Assassin's Apprentice

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child abuse, and addiction.

Each chapter begins with a short statement from the narrator, FitzChivalry “Fitz” Farseer, who is telling this story much later. In this first entry, he explains that the Farseers are the ruling family, although nobody knows their original ancestors; the first named king was King Taker, who began the tradition of naming one’s children after the quality that one wants them to embody.

Fitz’s first memories begin when he was six, but he is not sure how true they are. He remembers an old man bringing him to a strange town. The man explains to a guard that Fitz is the son of Prince Chivalry, outside of marriage, and he refuses to care for Fitz any longer. The guard takes Fitz to Chivalry’s younger brother, Verity, who is amused that Chivalry had a child with his lover.

The guard then takes Fitz to Burrich, Chivalry’s marshal. Their conversation reveals that Chivalry has been unable to have a child with his wife, Lady Patience, making Fitz Chivalry’s only potential heir as the future king. Burrich defends Chivalry’s honor but gives Fitz his name (the prefix “Fitz” designates him as a child outside of marriage) and takes him to the stables, allowing him to sleep with Chivalry’s hounds, Vixen and Nosy.