Mab, Little Chicago, and Demon Reach, Aka the get out of dead free plan
by Ms DucK
Ok, let’s go back a bit:
Grave Peril:
Here is where we first meet the winter Sidhe. And here is where it is established that Harry traded Lea his ‘life, fortune, and future’ in exchange for the power to beat Justin. (power he already had, and only needed to believe in himself, but hey.) It is also established that by breaking his word three times, his own power turns against him, his very magic now trying to force him to keep his vow. Harry later bluffs Lea (or so he believes) into an extension, but the debt- life, fortune, and future- remains in force. And then, of course, Mab buys that debt from Lea, in order to balance the scales between them. (This btw means that Harry is worth as much to Mab as the original Morgan lefay’s dagger, or fricking Excalibur)
Also in this book we see Harry exit the NN near his apartment, and describe the area of his apt as a shadow version of itself. This is important later, as neither Bob or Harry remember these events in Changes.
At some point soon after this book Lea builds her secret entrance into Harry’s lab; she can now enter or leave his place at will (as well as protect the NN side) since Harry’s magic and thresholds are no longer an impediment to her- since she owns them.
Summer Knight:
Enter Mab. Cue rock and roll music, with extra rocks in.
Mab demonstrates that the clause is still in full effect, by making Harry stab himself. They renegotiate; Mab allows Harry a chance to buy himself free, in return for three tasks. The limits are Harry can say No, with no reprisals; the deal remains solely between them; she cannot send lackey’s to chastise or force him by proxy.
When Mab leaves, she hurts him, both out of spite and to let the reader know the original clause is still in effect- she still owns his life, future, and fortune; he only has a chance to earn his freedom.
At the end she offers him the knighthood, and agrees that all debts between them will be canceled if he accepts.
Proven Guilty:
Now here is our famous mystery. Who entered Harry’s lab, without his or Bob’s knowledge, and fixed Little Chicago? And why? Who would know about it at all? Back In 2006 JenniH posted that she didn’t think Mab was responsible for PG, as she would not sacrifice a main servitor. Jim replied:
Mab as orchestrator of all is just a little much for me to swallow. Seems like she loses a lot more than she gains, and I don't think Mab is big on coming out behind in her negotiations.
Yeah. It sure looks that way from here, don't it.
But to correct some minor stuff: the fetches aren't even /close/ to her strongest servitors. They're her couriers, harassers, spies and occasional assassins. Captain Kudzu was a being that was deemed more-or-less sufficient on the badassometer, but nothing to write home about. The fetches main use, to Mab, isn't as battlefield thugs. She's got /plenty/ of other things for that. Another mild correction: who says Mab /lost/ the battle at Arctis Tor, before Harry and Company arrived? At the end of the day, the Winter Queen was still in her fortress--but you didn't see anyone standing around assaulting the place, did ya. Also, it has probably occurred to more than one of you that if Mab was /really/ in trouble, she could have had the entire military might of Faerie back at the fortress in moments--exactly the way they *did* come back when Harry smacked the Winter Well with the fires of Summer.
(Which goes to show that while Mab may be canny to an inhuman degree, she isn't infallible. Just way closer to infallible than us.)
See above regarding "the question is *why*?"
Ask yourself why Mab had Molly brought in. What chain of events did that set in motion? What secondary effects came about because of it? Ultimately, Mab can always go to the Wyld and draw in more muscle to replace fallen thugs. If worst comes to worst, with just a few "seed" fae, she could rear up enough Changelings to repopulate her cadre within a human generation or two--nothing, to a being thousands of years old.
As far as she's concerned, everyone and everything is expendable, including herself, when it comes to adhering to her (seemingly irrational and inexplicable) priorities.
(And by the way--don't think Titania is much better. When push came to shove, she let her own daughter be murdered rather than upset the balance of the Faerie Courts. At least Mab is up front about it. Usually.)
Sacrifice her best troops? Mab would sacrifice every creature *in* Winter, every one she could bring from Summer, and every single mortal on planet Earth if that's what she thought was appropriate. And she wouldn't even need to add extra sugar to her cup of tea afterwards, much less lose sleep over it.
But no one does cold-blooded like the Queen of Winter. Mab's been in the business a long time, she's got a balance sheet, and she is *not* going to come out in the red--
--unless, of course, she really *has* stripped a gear, as Lily and Maeve believe. In which case there's a stark raving bonkers demigoddess whose powers are no longer being held in check by the Escher-esque code of Sidhe behavior. And that's all kinds of bad.
