Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter 23

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Harry and Michael went on a shopping trip between chapters, gathering ritual supplies while Harry read Kravos's journal. Kravos was, apparently, a very thorough notetaker, going into disturbing detail about how he committed, and enjoyed, multiple murders. Fortunately, he recorded his search for a familiar demon, and the exact pronunciation of its name, with equal thoroughness. We get a refresher on how thaumaturgy works, including the different things a practitioner can use to create the necessary connection - you can use a physical representation of the person, any part of their body, or their Name. Human Names are difficult to use, and have an expiration date, because humans' self-concept is so flexible. If they're in a radically different headspace from where they were when you got their Name, or if enough time, or a significant enough life event, has passed that their sense of self has naturally shifted, it may not work at all - and you have to get it from them directly, no copying off a dead sorcerer's homework. Demons, on the other hand, are unchanging in their essential natures, and their Names are similarly immutable. 

Harry is trying to summon the Nightmare, and he's got everything he needs now, although he's having some twitchiness about working in the dark, even though it's daylight outside. There's some inconsistency about what time it is here. We're told at the very beginning of the chapter that it's "still full daylight" outside, which tracks with the assertion that they spent "most of the morning" gathering supplies. That should make it early afternoon right now, and while it would certainly have made sense for Harry to take a nap before starting the summoning, there's nothing to establish that he did. Sunset in autumn in Chicago is gonna be around either five or six pm, depending on whether it's before or after Daylight Savings. It's entirely possible that it's the tail end of October and the day sunset gets an hour earlier actually snuck up on Our Heroes while they were distracted, but that doesn't actually reduce the number of sunlit hours in a day, it just moves them. So I'm a little confused how it's meant to be, as Michael asserts a little later, only 45 minutes to sundown. Where did the other roughly 4 hours go? It doesn't take that long to set up a circle. In any event, he's got five white candles, and items representing all the people the Nightmare has targeted already or is likely to: his own shield bracelet, Michael and Charity's wedding rings, Murphy's office nameplate (a big deal, since she's the first director of SI who held the job long enough to get a real nameplate), and Mallone's retirement watch. He puts up a circle with incense, to contain the power of the spell, with enough room to stand inside it but outside the copper summoning circle. He doesn't use a second set of five items to represent the five senses here, which may indicate that summoning works differently from other rituals. 

As soon as he has the circle up, but mercifully before the summoning is properly underway, Michael calls down to ask whether he's done yet, and says the aforementioned about it only being 45 minutes until sundown. He's not pleased when Harry says he[s just getting started, which is understandable, given that he's not especially comfortable with magic in the first place, and he's anxious to get back to hovering over Charity. I do wish that in his decade or more of knowing Harry, his discomfort with magic hadn't prevented him from learning the first thing about it, such as "interruptions are potentially dangerous". The first step is to cut a small portal of the same type one would use to enter the Nevernever, inside the circle. This makes a lot of sense and, if I remember correctly, never comes up in any subsequent summoning, so now I have to wonder how any of the other beings he summons actually got through the veil between worlds. He makes a kind of prismatic mist by throwing water into the magical energy field of the spell, then cuts his finger and dabs blood on the edge of the circle. It hurts way more than a cut finger usually should, and the pain gets worse when he has to push the spell harder, which suggests that the pain is either part of a cost associated with the spell or a built-in signal to let the caster know if they're putting too much into it. The spell doesn't initially connect to anything, not until Harry guides it with his sense of the Nightmare. It does not seem to occur to him that this means the number he has dialed has been disconnected or no longer in service - possible, it's less surprising since this is supposed to be the demon's ghost, which might be less connected to the Name it carried while alive. 

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He's just got ahold of it when Michael interrupts him again, this time to tell him that Susan is on the phone and she has something important she needs to talk to him about. He's persistent, continuing to try to convince Harry to take the phone even after the third or fourth time Harry expresses that he's in the middle of something. I don't think we see Michael Carpenter: The Man With Zero Perspective again after this book, and thank the Light for that. Okay, sure, he knows nothing about magic (except that it's pretty well established by this point that he does), and doesn't want to know what Harry's doing, but he's capable of recognizing what it sounds like when someone is actively struggling with a supernatural being! Finally freed from distraction, Harry asks the Nightmare who sent it, but it insists that no one did, that no one compelled it to hurt the people it attacked. It also threatens to continue coming after Harry's friends, their children, et cetera... So either it's lying about not having been sent, which I'm not sure it possible under the circumstances, or it does understand about love and friendship, which would mean it's not a demon. Harry doesn't really have time to consider the implications, though, because a third party starts feeding power to the Nightmare, power that matches the barbed wire spells, and he has to act quickly if he wants to get anything productive out of this endeavor. In another reasonably cool application of previously established magical principles, he uses the chunk of his power that's still inside the Nightmare as a point of connection for a spell to bind it, compelling it to only come after him, as long as he's alive. Then he has to lie down on the floor for a few minutes.  

