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"What happens if it stays in there?" I asked.

"IT BURSTS FORTH FROM YOUR SKULL."

Seem pretty clear to me. Also seems like something a Fallen shadow would not, and indeed could not, do.

There's a difference between altering perception (i.e. illusions, removal of pain, ect) and physically controlling parts of Harry's body without his consent. The Shadows are all about consent. And I'm pretty sure Harry never gave his consent for her to control his limbic system, or keep his heart pumping.

 

Honestly trying to link the parasite and Lash seems like a really big stretch. While I can't figure out who else Lash could possibly be, at the same time it's really not evident at all, and Butcher's the type of author who would foreshadow something like that.

It just doesn't seem likely, and when it's that unlikely it would be bad storytelling to break with conventions when it can be done perfectly well another way. Why are we all so focused on the parasite being Lash, when it's perfectly possible she's something else entirely?

 

I checked and this is what happened as simply as possible.

Harry starts to experience a headache that is caused by the parasite, Demonreach warns the parasite, the headache disappears.

Demonreach cannot tell more, because the parasite made a bargain with Demonreach that it not tell Harry anything. Demonreach believes that without this bargain, the Parasite would have let Harry die.

Harry asks if the Parasite is a danger to him (not if it will kill him, he asks if its a danger). Demonreach says it wll be, in time. Harry asks what will happen then. Demonreach says the Parasite will "BURSTS FORTH FROM YOUR SKULL". Harry instantly flashes to the movie Alien, and becomes convinced this means death.

He asks how to get it out of his head. Demonreach says "Ask Grasshopper", which presumably means Molly.

Now there are some things to consider.
1.The Parasite is causing Harry severe physical pain in the form of migraines, and has been doing so for quite some time now.

2.When Demonreach tells it to stop, it stops and the pain Harry experiences vanishes instantly.

3.The Parasite was either willing to let Harry die, or at the very least deceived Demonreach that it would, if the island did not make a bargain to keep the truth of it from Harry.

4.The Parasite does not want Harry to know the truth of its nature, which is why it demanded the bargain.

5.The Parasite will eventually cause damage to Harry. Demonreach says it will "BURSTS FORTH FROM [his] SKULL" when it does.

6.Demonreach implies that Molly can offer assistance, or atleast know where such assistance can be received.

Is it Lash? Lash seemed pretty friendly there at the end, and infact Butcher apparently confirmed that Harry had "changed" her. She risked self-destruction to save Harry. Lets consider it in light of what we know.

1.Pain
Why would Lash now cause Harry severe pain? It is possible ofcourse, that she is either unaware she is causing pain or unable to easily prevent it. For example, the pain might be caused by her being active in the damaged sections of Harrys brain.

2.Stops pain on command
A command from Demonreach stops the pain. This could mean that if it was Lash and if she was unaware she was causing pain, knowledge of it was enough to make her stop what she was doing since she did not wish to cause Harry harm. The problem is, that she would be aware of it afterwards so the warning would be necessary only once.
Unless its something that Lash has difficulty stopping. It might for example be, that if the pain is caused by activity in damaged parts of Harrys brain, something innocuous and difficult to stop is responsible. It could for example be, that she causes pain by thinking about something too hard. Or by experiencing certain emotions. Or reaching to Harry. Or something.

3&4.Bargain and ignorance
This is the part most difficult to fit with Lash. If it is Lash, then we already know she does not want Harry to die, since she was willing to risk death to prevent it before. Furthermore, if Harry dies, Lash dies, so she would even have a selfish motivation to prevent Harrys death at all cost. Why would she then make bargains to prevent something that she would be highly motivated to prevent anyway?

It is possible that she would have done it regardless, but took the opportunity to deceive Demonreach, and the bargain was unnecessary. However Mab was there, and while Demonreach could have been deceived by its lack of understanding about Lash, would Mab have been so easily deceived? Maybe, Lash is a shadow of a fallen so she might be capable of deceiving even Mab. Or maybe Mab was not deceived, but felt no need to stop Lash from deceiving Demonreach. Harry did not ask Mab about the parasite, so there might be no bargain there.

However, a more important question is, WHY would Lash want Harry to be ignorant? Would she not want the exact opposite? Would she not want Harry to know that she is still alive and needs help. After what happened, she must surely realise that Harry would do what he could to assist her, if he knew she was still alive in the damaged parts of his brain. What possible motive could there be, for Lash to want Harry to remain ignorant.

