Lokai

Biography

Helpful senior and coercive organizer

Lokai introduces himself to new apprentices as a tired but helpful senior and uses the Mutual Aid Society to turn favors, instruction, and access into obligation. He organizes exchanges among upper-rank apprentices and supplies parasite knowledge, but his guidance also enables Angela's dead-man's-flower murders. During the tower revolt he follows Anze's faction and approaches Saul as a threat, expecting the younger wizard to be isolated. Ann, Morden, and Saul instead surround him, and Saul's new soul methods end the organizer whose social network had long concealed predatory practices. (Chapters 8, 39–69, 158–179, 235–242, 304, 328, 345–346, and 431–432)

Appearance and personality

Lokai initially looks drained and indifferent, then becomes animated whenever recruitment or exchange strengthens his network. He is affable, persuasive, and skilled at making coercive arrangements sound mutually beneficial, but loses composure when Saul no longer accepts the tower's old hierarchy. (Chapters 8, 39–69, and 431–432)

Abilities

He knows cleaning and utility magic, parasite techniques, corpse-flower rituals, and the formations needed to host secure exchange meetings. His strength lies as much in organizing dependent apprentices as in direct spellcasting. (Chapters 39–69, 235–242, and 345–346)

Relationships

• Anze: Lokai recruits on behalf of his mentor and joins Anze's attempt to overturn Gorsa's rule. (Chapters 8, 39–69, and 431–432)
• Angela: His ritual knowledge gives Angela the method she uses to manufacture dead-man's flowers from murder victims. (Chapters 345–346)
• Saul: Lokai tries to bind Saul through favors and later force; Saul ultimately rejects both forms of control. (Chapters 8, 39–69, and 431–432)