Michael, having apparently recovered his characterization as a fellow competent monster hunter, built up the fire while Harry was downstairs, and fetches him a sandwich and a can of coke while Harry fills him in. He's a lot more concerned than Harry is about the part where the demon is now not only coming after Harry but likely to kill him as quickly and efficiently as it can, rather than playing with him like a cat toy and thereby allowing time for a rescue. He's also not sure how much help he can be in dealing with the Nightmare, since he doesn't have his sword anymore. Harry reassures him that God isn't gonna abandon him over one mistake, and stresses that he needs Michael, and that they'll get just as dead standing around doing nothing. Michael puts his big, strong, calloused hand over Harry's, and wow, male writers in the 1990s just absolutely could not recognize homoeroticism even while actually writing it, huh? Like, we're in "There was so much he wanted to say to Mat" territory here. I'll note that this was the era in which progressive men could sincerely express the belief that all women are bisexual, apparently with zero self-awareness. Anyway, Michael asks what their next step is. Harry picks up the invitation from Kyle and Kelly, and tells Michael they're going to a party. Funny thing, though, the invitation isn't in the same place he left it. 

This was my first shot at writing one of these on the computer, rather than drafting in a notebook and then typing it up. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the results, but I was also sick for the entire week and a half I've been working on this, so I don't know how much of that's down to the process. We'll try it again next time and see if it works better when my lungs and sinuses aren't full of goo. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things!

Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter 22

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Harry's severely banged up, and Charity's in labor, so they're in the emergency room. Both of them are pretty high up on the triage list, so while Charity's being wheeled into labor and delivery, Harry sits down with Dr. Simmons. She asks if he's in pain, dizzy, or nauseated, to which he answers yes, no, and a little. The conversation starts out cordial enough, but quickly degrades when Simmons recognizes his name (although we never find out what exactly her context on him is), and can't actually find the cut on his head for which he came in. She checks his eyes and asserts confidently that he doesn't have a concussion. To be absolutely clear, that's not how that works. While the pupillary light reflex is a decent way to assess whether neurological symptoms are from a concussion or something else, the differences we're talking about here are small - in 2001, it required specialized tools to assess, and these days you still need an app. A quick examination with a pen light like she did can only determine that the pupils are equal and responsive to light. If they're not, that can pretty well confirm a suspected concussion, but it can't rule one out. Given that Harry's still nauseated, I suspect Lea healed some of the damage, but not all of it. That makes the ongoing concussion count sort of complicated, but it's not zero. Simons scolds Harry for being in the emergency room when he doesn't need to, and gives him some moist towelettes with which to clean himself up in the bathroom. 

While he's doing just that, he sees the tender, pink line across his forehead that was, earlier that evening, a bleeding gash. This confirms that Lea healed him - and that's spooky as hell. Healing magic, any magic that directly affects the human body, is very difficult, requiring remarkable precision and more energy than would be intuitively obvious. Fae magic is a bit different, but that only changes the nature of the spookiness. For Lea to do such a thing here, in the physical world, indicates a greater degree of power over Harry than is at all comfortable to think about or, more to the point, than she had like, yesterday. Their new bargains has cost Harry the "home field" advantage - she can come after him any time, any place she chooses, and she healed him primarily to make that point. 

Harry's trying to dry his clothes with the hand dryer when Stallings comes in. Apparently the police "got word" that Harry was in the hospital, and assertion about which I have Questions. It's established later in this chapter that Michael's truck is here. While it is conceivable that Michael called an ambulance for Charity and then either drove to the hospital with Harry or rode with her and had Harry drive the truck, I feel like given that neither of them has a cell phone, it;s unlikely that they would have taken the time to go back to the grocery store, call an ambulance, and wait. Even if they did, Michael would have been the one to make the call, and no need to bring Harry's name into it. There's a zero percent chance of Harry opting to ride in the ambulance, given that his magic could make their tech, or engine, give out when Charity is in this bad a situation, not when he's well enough to ride in a car. So even if we assume that emergency services all share information with each other in real time, there's no reason for the EMTs or the 911 people to know Harry was there. And, y'know, the hospital can't usually just call up the cops and tell them "Hey, this person is here", medical confidentiality and all that. Harry doesn't have a gunshot wound and for once there's no warrant out for his arrest. This is extra frustrating because as a contrivance by which to justify Stallings knowing where Harry was, it's completely unnecessary. They just brought Murphy in, since she's basically in a coma, and Harry said it would be safe to move her at sunrise. He also said to take her to Mallone's house, but whatever. Michael is also here, and not a patient, so I feel like it would have made at least as much sense to have Stallings say that he was here because of Murphy, saw Michael in the waiting room, and asked if he knew where Harry was. 

