There is no need for a similar ring for either Mab or Molly as both are immortal. It requires magic to work this so unless there is an external power source, it is required for a practitioner. The only other practitioner Mab is on good terms with is Rashid. Rashid hasn’t appeared yet in Peace Talks, if he appears in Battle Ground, could it be via Doppleganger allowing him to be both at the Outer Gates AND at the Senior Council voting on Harry? The Outer Gates are far even for the GateKeeper and Mab likes her forward planning.

In the long term it probably wouldn't matter - they are immortal and would come back. But Bob implies that pulling themselves back together is something that takes a reasonable amount of time, months or years. Normally that probably wouldn't be an issue - to the point no one would bother to try.

But I suspect time is rapidly becoming something that is in short supply. "Killing" an immortal, even temporarily, might be useful if events are moving fast enough that mere months or years might make the difference to any number of schemes. Such as the end of the world starting to ramp up.

   

You know...regarding the Doubting Thomas angle. I think we might have actually had this scene already.

Cold Days, Chapter 14:

"Thomas," I said. "It's me."

"Sure it is," Thomas snarled, the pressure against me surging for a second. "Harry Dresden is dead."

I thought my eyeballs were trying to squeeze their way out of their sockets. "Glurk!"

"Now," he growled, "I'm going to give you exactly three seconds to start telling me the truth, or I swear to God they will never find enough pieces of you to identify the body."

I particularly enjoy the "I swear to God" part...

It's a plausible theory....

but from a Doylist perspective, it's a minefield of sensitive topics...

I doubt Thomas will much like the theory either if Harry ever brings it up.

But that's because he's Doubting Thomas.

The TLDR version of this is that Harry Dresden is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This is beyond a tinfoil hat theory - I'm now wearing a tinfoil suit, with my office located in a tin mine somewhere. But the evidence seems to keep piling up to me, so read on if you find the speculation interesting.

We learned in Peace Talks that a Starborn is a cycle that occurs every 666 years.

It's the first connection we've had  linking Biblical lore to the Starborn status. It made me wonder if  Jesus qualified as "Starborn". The Bible certainly has the whole Born  under a Star / 3 Magi bit in it. If you run the math, the timeframe is  off by +/- 15 years, which cratered my speculation at that point.
But...I keep running into narrative clues.

For instance this little tidbit from Storm Front:

The  world is getting weirder. Darker every single day. Things are spinning  around faster and faster, and threatening to go completely awry. Falcons and falconers. The center cannot hold.
But  in my corner of the country, I’m trying to nail things down. I  don’t want to live in Victor’s jungle, even if it did eventually devour  him. I don’t want to live in a world where the strong rule and the weak  cower. I’d rather make a place where things are a little quieter. Where  trolls stay the hell under their bridges and where elves don’t come  swooping out to snatch children from their cradles. Where vampires  respect the limits, and where the faeries mind their p’sand q’s.

My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. I’m in the book.

Falcons and Falconers. The Center cannot hold. Both of those are references to a  poem by William Butler Yeats. The name of the poem?

The Second Coming

That little warning at the end of Storm Front? The book that he's referring to? It's not the phone book...it's the Bible. The warning about conjuring by his name....you don't conjure by a name of God idly.

Here's some more textual foreshadowing, if you interpret it in a certain light:

Fool Moon

Denton stared at me as the soul gaze broke and we were released. He wasn’t reacting well to whatever it was he had seen inside of me.  His face had gone white, and his hand was trembling, the barrel of the  gun wavering every which way. He lifted his other hand to mop beads of  cold sweat away from his face.“No,”  Denton said, white showing all around the grey irises of his eyes.“No,  wizard.” He raised his gun. “I don’t believe in hell. I won’t let you.”

 

Summer Knight

“Harry  Dresden,” he said dryly, “Meet Martha Liberty.” She shot him a look and  said pointedly, “He’s arrogant, Ebenezar. Dangerous.”I snorted. “That’s every wizard ever.” Martha continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Bitter.  Angry. Obsessive.” Ebenezar frowned. “Seems to me he has good reason to  be. You and the rest of the Senior Council saw to that.”Martha shook her  head. “You know what he was meant to be. He’s too great a risk.”

Changes

I exhaled wearily, and stopped even trying to hold the spell. “I don’t understand.” Uriel nodded. “That’s the difficult part of being mortal. Of having choice. Much is hidden from you.” He sighed. Love your child, Dresden. Everything else flows from there. A wise man said that,” Uriel said.

Cold Days

“And  on a similar note, do not underestimate yourself. You haven’t been  given the power and the knowledge and the allies and the resources you  possess for no reason, Harry. Nothing I have to say can possibly make  this task any easier for you. The only way to do it is to do it. He  lifted his chin. You don’t need help, Warden. You are the help.”

