History Literature / DoctrineOfLabyrinths

** Possibly played with in ''The Mirador'': Although [[spoiler:getting exiled from the Mirador for gross heresy]] certainly makes for a turbulent experience, Mildmay doesn't mind the accompanying rain becaues he's just happy to be leaving.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Averted and subverted with Arakhne.
** "She's mostly there expressly in order for Felix to reject getting embroiled in That Kind of Fantasy Novel." [[WordOfGod Says the author herself.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Felix, to some degree, though it could be argued to be a JerkassFacade, or at least a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

* WindowsOfTheSoul: Felix spends a lot of time bolstering his emotional courage with the kindness in Mildmay's eyes. Mehitabel spends a lot of time watching Felix's eyes, so much so that she's developed the fancy that each controls different emotions.

* CrushKillDestroy: The Automaton of Corybant goes crazy and does this.

* TheDreaded: Any given [[BloodMagic blood wizard]] inspires terror in even the most Badass heroes, partly due to the fact that their techniques enhance their power beyond its normal limits and partly because they thrive on other people's pain and suffering (and, of course, [[CaptainObvious blood]]).

* ContemptibleCover: Horrendous for the [[http://www.amazon.com/Mélusine-Sarah-Monette/dp/0441014178/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265693314&sr=8-1 first book]], got a bit better for the second and third, and then dipped to a new low just in time for the [[http://www.amazon.com/Corambis-Sarah-Monette/dp/B002IKLO2I/ref=pd_sim_b_2 finale]].

* SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny: A massive problem for Gideon, and to some extent for Felix as well: at an S&M sex club, he observes that "in some sense we were all predators. As we were all prey."

* EssentialThirdActTwists: The Mirador's falls under the heading of "Necromancer Solves Case."

* GenreSavvy: Mildmay, mostly acquired through his extremely rough-and-tumble life.
** In order for Malkar to embrace his self-titled "evil wizard for a story" persona, he'd have to be this.

* XMeetsY: Described [[WordOfGod by the author]]: "It's ''Literature/JaneEyre'' meets ''Literature/HuckleberryFinn''... with magic!"

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Over the deaths of a couple of blood wizards. Mildmay observes that Mrs. Fenris had "been praying for indictions for [[spoiler: Vey Coruscant]] to choke on a fishbone and die."
* {{Antihero}}: Felix is the Type IV variety, sometimes skirting type V (for example, when [[spoiler: ordering Mildmay to kill Vey Coruscant or when [[BondageIsBad losing control]] when dominating a sexual partner]]). Mildmay at his best is Type II, but he generally stays at Type III and his past indicates Type IV.

* BadassInDistress: Mildmay is the resident Badass, but at one point he gets locked in a farmhouse cellar and has to get rescued by Felix who is completely insane at this point and fights like a little girl even at his best. [[spoiler: Not to mention later, when the usually competent Mildmay has to be rescued DamselInDistress style.]]

* TheBaroness: Kolkhis. Not only does she raise children to do her bidding as thieves and assassins, she also uses them as her sex slaves. By force if necessary. [[spoiler: Oh, and she's in league with an EvilSorcerer]].

* BastardBastard: Played with. People keep expecting Shannon to do something evil on the grounds that he's the possibly-illegitimate son of the late, treasonous consort, Gloria Aestia. [[spoiler: Luther Littleman's ghost essentially confirms that Shannon isn't a Teverius by blood.]] While he's no saint, his real [[PokeThePoodle offenses]] don't amount to much beyond sulking, sniping, and gossiping.

* BestServedCold: Mavortian has spent years looking for Beaumont Livy, the many who seduced and abandoned Anna Gloria Pietrin. He's willing to resort to kidnapping, cross a continent with crutches, risk [[BurnTheWitch being burned as a witch]], and walk into the lair of an EvilSorcerer in order to get revenge. Unfortunately for Mavortian, [[spoiler: Beaumont Livy is another pseudonym of Brinvillier Strych, and he just gets himself painfully killed for his trouble]].

