Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter Chapter 9

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Harry has nightmares, unsurprisingly. The first dream is of Lea, bleeding him in a crystal cave. He's restrained with thorn manacles, although they are not named or really described here, and would not be readily identifiable except on a reread, since they aren't formally introduced for another two books. She comes to him, and kisses him, and the cold pleasure of the fairy magic in her lips is described as "almost like a drug". I mentioned, when we were talking about Fool Moon, that Harry has a certain vulnerability to anything that relieves or reduces the physical and emotional discomfort which he otherwise constantly experiences, and this moment feels like both reinforcement of that and important setup for what's coming later, with the vampire venom. She tells him he's almost ready, and we proceed directly to what he's almost ready for, the final moments of Harry's confrontation with Justin, as he watches his former teacher burn to death, and the point at which he finally looks away. We don't know where the dream would have taken him after that, because he's woken up by someone pounding on his door. 

Harry, displaying well-earned paranoia and a healthy sense of self-preservation, retrieves his new, very large gun from the kitchen drawer, and points it at the door. Susan backs up, to clear his line of fire, which, see? See?! If a slobbering monster or a deadly assassin is at the door, she knows what to do, and does it unprompted. Harry informs whoever's knocking that they won't be able to break down the door, but it turns out it's Michael, not a monster or an assassin. Something tried to get into the church last night, after Harry sent Lydia there, and he'd like him to come take a look around, see if they can figure out what happened. 

Susan retreats into the bedroom to finish sleeping, and to avoid letting Michael see her wearing nothing but a blanket. Harry tells her to stay covered up, so she doesn't get sick, adding an unexpected note of domesticity to the scene. Michael comes in while Harry gets some caffeine and food into his system, and nonjudgementally surveys the wreckage of the living room. He asks if he should lecture Harry on sex before marriage, but he's more cognizant that he ought to disapprove than actually disapproving. He wants Harry to have good things, wants him to have safety and warmth and comfort and pleasure, and while he'd rather add stability, respectability, and compliance with God's will to that list as well, he recognizes that they're less of a priority. Harry takes a second to look in on his girlfriend, and his cat, before they head out. He also gears up with the shield bracelet and the force ring, although we are not yet told the functions of either, just what they look like, both of which are newly introduced as of this book. 

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We get a description of St. Mary's, in all is slightly overdone glory, and of Harry's discomfort with churches, which is here presented exclusively as a question of Christianity's unfortunate history with magic users, and not Harry feeling like he's done anything in particular to make God upset with him. The cars outside have been smashed up pretty good, and show signs of having been mauled about by something with claws. The rosebushes by the delivery entrance are in similar condition, but there's no blood, and no footprints, meaning that whatever did this didn't have a real, physical body. Michael asks if it was a ghost, and Harry says he hopes not, because a ghost that can exert that kind of physical force would be way too powerful to deal with. 

They go inside and talk to father Forthill, who apparently once blessed a 5 gallon drum of holy water for Harry. Almost the first thing he says is that he looks forward to the day Harry gives his life to God. Is this foreshadowing? And if so, "give his life" in the sense of devote? Or in the sense of sacrifice? If it is foreshadowing, I don't think it's come to pass yet, so file under "things to keep an eye on". He describes how Lydia arrived last night, in pretty bad shape, and he got her some clean clothes and food, but then she had a seizure, which Harry thinks might have been Cassandra's Tears, and Forthill thinks might have been drug withdrawal. (He says "narcotics", but opioid withdrawal doesn't cause seizures in adults, withdrawal from alcohol or benzodiazepines does), and about ten minutes later, the spirit showed up. Forthill tried to compel it with his priest powers, and it did not like that, started tearing things up. Lydia wanted to go out to it, so it wouldn't hurt Forthill, but he wouldn't let her, and they hung out for a while while he read to her from the gospel of Matthew (I don't know the Gospels well enough to speak to the significance of the selection without something more specific), and eventually she fell asleep, but then he went to check the doors and windows and she sneaked out the back. The wording is sort of important here, from a dropping hints perspective, Forthill said that she "went to sleep", not that she seemed to, or anything along those lines. On a first read, a normal person will assume that she either wasn't really asleep, or woke up after Forthill left, but it's important that neither thing is said, because neither thing happened. It's not exactly foreshadowing for the possession thing, but it's going out of its way to avoid misdirection. 

Forthill makes it clear that he intends to tell the police that vandals smashed the cars and tore up the rosebushes, and asks Harry and Michael to maintain "discretion" about the situation. Harry gives him a little bit of a hard time about it because, y'know, lying is sort of unpriestlike, and Forthill responds that letting word get around would spread fear and potentially give whatever this thing is more power. 

Once they're back outside, Harry says he's gonna talk to a "psychic" who's reasonably clued in about the spirit world, and ask Bob to hit up his contacts as well. Michael doesn't approve of either, and asks if there isn't a spell Harry could cast instead. Harry does his best to explain that no, there isn't a "what kind of being did this" spell, and Michael reluctantly concedes that the point and says he'll follow up with his contacts to see if they can find Lydia. 

So we're gonna finally meet Mort in the next chapter. That should be fun to talk about. I'm sorry this post has taken so long, also - really was hoping to be more on top of things this year Next post ought to be in a week or so. Until then, be Gay, do Crimes, and read all the things!