Reviving this old concept in light of completing Cold Days. Say

Spoiler

the Nemesis infection in Lea

encouraged her to sell the debt to any particularly difficult faction - we've got dozens to worry over. Ivy, the Denarians, even Aurora herself, just to embroil Dresden in those issues.

Spoiler

A turned Dresden infected with the Nemesis this early could really shake things up in regards to what should happen.

I think it has potential, but eh.

 

Pretty sure Lea did not sell the debt willingly. There's no way in hell she'd sell her Godson to the Denarians.

 

Probably not under normal circumstances, no. But we've seen a handful of characters under the influence, and say Mab wasn't able to respond when Lea otherwise would have made the bargain with her, and she has to turn to someone just to ensure the debt doesn't remain and he is corrupted as well.

Ration kind of goes out the window.

 

I really never got the impression it was a straight up deal when Mab got Harry's debt, I could certainly be wrong but I always thought it was more of a "Ill give you this in exchange for that but Ill cave your face in if you say anything other than thank you for your generosity your highness."

 

I think it was probably in one of Lea's more lucid moments. Possibly her first one. At that point she would realise how badly she'd been fucked up and see how dangerous having that kind of power over Harry could be. Especially given that she could still hold his broken oath over him. That could have ended badly.

 

Never even thought of that. Poor Lea.

 

That was pretty much flat out stated, wasn't it? Lea was getting to powerful so Mab balanced the scales and Lea could suck her metaphorical dick if she didn't like it.

 

That's what Lea says. She was still under the control of Nemesis at that point though, so anything she said is suspect at best. Mab probably didn't realise that Nemesis had gotten into her at that point, which is why she chose to rebalance the scales through Harry's debt rather than just encasing Lea in ice.

 

Two people of your choice, trapped in a magic circle until dawn. Hijinks ensue.

 

30 Pieces of Silver

When Michael Carpenter steps into Harry Dresden's office, the wizard would never have suspected who his friend and Knight of the Cross would bring to him as a prospective client: Nicodemus.

Someone is killing off the Denarians. One by one the Fallen are falling. Okay, maybe not exactly one by one. Sometimes they're getting ganked in groups. Doesn't sound so bad, but that's before Harry learns about what happens if someone manages to collect all 30 of the Denarian coins on All-Hallows Day and performs the Saint's Blood Ritual using the coins as payment.

 

It also implies that this something will also steal coins currently kept by Knights of the Cross.

But I doubt that it can be done in way other than crackfic due to obscene power inflation.

 

What is your reasoning behind that? The obscene power inflation (on whose part, too?) leading to crack, that is.

 

Or wizards touched by such a coin. If it's set pre-White Night Harry would be right there in the mix, too.

I don't think that would have to be the case at all for several reasons.

First, Butcher has made a rifle from long range (or point blank) into a giant killer. Everyone but true immortals not out on Halloween are subject to the D&D coup de grace rule.

Second, Dresden has basically faced an opponent way out of his weight class every book since Fool Moon and come out on top each time. An insanely powerful enemy would just be par for the course.

Third, the antagonist doesn't even need to be a major heavyweight. There's a way for the protections of the Denarians to be circumvented built into them.

I think there are lots of ways to do this story and make it work without a massive power creep.

 

In all fairness, he would've died many times if it hadn't been for circumstance.

For example. Nicodemus has had many chances to kill him, but hasn't wanted to. Cowl and Kumori didn't want to kill him, either. Arianna could've killed him, but she needed him alive for the blood-line curse.

The antagonist only needs to be smart to be a threat to Harry. But it'd be more awesome if you took something from mythology.

 

We do know that the nickleheads often steal/acquire the coins again in some manner. Makes sense that uniting the coins with out hosts would do something bad. Ever since I heard of the Well, I hope that one day the whole order, or just the big named ones get entombed in it. Only about ten of them were actually important to have their names known.
Apparently giving them nick names affect them, especially if you remove the "iel" section.
I believe one day, harry will grab the noose around nicodemus neck, and blast him with a forzare strong enough to rip his head off.

 

I imagine you're referring to the scene right at the end of GS where Harry calls Uriel Uri?

'El' is one of the names of God (well, technically, El is word for god and one of the gods who for lack of a better word 'fused' to become the monotheistic 'God') by removing the 'El' he is basically removing God from his name, calling him without God. More than that, there's what Uriels role is presented as in DF, he's referred as the 'Spymaster' of the Archangels and Gods 'wetworks' man. Of the four remaining Archangels, he's the one who does the dirty work, who walks the shadiest line- in good intentions and for good reasons- but dark deeds nonetheless. (Which draws a nice parallel with Harry.)

'Uriel' means God Is My Light, which fits in very well with his role, because God is what defines Uriels position on the right side of the narrow line he walks, God is his light.

So when Harry calls him Uri, removes 'God' from his Name, his identity... While obviously not his intent it is nonetheless perhaps literally the single worst thing he could say to him. A Name is a way of wrapping up the entirety of a being into one neat tidy sound. So where Uriel represents the sum of his existence,the name Uri is basically the concept of him as a Fallen given form.

So it's not necessarily that given them nicknames matters (Uriel is, for instance, fine with the nickname Mr Sunshine.) it's that Harry- by sheer random dumb luck- gave voice to what we can reasonably assume is the sum of Uriels greatest fear and inner struggles- the possibility that he could one day fall. Which would be another similarity between Harry and Uriel, which probably adds weight to Harry being the one saying it.

And that's about three and a half paragraphs more than I meant to write, which is nice.

 

Interesting thoughts, Psychotic Cat. Random thought. Isn't the "Psychotic part" kinda redundant? xD

 

He renamed the shadow in his head LASH instead of Lashiel, and look how that turned out.

 

Good point, though Lashiel is a Fallen, by definition an angel separated from God. Considering that I'd wager it wasn't so much the what he named her as the act of naming her itself.

The intent behind calling her Lash was to differentiate her the shadow from Lashiel the Fallen, which I'd wager is something that wasn't supposed to happen from the Fallens pov. Along with that there's the fact that Harry basically gave her a chunk of his soul- which is what people do when they show affection remember. (See; white court, Harrys freak out over soulfire.) Which wouldn't really matter to a Fallen, who are their own existence. But to the shadow which nothing more than a brief reflection of that existence cast upon him while he touched the coin? All the difference in the world.


Lash started off as basically an imaginary friend- albeit one thought up by and as an imitation of a Fallen Angel. An imaginary friend that was only supposed to exist for as long as it took Harry to grab the coin, which was not supposed to be long at all. But because Harry resisted, Lash had time to experience things, more than that to experience things not as an Angel but as part of a constantly changing mortal with free will. Eventually culminating in the slivers of his soul Harry gave her allowing her to grow into her own, real existence.

It's actually really similar to something in Tibetean mysticism called Tulpa, which is basically the creation of a being through the mind alone. The main difference being a Tulpa is created through a whole lot of meditation and mental discipline on the part of the mystic and the Shadow is created on the spot by an external influence.

 

Oh, that's an interesting point. And an interesting connection to make or speculate on. Really, its obvious now that you've pointed out...

Caring for another being could result in sharing/exchanging/giving a bit of soul... When applied to supernatural beings, that might result in their natures being changed -- because they're getting a bit of the human's dynamic essence.

Hrmm...

It also implies that a human-turned-supernatural being could maybe retain more of their soul just by... having friends, family, and loved ones.