The only student of Touccio not descended from the artisan classes, Licinius was the grandson of that same Licius who had held Cristofer prisoner in the years before the founding of the Order. Fascinated since early childhood by family legends of the captive theocrat, at the age of ten Licinius came across a fragment of the chains used to hold Cristofer and recognizing their magical properties, became obsessed with discovering the secret of their manufacture. His aristocratic family was less than supportive of his fascination with metal-working, and so at age twelve he ran off to apprentice himself to a blacksmith on the outskirts of the city.
Although he had paid handsomely in exchange for training as a smith, Licinius had neither the physical stamina nor the skill for this craft, and his unscrupulous master was unwilling to continue his training after the first six months: he kept Licinius' payment and cast him out onto the street. He was found there by the Manerean Luke, who dragged him back to the Council to hand over to Cristofer: Luke had discovered the truth of the boy's lineage, and he believed that Cristofer might want to avenge his long captivity on his captor's descendant. In fact Cristofer had no such desire, and Aegidius, impressed by the young Licinius, took him on as his apprentice in 203.
By 207, Licinius was already displaying signs of the magical limitations and strengths just now becoming known within the Order as "Touccianism." Aegidius therefore suggested that he finish his training under Touccio, an act which was seen by the rest of the Council as proof positive that the First Speaker had finally come to accept the new House structure of the Order. Licinius was declared a journeyman mage in 217.
Theoretically-minded and physically weak, Licinius had always been the odd man out among Touccio's students, and while Touccio was always to insist that he was a craftsman at heart, he stood out as an anomaly within the House. It was not terribly surprising, therefore, when upon his graduation to magehood, Licinius declared that he would prefer to work alone, rather than with the rest of the House in Touccio's laboratories. Touccio supported his decision, and so in 218, Licinius moved into his own laboratory and private quarters elsewhere in the city. As time passed, he was to communicate less and less frequently with the rest of his House.
Licinius was a proficient writer, and over the next two years he committed a great deal of Touccio's knowledge, previously only orally-transmitted, into written form. In this period he also finally achieved his boyhood dream of discovering the secret of the manufacture of the chains which had bound Cristofer in his grandfather's dungeon. Although he was a strong magical theorist, however, Licinius had never been able to master the art of smithing: he was to prove incapable of actually replicating the Chains of Licius; in 219, he ceded his laboratory notes to the rest of House Touccio for their use by better craftsmen. He took on his first apprentice, Gemel, in 220.
In the years since his ascension to magehood, Licinius had struck up an unlikely friendship with Eleanor's third student Ascia, a young woman with whom, by all accounts, he would seem to have had nothing in common. By the end of 220, the two young magi were spending enormous amounts of time together in Licinius' private laboratory, and tongues began to wag. The Order's curiosity was piqued even further when the two refused to discuss anything about the project they were working on together, evading the issue whenever it arose. Touccio and Eleanor, never before great friends, soon found themselves in an unlikely alliance of their own, staunchly defending their students' right to privacy and refusing even to acknowledge the unseemly rumours circulating about their relationship.
The Order was never to discover what Licinius and Ascia had been researching. In 223, shortly after Licinius took on his second apprentice Castor, both he and Ascia were killed in a massive explosion which destroyed not only their laboratory, but also a number of adjoining buildings. He was only thirty-three years old.
After the explosion of 223, the Council immediately ordered an investigation into the nature of Licinius' research, but although both of his apprentices, as well as one of Ascia's, had miraculously survived the explosion, the children were of no help in describing their masters' research. The nature of Licinius and Ascia's secret project remains a mystery to this day.
Licinius' two apprentices were adopted by Touccio's first filius Sarcon, and their training was later completed by Sarcon's student Cyril. They are two of the four "Grandsons of Touccio" through which the entirety of the House descends:
- Gemel (T9), taught by Licinius from 220 to 223
- Castor (T10), taught by Licinius in 223
Many of his writings have survived and are often used as basic instructional texts on the art of Touccian enchantment.
