Some other replies:
This here is where I see a dissonance in our expectations and world view. So far in the interactions with the monk who is teaching us, and in Molly's life experience, I don't think that "knowledge is something to be hoarded and sharing it is wrong" is a mindset that Molly internalized in regards to magical martial arts. Master's time is precious and normally teaching takes a lot of time - that's a fair reasoning as to why monks don't teach more people, or why more people don't try to learn. Some knowledge is dangerous which is why only those who pass certain moral tests / have character witnesses should be taught - that, too, I can see Molly understanding. But "knowledge is sacred, and should only be shared as a very precious gift with as few people as possible, and ideally not shared at all outside of our closed religious group"... I don't think that's within Molly's base assumptions, unless specifically noted by her monk teacher. Remember, she's a catholic. Preaching to others and spreading one's religion and its practices is a core concept of Christianity.
I've got to agree with Yog on that.
Also Molly does not have the same PoV on the martial art anyway. It's not her one weapon against overpowered forces of darkness for her, just one minor tool in her array of options that include primarily her own Charms and also Ancient Sorcery and regular Sorcery.
There is no inherent understanding that the Art falling into the wrong hands would be a big problem, because for her it isn't.
I dont agree.
Molly grew up in and lives in a modern popculture milieu. The same way everyone who has seen a vampire movie knows that vamps drink blood, abhor garlic, burn in sunlight, and can be staked, everyone who's seen movies with Asian martial arts knows of secret monasteries and hidden masters teaching secret martial arts to only the worthy, and some of the ootential conflicts that break out upon proliferation.
She's not stupid. Its implausible that she's going to attempt to proliferate this stuff without asking.
Its just a pick up the phone question.
Especially given that she is not being taught how any nonExalted would be.
Calling Mab is NEVER a good idea.
Cheating Mab is ALSO never a good idea.
Calling Mab can be a good idea.
Cheating her never is.
Mab was not clear on the matter, though given that it is Mab you can be sure it would be bad.
No, thats not how Mab operates. Thats just gauche.
Mab has never threatened Dresden himself with personal consequences for failing a task. In Summer Knight, it was the White Council that was threatening Dresden to prove himself. In Dead Beat, she gave him information and stayed out. In Small Favor, she told him success would would eliminate one of his debts. In Changes, HE called HER. And so on.
Despite her reputation, Mab doesnt do personal coercion for her agents.
She gets pretty extra the one time we see her betrayed, but she wont coerce you, or even hold it against you for taking a legal option to get out of a deal. Dresden didnt get static for arranging his own assassination to get out of being Winter Knight.
Oh my. Are we sure this isn't a plot to get Lydia as a replacement for her father by Mab? That would be an appropriate revenge from her, I feel, especially if Lydia being was only possible because of Ankou slipping the leash. Also Mab standoff. Shame we don't have "kill immortals" charm yet.
Nah it isnt.
She'd just have appeared to Lydia and offered her the job and the power to save her father. Or waited until he was dead, and then offered her the job and the power to take revenge.
We DONT want to kill Mab. She's the lynchpin of reality's defense against the Outsiders. If someone tried to kill her it would be in our interests, and those of the rest of the world, to keep her alive. Her current immediate successor is Maeve. You DONT want Maeve. Believe me. For many, many reasons.
Because Mab still owns Harry and the only reason that she hasn't invoked that debt to do something horrible to him is that he's still useful. The moment he fails to be useful Mab can decide she wants to invoke her ownership by puppeting him into a pack of ghouls. Harry cannot afford to betray Mab.
So I circle around back to plan "Punch Harry in the head the moment we find the death god."
1)Mab owns his debt, not him. Not quite the same thing.
2) Mab stands in loco parentis to Dresden while Lea, his godmother, is in treatment to eliminate the Nemesis infection she was hit with. And she takes her responsibilities seriously. She might chastise him, she might not be gentle with him, but she will act in what she thinks are his best interests up to the extent of Lea's not inconsiderable powers.
Note that what she thinks are his best interests are not necessarily what he might believe are his best interests.
2)OOC, she's been cultivating him as a weapon against her foes for several years
Aint that many Starborn walking around.
She's not going to waste him here.
