I think the comparison of Zeus birthing Athena and Dresden birthing Bonea is too much for Jim to leave out as an item.  I anticipate that means we'll be meeting Athena, but I could be wrong.  It would be interesting to see what other facets she has.  We already know the courts are at least somehow affiliated with Hecate, but it would be interesting to see if there is another combo.  I also think we might start to get a look at how the mothers might tie in as well as fates/norns (since we already sort of know that), or possibly more. 

It's an interesting idea of what happens if a God is killed on the table.  I hadn't though about how that might be done, since that should be able to dismantle a mantle, so to speak.  I wonder if it "purifies" the energy source in any way?   Part of the problem with doing anything with the power in demonreach is that it is essentially innately evil.  I wonder if you could get a being out of Demonreach and onto the Table and sacrificed fast enough, if the table could cleanse it down to pure (untainted) power...

Possibly with Athena.  It might also be a footnote with a Zeus conversation.

My internal framework for the Stone Table is that it takes mantles and allows them to be split/combined however needed before they're distributed again.  So, knife the Fates on the table then knife Hecate and send the proper pieces of them all to the six queens.  Repeat for Demeter and Persephone.  Throw in the Morrigan, et cetra.  Do it enough, and you've got the six queens emerging as the top dogs.  (To be clear, probably not every fae gained from this; a theoretical Eldest Gruff may have gotten the Pan mantle the old fashioned way like Odin got Kringle)

5. cowl with darkhallow – really? just a bunch of spirits…
If he’d succeeded, he’d have had the collective power of all of those supernatural beings and then some.  He’d have been clearly stronger than the Ladies, and a full-on equal to Mab.  I mean, why do you think the Erlking was summoned as part of that ritual?  Because that’s how the big E got so boss in the first place. 
For that matter, how do you think the Mothers and Queens and Ladies established their original base of power?  That big old sacrificial, power-sucking stone table in Tir na noth isn’t there for its primitive decorative aesthetic.

As far as Demonreach, I'm not confident that those mantles can be "cleansed".  It would be more of a "you are what you eat" for anyone that gobbled pieces of that power.  After all, if Hecate was sacrificed into the six queens, they still exhibit characteristics of her.

Now if you read the rest of the passage they talk about the balance of forces.Then Harry talks some BS about Mab attacking and suggesting that she isn't that crazy.  Enter Maeve who suggests that Mab is that crazy.  You know this isn't true, Harry on the other hand is clueless. It's part of Maeve's plan. The reality is that the imbalance is worse than anyone at that point in the book is aware of, because Mab is down 3 of her starting four. Then some random Denarian walks to her front door and huffs and puffs and blows in her effing door with Hellfire. Mab being made of sterner stuff than me doesn't wet her panties.  She does wonder which, of the small number of people who could open a portal in that close, did so, with Summer in the running for Mab's a--hole of the week award.

Mab being down her top three agents is getting closer, but Mab didn't know she was down her top three agents at that point.  Maeve's actions in PG revealed that; after Mab didn't act against the Reds.  She was down Lea, but Slate was voluntarily down.  At any point, Mab could have appointed a fill-in Winter Knight while she convinced Harry to be their replacement.  That temp Winter Knight would have been Fix's match very quickly.  Temp knight can be sacrificed on the Stone Table just as much as Slate when Harry is cornered to take the mantle.

In any respect, if Mab was worried about bluffing against weakness, playing everything like normal seems to be the way to preserve the balance instead of making Summer and everyone else extra curious about what was wrong with an erratic Mab.

Sure it does, those infected with Nemesis don't act irrational all of the time.  If they did they'd be too easily spotted.. Take Justine, totally infected when she worked to get pregnant then black mail Thomas into an assassination plot, she almost had Harry completely fooled when he went to break the news to her, then he couldn't put his finger on it, something seemed a bit off, is all.  However he didn't have time to figure it out.  Lea was mostly rational, rational enough to realize what had happened to her and appealed to Mab for a cure, but not before she had spread it to Maeve.  Mab wore the Knife also for a time, so it is completely logical that she also suffered a degree of infection or feared that she had to go in for prophylactic treatment.

