True, but if he goes back on his part of the deal (acting against Winter's interests), he loses the benefits of it. Seems fairly straight forward to me.

 

I suppose it could be argued whether a body is really restored to health if the only thing that keeps it going is the Mantle. The question is - if Harry stopped being the Winter Knight and not because of his fault, would it leave him paralysed or not? If the answer is yes then Mab didn't fulfil their bargain.

 

Not really. The deal is 'I will be your Knight on the conditions that before my service begins, you restore my body to health, that you grant me time
enough to rescue my daughter and take her to safety, and strength and knowledge enough to succeed, and you give me your word that you will never command me to lift my hand against those I love.'

Did Mab restore his body to health in Changes? Yup.

Did she give him time, strength, and knowledge enough to succeed? Yup.

Has she commanded he lift a hand against those he loved? Nope.

Mab's kept her end of the bargain completely. It's not her fault there was no clause as to what had to happen to his body after he rescued his daughter. And if Harry wanted to deal in good faith with the Fae, maybe he shouldn't have tried to back out of the deal the second he got what he wanted.

 

Anyway, whether you disagree or not it does bring up a certain problem with wearing multiple mantles.

Can Odin as a god lie? Or because he also has the fae mantle of Kringle is he obliged to say only the truth.

 

Well, I'm arguing that she did not if the Mantle is what keeps Harry standing. Instead of healing his body, I see it more like giving him a magically powered exoskeleton that lets him walk. That's why I asked what would happen if Harry lost it not because of his fault.

Anyway, this argument about details of his bargain gave me an idea for a short story. A famous advocate John Milton from Milton, Chadwick & Waters offers Harry that he will represents him in dealings with Fae and help him leave his position as the Winter Knight without losing ability to walk. He even suggest that they may be able to help Molly as well. All that for a reasonable price in dollars, so even though Dresden is a little suspicious he agrees.

The catch that he is not aware of is that the bad guys really want Harry to stop serving Mab and that's why they are so generous in their offering of helping him with it.

 

He probably can't lie while wearing the Santa disguise.

 

Could work as the basis for a Dresden/Angel crossover, with Wolfram & Heart being the lawyers. Albeit probably not a good crossover, but still.

 

I prefer it to be The Devil's Advocate crossover.

 

Pretty sure Mab would be the preferable option to any lawyer.

 

Heh. Then again, Mab wrote the Accords. I'd like to see a lawyer try to best her at her own game.

 

Sadly, Harry does not have a legal leg to stand on. The terms of the agreement were, and I quote, “That before my service begins, you restore my body to health."

Prior to his service beginning, he was in great health for the entire duration. Magically aided health, perhaps, but if Harry wanted more then that, perhaps he should have worked on his contract, more.

 

How exactly do you propose to define health as "being magically augmented as to not allow your current condition to worsen and allow you to operate as if uninjured" and not "free from injury"?

Which one of those definitions seems more like these.

To be healthy (or to have health) by definition cannot be temporary, otherwise you aren't well, you are just (very convincingly) acting well.

 

According to Uriel in Changes, it would take 40-50 years for the wizard healing to restore Harry, and even then there is the chance that it won't work due to the severity of it.

The books are not going to take 50 years.

So either Harry will remain a Winter Knight, or he will find some other way of artificially healing himself faster than normal.

 

If he ever takes Injun Joe up on his shapeshifting offer (don't know why Butcher would put that in there if Harry never does), as a healer he could maybe help accelerate the repair with magic. We don't really know the details of healing magic yet as far as I remember.

 

Don't be ridiculous. That's like saying an Olympic Athelete isn't healthy because he could get shot in the face tomorrow. Health is temporary, by default.

Harry is and was free of injury after Mab was done. His back and body worked perfectly well and did not at any time up to saving his daughter falter, as per the deal. Notice how even with iron under his skin, it holds up fine. It's just when he tries to stop being the Winter Knight, knowingly or not, that it stops working--which is natural, as it's in return for him being the Winter Knight.

 

Hm, now I'm wondering. If Dresden had done something like he did in Cold Days that went against Winter Knight rules, but during Changes, would he have still lost the perks of the mantle? Or was he in the clear due to his deal with Mab?

 

His deal with Mab is explicitly "leave me fully intact and unhindered until I rescue my daughter, then I'll be your Knight". He would have been fine if he lost the mantle then, physically at least.

That said, if he wasn't actively trying to rescue his daughter and lost the mantle, he may have reacquired his injuries.

 

Can you cite where Fey don't count as "shades/spirits?" Because last time I checked, the Nevernever is more commonly known as the Spirit World. Nevernever is just one of presumably several proper names for it.

Unless one of the books pulls a Rip Van Winkle, it'll take too long. Every mortal besides Molly would be either old or dead by the time Harry's back will be better. Assuming it gets better, because it was said it might not.

Joe didn't offer to teach Harry how to shapeshift. He offered to teach Harry ways to manage anger.

 

All I'm going to say on this is that the onus is generally on the person making the assertion to provide proof, rather than the other way around.