Arawn would make a very useful ally, one worth it even if we had to spend XP on a background for him.
A cross-cultural Death God opposed to necromancers could also be a very useful thing cosmologically with the heirs to Kemmler (and possibly Kemmler himself) running around.
Hooking him up with some VEE might be interesting as well:
Not to the point of makimg an enemy of the Queen of Air and Darkness for his sake.
And frankly, we have never met the dude.
We have no sense of who or what he is besides being Lydia's father.
It's unclear to me whether Arawn actually has a debt to Mab. If he's surrendered the mantle of the Eldest Ankou the debt may well have stayed with said Mantle.
He was her vassal in return for her giving him the Mantle and the resulting ability to affect the world. Now he's given up the mantle it may well have simply ended the relationship. She has the mantle back and his requirements to be loyal to her while wearing the mantle is ended.
Just how Odin only has to listen to her when wearing the Mantle of Winter King, not when wearing the Mantle of Norse God.
In fact; I'm pretty sure that Arawn doesn't have a debt to Mab. The Eldest Ankou had obligations to him; but he's not the Eldest Ankou anymore.
^^^^
THIS.
If he had a debt she'd have hauled him in by now.
If he had broken oaths the magical backlash would have been even more severe.
Why would we want to summon Mab, given she's our enemy? Molly has good reasons to screw over Mab, considering she had her friends murdered and tortured her.
This isnt true.
The Winter Court as a corporate entity has a minor grudge against Molly. However, Molly has no personal enmity with Mab, and no reason to believe Mab personally targeted her.
I have to say I really object to a plan that says it's too soon to plan how to manage the issue with Mab.
Just ignoring it and hoping it will go away is an appalling idea. From Molly's perspective, Mab is no better than the necromancers, given she's just had some of her friends murdered, her family attacked, and herself kidnapped under Mab's orders.
It's time for Mab to start regretting that five dot Enemy she's made for herself.
1)None of which is true.
The fetches murdered a bunch of people, but Molly has no reason to believe that she was important enough pre-Exaltation for Mab to personally target her, or a smalltime horror convention.
She's seen a fraction of the power Mab commands.
If she was like the necromancers, she has some idea what the world would look like if Mab behaved like, say, Gorfels.
Mab hasnt even tried to attack her at home
2)At this point, Mab would squash us like a bug.
Dont get delusions of grandeur.
Or she wanted Arawn rendered vulnerable so she could have someone she prefers to steal his power.
I could see a Redcap being able to crash a Dark Feast and consume his power, for example, given their nature.
In which case she wouldnt be using Dresden.
Mab isnt stupid; she knows precisely how Dresden would react in that sort of situation.
Dude has had her attention for several years.
There is no way letting Mab get to Arawn won't splash back on Lydia.
She is definitely an innocent.
In fact:
He swore an oath not only for him, but all his kin.
Mab will try to get that all. Which includes Lydia.
He didnt swear an oath for his descendants in perpetuity.
And in Dresdenfiles, mortals and the children of mortals always get the option to choose.
There is a gradient between rocks fall and nothing going wrong. Maybe winter doesn't kill us, but things can still be plenty awful.
As a note for talking about negotiation; consider the value Mab is trying to get back. Ankou is a god with an eternal service oath to her that betrayed the court and spat in its face. She has the loss of the divine hatchet man and the insult to make up for.
Do we want to pay the value for that? Cause I doubt weekends at the gate are going to cut it. It's probably involve becoming a formal subordinate of winter at some level.
The other thing to consider is that Mab is really good at turning simple agreements into traps. The whole basis of her relationship with Dresden is that she's using her favors to slowly align him to her until he needs to become her knight. She's good at this; even a deal that doesn't look to bad will in practice be set up like a debt trap.
Any plan that starts with "outsmart Mab, then keep doing it on a regular basis" is flatly bad.
This story isn't going to have a perfect happy ending. We can mitigate the fallout, but we shouldn't do it at the expense of our own long term independence and health.
Like Alratan pointed out upthread, it is exceedingly unlikely that Arawn actually owes Mab anything.
It sounds to me like he terminated employment legally within terms of their agreement, which left no oaths by which to hold him.
Of course, its Mab.There's always several non-obvious reasons for everything she does.
