I did a quick check on the shooting and Murphy says in SF Chapter 15 that Amanda was shot 3 years prior. So, that would put it in a 95 to 97 timeframe.

That would mean that in three years, Marcone went from thug/lieutenant/muscle/hitter/whateverhewas to running organized crime in Chicago. That's... positively meteoric.

Though I'd assume that Harry taking down Bianca in Grave Peril was what gave him a stranglehold.

Lilly could so Molly can do so as well. We have her inner monologue in Cold Case. Sanya is wielding that sword and he is still sceptical about some things. Actually what is next is not that certain. We have the stories of course but everyone we think has some knowledge about it refuses to tell anything. Knowing you had done something that really mattered, defending reality itself. At the moment you try to save your soul at the cost of everything and everyone you are not really saving it. Molly has a purpose now and that purpose is important.

Molly also has a very strong sense of duty.

I haven't read Cold Case yet, or any of the others that will be in Brief Cases, mostly because I refuse to buy a short story compendium (I don't particularly like short stories as a format; writing them was always a chore for me, so I stuck with novels with backstory notes; reading them tends to feel rushed to me) for one entry. I don't know what her inner monologue is like, but I'm excited to find out.

I'd argue that doing something worthwhile and having a purpose is great, but that doesn't mean you're happy about the price. No matter what, Molly is paying a price, and will continue to pay it, for a very, very long time (barring, you know, destruction of reality). It's made worse since this wasn't something Molly went into willingly, with any real grasp of the consequences. The Winter Lady's Mantle was shoved down her throat.

Being willing to pay a cost to make the best of a bad situation is different from being happy about it. She may not care about it in a hundred years when the Mantle asserts itself and pieces of Molly's personality get chipped away, but I'd be willing to bet she cares now.

I'd say that things may be turning out for the best with Molly as the Winter Lady, but that doesn't preclude it from being tragic.

That is a very Christian point of view. Mab is not a Christian.

I didn't mean to imply Christianity, and if it came off that way, I'm sorry; I was speaking of souls. We have several entities and several afterlives, including, for instance, Hades. There is direct proof and evidence that souls live on past death in some form or another—even if it's torturous. If a soul is a requirement for the afterlife—again, I'm not saying Heaven—and the Fae mantles, in some way or another, eliminate the soul, what happens to it? Does it still exist? Or did Mab (and is she herself) consign at least two daughters and a relative innocent to eventual Oblivion—cessation of existence?

Can, for instance, Aurora's soul, what was left of it, experienced some kind of afterlife? Or was her soul completely consumed, and there was nothing that could move on? And, if it was consumed, what happened to it? It can't be destroyed; it has to be converted in some fashion, assuming that thermodynamics applies. Is it used up as fuel for the Mantle? What happens when it runs out completely?

It's like when Dresden worries about using too much Soulfire and, you know, dying. The Soulfire I can understand, because it's converting soul to energy multiplicatively. My questions are basically if there is a similar function that takes place with the mantles?

All that other stuff aside, even taking the Christian point of view into account—how will Michael, whose whole life is built around Catholicism, react if he finds out about the soul thing? From his perspective, assuming the above suppositions are true, his firstborn will never, no matter what, be able to join him in Paradise.

I'll be over here trying to get the image of a weeping Michael out of my head now.

Probably not that much older than Cassius, time enough to be saved if the dresdenverse follows Christian mythology.

None of them can be older than about 2,000 years (give or take a few decades), yet we saw one of them collapse into dust pretty much immediately after the aquarium fight in Small Favor. It could be that death accelerated the process, or that the Noose would halt or slow it for Nicodemus. Cassius started aging rapidly, but managed to make it a few years, though I didn't get the feeling that he was that old.

I think the Noose might be a difference maker. He didn't pull a Holy Grail scene from the end of Last Crusade and turn into a desiccated husk when he gave up the coin briefly in Skin Game—but that also could have been a clue that he wasn't really setting it aside.