* BloodMagic: Malkar and Vey Coruscant are accomplished practitioners. Also Porphyria Levant, for historical figures. [[spoiler: They have been using this to keep themselves young and vital for who knows how many years. Vey was terrorizing the Lower City when Felix and Mildmay were children, and when Mildmay killed her she didn't look a day over twenty. Judging by how long it's been since Porphyria Levant died, Malkar has been at it for at least two-hundred years.]] And Felix isn't above using a little blood in his own magic, if the situation's dire enough.
* BookDumb: While Mildmay is quite intelligent, he's also functionally illiterate… [[spoiler: until Felix begins to teach him to read in 'Corambis']].

* BrainsAndBondage: Malkar and Felix practice this, together and separately. The [[spoiler: Duke of Murtagh]] displays this as well.

* BroughtDownToNormal: While there doesn't appear to be any way to remove the magic from a wizard, there are several ways to keep one from accessing his power, and Felix gets hit with several: mental damage and the Curia's interdict in ''Mélusine'', magic shackles in ''The Mirador'', and drugs and later the binding-by-obedience (also called the "choke-binding") in ''Corambis''. By this time, though, it's more a case of BroughtDownToBadass, since he still manages to [[spoiler: save the entire country from the engine under Summerdown]].

* CastFromHitPoints: Mending [[spoiler: the Virtu]] leaves Felix unconscious for two days, and he [[BloodMagic slits one of his wrists]] in order to lay the ghost of [[spoiler: Magnus Cordelius]].

* CharacterDevelopment: The main arc of the story is centered on how Felix and Mildmay, and to a lesser extent [[spoiler: Mehitabel and Kay]] accomplish this, becoming functioning members of society again, or... ever.

* ChekhovsSkill: In ''The Virtu'', Mehitabel says that she "worked in the Bastion at the time." Guess which citadel later needs infiltrating to rescue [[spoiler: Mildmay]]?

* ChildSoldiers: The wizards of the Bastion [[spoiler: (like Gideon)]] are drafted into the military at age 13 or 14, and then [[HarmfulToMinors sexually preyed upon by the older wizards]]. Early military service may also be a Caloxan norm, as Kay went to war at 14.

* ClassicVillain: Malkar, inverted/invoked/Lampshaded when [[spoiler: Mildmay points out he was, "just like them evil wizards in stories," to which Felix notes, "he would have loved the comparison," implying Malkar was playing up a trope on ''purpose'']].

* ClingyMacGuffin: Malkar's rubies. Sarah Monette has even [[http://truepenny.livejournal.com/tag/q%26a compared the rubies to the real world's radioactive waste]], since there's no safe way for Felix to dispose of them and they [[spoiler: may contaminate places, magic, and even people]].

* CreepyBasement: The lower levels of the Mirador. They're cobwebby, populated by [[spoiler: ghosts and ghouls]], and the final resting place of lots of really bad people. Even Shannon, who's lived his whole life in the Mirador, would get "nervous and unhappy" if Felix spent too much time down there.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Inflicted on [[spoiler: Mavortian]] by Malkar.

** Edwin Beckett's fervor for starting the Clock of the Eclipses through having lots of kinky sex borders on religious, and his followers act as though they've been brainwashed. [[spoiler: Felix refers to the way they used him as "sacrifice."]]

** [[spoiler: Felix accepts a fantôme at the end of ''Corambis'' before tricking it into becoming the final offering to the engine below Summerdown.]]

** Malkar. He kept a teenage boy as a sex slave, seduced and betrayed a lady of the Mirador, rapes a man, and kidnaps and tortures another man. Oh, and then there are the [[spoiler: burning a woman alive, [[DrivenToSuicide driving another to suicide]], and attempting to bring down an entire country that was pretty much minding its own business]]. The two-bit gangster Sunny Pingree is another example--although he apparently pays women for consensual sex more or less regularly, he also tries to shake down an (assumed) male prostitute for sex.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler: Vey Coruscant]] is certainly formidable enough in her own right, but defeating her isn't the endgame.

* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Averted in ''Mélusine'', as much of the plot hangs on Felix's trauma resulting from both physical and [[MindRape mental]] [[RapeAsDrama rape]]. Averted in ''Corambis'' as well when Corbie encourages Felix to [[spoiler: press charges after the orgy to restart the Clock of Eclipses]].

* DramaticIrony: Used very well; unsurprisingly, Monette has a Ph.D in English Literature. For example, in ''The Mirador'', Felix doesn't want Mildmay to go to the St. Dismas Baths in the Arcane, and uses the [[spoiler: obligation d’âme]] to enforce his wishes. Mildmay thinks he's being a dick (which he is), but that's not the only reason. [[spoiler: The St. Dismas Baths are where Felix goes to clean himself off after he gets done having extremely violent S&M sex with random men and getting spattered with their blood.]]

** Stephen and Victoria's mother, Lady Dulcinea, committed suicide when Stephen was eight. [[spoiler: Later revealed to have been the handiwork of Vey Coruscant.]]
** [[spoiler: Isaac Garamond commits suicide in ''Corambis'']]
* DysfunctionJunction: Powers and saints, where to start? Fucking ''everyone'' in this series is screwed-up beyond repair. But Felix and Mildmay, due to their horribly miserable childhoods, really take the cake, with the other two POV characters, Mehitabel and Kay, as close runner-ups. Thaddeus and Mavortian get honorable mention: [[spoiler: we never quite find out what happened to them, but it's implied to be ''bad'', or at least soul-crushingly depressing.]]

** Mildmay has horrible self-esteem and huge trust issues, is self-degrading, only wants to be loved in a non-sexual way, and still hangs around Felix even after Felix does and says seriously horrible things to and about him. While he was Kolkhis's assassin, he was clinically depressed. He falls back into that after [[spoiler: Ginevra dies, pulls himself out of it when he meets Felix, and then falls right back into it again after Felix sends him, using the obligation d’âme, to murder Vey Coruscant, which he does. Malkar catches him and tortures him for around a month]].
** Gideon joined a death cult at fifteen because of a longing for suicide, fell in love with a horny wizard but finds sex degrading, and spends a year and a half being openly, humiliatingly [[spoiler: [[YourCheatingHeart cheated on]] by Felix]] before he develops a backbone. And even then, he's so in love with Felix that he [[spoiler: walks into Vulpes's trap]].

** Methony hated her father so much that she ran away and lived out her life [[spoiler: on another continent]], at least if you believe Diokletian's explanation. She later sold her sons into slavery, and they spend years dealing with and dishing out incest, physical abuse, and MindRape... frequently between each other.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Done very well in the ending of ''Corambis''. [[spoiler: Felix and Mildmay are technically being banished ''again'', this time out to the back of beyond, but they've both (mostly) come to terms with themselves and each other, and promise to try to be happy with each other.]]
* EatingTheEyeCandy: Despite Mildmay's supposedly hideous scar, plenty of people seem to like ogling him-- notably [[spoiler: Felix]], Mehitabel ("Well, I certainly like what I see"), the Fawn daughters, and various people at the baths (although he attributes this to his red body hair).

** Possibly played with in ''The Mirador'': Although [[spoiler: getting exiled from the Mirador for gross heresy]] certainly makes for a turbulent experience, Mildmay doesn't mind the accompanying rain becaues he's just happy to be leaving.

* EvilSorcerer: Malkar Gennadion, Vey Coruscant, Beaumont Livy, Brinvillier Strych, Porphyria Levant, and Edmund Beckett. Although [[spoiler: a couple of those actually turn out to be Malkar under another name]].

* FaceYourFears: Felix is utterly terrified of Malkar. So who does he have to fight [[spoiler: to the death]] in ''The Virtu'''s climax? Guess.

* FishOutOfWater: Mildmay [[spoiler: accompanying Felix to the Mirador]]. Definitely not played for laughs.

** Even when they find out that [[spoiler: the Mirador was built on a necromantic foundation]], and even though Stephen knows that crypts of the Mirador are full of ghouls, the Cabalines continue to regard even acknowledging the existence of ghosts as heresy. Likewise, Ivo Polydorius [[spoiler: who has been in league with a blood-wizard for at least fourteen years]] can't believe that Vincent actually sees ghosts and considers him insane.

