Chapter 6 Drop

[Aminar]

My money is on Thomas.

I hope at some point Harry reminds Lara what happened to the last person Harry fulfilled a favor to the Winter Court for. Thinking about how faeries work, Harry was lucky to get rid of the favor from the Summer Court without getting more entangled or destroyed in the process. Morgan didn't survive by cashing his favor in. Harry did. Who used it more wisely?

Thomas is getting accused. I doubt he actually did it.

[Regenbogen]

Thomas wouldn't burn down a building with his niece in it. I can't believe that.

Maybe asshole-Ebenezar, to show Harry, that he was right, that being near him was too dangerous for Maggie (of course taking her to safety first), and at the same time letting the svartalves know who was the most powerful or something like that.

[Mira]

Interesting that Harry & Murphy have sex (although it's possible they didn't go all the way since we didn't read it) right before he might need true love protection from Laura. Now to wait and see if he has it.

Question, how many times in your life do you get true love protection?  Now Harry got protection that lasted for years from Susan.

It could be little Maggie's talents are awakening, and she is a chip off the old block, doing KABOOM fire magic like her daddy.  Ain't it cute?    She is safe though, Mouse would see to that.

[Aminar]

Question, how many times in your life do you get true love protection?  Now Harry got protection that lasted for years from Susan.

It could be little Maggie's talents are awakening, and she is a chip off the old block, doing KABOOM fire magic like her daddy.  Ain't it cute?    She is safe though, Mouse would see to that.

Justine's protection seems to renew on a pretty regular, if not daily basis. That said, the number of relationships is probably small and I can see the Winter Mantle making it hard to gain protection. There's an element of supernatural coersion there that could qualify in the same way Luccio's coercion or Billy/Georgia's it can't be truw love while they're married to someone else thing. Harry is Mab's consort after all.

[vultur]

Yes, it was a summer favour. That confused me too. Except maybe he meant generally a favour from the fae.

Yeah, I think so. The Courts are symmetrical in things like this; favors from Summer should work basically like those from Winter.

[vultur]

I also think Bob may have mention something about Harry kind of being married to Mab.  I wonder if Mab protects Harry from being eaten by a wampire.

Not in the True Love protection sense, Mab and Harry definitely don't love each other.

But in the supernatural-politics sense, absolutely, that's what Mab's "a member of my house" comment to Lara was about. If Lara killed or weakened Harry by feeding on him, that would be essentially stealing from Mab as well as depriving her of one of her best weapons, which really wouldn't end well for Lara.

[Walter the skull]

Yeah they definitely don't love each other, and i agree on the diplomatic front. 

Mab has given Harry a small part of her power.  I wonder if Lara taking a bite out of Harry would be like us trying to chew through ice.  We could do it for a while but our teeth would break eventually. 

Also look at what Molly did to poor Carlos.  I don't think Thomas would've come out of that much better.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Taken with the trailer, one of the favours will be to rescue Thomas from the White Council, something Harry would have done in any event, but this would allow him to do with the full power of the Winter Knight Mantle behind him.

I also think this is a manifestation of Maggies powers, first use of magic is bound with emotion, and she blames herself for the argument between her father and great grandfather. She has social anxiety issues, so this is going to be a problem for Harry. I suspect we are going to have a running joke of “she takes after her father” everytime someone learns about it.

At least we know why they were at the Carpentersfor Christmas.

[moses_the_red]

Thomas is getting accused. I doubt he actually did it.

He may have caused some kind of disturbance that resulted in it though...

[peregrine]

Doesn't the blurb talk about Thomas being accused of murder by the wife of the dead guy?

[KurtinStGeorge]

Taken with the trailer, one of the favors will be to rescue Thomas from the White Council, something Harry would have done in any event, but this would allow him to do with the full power of the Winter Knight Mantle behind him.

I'm pretty much onboard with this idea; however, I'll add some speculation to it and comment on something we saw in the trailer. 

