I absolutely hate when someone says this. Virginity is a spiritual ideal of giving yourself to someone. Rape doesn't count. Very much so in a world we're metaphysical things are tangible.best not to ask me to clarify. I really shouldn't have to.

Your position isn't supported by the books, yet.

Mab chose Molly.

In the grip of insomnia last night I went back and re-read the chapter in Peace Talks where Harry summons Molly and this bit jumped out at me. It was easy to miss given all the bombshells with the summoning and Molly's tenuous mortal status.

…Molly probably wasn’t going to forgive herself for assisting in what had amounted to a very complicated near suicide. There’d been a lot of fallout, on every conceivable scale. Very little of it had been Molly’s fault, directly or otherwise, but she’d been a mover on that scene, and she probably felt at least as bad as I did about it, and I’d been way more in the middle of things.

And, being a wizard, I felt guilty as hell for walking her into that. I hadn’t had much choice, if I wanted to save my daughter’s life, but thought the cost was worthy, it still had to be paid-and Molly had laid down cold, hard cash.

So cold and so hard that Mab had wound up choosing her to be the new Winter Lady, in fact.

Suddenly I wondered if maybe I hadn’t been hard enough on myself. I mean, hell, at least when I’d become the Winter Knight, I’d made a choice. My back had been to a wall and my options had all sucked, but I’d at least sought out my bargain with Mab.

Molly hadn’t been consulted, and Mab’s policy on dissenting opinion was crystalline: Deal with it or die.

Of course, inveterate dissenters like myself, it created a pretty simple counterpolicy for when I was tired of Mab’s crap: Deal with it or kill me. Mab was a lot of things, but irrational wasn’t one of them, and as long as it was easier to put up with me than replace me, we had attained a state of balance. I imagined that Molly had come to similar arrangements…

There’s so much to unpack here. But, first and foremost, MAB CHOSE MOLLY TO BE THE WINTER LADY.

Which means everything we’ve been told or shown regarding succession of the lady mantles is either wrong, incomplete, or the person telling us how it works has been lied to. Unreliable narrators is the rule instead of the exception in DF. Fae are information hoarders. People wearing fae mantles must behave as fae would, so they are obligated to hoard information and not release it unless you back them into a corner and ask them three times. They get a bit testy about that.

Now, that opens the door that Titania may have chosen Lily to be the first replacement Summer Lady. If the queen gets to choose from available vessels for fae power, Sarissa being chosen as the Summer Lady can only be viewed as revenge for Aurora’s death. After all, Mab did choose the person who caused Aurora’s death as her Winter Knight.

So, perhaps in a way, Molly brought herself to Mab’s attention by helping Harry arrange his death? Lea instructing her during her year as the Ragged Lady might have helped prepare her to be a vessel for fae power, but I think she was already on the board. Besides, due to Lea’s obligation, she would have been bound to instruct Molly. Molly made a cold, hard decision, against her emotional human interests, to help Harry suicide. That really does ring of Winter.

Mab could have chosen Murphy for the mantle. There’s no age requirement that we know of. Molly may have been technically virginal, but Lily certainly wasn’t since Slate had raped her. Murphy wasn’t a virgin, but she had never had a child, so she would have technically been allowable by the flawed rules we have been shown.

And let’s face it, veiled or not, there’s no way an apprentice wizard’s veils would have been good enough to conceal her from Mab, who in terms of age, experience, power and sneakiness is leagues above Molly in Cold Days.

So, when Maeve died, Mab had a choice and she chose Molly.

Mind. Blown.

I think the Merlin knew that letting Harry slip his leash would make him a more powerful force for good. The White Council can't do anything overt if Harry starts flouting the laws of magic. They'd run afoul of Mab, both as head of the Winter Court and as the enforcer behind the Winter Accords. Harry is already part of Winter and soon will be under the aegis of the White Court's protection. Kicking Harry out and threatening him with the Doom of Damocles is political posturing. The Black Council thinks they can use it to get Ebenezer killed, that's it. They have to recognize that when it comes to Harry, they're toothless.

It's going to suck for them when Ebenezer, as a last act of defiance, wills Harry to be the next Blackstaff.

Odin always was an educator and guide. It's part of why he was allowed to stay if he handed in his immortality. Because he was one of the gods that actually did their job.

I think that Odin would endow several institutions rather than one large one. It would be relatively easy to obscure the money trails to common investigators while letting the Librarians know that Monoc Industries was supporting humanity. Plus, with several institutions producing 'aware' mortals, there's no big, obvious target for adversaries to take out.

Mother Winter doesn't know where her staff is in the way Harry doesn't know where the eye is. She hasn't looked for it.

On Page 219 of BG, Mab orders Harry, if she dies that night, to "kill Molly Carpenter".

Given the events in Good People, the real bone of contention between Mab and Molly is Molly's continued humanity. Mab thinks that you need to be Spock to be a good Winter Queen.

Mab didn't order Harry to kill the Winter Lady or the new Winter Queen. Because having a neophyte lady and queen would be just as bad for Winter as having a queen that still clings to her mortality.

She was ordering Harry to make Molly as inhuman as possible, to make her fully fae, in order to be what Mab envisions a good queen should be.

Jim has stated elsewhere that Mab can't lie, but she can be wrong. I hope that's the case, here.

Jim has also stated that Molly's coming story is not a happy one. Which, to put it frankly, sucks.

Solution: Harry’s batchelor party, a full complement of Knights, an Alpha, Eb, Carlos, River Shoulders, Listens to the Wind and Toot take down Drakul once and for all, and rescue Wild Bill and Yoshi to be put in  Demonreach until they can be cured.

There's no curing them. Bill and Yoshi died and have moved on. A demon has taken up residence in their bodies. It's why Blamps look decomposed.

Harry's going to stay in Winter through at least, the next two books.

BG ended right after midsummer. Mab, Molly and Kringle visited Harry on Christmas Eve. Obviously, Harry is still in Winter 5-6 months after BG. Which means he missed the Halloween window to change masks. Twelve Months takes place from June-ish to June-ish. If Jim keeps pace, Mirror Mirror will take place about a year later, giving one more Window for Halloween swap. Since Mirror Mirror's focus will be on Harry for a change, something we haven't seen since Ghost Story, I expect revelations about Starborns in there. Winter will be playing a supporting role. Probably still complicating Harry's life, as normal.