* GlamourFailure: Eusebian wizards such as Lieutenant Vulpes can disguise themselves with magic, but his glamour fails at a soiree, leading to TheReveal that [[spoiler: he's actually Isaac Garamond]].

** [[spoiler: Mehitabel's]] pervy uncle, too.

* HeroicBSOD: Felix when Malkar rapes him and uses his magic to break the Virtu, and again throughout the course of ''Mélusine'' as he bobs in and out of insanity, then ''again'' in ''The Mirador'' when [[spoiler: Gideon]] is killed. Mildmay suffers one in ''The Virtu'' when [[spoiler: Malkar tortures him]], and then again in ''The Mirador'' as he remembers all, exactly, [[spoiler: what was done to him]]. And Kay's arc in ''Corambis'' is basically one BSOD.

* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: Shannon]], and many other characters prominently featured in ''The Mirador''.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Corbie. And, after [[spoiler: Mildmay gets sick and Felix has to prostitute himself to get money for a doctor in ''Corambis'',]] Felix himself. ''Again''. Also Vincent Demabrien, in ''The Mirador''. Averted with Methony (who sold her children into slavery) and young!Felix.

* HypercompetentSidekick: Mildmay becomes this to Felix after [[spoiler: Felix casts the obligation d’âme on him]]. Mehitabel becomes this to both brothers in ''The Virtu'', since she can switch between languages and accents with ease, is familiar with the Grasslands culture, and even knows the layout of the Bastion.
* IControlMyMinionsThrough: Blood wizards and Eusebians rely on a mixture of MindControl and simple fear. [[spoiler: In ''The Virtu'', Felix casts the obligation d’âme on Mildmay, making the latter his slave through MindControl.]] Kolkhis relies on MoreThanMindControl on Mildmay and Septimus, and Malkar uses ''all'' the aforementioned techniques on Felix.

* IGaveMyWord: Felix is incensed when Mildmay suggests that they break [[spoiler: the conditions of Felix's commuted sentence]] by not going to Corambis.

* IncompatibleOrientation: Felix for Mildmay, and that's just besides the whole brother thing. Kay for Gerrard. [[spoiler: Corbie]] for Felix, as hinted at by

* InterruptedSuicide: Felix in Mélusine; he's talked down by [[spoiler: Gideon]].

* ItGetsEasier: Subverted, as time goes on, it gets more and more difficult for Mildmay to murder, until he [[spoiler: refuses to do it at all, for any reason. Like most of the things in the books, this reaps terrible consequences]].

* JustEatGilligan: Seriously, what does anybody want with a Titan clock? They don't seem to do anything except keep time, which other clocks could do, drive people to suicide and, in one case, [[spoiler: kill a bunch of sheep, keep trains from functioning, and nearly destroy the country where a clock is located]], most of which don't really sound like pluses. The Marathines wised up and destroyed theirs centuries ago, but the Kekropians are hanging on to theirs for some reason. (It proves very useful to Mildmay and Felix, but not in a way the Kekropians wanted.) Edwin Beckett also thinks restarting the Bernathan clock is a good idea, but at least his compatriots have their doubts after it starts killing people.
* JustInTime: Felix, Mildmay, and Corbie's arrival to [[spoiler: Summerdown]].

* KillerRobot: The Automaton and Titan Clocks, [[spoiler: including the extra-big one under Summerdown]].

* LieBackAndThinkOfEngland: Played straight with Mehitabel and Stephen: he's rather boring in bed, and she's only doing it [[spoiler: to gain intel for Kekropia]]: "I spread myself on the bed and tried not to think of [[SexGod Mildmay]]." However, he eventually recognizes his ineptitude and asks her to teach him how to please a lover.

* LimitedWardrobe: Mildmay never had really high-class clothes, but after he returns to Mélusine, he dresses all in black except for a white shirt [[spoiler: to match his role as Felix's esclavin]].

