Unsolved Mystery Book3 Cowl

[Arjan]

Cowl only touched one thing, the Knife, while it may have been the vector that endangered the whole Winter Court with Nemesis...  It is my theory that Lea was already infected..  Ask yourself what her motives were when Harry screwed up and Am fell into her hands?  Was she looking to gain that Knife for her Queen, or to make herself more powerful?  Why would she want to aid Bianca in the first place to unmake a Holy Sword since at that moment as far as we know the Winter Court didn't have an ax to grind with either the Red Court or the Holy Knights..

Both Mab and Lea herself after she was cured disagree.

Lea needed something of equal worth to the athame to exchange gifts with the red court and the sword was suitable. Otherwise she had to balance things in some other unpredictable way. As it turned out is was as she claimed a treacherous gift. She had been betrayed and she had to balance that out as she did in changes with Harry's help.

It would not have been a treacherous gift if she was already infected. It all makes it more likely that Cowl himself was infected.

[Rasins]

Both Mab and Lea herself after she was cured disagree.

Lea needed something of equal worth to the athame to exchange gifts with the red court and the sword was suitable. Otherwise she had to balance things in some other unpredictable way. As it turned out is was as she claimed a treacherous gift. She had been betrayed and she had to balance that out as she did in changes with Harry's help.

It would not have been a treacherous gift if she was already infected. It all makes it more likely that Cowl himself was infected.

I agree with you, however, to play devils advocate .... Unless the true treachery of the Athame hasn't been revealed yet.

[Kindler]

I agree with you, however, to play devils advocate .... Unless the true treachery of the Athame hasn't been revealed yet.

Let's work backwards for a second: how did Cowl get the Athame in the first place? If it's an artifact with enough power that Lea was able to challenge Mab, how the crap did he manage to find it?

[Arjan]

Let's work backwards for a second: how did Cowl get the Athame in the first place? If it's an artifact with enough power that Lea was able to challenge Mab, how the crap did he manage to find it?

Cowl is senior council level and had a sidekick as strong as Harry. He can find an ancient relic if he spends a few decades looking for it.

[dspringer1]

4) I wonder if the black council expected some other gift from Lea -- although the knights sword was probably welcomed...  That they would get a return gift was clearly known.

Since Bianca turned around and gave it to Mavra, I can only assume that they knew it was coming.

Why, that presumes way too much future knowledge.  The easiest explanation is that they had something else in mind for Mavra.  However, the sword was a much better gift on many levels so they just changed the plan.   After all, Mavra is already working with black council and did not really need a super special pre-nemfected gift like the dragon and lea did. 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

It would not have been a treacherous gift if she was already infected. It all makes it more likely that Cowl himself was infected.

If we had any proof that the athame could infect anyone other than Faerie, this would be a more appealing theory to me.

Harry jumping on Nemesis as an explanation for all sorts of weirdness in CD doesn't change there being plenty of other perfectly satisfactory explanations for all of that weirdness excepting only Aurora going loopy prior to CD, and is notably similar to Harry leaping on the "Black Council" as a one-size-fits-all explanation at the end of PG, which he's been notably quiet about since the Nemesis concept came along.

(Since the whole series is largely a detective story, it's an article of faith with me that any "one theory explains most of everything" that Harry comes up with before the end of the last book has to be wrong. There is no "Black Council", just a bunch of different enemies with different agendas all sometimes working together and sometimes screwing each other over, and Nemesis is most likely, and most parsimoniously, a specific anti-Faerie weapon.  I look forward to debunking another wrong theory of Harry's on this scale probably about book 18 and at least one more during the BAT.)

[wardenferry419]

Unless the Black Council and Nemesis are elements of the same unified theory?

[wardenferry419]

If we had any proof that the athame could infect anyone other than Faerie, this would be a more appealing theory to me.

Harry jumping on Nemesis as an explanation for all sorts of weirdness in CD doesn't change there being plenty of other perfectly satisfactory explanations for all of that weirdness excepting only Aurora going loopy prior to CD, and is notably similar to Harry leaping on the "Black Council" as a one-size-fits-all explanation at the end of PG, which he's been notably quiet about since the Nemesis concept came along.

(Since the whole series is largely a detective story, it's an article of faith with me that any "one theory explains most of everything" that Harry comes up with before the end of the last book has to be wrong. There is no "Black Council", just a bunch of different enemies with different agendas all sometimes working together and sometimes screwing each other over, and Nemesis is most likely, and most parsimoniously, a specific anti-Faerie weapon.  I look forward to debunking another wrong theory of Harry's on this scale probably about book 18 and at least one more during the BAT.)

Neurovore, what are the wrong theories of Harry's that you are looking forward to debunking, if you please?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Neurovore, what are the wrong theories of Harry's that you are looking forward to debunking, if you please?

New ones he makes up between now and then based on information neither he nor we have yet.  I just reckon that, as detective stories go, there will be more than one wrong apparent explanation in the remaining space of the series before we hit on the right one.

[wardenferry419]

Similar to old Bogey movies, where he meanders from one scene to another, gets his butt beaten or does some beating, all the while the clues keep misfiring until enough of them sync and fire off the right solution.

[Rasins]

Let's work backwards for a second: how did Cowl get the Athame in the first place? If it's an artifact with enough power that Lea was able to challenge Mab, how the crap did he manage to find it?

I wonder if it wasn't part of the same hoard that Bony Tony got access to, where the Word of Kemmler came from.

[Arjan]

I wonder if it wasn't part of the same hoard that Bony Tony got access to, where the Word of Kemmler came from.

That hoard only came into the picture later during dead beat, not before grave peril.

Cowl is a senior council level wizard and probably twice as old as Harry at least. He probably knew Kemmler and his expressed disdain might have been sincere or not.

He could have been looking for the athame or some similar artifact for decades and finding it could have been stuff for several novels as far as we know. It could have been in Kemmlers possession and Cowl simply picked it up after his dead, Cowl could have been a warden like Justin.

Or the outsiders gave it to him, they could have picked it up centuries ago in an earlier attempt to break through.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

That hoard only came into the picture later during dead beat, not before grave peril.

We only became aware of it during DB.  Cowl being aware of it during GP is not impossible.  Marcone being set up to become aware of it in DB is not impossible.

The net result of it being released into the wild is a) Grevane and Corpsetaker break cover after several decades of successfully staying off the White Council's radar, and ensuingly get caught and killed,  b) Cowl is able to convince Harry that he has tried for the Darkhallow and failed, and is believed dead.  Both of these seem to me to fairly obviously serve Cowl's interests.

It also seems to me to be part of the set-up for "convince the Red Court they are shortly going to have a post-Darkhallow necromancer on their side; therefore they assess it as safe to take the chance of attacking the Council in Winter*; therefore they get hammered by Mab's intricate revenge plot in PG".

*I do not think it is specified in PG that the Council were in Winter when the Red Court attacked them, but we know from SK that the Council have right of passage in Winter but not in Summer.

[Arjan]

It is power. People want power. I think it is just more likely that he tried to take all the power he could get especially after all the effort he put into it than every other explanation.

Really if he wanted something else he would not have set the erlking loose for example.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

It is power. People want power. I think it is just more likely that he tried to take all the power he could get especially after all the effort he put into it than every other explanation.

So as well as convincing Harry, he convinces you ?

I think part of the development through the series overall is Harry learning that not every villain thinks short term, and some of them have smarts enough to pass up immediate gain for more solid longer-term gain.