I suppose one possibility is what Agayek said, and reconnection itself could be unintentionally fatal (stroke for example). If so, keeping Harry ignorant could be a form of protection, since if Harry knew, he might try to consciously seek Lash out and kill himself in the process.

5&6.Damage and Molly
It should be noted that at no point is it utterly confirmed that Lash will kill Harry. Or atleast intentionally. Harry only asks if Lash could cause damage (not death). And given the difficulty Demonreach has with communicating, its possible that the "bursts forth from Harrys skull" thing does not mean what Harry thinks. He instantly connects it to Alien-movie, and thinks of the Parasite bursting forth physically from his skull in blood and gore. But Demonreach is a spirit, and likely has not watched Alien. What it considers "bursting forth" could be something entirely different, such as a mental or spiritual form of (re)birth.

Strictly speaking, we don't even know with absolute certainty if this bursting will be bad. It might simply mean that Lash will heal enough to reconnect to Harry, and Demonreach considers this a form of "damage" even though Harry himself might not, because it does not understand the true relationship between Harry and Lash. Likewise, "bursting forth" might simply mean that Lash will be strong enough to make mental contact with Harry, rather than any kind of violent bursting.

Another possibility is what Agayek said, and if a connection is made too early, the shock might unintentionally cause a stroke or otherwise cause some form of severe psychic damage to Harry. Perhaps Lash's return has to be carefully regulated, to prevent her from "bursting in" without warning with all her knowledge and overwhelming Harry through the initial contact. I could see a spiritual entity such as Lash just instantly reconnecting could be comparable to say looking at the angel in Ghost Story through Sight (which the angel claimed would have harmed Harry). Too much information too quickly for Harry to handle without harm. The real Lasciel in the coin could have done this regulating the first time when Lash was originally created, and this time Molly has to do it and slowly and gently "ease" Lash into appearance to make the whole process easier for Harrys mind to handle.

EDIT: response to Raine, which happened while I was writing.

Not physically no, but as I said the fact remains that it could be a misunderstanding between an inhuman spirit and the physical Harry. Bob was not translating here, and the difficulty in communicating is made clear in the book. This might NOT mean what Harry thinks it means.

There are two problems here.

First is that Harrys soul was not in the body, and that could radically change things. Its possible that its the presence of a soul that requires consent, and Lash was able to do much more and her reach was much greater with the body being basically just an empty husk which was waiting for Harry to return.

We don't know if Lash IS a shadow anymore. She implied that the real Lasciel would not accept her back after what she did in WN, and Bob said that in order to defy the real Lasciel, she would have had to link herself to another power source, which Bob believes was Harrys soul. The rules we observed earlier, when Lash was still connected to Lasciel might not all be in existence anymore.

 

Because apparently nobody can be assed to go back and reread Ghost Stories and list all of the unknown unexplained things that could have been her. I know I can't. I've got shit to do this weekend.

The prevailing theory was that Lash was the Parasite. That's apparently carried over into the new book, even though the evidence is really starting to stack up against it. But I know there's at least one other unexplained entity that meddled in Ghost Stories, because I remember making a remark about it on another forum. When I can get around to it, I'll do some digging, and see if I can't start citing things. Because I know there's at least one other thing that could have been Lash. And I'm pretty sure there was more than one loose end besides the Parasite. There were a couple of things that were off.

[EDIT]

The girl. I just remembered now. I'm almost positive that there was a little girl in the graveyard that talked to Harry. That could have been her. It would make more sense than the Parasite, even, because Lash, as a relatively new being, would be quite young, so it makes sense that, when acting autonomously, she would appear as a young girl, metaphysically speaking.

Or I could be sleep-deprived and remembering things wrong. But I'm pretty sure there was a little girl that was never explained.

---------- Post automerged at 04:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:33 AM ----------

Also, Eternal Silence, also from the graveyard, who could only talk in explosive words that literally disintegrated Harry into "Dresden colored mist." Silence would be an obvious manifestation of Demonreach. . . if it wasn't for the fact that we were just told that Demonreach can't even leave the island, because he is the island. So it couldn't have been him. Or at least, probably wasn't.

So there's a mysterious girl that some people think might have been Mab but could have been anything that knew a lot about spirits and gave Harry advice, and there's a giant amorphous shadow that explodes things when it talks that would obviously have been Demonreach, if that weren't apparently impossible.