* MaliciousSlander: Shannon drops hints that Felix and Mildmay are engaging in incest-- a rumor that Felix finds "all the worse" because Felix [[spoiler: actually wishes it were true]].
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: It's entirely possible that Shannon isn't biologically a Teverius, but he's legally one and the family's sticking to that. [[spoiler: Augusta Fenris's conversation with Luther Littleman seems to confirm that Shannon is ''not'' of "the blood of the Teverii.]]
** Also, while Felix and Mildmay are certain that they have the same mother, Mildmay firmly states that there's no possible way they share a father. Justified since Methony was a whore and they were born six years apart [[spoiler: on different continents]].

** Felix could be the poster boy for this trope. He experiences self-loathing horror after he finds himself contemplating sex with a young prostitute, after he returns to Malkar, and on many, many other occasions. In particular, he struggles with the knowledge that he [[spoiler: forced Mildmay to kill again, and sent him straight into Malkar's tortuous clutches]]. He says it himself: "What I did to him could not possibly be described as anything other than rape." Interestingly enough, though, he still [[spoiler: orders Mildmay to kill ''again'']] later. Oh, ''Felix''. Of course, it doesn't end there--he's also haunted by his negligent role in [[spoiler: Gideon's death]] and his deliberate choice to [[spoiler: drive Isaac to suicidal insanity]].

* MysticalPlague: Caused by [[spoiler: the machine under Summerdown]] in ''Corambis''.

** Within the Lower City, Mildmay the Fox. Yes, even after he's been [[spoiler: crippled and bound to a wizard of the Mirador]].

* NoAntagonist: [[spoiler: Unlike the previous three books, ''Corambis'' doesn't have a BigBad. The big threat of the book the engine under Summerdown that Gerrard partially awoke, which is only trying to do what it was made to do and get enough energy to fire.]]

** Mildmay, when he realizes that Felix is actually going to [[spoiler: force him to murder Vey Coruscant]] and again when he finds himself captured by [[spoiler: Brinvillier Strych]].

* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler: Diokletian]] lusts after Felix because Felix reminds him of the woman he loved, who happens to have been Felix's mother. Which means there's a definite chance of [[spoiler: Diokletian]] being Felix's father. Oddly, this bothers [[spoiler: Diokletian]] a lot more than it bothers Felix, who doesn't seem to have an issue with incest.

** Felix and [[spoiler: Gideon]]'s final conversation was a quarrel, much to Felix's regret.

* PlaceWorseThanDeath: Felix apparently regards St. Crellifer's as worse than prison, at least, and [[spoiler: Isaac]] throws himself out of its third-story window.
* ThePlan: The plot to put [[spoiler: Shannon Teverius on the throne]], as formulated by [[spoiler: Vey Coruscant, Kolkhis, and a spattering of the Polydorii]].

* ThePlotReaper: Claims heavy casualties, including [[spoiler: Sherbourne Foss, Gideon Thraxios, and Gerrard Hume]].
* PoliceBrutality: When the Dogs receive a tip that [[spoiler: Mildmay is staying with Margot's pack]], they use it as an excuse to clean out (read: haul off or outright murder) a group of social undesirables, including small children.

* PredecessorVillain: Porphyria Levant and Brinvillier Strych. [[spoiler: Strych is actually a case of HijackedByGanon-- he's also Malkar Gennadion.]]

** Felix is insane through most of Mélusine, but even before getting into details, the reader can tell when he's "topside" because he's using past tense vs. "down the well" because he's using present tense. [[spoiler: After he is raped in ''Corambis'' there is a brief switch to present tense to show just how badly the events are hurting him.]]
** [[spoiler: When Mildmay is tortured nearly to insanity in ''The Virtu'', he too narrates in present tense.]]

* TheQuest: Mainly averted in ''Mélusine'', as the major goals are to survive and stay or become sane; in ''The Virtu'', repairing, well, ''The Virtu''; in ''The Mirador'', overcoming a [[spoiler: coup to overthrow Lord Stephen]]; in ''Corambis'', stopping [[spoiler: the machine under Summerdown]]. While most of the books feature a quest that would be the ultimate plot in typical fantasy, the series is somewhat unusual in its degree of focus on the characters outside of just questing.

