The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
So What Happened to the Athame?
vincentric:
Since it is Mab's current purpose in existence to defend against the Outside, I'd think she was completely capable of neutralizing a Nemesis vector once she has it in her control. There's no reason to think that she hasn't destroyed/purified that knife and ended its threat.
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on October 06, 2023, 11:30:22 AM --- ... We know that it fell into Maeve's hands ...
--- End quote ---
Do we, though?
Know that Maeve actually ever got her hands on the Athame?
That was the vector that got Lea; that was how it got into the Winter Court, overall.
But I've thought it an open question whether Maeve got Nemfected directly from the Athame, or by "catching it" like a disease, directly from Lea (possibly via some very elaborate ritual, "inflicting" it on her; possibly from just "hanging out" together). But also, Nemesis-prodded Lea could simply have laid some other Nemptation into Maeve's path (who has always seemed impulsive & tempestuous; even if some of it is "just an act," she sometimes does the thing just to maintain the facade).
Mira:
--- Quote from: g33k on October 06, 2023, 05:37:07 PM ---Do we, though?
Know that Maeve actually ever got her hands on the Athame?
That was the vector that got Lea; that was how it got into the Winter Court, overall.
But I've thought it an open question whether Maeve got Nemfected directly from the Athame, or by "catching it" like a disease, directly from Lea (possibly via some very elaborate ritual, "inflicting" it on her; possibly from just "hanging out" together). But also, Nemesis-prodded Lea could simply have laid some other Nemptation into Maeve's path (who has always seemed impulsive & tempestuous; even if some of it is "just an act," she sometimes does the thing just to maintain the facade).
--- End quote ---
My impression was that Maeve did have the Knife at one point, from what Mab tells Harry in Cold Days, though it is possible that though the Knife brought Nemesis to the Court, she picked it up some other way.. Anyway, here is the passage from Cold Days page 503 Harry asks her about being so pissed a few years back in the chapel, i.e. Small Favor
--- 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 that 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 her by the Red Court at Bianca's masquerade. That's how Leanansidhe was tainted--and your godmother spread it to Maeve before I could set it right."
--- End quote ---
It is vague and could go either way, Lea may have let Maeve handle the Knife for a bit before Mab heard about it and took it away from both of them. Remember the line where Harry says he sees the Knife in Mab's belt. Or Nemesis is contagious to those who are emotionally vulnerable, which Maeve really was, she had many issues.. Either way, it doesn't answer the question of where the Knife is now. Mab said, "before she could set it right?" Meaning what? Destroy the Knife? Heal Lea, but too late to heal Maeve?
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on October 06, 2023, 10:08:08 PM ---...
--- Quote --- ... That's how Leanansidhe was tainted--and your godmother spread it to Maeve ...
--- End quote ---
...
--- End quote ---
That looks to me very much like an explicit statement that the Nemfection proceeded Athame --> Lea --> Maeve.
You could interpret it as Lea using the Athame to Nemfect Maeve... But that isn't the simple & straightforward reading, it's a more contrived reading.
On the other hand, the fae do love their tricksy language, implying something without overtly stating it as a fact.
But I think Mab would have needed an objective, here -- why would she want to mislead Harry about this?
Mira:
--- Quote ---That looks to me very much like an explicit statement that the Nemfection proceeded Athame --> Lea --> Maeve.
--- End quote ---
But it doesn't say how, does it?
--- Quote --- That's how Leanansidhe was tainted--and your godmother spread it to Maeve
--- End quote ---
It implies that Nemesis is catching like the measles, but we know it isn't that simple.
When Harry says to Mab that it must have hurt her to see her daughter infested with Nemesis..
She answers;
--- Quote ---"It was the Knife."
--- End quote ---
The Knife was the original source of the infection, implying like bad potato salad at a party, those who ate it got food poisoning. Lea may have brought the salad to the party, ate some and offered Maeve a spoon of it, so both got sick, but again not that simple.
--- Quote ---On the other hand, the fae do love their tricksy language, implying something without overtly stating it as a fact.
But I think Mab would have needed an objective, here -- why would she want to mislead Harry about this?
--- End quote ---
I don't think she was, or rather she may have not wanted him to know that she herself was in danger of infection, lets not forget she wore it for at least one scene in her belt. I believe she, herself was taking the cure in Proven Guilty... Which makes sense since both she and Lea had direct contact with the infected Knife. However if Maeve didn't have direct contact with the Knife and still got infected, something else is going on. Also at some point Cat Sith was also infected, how did that happen? Which could very well be the case as you say, then Mab missed it because she assumed that direct contact was needed.. That's why her anger in the chapel back in Small Favor, she was fooled and her daughter paid the price. Or she wants Harry to get to the bottom of it, but because it is Nemesis won't come out and say it, that would be very Mab-like..
Back to the original question, so what happened to this tainted object?
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