No, if Mab was herself enough to order Molly brought in, she was herself enough to give the order to retaliate against the Reds.  Mab wasn't worried about herself being Nemesis infected.

You mean a goddess of reason and strategic warfare, who had the occasional spike of human emotion, and a virginal aspect?

If Athena wasn't part of making the Faerie Queens (in her case, the Winter side) I don't know who was

I am of the opinion that several members of the Greek pantheon threw in some pieces (or all) of themselves to help form the faerie courts (specifically on the Stone Table).  Hecate and the Fates for sure, but also ones like Persephone and Demeter.  To push this idea further, a Greek god such as Pan makes for a good Eldest Gruff analog, and things like that.  (Also fun fact, Hecate is associated with dogs, a good analog for the summer/winter knight)

Athena is a tricky one because Mab fits the bill for her best, but she's definitely not got the virginal aspect (that's the Ladies).  The fact that the Archive exists makes me second guess on her as well.

Could be, but then she planned her revenge and with the added bonus of snagging Harry for her Knight in the process.

After making the decision to not retaliate for no clear reason and confusing both Summer and the White Council.  Something happening after something else doesn't mean it happened because of the first thing.

No, but it is something she kept in her back pocket for later.  Also consider, Mab had herself on ice at the time, it wasn't just Lea taking the cure.  Mab also had contact with the Knife, my feeling has always been that she feared that she herself may have been infected, which could have led to a total disaster if she acted.  While in the healing ice, Mab wouldn't have been able to act.. Considering Harry's conversation with the infected Lea, if Mab was indeed infected and not restrained it would have been disaster.

Mab wasn't healing herself.  Lea was in the Winter Wellspring.  Mab was watching Harry fight the Eldest Fetch as a spectator, hence the wink at the end.  The other frozen figures were Mab's prisoners, like Slate.

No, no, no and no. Captains captain and Generals General.  Kringal is an Honorary title.

It wouldn't be a war.  It's a lesson that the Reds shouldn't cross into Mab's territory.  Captains are exactly what you want.


Kringle is a winter king (which doesn't mean much by itself except an accepted level of power and reputation), and Mab has worked well with him in the past.  No idea what you mean by honorary title.

Exactly who would have led her troops and who would have protected Arctis Tor?

Kringle, Cat Sith, Grimmalken, the Red Cap....  Those are just the characters where we have names.  Any of them could lead groups of Winter forces against rampires.

Edit:  Took out Sarissa.  On further thought, I don't think she could have herself led an attack against Reds.

Mab has had her revenge on everyone she can find.  The plan and attack that started in Grave Peril, is defeated, finally, in Cold Days.  Nemesis ploy has been defeated. The Reds are all dead. That attack cost her a Knight and her daughter and crippled Lea.

In Proven Guilty, at her weakest, she fears an attack by Summer and has been attacked by the Phantom Menace. She is concealing her weakness from her enemies both real and imagined. She smiles at the end because Harry has done what she couldn't do, reveal what Summer would do were she to remove her troops from the border.

Lara is testing Mab's limits when she uses the fairies as lanterns.

The whole reason the big powers are freaking out in PG is because Mab was not allowing a joint faerie revenge on the Reds.  Instead, she kept forces on her borders to threaten Summer.  It confused Summer and prompted Eb to send Harry in to figure out what went screwy with Mab.

Arctis Tor is probably involved, but that whole battle is confusing.  It was bad enough to kill elite trolls, but not bad enough that Mab got nervous and called in border forces.  Not until Harry used Summer fire on the Winter Wellspring and basically did it for Mab (allowing for a one-time Summer attack on the Reds).  Everyone knew what Summer would do when Mab had a less threatening posture against them; that's not a mystery.

The explanation for why Mab didn't allow for retaliation can't be just "the Arctis Tor attack".  That's like asking why the sunset is red and answering "because of the atmosphere".  It's so incomplete that it doesn't really even answer the question.