* RapeLeadsToInsanity: Subverted. Felix goes mad after suffering a combination of MindRape and, well, the other kind in ''Mélusine'', leading Mildmay to worry about a relapse following Felix's gang rape by [[spoiler: Edwin Beckett's followers]] in ''Corambis''. Since mind rape wasn't involved this time, Felix is able to assure him he won't go crazy again.

** Mehitabel also qualifies. Aside from [[spoiler: Lord Stephen]], who she sleeps with out of necessity, her list of lovers also includes [[spoiler: Mildmay, Hallam Bellamy, Jeremias Tantony, Drin Baillie, Lionel Verlalius, Barnabas and Harcourt Malanius, Arthur Lelius, Rudolph Novadius, Antony Lemerius, Ashley Demellius, and Peter Jessamyn]]. That we know of.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Hugo Chandler!]]
** [[spoiler: Malkar is Brinvillier Strych. ]]

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Gideon, who was a major figure in ''Mélusine'', ''The Virtu'', and ''The Mirador''. His death continues to haunt Felix well into ''Corambis''.]]
* SadisticChoice: If Felix is "very good" to Malkar, Malkar may not force him to watch [[spoiler: as he tortures Mildmay to death]]. On the other hand, if Felix ''is'' very good to him, it'll likely result in the destruction of an entire country.
* SafeSaneAndConsensual: Ideally, this is the sex that's supposed to happen between tarquins and martyrs (or, in Corambis, flames and shadows). Unfortunately, Felix has a hard time adhering to the rules. Some people, such as Malkar and [[spoiler: Edwin Beckett]], don't even bother trying.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Robert of Hermione. Of course, [[spoiler: this would have worked better if he hadn't plotted to ''kill'' his main connection]].

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Felix does this several times, breaking from law and orthodoxy by [[spoiler: saving a repentant assassin from the Mirador's curse, putting the ghouls in the Mirador's lower levels to rest, and using blood to lay a ghost]].
* SecretCircleOfSecrets: The cult of the White-Eyed Lady. Initiates don't even want to ''guess'' who their fellow initiates are. However, this subverts some expectations of such secret circles-- [[spoiler: Gideon]] belongs to it, and isn't evil. While blood rites were probably a part of the cult in the past, the rituals are now symbolic.

* SexyShirtSwitch: Felix wears [[spoiler: Isaac]]'s nightshirt when Mehitabel surprises them during an intimate moment.

** A rare male example--people seem to enjoy humiliating Felix by talking about his past as a prostitute. Malkar and [[spoiler: one of his rapists at the Clock of the Eclipses]] even call him a "slut"... either right before or right after having sex with him.

* StudentTeacherRomance: Mildmay believes Corbie has a huge crush on Felix[[spoiler: and the reason Corbie sleeps with him is because Felix is gay and thus off limits.]] Felix both loves and hates Malkar, a relationship that ends badly for everyone involved.

* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: [[spoiler: Gideon]] to Felix in Mélusine.

* ATasteOfTheLash: Felix has permanent scars as a result of being whipped as a child; he also gets off on flogging sexual partners to the point of bleeding. Mildmay is covered in whip-weals when [[spoiler: Malkar Sends an image of him as a captive to Felix]].
* {{Tearjerker}}: Let's see, shall we? Basically anything involving Felix or Mildmay's childhoods, but especially Joline and Zephyr (who, as Mildmay says, "never did anything to hurt nobody"), and [[spoiler: Gideon's]] death and Felix's reaction. Also [[spoiler: everything with Mehitabel and Hallam]], and the implication that [[spoiler: Gerrard never loved Kay and may have mocked him with his wife]].

* TechnicalPacifist: Mildmay. [[spoiler: As of the ending of ''The Mirador'', Mildmay has decided not to kill anymore, but that sure as hell won't stop him from kicking your ass six ways to Dimanche, especially if you even think about harming Felix.]] But no killing!

* TraumaticHaircut: Happens to [[spoiler: Felix]] in Melusine when he's sent to St. Crellifer's.

