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Topics - kbrizzle

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1
DF Spoilers / True Names of the Mothers
« on: October 06, 2020, 07:44:18 PM »
The true names of the Mothers are Night & Day.

While Hecate has been a strong possibility (with textual evidence), I’ve always felt that that still isn’t ... fundamental enough for the Mothers’ true names. They are incredibly old & powerful, more elemental than a mere Greek goddess who was subordinate to Zeus - they are fundamental forces of nature without whom the world would be doomed.

Given the relevance of Ancient Greek mythology in the series as well as the WoJ about the Mothers which says they are close to angel level, I surmise that Mother Winter is Nyx - daughter of Chaos (the first being in Greek mythology), she is a being of primordial Night & is the mother of Hecate (in many traditions), the 3 Fates (Harry summoned Mother Winter calling her Atropos, one of these Fates) & many other beings like Thanatos etc.

In fact there is tale from Hesiod (most prevalent writer of Greek mythology in the BC era) where Day (Hemera, a daughter of Nyx) & Night (Nyx) live in the same house in Tartarus although they never occupy it at the same time.

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DF Spoilers / Question about Bob & Ebenezer
« on: June 09, 2020, 06:10:32 PM »
So in Dead Beat, Bob says that Harry picked him from up the smoldering ruins of Justin’s house just as Justin had picked him up the ruins of Kemmler’s place. This means that Harry was ~16 years old when Bob became his.

Then Harry goes to the Council for trial & is sent to live with Ebenezer for a couple of years before striking out on his own. Where was Bob during this time? Did teenage Harry never tell the old man about Bob when he was recounting his time with Justin?

The way I see it, there are 3 possible answers:

  • Harry takes Bob at age 16 from Justin’s place & buries him somewhere safe before he turns himself into the Council. Harry is aware that he should hide Bob from everybody & never mentions the skull, After his apprenticeship with Ebenezer ends, Harry digs Bob back up so even Ebenezer never knew that Harry got Bob.
  • Ebenezer is aware of Bob - which is pretty chilling. Perhaps he asked his friend Simon about it, which is how Cowl knows Harry has it.
  • Bob was being poetic with Harry about the smoldering ruins bit - 19 yr old Harry goes back to Justin’s burnt down house after his apprenticeship with Ebenezer ends & digs up Bob from a secret hiding place Justin had left the skull in so the wardens couldn’t find it.

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DF Spoilers / Unanswered questions in Dead Beat
« on: May 27, 2020, 07:38:08 PM »
Upon a reread of Dead Beat, I found a few things puzzling & am curious what you guys think.

  • Why does Bob leave the skull in the beginning of the book to talk to Harry about Kemmler? Harry himself notes that the spirit had never asked to leave the skull for just a conversation before - this is before Harry forces him to remember his time with Kemmler & become Evil Bob.
  • How does Corpsetaker know that the Darkhallow is afoot? Grevane was trying to buy the Word of Kemmler from Bony Tony & Cowl was presumably sent by the Black Council
  • How was Corpsetaker planning on performing the Darkhallow? Cowl has Bob & Grevane took the Word from Harry at the Field museum. Corpsetaker only had the Erlking book at that point.
  • How did both Mavra & Kincaid know that the events of Dead Beat were about to go down but Mab didn’t?
  • If Elaine is indeed Kumori, why did she allow Bob to keep talking to Harry as Cowl was performing the Darkhallow? Elaine would’ve also grown up with the skull like Harry did & would know not to let Harry & Bob talk (especially when they were plotting to ruin Cowl’s working)
  • Harry calls Mavra (& the rest of the Black Court) a super zombie - given that this is a book about necromancy & we know it can be used effectively against the Blamps, what does this say about the nature of the Black Court?

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DF Spoilers / Further ‘proof’ that Simon is Cowl
« on: May 24, 2020, 09:55:10 PM »
WoJ is that there is enough evidence given in DB for a reader to ferret out Cowl’s identity.

Upon a reread of Dead Beat, I caught onto a few more hints that lead me to believe that Simon is indeed Cowl. It’s still possible that Justin is Cowl, but I find that to be increasingly less likely.

#1
Bob’s behavior in DB has always been odd to me.

