Magister Crane

The Ordinal's fixer in Cinderwick — genteel, patient, and the most dangerous man on the hill

Magister Crane runs the Ordinal’s business in Cinderwick from a quiet office above the Cage. He is courteous to a fault, immaculately dressed, and has never in his life raised his voice — which is precisely why people who cross him are careful never to be found. He does not think of himself as a criminal. He thinks of himself as a curator: rare things, in his view, belong in careful hands, and no hands are more careful than the Ordinal’s.

Crane collects people the way he collects curios — by finding the one thing they cannot resist and offering it, at a price they only understand later. He has had his eye on Juno Vale for years. He does not want her caught. He wants her useful.

His menace is entirely in his manners: the antagonist as the smiling man who already knows how your evening ends. He appears across the Cinderwick books and, through the Ordinal, the wider Reach.

Appears in

The Cinderwick Job novelette