in death they would not be parted.
1. Aggatha (grandmother)= Cameo Brooch
2. Sivan (grandfather) = Monacle
3. Abbra (mother) =
4. Cygnus (father) =
5. Soloman (eldest brother) = Ring
6. Amaleth (eldest sister) = Ivory-stemmed pen
7. Cyrus (middle brother) = Ring
8. Seth (middle brother) = Ring
9. Aphra (youngest sister) = Doll
10. Samuel (youngest brother) = Wooden Sword
11. Stanwyck (eldest uncle) =
12. Ayala (eldest aunt) =
13. Santon (cousin) =
