Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter 15

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Ghosts cannot cross thresholds, full stop. Apparently they don't eve have the limited flexibility on that
front that human wizards, vampires, and spirits do, and while a powerful spirit could maybe get across a threshold as strong as the Malones' (which is stronger than Harry's, because it's a house rather than an apartment and because a married couple has made it their permanent home) it wouldn't have been able to work magic while it was there, and should have been restricted to the kind of physical damage that the toad demon inflicted on Harry's apartment in Storm Front. (Or like the Nightmare did to the roses outside St. Mary's, I notice). 

There are basically three ways that what happened could have happened. 

1. A literal God, and not one of the small, obscure ones either. Bob suggests Hecate, Kali, or one of the Old Ones, which is to say like, Cthulu. Gods with active followership and either a lot of believers or substantial fictional representation to help make up the difference. It's worth noting that in this setting, Hecate may also be Mother Winter, or both the Mothers, or all six fairy queens, or maybe just the three queens of winter? Which may make up for her not having as many active believers as Kali, or Cthulu's bestseller status. So that would be bad. Harry doesn't think this is super likely, because the behavior we've seen from the Nightmare has been too small, petty, and personal for a God. It's clearly very angry, but not at the right scale. 

2. It managed to get an invitation into the Malone's house somehow. That would probably mean that it possessed someone, either someone they knew or someone who could convince Mickey they needed help. Harry's best guess is that maybe it possessed Lydia and acted helpless at them, but there's almost no reason to think this other than that she's the only character introduced in this book who's unaccounted for so far. It's just conservation of detail, and makes no actual sense. Harry doesn't, by the way, even think about asking Malone whether anyone unusual came to the door, because this isn't about solving the mystery, it's about keeping Lydia relevant to the story. Also, she's wearing Harry's anti-ghost talisman, so she should be the person least likely to have been possessed. From where I'm standing, it's more likely that Sonia went out to get the newspaper or something, and the Nightmare possessed her, pretended she'd locked herself out so Mickey would let her back in, did the barbed wire spell, and then left her body and messed with her memories. 

This is sort of the beginning of the plot of this book making no sense. There's no explanation for the dead animals in this theory, but whatever. Harry has a 'feeling' about Lydia being involved. This 'feeling' is, as far as I can tell, based on the following. 1. He gave her the talisman, which she did not ask for and which there is no reason to believe she knew he had, and he feels stupid for doing that, which is fair, because he could as easily have kept the bracelet and sent her straight to St, Mary's, as he does with lots of people having ghosty problems in subsequent books. But that's hardly evidence of dark forces at work. 2. She's willing to trade sex for favors, and Harry finds that suspicious for...some reason. (I mean, the reason is misogyny, but I really can't follow the logic on this one like at all.) 3. She's hot, and Harry find that suspicious, which is also fair, but not actually a good basis for action. 4.She was at the church when the Nightmare attacked, which I guess might be evidence for "she knows more than she's letting on", but is the opposite of evidence for "she's in on this with the Nightmare", unless we want to, idk, take some kind of horrible misogynistic position that her obvious terror means she must be in some kind of abusive relationship with the Nightmare, where she might flee from it but it will always have a hold over her. Which I do not. This isn't Phantom of the Opera. Anyway. 

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3. It could be something new, something neither Bob nor Harry has seen before. Bob points this one out, and I think it dovetails interestingly with the possibility I brought up last chapter, that Bob is afraid of this thing because it's unfamiliar. What you don't know is uniquely well situated to eat your face. 

Harry gears up with his force ring and shield bracelet. He's gonna try and use the talisman to track Lydia. Honestly, smarter idea he's had all book. He orders Bob to possess Mister, go out, and talk to his contacts in the spirit would, and not to waste time going through any women's locker rooms. 

Also apparently Bob dated Charybdis at some point? Somehow? 

Sorry this one's a little short and lightweight. This chapter was only seven and a half minutes, much of it pointless, circular argument or wild speculation about Lydia. Jesus of Suburbia is both longer and richer in meaning. Until next time, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things!