summary of the life of mildmay the fox
Melusine
Born to a red-headed whore named Methony in the city of Melusine, Mildmay was sold to a woman named Kolkhis, a Thief-Keeper [someone who took orphaned children under their care and trained them in illegal practices] when he was three. Methony had originally named him Mild-May-Your-Suffering-Be-At-The-Hands-Of-The-Wicked, some sort of prayer she'd picked up from a cult she'd joined, but once he was sold to Keeper, she cut it right down, saying it didn't fit him at all. From there, he was trained in the ways of an thief, and a jack-of-all-trades, his red hair dyed black to keep him from being too noticeable. Keeper got the jobs, and he'd carry them out, be it stealing, smuggling, you name it.
At the age of fourteen, Mildmay had the unfortunate luck of getting into a knife fight with an overconfident opponent. Ultimately, he won, but received a large scar in return, that stretches from the left side of his mouth and up across the side of his face, all the way past his temple. If his red hair wasn't already conspicuous, then the resulting scar made it even worse. By then, Keeper had fallen for him, and since he could no longer take on the littler jobs that required invisibility, she saw fit to use that as an excuse to keep him to herself, sleeping with him and sending him out on the more dangerous missions, such as assassinations. Around the age of seventeen, he was commissioned to kill the man responsible for burning heretic wizards in their country of Marathat, and it left him with a horrible curse that was originally intended to kill whoever activated it; the only reason it didn't kill him was because of a spell to deflect it, given to him by a heretical witch. Tired of killing people and being made to sleep with her, he ran away from Keeper, severing himself from her and making a life for himself by becoming a cat burglar-for-hire.
When he was twenty, he received one such commission from a woman named Ginevra Thomson, and damned if he didn't break his own rules and fall for her. Big blue eyes, busty, beautiful, he fell for her, and fell hard. But while Mildmay was in love with Ginevra, Ginevra was in love with his way of life, rather than him. The danger, the illegality of it; she was more enchanted with how he lived rather than the man himself. Five months later, they had a falling out, and not long after that, she and her new boyfriend were found murdered in the Sim, a large, evil river that runs under Melusine. Coupled with news from "Upstairs" of the Virtu, the basis for all spells in Melusine, breaking, shit's gone straight to hell in his little world.
Three months later, he was drawn by a spell to a wizard named Mavortian von Heber and his hired help/brother, Bernard, and with no better jobs lined up and nothing more to lose, was hired to help find and kill a man that Mr. von Heber wanted revenge against. Through a series of events that led them to the city of Hermione, he met the batshit crazy driven mad Mr Felix Harrowgate, the man responsible for breaking the Virtu, and it was discovered that the two of them were brothers. The two eventually escaped together when it became apparent that Felix was determined to go to "some Gardens that he wasn't even sure they existed" in a place across the ocean called Troia, Mildmay deciding to help him to reach his goal. Though they started off with Mr von Heber, Bernard, and another wizard named Gideon, the two of them ended up trekking across the continent alone, Felix having frequent bouts of madness and more infrequent bouts of lucidity. They managed to make it to the coast relatively unscathed, where they hired onto a boat that should take them to where they wante to go.
Along the way and almost to their goal, the ship, the Morskaiakrov, sank, and as he was trying to get the two of them to shore, Mildmay was crippled by the curse, the implement used to deflect it destroyed. Something went horribly wrong in his leg, making it near impossible to walk and successfully putting an end to his career as a cat burglar. However, thanks to the ones who healed Felix's madness, his leg was set and once again made usable, though it takes a walking stick to help him out.
The Virtu
Three months after they were both [relatively] healed, a man named Thamuris came to Mildmay and asked him for a favor: if he would play anchor and querent for a spell that should allow him to divine the answer to any question Mildmay should have. Mildmay asked what would happen to him, and the prophecy he received was thus: Love and betrayal, the gorgon and the wheel. The dead tree will not shelter you, and the dead will not stay dead. Though you do not seek revenge, it will seek you all the same. However, the spell that Thamuris used also cements the given prophecy into place, and its foretold events are made inevitable, rather than a future with different paths.
Shortly after the prophecy was given, Felix and Mildmay left Troia on a ship called the White Otter, where they met the Gauthys, a family that later introduced the brothers to a woman named Mehitabel Parr through their son, Florian. The three of them ended up traversing a maze together in search of Florian and his tutor Jeremiah, and while down there, Mildmay was afflicted by a spell that made him hear Ginevra's voice calling out to him. He also discovered that Felix had the hots for him, and boy, was that awkward. They found Florian and made it out of the maze, but Mehitabel was "released" from the Gauthys' employ for her relations with Jeremiah, so she told Felix and Mildmay that she could help them get back to Melusine if they take her with them. So they did, rescuing Gideon, Mr von Heber, and Bernard on the way.
Thanks to his leg not working correctly and the number of people he'd made enemies of back in Melusine, Mildmay asked Felix to cast a heretical spell on him, the obligation d'ame, something that would bind them together forever as master and servant. It is cast between a wizard and someone who has no magical abilities, an annemer, and ensures that in exchange for the wizard's protection from anything, the annemer must do as the wizard orders, no matter what it is. Once they got back to Melusine, Felix set about trying to find a way to repair the damage that had been caused by the shattering of the Virtu. While he was trying to do so, Malkar, the man who had used him to break it in the first place, steps back into their lives in the form of Queen Blood, a woman named Vey Coruscant who was the most powerful blood-witch alive. The two of them sent a correspondence to Felix, telling him of plans to murder the Lord Protector of Melusine, and to counter it, Felix used the obligation d'ame to order Mildmay to kill Vey.
Since he had no choice in the matter, Mildmay left to go kill her, not expecting to return. He succeeded, but before he had the chance to leave, Malkar walked into the room, thus capturing him. Two weeks of his life were then lost to torture and madness before Felix and crew could get to him. Malkar, also known as Brinvillier Strych, killed Mr von Heber and nearly killed Mildmay before Felix burned him alive. They returned to Melusine as Mildmay slowly came back to himself, and this is where the book ends.