Nocklin

Nocklin is the teacher of applied offensive magic at the Archon in the Mürekkep ve Çelik ("Ink and Steel") campaign, and the teacher Castor admires most. He is in his thirties, perhaps thirty-six or thirty-seven, and was for a time the youngest master the Archon remembered; he says Castor may take that title from him, though his own marks were better, and that as a student he had neither friends nor love affairs. He was twice president of the Golden Arrow.^{1 2 3 4}

Teacher

When Castor returned to the Archon, Nocklin's arm was burned. He said the students were tense and hard to control, and that by joint decision of the temple, the Inquisition and the emperor no more battle magic would be taught until the tension passed; he had just given his last lesson. He backed Castor's early attempt at the master's exam but urged him to survive it before trying to finish it. He told him he was the only candidate for the grandmaster's exam that term, which only the coloured masters conduct; he had never seen anyone fail it and live, and thought perhaps one in ten passed.^{5 6 7 8}

With Yotun and an assistant, he watched one of Castor's lessons disguised as a student.⁹

The errand in the Golden Arrow

After an impostor was unmasked at the Archon, Nocklin took Castor aside. A very evil mage who did not die, he said, had come back from death, and beside him the fleeing impostor was small. He asked Castor to rejoin the Golden Arrow and learn the names of those among the students who served that mage, Polus.^{10 11 12}

His real fear, he said, was for the loyalty of the teachers rather than the students: the Sinner, as Polus was now called, had great followers, and Nocklin was sure that several grandmasters were involved. Since the return from the emperor's talks on opening the towers, some masters had begun to criticise the emperor's policy on magic in their lessons, but he and others criticised it too, and it was hard to tell criticism from disloyalty. He told Castor that the mother of the student Chris had been killed by the Inquisition.^{13 14}

He wanted the club's leaders found, and if possible the grandmaster behind them, to buy time while the campaign against the Sinner went on outside; the Archon could not bear its bloody inner struggles again. He suggested Castor tell a twisted but partly true story of his past rescue of young mages and the torture that followed, and asked him to come only when he had results. He refused to pass messages through Herrenhal, whom he trusted, for fear of confusion.^{15 16 17}

He spoke of Herrenhal's power: the ancient spell that keeps the sunken city of the master's exam in a bubble of air is his work, beyond the known orders of magic. Old mages were said to sacrifice parts of their bodies in such rituals; Nocklin's own theory was that Herrenhal had given up parts of his mind.^{18 19}

When the witch hunters' captain announced that every student would be questioned, Nocklin offered to send the likeliest suspect away at once, but Castor was not sure who it was.^{20 21}

The infirmary

After Castor's ordeal at the hands of the witch hunters, Nocklin sat by his bed at night. He approved of Castor's refusal to work with the hunters' captain, said that only the captain had known the plan and that Follos's sacrifice had eased Castor's way in, and guessed that the Golden Lion, the head of imperial intelligence, had set up the business with the captain and Follos. The campaign against the Sinner had largely succeeded, he reported, and the emperor had marched with few soldiers to a ceremony among the dwarves.^{22 23 24}

Castor did not know the spell Sending, so they agreed that he would take off his ring as a signal once he found the traitors. Nocklin confirmed that there was a traitor on the council.²⁵

The Dwarf Gate

When Castor took off his ring at the secret gathering, Nocklin and the red master appeared at the door. Castor told him that the emperor was to be murdered at sunrise at the Dwarf Gate; Nocklin had not known. He ran with Castor and called on students above the second year to follow their teachers and protect the emperor. In the battle, third-year students gathered around him and the other seasoned teachers.^{26 27 28 29 30}

Castor woke in White City, in a far wing of the Marble Palace, with Nocklin at his bedside, himself scarred from pushing his magic too far. Nocklin told him his internal bleeding had been stopped but his ribs were broken, that he should move carefully for half a year, and that his exam had been put back four months.^{31 32}

Spoiler: The outcome at the Dwarf GateRevealSpoils: Mürekkep ve Çelik #11 · Say what you have read

Nocklin told him that Emperor Conrad, the Golden Lion and Grandmaster Godfrey were dead, with many others, but that the battle had been won. A group that included Yozan, Lorenz and a dwarf from the king's company had dealt with the Sinner. That had been eight days before; Castor had been kept asleep by magic while he healed. Prince Falkred was alive, carried quickly from the field by his guard.^{33 34}

He brought in the new spymaster, Einhart Lorenz, and when Lorenz offered Castor freedom from the Archon, Nocklin advised him to accept it while leaving him the choice. Castor stayed.^{32 35}

Later

Back at the Archon, Nocklin taught Luke and Glanfall offensive cantrips. Glanfall, he thought, could become an evoker but was too fiery, like an old classmate who had burned himself. He told Castor that Horus Maxwell was harsh but did not mark down out of spite, and that he himself had received 89 for a single thesis.^{36 37 38}

The healer Riklon told Castor of a teacher brought out of the exam two years earlier who had needed twelve or thirteen hours of surgery and could not walk without a draught taken three times a month; he might not see seventy. The name that slipped out was Nocklin's. Nocklin himself, meeting Castor on his return from a journey, called his exam hard and warned that among the clever creatures beneath the Archon most were malign, offering help that a strong will should refuse.^{39 40 41 42}

At Castor's mastery ceremony he was said to have passed the grandmaster's exam, though he was still addressed as master because the formal ceremony had not yet been held.^{43 44}