Master and Student

Master and Student is a book by Angel Wedge about John Blake, a supporting character from Inside the Box. It seems to be set several years previously, before John became the custodian of a White Box of his own.

At this point, John has recently arrived in the big city, and is attempting to set himself up as a private detective.

I am writing this as my project for NaNoWriMo 2020, but have very little planning so I am not sure how well it will turn out.

Characters so far include:

• John Blake - the main character, recently homeless but now living in a one-room office/apartment
  • Zarathustra - John's first familiar, a hawk
  • Isaac - the narrator, Watson, and an animate skull sitting on John's desk. He has wax on his skull from being used as a candle holder, but now more often has Zarathustra perching on him. He seems to have been a mage once; and and therefore presumably his animate status is his own doing. Only John can hear his voice, but he can contribute willpower to ritual magic, which he knows quite a lot of.
• Franzes Welch - the client; a girl who lives in near poverty with her aunt, and believes she is being watched. Need to double-check I've not used another name for her anywhere in the WIP
  • Carys Alton; Franzes's aunt (mother's sister), whose family always hated her father.
  • Ashura - a former wizard of some kind, and Franzes's father
• Miss Fotheringale - Evadne, or 'ladyship. Isaac calls her "the vampire". Lives in a luxury apartment in a converted bank building near the city centre. It's suggested that in the absence of a local white box, she has been collecting dangerous artifacts and storing them at home.
• Mitchell Tomas - a recluse who has some knowledge of magic, but isn't any kind of mage himself. Has some experience of collecting relics.
• Ethan Chandler - 'Mars', a local crime boss, whose father had some dealings with Ashura

Artifacts mentioned:

• The Seal of Lucien, a resurrection item initially owned by Blake. It is suggested there are several more of this item out in the world somewhere.
• A phantom deed left to Franzes by her father, Ashura
• A set of knuckle bones sold by Mitchell to Fotheringale. These are a reliquary artifact, meaning that someone coming into possession of them without any right will be cursed. Oddly, finding them abandoned will activate the curse, but purchasing them will not unless they have been stolen previously. Removing the curse normally involves either blessing the artifact, cleaning it, and giving it a proper funeral on sanctified ground; or selling it to someone who will treat it with respect.
• Four wooden dollars. A cursed item which prevents the owner from doing magic rituals. They cannot be lost or stolen; the only way to dispose of them is to spend them in a commercial transaction. They look like crudely carved wooden coins wrapped in gold foil. Used by Fotheringale to buy the knucklebones from Mitchell; it's suggested that he has given them to her in the past.

Locations:

• The Peacock Centre, a major shopping centre, originally built as a department store in the 1970s. It was very flashy compared to the style of the city at the time.
• The Showboat, a bar established in the final chapter, beneath Ashura's old office. It is a cryptic location, occupying the same spatial coordinates as the Peacock Centre, and is only accessible by walking through a number of archways in the right order before approaching the door (which would otherwise be an emergency exit from one of Peacock's store rooms)