Literature / Spellslinger Series

Kellen, Reichis, and Ferius

Born to a noble house in a society of mages that value magic and power above all else, fifteen-year-old Kellen, House of Ke, has no magic. No matter how hard he tries, the mystical bands tattooed onto his arms refuse to ignite, showing the world that he hasn't been able to successfully work a single spell, and that at the upcoming Mage Trials all sixteen year old Jan'Tep go through, he will inevitably fail and be stripped of his title and freedom, indentured as a non-magical Sha'Tep servant.

Then the Argosi traveler, Ferius Parfax arrives in town. The Argosi are mysterious people, seeming to show up only when historic disasters are about to occur and seeming to divine fate through their mysterious decks of cards. With her help and the help of a violent, kleptomaniacal "Business Partner" (NOT a ''familiar'') squirrel-cat named Reichis, Kellen uncovers the hidden truth behind his people's history and begins a journey that takes him all across the continent to discover the secrets behind his own family's machinations and the dreaded Shadowblack curse.

The series is by Sebastian de Castell and takes place in the same universe as his Greatcoats series, but on a different continent, and requires no knowledge of the other series to enjoy.

The books in the series are:

1. Spellslinger (2017)
2. Shadowblack (2017)
3. Charmcaster (2017)
4. Soulbinder (2018)
5. Queenslayer (2019)
6. Crownbreaker (2019)

As well as the prequel stories, Way of the Argosi and Fall of the Argosi that follow a young Ferius.

Not to be confused with the Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster.

---

Provides examples of:

• And the Adventure Continues: After everything that's happened, Kellen realizes that despite all the offers he's getting for permanent homes and positions, he would never be happy staying in one place, so he and Reichis decide to travel to the next continent over and let his homeland start the rebuilding efforts without him.

• Antagonist Title: The third book, Soulbinder, is named for one of the villains of the book.

• Abusive Parents: Kellen's parents at first seem like KnightTemplarParents, but it turns out they are. . . for their daughter only. Kellen is a cursed Shadowblack, and his parents end up strapping him down to a table for days on end and forcibly removing his ability to do magic because he may be a threat to her. While they seem to experience some guilt over this, it's not enough to stop his father from repeatedly trying to Offing the Offspring.

• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Reichis and Kellen bicker constantly, with the former quick to mock and belittle Kellen for his failings. However, when the chips are down, the two will always try to come through for one another. When Kellen believes Reichis to be dead in the fourth book, he spends the entire novel mourning and on the brink of a Despair Event Horizon.

• Badass Normal: Ferius has no magic whatsoever, yet she manages to outmaneuver mage assassins and remains one of the most capable characters in the series.

• Batman Gambit: Kellen and Ferius' M.O. As an example, the series opens with Kellen defeating a childhood bully in magical combat by pretending that he's doing some magic to the other boy, relying on the fact that the other boy will focus so much on protecting himself that he accidentally squeezes his own organs with his shield spell.

• Big Damn Heroes: In the final showdown between Kellen and his father, every single Argosi and an entire tribe of squirrel cats all show up ready to fight.

• Blessed with Suck: Shadowblacks are people infected with a magical disease/curse/taint in their blood that causes dark tendrils to form on their skin (usually the eyes). The tendrils are actually some form of connection to one of the many, many chaotic shadow dimensions, and depending on which one the Shadowblack is connected to, they will be able to wield their shadows like weapons, or walk through shadow realms as a form of Fast Travel, or have some clairvoyant abilities, or any number of useful skills. They also receive visions of death and destruction, have horrifying nightmares, have the voices of demons whispering into their minds regularly, and will eventually be transformed into an out of control monstrous demonic being themselves.
  • Kellen is blessed with double-suck: His grandmother gave him the Shadowblack curse by tattooing him the way other magics are channeled through tattoos, and the way she did it means that he cannot do any of the useful offensive stuff. Instead, he occasionally gets minor clairvoyant abilities if he asks a question the specific way. Sometimes. But he's still at risk of being transformed into a demon, and he still gets the nightmarish visions and mental trauma.

• Bratty Half-Pint: At the beginning of the series, Shalla, Kellan's younger sister, is arrogant and spoiled. Though she genuinely cares about her brother, her selfishness does nothing but cause him problems. This doesn't change muchas she grows older and becomes one of (if not the) the most powerful mages in the series.

• Brought Down to Normal: Jan'Tep mages channel their magic through tattoos on their arms made of special alloys found beneath the magical "oasis." The ultimate punishment for a mage is to be "counterbanded" and have those tattoos marred over with magic sigils that cuts off their connection from magic.

