Would explain Aurora's source of infection.

 

Given that the athame that infected Lea came from Bianca, we could possibly infer a few other infectees as well--Mavra, the Black Court vamp who taught Bianca her magic, Arianna Ortega, her 'grandmother' (I think?) who orchestrated the war that would leave the White Council with much reduced numbers, or even the Red King, who was cunningly brilliant at some times yet foolishly bumbling at others.

 

... Huh, yeah. Didn't they say something about Nemesis working to turn forces of nature against each other? Mostly with how Aurora was turned against Summer, and Maeve against Winter.

Looking at it this way, Arianna's ambition to replace the Red King could be seen as another such incident; of somebody in a supernatural faction plotting against the leader of that faction.

Gods, I hope Peabody was just Black Council and not a Nemesis stooge. Because he could have infected like half the freaking White Council with his mind-affecting ink.

I mean Good God. Isn't that a terrifying thing to think? That a good portion of the Senior Council and new Wardens might have been infected by Peabody?

We can only hope that the psychic clean-up the White Council started after Turn Coat is evidence that it was "just" mundane, mortal mindfuckery.

 

You would think that the Gate Keeper would notice the Senior Council being infected.

 

Remember that Chandler said the Gatekeeper was the only Wizard he saw less often than Harry, who turned up once when he was on trial, once when he was made a Warden and then again in Turn Coat. Never since.

 

It seems... unlikely that the Gatekeeper didn't even make a cursory appearance at the end of that crisis, given that the Senior Council knows of his role in the war, and thus presumably knows of Nemesis as well.

 

I love how Murphy always has a hardon for somehow controlling Dresden in whatever way she can. I got a good chuckle when she had Dresden leave behind Bob, made me imagine just how she'd react to knowing about Demonreach's purpose and Dresden's role in it.

Goddamnit I hate that controlling cunt.

Also, this book, so fucking good. When's the next one?

 

The part with the swords ticked me off the most. Seriously, an archangel gave him the responsibility to handle them. And she just takes them off his hands because she feels it appropriate?

Meeeh. That annoyed me. She needs to die horribly soon.

 

In Small Favor, Nicodemus warns Harry about opening a Way on Demonreach, telling him he knew what lived on the other side. Was he referring to the prison and the dark gods and such, or is it something else entirely?

 

Quite probably. If Harry was to head down there before doing the Sanctum Invocation, or learning what it was all about, he could do some major damage that would Not End Well for the world at large, and for him personally.

 

If getting at the prisoners was as simple as opening a way, it would be a pretty crap prison.

More likely is that the other side is merely extremely unpleasant and unusually potent, reflecting the presence of the prisoners.

 

Yeah.. I mean she isn´t even a knight so she has absolutely no authority about those swords. I think and hope that this will be remedied in the next book or so.. possible by giving them to the russian guy for safekeeping. I mean she has no chance of stopping Dresden or any other moderately powerful foe if they really want them. And this also means that she stole from Winter which could make her a target for Mab or Lea who could be interested in controlling those things through Dresden.
I think that her passages are the worst in the whole book and the feel even unnatural to me, especially Dresden declaring his undying love.
It is also ironic that she has fallen a lot more into the Darkness than Dresden. (No social contacts, depended on Marcone and his mercenaries and willing to threaten/steal friends to get what she wants (Bob, the swords). In my opinion Jim Butcher uses her as an example of what happens if an ordinary human interacts to long with the supernatural.. She is falling apart and powerless to stop this.

Don´t think that Peabody was infected... the strongest weapon that Nemesis has is secrecy. Poisoning the Council would like declaring war on the rest of the supernatural world. There also no need to control everybody directly.. for example it would be enough to poison a general and a few officers to control an army so it is possible that it uses a similar tactic to control various groups.

 

Murphy didn't steal shit. She became the guardian of the swords while Dresden was mostly dead. Now that he's back, odds are pretty good that they'll end up in his possession again, but she never stole them.

And she especially never stole anything from Winter. Even if she did steal the Swords, Dresden wasn't Winter until after they were out of his possession.

Also, note how she more-or-less explicitly stated that God said to not use the Swords in the events of Cold Days.

As for Peabody, think about what you said and what Peabody did. It would actually make a colossal amount of sense for Peabody to spread the Nemesis infection to, at minimum, the Senior Council with the psychic ink.

 

Personally, I think that nobody important in the White Council is infected. Sure, we were told that not even the Gatekeeper can be always sure if Nemesis controls someone or not, but I think it goes both ways and Nemesis can't be sure if he will remain undetected. If he tried to possess a wizard, it would be someone who has a small chance of meeting Rashid.

 

Plus, Harry is in a majorly bad position at the moment. If he goes dark side it could be catastrophic. He's the Winter Knight, Warden of Demonreach, a (somewhat) trusted Warden of the White Council, one of a handful of people who knows how to do the Darkhallow, a potential Denarian and Starborn (whatever that means)... If he truly went off the deep end he'd be worse than Kemmler ever was, and if the Swords were in his possession at the time the world would lose two of what would be the only weapons that could stand a chance of killing him.

So I'm with Murphy on this one. Harry's closer than ever to becoming a monster; it makes sense to keep some of the most powerful tools the good guys have from him. You'd have to be stupid not to.

 

I actually agree with you here. I don't think it's likely that more than one or two people in the White Council are infected (and the ones that are are probably in positions like Peabody, where they blend into the background), but from a "subvert the Council" perspective, having Peabody infect one or more members of the Senior Council would be immensely useful.

Nemesis may judge it worth the risk, considering that if he gets away with it, the only noteworthy mortal resistance would be gone.

 

So watch exactly does Nemesis do?

Maeve and Aurora don't seem to be under direct control. Rather, they turn against their core nature--they want and can lie and seek to thwart the purpose of their courts.

The purpose of the Summer Court is to protect the world from the Winter Court, and Aurora tries to destroy that. The purpose of the Winter Court is to protect against the Outsiders, and Maeve tries to let them in.

The corrupted minds are much more interesting if they aren't controlled, just changed.

Unfortunately, Cat Sith seems to have his will and memories stripped from him, and his is under the direct control of something else. That's a rather firm example of my pleasing notion being wrong.

 

Cat Sith was also pretty pathetic when he was fully under the control of Nemesis, despite being hyped to be really powerfull earlier in the book.

Odds are that those who are corrupted and changed against their natures (Maeve, Aurora) are the dangerous ones, while those like Cat Sith who have their minds crushed are basically just useless cannon fodder.

Much like with the denarians, Nicodemus works with his fallen and is incredibly dangerous, while someone like Magog who does not, is just a near-mindless brute thats easily taken out.

 

Does anyone else think that maybe Justin DeMourne was controlled by Nemsis? Possibly?Maybe?No?Yes?