A Conjuring of Ravens recap

After her father leaves her exposed during a theft, fugitive sorcerer Siobhan acquires an artifact that transforms her into a man. As Sebastien Siverling, she wins conditional admission to the Thaumaturgic University under Thaddeus Lacer and studies while working off a severe debt to Oliver Dryden and Katerine's Verdant Stag. Her covert aid to the organization draws her into a Morrows attack, where two workers die and police recover her blood. Liza implants a ward that defeats the ensuing scrying, but investigators recast Siobhan as the dangerous Raven Queen. Ennis reveals that the Garvins hold Siobhan's maternal knot ring as collateral for a proposed marriage. Rejecting the bargain, she returns to university as Sebastien with a poor replacement conduit, her identities still unconnected and the stolen book still unreadable.

Siobhan returns to a watched inn to recover her grimoire and possessions after her father, Ennis Nott, leaves her exposed during a crime. Officers pursue her through Gilbratha, but a strange amulet connected to the stolen book transforms her into a pale blond man. Oliver Dryden, a criminal stranger who helps her hide, sees the change and offers a path to the education she wants. The book remains encrypted, and removing the amulet does not reverse the transformation. Oliver brings Siobhan to Katerine, who agrees to finance university fees at punishing interest, with illegal magical work as security. Siobhan demonstrates enough practical skill to make the arrangement worthwhile. Oliver then constructs the identity Sebastien Siverling from an extinct noble line and coaches her for the university application. As Sebastien, she refuses to surrender her place in the admissions queue to Damien Westbay, drawing the attention of Professor Thaddeus Lacer. Meanwhile, Oliver's masked criminal organization faces an attack from a rival gang. Siobhan has a cover identity and a possible future at the university, but also a major debt, a wanted female identity, and no explanation for either the amulet or the stolen book.

Sebastien registers for the university examinations and learns that Ennis has been imprisoned at Harrow Hill. Against Oliver's advice, Siobhan uses her female identity, Chauvin, to hire the unlicensed sorcerer Liza. They create a short-lived Lino Wharton raven messenger under binding secrecy vows. Ennis proposes that Siobhan trade the stolen book and a marriage into a Crown family for his freedom and their advancement. She rejects the bargain and recognizes that his priorities do not include her safety. The prison contact nevertheless alerts investigators that she is probably still in Gilbratha. Returning to life as Sebastien, she passes the written entrance test and faces a hostile oral panel. Her conventional education is uneven, but she demonstrates exceptional practical control by activating an incomplete blue-fire array even after the panel votes against her. Thaddeus Lacer uses a personal exception to admit her under strict supervision, limits her course load, and requires his practical will-based casting class. Sebastien enrolls, then accepts a debt-reducing assignment from Oliver: design an alarm network and rapid-response system for the organization led through Katerine. She has secured admission, but payment, secrecy, Lacer's standards, and service to her creditors all remain immediate pressures.

Working publicly as Chauvin, Siobhan installs linked alarm banners for the Verdant Stag and begins brewing medicine to reduce her debt. She learns that the organization supplies poor districts with illicit care, loans, jobs, and other services. When she uses Theo's spilled blood in a successful healing spell, Oliver and Katerine warn that the law would classify it as capital blood magic. Damien, meanwhile, gains university admission under severe pressure from his father, Tyron Westbay. His elder brother Titus and Thaddeus Lacer also emerge as influential figures around his family. Sebastien moves into crowded university housing after leaving the encrypted book hidden at Oliver's home. Student liaisons Tanya Canelo and Newton Moore explain the competitive system, where low-ranked students can be forced out and magical mistakes can be fatal. In class, Professor Burberry warns about unsafe conduits and will corruption, while Professor Norrish promotes scientific understanding as a route to better magic. Sebastien's tested capacity exceeds Damien's and deepens their rivalry. Lacer demonstrates freecasting, assigns demanding daily control exercises, and gives Sebastien additional private work. Continued enrollment now depends on meeting those standards, while Sebastien has also started gathering decryption methods for the unreadable stolen book.

