Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter 31

Photo by Sonya Borovaya on Pexels

I am fascinated by the way this book is playing with addiction. There's no central throughline, at least not that I've been able to identify so far, but almost this collage of ideas and images about it, putting all these pieces out to see what they look like together. Harry's asleep for a long time. It's pain that wakes him up, the burns at first, then the cuts, the scrapes and bruises. As soon as he's conscious, he remembers what happened the night before, what he did, and realizes, as he wasn't in any state to do at the time, that he almost certainly killed some of the human teenagers the vampires were feeding upon in his conflagration. He drags himself out of bed, narrowly makes it to the bathroom in time to vomit, and starts guilt spiraling. By the time Michael comes in, he's progressed from crying on the bathroom floor to crying in the shower. I can't speak for anyone else who's had substance use issues, but I know I felt personally attacked by this scene. As I said, this moment doesn't feel directly connected to Justine's connection with Thomas, or Harry's reaction to vampire venom, or Lydia's present dependence on amphetamines to protect herself from the Nightmare, or Bianca's inability to accept responsibility for Paula's death (caused by desperate need, by a loss of control, by Paula's own addiction to the venom), or Mort's alcoholism, or the introduction of the only smoker in the series whose habit is not meant to code him as morally dissolute, but it sure is in the same book as all of them. He reflects on how you can't do anything with magic that you don't basically believe in, that you don't believe on some level is a good and okay thing to do - I feel like this came up in one of the first two books, but it might not have, and it's certainly the first time it's been mentioned in this one. I'm not actually sure it applies the way he's applying it here; you can't do anything with magic that you don't believe in, sure, but he straight up forgot those kids were there, and while that's, y'know, horrible (although see previous posts re: drugged, concussed, exhausted), I don't think magic's inability to do something you don't believe is right prevents unintended consequences that you wouldn't have wanted.

Michael physically picks Harry up, dries him off, and puts a bathrobe on him. He called the fire department after extracting Harry and Lydia, and they pulled out eleven bodies, at least some of them nonhuman, and twelve living humans. The rest are unaccounted for, and at least some of them may have been cremated by the heat of the fire, a prospect which Harry finds appropriately disturbing. He's talking somewhat incoherently about how he was so stupid, it wasn't worth it... Michael tries to reassure him by pointing out that they killed a lot of vampires too, but that doesn't do anything to break the cycle of self-recrimination. When Harry finally pulls himself together a little, Michael starts filling him in. He was asleep for over a day, but Michael didn't want to take him to a hospital when the vampires are almost certainly looking for him. Murphy is in the hospital now - she's still asleep, and the police have been pulled off the investigation entirely. Susan, Justine, and Amoracchius all remain unaccounted for. Charity's recovering, but the new baby is getting weaker and the doctors can't figure out what's wrong. Michael called, but hasn't been to see them - he's been staying with Harry and Lydia to make sure they're safe. 

Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash

Lydia's on the couch, asleep. Apparently Michael only got her settled down about half an hour ago, which has the fascinating implication that, since he's been here since he brought Harry back, and that was over a day ago, he's just been kind of...hanging out with Lydia for the past almost 24 hours? Was it awkward? Did they talk at all? If so, about what? Honestly I feel like there's a short story to be written here, or at least a fanfic. Michael also finally reveals to the reader where he and Harry know her from, that she was one of the kids hanging around with Kravos. Harry, who has now progressed to the 'unsteadily getting a glass of water' stage, says there will be consequences for what he did. Michael asks whether he's talking about the Rule of Three, which Harry has previously expressed he doesn't believe in that. Harry says he doesn't, that it's too tidy, too much like the world being fair and just, but tha there are consequences for what you do with magic. He quotes Proverbs here, which surprises Michael a little. I still don't think I can make sense of what parts of the Bible Harry does and doesn't know. He knows Proverbs, and the Psalms (Old Testament), but not Noah's Arc (also Old Testament), or the Parable of the Talents, which is in the New Testament (Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 19:11-37). We don't know one way or another if he understood the John 3:16 reference from a few chapters ago. As an aside, Harry initially goes for a can of coke, then puts it back in favor of the water, unsure whether his stomach is up to the soda. This is mildly interesting, inasmuch as coke is conventionally held to be good for an upset stomach. 

Michael says he has to go, that his family needs him, now that Harry's awake and presumably able to look after himself and Lydia. He feels bad about it, despite Harry's efforts to assure Michael that it's okay, that looking after his family is the right and reasonable thing to do. Part of it is, Michael isn't sure he'd be making the same choice if he hadn't lost the Sword, isn't sure what he'd want to do, isn't sure what he should want to do. Normal human instinct is gonna point him towards being with his family, trying to look after them, even though there isn't much concrete action he can take to help with the recovery from a difficult labor, or a medically unexplained failure to thrive. If nothing else, he can provide care and reassurance for his six other kids rather than leaving them with Father Forthill or their grandparents. His duty as a Knight says he should be here, with Harry, protecting Lydia, gearing up for the next round in the struggle against things that go bump in the night. He might feel less reflexively drawn to that, just at present, but in addition to its being a holy calling, he likes the work. The previous chapter was at some pains to emphasize that. He thinks losing the Sword might have been a sign that he's meant to give up being a Knight, and he both wants that to be the case and doesn't, so he's getting a double dose of guilt, because wishing to be released from a holy calling feels unworthy, weak, but what kind of person doesn't want a change of circumstances that will let them spend more time with, be better positioned to take care of, the people they love? Harry loses the thread of what Michael's saying because something occurs to him, or tries to. All he can articulate is that something about the situation feels off. Michael isn't sure what he means.

