A Conjuring of Light characters

Also known as Kell Maresh

Appears from the start

One of the last Antari and the Red London crown's messenger, taken by force into White London at the close of the previous book. His blood is what an ancient magic needs to reach a living world, and the bond he made with his brother means anything done to him is done to Rhy as well. Stubborn, guilty and used to being blamed, he starts this book as a prisoner with no good options.

Also known as Lila

Appears from the start

A Grey London thief turned privateer, and the third living Antari, self-taught and mostly untrained. She no longer bothers hiding what she is. Fearless to the point of recklessness and impatient with anyone who tells her to wait somewhere safe, she is sailing for White London to get Kell back.

Appears from the start

The heir to Red London's throne, who cannot die while Kell lives and who feels everything Kell feels. Wounded, frightened for his brother and left holding a court full of foreign delegations, he is forced to be the man his city needs rather than the one it has enjoyed for years.

Appears from the start

Captain of the Night Spire, an exiled Arnesian noble and privateer who sees magic as threads of color. He has spent the last book circling back into the prince's life and now finds himself sailing into a war he did not sign on for. Charming, self-interested and rather more loyal than he admits.

Also known as Holland Vosijk

Appears from the start

The White London Antari, restored and enthroned by the bargain he made in the ruins of Black London. His city is alive again and green for the first time in his lifetime, which is exactly what he was promised, and the price of it is now coming due somewhere else. Hard, exhausted and entirely unrepentant about what he has traded to save his own world.

Appears from the start

The living magic of Black London, a will without a body: ancient, vastly powerful, and convinced it is offering a gift. It bargains, it flatters, it gives people exactly what they say they want, and it consumed an entire world the last time it was free. It wants an Antari body and a living city to remake.

Appears from the start

The yellow-eyed White London fighter whom Holland raised up and made his own, and who has served him without hesitation since. She is loyal to Holland personally rather than to the thing he bargained with.

Appears from the start

The king of Red London, who has spent years managing Kell as a risk rather than raising him as a son, and who now has a foreign power inside his city and a court of visiting royals trapped in his palace.

Appears from the start

The queen of Red London and Rhy's mother, who has never been at ease with what Kell is and is now confronted with a threat that magic itself cannot simply be ordered away from.

First appears in chapter 2

The head priest of the London Sanctuary, old, calm and the closest thing Kell and Rhy have to a grandfather. He understands the balance of magic in a person better than anyone in the city, which makes him one of the few people able to say what is actually happening to it.

First appears in chapter 2

A young royal guard devoted to the prince, cheerful and devout, who keeps turning up wherever Rhy needs someone he can trust to simply stay.

First appears in chapter 8

The keeper of a floating market that sails between ports and answers to no crown, where objects too dangerous to exist are bought, sold and kept out of circulation. Very old, entirely unimpressed by royalty, and immovable about her own rules and prices.

First appears in chapter 9

A Veskan fighter and tavern keeper, large, blunt and fond of a good brawl, who joins the crew for reasons of her own and proves a great deal more useful than an extra pair of hands.