• Bullying a Dragon: When Kellen returns to his home clan, his childhood bullies immediately set upon harassing him at Kellen's own mother's funeral. Kellen reminds them that despite his lack of powerful magic, he's managed to kill numerous mages more powerful than said bully, and that he is completely willing to add another corpse to the pile.

• Casting a Shadow: One of the most common powers Shadowblacks at the Ebony Abbey have is the ability to wield their shadows like weapons, using them to create shields or sending out tendrils of shadow to attack or move things.

• Card Sharp: One of the skills Ferius teaches Kellen. All of the Argosi are quick hands at cards, in no small part because their sect's non-magical forms of divination rely on using cards to represent the assorted nations and goings on in the world.

• Character Development: Kellen begins the series as a cowardly, spoiled, and clueless fifteen year old kid who is arrogant from a life as the son of nobility in a culture that already considers themselves the pinnacle of the modern world. Through the course of the series he becomes more humble and realizes the error of his people's ways, but also becomes a formidable Mage Killer who relies on his quick thinking to outmaneuver people vastly more powerful than he is.

• Clairvoyance: Kellen's particular Shadowblack skill is the ability to occasionally find answers to very specifically asked questions that are triggered by events in the story. These answers come in the form of visions of the past or present, as well as bursts of intuition/enlightenment. Too bad he can't control it.

• Deathbringer the Adorable: To the Jan'Tep, Nekhek are dreaded, abominable, demonic creatures who served the ancient enemy of the Jan'Tep people. The rest of the world calls them "squirrel cats" (for their catlike featues and fluffy squirrel tail) and considers them to be your average neighborhood pest animal, going through rubbish and stealing food. Played with as the Nekhek themselves like the idea of being known as bloodthirst fiends, and generally take offense whenever someone implies they may be cute.

• Death of the Author: Specifically brought up in the last chapter of the final book. De Castell adds an essay after the acknowledgements portion of the book stating how Kellen and company's futures are, at least for the moment, within the minds of the readers, and that he has just as much clue as to what happens next as the reader does. He then adds a short vignette of Kellen reuniting with nephania, but then says again that it's only one possible way that reunion might have gone.

• Despair Event Horizon: Though his life is something of a Trauma Conga Line, Kellen only gets two real moments of complete and utter despair: When it looks like Reichis is dead, and when the White Binder possesses him and makes him believe he's raping a woman.

• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Ferius' Agrosi name is Path of the Wild Daisy, which she doesn't like to use outside of Argosi matters.

• The Drifter: What Kellen becomes as the series progresses, traveling from one new place to another, all while being hounded by bounty hunters and zealots.

• Embarrassing Nickname: Conversely, Ferius' Agrosi sister, Path of Thorns and Roses, dislikes the nickname Rosie that Ferius insists on using.

• Familiar: Though not common in the current day, the Jan'Tep can bond with an animal familiar. Having one is supposed to allow a mage to access their magic, even if they are away from their Oasis for long periods of time. Most familiars are Bond Creatures, who serve their human mages. ''Reichis',' on the other hand, refuses to be considered a familiar and refers to he and Kellen as Business Partners.

• First Girl Wins: Though Kellen has a few romantic moments with girls his age as the series progresses (about one per book), the one he's actually in love with, and who genuinely loves him back, is his childhood crush Nephenia.

• Gambling Brawl: Kellen and Ferius get into their fair share of gambling related brawls, though most are off screen and [Noodle Incident mentioned in passing].

• Girl of the Week: Almost every book involves Kellen coming across a girl who needs his help, or whose help he needs to solve the conflict, and the two becoming very close romantically. The second book has Seneira, the Third has Nephenia (who was also in the first, but to a lesser extent) and Cressia, the fourth has Diadera, and the fifth has Mariadne.

• Guile Hero: Ferius and Kellen. Both are essentially BadassNormals in a world full of magic, political intrigue, warring nations, and bounty hunters, all of whom want them both dead (either because they're Argosi or because of Kellen's numerous bounties). Both of them rely on playing their opponents and, in the disgusted words of Kellen's father, being "clever."

• Gruesome Grandparent: Kellen is cursed because his insane grandmother bound his soul in shadow on purpose. For much of the series, it's believed that she did this in order to use Kellen as a sort of magical battery and steal what power he may have.

• Hoist by His Own Petard: This is the big twist of Fall of the Argosi. Penta Corvus unwittingly and unknowingly infected herself with the Scarlet Verses while researching the Red Scream. The artificial plague's been in control of Penta this whole time rather than the other way around.

