Assassin's Apprentice

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, child abuse, animal cruelty and death, mental illness, suicidal ideation, and substance use.

The narrator explains that Patience was odd from the time she was a child, unable to take care of herself and expressing intense interest in things like tattooing and pottery. Despite her interest in the outdoors, she was constantly sick and lacked common sense in interacting with people and animals. She was intensely intelligent, but only when allowed to teach herself, and she had no social graces yet married a prince.

Fitz goes to Patience’s cluttered, crowded chamber, which is filled with plants and the various detritus of her hobbies. Patience does not know how to interact with him at first but quickly realizes that he likes animals and gives him a terrier puppy from her dog’s litter. Fitz instantly connects with the puppy, nearly losing himself in the delight of being “proclaimed the center of someone’s world, even if that someone is an eight-week-old puppy” (224-25). When Fitz refuses to give her his name, she calls him Tom.

Fitz hides his puppy in his chambers but is found out by the Fool. The Fool names the puppy Smithy and advises Fitz to be wise in his relationship with Patience.