Originally, and for a LONG time, I planned on the cover being the first summoning, meaning the room with Lenamare and all the students with Tom in the middle.
However, there were too many people in the room and I decided the portrait landscape just wouldn’t work/scale well, plus trying to arrange it so you could see characters etc, so I went with something simpler.
Also thought about doing the Living Flame on the ship…but then decided that might give too much away…