Thaddeus Lacer formally confirms Sebastien as his provisional apprentice after recognizing control consistent with freecasting talent. Damien demands the same supplementary workload, turning their hostility into a structured competition. Sebastien's other courses broaden her training: Professor Ilma emphasizes critical history, Professor Pacanti teaches sympathetic associations, and Elwood Fecton focuses defensive magic on survival and escape. The workload produces fatigue and will strain, but Sebastien continues practicing while researching alchemy, better rest, and ways to unlock the stolen book. She investigates the university menagerie as a possible ingredient supply, only for Damien to accuse her of planning theft. He also reveals that investigators know about Siobhan's prison messenger, although they still lack a link to Sebastien. Brewing at Oliver's manor gives her a modest income that covers interest rather than the principal of Katerine's loan. The Verdant Stag expands its emergency-response work, alchemy, farming plans, and prospective smuggling supply line under Oliver's masked leadership. Anna Gervin then brings Sebastien into a study group with Alec Gervin, Rhett Moncrief, Waverly Ascot, Bryn, and Damien. Sebastien joins partly to gather information, but her skill earns reluctant respect and creates the beginnings of a competitive alliance.

University lessons strengthen Sebastien's commitment to skepticism, but exhaustion and nightmares continue to erode her concentration. Newton Moore recognizes only that she appears to be a financially insecure student and offers a calming spell, mutual support, and possible future work. Soon afterward, a linked bracelet alarm wakes Sebastien. Oliver has triggered it because the Morrows are attacking a Verdant Stag warehouse with workers trapped inside. Siobhan changes into Chauvin and joins the defense under her service obligation. She defeats the attackers' spell barrier with fast physical projectiles, then enters the damaged building with Oliver. Cooper is already dead, and Jameson has a critical neck wound. Chauvin stops his bleeding but cannot restore the blood he has lost. As coppers arrive, she covers the Stag's retreat with filters and a frightening shadow familiar. Oliver later reveals that he founded the organization to build services for common people and eventually remove Crown rule. During their escape, someone uses blood from Chauvin's shattered array to scry for her. She repels the attempt, but her inherited anti-scrying medallion is damaged and her conduit breaks. At Liza's refuge, she agrees to buy an implanted defense and plans another prison message to recover her maternal heirloom conduit.

Jameson dies after reaching care, joining Cooper among the casualties of the warehouse attack. Oliver pays funeral costs and long-term support for both families, while the Verdant Stag ends night shifts and seeks better training, recruits, and defensive equipment. Siobhan takes Jameson's death personally. Liza then builds five ward discs using Siobhan's blood and implants them beneath her skin. The planar diversion ward prevents Liza's powerful test scrying from resolving either Siobhan's image or location. Titus Westbay brings Thaddeus Lacer into the official investigation. The authorities have Siobhan's blood but cannot locate her, and witness reports turn her harmless shadow familiar into evidence of a terrifying raven entity. They give her the codename Raven Queen and consider her a threat serious enough for Red Guard attention. Lacer doubts their assumptions and becomes interested in the stolen ancient text. Siobhan and Liza send a second raven messenger to Ennis. He reveals that the Garvins hold Siobhan's mother's knot ring as collateral for the proposed marriage. Detecting pursuit near the prison, Siobhan destroys the messenger and escapes behind her new ward. She changes into Sebastien, buys an inferior replacement conduit, and returns to the university. She chooses continued magical study and independence over Ennis's bargain, while her debt, secret identities, apprenticeship, stolen book, amulet, and the Raven Queen investigation remain open.

Liza's implanted planar ward prevents the authorities from locating Siobhan through the blood recovered after the warehouse battle. The investigation instead gives her the name Raven Queen and treats her as an unusually serious threat, while Thaddeus Lacer questions the official interpretation and becomes interested in the ancient stolen text. Siobhan contacts Ennis again and learns that he gave her mother's knot ring to the Garvins as security for their marriage bargain. She refuses to submit, destroys the raven messenger before pursuers can recover it, changes into Sebastien, and returns to the university with a weak replacement conduit. Oliver and Katerine still lead the Verdant Stag after Cooper and Jameson die, and the organization prepares for stronger defenses and further conflict. Siobhan remains indebted to Katerine and bound to Stag work, while her apprenticeship, concealed identities, encrypted book, unexplained amulet, lost heirloom, and the Crown investigation all remain unresolved.