* TryingNotToCry: Mildmay after [[spoiler: breaking up with Mehitabel]] and Mehitabel after [[spoiler: Felix and Mildmay]] get exiled.

** [[spoiler: However, this comes up most notably with Shannon: note how Shannon is a terrible prick in Felix and Mildmay's narration... but a self-aware, kind and remorseful guy in Mehitabel's.]]

* UnscrupulousHero: Felix. He risks life, limb, and sanity to save Mildmay from a horrible death... only to [[spoiler: mind-rape Mildmay into a situation that leads to his being tortured to the edge of sanity]]. He leads a pack of ''human-eating ghouls'' through a maze so their spirits can rest... and coldly manipulates a friend's unwanted ability to [[ISeeDeadPeople talk to the dead]] for the benefit of his own curiosity. He swears apparently terrifying oaths so that he can help repair the Virtu... but casually breaks his oaths when he feels like it.

* VillainTeamUp: Vey Coruscant and Malkar Gennadion in ''The Virtu''. [[spoiler: We also find out in ''The Mirador'' that Vey had been working with Kolkhis for years.]]

* WarIsHell: The aftermath, anyway, for Kay: nearly all his friends have died, he's permanently blindied, and, as punishment for his sins, he [[spoiler: winds up chained to his late beloved's coffin on [[ComeToGawk public display]]]].

* WhamLine: "Otherwise and formerly [[spoiler: known as Brinvillier Strych]]".

** Gideon also gives Felix down the road a few times: for pretending not to suffer from amnesia, for not looking after Mildmay after a traumatic incident, and for [[spoiler: constantly cheating on Gideon]].

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Kind-of, due to Felix's lust for Mildmay. [[spoiler: They don't.]] Also with Mildmay and Mehitabel... [[spoiler: They do.]] But are they in ''love''? Uh...[[note]](it should also be noted that in early drafts of the books, Mehitabel and Mildmay get ''married'')[[/note]]. And then again with Mildmay and Kay [[spoiler: they don't]], and then with Kay and Felix [[spoiler: they don't.]][[note]]But, again, in earlier drafts of the books? They totally do.[[/note]]

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: After killing [[spoiler: Malkar]], Felix takes his gems, [[spoiler: to make it appear Malkar has disappeared instead of died]]. The gems, unsurprisingly, turn out to be "saturated with noirance."

* ShoutOut: The author seems to love referencing literary works for geographical names (and occasionally characters). This can be ''extremely'' disorienting for some people wondering when the significance of places called [[TheFaerieQueene Britomart]] and [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] will kick in. (Hint: Never.)

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Strongly implied to be averted with Thamuris and Julian. Otherwise played straight by most of the cast.

* {{Red Headed Hero}}es: Felix and Mildmay.

* XMeetsY: Described [[WordOfGod by the author]]: "It's ''Literature/JaneEyre'' meets ''HuckleberryFinn''... with magic!"

* YouImaginedIt: Gideon's initial reaction to Felix's claim that the tower in Hermione is haunted.

* BlondesAreEvil: Appears to be the belief in Mélusine due to the legacy of Gloria Aestia. Her treason was so terrible she was the first annemer to be burned at the stake. Many are afraid that Shannon will be just as bad as his mother if he becomes Lord Protector.

* GangBangers: Most, if not all, of the Mèlusinien packs fall under this description. While a few of the smartest and most ruthless members, such as Kolkhis, may wind up living a more comfortable existence, the gangs mostly are hungry, badly-dressed, and on the verge of killing each other.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mildmaythefoxnarmcover.jpg

* FakeOutMakeOut: Mildmay and Mehitabel pull this one in ''The Virtu''. Apparently, it's funner than they expected.

* AbusiveParents: Basically everyone, up to and including orphans... whose parental figures were abusive enough to make up for any ambiguity.

* BrainsAndBondage: Malkar and Felix practice this, together and separately.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Due to his scar and his emotionless expression, Mildmay is consistently taken for being much older than he is. By the time ''Mélusine'' starts, he's a little over 19; when they meet, Felix thinks he's much older than that. And throughout the series, Felix often makes comments to himself about how young Mildmay actually is.