In Chapter 3 when Harry is asking Bob to remember his time with Kemmler, Bob says that he can’t because he either chose to forget, or was compelled to. The only owner Bob had between Kemmler & Harry was Justin - if Justin was indeed a Kemmlerite/ student at some point, why would he compel Bob to forget his memories of his time with Kemmler?
Being that Bob is a being of knowledge without morality, I find his choosing to basically amputate his own arm (Bob’s textual metaphor) to be highly improbable. Instead it makes more sense that Justin had a similar experience to Harry when he questioned Bob about Kemmler (Bob tried to kill him with the blue light thing) so Justin forced the spirit to forget that part of his life.

#2
Justin would’ve owned Bob for ~30 years between Kemmler’s last stand in 1961 & when Harry takes him from Justin around 1989-90 (10ish years before Stormfront).
When Cowl sets Bob down by Harry right as he’s about to perform the Darkhallow, Bob is able to revert to becoming Harry’s again - this is ultimately what leads to Cowl’s downfall. Bob is able to get into Sue, save Harry from Kumori which allows Harry to smack Cowl as hard as he can with his staff, thereby ending the necromancer’s chances. I don’t see Justin making such a rookie mistake with Bob - it seems more likely that someone like Simon, who never actually possessed the skull, didn’t fully understand how Bob’s loyalties worked & paid the price.

#3
When Cowl ambushes Harry at Murphy’s house right after Harry calls up the Erlking, he tells Harry about the wardens being in the city. Seeing as the wardens has arrived in Chicago the previous evening, I find it interesting that Cowl knew of this a few hours later.
Someone like Simon would’ve had enough contacts in the wardens to be able to keep up with their movements (seeing as he commanded a platoon out of Archangel) - this would also likely explain how the Ramps knew to attack the hospital in Africa with the injured wardens.
Justin’s knowledge of warden protocols would’ve been 40-50 years old by the time of Dead Beat - I find his being able to know of the wardens’ arrival in Chicago that quickly as well as being able to coordinate Ramp attacks on the Council that precisely to be unlikely. It’s still possible that the Council is using 40-50 year old protocols despite being in the middle of a war, but that seems to be a bit of a stretch.

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DF Spoilers / DF & Star Wars
« on: May 16, 2020, 05:49:40 AM »
Having rewatched the Star Wars prequels (including the Clone Wars), I was struck by the similarities between the Dresden Files & Lucas’ saga. I’m not going to mention the obvious textual references (lots in every book) but stick to plot themes.

Is it just me or is the White Council extremely reminiscent of the Jedi Order in the Star Wars prequels? Here are some I caught:
  • Like the WC, the Jedi Order had grown arrogant & self-indulgent in their centuries of being top dog - being relatively unchallenged by the Sith until they were up-ended by a PHANTOM MENACE who used a lot of cats paws.
  • Anakin was being subtly manipulated by the Phantom Menace (Palpatine) for most of his formative years, just like Harry has been
  • There is a ‘Chosen One’ who is prophesied to bring balance to the Force - the child (Anakin) is highly distrusted by the Jedi Council at large & only allowed to train under the aegis of Qui Gon & Obi Wan. Similar to 16 year old Harry & how he was viewed by the Senior Council
  • Both the Sith & Jedi use the Force. Using the dark side of the Force often enough would taint a Jedi’s aura & turn them into a Sith - similar to wizards & warlocks who use magic & especially black magic
  • The Phantom Menace (Palpatine) severely weakens the Jedi through a years long war of attrition against Dooku’s confederation - the Clone Wars. Kind of like how the WC has been severely weakened by the Ramp war, which also seems to have been manipulated by a phantom menace.
  • Most Jedi Knights have a single Padawan at a time, sort of like how most wizards have apprentices
  • The Jedi Order’s heavyweight champion was Mace Windu who used a lightsaber style called Vapaad - a style so filled with aggression that he was the ONLY Jedi not to have succumbed to the dark side who used it. Similar to Ebenezer & his Blackstaff.

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DF Spoilers / Thoughts on Simon Petrovich being Cowl
« on: May 13, 2020, 07:27:03 PM »
Some thoughts on why I think Cowl is Simon & not Kemmler/Justin/ time traveling or alterna-Harry. I’m open to changing my mind about this however.

