Blundell Adruncus

Blundell Adruncus is the Master of the Blue Tower and one of the strongest mages of the Kingdom of Meltor. He looks nothing like a wizard: a huge, muscular old man with a thick beard and a stern face, dragging behind him not so much a staff as a genuine cudgel. Were it not for his robe, he could easily be mistaken for a warrior. By the time he meets Theodore he is already more than a hundred and thirty years old, and behind his rough, deliberately clownish manner lies an immense store of military and political experience. Behind his smiling face, as those around him note, something is always lurking.

Blundell is an 8th-Circle mage, having reached that rank thirty years before the main events; his power is closer to a natural disaster, and with a single snap of his fingers he can summon an ice storm. In his youth he fought against the Principality of Bellontes and the war hero Alfred Bellontes — and, according to the histories, it was Blundell, then still a 7th-Circle mage, who dealt the famed warrior his defeat. As a Tower Master he is among the very few who, the king aside, hold the highest status in the realm: the Towers wield more than 70% of the national power, and even Kurt III treats him with pointed respect.

What defines him most as a person is Sylvia. Blundell regards her as his granddaughter and taught her magic himself — including through complex card games, with which he quietly instilled social skills in her as well. His signature style — distract the enemy with ice arrows, slide forward in a flash across a created rink, and force close combat — is so recognizable that Sylvia's fighting manner is immediately identified as 'the famous hand-to-hand style of Blundell.' Yet, considering the girl his own, he grasps with some sorrow whom she takes after in her unbending will.

In the war with the Andras Empire, Blundell is one of Meltor's key commanders, on a par with Veronica; at one point he is handed the rights of supreme commander. The climax of his path comes in the battle with the Emperor of Andras, bearer of the sinful grimoire Invidia. To shield Sylvia and the others, Blundell resorts to an extreme measure — he uses Time Stop, an ultimate magic available only to 9th-Circle mages, which destroys his own body. Ten years earlier King Kurt had given him a ring — a national treasure, a second 'heart' holding a reserve of life force, for the Master of the Blue Tower already knew his life was nearing its end. Having spent even that reserve, Blundell dies — his calm face and sturdy muscles freezing forever as though he had merely fallen asleep — and with his death, no one is left in Meltor who could stand in the way of two 8th-Circle mages.

Blundell is an 8th-Circle mage who reached that rank thirty years before the main events; his might rivals a natural disaster, and with a snap of his fingers he can call an ice storm beside which Sylvia's Blizzard is no more than a tossed snowball. He is a master of cold, and yet, unlike most wizards, he fights hand to hand: he distracts the enemy with ice arrows, slides forward across a created ice rink, and forces close combat — his recognizable signature style, which he passed on to Sylvia. Complex protective domes that muffle sound or ward off heat he raises with a single sweep of his hand.

His ultimate technique is Time Stop, an ultimate magic that by the canon is available only to 9th-Circle mages. Blundell can use it, but at the cost of grievous damage to his own body: each use undermines his health, and in the decisive battle it is this magic that holds the Emperor of Andras for mere seconds. A ring given by King Kurt — a national treasure, a second 'heart' holding a reserve of life force — helps sustain his fading life.

As Master of the Blue Tower, Blundell is one of the pillars of the Kingdom of Meltor: together with Veronica he stands at the very summit of the magical hierarchy, and his word carries almost royal weight. In his youth he fought against the Principality of Bellontes and, as a 7th-Circle mage, defeated the war hero Alfred Bellontes — the chill of that blue flash he remembers decades later, and the old wound aches before rain.

In the war with Andras he becomes one of the chief commanders and even assumes the rights of supreme commander, and his death is a turning point: after Blundell is gone, no force remains in Meltor able to hold back two 8th-Circle mages. Orta gently lays his body beside the elven guardians; Sylvia mourns her adoptive grandfather, and Blundell himself remains forever a symbol of a passing generation of masters.