An empty Washington DC alley at night, fog rising, a single streetlamp casting amber light, a melanistic coyote barely visible at the alley mouth and reflected in a wide puddle in the foreground

“It was never my voice. I understood that early.

Like a dark shadow that followed me everywhere, even into sleep.

I simply learned to stop fighting it.”

 
  
 
PERDITIO
 
L. perditiō — ruin, destruction, loss of the soul
 
Book One of The Bitter Waters Trilogy
 
   
 
   
 
 
 
 
     Victoria Amaro at her workstation, intent and alert in low evening light  
  
 
 
VICTORIA AMARO
 
She cannot leave an anomaly alone. She did not choose to.
 
the protagonist
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     Caleb Stone in a diner booth, caught between doubt and recognition  
  
 
 
CALEB STONE
 
He came offering evidence. He gave her safety.
 
the co-protagonist
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
      Father Tomas Amaro at his desk at the Vatican Observatory  
  
  
  
 
 
FATHER TOMAS AMARO
 
He has been watching for thirty years. The sky is not all he watches.
 
the witness
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     Gideon Draco seen over the shoulder, composed and detached  
  
 
 
GIDEON DRACO
 
The shadow has been with him since birth. He has been its instrument since.
 
the antagonist
 
 
 
 
     Silas, rigid and unreadable, lit in low contrast shadow  
No record. No second call. He has never failed.
 
 
 
   
  
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
VERITAS // CASE FILE ACCESS
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
VERITAS // CASE FILE ACCESS
 
 
 
 
 
 INDEX SCAN 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 INTEGRITY 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ENCRYPTION: AES-256
 
FILES INDEXED: 43
 
 
 
 
ACTIVITY
 
     
  •  0247
:: PATTERN DETECTED 
    •  
  •  0249
:: DATA INDEXED 
    •  
  •  0251
:: ANALYSIS UPDATED 
    •  
 
 
 
 
  CONNECTION: ACTIVE 
 
 STREAM: VERITAS 
 
CASE: BITTER WATERS | FILE: 2024 QA1
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
   
  
    
   
  
  
  
 
  
   
   
    
 
   
  
 
 
 
     An author's writing desk: a manual typewriter, a black fedora, a leather-bound journal, and a green banker's lamp casting warm amber light across dark walnut wood.  
  
 
 
DAMIEN CROSS
 
He is interested in the line between science and faith — not as a debate, but as a geography, a place where the instruments point and the documents go missing.
 
Author
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     A mourning dove perched on a weathered green-painted observation deck railing, facing camera-right toward distant mountains and pre-dawn sky.  
  
 
 
"The truth was always the greatest deception."
 
— Damien Cross
 
 
 
 
 
 
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