So  what?   That doesn't mean they lock up coin holding Denarians on Demonreach..  That seems to be the point of the thread..  The answer is they don't....  Do they help sometimes in going after other "enemies" of the Almighty?  Yes, but that still doesn't prove that they lock up Denarians on Demonreach...  Or deposit the coins there, if that were true, they would have handed over the lot the collected when they helped Harry rescue Ivy to Alfred, who failed to come forward... More to the point the Denarians wouldn't have been allowed on Demonreach in the first place after they kidnapped Ivy... Or even more to the point if they knew there were fellow coin holders in lock up, don't you think they would have freed them?

Sorry. I thought you were responding to my post saying one of their jobs was to protect the innocent.

That said, I think you somewhat misunderstood the topic of this thread. It is not claiming that the Knights lock Denarians up in Demonreach currently; it is proposing a hypothetical where the Warden might lock up Denarians in Demonreach in the future, and wondering if that would be a problem for the Knights. It also contains a detour dealing with why the Knights weren't willing to hat up and rescue Marcone at the beginning of Small Favor, given that it appears to be within their job parameters and it would have saved a lot of trouble.

This is pointless.  We've covered this ground multiple times.  I'm done.

Okay?

I am under the impression that the Knights' job is to "rescue the poor souls trapped by the Fallen" in Michael's words. I also believe that their secondary purpose is to protect the innocent as directed to by TWG, as evidenced by the many times we see them do that.

In Small Favor, we see the Knights both actively refuse to rescue a soul from being trapped by the Fallen and act in such a way that it appears they are not being directed to act such that it would protect an innocent from being tortured.

I assume I am missing something here, because this seems inexplicable to me. I had hoped that discussion would allow me to realize what I was missing, but I'm apparently also missing something in your posts...

But for those coin holders who have clearly gone off the reservation, I think the Knights could confront them even in their off hours - they would still not open with a random stab to the heart, but they could go 'Hey Nic, fancy meeting you here. Please give up your coin!' and things would devolve from there.

I've no doubt that if they ran into Nic on vacation, they would try to talk him into giving up his coin. The question I have is, if his response was to say "No, and I'm leaving" rather than try to attack them/any bystanders, could the Knights then attack him? Or if they found a Denarian frozen in Mab's garden and therefore unable either to cause trouble or repent, would that be a problem for them?

Michael's first appearance in the book is after Titania's hitters attack Harry at Michael's house. The Denarian's don't show up until Harry finds Gard at the safe house.  At that point no one knows were the Denarian's are.  Contact is made through Ivy after the Accords protocol is invoked.

The timeline goes:
-Harry is attacked by Gruffs at Michael's house.
-Harry meets Mab and loses his fire magic.
-Harry finds Gard wounded and discovers that the Denarians are involved.
-Harry goes to Michael's house and asks him to help track down the Denarians.
-Michael refuses, so Harry initiates Accords protocols.

At no point, from the time Harry loses access to his fire magic to the time Michael refuses to hunt down the Denarians, does Harry have any reason whatsoever to use his fire magic in front of Michael.

At that point there is nobody to search for other than Marcone.

Given that my question is "why won't the Knights agree to hunt down the Denarians for the purpose of searching for and rescuing Marcone?" I'm really not sure what the point of this statement is.

Michael's suspicions come into play after the events at the Shedd.  Nic uses them to play on Harry's mind.  And Harry did not use fire magic at the Train Station while with Michael.

No. Here's the quotes:
Small Favor ch. 15

"So," I said, "I think we've got to move fast, and get Marcone away from them before he's forced to join up."

Michael frowned and folded his broad, work-scarred hands on the table before him. "What makes you think he's going to tell them no?"

"Marcone's scum," I said. "But he's his own scum. He doesn't work for anyone."

...

"Guys," I said, "I know that your first instincts tend to be to stand watch against the night, turning the other cheek, and so on. But he's here with maybe twice the demon-power he had on his last visit. If we wait for him to come to us, he'll tear us apart."

"Agreed," Sanya said firmly. "Take the initiative. Find him and hit the snake before he can coil to strike."

Michael shook his head. "Brother, you forget our purpose. We are not given our power so that we can strike down our enemies, no matter how much they might deserve it. Our purpose is to rescue the poor souls trapped by the Fallen." 

...

Michael smiled, but it was brief and strained. "My point is that we can undertake such an aggressive move in only the direst of circumstances."

"Faerie stands poised on the brink of an internal war," I said. "Which would probably reignite the war between the Council and the Vampire Courts--and in the bad guys' favor, I might add. One of the most dangerous men I've ever known is about to have involuntary access to the knowledge and power of a Fallen angel, which would give the Denarians access to major influence within the United States. Not to mention the serious personal consequences for me if they succeed in making it happen." I looked back and forth between the two Knights, and held up one hand straight over my head. "I vote dire. All in favor?"

Michael caught Sanya's hand on the way up, and pushed it gently back down to the table. "This isn't a democracy, Harry. We serve a King."

ch. 38

"That's the real reason you didn't want to hat up and go gunning for the Denarians right at first, the way I wanted to. You were worried I was leading you into a trap."

