The Raven's Heir

The Characters

Nihil Mathson

Reserved, precise and proud. He and Chris are more alike than either of them cares to admit.

First appears in chapter 8

Who
Will's twin brother. He always keeps a little to himself
Amícûs
An ermine that lives in his sleeve
Scent
Bare iron and winter wind, cold and sharp

"Next time without the fox"

Nihil, chapter 18

Chris first notices Nihil at the first great meal at Déynáir. He sits on his own, his face closed and hard. Chris knows that look. He has worn it himself.

Nihil has a twin brother, Will, who is open and quick to smile. When Will comes over to talk, he gets turned away. Even so, they end up on the same team for the island test.

After the test Nihil shares a room with Chris. He hardly speaks, but a small white ermine lives in his sleeve and sometimes puts her head out.

Control

Nihil never does anything by halves. In combat lessons he fights as if he has thought through every single blow in advance. In magical stratego he sits down at the table in the First-Year Room one evening and is the first to really push Retia, in the longest match any of them has seen.

He and Chris are set against each other in a duel without words, out in the river. One has the power, the other has the control, and Haltora calls it a draw after Alôpex leaps in. Afterwards Nihil says that the fox is quick and that Chris is not as bad as he thought.

Relationships

Spoiler (revealed in chapter 11)

Nihil is on the Gistónu path, together with Will and Marcus, and it hits him harder than he lets on. The word after his name on the bed plate appears the moment he reads it, and he lies down with his face to the wall without a word.

Spoiler (revealed in chapter 25)

One evening Nihil is back in the room, waiting for Chris to come in. He has brought an old book from the locked section of the library with Godrand on its spine, and he can feel the mountain calling too. The ermine in his sleeve is called Brúma. He joins Chris, Ahra and Retia.

Chapters to read

See also

All characters