Photo by Mauro Sbicego on Unsplash

Before Michael can leave, there's a knock and the door, forceful and uncoordinated. On the very reasonable assumption that this is the attack by the Red Court they've been expecting, Michael grabs a hot poker and takes up position near the fireplace, and Harry pulls the door open without actually putting himself in front of it, causing their visitor to stumble into the room. It's Thomas, dressed in street clothes and carrying a plastic rifle case. Harry smacks him around a little, and then Michael stands on him and puts the hot poker up close to his face. He's bleeding where Harry split his lip, giving us our first look at the pink, pearlescent blood of the White Court. Thomas wants them to listen to him, but only narrowly convinces them not to kill him on the spot, on the basis that they have a common interest. He claims that he was going to double cross Bianca as soon as he'd gotten Justine back and was out from under direct observation, only of course Bianca double crossed him first. More importantly, from the perspective of Our Heroes, Bianca still has both Susan and Justine. They're still alive the last time he checked, and he wants to work together to get them back, which is a nice, clean, self-interested motive we can all believe in. Michael says he can tell Thomas is a liar just by standing near him, which is honestly fascinating and not, so far as I can recall, ever followed up on. Thomas readily agrees, but swears by, among other things, his own "stunning good looks" that he's not lying in this instance. On the surface, this sounds kind of facetious and very, very Thomas, but let's remember that this is the book where the consequences, for a wizard, of swearing by their power and breaking their word were introduced. Thomas is a White Court Vampire. And we see, in Blood Rites, that he would not look like this without his vampiric nature. His stunning good looks are his power, part of it, and a crucial aspect of his ability to do things like feed upon humans. Swearing by that isn't a small thing, nor nearly as facetious as it sounds. Harry, however, doesn't consider any of this, and tells Michael to kill him. At which point Thomas straight up begs, offering to do or pay whatever's necessary to convince them. This gets Harry to take a proper look at Thomas, to finally notice that he's scared, exhausted, desperate. He tells Michael to let Thomas get up, and Thomas directs him to open the rifle case, saying it contains a "down payment" for their help. Harry does, exercising appropriate caution. Apparently, Thomas was able to retrieve Amoracchius. I feel like he could have lead with that? Michael legit cries a little, and, once he's made sure the Sword is undamaged, tells God, and then Harry, that he understands now that he isn't meant to retire yet, that there's still work to be done. 

Thomas gives them all the information he has. The manor house wasn't destroyed - most of it is still fine, after the fire. The unaccounted-for human kids are there, and Thomas thinks they're turning some of them into new vampires, to make up their losses. He saw Mavra leave with two of them - she's getting out of town. Susan and Justine are being kept somewhere in the house, but he doesn't know where. And Bianca has hired additional security: humans with machine guns. Since Thomas doesn't know the layout of the house, Harry plans to wake Lydia up and ask her if she knows anything about where Susan and Justine are, since she's been inside more of the house than they have, and may additionally have some insights to offer from her prophetic gifts. Michael says he doesn't think she's slept in days, which causes Harry to realize, about 15 seconds too late, what's suspicious about her presence and their escape. She's possessed by the Nightmare, and figuring that out does Harry absolutely no good as she physically picks him up and throws him at the fireplace. 

This will probably be the last Dresden Files post of the 2023-2024 Eeveeyear. In a few days, we'll talk about what I accomplished, and didn't this year, and what's coming in the next one. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things!

Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter 30

Picture from Europeana on Unsplash.

This chapter opens with a description of how in history books and the like tend to present battles as these very orderly things with neat formations acting as cohesive units, and how that's an illusion and real battle is messy and chaotic, how no diagram can convey the noise, the terror, etc. There's some unpacking to do here. Battles are always loud and scary, obviously, and it's true that the blocks-and-arrows diagrams that you apparently see in history lectures (due to a series of hilarious mishaps, I have successfully avoided attending a conventional history class of any kind, and my classes on labor history, Pacific Northwest History, and the counterculture fashions of the 1960s and '70s did not spend a great deal of time on battles, nor, now that I think of it, did they have anything immediately recognizable as textbooks. I did take a world history class, but it was a survey course and didn't get into enough detail about any single conflict for this kind of analysis, and the assigned reading was all primary sources in translation.) do not really convey this. However, in the kind of battles in which formations are likely to feature in the first place, it is not actually natural or inevitable for them to fall apart into a confused melee - especially if you're winning, formations tend to hold together, and the usefulness of the people in them is often contingent on their doing so. Also though, absolutely none of that applies here. We've got five people, one and a half of them noncombatants, with wildly divergent cultural backgrounds, only two of whom have any prior experience fighting together, all of whom variously mistrust most of the others, with wildly mismatched weapons and fighting styles and absolutely no time to prepare. Formations are out of the question on almost every possible level. (They do all speak the same language). They're also in a really, really bad position. 

