The Marvellers

“‘It’s a huge responsibility to be the first. You don’t just represent yourself, but all of us.’ Papa put a warm hand on Ella’s shoulder.”

Ella prepares to attend the sky school knowing she will be the first Conjuror admitted to the Arcanum. Her father recognizes the pressure placed on her to succeed as the test case and prove the worthiness of all Conjurors everywhere, pointing to the challenges Ella experiences of distinguishing herself as an individual and herself as a representative of her people, highlighting the novel’s thematic interest in Navigating Questions of Identity.

“The windows glinted as if welcoming her with a wink. Ella gasped. She desperately wanted to belong here. She would do whatever it took. She would master every level. She would pass every test. She would become a Marveller. The very best one.”

Just as the preceding quote acknowledges the heavy responsibility being placed on Ella by the entire Conjuror community, this passage indicates the degree of pressure she places on herself. She doesn’t simply want to be acceptable. She wants to be exceptional, emphasizing The Challenges of Integration.

“Brigit’s been raised outside of this world…much like you, but among only Fewels. Which is so rare for Marvellians. Living with them and not knowing your heritage can be challenging. A shock to the system.”

Headmarveller Rivera believes that, as two outsiders, Ella and Brigit will be able to relate to one another. Although Brigit’s background is different than Ella’s they’re able to find common ground and connection in their marginalized status. Clayton establishes the poor treatment of both Brigid and Ella by the other students to highlight the bigotry inherent in the world of the novel and signal the need for social change.

“Our history has not been perfect. When we started living together as magical people, we ostracized many citizens of our own community. People struggled to find acceptance and understanding of their unique abilities. But that will end now.”

Clayton positions Ella’s mentor, Masterji, as a voice of dissent against the entrenched prejudice of the Arcanum. As he lectures his students on tolerance, he also describes his own experiences with bigotry as a youth, establishing him as an ally to Ella. While Masterji was still a member of the Aces, his group was viewed with fear and hostility, much like the Conjurors. To his students, he stresses the importance of uniqueness—a trait frequently viewed as aberrant.

“Confusion swirled inside Ella. Why would a deathbull be all the way up here? Why would Jason have one? These divine creatures were born and raised near the Underworld Gates. Did everyone have a secret…or was everyone hiding something?”

Ella guesses early on in her friendship with Jason that he must have Conjuror ancestry. However, unlike her own family, the Eugene clan conceals their heritage to fit into Marveller society more easily—the magical equivalent of racial passing.

“Her hands glowed, then a ball of light appeared. But not bright—instead a black light with a violet and white core. Like a sky at twilight. Ella jumped with surprise. What was this?”

During Ella’s first exercise of magic at the Arcanum, Clayton creates a visual distinction in the color of Ella’s light to establish her as different from the rest of her classmates. Ella expects to see a white light like that of the other students rather than the shades of a sunset that she extracts from herself. The character arc that Clayton builds for Ella across the novel moves her from a place of resisting her difference to embracing and valuing it.

“Sometimes when she caught someone staring at her or accidentally caught a snippet of a nasty whisper, it made her wish she already knew her Paragon. She felt like a puzzle piece desperate to find its place.”

Ella’s desire to discover her Paragon remains constant throughout much of the novel. She believes that identifying her Paragon will prove she belongs in Marvellian society. Because the Arcanum community defines its members in such narrow terms, the absence of her Paragon makes Ella feel unworthy. By the end of her arc, Ella discovers a much more expansive and inclusive definition of personal worth.

“‘You think the other students will like learning about us?’ ‘If they’re open-minded. Our skills aren’t so different. Not as much as they make it seem. They just don’t understand it. Label it bad without knowing anything.’”

Clayton positions Ella’s Aunt Sera as a mentor figure in her journey to survive the Arcanum. Her questions indicate her anxiety about her own difference and how the Conjure Arts will be perceived by her classmates. Aunt Sera's response highlights the central message of Clayton’s story—prejudice is born of fear, misunderstanding, and a desire to shore up one’s own power by defining others as inferior or dangerous.

“They were united in their purpose, but of course, there was tension. Whose customs got to be followed? Whose protocols were the best? They had to figure out a way to blend. To take the best everyone had to offer and turn it into something new…marvelling.”

