The Law

[morriswalters]

Well, first stating that it's your book when you read it, there is no support directly in the text that indicates there is a portal in Mab's garden.  She has the power to place one where she chooses, which is supported by Cold Days, but Butcher never puts it in the text.

As much fun as it might be to point out that Butcher has slowly but surely been retconning portions of the story to serve some purpose, I won't.  The Redcap as a secret agent being in that particular area.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Mab certainly does but the Gatekeeper doesn’t. He is almost certainly the only White Council member with access to Arctis Tor, and the only one who used that access to Demonreach.

[morriswalters]

That may well be the case in Butcher's mind, but he hasn't placed it in the text. I could argue that it is Rashid who can control all portals between Faerie and the normal world. But that would be me arguing a case I can't support directly.

[RobReece]

1st Question: where is the idea that Rashid has access to Arctis Tor coming from?  I think it's quite a leap from knowing quite a few Ways to having access to Mab's stronghold.

2nd Question: I can understand that Jim likes to keep Harry in a semi-destitute status, even with his stash of diamonds, but what about the half he gave to Karen?  Does he have that or is some relative of hers going to inherit her house and find a sock full of diamonds?

[Mira]

2nd Question: I can understand that Jim likes to keep Harry in a semi-destitute status, even with his stash of diamonds, but what about the half he gave to Karen?  Does he have that or is some relative of hers going to inherit her house and find a sock full of diamonds?

I was wondering the same thing, however she does have relatives, it depends on what her will says.  It might be hard to find if say she kept it in a safety deposit box, the bank may have been destroyed.  Also it isn't that long since she died, and the last thing Harry would be worrying about is if whether or not he inherited anything from her.  Also between her house and the diamonds her estate might need to be probated, that can take a very long time.

1st Question: where is the idea that Rashid has access to Arctis Tor coming from?  I think it's quite a leap from knowing quite a few Ways to having access to Mab's stronghold.

Given his status with the Winter Court as Gate Keeper, I think access to Arctis Tor wouldn't be a problem for Rashid.

[RobReece]

Given his status with the Winter Court as Gate Keeper, I think access to Arctis Tor wouldn't be a problem for Rashid.

Point

[prince lotore]

I'm still wondering why Harry didn't just throw the BMW into his house. Then do it again with every new car until the suit was dropped. He could do it under a veil. After 2 or 3 times he might stop saying hebe gebes

[morriswalters]

Since this is a work of fiction anything is possible.  But a bag of diamonds hanging out with no indication of how it was obtained would lead the authorities to confiscate them based on the idea that there is no way they could have been legally obtained.  Crooked cop and all that.

Cold Days set the tone for this.  Mab can place a portal at any time, going anywhere, or she can shut down the whole shooting match on a whim. So a better guess is, if you had to make one, that unless Mab needs to have a portal near her Wellspring, there isn't one.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

It became clear when the Gatekeepers role at the Gates was revealed, and his relationship with Winter suddenly snapped into focus. Previously we were given the impression the Gatekeeper was merely a peripatetic Senior Council Member not around most of the time and thought to be travelling. Instead he spends most of his time at the Gates helping Winter in their Defence.

The fact he is extremely high in the confidence of Mab, up there with Kringle it seems, suggests he has access to Mab’s greatest secrets. If there is a way from Arctis Tor to Demonreach Rashid would be privy to it. If there is the the rules of congruency we have already seen in operation would suggest that Demonreach backs onto somewhere which is a maximum security prison in the Never Never. Try tunnel out of Demonreach you tunnel into somewhere as bad. I thought at first Hades realm, but Greek mythology has people coming and going on a regular basis and we know how careful everybody was to maintain no help from Marcone to avoid ruining that link in Skin Game. Mab’s Icecapades on the other has never allowed anyone out, Lea was not actually liberated if she had that might have corrupted the link, another motive perhaps for the attempt to block the Gatekeeper’s quick access to Demonreach.

Mab isn’t always at home, so leaving a key under the doormat for Rashid for Demonreach makes sense. She can lock it whenever she want, but as I said she wanted to give Maeve enough rope to gang herself.

I think the intent in Turncoat was for Peabody to become Warden (he is an expert on summoning and binding, his book on Erl indicates that) but to do that he needed the current absentee Warden Dead, and if that was Fortier it explains why Peabody aimed the Captain at him for an otherwise motiveless killing. Unfortunately Harry by pure fluke beat him to it. The Murder and Harry acquiring the wardenship happen in the same book, coincidence, perhaps, but Battle Ground showed Christos was not the stalking horse he was portrayed to be earlier destroying that weak motive, and it would depend on his election succeeding. Killing the Warden means the wardenship is up for grabs definitely unless some idiot just happens to blunder in.

Harry destroying a House when he is sheltering the homeless would not sit well with Harry.

Should have gone for an impotence curse.

[Basil]

I think the intent in Turncoat was for Peabody to become Warden (he is an expert on summoning and binding, his book on Erl indicates that) but to do that he needed the current absentee Warden Dead, and if that was Fortier it explains why Peabody aimed the Captain at him for an otherwise motiveless killing. Unfortunately Harry by pure fluke beat him to it. The Murder and Harry acquiring the wardenship happen in the same book, coincidence, perhaps, but Battle Ground showed Christos was not the stalking horse he was portrayed to be earlier destroying that weak motive, and it would depend on his election succeeding. Killing the Warden means the wardenship is up for grabs definitely unless some idiot just happens to blunder in.

