The Iron Trial

“Alastair got to his feet and pushed deeper into the cave, desperately looking for one face above all. He forced his way past the bodies of elderly Masters from the Magisterium and Collegium, children of friends and acquaintances, and mages who had been wounded in earlier battles. Among them lay the broken bodies of the Chaos-ridden, their swirling eyes darkened forever.”

In the exposition, The Danger and Power of Magic is immediately established as a pivotal theme through the dead bodies of adults and children in the cave, in the event later labeled the Cold Massacre. This horrific event—particularly given the death of his wife, Sarah—contextualizes Alastair’s’ fear of magic and his dread that Call, too, will become entangled in the world of magic; he comes to associate the world of magic with violence and indifferent murder.

“KILL THE CHILD.”

The mystery of Call’s identity is introduced in the exposition through the message engraved on the cave floor by Sarah, Call’s mother. Sarah refers impersonally in the message to her son, Call, as “the child,” aware that the true soul of her son has been supplanted by the soul of Constantine Madden, the Enemy of Death, whose body died. The mystery of this message is not resolved until the novel’s conclusion, though it is continually hinted at throughout the novel, such as when Call’s father suggests that Call doesn’t know what he is.