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| Photo by Trollinho on Unsplash |
driving through it most of the way there, so time is still extremely of the essence. The improbability of Harry not getting pulled over in this situation is sufficient that it's commented upon. It kind of leads one to wonder whether there's some sort of interference going on. At this point in the books, the only person who definitely has the ability and incentive to do something like that is the Leanansidhe, but I think it's worth considering the possibility that either Mac did something to intervene, or there's some kind of angelic power attached to the car itself. (I know it hasn't been confirmed confirmed that Mac is someways angelic, but I mean, c'mon).
Dresden uses his Sight to check out the house, to look for magical traps and the like. It's spooky as hell, with gross vibes and sad ghosts and skulls just everywhere. his is the first tim we see Harry use his sight for something other than a soul gaze. Jim Butcher does a good job of dodging the imitative fallacy here. The description of seeing the trees in different seasons all at the same time, the windows as stretches of beach, conveys a confusing scene without actually being confusing. He also sees the house engulfed in ghostly flames, and a bigger skull hanging over the house, portents of possible fire and almost certain death in the house's near future. I don't remember the Sight being prescient like this in later books, so that's something to keep an eye on.
He's briefly but intensely tempted by the dark power that has congealed around the place. He wants to father it up and use it to destroy the house, with Victor inside it, and then set up shop as an evil wizard in his own right, able to defy even with wrath of the White Council. The pre-existing ambient badness plays on his acute anger and chronic resentment, reminding him that not only is he in a precarious spot right now, with someone trying to kill him, all the choices he made in the past, to turn aside from dark magic and the strength it offers, to follow the laws of magic, hasn't done a damn thing to stop the council, Murphy, and the world in general from treating him with the mix of contempt and suspicion that makes a guy wonder why he's even bothering. But then his pentacle burns cold against his chest, and he feels a phantom, feminine hand holding his. This appears to be interference from the psychic impression of his mother, presumably from the magic bloodline voicemail she left for him and Thomas. We don't get any random emanations from her between Blood Rites and Changes. As this reread progresses, I'm gonna need to keep an eye on how his emotional processes shift in the period between the "voicemail" fading and Harry receiving Margaret's knowledge of the Ways, especially during Small Favor and Turn Coat, when Harry is as close to alone in his own head as the gets. Just Harry, Dark Harry, and the baby... man, for someone who talks a lot about how alone he is, it is a fucking party up in there.
Once his briefly renewed flirtation with the dark side has been interrupted, Harry takes a minute to go over how the pentacle is a symbol of good magic, the truest test of a person is how they use their strength, wizards don't use magic to kill people, with great power comes great responsibility, et cetera. He's finally not angry, but now he feels, quite reasonably, scared and alone and wildly underprepared for what he's about to undertake.
That's what we got for this week - I find I have less to say about the process of getting the post together when I was actually prepared. Chapter 25 should be going up on Wednesday as usual. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things.
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