The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Infected by Nemesis. What do know about how and when. What we don't know.

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KurtinStGeorge:
I'm talking about everyone we can reasonably guess was infected by the Nemesis bug. 

There are also characters who may not have become infected, but who were tempted into making deals that corrupted them in other ways.  For example, I wouldn't be surprised if Victor Sells, The Hexenwolf FBI agents and Leonid Kravos weren't actually infected by Nemesis, despite what Lily told Harry in Cold Days.  Simply approaching and making a deal to teach Sells and Kravos black magic would quickly corrupt them and they would be willing to do just about anything to learn more.  We saw what the hexenwolf belt almost did to Harry, so it's no mystery how FBI agents were corrupted by them.  It's possible some or all of these characters did become nemfected, but I doubt it and in any case we can't be certain.

The first character who we can reasonably guess was nemfected is Aurora.  We don't know when Nemesis got to her, just that it was before the events in Summer Knight and because Elaine was spending time in the Summer Court, she makes a pretty good suspect.  The problem is we do not have any information about anyone else who may have been visiting Summer or had contact with Aurora.  If you go back and reread the scene in Summer Knight when Harry brought a wounded Elaine to be healed by Aurora, there were one or two other humans who were working with some of the Summer Fae on a couple of artistic endeavors.  They were about as minor as characters can get.  They didn't have any lines of dialogue and weren't named, but there very presence tells us that some other mortal could have visited Summer and infected Aurora.  How it was done is a mystery.

Next is the Leanansidhe.  We know she was given the tainted athame at Bianca's masquerade party.  Lea told Harry this in Ghost Story and Mab confirmed it near the end of Battle Ground.  Cowl and Kumori handled the gifts that Bianca gave out.  Unless Cowl took the gig of acting as one of Bianca's flunkies as a second job to pay off his student loans, it's a pretty good bet he knew exactly what he was handling.  Kumori might have also been in on the plot or Cowl might have kept her in the dark and gave her a seemingly plausible explanation for their actions that night.  My guess is she knew something, but maybe not everything.  If Elaine = Kumori then her knowing that she was helping to spread the Nemesis bug makes much more sense.

Maeve was tainted by contact with Lea. So there's no real mystery here.  She must have been tainted sometime before the events in Proven Guilty.

Cat Sith was most likely grabbed by HWWBf when the malk was covering Harry's retreat.  This would be an example of direct contamination from an Outsider, not by the use of a tainted item.

Justine is a real mystery.  I doubt she was contaminated because Nemesis jumped from Maeve when Murphy shot the ice princess in the head.  Justine wasn't acting like herself for a long time before Cold Days.  In the short story Even Hand she was acting like a top flight secret agent when she chose to go to Marcone's HQ in order to evade the Fomor lord who was chasing her.  That story took place between the events in Turn Coat and Changes, but I suspect Nemesis got to her much earlier than that.  Just before the duel in the Raith Deeps in White Night, Justine surprised Harry by the confident and collected way she was able to describe the events taking place and rivalry between Skavis and Malvora.  It was almost like she wasn't the real Justine. 

But when Justine got the Nemesis bug isn't nearly important than how she got it.  That is, if I'm right that it didn't happen on Demonreach near the end of Cold Days.  Because, if I am right, then Nemesis got to Justine while she was under Lara's protection.  Justine would have been on the grounds of House Raith or at Thomas' apartment most of that time.  Here's a possible explanation how it could have happened.  Maybe it happened when she did her secret agent thing offscreen before the start of Even Hand.  I believe she infiltrated a Fomor base.  She would have been vulnerable then.  Maybe she wasn't successful and was captured but Nemesis was present in someone or something else and saw an opportunity in Justine by making it look like she had succeeded.  It would explain her demeanor with Marcone.  I haven't reread that story in a long time, but I recall that Justine came across as very calculating in her decisions and actions.  Perhaps Justine had told Harry the truth in White Night when she said medication had made her a more stable person.

What else can you think of that we know or can reasonably guess about Nemesis?  I suspect there is at least one other character who is nemfected.  Is there anyone else you think could be a Nemesis agent? 

