dspringer1,
The whole plot of PG is Mab trying to uncover a traitor. If she crushes the plot, the traitor's plot does not advance. If the plot does not advance, then the traitor is not uncovered.
Yes, but not just a traitor. I wrote this a month or two ago but never posted it in a thread called Proven Guilty mysteries.
What did Nemesis think about the Red Court? I think Nemesis probably saw them much as Nicodemus did. Nic described them as well organized and annoying in the short-term and dangerous and fatal in the medium to long-term. The Red Court had sorcerers, though we don’t know much about their abilities other than they were destructive. It’s possible that some of these Red Court magic users had the ability to harm or at least slow down The Outsiders; much as some mortal wizards do, making the Red Court a target that the Outsiders would want to remove as much as the White Council of Wizards.
The Red Court may have had human wizards or sorcerers on the payroll and used them to call up Outsiders during the fighting which was described in Dead Beat, but the vamps would have been stupid to assume the Outsiders were simply a tool they could use to defeat the wizards. More likely the Red Court was the tool of the Outsiders.
While kicking the White Council’s ass during a battle in Sicily, the Red King (probably) ordered his vampire warriors to chase the retreating White Council into the Nevernever, even though it meant going to war with both Winter and Summer. We know from Changes that the Big Red was pretty much insane. He was either Nemfected or just getting old and losing it as Duchess Arianna thought.
If he was Nemfected, the idea was to create a situation where the Red Court would be crushed by both Fairy Courts and any remaining wizards. Meanwhile the White Council; crippled by the Red Court assault which battered it in Sicily and in the Congo, would be over-matched when the Outsiders could make a full assault on our realty. Add to this, both Summer and Winter would take losses as well. If the Red King was just going senile, the Outsiders, or I should say their Nemfected agents, saw the possibilities the Red Court’s assault in the Nevernever had opened.
Unfortunately for the Nemesis, Mab refused to play that game. Many people think Mab had made some kind of bargain which precluded her from attacking the Red Court. I think Mab saw that doing so immediately would be a huge mistake and decided the best thing she could do was to do nothing. Mass most of her troops on the border with Summer, order them not to attack the Red Court even if the opportunity presented itself, and thereby pin Summer’s forces to their own border as well. In this manner Mab temporarily preserved the Red Court, but because Harry had prevented Cowl from making himself into a demi-god and destroy the Senior Council, the White Council was also preserved. Make no mistake, Mab wanted to see the Red Court pay for invading her turf; but she would defer punishing them until a time when doing so wouldn’t derail her own purpose of defeating the Outsiders. The White Council would have to repair its losses first.
Mab also gained one other critical advantage by refusing to take the bait and attack the Red Court. She forced Nemesis agents to make overt moves to attempt to achieve their goals. Mab may have hindsight, intellectus or just a great intelligence network, but whatever she has, she doesn’t have the ability to easily discern the identity of those beings who have been taken over by Nemesis. If she could do that she would have known Aurora was behind the murder of the Summer Knight. She would have known early on that Lea was infected and might have prevented Maeve from being taken over. Mab’s plan of sitting still worked. It drew Thorned Namshiel, Maeve and possibly the Scarecrow (Eldest Fetch) into making overt moves. My guess is when a way was opened for Thorned Namshiel to attack Arctis Tor, Maeve revealed herself as being Nemfected. Thorned Namshiel revealed itself as being Nemfected or an Outside ally (Black Circle member) simply by leading the attack on Mab's capital.
We can now understand the reason for so-called Black Council attack on Arctis Tor. It was intended to force Mab to recall her troops to defend her home from the invaders, and allow Summer to attack the Reds. An attack by Summer alone would not destroy the Red Court, but it would cut the Red Court down to size so neither side had an advantage and both the Red Court and White Council would continue to wear each other down.
However, the plan failed. Whatever magic abilities Thorned Namshiel had and whatever allies it brought to the party, they couldn’t do more than kill a rear guard of Mab’s personal troll body guards. Mab was too strong at the heart of her power to be intimidated into recalling her forces because Thorned Namshiel and company couldn’t break in. We have never seen Mab do more than direct a battle, but there is a WoJ that states that she is very impressive when fighting. So I guess even hellfire couldn’t melt Arctis Tor with Mab there.
However, there is an addendum to the above scenario. Spiny boy and company couldn’t break in to Arctis Tor, but Mab couldn’t drive them away without recalling her forces from the border, so instead a parley occurred and a deal was struck. Mab agreed to not directly involve herself in the activities which came next in Winter and specifically not to harm Eldest Fetch. Thorned Namshiel probably promised to leave and never return. Though you can’t trust the word of a Denarian, Mab would not have had to keep her word if Thorned Namshiel had not at least fulfilled the first part of the deal and left. Mab kept her word but cheated in other ways, like going to Chicago and fixing Little Chicago so Harry Dresden could track the Fetches.
So in the end Mab identified Nemesis agents or allies; witnessed Harry eliminate Eldest Fetch who was likely Nemfected, or at least got further confirmation that Harry was the perfect choice to be her next Knight, and got to size up Molly's potential as a future recruit. However, Maeve was able to win Lily's trust and start her long-con designed to destroy both Summer and Winter. Nemesis; thanks to Maeve, got to see the Red Court take a beating ensuring the war would drag on, with the new goal of gradually wearing down both sides so when the time came neither the Council nor the Reds could hope to stand up to the Outsiders.
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