Vince Heidel

Vince Heidel is a professor at the Bergen Academy and the mentor of Theodore Miller. At the time of their first conversation he is a gaunt man with dark circles under his eyes and hollow cheeks, almost indistinguishable from a slum-dweller — and yet a 5th-Circle master and one of the academy's finest teachers. When everyone else had written Theodore off as a hopeless practitioner, Vince alone recognized his true talent: his written exams were nearly perfect, docked only three points where even professors erred. He admired his student even as he grieved, knowing that Theodore's weak magical sensitivity barred his path to becoming a mage.

It falls to Vince, year after year, to hand Theodore the letter ordering him to repeat the course — the third of which is the last, after which expulsion awaits. The professor is indifferent to rank and birth, contemptuous of capital intrigues (which is why he once left the capital), and treats his student with rare sincerity, offering him a scholarship and then the path of a theorist-researcher. He is one of the few who believes in Theodore to the end, even as he likens the effort to reviving a heap of fallen leaves.

Vince accompanies Theodore through the key moments of his coming of age: he helps arrange his leave from the academy, organizes his return home after five years, and presents his student to the Tower masters. He himself grows along with the story — breaking through the wall of the 6th Circle, becoming Chief Mage of the Red Tower and one of Meltor's strongest combat mages, whose 'pillar of fire' can incinerate a monster. Yet he always regarded combat magic with skepticism, preferring research. Even Blundell, an 8th-Circle mage, recognizes his ascent to the 6th Circle at a single glance.

In later events Vince takes a grave wound from a master-class aura user — a janissary — that not even the high elf Ellenoa can heal; he voluntarily stays behind in Bergen, unwilling to risk the wound under spatial magic, which deeply troubles his student. His name is well known among combat mages, and commanders who fought shoulder to shoulder with him grow anxious when he is in danger. In peacetime Vince finally devotes himself to research, his temperament softens, and he gathers a host of mage assistants, remaining one of the few guests at Theodore's wedding.

A powerful combat mage who broke past the 6th-Circle wall; he commands fire magic, and his signature 'pillar of fire' can incinerate a monster. At the start of the story he is a 5th-Circle master and one of Bergen Academy's finest teachers; even Blundell, an 8th-Circle mage, notices his rise to the 6th Circle at a glance.

By temperament Vince is more a researcher, regarding combat magic with skepticism and preferring theory. Even so, in the war against Andras he fights on a par with the mage-commanders, and his name commands respect among Meltor's combat mages.

Vince is the only teacher to recognize Theodore's talent when everything pointed to hopelessness: brilliant written results paired with catastrophically low magical sensitivity. Year after year it is he who bitterly hands his student the letter ordering him to repeat the course, yet he never stops trying to draw out his gift, offering a scholarship and then the path of a theorist.

He accompanies Theodore at every important turn: arranging his leave from the academy, organizing his homecoming five years later, presenting him to the Tower masters. Their bond endures to the very end of the story — Vince remains Theodore's only teacher and one of the few guests at his wedding.