(and, btw, Jim fake out his readers!)

As we all infamously know, Mab ordered Harry -- if Mab should die -- to kill Molly.  Prompted by other recent threads, I've come up with an unexpected new WAG...

Ostensibly, Harry should kill Molly because she "isn't ready" for the Queenmantle, for unspecified reasons and with unspecified ramifications.

But here's the thing:  Mab's a master-manipulator; she gets people to do what she wants, but only sometimes is that with overt orders.

My WAG then:

Mab realizes that Harry killing Molly is a really, really low-likelihood event; improbable in the extreme!

Therefore, that's not the outcome she's pursuing; that's not the intent behind the order.

What, then?  Brace yourselves...

This is Mab being genuinely kind!

No, really!
Shocking, innit?

See, Mab is genuinely worried about the pressures on an unprepared and suddenly-elevated Queen Molly.  So, she conveys to Harry -- in the strongest language possible -- that this is a HUGE issue.

We know Harry.  We know he isn't gonna kill Molly.
What will he do?

Most likely, rally to her side and support her, offer advice & counsel, be a friend, etc.

Exactly the things new Queen Molly would need to stabilize her psyche while she adjusts to the powerful new Queenmantle.

And that was Mab's plan, when she ordered Harry to kill Molly.
"Kill Molly" was Mab-speak for "Be a friend to her."   

Like it says on the tin.

Maybe Nemesis forced Justine to lie to Thomas (I bet it's relatively-easy to spoof a pregnancy-test (but why would Thomas even think to distrust Justine, at that point???  So faking a test likely unneeded)), or even fooled Justine (I think there may be stages of Nemfection where the Infected don't even realize it).

Why do I suspect this?  Because WoJ has previously said "no more surprise relatives for Harry."  I'll have to go back to find the actual words of the WoJ; maybe he weaseled a loophole in.

But the alternatives -- her actually being pregnant, with the Doom of WoJ over that -- would (strongly) imply something tragic with Justine, somewhere during Twelve Months.  Which would honestly feel kinda gratuitous.
 

Bear with me here...  There's the whole "high function" end of the autism spectrum (Aspergers/etc).  From the outside, this often looks nothing like what mainstream folks think of as "autism."

These people can be very, very bright, and not just in a limited "idiot-savant" manner.  Genius-level and even "super" genius level bright.  Articulate, clever, deeply insightful.  They can make&execute deep strategic plans.  They can display an awesome grasp of a broad range of topics, synthesizing ideas from multiple domains.

But still with some mental/emotional limits.  In particular, they tend to be poor at reading social cues, understanding social situations.  They can be precise where the situation calls for more fluidity & fuzziness; literal where there's need to be more figurative or metaphorical.

And lo:  we have the Unseelie Accords, where "there is no spirit of the law, only the letter."

Mab is absolutely masterful at manipulating people by walking the knife-edge of literality, while those all around her fall into the figurative chasms immediately adjacent.

So... is Mab (high-functioning (very high functioning!)) autistic?

And if so, is there any better way to contact the maintainers than the feedback address @Jim-Butcher?

"Who was prior warden" has been a popular discussion.  I've seen some fan-theories, but none have fully convinced me.  LaFortier is a popular one, and I've thought it one of the better ones:  LaFortier being murdered not just to frame Luccio but (in the bigger picture) to remove the Warden, so someone else (e.g. Cowl) could move in and become Warden.

See below for the Bold Italic Underlined bit (B+I+U added by me for emphasis) in that final paragraph...

Priscellie:
In terms of how long someone is a warden, I'm sure it varies from case to case but how long does wardenship typically last?

Jim:
It depends on how quickly it gets you killed.

Priscellie:
Is that the only way out?

Jim:
I'd say it's not the only way out. You can definitely walk away from it or be dragged away from it or driven away from it. And then if somebody else comes along and challenges Demonreach then it's their island if your influence isn't there anymore. By the time Harry got there nobody had been there in a good long while because among the people who are in the know on the council it would be suicide to go try and do that. If one of the senior council guys got it all the other senior council guys would be like "yep he's the bad guy he's definitely corrupt and serving evil". And then Dresden walked into it and it was just such a stupid move they all kind of looked at him and went "I think he was he was being dumb? Do you think he was being dumb? Yeah it looks dumb. It looks like he was just being stupid, oh my god, we do need the firepower", you know, like that. The poor council, they find themselves so strapped for resources in so many ways that they keep having to tolerate Harry Dresden.

So:  nobody was Warden for "a good long while" before Harry.

Kemmler had been Warden up until 1961; then there were two others; then the gap (until Harry).

I think we can presume those two are known figures, named characters, in the Dresdenverse.  Possibly even significant ones (unlike the minor figure of LaFortier, whose only named/onscreen role is as "Mr. Body").  PROBABLY significant ones, since IIRC Jim has dodged this question more than once.

Was Margaret LeFay once a Warden of the island?  Maybe she lost it during some deep-Nevernever time-dilation, someone moved in & sniped it?

Maybe Ebenezer sniped it, to "save" her from the darkness there?  Then just... walked away, as Jim says can be done?

What about Justin?  Dark power looks right up his alley...
 
