Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter 12

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The Malone house is very nice, and a bit of a stretch on the budgets of an elementary school teacher and a police officer, or at least, what Harry can see of it through the open door is. It's a proper home, and that means Harry can't enter without an invitation, unless he's willing to leave most of his magic at the door. Rudolf fusses, naturally, but eventually goes to fetch Sonia, Mickey's wife, to invite Harry in. Stallings lights a cigarette and asks Harry some well-considered questions to get himself, and the reader, filled in on the mechanics of thresholds. Only moral homes have thresholds - monsters don't get them , and not all houses are homes. A lot of strangers coming in and out can weaken a threshold, but people close to the rightful owner of the home - friends and family, won't. Using a house for business or dark ritual purposes will weaken the threshold as well, although Harry brings that up in regard to Victor Sells, and I note that their big showdown was at the lakehouse, somewhere the Sellses went on weekends, and maybe for entire summers, but never their primary, permanent home. Wizards can cross a threshold uninvited, and even do magic on the other side, but it's a lot more difficult. Vampires and other creatures that use some form of magic to keep their physical forms together may not be able to survive crossing a threshold uninvited, and definitely won't be able to use their powers if they do. I'd love to know how this effects largely physical powers like the venom of Red Court vampires, but I don't think that's ever explored. 

Stallins says that he never would have believed in magic before he came here, indicating that he is, in fact, new to SI, and possibly to Chicago. He also notes that there have been some disappearances recently, and ever since joining SI, that kind of thing makes him nervous. Harry figures the disappearances, mostly homeless people, could be the victims of vampires in from out of town for Bianca's party, or related to the turbulence in the Nevernever, but he doesn't say anything. In the latter case, SI can't really do anything about it, and in the former they shouldn't. Bringing mortals, and especially mortal authorities, into conflicts between supernatural powers is something one simply doesn't do. It's considered a nuclear option, because once the mortals are roused up, they will kill everything. It's happened before. 

Sonia, attractive and "comfortably overweight" (you tried?) in a floral print dress, comes to the door, tells Stallings to put out his cigarette, and invites Harry inside. Technically, she says "If you can help my Mickey, come in. I invite you." And I would love to know how this kind of conditional invitation interacts with the magic of a threshold. Like, if Harry didn't believe he could help Mickey, would the threshold still have parted for him? If it had later turned out that he couldn't, would the invitation be revoked, and the bulk of Harry's power ejected from the building? Can one, more generally, place caveats on an invitation, like "If you mean no harm"? I assume you can't, since we never see anyone do this, even in Ghost Story and later, when it's become common practice for the supernaturally clued-in to carry pins so they can prove they bleed red, but it would be cool to see it explored, or at least discussed. 

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Also and unrelatedly, I'd forgotten that Stallings smokes. I think he and Madeline Raith are the only recurring characters who do, and that's interesting to me, because with Madeline (and Linda), it's pretty obviously meant as a sign of self-indulgence and self-destructiveness, although the latter is, of course, a bit symbolic in Madeline's case - I don't think White Court vampires can get lung cancer or COPD. Stallings, however, is not, going on two chapters' acquaintance and my vague recollection of him in the rest of the series, particularly sensual, self-indulgent, or self-destructive. He's a little...softer than Carmichael though. Not always as quick to grasp implications, but maybe a bit more open to the information that will get him to the right answers eventually. He also didn't have to deal with Murphy as she was written in the first two books, which probably helps. 

The Malones' living room is fully of unhappy-looking cops and funereal vibes. Sonia, displaying the good sense typical of one-off female characters we're meant to like, fills Harry in on the previous evening, and this morning before Mickey woke up, uneventful though they were. This gives us, and Harry, a pretty clear picture of when things went wrong, although she's unable or unwilling to tell him about anything after that, or to accompany him into the bedroom. Instead, she attempts to reclaim some agency and normalcy be going to make lunch. 

Murphy's in the bedroom, in casual clothes, looking miserable and tired and not at all like someone who fearlessly takes on evil sorcerers and giant werewolves. Malone, for his part, very little resembles the cheerful, energetic guy who always keeps his suits nice that Dresden remembers him being. He's cuffed to the bedframe, screaming and giggling by turns, and has apparently pissed himself. Murphy takes up the narrative where Sonia left off, describing how Mickey tried to attack her and she locked herself in the closet and called Murphy on her cell phone, which Murphy refers to here as a "cellular" because this book came out in 2001. 

She asks Harry what happened, whether he's possessed or under a spell or what, and pretty much blows past Harry telling her that he's gonna need a minute to figure it out. She's also making threats, but it feels different from when she did that in the first two books. Partly, that's because she doesn't get specific, doesn't invoke her authority as a cop, but it's also because it's so, so clear that she's just lashing out. She's just stressed and unhappy. She doesn't really mean it. And that's earned and successfully executed here. I don't know - maybe this is what Butcher was going for the whole time, and he's just gotten better at writing it. Maybe this is realistic character development. Either way it works. 

Harry asks for a minute alone, so Murphy goes to get coffee, leaving Harry to deal with Malone by himself. 

Hey, look, I did get this post done faster. Not sure if this is the realistic pace to expect going forward, but I'm gonna try and have the next one done by the end of the weekend. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things!