Just to elaborate on my post above. It would probably not have been very Harry to be diplomatic and calm, I just answered it in the spirit of what do I think the optimal course of action would have been.

Carlos started with the tracking device, but maybe they are equal when Harry uses his trust to make him a distraction and a fool in front of the accorded nations. I can't count the number of times Harry has mentioned never to look weak in front of predators and a guy who already uses a cane being pulled around like an idiot by his jacket looks pretty weak.

Not that I am fan of how Carlos is acting, but I think the winter knight settled the scales on that one.

That is a super convenient way to get about it, and it still allows for super cool in flight, maybe in water? Fight scenes. Perhaps also a bit of contemplation. I think it will be both, a quick route through the ways and shapeshift.

Harry was not wasting time going ro the island. He had to pick up the spear. Without it he could not have bound the titan and it was only with the spear the range was to the Lakeshore. To me it seems like often when people here think Harry is stupid it is because key parts of the story is ignored. At Least in this thread it has been two out of two times.

The advantage of having the path being castle, labs dungeon, island is that anyone taking that path would have to be a bit insane.

Yes, the island is a bad place, but Mabs dungeon :-O

Hey Nic, let's have this talk out on my magic island. No worries there is a quick path there through the nevernever. I am definitely not going to leave you in Mabs dungeon.

I also think the direct door is plausible btw.

To be fair we do not know what the contract with Marcone says. It could be anything between they will do whatever you want and monster killing only. I do not think the latter is all that unlikely.

One statement that could be relevant to the discussion is that Gard (or the other Valkyrie?) At one point stated that Einherjaren so not make good lovers. I wonder why that is?

I guess one of Mabs key comcers is always going to be having good hosts ready to take over mantle (s). She just used up two good ones. At the same time nemesis is very active at the moment, so if e.g. Molly needs to be replaced the replacement needs to be effective from day one (and Lara would be).

One reason could be that while he got out he is still pretty wasted. Surviving something and being able to make an appearance somewhere is not the same as being in shape for at fight. Maybe he will be by the wrestling book :-O

Which means he is certainly going to do it before the series is is over.

For a fair amount of the baddies i guess the easiest  is to ask them to come to the island i.e. summoning them. Then you of course need to figure out how to do that, but that is why they are wizards.

To me Mabs command that Harry should kill Molly if she does in battleground implies that mother winter would have some control over where the mantles went. It seems like an extremely risky option to have both the queen and lady mantle go to someone random. And I do not think that Mab could be reasonable certain who would be nearby when (if) Harry killed Molly.

In general it just seems like a very risky mechanic to have it entirely random. Although I guess that mother winter could always place her desired mother next to the current undesired mother and kill the undesired one.