The Magic Thief

The story is set in Wellmet, a city built on a magical node where magic naturally gathers. Wellmet is divided by a river: the prosperous Sunrise on the east, governed by Duchess Willa Forestal, and the impoverished Twilight on the west, controlled by Underlord Crowe, a ruthless crime lord.

On a cold night in the Twilight, a young pickpocket named Conn steals a stone from an old man's cloak, not realizing it is a locus magicalicus, the magical focus stone every wizard needs to channel magic. The stone unleashes a violent storm of ice and wind. The old man, a wizard named Nevery Flinglas, demands Conn's name to save him. Conn shouts his true name, Connwaer, and Nevery reclaims the stone. Amazed that Conn survived touching a stone that should have killed him, Nevery takes interest in the boy. Nevery has returned after a 20-year banishment, summoned by Brumbee, a magister—one of the wizards who govern the city's magical affairs—who warned that the city's magic is declining.

Nevery hires Benet, a tough former fighter, as his bodyguard, and the three visit Dusk House, Underlord Crowe's mansion. A minion recognizes Conn, and he flees through the corridors. During his escape, he peers through a keyhole and spots a white-haired wizard demanding more slowsilver, a rare magical substance. He also discovers a hidden stairway leading to a large underground workshop filled with men and machines.

They move into Heartsease, Nevery's ancestral mansion on one of the river islands, now in ruins from a pyrotechnic experiment 20 years earlier. Nevery takes Conn on as a servant and casts the embero spell, transforming him into a black cat that reflects his true nature. In this form, Conn spies on a magisters' meeting and learns they plan to accept Nevery as their leader through the crisis. When Nevery reveals he considers Conn merely a servant, Conn refuses and prepares to leave. Nevery tests him by asking him to recite the embero spell; Conn repeats the complex incantation nearly perfectly after hearing it only twice. Astonished, Nevery makes him his apprentice.

Exploring the ruined wing of Heartsease, Conn discovers trays of old locus stones belonging to Nevery's ancestors. When he touches each stone, he sees visions of its former bearer. He also finds a melted device Nevery identifies as a magic capacitor, which stores ambient magic using slowsilver. Nevery tells Conn he must find his own locus stone. When Conn confesses he cannot read, Nevery sends him to the academicos, a school on a river island. There, Brumbee assigns Rowan, a sharp, red-haired older student, to tutor him. Conn does not yet realize Rowan is the duchess's daughter.

Nevery presents Conn before the magisters for formal approval. Pettivox, whom Conn recognizes as the wizard he saw at Dusk House, aggressively opposes him. Since Conn has no locus stone, Brumbee proposes a compromise: Conn has 30 days to find one. Conn tells Nevery he saw Pettivox at the Underlord's mansion, but Nevery dismisses the claim. Conn stops attending school and searches the Twilight disguised as a gutterboy. Near Dusk House, he follows Pettivox to a factory where the wizard demands more slowsilver, threatening consequences from the Underlord.

On the 30th day, Conn searches the Sunrise for the first time. As evening falls, he feels an inexplicable pull toward the Dawn Palace, where the duchess is hosting a party. Climbing the palace wall, he encounters Rowan on a terrace and spots a green, faceted jewel on the duchess's necklace. He knows instantly the jewel is his. That night, Conn breaks into the palace, reaches the duchess's bedchamber, and cuts the jewel from the necklace. Guards burst in and knock him unconscious.

Conn wakes chained in a cell. Captain Kerrn, head of the duchess's palace guards, forces him to drink phlister, a truth-compelling drug. Under its influence, Conn realizes the jewel is his locus magicalicus. Nevery arrives with Benet and Brumbee. The duchess hides the jewel to test Conn; he finds it unerringly across the room. He then casts the lothfalas, a light spell, which explodes through his stone in blinding white flames, shattering his manacles. Back at Heartsease, Conn collapses from exhaustion, finally realizing Rowan is the duchess's daughter.

Conn finds the stone's power difficult to control. He develops a theory that Wellmet's magic is a living being that chose him to save it; Nevery dismisses the idea. The duchess offers Conn a position as her court magister, which he refuses. When she says her advisor has assured her the magical decline will reverse naturally, Pettivox enters, revealing himself as her liaison to the magisters. Crowe's minions then ambush Conn, Benet, and Pettivox's apprentice Keeston in an alley. Conn uses the embero spell to transform the attackers into animals. Nevery's research uncovers the lost city of Arhionvar, destroyed when its magic drained away, and his gauge confirms Wellmet's magic has fallen dangerously low.

Pettivox reveals to Nevery that Connwaer is a family name shared with Underlord Crowe, claiming Conn was raised as Crowe's spy. Nevery confronts Conn, who cannot deny the connection, and expels him. Benet objects, insisting Conn is not a spy, but Nevery is unmoved. Determined to find proof, Conn transforms into a cat and infiltrates Dusk House. In the underground workroom, he discovers a massive machine designed to capture and store the city's magic, with a riveted storage tank, gnashing gears, and crystal tubes dripping with slowsilver. He realizes Crowe and Pettivox have been draining Wellmet's magic.

Conn tries to warn the duchess but is intercepted by Pettivox's men and locked in a storeroom. Crowe arrives and tells Conn he will be left to die, just as Conn's mother, Black Maggie, was. Alone in the dark, Conn holds off misery eels, writhing shadow creatures, with fading bursts of the lothfalas spell. Meanwhile, Keeston confesses to Nevery that Pettivox placed him as a spy and reveals where Conn is being held. Benet's earlier defense, combined with Keeston's testimony, convinces Nevery he was wrong. Nevery leads the rescue. As he works on the cell lock, Conn channels the last traces of magic through his stone and blasts the door open from within.

Conn tells Nevery about the machine, and they head for Dusk House. Benet holds off Crowe's minions on the Night Bridge while Nevery and Conn cross the frozen river. In the underground workroom, Nevery conjures a thunderstorm to distract Pettivox while Conn climbs the device. At the storage tank, he presses his locus magicalicus against a seam and speaks to the magic, asking it to come out through the stone. The magic explodes in a torrent of lightning and fire, blasting upward into the sky. Conn's stone disintegrates into dust, and he is flung away. Before losing consciousness, the magic speaks to him, and he floats in warmth and light.

Nevery later records finding Conn wedged into a crack in the wall, as if placed there for safekeeping. The machine is destroyed and Dusk House is razed. Pettivox is presumed dead; Crowe is imprisoned. Conn wakes days later in his attic room, his stone gone but the magic around him warm and alive. At the academicos, Nevery gives Conn his old student robe bearing the Flinglas family crest, a winged hourglass in faded blue thread, and tells him he is certain Conn will find another locus magicalicus. Conn resolves to study, learn every spell, and convince the magisters that magic is alive. He asks Nevery for a workroom and requests slowsilver and tourmalifine, a magical substance, hinting at pyrotechnic experiments. The two walk home to Heartsease together.