Simon as Cowl makes sense to me for a few reasons:
  • Simon was the Council’s vampire expert - Cowl has been seen with Ramps (Bianca’s ball/ coordinating attacks on the Council during Ramp sorties etc); he’s working with some Whamps (White Night) & the fact that Mavra is the one who put Dresden into the necromacers’ path in Dead Beat shows that there is likely a Blamp connection as well.
  • Cowl starts operating more openly around the time of Simon’s death, almost like Cowl was a persona created by Simon to step into when he felt the time was right.
  • In Dead Beat Cowl is surmised to be stronger than Ebenezer by Harry (right or wrong, Harry explicitly feels the need to compare Cowl’s hits to McCoy’s) - as a Senior Council member who is likely older, Simon would be stronger than Eb.
  • Something is fishy about the whole Archangel attack by Ortega - a Ramp strike team is able to infiltrate a well guarded garrison of the Council’s combat heavies but a mysterious explosion wipes everything out so there’s little evidence/ no survivors to tell anyone of what actually happened (surmised to be Simon’s death curse).
  • Ebenezer clearly doesn’t agree with a lot of the Council’s actions & policies, it would make sense that one of his close friends on the Council would feel similarly about it - perhaps enough to try & destroy it.
Why I disagree with the Cowl is Kemmler theories (although I believe Kemmler has a role to play in the series yet):
  • Grevane & Corpsetaker knew Cowl & seemed to have known him since their Kemmler disciple days. They would never dream on taking on their master in Dead Beat - if anything, they would help him perform the Darkhallow no matter whose body Kemmler was in.
  • If Cowl is Kemmler/ Kemmler’s spirit inhabiting someone etc, why does he need the book or Bob in Dead Beat to perform the Darkhallow? Indeed why didn’t he perform it any time in the years preceding or after Dead Beat?
  • Cowl specifically does not like being called a Kemmlerite & refers to Kemmler as a ‘bad man’ in Dead Beat.
  • Kemmler was the guy who started 2 world wars & was a huge threat (big enough to get the ENTIRE White Council together to finally strike him down). As Cowl his stature seems to be vastly diminished. I also expect Kemmler would’ve wiped the floor with any single Senior Council member, so Harry & a few werewolves wouldn’t have scared him off in Dead Beat.

Why I disagree that Cowl is Justin (Justin had THE necromancer’s database in Bob for 20 years, I’m sure he knew a way to ‘cheat’ death):
  • It would make his statement about wondering what has the Council riled up about Harry strange at their first encounter in DB - you’d think that after fighting a duel with 16 yr old Harry, Justin would be a lot more cautious now... (whether or not Justin actually won or lost the duel, 16 yr old Harry still defeated an Outsider Walker...)
  • If Cowl were Justin, I’d expect him to be a lot more personally interested in Harry even now - we know Starborn don’t grow on trees. This is a man who spent a decade of his life raising 2 preteens for a purpose, why wouldn’t he want to keep manipulating Harry instead of disengaging like he has since Harry was 16?
  • Justin had Bob for ~20 years before he adopted Harry - why didn’t he perform the Darkhallow any time during this period if he were so inclined?
  • While I’m sure Justin was a formidable warden & all back in the day, he didn’t strike me as someone who was a big enough player to stealthily adopt 2 Starborn (or even know what they are) from the under the noses of people like Eb & Morgan - it would make more sense if he were doing these things under the directions of his old master, Simon.

Why I disagree with Cowl being Harry from another universe/ time travel:
  • As Odin tells Harry in Cold Days, there is a Law of Conservation of History - so a time traveling Harry would have great difficulty in doing things that matter significantly if he were to go into the past as Cowl.
  • If Cowl is any version of Harry, he would have Harry’s number in any fight between the 2, however somehow OG Harry has come out on top in all their actual confrontations (although Cowl managed to walk away each time)
  • Kemmler’s disciples know Cowl & he knows them well - since Kemmler has been dead for more than 5 decades by the time of Dead Beat, what would time traveling or alterna-Harry have been doing for that time in the interim?