Peace Talks

Their  thoughts, or whatever madness it was that passed for them, began to  devour mine. I felt like my mind was being chewed apart by a swarm of  ants. And then for just an instant, the alien thought patterns made  sense, and I saw an image from their point of view – a  being made of coherent light, a column of glowing energy centers, and  pure dread, standing like an obelisk before the cornerhounds, a bolt of  terrible lightning gathered around its upraised fists, head, and  shoulders, like a miniature storm front.
I saw what they saw when they looked at me.
And I felt their fear.

Finally, we have the titles of the last 3 books in the series, the apocalyptic trilogy; Stars and Stones, Hell's Bells, and Empty Night.
I submit that Empty Night is a reference to a famous short story by Arthur C. Clarke. In the story the stars start winking out, one by one. The name of the story? The Nine Billion Names of God.

I'm  starting to strongly suspect that "Starborn" is something akin to  Jesus, an avatar of the White God. But he's all about Choice - so Harry  gets to choose to be good or evil, the same as any normal mortal  human...but the consequences of that choice could be a great deal bigger  then a normal life. Hence how everyone in the series who is in the know  are so darned nervous about him. Why more then a few keep testing his  morality. It's not on account of him being a Wizard, as he's always  thought. Morgan mentions in his microfiction about something called a Destroyer....that sounds a bit like an Antichrist to me.

Harry with his Wizards senses was able to ascertain that Justine was pregnant separate to being told Thomas. Any practitioner with sufficient sensitivity would have been able to determine this, including any Wizards surveilling the White Court.

Information had been getting out for several weeks at the White Court, this would indicate that the surveilling wizard had been in Chicago for weeks/months, and that would leave a physical trail Harry can find. The wizards are at the Four Seasons, should be possible to check whether any were there in the preceding months.

I wonder if Chandler is in fact the White Council’s surveillance and information expert amongst the Wardens, he isn’t a fighter, but is strangely present during the Peace Talks, and may be Eb’s man on the ground.

Well, Harry sensed something. He interprets it as being a pregnancy aura, but he really doesn't have a whole lot of experience in the matter. Certainly nothing like this was described with Charity back in Grave Peril.

I think he sensed something, but is misinterpreting it...as fits the big theme of the book.

I just finished listening to the audio book version of Peace Talks after having read it about 10-11 days ago.  I didn't noticed the first time through that Harry gave Alfred instructions that Thomas can only speak to another prisoner if that prisoner is undergoing the same punishment, and there's only one other prisoner whose doing the contemplation thing.

The alternative is that after talking to Thomas the British prisoner will speak to Harry.  However it plays out, what do you think will be learned from all this.  I have a feeling it will be about a cure for Thomas that involves Excalibur.  There might also be some information about how to breach that special bronze armor the Titan's wearing.

I agree with your reasoning. I think Thomas is being set up to wield Amoracchius.

The imprisonment of him on Demonreach is going to be an evolution of his character, into someone really worthy of taking up the Sword. Amoracchius from its treatment in the books seems to be the Sword that requires the rarest kind of individual to wield it. This also seems to be supported by Arthur Langtry's reaction to Michael in Proven Guilty.

Just his internment made him suffer the same as his victims over the years. It's one thing to have regret for his actions and empathy, but he gets the full treatment of exactly what they went through, which is something a bit more special as far as suffering goes. Eventually, Butter's version of Fidelacchius will be wielded to kill his demon, making him a vanilla mortal.

But where does the British Prisoner fit into this?

Well, we've got a negative from the author that it's Merlin. The only other mythological figure I know of that's supposed to be sleeping under a magical island is Arthur. That whole 'Piss Off' comment had the vibe of someone trying out a slang term they weren't terribly familiar with...half remembered language lessons from Merlin perhaps?

If Thomas is being set up as a character to take up the Sword, then having an extended chat with the most legendary wielder would be an interesting thing to consider, and it would immediately set him apart even from Michael's legacy. But I would expect this process to take a book or two to end up resolving, and Thomas to be on carbonite for an extended period of time before someone makes the connection with Fidelacchius and ends up freeing him.

In Battle Ground Harry will almost certainly have to come clean about some of the secrets he holds, just to assure even those who are his supporters on the White Council, and some will be obvious from the way he conducts his defence of Chicago.

Harry loves being mysterious and secretive, “wizard crack”, but is Harry going to have to go cold Turkey and how far?

I'm not really sure Harry will need to pony up on his secrets to survive. The whole Game is now set to change. With the masquerade in tatters, the political calculations of his value will shift dramatically. Particularly if Harry very publicly engages Ethniu and succeeds, saving Chicago. Given that subtlety is not exactly his normal forte, that seems a reasonable conclusion to make.

He would be a public celebrity hero, and THE face of the White Council to a newly awakened mortal humanity. Kicking him out then would be a colossal stupid move in the uncertain ground the Supernatural scene would find themselves in.