Speculating about the one of the favors Lara might have done for Mab, Walter the skull guessed that Lara used to Thomas to kill someone Mab wanted removed and that's what Thomas ends up accused of.  I'm not 100% on board with that idea; after all, Mab has Harry if she needs to kill someone, unless it was someone or something Harry would have a problem killing, like someone he cared about.  However, I think it's possible Thomas does kill someone on Lara's behalf.  Thomas is worried about Justine.  If Lara could promise Thomas that she knew how to keep Justine from dying during her pregnancy, that would give Lara quite a bit of leverage to get Thomas to do her bidding.  It's also conceivable that Lara knew that Thomas could get caught and she planned to use one of her owed favors to get the Winter Knight's full co-operation and power in retrieving Thomas, if necessary.  Harry would do it anyway, but as Conspiracy Theorist speculates, maybe the full power of the Winter Knight is needed to rescue Thomas.  Or, maybe Lara likes the idea of the Winter Knight leaving clues behind like a lot of melting frost and ice so she doesn't get blamed for springing Thomas and that way is able to avoid incurring the wrath of the Swartelves.   

Looking at the trailer, Warden Ramirez all but accuses Harry of being a traitor.  We are meant to think Carlos saw Harry and Lara in flagrante, but what is more likely is that when Harry pays off one the two favors that Lara is owed, Carlos sees whatever it was that Harry did, or he sees a part of it, and starts to distrust Harry.
 
It's been a long time so it's easy to forget, but Lara owes Murphy a favor.  (I think from allowing Lara to quietly dispose of the bodies left behind at the Raith home at the end of Blood Rites.)  I have a feeling this is the book where Lara is forced to pay off that debt.  It will probably save Harry's bacon.

A couple of people have speculated the fire this a manifestation of Maggies powers.  Maybe, but it could also be something as simple as a cooking accident.  Bonea has a lot of knowledge but doesn't have the context to fully understand it.  She and Maggie get together to make something other than pancakes and boom!  One small mystery is who did Harry get to babysit?

Finally, Walter the skull also noticed that Harry is using Demonreach's power or Alfred's type of magic, to infuse his defensive shield.  Watch the trailer again and you will notice that after Ebenezer says, "Boy, tell me you ain't dumb enough to try this," when Harry activates his shield, it has pale green color with a slight yellow tint to it.  One wonders if this power or type of magic will also help infuse Harry's offensive abilities.  To steal a line I saw someone use on Reddit, instead of using Soulfire or Hellfire, Harry's enemies will get Alfired.  (OK, it seemed funny the first time I saw it.)     

[Walter the skull]

KurtinStGeorge: Nice catch in the trailer.

[Yuillegan]

A few things - the assassination attempt is of

(click to show/hide)

a Head of State, as as we know it's the Svartalves who seem to be upset it's probably Etri (who incidentally helped forge Mjollnir, the Hammer of Thor)

Thomas is more vulnerable and controllable due to Justine's pregnancy. I think that it's highly likely he performs the hit for Lara because of a power play. Lara clearly is going for power for one reason or another this book and we are going to see what she's been up to since Turn Coat.

Secondly, the fire is more likely a hit I think than a random act of destruction by Maggie. Maggie is the kind of kid who is calm in stressful situations and stressed in normal everyday interactions. Not a good candidate for a phoenix moment. This could even be the hit that Thomas performs.

As for the favors...well as we know Lara is pretty powerful and capable. What's interesting to me is that Mab is clearly the one who needs help. What does Lara have that Mab herself could not perform or have her nation perform? I suspect it is directly related to the library Lara has and the Outsider war. Make no mistake that Lara's emergence in a book where Outsiders show up is a hint. Jim is practically whacking us over the head with Mab showing up next to her.

Harry had to do a monumental task for Summer to get a favor. Which, as Mab says, he frivolously wasted on a doughnut. Mab was rebuking him for making poor choices. She expects better in her knights. Also who doesn't check the back of their car when they get in? It isn't paranoia, it's just a glance and you know what's there. Very surprised Harry didn't see them until he was backing out.

I suppose the interesting thing is what the minimum requirements are for a favor from Mab. I can't imagine that just giving her a gift basket would earn a Winter Knight. So it must be significant whatever she did (perhaps on several occasions) to earn the three favors.

And did anyone else pick up that Mab has already repaid Lara one favor herself? I wonder what it was...

[Walter the skull]

I'm not sure what that could be.  Maybe help with the Fomor? 

[magnuskn]

It's kind of amazing how much tools Jim now has to get Harry into trouble at the start of the book. Compared to the early books, where there was a main threat and maybe one or two side things to complicate things, nowadays the list of things which go wrong (and do go wrong, as seen in these early chapters) seems endless.