• Hope Spot: For a moment in the last book, after his father begins the process of undoing the counterbands on Kellen's arm, it looks like perhaps Kellen and his family will finally reconcile. Of course his father ruins it by trying to start a war on purpose, intending to mindchain Kellen and murder all of his friends when they resist, and then finally actually trying to kill Kellen personally in a duel.

• Insistent Terminology: Ferius Parfax is not a "Lady." Kellen is Mister, not ''Master," and he is definitely not Ke'Helios. Nephenia is not Neph'aria. Shalla is Sha'maat, and Reichis is a business partner, not a familiar.

• Lovable Coward: Kellen is often accused of being a coward because his first impulse upon finding danger is to avoid it and when that's not possible, he relies of outsmarting his opponent, rather than fighting directly. Kellen admits that he probably is a coward, but that doesn't mean he's going to make it easy for whoever's trying to kill him.

• Mage Killer; By the end of the series, Kellen has racked up a body count in the double digits of powerful mages who have tried— and failed— to kill him. Though it was all in self defense, his father comments that the reputation Kellen has built for himself is that of an unpredictable and highly skilled assassin.

• Meaningful Rename: In the Jan'Tep culture, after a child passes the Mage's Trial, they are given a mage name. In the Argosi culture, people are named by their "paths"— the road of fate they choose to walk. The Gitabrians name by profession, family, and position in the family. In As Kellen grows and moves through different cultures, he picks up several names, the two most meaningful to him being Kellen Argos and The Path of Endless Stars. In the final books, he gains another name he doesn't appreciate: Ke'Helios, after his father pardons him and tries to get him to serve the family.

• Morality Pet / Morality Chain: Kellen to Reichis; Kellen is generally more peaceful and looks for an option that doesn't involve fighting (even if that option is running away), while Reichis's first impulse is to murder anything that looks at him wrong. All the same, Kellen is the only person who can occasionally keep Reichis reigned in, and the only human Reichis genuinely cares about (though he hates to admit it).

• The Most Wanted: Kellen and Nephenia. Kellen is hunted down like a dog for being a Shadowblack. It gets to the point that the bounty on his head is so large that non-mages are also joining in the hunt, and as the series progresses Kellen has to deal with multiple different groups of bounty hunters coming after him.

• Muggle Born of Mages: Despite the sorcerous Jan'Tep being the ruling class their lands are named for, there is a sizeable underclass of Sha'Tep who are nonmagical individuals born to mage families. Historically, Sha'Tep had been equal citizens beside the Jan'Tep, but as of the current day, they are essentially a class of slaves. If a mage family likes their nonmagical family member, they try to keep them in the household to be a servant there, but often, the family is ashamed and disowns them, and they are assigned to menial work in a different house, or to do hard manual labor in the mines.

• Naked People Are Funny: Several times in the course of the series, Kellen has wound up embarrassingly naked in front of someone he fancies, hates, or is being intimidated by.

• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Kellen wasn't popular even before he met Ferius, was outed as a shadowblack, and was disowned by his family. When he comes back in the last book, despite him having become trusted friends with monarchs and important foreign dignitaries (and the notorious, but respected, enemy of others), as well as having accrued a body count in the double digits of powerful mages who have tried to kill him, people in his home town still see him as the weak disappointment from one of their noble houses.

• The Nicknamer: Ferius is prone to giving nicknames to everyone, which annoys the more strict Argosi. Path of Throns and Roses becomes "Rosie" and Path of Stormy Mountains becomes "Stormy", among others.

• Non-Human Sidekick: Reichis is a "demonic" Nekhek to the Jan'Tep people, though his species are known outside their lands as a squirrel-cat— essentially a two-foot long cat-like creature with a fluffy squirrel tail and furry webbing under his arms that allow him to glide like a flying squirrel. He is also a self-serving, unempathetic, kleptomanaiacal brawler whose first impulse upon coming across anything new is wondering if he can steal it, eat it, or kill it.

• Offing the Offspring: Kellen's father is perfectly fin arranging for Kellen's death, either by manipulating Kellen into being a Sacrificial Lion, or by publicly placing a bounty on his head in order to please his political allies. It's only when they meet again in person that his father seems to have reservations about killing him.

• Opponent Instruction: K'heops finally starts giving Kellen fatherly dueling advice. . . in the middle of their duel to the death. Kellen points out that it's a little late for it.