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DF Spoilers / Perhaps a silly question
« on: May 02, 2020, 12:15:28 AM »
What is the point of the Outer Gates? As in why do the Outer boundaries of Creation need a gate of any kind, especially when there are a lot of powerful beings who want to break in?

The only couple of reasons I could come up with are:
  • Occasionally entities are banished to the Outside in the DV - although why not build an exit only door instead of a 2-way?
  • Leaving an obvious opening in the Outer boundary in the form of a Gate would focus the Outsiders’ attack there instead of them trying to break the boundary walls in a million different random places
  • The DV is built on freedom of choice & in order for there to be choice, the Outside has to be an option

What do you guys think?

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DF Spoilers / End of the Millenium shenanigans
« on: April 30, 2020, 04:38:55 AM »
So I’ve been thinking a bit about how large, world changing events seem to happen around the end of every millennium in the DV (give or take 50-75 years) - these events invariably establish a new supernatural world order.

Here are some of the events I can see & am curious if you guys can come up with any more events that happened around the end of any millennium that helped create a new supernatural world order. I also wonder how many of these events are linked.

2nd Millennium A.D
The current case files are playing out the large, world changing events that will influence the DV for the next few centuries. No doubt there will be more:
  • Mab created a series of Accords & got every significant power in the DV to sign on & agree to a common set of rules & laws
  • The Black & Red Courts of Vampires have been driven to near extinction
  • The Fomor have risen again to directly influence mortal events
  • There are only 2 Dragons left (& I suspect Ferrovax won’t last the BAT)
  • Harry the Starborn is running around & is the warden of Demonreach

1st Millennium A.D
  • The Fae take over guardianship of the Gates from the Norse - the era of Odin & the Aesir/ Jotun etc ends
  • The entire Fae leadership is shaken up - there is a new Mother Summer, Summer/ Winter Queens as well as Ladies
  • The Red King usurps the position of the original Kukulkan after feeding on it, making the Ramps players
  • The White Council is headquartered in Constantinople since the Byzantine Empire is all that remains of Rome
  • A Starborn (Rashid?) was active

0 A.D
  • Jesus was born/ died - left behind a new religion as well as a bunch of extremely powerful artifacts, amongst other things
  • The Coins & the Swords were created
  • Merlin was likely around & created the Laws of Magic
  • The Greeks were in charge of the Outer Gates likely using Roman masks/ mantles
  • A Starborn (Merlin?) was active

1000 B.C
  • White Court of Vampires is likely created
  • Ancient Greek civilization was born
  • Total WAG but Egyptian gods were likely guardians at the Gates

2000 BC
  • Red Court of vampires is created
  • New world religions like Judaism & Hinduism are born
  • Total WAG but the Sumerians are likely guardians at the Gates

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DF Spoilers / Some thoughts on the Circle
« on: March 05, 2020, 04:48:04 AM »
A circle has no beginning or an end - sort of like a metaphor for the Outsider attack on reality.

My WAG is that a Circle of sorts has existed for centuries, with a fairly high member turnover every few generations. I would conjecture that a lot of the more powerful/ insane bad guys we’ve seen in the series so far have been members of different iterations of the Circle & are now at cross-purposes with each other.

Here are what I think the 3 most recent were:
  • The Old Circle: Spearheaded by Kemmler, members included Lord Raith, Simon Petrovich (how Cowl comes to know Kemmler without being a disciple) amongst others. Outsiders gave Kemmler the knowledge he needed to stay alive & pull off a lot of his hoodoo. This group wanted to remake the mortal world (through World Wars) with humans being subservient to supernatural types. Big plays included removing the Black Court as players (showing the advantage of manipulating swathes of humans as well as remove those who take issue with necromancy) as well as 2 World Wars. Neutralized by Kemmler’s death in 1961.
  • Boomer Circle: Spearheaded by Lord Raith, members included Maggie Sr, Ariana Ortega, Lea, Justin DuMorne, Nicodemus (how Lash knows of Harry’s Starborn potential) amongst others. Raith realizes that he must avoid Kemmler’s fate, so he strikes a deal with the Outsiders to give him immunity to magic, as well as knowledge. He comes up with Project Starborn (whom Raith believes he will control & will be his cat’s paws). The goal of this circle is a more .... equitable world order. The big play is supposed to Project Starborn, which ends when Maggie Sr leaves (perhaps Elaine is a child born of this project). This version of the Circle is neutralized with Raith’s impotence. Of course we know that at least 2 Starborn were born with Justin around to pick up the pieces.
  • The current Circle: Spearheaded by Cowl (Simon), members include Peabody (recruited by Cowl), Vittorio Malvora, Madeline Raith, Paolo Ortega, Thorned Namshiel, Mavra (who is wary since a previous Circle basically made the Blamps extinct - this is why she goes against them in DB) etc. Realizing that knowledge & magical immunity are not enough, this time the Outsiders escalate the use of Nemesis in the conspiracy (I wonder if there are any characters who’ve been Nfected for decades/ centuries - most of the ones we see only seem to have been Nfected for a few years). The big play here is the Ramp war (& most of the case files). Still extant, although seemingly on the ropes.

