In the first installment, the story kick start with a slum girl discovering her magical ability when she threw a stone into the shield of the magicians and the scene gave us an insight into how much the slum dwellers hated the magicians. Later, the magicians started hunting for the girl because if she does not learn to control her abilities, she’s going to die, while she tried to hide from her ‘predators’ because she was sure that the magicians were going to kill her soon as they got her. As she hid from the magicians and struggled with her lost of control, she stumbled upon a secret: The Highlord (she did not know his statues and identity then) takes strength from other’s blood! The second part of the story, Sonea, the protagonist, was finally caught and Rothen, an old magician, started teaching her control and persuades her to stay after she’d learnt control. Just when she was trusting Rothen, out jumps Fergun, the victim of Sonea’s throwing of stone. Fergun kidnaps Ceryni (Sonea’s friend) and blackmails Sonea into doing what Fergun told her to do. All problems, in the end, were solved when Akkarin, the Highlord discovered Ceryni being held captive in the underground rooms. And later, Lorlen the administrator discovered Akkarin’s secret while reading Sonea’s mind to countercheck if Sonea’s statement was real.
The second installment, Sonea understood that Akkarin was practicing black magic and that if she were to leave the Magician’s Guild, she might become Akkarin’s prey. She agreed to stay and became a novice and then, she was bullied by the other novices because the honourable Houses hated sharing the Guild with a slum girl. In the meantime, strange murders began to happen in the Outer walls. People started to die from small, shallow cuts, and Lorlen believes that these are acts of black magic, and the assailant was probably his best friend, Akkarin. In the second part, Akkarin read Lorlen’s thoughts, and became aware that Lorlen, Rothen, and Sonea knew his secret and they chose to expose him if they got the chance. Akkarin took Sonea hostage by taking up the guardianship of her. If Lorlen or Rothen dares to breathe a word about him, he will kill Sonea and or vice versa. As Sonea becomes the Highlord’s favourite, the attacks by the other novices worsened. Sonea learns to defend herself with a little help from Dorrein, Rothen’s son, and she learns more about the Highlord.
Things take a turn in the third installment as Sonea learns more about Akkarin, her hatred for the Highlord changed into respect and later, bloomed into love. As Akkain brought Sonea into what really happened and the reason as to why Akkarin practiced black magic, he taught her mind reading, in which she saw the truth for herself. Akkarin was fighting the Sachakans, all alone. The Sachakans were the only people not included in the Allied lands after the war against the Guild. A small group of Sachakan Magicians known as the Ichanis, wanted to take revenge and invade the Guild. They believe that the Guild was weaker now as the Guild forbids Higher Magic a.k.a. Black Magic. Akkarin was trying to mislead the Ichanis into thinking that the Guild still practices Black Magic. Sonea decided to join Akkarin in the fight and she too, picked up black magic. In the second part, their secret was discovered by the Guild. Akkarin told the Guild his story but the magicians did not believe Akkarin’s story to be the whole truth. Akkarin and Sonea were exiled. Despite that, knowing that the Sachakans were bound to invade Kyralia, the two black magicians came back to help. They won the fight in the end, with Akkarin giving all his strength to Sonea to help her win the fight.My favourite character of the story? The hero: the Highlord. In the beginning when Trudi gave us a glimpse of the Highlord, I thought he was mysterious and dangerous. I also pictured him as an old man, maybe around 60s, and powerful! Charming! I was sure I was very much attracted to power because I knew he was up to something when Sonea saw him cutting his servant and taking strength from him, but I still like him. And somehow I wondered if he really was the bad guy, why did he help Ceryni escape? Why do I have the feeling that he has his reasons for practicing black magic? In the second installment, I realized that he was only 32. Moreover, I begin to believe that maybe he isn’t that bad. I thought of Harry Potter’s Snape. He could be playing the underdog, the good guy in disguise. As he guides Sonea and fought alone against the Sachakan, I begin to picture him as the mighty, wise and powerful headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore. Just because of the uncanny resemblance, somehow I knew that Akkarin was going to die. The Hero always sacrifices himself to ensure that the protagonist survives. True enough, Akkarin died in the second last chapter. I’ve braced myself for that as I saw it coming, I wasn’t surprise that I was not that upset but still, I thought he didn’t have to die.
Oh well, even if I didn’t want him to die, I can’t help it. Now that I’ve finished the books, I’m starting to plan for the next set. This set was placed beside the Age of the Five, in the shops and I was deciding over which to buy. In the end, I chose the Black Magician trilogy. Now that I’ve finished with the Black Magician trilogy, I shall go for the Age of Five then. Or maybe re read Twilight before the show comes on screen.
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