Martha Liberty to Eb page 51 Summer Knight I believe this is the earliest allusion to Harry being Starborn ...
I don't think we know for sure
what she meant.
Most-trivially, it could just have been "Justin DuMorne's pet enforcer," a bullyboy warlock. Here, I think, the part she's not saying out loud is, "all his basic training is from a black-magic practitioner, and while we didn't find any mental booby-traps we may have missed some; and because of that basic training, we cannot discount that his basic mindset may be fundamentally that of a warlock." This is the POV of those who distrust Harry & think it was wrong to levy the Doom of Damocles instead of just killing him.
I presume most of the SC understand what a "Starborn" is, and that Harry (at least potentially) is one.
I also presume that not all of them were aware of the Ariana/Pere-Raith/Margaret.LaFey "starbabe" plot; that info would have come from Eb (who they failed to enroll) and I think he'd have protected Maggie by only telling a few he trusted (not the whole SC).
My own theory is that Martha was being deliberately obfuscatory: she knew most or all of it, as did Eb, and she was reminding him; but at least one person there (besides Harry) did
not know all of it. So by speaking in generalities, she uses "DuMorne's bullyboy" as cover for the more-dangerous plot. (n.b. there may have been other veiled parties watching & listening, who did
not drop their veils -- why would the wizards do something aboveboard when they could do something sneaky?)
... Earlier in Summer Knight, Mab in her first meeting with Harry mentions that she watched Harry stalemate the Leansidhe. In Grave Peril I believe that Mab was told by The Gatekeeper of a potential divergence in futures the centre of which was Harry a Starborn. She was watching Harry, not the Leansidhe, and it was after that that she bought Harry’s mortgage, I don’t believe she had any interest in Harry until then.
I disagree (strongly).
1. All the major powers see the signs and understand that something apocalyptic is coming (they likely have a very good idea what that "something" is).
2. All the major powers understand (a) what a Starborn is; & (b) that the conditions for a "Starbirth" were right, 30ish years ago... so there are 1 or more Starborn running around right now.
3. Mab, as warleader of the Outer Gates, is primarily about fighting Outsiders (being "Winter" on Earth is the smaller part of her duties).
4. Because a Starborn has both resistance-to and power-over Outsiders, Mab is keenly interested in bringing any Starborn (that she can) into her service -- particularly in such key roles as her Knight.
5. We know Mab lays plans -- long,
long plans. WoJ says that Mab doesn't care about burning through most of her footsoldiers, because it only takes a generation to breed the replacements.
6. We have to presume that Mab knew (1) & (2) ahead of time -- that an apocalypse & a Starborn were both coming; given (5) I cannot believe Mab wasn't laying plans (at least a generation ago) to get her hands (and oaths) laid upon Starborn to fight the Outsiders.
Then consider:
7. Margaret LeFay was likely the most "faerie-famous" human alive (possibly excepting the ever-changing Knights); she was also an unusually strong wizard, and (via Salic Law) likely to birth a strong wizard as offspring. This would automatically put her on Mab's radar
vis-a-vis point #6.
8. Mab's handmaiden is the Leanansidhe... who "somehow" ended up as Harry's faerie Godmother.
Really. Mab's Handmaiden as the Faerie Godmother to one of (if not the) strongest wizards of his generation, who "just happens" to be the Starborn that Mab wants and...
egads, man!
You're a
Conspiracy Theorist and you can't
see this??!?