Masterji describes the intentions behind the founders of the magical community’s decision to leave the Fewel world behind and band together. His words demonstrate that Conjurors aren’t the only outcasts, only the most recent. The Marvellers were initially prejudiced against every other faction different than themselves. Although the initial goal was to blend the best qualities of each and create a better kind of magic for all, their inherent prejudice created division in their newly formed society.

“One thing was certain: Conjurors weren’t new to the Arcanum. She belonged there just as much as the other students. Ella felt a familiar spark rising in her spirit. It was the feeling of home. Now she had to figure it out.”

Ella’s quest to find evidence of the presence of other Conjurors in the Arcanum’s history highlights the central conceit of Clayton’s novel: The novelty of Ella’s admittance to the Arcanum as the first Conjuror student rests on the erasure of Conjuror contributions to the Arcanum’s construction and growth—an erasure that reifies the power and influence of the Marvellers. Masterji's suggestion that other Conjurors were part of the institution before Ella fuels her confidence in her own right to participate in the school. She isn’t the first, as her father said. She is only the most recent.

“Conjure communities are under attack, Aubrielle. I had to do something. The Fewels burn down everything we have. Always. We’ve had to hide. We deserve to escape too […] Our children need to know our world and theirs. That’s the only way they’ll be truly safe. To be able to survive in both.”

Sebastien’s conversation with Aubrielle establishes the wider social landscape of the world Clayton builds for her novel and highlights the difficulty the Conjurors face because they remain separate and disconnected from the rest of the magical community. The other Marvellers dealt with the problem of Fewels by taking to the sky. Now, the Conjurors face a similar turning point. To enact social change, Conjurors must find a way to integrate with the Marvellers, and Ella is paving the way.

“Gia could sense weakness in the way someone might catch the scent of a person’s shampoo. It made her adept at making others feel comfortable just long enough to get what she wanted. Her father had taught her that. A staple of the theater.”

Throughout the novel, Gia wears many faces. She can appear as anyone she wishes. In addition to altering her appearance, she has the ability to win people over and make them trust her. In establishing both Gia’s power and her ruthlessness early on, Clayton positions her as a formidable and complicated villain in the novel.

“Gia tsk-tsked. ‘Where exactly do I belong? Back in a cage?’ She cackled. ‘There’s no good and bad, Fabien. No light and dark. We’re all one awful day away from becoming the world’s worst nightmare.’”

While the Marvellers of Clayton’s world pass judgment on the Conjurors on moral grounds—drawing a distinction between good magic and bad magic—Gia rejects and exists outside of a good versus evil binary. The clockmaker she robs believes she is evil, but Gia emphasizes that magic’s most fundamental quality isn’t morality, it’s power.

“‘We have the same kind of hair.’ Abina looked up, examining Ella’s twists and mumbled, ‘Yeah…might be the only thing we have in common with Conjurors.’ Ella rolled her eyes. ‘There’s more than you think […] My gran says we’re just cousins separated by water, time, and different experiences.’”

Although Ella and Abina find common ground in their shared African descent and the similarity of their hair, Abina still finds it difficult to overcome the prejudicial view of Conjurors instilled in her by her Marveller upbringing. She defines her relationship with Ella by this fundamental difference rather than allowing their similarities to connect them.

“CONJURORS AREN’T REAL MARVELLERS! GO HOME, YOU DON’T BELONG HERE! NO BAD LIGHT, NO CONJURORS ALLOWED! YOU LET THAT CRIMINAL OUT OF THE CARDS!”

When a group of Marveller students trashes Ella’s room and leaves this message behind, the words haunt Ella’s thoughts, emphasizing the questions perpetuated by the Marveller community to reify their own power. Are Conjurors less magical than Marvellers? Is their shade of marvel light bad? Should they be allowed to attend the same schools as Marvellers? Are they responsible for Gia’s escape? The words only have power because Ella fears at some fundamental level that they might be true. In this way, Clayton illustrates the fatigue involved in Navigating Questions of Identity while constantly pushing back against bigotry and prejudice.

“‘This place has a nest of secrets like a mother bird squatting on her eggs. They tend to them with fierce protection.’ She bit her bottom lip. ‘But now, with us here, that carefully constructed nest is showing its edges, and they’re scared of it unraveling. Some things might fall.’”

