That is a very Christian point of view. Mab is not a Christian.
I didn't mean to imply Christianity, and if it came off that way, I'm sorry; I was speaking of souls. We have several entities and several afterlives, including, for instance, Hades. There is direct proof and evidence that souls live on past death in some form or another—even if it's torturous. If a soul is a requirement for the afterlife—again, I'm not saying Heaven—and the Fae mantles, in some way or another, eliminate the soul, what happens to it? Does it still exist? Or did Mab (and is she herself) consign at least two daughters and a relative innocent to eventual Oblivion—cessation of existence?
Can, for instance, Aurora's soul, what was left of it, experienced some kind of afterlife? Or was her soul completely consumed, and there was nothing that could move on? And, if it was consumed, what happened to it? It can't be destroyed; it has to be converted in some fashion, assuming that thermodynamics applies. Is it used up as fuel for the Mantle? What happens when it runs out completely?
It's like when Dresden worries about using too much Soulfire and, you know, dying. The Soulfire I can understand, because it's converting soul to energy multiplicatively. My questions are basically if there is a similar function that takes place with the mantles?
All that other stuff aside, even taking the Christian point of view into account—how will
Michael, whose whole life is built around Catholicism, react if he finds out about the soul thing? From his perspective, assuming the above suppositions are true, his firstborn will never, no matter what, be able to join him in Paradise.
I'll be over here trying to get the image of a weeping Michael out of my head now.
