The Marvellers

Brigit is Ella’s surly, blond roommate at the Arcanum. Unlike the other students, she was raised without any knowledge of her magical heritage, pointing to one of the novel’s central themes: Questions of Identity. Her classmates dislike her, finding her standoffish and unfriendly. As the story opens, Brigit is hostile and rebellious, desperate to escape the school where she was brought against her will.

As the novel progresses, Brigit’s perspective shifts because of the bond she forms with Ella and Jason. Her ability to knit quilt squares that reveal events from the past and future comes in handy when the three friends attempt to find their missing teacher. Ella and Jason help Brigit discover that she is the infamous Gia Trivelino’s missing daughter. When confronted with her birth mother’s evil nature, Brigit rejects Gia and defends her friends in the novel’s climax, temporarily losing her marvel in the process.

Jason is another Level One student at the academy. Because he is the youngest sibling of a large Jamaican family, he has already learned the ropes of how to function at the school from his older siblings. Jason offers to be Ella’s orientation guide and eventually becomes her friend. Because he possesses the Paragon of Sound and a kindred marvel, Jason can speak to animals and other magical creatures and helps maintain the school’s menagerie. He has a kind, gentle nature and is a little timid because of his overbearing elder siblings. Over the course of his arc, Jason learns to take bolder, more decisive action, demonstrating his loyalty to Ella and Brigit by helping them rescue their kidnapped teacher.

Gia, the novel’s charismatic villain of the novel, can mask her features so that no one will recognize her. She can also step through dimensional portals so that she can appear anywhere at will. As the self-proclaimed Ace of Anarchy, Gia intends to take vengeance on the Marvellers who imprisoned her. She concocts a potion to steal marvels from others, but her plan is foiled by Ella, Brigit, and Jason. During the novel’s conclusion, she uses a watch that can reset time to escape, laying the groundwork for the novel’s sequel.

Masterji, Ella’s mentor and favorite teacher, believes in celebrating tolerance and diversity at the Arcanum, unlike some of the other faculty, and welcomes Ella into the Arcanum community. In his youth, Masterji was one of the five Aces but has since rejected the quest for power that the other Aces still pursue. He disappears unexpectedly, having been kidnapped by Gia to help her create a marvel-stealing potion. Ella and her friends rescue Masterji from Gia’s prison, and he repays their loyalty by standing up for Ella at her disciplinary hearing. He also reveals that Ella’s ancestor was the architect of the Arcanum, leading Ella to realize that Conjurors belong at the Marveller training institute, too.

Sebastien, Ella’s father and a High Walker adept at passing into the realm of the Underworld, wears a top hat that evokes the traditional garb of New Orleans voodoo priests. Sebastien is not only powerful but also wise and frequently gives his daughter good advice, encouraging Ella to learn how to function in the Marveller world and recognizing the need for and The Challenges of Integration within the magical community.

Aubrielle, Ella’s mother, is also a gifted Conjuror who worries much more than Sebastien about Ella’s exposure to the Marvellers. Aubrielle doesn’t trust the sky world and fears it will change her daughter for the worse. When Aubrielle was 11, her twin sister Celeste went missing while on an excursion to a sky city. Consequently, Aubrielle is extremely protective of her daughter. She isn’t aware that her sister, revealed to be one of the five Aces, is still alive.

Sera is Aubrielle’s other sister, Ella’s aunt and godmother, and a new faculty member at the Arcanum tasked with teaching the Conjure Arts to her students. Sera confronts the suspicion and fear that her students demonstrate with grace and dignity. Like Masterji, Sera acts as a mentor and guide to Ella at the Arcanum, offering wise advice about the best way to navigate the strange new world of magic in the sky.

Celeste is Aubrielle’s missing twin. Through Aubrielle’s memories, Clayton establishes her curiosity and enthusiasm for the sky cities, which she visited whenever the opportunity arose. During one of these excursions, she disappears. Nobody in the Conjure community has been able to trace her and Celeste has made no attempt to contact her family. She appears late in the novel as an ally of Gia and one of the original Five Aces. Having positioned The Marvellers as the first in a series of novels, Clayton leaves Celeste’s arc unresolved in this first installment of the story.

Headmarveller Rivera is one of two governing administrators of the Arcanum. Clayton describes her as an attractive Hispanic woman. At several points, she intervenes to help Ella when students are behaving badly toward her. Rivera works hard to help Ella overcome The Challenges of Integration, in part to maintain good public relations so that the newspapers report positive stories about the first Conjure student to attend the Marveller school.

Clayton describes MacDonald, the other Headmarveller in charge of the Arcanum, as a Scottish man with a thick accent. Like Rivera, he’s sympathetic to Ella’s situation and tries to reassure her that she belongs at the school. However, when evidence surfaces that implicates Ella in an attack on Clare Lumen, MacDonald hesitates to take Ella’s side, insisting on following procedure to resolve the problem.

Nabokova, the cold and reserved Dean of Discipline at the Arcanum tasked with handling problem students, keeps a close watch on Ella, signaling the implicit bias and prejudice against Conjurors prevalent in the Marveller community. Even though Ella doesn’t cause trouble, she frequently finds herself caught in compromising situations, earning the disapproval of the dean. Nabokova oversees the disciplinary hearing to decide whether Ella will remain at the Arcanum, ultimately dismissing the charges against the Conjuror student for lack of evidence.

Winchester, an elderly professor who teaches divination studies, takes an instant dislike to Ella and frequently reprimands her for the smallest infraction of the school rules. In the novel’s conclusion, Clayton exposes Winchester as the culprit who fabricated evidence to implicate Ella for attacking Clare. The Arcanum orders Winchester arrested for his crimes, and he exits the story in police custody, signaling a shifting tide in the long-established culture and power structure of the Arcanum.

Clare, one of Ella’s original roommates, heads a clique of mean girls who are rude to anyone they consider different, including Ella and Brigit. Clare’s father, a conservative politician, preaches against school integration and passes his prejudicial views on to Clare. Dr. Winchester capitalizes on Clare’s existing bigotry, knowing that Clare will be more than inclined to believe his illusion that Ella attacked her, pointing to Marvellers’ implicit bias and The Inherent Injustice of Segregation.