But hey. It's probably not that. I mean, not *everything* that happens can be the absolute worst possible possibility, right?
Jim
The part about Mab being mad (with evil smiley face) was later contradicted by Jim when someone else guessed that Mab was not insane, but wounded.
Note that this post confirms two things, long suspected: That Mab had Molly brought in, and that Mab and Titania worked together to kill Aurora. And he specifically addressed the chain of events that this caused. Said chain could not have occurred unless Harry and co could reach actris tor, thus for the Plan to work Mab is required to fix it; which she could easily do; just walk thru the bottom door, fix things, and tell Bob to forget it happened.
White Night
Only a small maybe cameo here: The base was built by the Sidhe (think Mab left a hidey hole?)( confirmed in TC, how Did Titania get Morgan out?) and Anastasia complains of headaches, sex drives, and a strange female voice whispering to her in her dreams.
Small Favor
Now this is where life gets interesting.
Mab outright (she admits it) takes Harry’s blasting rod and then makes him forget she took it. What she leaves behind is the image of a tarp, and a splitting headache.
“pain stabbed into my head, ice picks plunging into both temples. I flinched and doubled over. Blasting rod. Familiar words. I fought to summon an image of what went with the words, but I could not find anything. I knew the memory associated with those words, but try as I might, I couldn’t drag it out. It was like a shape covered by some heavy tarp…”
The second thing that happens in this book is Harry meets the isle for the first time.
There is also a small in-joke here; when researching gruff, harry find a Calvin and Hobbes book. For the non fans, the last strip of the comic had Calvin ( the too bright smart alleck) and Hobbes ( his wiser but snarky and horny friend only he can talk too) head off into a eternal winter wonderland of snow, magic, and snow goons. (yes, Mab left him a book)
Turn Coat and the two clue bats:[
There is a WOJ saying we missed two clues in TC. Elegast.]
The first clue is on page 211 After Thomas is taken, Harry searched for him magically, but never uses or mentions Little Chicago. (although damaged in WN, it is fixed by this time, note SJ).. all he describes is:
“a long table in the center of the room is covered by a canvas tarp.
.
Now it is important that not only does he not mention it ( he does in every other book, whether he uses it or not, he is very proud of it.) but Bob does not mention it either.
And almost the very first thing he mentions in the books is his splitting blinding headache.
The second clue is on page 215 Mouse come over to talk to him, gets Harrys attention, and then when Harry bends down, harry gets a second blinding headache, and loses his train of thought. This is important because it is shown later that Mouse could have found Thomas, and he certainly believed he was a match for shaggy, or at least that harry and he together were.So someone covered the table, removed the memory from Harry and Bob, and gave Harry a headache just in time to prevent him from rescuing Thomas.
Why would Mab do this? Two possible reasons: First, she believes Harry and Mouse were not a match for shaggy, or she needed Harry to bond with Demonreach for another later purpose, and Thomas being in trouble was the goad she used to get harry to do something this drastic.
Now another side note- Back to Anastasia. Harry and Rashid discuss why The black council had Anna fall for Harry, and are unable to come up with why; largely because putting Anna and Harry together is what caused the fall of their plan. The reason is because the BC was not responsible. Mab was. The BC used her as an assassin, but by sending her to harry, Mab was able to screw up all their plans.
Now to Changes, GS, and beyond:
Mab has a problem. She has immense power, but is limited by the rules; she can only channel as much power into mortal realms as a single mortal vessel (her knight) can hold. So she needs a new knight with the capacity for some serious fire power. Her second problem is her enemies are acting in the shadows, keeping their true natures hidden. So how to lure them out?
- Get a major knight
- get the knight a way out of death free card (Demonreach, with help from lash)
- make it so the knight appears to have been killed
- bad guys come out of their roach holes, as planned
- bring back 6 billion dollar knight, with extra crispy Demonreach power
- make popcorn, enjoy
Other possible suspects for fixing LC:
- Eb- if he had known what was going on, he would have shown up to help.
- Rashid- even if he somehow knew, he had no way into the apartment
- Future Harry- wont ever happen. Harry, if he could change time, would have saved all the kids in PG, not just fixed LC. And to heck with the consequences.
- Uriel- only intervenes to balance the dark side’s efforts.
- Lea- was an icicle.
- Lash- if she could take over Harry’s body, she would do more than fix LC.