Thomas does a little show and tell about opening the blood reservoir in the Reds' bellies in order to take them down, which is great information for Harry but almost fatally distracts Michael. Kyle briefly appears with a gun, but Harry uses the sword cane as a channel for a magnetism spell and gets it away from him. I believe this is the first time we see Harry do the magnet thing. Michael creates an opening, which Susan and Justine reinforce by hitting one vampire who tries to advance out of the line with holy water, incapacitating it. Thomas says they need to take out Bianca, which is reasonable in premise, but if she's not actually between them and their objectives (get Lydia, get out) probably isn't worth the extra time and effort. This portion of the fight also makes a point to showcase Thomas's physical capabilities - lifting a vampire straight off the ground while it's biting his arm, swatting a thrown knife out of the air with his sword. I'm not actually sure there comes a point in this book where we need to know about that, but it's a reasonably smooth establishment. 

Up on the dais, Mavra was distracted enough by all the blood that she hasn't gotten around to killing Lydia yet, a stroke of luck that, under the circumstances, I think can very reasonably be attributed to divine intervention. Harry gets Michael's attention, and uses the magnet spell again, dragging Amoracchius, and Mavra, when she refuses to let go of it, into the courtyard below, breaking at least several of the vampire bones in the process, although this doesn't stop her from physically jumping straight back up onto it. (Like, from the side, she doesn't use the steps). Michael does the dagger cross thing again, directly opposing Mavra's weird shadow magic, giving Harry time to check for Bianca and, when he doesn't find her, grab Lydia. Michael is apparently having a great time, but the rest of the team is fairing less well down in the courtyard. Faith magic doesn't work as well on the Red Court as it does on the Black, so Susan isn't able to keep them at bay with a cross. She does managing to take one out by vaporizing a jar of holy water on a spotlight, and then shooting the newly skinless vampire several times in the blood reservoir. 

Photo by Vitaliy Shevchenko on Unsplash

And then Bianca grabs Justine, and licks her, down the side of her neck, incapacitating her with venom. Bianca calls checkmate, but Harry disagrees, pointing out, in essence, that he and his allies shouldn't have been able to accomplish what they already have, not against her entire assembled court, and so it probably isn't a great idea to count on a reasonable assessment of what else they're capable of. He throws in a bit about how vampires can live forever, and do they really want to risk that, and seems to get somewhere in demoralizing them. So Bianca turns her attention to Thomas, offering to let him leave, with Justine, uncontested, if he "gives" Harry, Michael, and Susan to her. Thomas, in what will be the first of many demonstrations that he does not always think very clearly where Justine is concerned, agrees, and pushes Susan into the crowd of vampires. Bianca barely takes another second to gloat before betraying Thomas, telling Kyle and Mavra to kill him. 

And Harry...snaps. He actually blacks out for a second while he's calling his magic up. I honestly don't know if that's related to how drained he is, and how much he's abruptly trying to do, or purely an emotional thing. And then he sets absolutely everything on fire. He also stops his own heart. I had to go back over this bit a couple times, because I initially didn't take "I felt my heart clench in my chest and stop beating." to indicate more than a momentary disruption, but no. I think this conflagration may actually constitute a death curse. Michael starts trying to drag Harry and Lydia out of there, but Harry's actively dying and the air is now full of smoke. Michael directly asks God to show them a way out, and it looks like his prayers are answered - the smoke parts, just for them. Harry collapses, and Michael finally realizes that he doesn't have a heartbeat and stops to do CPR. So we're gonna add "had a heart attack, basically" to the list of things Harry is dealing with for what remains of the book. By some metrics, he was dead for a little bit there. Michael gets his heart going again, and they follow the extremely obvious tube of clear air towards the exit. There's a figure at the other end who really looks like they might be an angel. Harry asks where Susan is, and Michael says he'll go back for her. At the far end of their escape route is Lea, not an angel, and this one's actually harder to easily class as divine intervention than Mavra's critical distraction. Harry and Michael naturally assume they're in for a fight that they absolutely do not have the wherewithal to win, but Lea basically shoos them out, explaining that she wants Harry whole and alive and useful, not drained and battered. Michael leaves Harry and Lydia in the truck and tries to go back for Susan. He returns, without her, but Harry is by this point far too out of it to say anything. Michael starts the car, and Harry falls unconscious. 

Sorry for the short post. This one is mostly action, which doesn't usually give me a lot to work with in terms of analysis. I'm gonna try to get another Dresden post, and maybe something else, up before the end of September, but like, no promises. As always, if you want to increase the ratio of time I spend making blog posts to time I spend doing other things, feel free to become a Patron. The button's up at the top. Until next time, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things!