The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Small Favor: Why Mab got involved in the first place
Zaphodess:
It's always been a bit of a mystery why Mab tried to save Marcone in Small Favor, even before he was actually attacked to boot, and I think I might have an explanation that's both logical and doesn't give Mr. Occam too much headache.
Maeve was involved.
Mab knew that Nemesis had gotten Maeve. She wasn't ready to kill her just yet, but she sure as hell kept tabs on what she was doing.
So, if Maeve was active in Chicago, Mab took notice too. Hence the snowfall. It couldn't have been obvious to her what exactly the plan was, so she decided to spend a favor to hire Harry and had the new Accord member under observation as well. Maeve wouldn't have liked that much, so she made sure that Titania knew about Harry becoming an Emissary of Winter, making him a legit target for her revenge. There might be someone Nemfected left in Summer after all, after Aurora. That's why the first move from Harry's pov was from Summer's Emissaries, trying to kill him. Ironicyally, it made Mab's job to convince him to take it up a lot easier (ok, maybe she engineered that herself, wouldn't be the first or the last time she puts Harry in a corner to get him to do her bidding). Anyway, Marcone was abducted by parties unknown to Mab. She said so explicitly when she showed Harry the snow model, so she didn't knew at that point in time who else was on the enemy team. Harry finds out and gets the Council involved and everything ...
Here comes Maeve's most likely move (imho): Catching the Archive at the train station (or maybe at the place she intended to stay) before Nicodemus could lay his hands on her.
Mab figured it out just in time. She realized that she had made a mistake in assuming that Marcone was the (primary) target Nemesis/her daughter was after. In a desperate attempt to prevent that, she sent the Hobbs, taking the risk that they killed the current host of the Archive. The Archive would have gone to the next person in line and been safe from Nemfection.
Harry (with Uriel's help) did the rest.
I suppose that conversation Ivy had with Mab was somewhat awkward.
Quantus:
Only catch I see off-hand is the timeline of Harry's hiring: The Gruff's already began attacking Harry as the Winter Emissary /Before/ Marcone was Taken in the first place, and long before Mab would have chosen an emissary for that reason.
Per SmF, Ch 7:
--- Quote ---For example: Mab had said that Summer’s hit men were after me because Mab had chosen me to be her Emissary. But for that to be true, she had to have done it hours ago, at least a little while before the first crew of gruffs had attacked me at the Carpenter place.
And that had happened several hours before the bad guys grabbed Marcone.
Someone was running a game, all right. Someone was keeping secrets.
--- End quote ---
wardenferry419:
What if Mab thought that Harry was the target, initially, and choose him as emissary so that she could make her role more official?
jonas:
--- Quote from: Quantus on August 22, 2017, 08:18:17 PM ---Only catch I see off-hand is the timeline of Harry's hiring: The Gruff's already began attacking Harry as the Winter Emissary /Before/ Marcone was Taken in the first place, and long before Mab would have chosen an emissary for that reason.
Per SmF, Ch 7:
--- End quote ---
See now, this is why I always assumed she hired Anduriel and that's the 'small favor' WK Harry is actually repaying later(I know, I know. Supposedly it's from an ancient two places at once debt, but I don't remember the wording and I like this idea anyway) So Mab had already made the first play by asking Nic to challenge the new baron of Chicago/Unseelie mortal. Later she's pissed because Nic undermined her accords by kidnapping the neutral negotiator It's never said she was mad about the initial challenge, that was an accepted thing she hired an emissary to handle. The thing is, Harry's her hidden ace weapon, everybody's really, and she specifically had reason to throw together that pressure cooker of violence waiting to happen, She'd recently had her home attacked by one of the Fallen. And what's the result at the end of this book? The presumed accused end up dead and missing by the end. Coincidence? Meh, I don't believe in them.
Quantus:
--- Quote from: wardenferry419 on August 23, 2017, 06:31:53 AM ---What if Mab thought that Harry was the target, initially, and choose him as emissary so that she could make her role more official?
--- End quote ---
I think that would only but him at more risk, right? Being tapped as a Winter Emmisary is what let all the Summer hitters start coming after him in SK, no? It makes the whole thing more official but not in a helpful way that I see.
--- Quote from: jonas on August 23, 2017, 10:32:11 AM ---See now, this is why I always assumed she hired Anduriel and that's the 'small favor' WK Harry is actually repaying later(I know, I know. Supposedly it's from an ancient two places at once debt, but I don't remember the wording and I like this idea anyway) So Mab had already made the first play by asking Nic to challenge the new baron of Chicago/Unseelie mortal. Later she's pissed because Nic undermined her accords by kidnapping the neutral negotiator It's never said she was mad about the initial challenge, that was an accepted thing she hired an emissary to handle. The thing is, Harry's her hidden ace weapon, everybody's really, and she specifically had reason to throw together that pressure cooker of violence waiting to happen, She'd recently had her home attacked by one of the Fallen. And what's the result at the end of this book? The presumed accused end up dead and missing by the end. Coincidence? Meh, I don't believe in them.
--- End quote ---
I think the catch on that one is that she stated outright when she "hired" Harry in SmF that she did not know "who took Marcone". If she already knew it was Marcone she wouldnt have been able to state it so plainly, Id think.
Personally, I think Mab's motivation toward Marcone in SmF has nothing to do with Harry at all (in the "he's not really the center of the universe" theme) and has more to do with Marcone being Vadderung's pet project in much the same way Harry is Mab's.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version