The_Sibelis:
As mentioned at the end of the other thread, I put some suspicion on Harry changing cat sith simply by interacting with him. From how Elaine puts it she was Aurora's mortal "bestie" for years. It's pretty much a given that starborn CAN change things, but I don't think they're directly vectors for Nemesis in this way, but that some things changing does directly open them to Nemesis. The fae courts and their delicate sense of balance being easy targets.
Lea for instance.. the knife gave her Nemesis as it's vector, but considering it's very presence upset the balance of the winter courts shouldn't she have not taken it to begin with? And then later I think she confronted Mab on Harry's behalf, thinking herself not beholden to Mab and it was then that Mab saw the bigger picture on what was happening with her.
Justine I think is relatively easy to guess, I don't think she ever fully recovered from what thomas did to her, combine that with her already dual manor/congenital crazy and WC feeding being both addicting and damaging to the psyche and nemesis had a meat suit to step right into that was largely unoccupied.
Start to look at what Justine has done since then interacting with both the fomor and Marcone(remembering someone put the best time for Marcone to have actually picked up the coin to be post his short story) and she's might have been spreading herself or meddling already...
Actually, taking another look at peabody.. Nemesis seems to have a thing for the well connected bureaucratic underlying just as much as the young unstable female practitioner.
That would put nameless in the same group of people Nemesis would love access to.

Mira:

  Or..... And it may sound outrageous, Justine was a Nemesis plant from the very beginning.  What better cover than this beautiful bit of "kine" was supposedly insane, that she was given to Thomas [son of Margaret] to nibble on by Lord Raith.  More interesting, though Thomas is young, his feeding never gets out of control so that she dies, but goes far enough to counter her insanity.  In the meantime Thomas falls hopelessly in love with her, "true love," he also meets up with his brother, the star born wizard, Harry Dresden.. Hmmm, do we smell a rat here about?  Long term planning, really long term Nemesis planning..

 One step further, something is protecting Lord Raith, the theory is it is Outsiders, how about old Nemesis itself? Did Margaret realize this? Is this why when she fell in love with Malcolm, a suitable mate to produce a star born who could take on Nemesis someday she left him and set up a death curse that would hold some of Lord Raith's power in check. But her plan wasn't perfect, she had to leave her little son, Thomas behind.  And yeah, Nemesis always has a plan "B."

Odd don't you think that while Lord Raith manages to kill off all his male sons, somehow Thomas
manages to survive.  I believe that Lord Raith not only knew who the brother of Thomas was, he also knows Harry is a star born threat.  So, the gift of Justine to Thomas, outwardly she is food, nothing more.  Somehow his feeding keeps her insanity in check, they fall in love, "true love," she is willing to give her life to save his life in Blood Rites.  How did she survive that feeding? Was the severely wounded Thomas really able to stop himself in time to save her life at the cost of his own? Oh, and somehow he survived when he stopped feeding though supposedly he was dying.  Or because she was infested with Nemesis to begin with, Justine was never in an danger of death, it just looked that way..
 
What better spy could Nemesis have not just to keep Thomas in line but to keep tabs on Harry as well.  Not only that Lara feels she is in debt to Justine for willing to sacrifice herself to save her brother and saving her beloved brother.. So Justine now becomes her private secretary and confident.. Lord Raith appears to be very weak, he cannot feed, but he is still protected by Nemesis and Nemesis now has access to any of Lara's plans, also through Thomas has a handle of what Harry is up to.. Long term plan?  What went down in Peace Talks and Battle Ground is the fruit from that.

g33k:

--- Quote from: The_Sibelis on October 23, 2023, 04:23:01 AM ---... It's pretty much a given that starborn CAN change things ...
--- End quote ---
I'm pretty certain that's a mortal thing, a human thing; not limited to Starborn.  Human choices, free will, love...  This is potent, potent stuff in the Dresdenverse.  It dwarfs the power of the White Council, dwarfs even Mab's power.

A human choice, freely made, can split the entire universe, creating a whole new branch of reality.

g33k:

--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on October 23, 2023, 03:46:08 AM --- ... The first character who we can reasonably guess was nemfected is Aurora.  We don't know when Nemesis got to her, just that it was before the events in Summer Knight and because Elaine was spending time in the Summer Court, she makes a pretty good suspect.  The problem is we do not have any information about anyone else who may have been visiting Summer or had contact with Aurora.  If you go back and reread the scene in Summer Knight when Harry brought a wounded Elaine to be healed by Aurora, there were one or two other humans who were working with some of the Summer Fae on a couple of artistic endeavors.  They were about as minor as characters can get.  They didn't have any lines of dialogue and weren't named, but there very presence tells us that some other mortal could have visited Summer and infected Aurora.  How it was done is a mystery.
--- End quote ---
I don't think you can rely upon those minor characters being human.  There was all sorts of faerie glamour in play.