So that's two, right there.

 

Butcher said both Demonreach and Mab had proxies present there.

The Eternal Silence statue which nearly annihilated Harry by just talking, was a a proxy of Demonreach.

The girl was Mab.

Or so its believed. I am unsure if that has been confirmed by Butcher directly, but it seems likely given her words about Harry becoming a monster and the comparison to Mab at the end saying that she would make Harry into her monster. Either way Mab was there somewhere and I believe she fits the girl very well. I should reread, but this is very likely indeed.

That basically leaves only two unnamed things. The fallen in the church that spoke the 7 words, and the parasite. The fallen was confirmed to be an actual fallen (which is why Uriel could act in response) rather than a shadow, so it could not be Lash. That unfortunately leaves only 1 unexplained left.


Basically, Mab was in the book, Demonreach was in the book, Lasciel was in the book and Lash was in the book. Those are confirmed by Butcher.

Statue was Demonreach
Girl was (very likely) Mab.
Fallen that killed Harry was almost certainly Lasciel, acting out of the coin without host, which was why Uriel could balance her action.
The parasite was left unexplained, but there is only 1 thing left.

Unless you can come up with some unnamed thing separate from the already explained ones above for Lash.


EDIT: Ok, found it

Girl was Mab.

 

The parasite is Nemesis, and it infected Harry in Fool Moon, when he used the Hexenwulf belts.

His 'starborn' powers means he's more difficult to control, and a total mind wipe can't be done on him, unlike Cat Sith.

The part of Nemesis that is infecting him wouldn't want Harry to know he's been infected, for obvious reasons.

 

That would explain things, but there are problems.

1.Mab can cure those who want to be cured of Nemesis infection as she did with Lea, and Harry would want to be cured, no matter how unpleasant the process.

2.Mab would not trust Harry to deal with Maeve (Nemesis), if he had Nemesis in his own brain too. And she would know, since she was there when the Parasite was maintaining the bloodflow and would have to know of the things presence.

3.We know Lash was somewhere in Ghost Story, because Butcher confirmed she was. We know she was not named as Lash however. And despite what Raine thinks, LOTS of people on the official forums HAVE reread the book repeately looking for anyhing that could be her. The parasite is basically the only thing she could possibly be, since everything else is accounted for.


EDIT:
Saw an interesting possibility on the official forums that I thought I would mention.

What if its both? We know an outsider infection can allow an entity to change ones nature. Maeve could lie. Lash was last seen battling a powerfull outsider in a psychic duel. What if she got infected, or even allowed herself to be infected so she could change her nature away from Lasciel. Maybe the Parasite is just Lash infected by Nemesis.

 

Just because Mab cured Lea, it does not mean she can cure anyone. We have no idea how she did it. It's entirely possible that it's not repeatable.

 

Just because Mab cured Lea, it does not mean she can cure anyone. We have no idea how she did it. It's entirely possible that it's not repeatable.

 

It is, Mab told Maeve in Cold days that she could cure her but Maeve refused which shows the cure is repeatable but the recipient must be willing

 

Doesn't really demonstrate much: Lea and Maeve were very similar beings.

 

Not seeing your point there Taure. Mab has commented that she could have cured Maeve, had she been willing, as Lea was. Hence, she has the ability to repeat the 'cure' of Nemesis. Granted, it is not infallible, but it is repeatable.

 

Probably not true free will mortal style, but it does seem that influence by Nemesis allows beings to break free of things that would normally be binding to their nature.

For example, Maeve cannot lie. It is literally in the very nature of the sidhe that this is so. Nemesis breaks this, and nemesis!Maeve CAN lie. Its possible this could extend to making decisions/choices with greater freedom than normal for a sidhe. I would expect however that the freedom could be an illusion and in actuality the victim is doing what Nemesis wants, more and more without even realising it.

We don't really know why Lea wanted a cure and Maeve did not. The whole question of free will is a bit unclear, but its clear sidhe have preferences even without it. I could see Lea deciding that the benefits of Nemesis were not worth it to her so she wanted a cure. But perhaps Maeve who was more bound by the Winter Lady mantle found the idea of "freedom" offered by Nemesis to be far more tempting than Lea did, and so she did not want to be cured.

