Golden Arrow

The Golden Arrow is a club of student mages at the Archon in the Mürekkep ve Çelik ("Ink and Steel") campaign. It gathers accomplished students eager for adventure and holds literary evenings and magic duels. Castor joined it as a student and is still, strictly speaking, a member.¹

Membership

The club is no secret, and every student knows of it, but not everyone may join. Apprentice mages are members; on becoming a master a mage leaves the student club and counts as a teacher. Many teachers value membership, and students whisper that it brings better marks. The history teacher Hemme, its strongest supporter, was president four times, and Nocklin twice.^{2 3 4 5}

Before the exams the members meet in the old garden of the Archon, in an ancient amphitheatre ringed by enchanted statues that change their pose when no one is looking, though they are not alive. About a hundred members came to the meeting of Castor's time, with some twenty candidates who had no vote.^{6 7}

Nocklin's errand

Nocklin handed Castor his club card. A mage returned from death, he said, was gaining disciples among the students, and he asked Castor to rejoin the club until his exam and learn the names of those who served that mage, Polus.^{1 8 9}

The election

The outgoing president was Ulrich Uzunmeşe, a successful twenty-four-year-old student of divination who works in the Archon's archives, the son of a noble family that fled the north as political exiles. He introduced three candidates and, by custom, left before the vote.^{10 11 12}

• Alex of White City, a long-standing member, promised members across the Empire, a search for hidden talent in the countryside and more travel.
• Nudo Kurin, a big young man from the island of Fara who had come to the Archon after being tried for witchcraft, stood at the wish of Ulrich and some teachers and promised to keep the club as it was.
• Mamor von Edart, a twenty-one-year-old mage of the House of Edart, whose arms show a dove with spread wings, attacked talk of travel in a crisis. The witch hunters were to enter the Archon for the first time in its history, and if elected he would lead a boycott of lessons and exams until they left. About three in five of the hall cheered him.^{13 14 15 16 17 18}

Before the vote Ulrich asked Castor whether anyone had tried to buy his vote; Castor said no one had. Asked by Mamor to speak, Castor called the witch hunters' entry an insult to the Archon but would not commit to a boycott.^{19 20}

Votes were cast openly, each member leaving a mark with a cantrip on a great parchment beneath a candidate's name. Alex withdrew in favour of Mamor. Castor voted for Mamor, Nudo took twenty or so votes, and Mamor won the rest and became president.^{21 22 23}

The boycott

The members would not boycott the exams. Instead they resolved to stay out of the dining halls and sleep in the garden rather than the dormitories. At Castor's urging that the teachers be won over rather than made into enemies, the club agreed to explain itself in writing. Mamor drafted the text with Castor in his room in the wing of the noble and wealthiest students, Alex agreed to carry the word to the younger years, and copies were posted on the doors of the great towers.^{24 25 26 27 28}

Castor told Nocklin that he suspected one or both of the two candidates he had worked with of serving Polus, and proposed that both be watched; nothing was proven against the club as a whole.^{29 30}

Spoiler: After FollosRevealSpoils: Mürekkep ve Çelik #10 · Say what you have read

After the death of the teacher Follos, Mamor seemed shaken but remained free; his attempt to visit Castor in the infirmary was turned away.^{31 32}

The other circle

Alex later brought Castor to a different gathering, which he said plainly was not the Golden Arrow: a circle of like-minded people that met now and then. Ulrich was among those present, as were assistant teachers and the student Chris, but Mamor and Nudo were not. When the plan put to that meeting became clear, some of those present slipped away.^{33 34 35}

Castor later defended his second thesis in the same amphitheatre, where Hemme praised its boldness but set against it the example of Xeratos, who had put magic into teachable books.^{36 37}