So basically each Circle has Outsider sponsorship of some sort, with their level of intervention increasing with every iteration of the Circle. The goal of every Circle seems to be creating a new world order, however I’m pretty sure that the Outsiders would be able to suborn the new order fairly easily.

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DF Spoilers / A thought on the Winter Lady
« on: March 04, 2020, 12:17:05 PM »
Since Mab is a very calculating person, I wondered why she felt the need to have twin daughters of her own (Maeve & Sarissa), given that she’s not really the maternal type. We have WoJ that Mab & Titania ascended their thrones around 1066, & have been in power since. I’m not sure how old Aurora was, but we have a different WoJ that Maeve (& Sarissa) were born in the 1700s (apparently their father was a random Austrian musician). This means that there must’ve been a few Winter Ladies between 1066 & the 1700s, & we know there have been 2 in the series so far.

My WAG here is that the Outsider plots were effective at targeting the Winter Ladies, including a couple who were likely disastrous - as a result, Mab decides the best way to deal with this is to birth a Lady (& a spare) herself to control the quality & succession of the mantle. This of course ultimately backfires with Maeve since Mab had birthed her for a purpose & was not capable of treating her as a daughter - she seems to be trying to rectify that mistake with Sarissa before Maeve nips that plan off (I do think this will lead to Mab & Titania finally talking again).

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DF Spoilers / ErlKing question/ PG
« on: January 16, 2020, 05:21:58 PM »
In Changes, the Erlking tells the newly Winter Knighted Harry that he almost got him at Arctis Tor (events of PG reference I presume). My question is, why was the ErlKing at Arctis Tor there at all?

He is the consort of the Summer Queen, & Harry’s actions should’ve only summoned the Winter Fae at the Summer borders, so why is the ErlKing at Arctis Tor? I understand that Harry is on his shit list, but surely this isn’t an example of him generally being on the lookout for Harry.

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DF Spoilers / Some thoughts on Stormfront
« on: October 03, 2019, 04:03:28 AM »
On a reread of Stf, a few things jumped out at me that confirm some of theories bandied around this forum.

  • Malcolm Dresden is described as being a traveling magician who took little Harry around with him - while Harry rationalizes this as Malcolm taking small jobs at random little towns, it seems to me that this is Malcolm’s best effort to hide little kid Harry from his mother’s enemies
  • I don’t think Victor Sells was Nfected - when Monica reveals all she knows about what’s going on, she says that she drank 3Eye & looked at Victor, a memory that makes her almost throw up - I imagine looking at an Outsider with one’s Sight would drive a normal human insane, let alone a wizard.
    Also, other (somewhat sane) people would have looked at Victor with their Sight (like Helen Beckett) & while I’m sure that was a highly unpleasant experience, it’s nothing compared to seeing an actual Outsider
  • Despite being a very angry man, Sells decides to use lust as a way to power his spells instead of rage - something that is way more easily available than setting up sex rituals. This screams of the White Court to me - a way for Lord Raith to control Sells, leading credence to theory that he was Sells’ sponsor
  • The dark emotions that Harry feels when he sees Sells’ lake house with his Sight - the ones that make him feel like he can just take power & use it for his own ends, seem like the corruptive influence of black magic on someone whose soul has already been tainted by such - it is overt & appeals directly to Harry’s greed (we know goateed Harry exists). This doesn’t seem like Nemesis, which I imagine is infinitely more subtle (sorta like Lash)

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DF Spoilers / Some questions about the Gatekeeper
« on: August 18, 2019, 11:47:25 PM »
Here are a couple of questions I have about Rashid/ office of Gatekeeper.