I completely agree that LaFortier was very likely the previous Warden.  McCoy and Harry thought the murder of LaFortier was to drive a wedge into the White Council and get one of the Black Council on the Senior Council.  This honestly never made any sense at all. Why would the Black Council need a seat on the Senior Council when they had Peabody "taking care" of everything?  In reality, the Black Council was very effectively controlling and influencing the Senior Council already.  Frankly, this is more of Harry and McCoy thinking everything is about Wizards. 

Additionally, Wizard Christos doesn't seem that bad -- just a self-important blow-hard (like all Wizards).  He doesn't seem to be particularly anti-Dresden either.  Moreover, he was seriously wounded -- very badly burned -- during the Battle of Chicago and was conveniently absent from the vote against Harry.  Indeed, it seems likely that the only Senior Council members present were Merlin and Mai (and maybe Liberty) -- Christos, Listens to Wind and McCoy were all hospitalized.  Sure, he went ape-sh*t on Harry during the Arianna incident, but let's be honest -- Harry deserved every bit of that and more. 

It is also clear from Turn Coat that Peabody and Rashid knew of Ways to Demonreach.  However, they are clearly different Ways.  Rashid came to the Docks and did not set foot on the island, whereas Peabody came to a different part of the island.  Even if a Way from Arctis Tor exists to Demonreach, and Rashid used that, Peabody's way is not the same.  Maeve, Lilly and Fix used hang-gliders to get to the top of the island.  Binder and the White Court vampire used jet skis. 

I also believe that a Way made on Demonreach would go to Hades, it would not go to the vaults, however, but the prison part of Hades.  This is why Harry couldn't open a Way on Demonreach and get to where Nicodemus wanted to go.  Hades is probably quite large. 

Finally, while Rashid probably has max respect from Mab, I doubt she let's anyone know her secrets. 

[Mira]

It is also clear from Turn Coat that Peabody and Rashid knew of Ways to Demonreach.  However, they are clearly different Ways.  Rashid came to the Docks and did not set foot on the island, whereas Peabody came to a different part of the island.  Even if a Way from Arctis Tor exists to Demonreach, and Rashid used that, Peabody's way is not the same.  Maeve, Lilly and Fix used hang-gliders to get to the top of the island.  Binder and the White Court vampire used jet skis.

Only because Rashid and Demonreach/Alfred have issues, this is why he arrived on the dock. So it isn't necessarily significant that Peabody ended up where he did and Rashid where he did.

However this is getting off topic.  Mab doesn't trust Noname, after the attack on Arctis Tor she sent him into the mortal world as a lawyer. One of his main clients is Marcone, who also now holds Namshiel's coin.. Namshiel is suspected as being the one who tossed Hell Fire around when Arctis Tor was attacked.  In Small Favor Mab said that she and Uriel had a common enemy. I believe Mab was very aware about who took Namshiel's coin.  Mab is playing the long game.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Mab will let certain people know certain of her secrets to see what they do with them. Like everything with Mab it’s a test. If Maeve was told about a way to Demonreach and then forbidden to use it, that’s a test that Maeve failed, the test positive for Nemfection. You get rid of anyone else who knows like Nameless,  forcing Maeve into the position to do the job.

This makes me wonder,  Mab’s most notorious secret was supposedly ferreted out by Bob that Immortals can die on Halloween. Did she allow him to have this information just to see what he would do with it? In the long-term it rid her of a Nemfected Winter Lady who hadn’t even been born. Did she set Bob up as a weapon against other immortals? It strikes me tha Mab was very lax in relation to Bob.

[Mira]

This makes me wonder,  Mab’s most notorious secret was supposedly ferreted out by Bob that Immortals can die on Halloween. Did she allow him to have this information just to see what he would do with it? In the long-term it rid her of a Nemfected Winter Lady who hadn’t even been born. Did she set Bob up as a weapon against other immortals? It strikes me tha Mab was very lax in relation to Bob.

I doubt it is a secret, if it is, it is an open one.

[Snark Knight]

We learned that Kemmler had something to do with starting both WWI and WWII.

Wasn't that part mentioned previously?

[Snark Knight]

I think the intent in Turncoat was for Peabody to become Warden (he is an expert on summoning and binding, his book on Erl indicates that) but to do that he needed the current absentee Warden Dead, and if that was Fortier it explains why Peabody aimed the Captain at him for an otherwise motiveless killing. Unfortunately Harry by pure fluke beat him to it.

Perhaps. It would certainly be a stronger motive to take him out than what TC made clear.

But it depends on the WOJ that the rest of the Senior Council would turn on any of their fellow SC members who jump to a preemptive strike on any of their own fellow members who grabbed such personal power (and they only spared Harry because they realized he did it out of ignorance) being a strategic misdirect.

It's an odd thing to lie about, considering there's no obvious reason LaFortier being that previous Warden would be too spoilery to answer, let alone so spoilery to require misdirection. Especially when Jim volunteered Kemmler being the next-to-previous Warden quite near that comment, and that seems like a much bigger lore point than if the previous one was indeed LaFortier.