Aunt Sera acts as a kind of touchstone for Ella throughout the novel, consistently recentering her perspective on what is real and true. She frames the gag spell that kept Masterji from giving Ella redacted information as evidence of conspiracy, driving Ella’s quest for the truth forward. Aunt Sera presents a picture of the Arcanum as a closed system that operates by rigidly enforcing silence to protect its secrets and Ella, the sole Conjuror student, as a wild card in the deck. Her very presence upsets the status quo in ways previously unforeseen, and any disruption to the status quo threatens systems of power that depend on it. This is the real reason for the campaign of hostility directed against Ella.

“‘If you get what you want, then what?’ A maniacal smile slid across her face. ‘Nothing will ever be taken from me again. I will be the most powerful Marveller in the whole world. Never to be imprisoned again. Never to be underestimated.’”

Reacting to the same ostracism that Ella endures, Gia concocts a scheme to steal all the marvel powers and make herself invincible. In this way, Clayton positions Ella and Gia as two sides of the same coin—both are treated as outsiders, and both have been shunned for their differences from the majority, but each has a different solution to that problem. While Ella wants unity in the magical community, Gia wants revenge.

“A circus can be something more than just the greatest show in the sky. In fact, it can be something dangerously mysterious: […] But most often, it’s a world where the watcher loses the line between the real and the fantastic.”

This quote comes from the Trivelino Circus brochure. The caution it presents is a warning to the public to enter at one’s own risk, foreshadowing the disorientation Ella, Jason, and Brigit experience when they enter the abandoned circus grounds. The wording in the brochure also serves to illuminate Gia’s characterization as someone who has lost sight of the line between the real and the fantastic.

“‘You’re that little Conjuror they let into the Arcanum. You’re as famous as me.’ ‘I will never be like you,’ Ella spat back. ‘Oh, but you should. I would love to see it. If Conjurors really embraced all their power, they could burn the Marvellian world to dust. Send them all to the Underworld, and you’d have every right to after how you’ve been treated.’”

In this passage, Clayton makes the parallel between Gia and Ella explicit through Gia’s own words during their first confrontation. Gia recognizes that they both have been mistreated and ostracized by the magical community and even shows sympathy for Ella’s plight when nobody else does. In this way, Gia represents a divergent path for Ella if she embraces violence and revenge.

“‘She perverted our Arcanum Elixir of Light and found a way to strip Marvellers of their gifts.’ […] ‘That is an oversimplification of things. A sensationalist view of it. One to encourage confusion. Many things that are misunderstood are labeled dangerous,’ Gia replied. ‘Like conjure—and Conjurors themselves.’”

In response to Masterji’s explanation of what Gia plans to do with the elixir she’s forcing him to concoct, Gia’s response rejects the oversimplification of a good versus evil binary, pointing to the wide spectrum of perspectives on and responses to oppressive systems of power. While her reply glosses over the harm she intends to wreak with the potion, her anger remains rooted in the trauma she suffered as a result of discrimination and prejudice in the magical community.

“‘Do you feel different?’ Ella always wondered how Fewel people felt. Empty? Confused? Dulled? A world without conjure felt so sad to her. Would that happen to Brigit?”

Here, Ella’s recognition of the joy and meaning that conjure brings to her life highlights her journey toward embracing her abilities and her community as the things that make her special and uniquely herself. Her visit with Brigit in the hospital forces her to confront what her life would be like without her magical powers as a Conjuror.

“‘It is time for me to speak now. To put an end to all this foolishness.’ Masterji Thakur turned to the panel of Arcanum instructors. ‘You say that we must honor the Marvellian way. To honor order and tradition. But what happens when most of it is rooted in prejudice?’”

Having revealed that as a former member of the Aces, Masterji himself was once an outsider who violated the established rules of the Arcanum, Clayton uses his backstory to undergird his advocacy for Ella in her disciplinary hearing. His willingness to speak truth to power in this context reflects his own experiences both in his past with the Aces and in his present, having recently had a front-row seat to the consequences of such prejudice when he was conscripted into Gia’s plans for revenge.

“‘It’s one thing to be told you belong somewhere and another to be shown it.’ Masterji Thakur took a deep breath and squeezed his throat before shouting, ‘The original architect of the Arcanum was a Conjuror.’”

Through Masterji’s speech in his defense, Clayton provides the novel’s definition of moral integrity: a willingness to violate Arcanum rules—in this case, taking Ella to the forbidden Founder’s Room—when the purpose of those rules is to conceal truth and perpetuate prejudice. In concealing the blueprints that prove a Conjuror designed the Arcanum, the Headmarvellers deliberately reinforce a system of power rooted in a lie in order to maintain their power.