But I'm pretty sure Elaine herself was the Nemvector that got Aurora.
She went from Justin's enthrallment to Aurora's bargain, and likely carried Nemesis with her.



--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on October 23, 2023, 03:46:08 AM --- ... Justine is a real mystery.  I doubt she was contaminated because Nemesis jumped from Maeve when Murphy shot the ice princess in the head.  Justine wasn't acting like herself for a long time before Cold Days.  In the short story Even Hand she was acting like a top flight secret agent when she chose to go to Marcone's HQ in order to evade the Fomor lord who was chasing her.  That story took place between the events in Turn Coat and Changes, but I suspect Nemesis got to her much earlier than that.  Just before the duel in the Raith Deeps in White Night, Justine surprised Harry by the confident and collected way she was able to describe the events taking place and rivalry between Skavis and Malvora.  It was almost like she wasn't the real Justine. 

But when Justine got the Nemesis bug isn't nearly important than how she got it.  That is, if I'm right that it didn't happen on Demonreach near the end of Cold Days.  Because, if I am right, then Nemesis got to Justine while she was under Lara's protection.  Justine would have been on the grounds of House Raith or at Thomas' apartment most of that time.  Here's a possible explanation how it could have happened.  Maybe it happened when she did her secret agent thing offscreen before the start of Even Hand.  I believe she infiltrated a Fomor base.  She would have been vulnerable then.  Maybe she wasn't successful and was captured but Nemesis was present in someone or something else and saw an opportunity in Justine by making it look like she had succeeded.  It would explain her demeanor with Marcone.  I haven't reread that story in a long time, but I recall that Justine came across as very calculating in her decisions and actions.  Perhaps Justine had told Harry the truth in White Night when she said medication had made her a more stable person.
--- End quote ---

I think Justine got infected by something in Papa Raith's collection.

We know Raith père had Outsider-magic protecting him.  We know he also had an Outsider-summoning ritual.  IIRC, there's WoJ saying he had become aware of the Starborn cycle, which is obviously linked to Outsider action; and he was working to become a power-player in the big battles to come.  He had amassed a huge library, trying to get himself up to speed.  It seems pretty likely that a relative novice, collecting like mad and scrambling for power, will make some bad decisions in this arena and unwittingly collect some very dangerous items.

Plus, it'd make good storytelling sense for Harry to get access to such a trove; and lo! his new fiance is heir to that collection.

I figure Lara had tapped poor, vague Justine to help her with sorting the collection (the odds of Justine being able to focus enough to recall anything useful, or report to others, would have seemed minimal).  But something in there spoke to her... offered her the chance to help Thomas, the chance to be with Thomas again.


--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on October 23, 2023, 03:46:08 AM ---What else can you think of that we know or can reasonably guess about Nemesis?  I suspect there is at least one other character who is nemfected.  Is there anyone else you think could be a Nemesis agent?
--- End quote ---

Nemesis wants to get close to the power-players...

It likely has someone near to Marcone...  Demeter/Beckitt?  She has already shown she is willing to make poor deals for power/revenge.  Marcone's enforcer, Childs?  I don't think we have much evidence, but I think *someone* close to Marcone is Nemfected.

Likewise Odin.  He's a much harder target, but even more valuable to Nemesis.  One of the Einherjaren, or even one of the Valkyries?  Again, I think we don't have any evidence, nothing shown on-screen.

I'm sure there's another Nemesis agent within the White Council.  I'm thinking someone high up amongst the Wardens, but possibly one of the Senior Council.  Luccio looks likely to me... relatively-recent psychic wound, struggling emotionally, trying to get/recover power, highly-trusted... pretty much perfect, in fact.  Plus:  Luccio would hurt Harry way more than if it were one of the minor named Wardens.

Unspotted agents seem likely in any given Faerie court.  Winter (as the primary Outsider-foe) would be most-valuable to Nemesis, but Summer can be almost as good; the Erlking's court, too.  As above, I don't think Jim has written any hints/clues/evidence onscreen for any of these.

I expect others, but none spring to mind at the moment.

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