One minor; very minor, disappointment in Skin Game was that Harry didn't get very much conversation time with Lasciel. Harry's conversations with Nicodemus are usually fun; if creepy, and I expect nothing less from a full discussion between Harry and Lasciel, but that didn't happen in this case.
Granted, Harry was under the gun, what with Nicodemus revealing that the Genoskwa had taken up Ursiel's coin and Hannah Ascher was carrying Lasciel's, this meant Harry didn't have time to call Lasciel out on her BS, because almost everything she said to Harry were lies.
I'm going to point out the obvious lies and speculate on the biggest lie of them all. I suspect, the next time Lasciel makes an appearance that allows for Harry to give the fallen angel some backtalk, he will do exactly that and get under her skin in the process.
Remember these lines? (Edited)
Harry: "Lasciel!"
Lashiel: "Hello lover."
Michael: "Lover?"
Harry: "It's complicated."
Michael: "Oh Dear."
Yes it's funny, but that obscures the fact that Lasciel's first statement to Harry was an outright lie. Harry and Lash developed a love for one another, not Harry and Lasciel. Yes, originally Lash was just a copy of Lasciel but in the end she became her own being, with a will to decide for herself.
The same applies to the statement Lasciel made about Bonea.
Lashiel: “Meaning that since a whisper in your ear that should have killed you seems to have failed, I intend to skip the subtlety, rip your head apart, and collect our child. She’s far too valuable a resource to be allowed to die with you.”
Harry: "You know about that."
Michael: "Child?"
Harry: "Complicated."
Another lie, Bonea wasn't Lasciel's child, Bonea is Lash's child. Lasciel might want to claim that a distinction between herself and her former shadow self didn't exist. When Harry first picked up the coin that was a reasonably true statement. In time that was no longer true. Lash had become an individual with her own will and conscience. When Lash said, "She... doesn't deserve you." it showed us that an unbridgeable gap had opened between Lash and Lashiel. Lash was now a distinct individual.
That gets me to Lasciel's biggest lie. I'll warn you I'm going into WAG territory here and I need to give some exposition first to help explain how I reached this conclusion.
There have been a number of different versions of the story of Dr. Faustus going back over four hundred years. If you are unfamiliar with this story, Dr. Faustus calls up one of Satan's minions; Mephistopheles, in order to offer his soul to Satan in exchange for the usual; power, wealth, extended life and so on; and of course, later deeply regrets his decision. In some of the later versions of this story Mephistopheles is Satan. Mephistopheles is just one of Satan's many names. However, in the earliest versions of this story Mephistopheles is one of those beings who fell with Satan. This is important, because I believe Mephistopheles point of view about hell is identical to that of the Fallen in the Dresden Files. Jim Butcher has a degree in English Literature, so he probably knows Christopher Marlowe's late 16th century version of the story, "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus." Here is the relevant passage:
FAUSTUS. And what are you that live with Lucifer?
MEPHIST. Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer,
Conspir’d against our God with Lucifer,
And are for ever damn’d with Lucifer.
FAUSTUS. Where are you damn’d?
MEPHIST. In hell.
FAUSTUS. How comes it, then, that thou art out of hell?
MEPHIST. Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it:
Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells,
In being depriv’d of everlasting bliss?
It seems very likely to me that Fallen in the Dresden Files; whether they are stuck in one of the coins or if they have joined with someone who has taken up one of the Blackened Denarius, are every bit as much in hell as Mephistopheles described in Christopher Marlowe's version of Dr. Faustus. This leads me to what I believe is the real reason Lasciel was so P.O.'d at Harry.
It wasn't because she was women scorned. Think about it, Lasciel has been around since near the dawn of creation. She was; according to Lash, created for a purpose too complex for mere mortals like Harry to comprehend. Yet we are to believe that Lasciel's ego is so fragile that one mortal who refused to fully take up her coin pushes her over the edge into insane, murderous, scorned girlfriend mode. I don't think so. If I'm right, what was the real reason why Lasciel was furious with Harry? As Harry would say, "It's complicated," but easy to understand.
It starts in understanding how Lasciel; really how all of the Fallen in the coins, create their shadow selves. To make a copy of her memory and personality, Lasciel must have used a tiny portion of herself. According to Bob, angels are soul and nothing but their soul. The Fallen must tolerate losing a small part of themselves until the mortal who touched the coin they reside in, accepts the offer of power from their shadow self. When the mortal accepts the offer the true Fallen enters and reacquires that part of their soul.
This can't happen because Lash decided to side with Harry and then sacrificed herself to save him. Maybe it's possible for an angel to regrow their soul, but I imagine it would be tougher for a fallen angel to do the kind of things that make that possible. Perhaps with a new host, Lasciel can go out on Halloween night and steal part of the soul of another angel, but this idea seems highly speculative.
Whatever the case may be, Lasciel can't have been happy even if she only lost one hundredth of one percent of her soul. That a mortal could have taken it away from her would probably make one of the Fallen especially upset. However, I think there is something else, something special that pushes Lasciel over the edge into volcanic, murderous, ex-girlfriend mode. It has to do with what Lash became when she turned her back on Lasciel.
Remember when Harry said this to Lash?
"I don't think you're the only one doing any influencing here. I don't think you're the same creature now that you were when you came."
And later added this?
"What if you don't have to be Lasciel? Think about it. What if you do have a choice? A life of your own to lead? What if, huh? And you don't even try to choose?"
I doubt Harry understood the full implications of what he told Lash. Initially, it reads as Harry telling Lash that he changed her as much as she changed him. That Lash could be more than just Lasciel's shadow and become her own person; make that her own being. I don't think Harry realized that for Lash to make that choice, it would mean not only that Lash would have her own life, it would be a mortal life. Lash could only live as long as Harry was alive. No more going back to the immortal fallen angel.
Even though Lash didn't have her own physical body, she was imprinted in Harry's mind, in his brain. Over time that tiny bit that had once been a part of Lasciel's soul had changed. When Lash finally said, "She doesn't deserve you" we can confidently say that Lash's soul had grown; and it was her soul now. She had a become a new independent being. Then Lash made the decision to sacrifice herself for Harry. "No greater love" and so forth.
Now we get back to the importance of the story of Dr. Faustus and what Mephistopheles said about hell. Lasciel is in hell, wherever she or her coin or her human host may be. Lasciel is locked out of the "eternal joys" and "eternal bliss" forever. Lash isn't. Harry not only kept that little bit of Lasciel's soul from coming back to her, he helped it grow, helped it become an independent being and Harry helped Lash to find the will to redeem herself. Lash now has what Lasciel can never have again. That is the real source of Lasciel's anger.