• People Puppet: The White Binder in book five can control Shadowblacks completely, to the point where his victims can't even breath or blink unless he actively makes them. When trying to make a point, he and his associate use this power to make Kellen believe he's raping a woman.

• Playing Card Motifs / Tarot Motifs: Invoked. Every nation has their own versions of cards and card games and the specific motifs of those culture's cards are often used in-story to represent the events going on, using the playing card connotations unique to each nation. For example, Kellen knows that in a certain country, certain cards are associated with death, and so is able to understand a coded message. In other meaningful games, he's able to understand messages about what's happening behind the scenes or in the past because he understands how the cards and card games mirror the world (like learning a child queen is being abused by her tutors when the queen card is left alone against several stronger cards). Kellen himself is represented as a "Discordance" card— a special type of card from an Argosi deck that shouldn't be in the game, but reflects change in the real world. It Makes Sense in Context.

• Power Incontinence: Poor Kellen. Not only can he not get any higher magic to work, His shadowblack ability was intentionally "locked" by his grandmother, meaning it only works under rare circumstances, and only when he asks the "correct" question. Because of that, it almost never works when it would be useful.

• Precision F-Strike: The series as a whole has fairly clean language, with only the occasional curse. But Kellen's sister, who expressly considers profanity to be beneath her, gives Kellen the only F-bomb in the series:
  Shalla: Stop being such a fucking child, Kellen.

• Prone to Tears: Kellen cries a lot throughout the series. Often it's warranted, but he also admits that after every battle and near-death experience, he'll go hide and break down from the adrenaline. A few times, when someone interrupts him on his way to go cry, he'll have to fight the urge to break down in front of them.

• Rape as Drama: The White Binder possesses Kellen and forces him onto a serving woman at the tavern they're at, a deed that sends Kellen into a Despair Event Horizon. It's only later that we find out the woman was a paid prostitute who thought it was all an elaborate roleplaying session for her client, and that the only person really raped was Kellen himself.

• Sacrificial Lion: Ke'heops, Kellen's father, wants to start a war between two nations, but needs an excuse. He arranges for Kellen to be discovered in enemy territory, fully expecting him to die and be the catalyst to start the war. Ke'heops even explains to him (as Kellen is running for his life) that Kellen should allow himself to be sacrificed for the good of his people.

• Stranger in a Familiar Land: After two years of travel, Kellen says the Jan'Tep oasis and his own home are as grand as ever, but he is now keenly aware how 'small (and small minded) his people actually are. The Jan'Tep see themselves as the masters of the arcane arts and the rightful center of the world, but the rest of the world tends to see them as a tiny little nation that the common man would have trouble finding on a map, and views their magic as sometimes useful, but mostly inconsequential.

• Sticky Fingers: Reichis is constantly stealing things, from allies, enemies, and random strangers alike. Sometimes this is helpful, but usually it results in Kellen being run out of another town. Kellen knows that anything he puts in his bag is basically fair game for Reichis to root around through later, so anything he really wants to keep safe, he winds up keeping on his person or lending to someone else to hold on to.

• Trickster Mentor: The Argosi in a nutshell, but Ferius in particular. Kellen is pissed when he learns that Argosi have an entire system of learning for their teysan (students), and that Ferius has apparently shown him none of it, only to learn that the innocuous things she ''has'' been teaching him are all parts of the Argosi ways, she just doesn't use the fancy names.

• The Unfavorite: Kellan. He thinks at first this is because of his lack of magical talent. It turns out Its because his parents know he has the Shadowblack curse, and have known it since he was a small child, and so they have intentionally kept an emotional distance, knowing he was either doomed to be executed for his curse, or that his magic would forever be stunted, and he would be sent away as a servant.

• Walking the Earth: The fate of all Argosi. They are driven by their "paths" to wander the world, drawn to events that they then document in their cards, and it's accepted that every Argosi will eventually wind up alone because very few people walk the exact same path.

• Wax On, Wax Off: How Ferius teaches Kellen the Argosi ways. For example, instead of outright teaching him to fight, she teaches him "dancing," with dances that just so happen to work as martial arts.

• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Kellen and Shalla both. Shalla is openly sycophantic in her desire to earn their father's approval. Even after Kellen's parents counterband him and he sees just how power-hungry and ambitious his father is, and how his father is willing to sacrifice anything including his own children to get what he wants, Kellen admits that some part of him still wants his father's approval and love.

• We Can Rule Together: Ra'meth tells Kellen he wouldn't mind having him as his second, especially since his sons have turned out so disappointing. He even lets Kellen know that if Kellen needs to kill off one of the sons to make the deal work, then that would be acceptable.