They wanted the Word of Kemmler; I don't know why they thought there were any clues there.

summon up Mr Bartleby and ask him questions maybe? Or the ghoul just needed fed..

So, the meta experience on this is vampire courts equivalent of seven sins. I fathom each court was brought in by their originator as a causality of choice in one of the 7(it's been theorized which would be which in the past here, can't remember all of them) mainly born from Jim picking an arbitrary number like 7 specifically for the courts but then only fleshing out the 3-4 major ones he had actual plans for.
So, sorta like demons they technically have a place in reality, though they have real bodies they are not actually welcome here. Bad housemates, Dresden evicted some for us lol.

It's winters cottage, summer hangs around cause of balance.
*Per woj btw, it's MW's cottage..

  Except if you look at Harry's style, he still uses rings, bracelets, firing rods etc..  It was even truer when he was younger, Justin would know that.

what does that have to do with Justin, who can call fire to his arm and not burn himself 🤔
And had Elaine to help, who I don't recall needing any focus for the exact same spell in SK.

Re: The larger sense of source material, I think Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Mallory may be a good candidate for sourcing and influencing Jim's interpretation.  I also think that it would be interesting if Elaine Mallory had some relation to the Arthurian legends.  I haven't read Le Morte in years, but may pick it up over the holiday to see if anything jumps out.

Mort and Mallory both stick out to me there. mmm, wonder if we'll meet a Darthur lol?

I'm not sure, but I suspect Jim is too savvy a writer to hinge the entire rest of the series (from Mirror Mirror onwards) on a bunch of multiversal twists&turns, on 7 Harrys (Harries?) and alt!Kemmlers, etc etc etc ad infinitum.

I think most of his readership would find it not worth following the complexities.

He's already -- IMO -- on the borderline of "too complex" with 1 multiverse novel + 1 time-travel/retcon/repair-the-Sacred-Timeline novel.

🙄 he already did technically, Demon Reach.
Tho as is usual your misconstruing a simple concept and plot twist that doesn't "govern the rest of the series", that's the greatest thing about the DF, you can enjoy it on many levels. Plus he has the time travel book last? Heh, I disagree. What I said was a tin foil theory to begin with, I literally started with an apologetic don't try because it's nonsensical. To share your doubt immediately after our ahem, history is bad taste. Opinion vs opinion that's enough said for me..
However be aware "I'm not sure" is synonymous with "I don't think". And  when people try to simply unname a theory as viable based on that.. well, the saying goes,",those who say you can't shouldn't interrupt those who already are".
And this has been a point of contention on how people come at each other from it has been the gathering of much heated debate and mod warnings for years.  Because it is not discussion, it does not promote discussion. And it should not exist here. It drives people away as is it's intention and is a perversion of etiquette, designed as such. Quite frankly, I'll go all ten rounds with anyone who disagrees and all day after. Stop trying to bully me, please and thank you 🙏
(Oh and you have no idea what the original theory was, because seven of nobody is running around when bodies are being tossed behind them to escape.. and proper etiquette would be to do as I asked previously and be curious about that)

Even if she wasn’t enthralled he was planning to act against Harry.  Why… then?  Why the clumsy action with poor preparation?

Leah explained it perfectly imo, it's hard to get young wizards to believe in doing magical violence. Both dumorne and behind were more interested in manipulating Harry's choices than actually enthrallment or murder. Behind is shown heavily in book goading Harry(same as Cat Sith later 👀 ) but dumorne? Look at his scenes teaching magic, what he actually taught them. He could have indoctrinated them with their own power, made them believe it worked any which way he desired and connected them to him in a proper cult fashion. None of which he did. What he did was teach it to him pure, almost the same as Eb(I'd bet Eb would have been a harder teacher before failing Margaret), as power and strength, as an art unto itself.
Then he was goaded into two different(?) Battles to the death winning both by... Well, doing Death to the opponent. Seems to me they manipulated him into doing exactly as he did 🤷‍♂️ it's only factoring in Justin's intentions for Elaine that things get muddied.

I laughed cause it literally seems like a joke position to me. Everything I said is true and is set up in her character specifically so. When other people argue with something that seems obvious to me? It's funny. She doesn't need to "abandon" anyone to do what she does to begin with, that's the straw man of your opinion I'm expected to fight here... I could farther explain she knows her family is secure and takes care of itself physically and spiritually. She's simply not worried about them and they don't process into her decision making in her own life specifically, and that's a proven pattern 🤷‍♂️
...also I don't agree it's fan service, I think it's was as in Stone as much as and in parallel to a specific sword, but that's just me..
We literally go from

Nice loophole, but... Murphy ain't gonna be willing to leave her own people behind.

to

Murphy wouldn't be so selfish as to abandon those people to that darkness and danger

for me to reply

She abandons "her people" every time she chooses to risk her life, when she chooses to be a cop in spite of her families desire...

And then as SOON as I ASSAIL the straw man of murphy needing to abandon her people to do what she does, not my position, your theoretical problem with my position... you try to lambaste me for it here

No; going out into the world to "fight the good fight" is NOT abandoning her people.  We have to do things contrary to the desires of our loved ones on a daily basis

from my perspective, you literally just tried to play me for a chance to act uppity about it. The ORIGINAL game everyone wanted to play with me that turned me into such a deep seeded azzhole quite frankly 🤷‍♂️
Your right, Murphy doesn't have to abandon her people, but since your really the only one who thinks from that perspective, you only prove yourself wrong. Murphy is a REBEL from her family, intentionally, purposefully. From the motorcycle an leathers to the Defining career choice, and the recycling of her ex husband she 'failed' with unto her sister.. it's literally built into her character.
I would prefer not to go down paths of logic for people to feel like they one upped me on a non sequitur straw man they erected for me to assail 👀 as the abandonment is NOT my perspective and nor does it have anything to do with it. Just like with the character herself, her family is non sequitur to her decision making unless it's motivation al la SPITE.