Is bloodying your apprentice normal? I'm pretty sure it didn't happen to Mathilde, Panoramia, or any of the Ducklings. Maybe that's all the more reason to do it for Eike, I'm just curious how unusual it would be.
Mathilde managed to screw up badly enough she started out being hunted
by an Apparition. You could make the argument that doing so was effectively a less controlled form of the "take her along when we go to capture an Apparition" method of blooding Eike.
You could also look at Mathilde's Journeying and point out that she went into it badly unprepared; it was primarily due to the Wisdom's Asp having obscenely bad luck (thanks Ranald!) that she didn't have a serious chance of death fairly early on, and she was both less magically and mundanely skilled than Eike.
Panoramia was notably sheltered in some ways. This resulted in her taking a sufficiently cavalier approach to her use of Ghyran that Mathilde felt the need to have a talk with her about it, and particularly about her use in dangerous situations and of stronger spells, which is something we very much don't want to be the case for Eike.
More broadly, the duties of a Jade Wizard are very different to those of a Grey Wizard, and what's a perfectly reasonable means of educating one might be a very poor fit for the other. Panoramia is able settle down in a very safe location (a thriving Karak) to focus entirely on soil reclamation and crop management. Most options available to Eike don't look very much like that.
As for the Ducklings, I'm curious why you say that; from what I remember of the expedition to reclaim Karak Eight-Peaks they seemed to have reasonable abilities in combat and largely kept their heads. Which doesn't prove anything, but does seem to lean the other way insofar as we have any evidence.
There is the potential that such bounties would lead to thieves stealing from legit institutions which safeguard illegal books (like the Verenans), but we can apparently be quite specific in how to setup the bounties, so we could simply add a caveat to not raid them.
I like Ranald, but I think that shows a shocking degree of optimism about how likely the people who choose to devote themselves to the god of lying, gambling, and thievery are to not take the chance that they can pass it off as acquired from another source, particularly if (as is being proposed to keep Mathilde's name out of it) they have no idea that they're working for a Grey Wizard.
I think the math wouldn't check out. Eike 14 in turn 40, so born ~ turn 12. Four years after the EIC was named.
Getting people to check information like that before they start spreading theories around is hard enough when it's freely available online.
As much as Bretonnia is a frequent ally to the Empire against the more evil factions, they're also a major rival, with on-and-off border friction around the Wasteland. I really don't think giving away Battle Magic (or demonstrating it sufficiently that they can make their own copy) is going to fly.
Battle Magic is a strategic national asset; disseminating it (or, more likely, not disseminating it) is more an "Algard or higher" decision than a Lord Magister one, especially if we're only doing it for kudos.
I'm also given to understand that Brettonia is lacking in the Ulgu-capable mages department (though not entirely).
Which, on the one hand, does make it easier to defend our actions if they do work out how to adapt it to the point that it can be used universally, but also makes it much less useful to them if they can't.