Can a nonwizard become Warden?
Maybe a Whampire, or a Faerie?
Because if we rule out the Senior Council (which WoJ says would push the other SC's to DefCon5) there aren't a lot of named wizards that could manage the deed...  Fewer still whom Jim would be so squirrely about not naming...

Re-reading White Night, where Elaine turns up "copying Harry" -- doing the P.I. do-gooder gig in LA, yellow-pages listing under "Wizard," etc.

As some here may recall, I like her (a lot) as the Nemesis-vector into Summer (Nemfecting Aurora; having been Nemfected herself under the tutelage (and mind-control magic) of Outsider-summoning Justin DuMorne).

This isn't, I hope, I thread where we re-argue that old case, except if it becomes relevant to other issues.

I'd like to look at other Elaine-y things...

To begin with, I had forgotten how long she was on her own, after Justin died (or faked his death in the firestorm Harry conveniently provided; or whatever).  A year, more or less.

Which gives me a significant WTF moment, really.

Harry never succumbed to DuMorne's mental domination.  After the fight, Harry moved more-or-less directly into McCoy's grounded, ethical, teaching -- the why of magic, rather than merely how.

Elaine got fully dominated, her will enslaved.  Enough-so to actively help Justin capture Harry (although he broke free).  But when Harry came back, he burned down her home and killed her father-figure (who had just betrayed her, which she knew at some level); and it likely seemed to her like Harry tried to kill her, too.

We know how much mental-domination screws-up the minds of the victims, even without all the added trauma of that incident!  Then she was on her own -- recovering from all that shit -- for a year.

Elaine Mallory should be way, way, way more screwed-up than she is!  So... why isn't she?

Offhand:  one answer might be the deal she made with Summer, who's really good at the whole living/healing/growing side of things, probably even in matters of the psyche.  She might have bargained for her sanity, her mental composure; or Summer may have healed her for reasons of their own.

Any other/alternative theories?  Refinements of mine?

Honestly, "she just got better on her own" doesn't really satisfy; not unless she's genuinely Starborn, and has some inherent uber-recovery (more than normal wizards) against that stuff.  Which, I guess, is possible; but has very little corroborating evidence (compared e.g. to a Summerfae involvement).

Next up:  the ever-popular "Elaine=Kumori" theory.  It's a pretty minor bit of evidence, but in DB Kumori is wielding a magic-item consisting of a "mesh," and in WN Elaine is wielding a "fishing net;" coincidence, or a wizard working bigger and more-elaborate iterations on a theme?

Third, the topic of "where (from whom) did Elaine get further training; and what training did she get?"

Once again, "from the Summerfae" is an easy answer to part (a) -- we know Eldest Gruff is a pretty badass wizard.  As to part (b) ... healing/growth/etc magic would be very-Summery, and Elaine is notable there (as is Kumori, of course!).  In a faerie court, she'd have learned all manner of deception, both magical and psychological.  What else?

But... what about the year beforehand (presuming we can trust her claim there)?  Did she have any tutor/mentor?  Did she study or improve, magically?  Or was it a "time passed; she endured" sort of year?

Then there's the 3ish Dresden'verse years between SK and DB, plus 2ish more to WN.  Did Lily "inherit" Elaine's debt with the Mantle?  Or -- given the possible anti-Mantle "Destroy creation" agenda of Aurora's Nemfected plan -- did Mother Summer nullify all Aurora's "heritable assets," set Elaine free?  What did Elaine do, in this time?  Just become "LA Harry" -- Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, only with grace & style, and really sexy?

Let's compare Harry, what he had, how he got there.

He had Ebenezers' lessons, practical grounding, etc.  Likely some texts/references from him, too.  And Harry had Bob.  That's a freaking LOT of resources a budding wizard wants/needs; Bob is actually way MORE than most ever get!

Did Elaine get corresponding stuff -- tutelage, tomes, etc -- from Summer??!?
How the heck is she such a near-peer of Harry's?

Immortals can be killed on Halloween, as per the Big Reveal in CD by Bob.
He cites it -- his knowledge of it -- as the source of his fear of Mab.

But... how secret can that info be, really?  It's a basic "fact of the universe."  It is likely something that a really clever theoretician (such as Butters) could work out, with enough understanding of the magical Laws of the Dresdenverse (I'm not saying Butters does know it; I'm unclear how much he got into the deep fundamentals with Bob, given that he was ALSO busy with his occult-Batman project).

And there are so damned many of these Immortals.  Hundreds, maybe even thousands (across the whole world and many cultures).  Nemesis certainly winkled the info out of either/both of Aurora & Maeve, and other powerful mortals may have tricked or seduced or coerced the info out of other Immortals.  Then there's Odin.  He likes it this way:  the spice of the risk, the hunt, the game; the odds are awfully-high, honestly, that Odin has told more than one mortal this secret.  And given how damned many of the Immortals do come out to "play" on Halloween, they too seem to find the "game" worth playing.

Plus the aforementioned many Immortals -- maybe one (or several) of them (thus far offstage) have their own reasons for "spilling the beans" to one or more mortals.  As one example:  it could be a Power-Play:  if you have a cult-following of True Believers, getting 99% of them killed to get a few incredibly-powered-up might be a really-worthwhile bargain.

All in all... I don't actually think the "secret" was as much of a secret as Bob made it out to be.