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Anyway, he brought Kravos's journal, but he won't hand it over until Harry promises to make it disappear. Internal affairs is looking into Special Investigations again, because of something to do with the Kravos case, because something happened to him, but Stallings won't say just what, because apparently that's a departmental secret of the sort that cops simply don't share with outsiders. Look, I'm not unsympathetic to the need to control information in a mystery, but the justifications are getting fuckin' thin here. 

Now that Harry has the journal, he needs to get back to the lab so he can start looking through it, but he left his car at Michael's house and he doesn't have any money, so he has to go bother Michael, who's lurking around the maternity ward doing his best impression of a sad, wet cat of a man. Harry has the sense not to open with "Hey, can I have a ride?" and asks instead which baby is the newest little Carpenter. Unfortunately, the birth was complicated. If Baby Boy Carpenter makes it through the next 36 hours, he'll have a chance, but he's weakening. Charity had to have a C-section, and the doctors aren't sure she'll be able to have more kids. I want to emphasize that I do, y'know, care. Everyone deserves a body that can do the things they want. But also, little Harry is her seventh. 

The doctors think Michael beat Charity, which is a solid guess, absent other information. Charity was physically attacked, and statistically speaking the husband is the most likely culprit. Her regular OB is at this hospital, and would presumably know better, but I guess they're not in yet at 7:15 in the morning. Harry dismisses this as ridiculous, but Michael says he might as well have, since it's his fault she got hurt. That's also ridiculous, but Harry knows better than to say so. It also gets him thinking. In his initial panic. he figured the Nightmare, with access to his memories, would know to go after Michael's family, but demons don't work like that. Even with that knowledge, a demon wouldn't know what to do with it, because they don't understand things like love. Michael puts forward that the Nightmare is a catspaw. Finally, some good fucking red herring! Neither of them can figure out who it might be working for though. It's not Lea - the Fae aren't this methodical, nor do they have much sense of urgency. This prompts Michael to ask what the deal is with Harry and Lea, and Harry lays out most of it, although at this point there seems to be some uncertainty about who, exactly, made her Harry's godmother. He thinks it was his mom, but he's not sure. 

Michael wonders aloud whether Lea getting the sword means his time as a Knight might be over. That God might no longer consider him worthy, or might have decided he deserves to stop doing this and look after his family. He seems to feel about equal parts guilt and relief at the idea, which is fair. I note here, and I want to say up top that I'm not sure what to make of this, that while Michael spends something like another seven years after this as a Knight, Charity is done bearing children, although in a rather Jordanian extension of privacy we're never told whether she can't. I think there's a valid reading here that while Michael hasn't yet done enough to be allowed to rest, Charity has. No idea what that would mean though. 

Harry finally gets around to asking for a ride home. Michael doesn't want to leave the hospital, but as Harry points out, there's nothing he can actually do here, for Charity or the baby. It comes up in this conversation that her sister is watching the kids while Forthill gets some sleep, and her mother is on the way to the hospital. Given what we learn about Charity's backstory in Proven Guilty, I'd be very interested to know when and how Charity reconciled with her parents to a sufficient extent that a hospital visit from her mother would be welcome. Michael's also concerned that they might have to kill someone, and Harry points out that whoever's behind this tried to murder Michael's infant son, and may yet succeed. He feels bad and manipulative about it, but honestly, he's right, and getting him into a position to learn more about what's happening will do more to help Charity and the baby than staying here and fretting. Harry's hoping to get the demons name from the journal, and given that he wants to do it from the lab, I think he's planning to try summoning it, although he may just want Bob's input. 

There's a lot of characterization of Michael, and his relationship with Harry, in this chapter that's hard to convey in summary and doesn't have enough complexity to warrant analysis, so if you haven't looked at their conversation here in a while, I suggest you go reread it. I'm more than a full blog post behind already this year, so I'll get you the next chapter, or something, just as soon as ever I can. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things!