Chapter 1 Summary

The book opens with Mildmay telling a story of a hocus, a wizard, long ago who bound herself to a man. It was called binding-by-forms or the obligation d'ame, and it involved a hocus and an annemer binding their fates together by magic. It was an oath that the hocus promised to keep the annemer safe. In return the annemer, the normal human being, had to do exactly as the hocus commanded in all but suicide. Silas Altamont asked the hocus Porphyria Levant to perform the obligation d'ame. Altamont had gotten on the wrong side of the Lord Creon's wife. She had hocuses of her own and was given to jealousy of Altamont who was in love with Creon. Altamont was gay, and Porphyria, in her cruelty asked only that Altamont have sex with her in return for her protection. When Altamont told...