Magus Chartophylax is a name drawn from the dead Osman's correspondence rather than from any meeting — a lead, not yet a face. The Chartophylax are one of the close-knit Orthodox families of the Fenariote quarter, and the Lodge of Byzantia's own walking encyclopaedia is remembered among them: a widow, in her sixties at the time Ashraf last saw the order convene, the sort who did the real work of the order while others held its titles.
Jean-Zera Mongé, sifting Osman's letters, found the thread. Osman had corresponded with a woman of that name about the turn of the century, and after her with one styled Magus Chartophylax — the heir — to whom he wrote condolences on the loss of both parents, and counsel on a matrimony, an inheritance, and certain challenging discoveries amongst the mother's effects. A flurry of letters, then a long trailing-off. The magus's own art, the standing of the family in the Orthodox community, and whatever those "challenging discoveries" amounted to remain unexamined — a matter, when the moment comes, more likely for Gizem Faruki than for anyone else at the table.