  • In CD after Harry is taken to the Outer Gates by MS, Rashid tells him that his role is to make sure that beings who should not be allowed into our reality are kept out. My question is, is this a field position at the Gates itself, or is Rashid generally responsible for Outsider activity in the DV in general? As in is Rashid also supposed to keep beings like HBB4 out as well (although he seemingly fails at this) when the Walker was likely summoned by a mortal practitioner, or is his job only to make sure that Outsiders at the Gates stay out?
  • In CD, when Harry asks Rashid if it would be a problem if “someone new took over, reorganized everything”, Rashid responds with “most years it would pose no major difficulty....this year it would be problematic, rather severely so”. My question is why? What is happening at the Gates concurrently that is making things problematic for a Fae regime change that particular year?

14
DF Spoilers / Overall series questions
« on: August 18, 2019, 06:12:15 AM »
These are some questions I’ve had about the series in general. While I have my own theories, I’m curious about what you all think.

  • From a narrative/ furthering the series standpoint, what is the purpose of Ghost Story? While it gave us a much more detailed perspective on tertiary characters (like Mort) & a good overview of the ghost/spirit world, what was the point of the novel? It seems like the central plot could’ve been boiled down to a longer short story
  • Why is Sanya shown as being a bit clumsy? There are a couple of explicit & random instances, like in SmF when he accidentally cuts Harry’s leg while trying to remove the kelpies on the boat to DR. From a Doylist perspective, why is this relevant? Especially since Michael is never shown as being remotely clumsy, or any other action-character really
  • In the beginning chapters of CD, Sarissa tells Lord Gruff that helping Harry’s convalescence was Mab’s price, but for what? What is Mab doing for Sarissa that she charges her a favor for it? Protection?
  • Since water is anathema to magic, what happens if Demonreach is hit by a tsunami? It is an island after all....
  • What is the current headcount of the White Council? Archangel & the Ramp war likely took a large toll on the already small body of the White Council (500-1000 total WC wizard count IIRC). After PG, ~200 wardens had become 50. After Peabody’s attack in TC, 20-30 wizards more wizards seem to have died. So how many wizards are left on the WC? Did they lose nearly 33-50% of their number in the decade since GP?
  • What exactly happens when a Fae being dies in the mortal world? Are the younger brothers Gruff totally dead? Did they re-spawn in Summer after their defeat?
  • Why does Mother Winter need a walking stick? Why does she seem beset by the ravages of old age at all? She has the power of an archangel, so surely she can cure herself? Why does she feel physical pain from exertion as MS says in CD after Harry summons her?

15
DF Spoilers / Ramírez & Lara Raith soulgaze
« on: June 26, 2019, 06:09:15 PM »
While re-listening to White Night again, an interesting bit jumped out at me. After Harry & Ramírez arrive at Chateau Raith, Lara starts playing up the ‘come hither’, & focuses it on Ramírez, who responds by pointing a concealed knife at Lara’s throat & telling her that he’s not food. This leads to them getting into a soulgaze. I’ve paraphrased the convo below:

Quote

“Both of them stared, eyes widening & then shuddered. Lara took a small step back from Ramírez with her breathing slightly quickened. (Harry looks at her chest)
“If you meant to dissuade me, you haven’t” Lara says.
“Not you”.. it wasn’t to dissuade you” responds Ramírez in a rough voice.
“Wise for one so young. I advise you young wizard, not to hesitate so long to act should another approach you as I did” says Lara. (She then goes on about how attractive virgins are to Whamps).
Harry asks Ramírez a little later when they are alone, “You saw what was inside her?”
Ramírez shudders & responds  “That pale thing, her eyes. She was getting more turned on & it was looking more like it’s eyes.... her word is good, I saw that much”

What do you guys think Lara & Ramírez are talking about?

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