"I didn't lie to you, Harry." Michael said. "But I'd be lying right now if I didn't admit that, yes, the thought had crossed my mind."

These quotes demonstrate that Michael started distrusting Harry before the fire magic thing gave him a reason.

(Also, I take back what I said about the Marcone thing not being brought up. Apparently it was brought up, the Knights just...disregarded it. What the hell?)

Read the book.  Had you, you would know that she did.

Be less insulting. I have read all the books multiple times, and it was my understanding in Small Favor that Titania's interest in the situation was that she was countering Winter and trying to get revenge on Harry. I read nothing that indicated to me that she cared about Marcone in particular.

The why is speculative.  She hates Harry. The most obvious reason might be that she took revenge on Marcone for saving Harry behind Bock's Books.  Gard warns Marcone then.  As a bonus she knows Harry will be appointed Emissary for Mab, which gives her a reason to strike at Harry.

This might be a reason. Was there anything is Small Favor to indicate that Titania knew about Marcone saving Harry?

Again at no time is anyone aware of the location of the Denarian's until Ivy arrives.

Sorry, I phrased this poorly. What I meant was that they could have gone looking for the Denarians before Ivy got involved, and since I am of the belief that they were already on Demonreach at the time (they had to transport the stuff and do the setup for the circle after all, and it would make sense to get as much as possible done before they captured Ivy) there was no reason for TWG to be worried about collateral damage if they found them.

Demonreach is first introduced in Small Favor.  Why would they look there?

Because TWG told them to, because Harry sent a bunch of pixies to look everywhere, because someone worked out that they'd need access to a Ley line to put up defenses good enough to baffle everyone's tracking spells (I'm not sure if this is true or not)--any number of reasons. The point is that they should have been looking.

You don't seem to understand the timeline of events. For instance they hold a council of war after dropping Gard off and discuss how to find the Nickleheads.  And are attacked on the way back to Michael's house by Torelli's people.  At which point they go to the Train Station.

I understand the timeline just fine. It's you that seems to be confused. You seem to think that I'm arguing...something other than what I'm arguing. I'm not sure what.

What do you think I'm saying? (Apologies if I'm missing something obvious in what you're saying. It's 2am here.)

This is Michael's objection to Harry's plan.  In terms of how and when the Knight's act it is often communicated to them in some fashion.  This is discussed over and over again in the books.  Michael and the other Knight's are where they need to be when they are needed.  They work for a god.

...and Sanya's plane being "coincidentally" delayed wasn't enough of a sign for them? (Thanks for the quote, by the way.) The more I think about this scene, the more issues I have with it. Possibilities for why it played out the way it did that I can see are:

1) Michael distrusts Harry (which he admitted) ... and yet goes along with Harry's second plan rather than waiting for him to leave before planning a rescue mission with Sanya.

2) Michael objects to Harry's plan, but still trusts him enough to let him lie to the White Council (which it has been pointed out to me is out of character, and furthermore Michael admits later in the book to thinking Harry has been subverted by Lasciel).

3) Michael doesn't think they should interfere, despite "coincidence" indicating that TWG wants them to, but can't let Harry face the Denarians alone (the former part seems highly problematic; the latter part has canon support).

4) TWG has indicated to Michael that he should not go after the Denarians directly despite the fact that it would be a rescue mission, but has not expressed an objection to Harry's second plan (which...did He want Ivy to be tortured? Was it some twisted way to see to it that Ivy would get more free will than she would otherwise have with the Archive? Is getting Harry access to soulfire that important? What?)

5) No one cares about Marcone. The Knights are only responsible for rescuing innocents (possible. In Skin Game, Michael says he can't help Hannah at the Gate of Fire because she's not an innocent, that she chose to put herself in danger. On the other hand, the Knights' explicit job is to save the Denarian hosts from the Fallen, so they can't only be interested in innocents).

6) Everyone spontaneously, inexplicably forgot about Marcone (which seems poor writing--there ought to be a reason).

All of these, to my mind, are problematic. (Another possibility is that Harry never told the Knights about Marcone--I don't remember whether he did or not--which is still problematic, but is not a problem for Michael, it's just Harry being inexplicably more idiotic than usual.)

In Small Favor Michael's objection is to attacking the Denarian's without warning. Which is what Michael and Harry quarrel about.

That can't possibly be the issue. In the same book, Harry notes that Michael has no problem killing enemies from behind when needed.

I don't have my copy of the book right now, but I'll have access to it later tonight and will post a quote of the section under discussion (if someone wants to post it earlier, that would be awesome).

All of which is I think getting away from the original argument that the Knights just hang around and wait for a bit of Denarian evil to fall in their laps.  They can be proactive.

When do we ever see them be proactive?

As for Michael thinking Harry had taken up the coin, he thought that Harry still had the Shadow, not that he'd gone full on Denarian.

Nope. When Harry told him about Lasciel, Michael's response was an offer to help him set aside the Coin, and he was surprised when Harry said he'd never taken it up.