Luke

Luke is the nephew of the soldier Leonard and an apprentice mage of the Archon in the campaign Mürekkep ve Çelik ("Ink and Steel"). The mage Castor found the gift of magic in him some five or six years before the campaign, while serving House Baldrick, and sent him to the Archon, one of the first sources of friction between Castor and Leonard.¹²

Background and character

Luke is about seventeen, a sturdy youth from the far side of the Empire. His family are mostly merchants with a few warriors, and he knows of no mage among them, though a family story tells of a distant ancestor who carried a magic sword. He has visited home only once because the road is long, misses his parents and the fig tea of his home, and keeps his old hammer as a reminder of where he came from.²³⁴⁵

Baron Hogar Baldrick pays for his studies generously: Luke wears good clothes and a ring, has a private room rather than a place in the dormitories, and has bought a horse. Leonard wanted to send him a regular allowance as well, and Luke feels indebted to the baron and his house. He cares little for most lessons but is drawn to transmutation, the making of magic items and medicine. A friend at the Archon says that he works himself hard so as not to disappoint the man who pays for his schooling.⁶⁷⁸⁹¹⁰

At the Archon

When Leonard and Castor took their oaths before Traumir, the master in charge of the students' safety, Traumir told Leonard that he saw the boy every day and would keep him safe, and Leonard handed over gold for his nephew.¹¹¹²

When Castor met him in the library, Luke was weighing three futures: returning to the baron's service, staying at the Archon for research, or joining the work in White City where, he had heard from a legion mage, apprentices of transmutation were wanted for research that joined magic with cannon. He said he had never applied to the student society called the Golden Arrow. He also told Castor what the students whispered about the Sinner (Günahkâr) when the teachers were away, and passed on the words of Chris, a boy from his dormitory, who said that the Sinner had caused the explosion at the palace in White City and that once his work was done the high towers of magic in the provinces would reopen, letting students study near their families. Castor warned him against promises of that kind and asked him to bring such talk to him first. Chris was later among those seen at the secret gathering on the Skydock.^134141516

The spellbook and the pledge

Castor bought a spellbook that had once passed through dragon fire unharmed, chosen on Leonard's idea, and handed it first to Leonard; later he gave it to Luke in his uncle's name, and Luke meant to copy his spells into it. A few days before Castor's own mastery examination, Luke signed a document taking over a debt of five hundred gold that Leonard owed Castor, which the Archon's chief archivist required before supplying Castor with a scroll. As security in case Castor died in the examination and the debt went unpaid, Castor first offered his hat and then took it back, leaving instead a chess piece he valued greatly. Luke knew what it meant to him and said he would not want to sell it.^1718192021

His examination

Luke welcomed Castor back from his examination and said he wished, after his own, to return to Hogar Baldrick and see his parents; he wrote to them and mentioned Castor. Before the examination he was torn between abjuration and conjuration. Word came that his family might be brought to the baron's lands, and he hoped to ask for a post at the new mages' tower in his region, about a week's journey from them, before entering Baldrick service. Castor asked the triton Keros to accompany Luke and his friend Glanfall into the examination, as his own gift.^222324252627

Luke came back from the examination with his left arm bandaged, glad and carrying his certificate. He said he had met elementals, and that a companion who could breathe under water had been a great help before hurrying off with a greeting. About a month later he was to go to the newly opened mages' tower, to be nearer his family.²⁸²⁹

In a later letter to Leonard, Luke wrote that he had found it hard to settle at first but was now happy: he had been accepted at the high tower of magic in Mavi Hisar, which is described as the capital of Mavi Koru, and would continue his apprenticeship there before serving House Baldrick as its mage; there is to be such a tower in every province. The baron is said to see his schooling as a long-term investment and to be willing to wait a year or two for him.^30313233