One reason for the ritual is that Justin is about to go public with Harry and Elaine.   They will get introduced to other wizards, learn about the laws of magic, etc.  At some point Justin MUST do this as he cannot isolate himself for decades to train them in secret.  He is a warden after all and has responsibilities.    If Justin was black council, remember they were working towards a war 30 years in the future (during Grave Peril) which means close to 40 years in the future when Justin had Harry as apprentice.  That is a VERY long time to go into hiding or retain the blind trust of an apprentice. 

While it might be perfectly possible to isolate and brainwash kids to be loyal, such behavior is very hard to instill in a very independent minded and stubborn teenager who you have only worked with for 1-2 years.  It might be enough to earn a significant measure of loyalty and trust, but not the level of control Justin might want if he sees Harry (or Elaine) as dangerous weapons even if he trained them for another decade as apprentices. 

Keep in mind that Justin did not come across as super charismatic or loving to Harry.  Also keep in mind that Harry was willing to walk away fro Eb (who he was much more fond of) in a heartbeat when he realized that Eb was acting contrary to the principles he preached.   If Justin was perceptive enough to understand this aspect of Harry's character, then he knew he would not be able to effectively control Harry's behavior while openly doing bad things.   

Harry walked away from Eb when he was a grown man, after he perceived him as walking away from the principles he taught him. Harry certainly loved and respected him more than Justin, because the circumstances were significantly different. Justin's sudden betrayal made Ebenezer's kindness and patience way, way more impactful.

On the flip side of things, if he understood Harry's stubborn moral code and realized he wouldn't side with him, then his approach was actually dumber. The kids sleep in his house. He, presumably, prepares meals for them. It's as simple and straightforward as drugging dinner and enthralling them both while they're asleep, or keeping one down while he works on the other. He doesn't even need to head to the pharmacy or anything; he can brew an effective potion with Bob. The whole process could've been done painlessly and simply, which is why his approach seems so hackneyed.

It makes me think that either: A) Something changed for Justin and he had to change his plans on the fly, B) Something about Justin changed, and he had his switch flipped from "a-hole" to "evil," or C) This is an "Evil Cannot Comprehend Good" situation and Justin thought that Harry would be okay with what went on.

I'm not necessarily saying that Lea and Harry and Elaine's interpretations of Justin's actions are definitely wrong, just that the events from Harry's perspective raise questions for me. I'd really like to know what Justin said to Elaine before he whammied her.

Justin thought he could control a couple of kids, and bend them to his designs over time, leaving them open to enthrallment. And the more I think about it, the more the "enforcers" explanation smells fishy.

It never really made sense to me either. If he wanted loyal enforcers, it would've been far easier to manipulate and brainwash than to enthrall them. Hell, if he had just ASKED Harry to help him, he probably would have, right up until he put Elaine in a brainlock. And his move against Harry involves a straitjacket rather than magic for some reason? The whole thing just doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and seems like stupidity on Justin's part—and I never assume stupidity where wizards are concerned.

Time travel included.  The mindset of someone willing to change the past, regardless of the consequences to reality, is just as corrupted as someone that would mess with someone's head.

Not to mention the addictive nature of black magic (as explained by Harry); someone goes back to yesterday to move their car to avoid a parking ticket, and when there aren't any consequences, they go back a week earlier to fix something else, a bit bigger, and so on, until they decide that yeah, they should totally kill Hitler, and reality is unmade as a result.

Pretty sure Merlin would have had to do some kind of time travel when he made Demonreach, even if it was something weird like stepping outside of time to observe it from the outside.That might have made Harry's assumption that he was a jerk more accurate than he realized.

She did gift him with another gem, remember?  In the soul gaze with Thomas where they speak she sends a "gift/gem" straight to his brain, "insight."   Insight has served Harry well since then..

As I recall, there hasn't been much of anything even mentioned about the physical gem since Changes. Seems a bit weird, actually, considering that Harry was basically hanging out on Demonreach for a year without studying it. Though I guess he was a bit preoccupied with making replacement gear. Maybe he and Bonnie will look into it together as a bonding experience.

It kind of has to come up again soon, because Lea mentioned a price to be paid for the knowledge—Margaret couldn't sleep soundly ever again, so I expect him to have something similar. If Butcher really wants to torture him, an enforced vow of chastity would be in order...