Hey Dina,

I did some further research, and while reading the Tv tropes page for the Cinder Spires, I came across something interesting.

"Aurora" is the name of the Roman goddess of dawn. Furthmore, Ciriaco is a given name in both Italy as well as Spain.

So Spire Aurora may not be faux-Spain. It may be faux-Italy/Rome? The British vs. Spainards angle might be more appropriate to the Victorian themes, but the naming schemes of Aurora being a Roman goddess and soldiers bearing Italian names may point in a different direction entirely. This is a made up world, after all, and not all parallels need to be maintained.

Also, as someone who's entire family spanning back generations is 100% Sicilian, and I can tell you I don't personally take offense if Ciriaco is essentially faux-Italian, or if the Italian government of Spire Aurora is thought of as corrupt by the people they're being attacked by.


(Also Quantus, that action figure is amazing. I want one, and I'm not even from the South)

I think it's possible that the book isn't for the human vs. human war, if the names it contains are Names. If Heaven is a spiritual place, the Index can be a listing of angel's true names, with which to summon them from Heaven, to be destroyed.

Speaking of things getting old, imagine if Dresden existed in this series; the guy can't be on a boat for any length of time without thinking about his disdain for nautical terminology.  Hell, he'd probably purposely call things by the wrong term just to be irritating to aeronauts. 

I'm starting to think this may be a quirk of Jim rather than Harry. Gwen has a little internal monologue where she corrects herself on the terminology for walls and floors when she wakes up from the silkweaver venom and realizes she's on an airship. And then she has a bit of confusion about what the nautical term for "ceiling" is. She thinks it's just "ceiling".

I laughed, cause I felt like it was an in-joke between me, Jim, and Harry.

None of these completely prove anything, but:

- Morgan ("a.k.a. uphold the Laws at all costs guy") uses a sword to execute criminals.
- Remember that the rational for why Luccio didn't kill La Fortier with magic is because the Laws were so strongly ingrained in her psyche.  This obviously didn't apply to killing him by mundane means.
- Morgan uses a gun to kill Peabody.
- Harry kills Corpstaker with a gun.  Luccio complains that he raised Sue, nothing is mentioned about the killing.

None of these, except for Luccio and La Fortier, are criminal behavior. They are more akin to a police officer taking out a clear and present threat, which is a peacekeeping endeavor. The fact that the peacekeepers restrain themselves and not use magic is the very evidence that they are not becoming corrupted, because they still believe in restraining their own power.

The unfortunate situation with Luccio is more evidence of someone with a normally morally upright character resisting the corruption caused by mind control. While the compulsion magic made her kill La Fortier, it couldn't change who she fundamentally was, ergo, no actual corruption and use of magic.

I guess my explanation is more Doylist than Watsonian. You won't see someone that can restrain their power when they're normally committing wanton crimes, because the universe as written by Jim won't allow someone to show that unrealistic level of control. If you're the type to abuse power, then you abuse power, no matter what form it takes. Jeffery Dhamer would not have been able to restrain himself from using magic in his atrocities if he had the capacity to use it.

......PHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW! *lets out the breath he's been holding since starting Changes*

man, what a ride. Things finally feel like they're getting back on track (plus or minus a few major issues.... *cough*)

Few things: The Parasite. I'm not entirely sure it's actually gonna be busting out of Harry's head. I think it's Lash, and what she's doing is fixing the parts of Harry's brain that were damaged in the Deeps. I think that Mab and Demonreach just don't trust that it'll STOP growing brain-matter when it's time to stop. Though, that seems pretty lame for a literary perspective so... I dunno, maybe Lash's plan is to burst from Harry's head fully formed Athena/Zeus style and have her own body.

Kringle: So so awesome. That he's actually really Odin is amazing as well, I hadn't ever thought of that despite them sharing cultural roles. The whole Wild Hunt sequence, and how it was actually a show to GIVE it to Harry was awesome.

I feel so bad for Lily. Poor girl was dancing on strings pulled by Maeve, right up until she cut them. I'm having a hard time recalling a bigger victim in the series. Not even Susan, who sort of went to Chichen Itza knowing full well it would probably cost her her life to rescue her daughter. Poor Lily just... walked right next to her supposed ally... and never even saw it coming..... gut wrenching....

On the subject of Mab lying and Uriel confirming it:

Mab is not lying, Uriel is.

Harry confirms that Mab is absolutely capable of changing him. He just makes her realize that doing so is not without consequences, that the very wiles and guilefullness that leads him to defy her are the very qualities that makes her want him as her Knight in the first place.

Uriel is lying when he says Mab can't change him, and Harry knows he's lying. But the truth of his seven words is irellevant. They are encouraging, and they let Harry realize he can still fight becominng a monster, even beholden to Mab.

Uriel has to balance the scales against the shadow' lie. The shadows lie clouded Harry's ability to choose to keewp fighting, to never give up. Uriel's lie let Harry see that there were options. (IE that even though Mab definately could change him, he also could definately convince her not to.)