Its not like the sidhe are all mindless drones or copies of each other, even without free will. They are all different from each other and would react differently to each other when placed in the same situation.

But the point is that Mab can force Nemesis out so long as the victim wants Nemesis out too and is willing to work with Mab to achieve it. And knowing what Harry knows now, we can be virtually certain that he would accept a cure.

The only possibility is that maybe the cure Mab can offer only works on other sidhe, and a mortal, even a Winter Knight, cannot take advantage of it. However if true, I cannot imagine that she would let Harry remain in a position as important as he is. Well, not unless he had reason to believe that Harry could fight off the infection his own, which is admittedly possible thanks to the whole "starborn" and "power over outsiders" thing Harry had going for him.

On the other hand, that would NOT fit with the parasite, since thats apparently something Molly can help with.

 

I'm not even sure she's capable of that. Lea mentioned (after she'd been cured) that even thinking about Nemesis could make her vulnerable again. Could be that Nemesis can't be cured in the traditional sense, but can be walled away so that it can't affect the infected.

Also, if I'm remembering my Greek mythology correctly, the goddess Athena was said to have burst forth fully formed from Zeus' skull. Granted Harry isn't a God, but there are different interpretations to be had here.

 

The way Mab talks about it, and from what we saw in Arctis Tor, I'm not sure if it's so much that Mab cures the person as much as it is that she creates the conditions for the person to overcome it/change their behaviour. Possibly through using torture to bend a person to her will.

Tomato: the point is that it may not be repeatable on Dresden. Either because he isn't fae, or because he isn't fully a creature of Winter (and thus under Mab's complete juristiction - he still has his own will), or maybe simply because his character is not appropriate for the kind of cure Mab's offering.

 

They were both fairies. And from what we saw, the process seems to involve close proximity to the Fount for extended periods of time. It could easily be a trick that only works on fairies. If I had to guess, Mab basically waterboarded Lea in Winter Energy until she got better.

Assuming it would even work on Harry, it would presumably drive him completely batshit insane; see the end of this book, only a million times worse and with no applicable Saving Throw. And that's assuming that, for one, it could work on him at all, because he's still human and mortal in spite of being a member of the Winter Court, so it could be like giving dog medicine to a fish, and for another, he still has his own free will, so she may not be able to do it to him at all, even if it would work.

Yes. Or so we assume. Demonreach can't leave it's island, so Eternal Silence has some explaining to do, and the girl could have been anyone.

Entirely possible, and plausible. But then again, that raises further questions, like how Demonreach managed to just bitchslap it down when it was giving Harry a migraine.

 

It was demonreach. Mab helped project it out of the island. This was directly confirmed by Butcher in the recent net QA just before Cold Days came out. And the girl was Mab, once again confirmed by Butcher. So, either Butcher directly lied, or Lash is unrelated to the girl or statue. I tend to think Butcher was being honest with his fans.

Thats why everyone is so certain the Parasite is Lash. Because all the other possibilities are either impossible (Fallen who lied when Lash is just a shadow) or confirmed to be false by direct Word Of God (Statue,Girl). Butcher has kinda talked himself accidentally into a corner with repeated WOG and not remembering what he had revealed before, so we are in a situation where Lash has to be somehow related to the parasite since there is nothing else left. Unless ofcourse you can come up with some new idea, but like I said, I have read lots of threads on the official forums and there are people with lots of time who have virtually dissected the book looking for Lash. And the parasite is still the only thing left. Thats why people are trying to fit the two together somehow.

Yeah, true. And just by warning rather than acting too. Demonreach is strong, but I doubt its as strong as Nemesis is if the thing is going to be the "final villain" of the series, which looks atleast somewhat likely. Then again, we don't know how Nemesis works exactly, it seems to be more like somekind of borg-like entity that can exist in multiple minds simultaneously, and can survive if one of those minds dies (I doubt Maeves death hurt Nemesis directly, only its plans).

If so, its possible that Demonreach could affect Nemesis-in-Harry, since Demonreach would only be affecting one tendril(in Harry) out of thousands(?), rather than the entire organism as it were.

 

I will say this, if the Parasite is Nemesis then what exactly Molly is suppose to do about it? Also gets infected? I don't think so. The Parasite must be something that an inexperienced wizard girl can help with.

 

Has anyone pondered Murphy being infected by Nemesis, this being the reason she is so cuntishly hoarding Bob and the Swords of the Cross?