The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Candidates for future Nemfection?
KurtinStGeorge:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on August 25, 2019, 11:50:08 AM ---When did Maeve handle it?
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---"A few years back, you got angry. So angry that when you spoke it made people bleed from the ears. That was why. Because you figured out the the adversary had taken Maeve. And it hurt. To know that the adversary had gotten to her."
"It was the knife." Mab said.
"Knife?"
"Morgana's athame," Mab said in a neutral tone-but her eyes were far away.
"The one given to her by the Red Court at Bianca's masquerade. That was how the Leanansidhe was tainted-and your godmother spread it to Maeve before I could set it right."
--- End quote ---
There is no reason to think Maeve physically handled the knife. It seems more likely to me that Lea found a way to directly infect Maeve.
There is another related idea that I think needs to be challenged. Because Mab wore the Athame on her belt, it is easy to conclude that Mab has been exposed to Nemesis. I think that is incorrect and I will say why further below. First, I suppose an alternative to this thought is that Mab found some way to shield herself from the infection, but that seems unlikely to me because it's too simple and too easy. If Mab could protect herself than Nemesis is no longer so scary a weapon.
A more subtle alternative is that the Athame's nemesis infection was a one shot item. Mab could wear the Athame because it had lost its power to do harm to the one who uses it. I think that is also an unlikely explanation; however, if you reread the previous sentence I just wrote, the clue to how I think the Athame works is found at the end of that sentence. I'll just wait while you reread that.....
I think Lea didn't become nemfected until she used the Athame to summon everyone in Winter who owed her a favor to capture Harry, near the end of Grave Peril. If simply touching the item passed the infection, it would have been all too easy for Bianca to infect herself, assuming she was just a patsy and not the mastermind of the operation. I can't describe it in exact terms, but something about using the Athame's magic passes the poison to its user. So it makes sense for Mab to permanently keep hold of the item. It can't harm her as long as she doesn't use it and it can't harm anyone else either.
morriswalters:
I have no idea about the precise mechanism. I come at it backwards. Of all the creatures in faerie, Mab, more so than anyone else, understands the hazard of infection. The Gatekeeper exists to forestall this very possibility. Since I presume that Mab is no fool I dismiss the possibility that the adversary could infect her.
In addition, just for a basis for my thinking, I assume the infection works much like the coins. Jim is into adaptive reuse. So I think the Athame has had its moment and that as long as the shadow is still on Lea, that the knife can't infect anyone else. And the shadow is still there, she tells us so in Changes. I think this sets up a scenario where Lea backslides and backstabs Mab.
Other possibilities exist. Lea was under the radar for some time, it isn't out of the realm of speculation that Cowl or some other member of the circle gave Lea more infected artifacts before she was discovered.
Mira:
[quote
I think Lea didn't become nemfected until she used the Athame to summon everyone in Winter who owed her a favor to capture Harry, near the end of Grave Peril. If simply touching the item passed the infection, it would have been all too easy for Bianca to infect herself, assuming she was just a patsy and not the mastermind of the operation. I can't describe it in exact terms, but something about using the Athame's magic passes the poison to its user. So it makes sense for Mab to permanently keep hold of the item. It can't harm her as long as she doesn't use it and it can't harm anyone else either. quote]
Or Bianca never handled the knife herself...
Grave Peril page 270 paperback
--- Quote ---Bianca presented her with a small black case. Lea opened it, and a slow tremble ran down her body, made her flame-red hair shift and glisten.
--- End quote ---
Possible but doubtful that Bianca handled the knife herself.. Or Bianca could very well have been infected, but we will never know because she was killed by the ghosts of her victims. Or she was showing symptoms in the guise of her delusions of grandeur and power..
Also in Cold Days Mab confirms that "it was the knife..." That this is how Lea was infected and from her to Maeve.. So somehow Lea was infected by the knife and in turn infected Maeve, Mab suspected and was able to deal with Lea in time, but not Maeve.. So is Mab wrong about this?
Snark Knight:
--- Quote from: Mira on August 23, 2019, 11:01:15 AM ---I don't think Victor Sells was infected, in my opinion he was what is called a "useful idiot.." You forgot that Mab, herself, was infected but she caught it in time.
--- End quote ---
There's a WOJ that the first Nemfected character to appear on stage did so in Grave Peril. So barring the remote possibility that this was one of the times he absolutely had to lie when answering a fan question because "I'm not going to tell you" would itself have been confirmation that someone was onto a big spoiler, I think you're right about Sells being a pawn. (Presumably, so were the FBI werewolves. Kravos is technically a candidate for the first N-fectee seen, but I lean towards him being another pawn and the WOJ most likely referring to Bianca or Cowl).
The question is, was Sells a pawn aimed at Marcone, or a pawn aimed at Harry?
Bad Alias:
--- Quote from: Mira on August 27, 2019, 09:49:40 PM ---So somehow Lea was infected by the knife and in turn infected Maeve, Mab suspected and was able to deal with Lea in time, but not Maeve.. So is Mab wrong about this?
--- End quote ---
The knife is like the monkey from Outbreak. It didn't infect everybody. It was patient zero. Lea is infected by the knife. What happens to the knife at this point doesn't matter. Lea throws it into the river. Lea's infected. Lea sneezes on Maeve. Maeve is infected. Mab never says "Lea infected Maeve with the knife." She says "knife --> Lea --> Maeve."
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