What happened to Lash has been a long standing question in the Dresden fandom. I'd like to put forward my theory.

Let's look at the facts we have:
- Lash is an imprint of Lasciel in Harry's mind.
- Lash gets the Free Will to change from Harry's soul.
- Lash changes, at least somewhat, to Harry's beliefs.
- Lash disappears after psychic attack; Harry gains Soulfire.

The proposed theories have mostly been variations of:
- She's injured in his mind and will return.
- She was destroyed.
- She returned to Lasciel.

My theory is that she became part of Harry.

That is: Under the stress of the psychic assault, she was mostly destroyed and what remained (sharing much with Harry) was absorbed into him.

Thoughts?

 

Pretty sure this has been discussed at length, but not sure where the thread is...

Nonetheless, I don't think she was absorbed as you put it. Harry already has an alter-ego that lives in his head, and one that actually communicated with Lash. Given that we've actually 'seen them as actual individuals within Harry's mind, it would be strange for them to mesh.

Objectively, it makes the most sense to say she was destroyed, and chalk it up as symbolic of her breaking away from Lasciel to become her own self, one who willingly chose to sacrifice herself to save the man she was supposed to corrupt originally.

That being said, I suspect that fanboydom will prevail, and Lash will eventually resurface with the backstory that she was only grievously wounded and can't actually die, and for whatever reason was unable to communicate with Harry during this time. While I recognize the flimsiness of this, I'm pulling for it anyway.

That being said, Butcher has show himself quite willing to maim/kill major characters. So we'll see.

 

Well, we know that there are remnants, because his guitar playing improved. Beyond that, I try not to speculate. Though, it is possible that Harry's super wizard healing could regenerate the damaged brain tissue that once housed her.

 

Butcher has hinted at Lash not being completely gone, saying something like "we haven't seen the last of Lash" in an interview, iirc. So it's unlikely that she was absorbed into Harry. It's an interesting theory that wizard healing may be able to heal her eventually, but that would likely take decades to achieve.

More interesting to me though is whether Lash would count as an actual soul and thus go to heaven after her death (since she willingly sacrificed herself for another, and I think that counts big time on the redemption scale).

 

It depends on whether Lash is a part of Lasciel of just an imprint of her. I would say that Lash does contain a piece of Lasciel's soul because she was able to empower Harry with Hellfire.

Didn't at least one of the werewolves die in last book? And so did Morgan. Bianca died in Grave Peril...

 

Oh I dunno. Morgan mehbe?

Edit: Beaten, and with more examples.

Don't forget that Harry's first love interest in the books was turned into a half-vampire and pretty much shoved into a cameo role (though I suppose this may change) and his first love interest chronologically while not in fact dead has been forced aside as well. So I count these as 'maimed'. Then there's Michael.

 

Harry getting his hand burnt off should probably count as a maiming.

 

Butcher has said that Lasciel's story isn't over - he has been exceptionally vague about Lash.
Personally, I think she's still inside him, somewhere... though it would be funny to see InnerHarry as a woman...

 

If I ever come up with a scientific theory or any theory that is published, I am so naming it Lash Theory <_<

/offtopic