Has Justine Been Faking It All Along?

[Second Aristh]

She became worth it the moment she became kine for the immediate Raith family..  Big clue here, she's insane, but feeding on her makes her sane?

I'm sure there are dozens of them at any given time.  Papa Raith liked to surround himself with them as bodyguards before BR.  Why not porn star Bobby that Inari fell in love with too?  He'd be the boyfriend of Harry's brother's sister.  Maybe Nemesis's plan to install him as the Merlin's personal butler just hasn't come to fruition yet.

But Maeve was infected, not possessed apparently.. As far as that goes, Maeve never had a "handle" as you call it on Harry, but Thomas did as of Grave Peril.

Maeve is important completely independently of Harry.  The Winter Lady is a great target to wreak havoc on the balance of reality.  A mortal Raith girlfriend is not if that's the best credentials she's got.

Nemesis has the time...  All that time it has someone on the inside, watching.. Hence the name HE WHO WALKS BESIDE, that is someone that goes along, they don't interfere they are just there watching and taking in information.

But at the time you are proposing Justine was taken, she wasn't on the inside watching.  That's the whole point.  She's not worth taking before she was in a good position to do that.

Or because Justine was already possessed, Susan couldn't have fed on her if she wanted to.

Go read the end of GP.  Justine was fed on by the other rampires.  She shows Harry the bite marks.

That isn't Lara's style.

It would have been kind, and Lara is sometimes quietly human when nobody is looking.

Yes, but that was before Margaret's curse, Papa Raith isn't the man he used to be.  He wasn't going to use Nemesis to take out Thomas, but use Thomas by way of Justine..

Papa Raith never fed on his sons, only his daughters.  Nothing changed there post-death curse.

[BrainFireBob]

She became worth it the moment she became kine for the immediate Raith family..  Big clue here, she's insane, but feeding on her makes her sane?But Maeve was infected, not possessed apparently.. As far as that goes, Maeve never had a "handle" as you call it on Harry, but Thomas did as of Grave Peril.Nemesis has the time...  All that time it has someone on the inside, watching.. Hence the name HE WHO WALKS BESIDE, that is someone that goes along, they don't interfere they are just there watching and taking in information.Or because Justine was already possessed, Susan couldn't have fed on her if she wanted to.That isn't Lara's style.Yes, but that was before Margaret's curse, Papa Raith isn't the man he used to be.  He wasn't going to use Nemesis to take out Thomas, but use Thomas by way of Justine..

As a side comment, the feeding doesn't make her sane. It lessens her emotions. Justine apparently suffers from a form of schizophrenia or related disease that disallows emotional regulation. Thomas "eats" her to normal, as if he's constantly excising an emotional cancer that's constantly growing. I thought it was a brilliant tidbit for a "nice" Whampire.

The suspicious bit is her sudden sanity "due to medication". I lean towards Justine never recovered from that near-fatal feeding: Nemesis offered her "healing" from it so she could be with Thomas. My 2 cents.

Also, in general: True Love protection takes two people who engaged in an act of true love. They both have to love the other, or it doesn't take. Which makes the act of true love that created their bond being Justine being willing to offer herself to Thomas to heal him and Thomas rejecting it at the last moment- very Butcher to find a way to make rejection an expression of true love.

But it's a two way street- Justine can't have been faking. If it wasn't real from her, the protection wouldn't have manifested.

[Mira]

But it's a two way street- Justine can't have been faking. If it wasn't real from her, the protection wouldn't have manifested.

Justine may not have, but once she was possessed, He Who Walks Beside could...