1)We killed them with an Aggravated damage sword.
Most entities do not survive death by Agg; those capable of doing so are on a very short list, and there is no indication these were some of them.
2) Respectfully, Yog, a lot of your premises are just flatout wrong.
Mab successfully exorcised the Leanansidhe of Outsider possession after several years of effort, and explicitly said she could have exorcised Maeve if Maeve had agreed to let her.
Dresden was one of the over forty thousand Starborn who were born in this cycle alone with the ability to wield power over Outsiders. A lot of those have died over the last three or four decades, but it wasnt an especially rare capability across a global population. Other living Starborn we know are Listen and Drakul himself, who comes from a previous cycle.
Rashid the motherfucking Gatekeeper with his Outsider-detecting artifact eye has been walking the Earth for over a thousand years.
Sapphire Circle Exorcism is a very potent tool.
But its another tool in our toolset, not a warwinning mcguffin.
Neither does Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter, Infernal Exalt.
Sapphire Circle Exorcism does not demantle people. It will not turn Mab back into a mortal woman, or depower the Summer Knight, or turn a Red Court vampire back into a mortal.
It banishes and exorcises possessing entities and influences, it does not depower people with Mantles/Investments.
It works against Nemesis, and similar possessing Outsiders and similar entities, because they are possessing the victim/minion/item. It will do fuckall to a person who bargained for power and got it.
You are wrong.
My friend, that has fuckall to do with us.
Nemesis makes its own determinations about its interests, and as a known powerful associate of a known Starborn, we are inevitably very high up on that list.
I mean, I keep making the point that Nemesis is already acting against us, and has been acting against us since before we became an Exalt. It doesnt have to show up onscreen to do so. I mean, its an explicit part of the background story of Molly's rescue from Arctis Tor that Nemesis-infected Maeve used that to distort time as part of a ploy to discredit Mab:
The Summer Lady looked up, her weary smile gorgeous. "I only provided a minor comfort and guide in order to repay my debt to the lady Charity," she murmured, a small smile on her lips. "I had no way to know that the wizard would steal that power for his own use." She drew in a deep breath and said, "Help me up. We must go."
Fix did so. "Go where?"
I said, "All of those Winter forces are now at the heart of their own realm. Which means that they aren't on the borders of Summer waiting to attack. Which means that Summer has forces that can be spared to assist the Council," I said quietly.
"But it only took them a few minutes to show up," Murphy pointed out. "Couldn't they just run back and be there a few minutes from now?"
"No, Murph," I said. "They planned for that. This whole raid was a setup from the get go." I jerked my head at Lily. "Wasn't it."
"That is one way to describe it," Lily said quietly. "I would not, myself, interpret it that way. I had no part in bringing the fetches here-but their presence and their capture of Lady Charity's daughter presented us with an opportunity to temporarily neutralize the presence of Mab's forces upon our borders."
"We," I murmured. "Maeve is working with you. That was why she showed up at McAnally's so quickly."
"Even so," Lily said, bowing her head at me in a nod of what looked like respect.
Fix blinked at Lily. "You're working with Maeve?"
"She couldn't have altered the flow of time at the heart of Winter," I said quietly. "Only one of the Winter Queens could do that."
Fix blinked at Lily as if I hadn't spoken. "Maeve's working with you?"
Lily nodded. "Like us, she fears Mab's recent madness." She turned back to me. "I provided you with power enough to threaten the wellspring, in the hope that you would draw some portion of Winter back into its own demesnes. Once that was done, Maeve altered the passage of time relative to the mortal realms."
I arched an eyebrow. "How long have we been gone?"
"It is nearly sunrise of the day after you departed," she replied. "Though the passage of time was only altered in the last few moments of your escape. Maeve will not be able to hold it for long, but it will give us time enough to act."
"What if I hadn't realized it in time?" I asked her. "What if I hadn't used your fire?"
She smiled at me, a little sad. "You would be dead, I suppose."
I glared at her. "And my friends with me."
"Even so," she said. "Please understand. The compulsion my Queen has laid upon me permitted me few options. I could not make explanation of what I had in mind. Nor could I simply stand by and do nothing while the Council was in such desperate need."
"But now you can tell me all about it?"
"Now we are discussing history," she said. She inclined her head to me. Then to Charity. "I am glad, Lady, to see your daughter returned to you."
Charity looked up at her long enough to give her a swift smile and a nod of thanks. Then she went back to holding her daughter.
"Lily," I said.
She arched a brow, waiting.
She'd manipulated me, turned me into a weapon to use against Mab. She hadn't exactly lied to me, but she had taken an awful gamble with my life. Worse, she'd done it with the lives of four of my friends. She had good intentions all the way down the line, I suppose. And she had faced limitations that my instincts told me I still did not fully appreciate or understand. But she hadn't dealt with me head-on, open and honest.
But then, she was a Faerie Queen in her own right. What in the world had ever given me the impression that she would play her cards faceup?
Fix did so. "Go where?"
I said, "All of those Winter forces are now at the heart of their own realm. Which means that they aren't on the borders of Summer waiting to attack. Which means that Summer has forces that can be spared to assist the Council," I said quietly.
"But it only took them a few minutes to show up," Murphy pointed out. "Couldn't they just run back and be there a few minutes from now?"
"No, Murph," I said. "They planned for that. This whole raid was a setup from the get go." I jerked my head at Lily. "Wasn't it."
"That is one way to describe it," Lily said quietly. "I would not, myself, interpret it that way. I had no part in bringing the fetches here-but their presence and their capture of Lady Charity's daughter presented us with an opportunity to temporarily neutralize the presence of Mab's forces upon our borders."
"We," I murmured. "Maeve is working with you. That was why she showed up at McAnally's so quickly."
"Even so," Lily said, bowing her head at me in a nod of what looked like respect.
Fix blinked at Lily. "You're working with Maeve?"
"She couldn't have altered the flow of time at the heart of Winter," I said quietly. "Only one of the Winter Queens could do that."
Fix blinked at Lily as if I hadn't spoken. "Maeve's working with you?"
Lily nodded. "Like us, she fears Mab's recent madness." She turned back to me. "I provided you with power enough to threaten the wellspring, in the hope that you would draw some portion of Winter back into its own demesnes. Once that was done, Maeve altered the passage of time relative to the mortal realms."
I arched an eyebrow. "How long have we been gone?"
"It is nearly sunrise of the day after you departed," she replied. "Though the passage of time was only altered in the last few moments of your escape. Maeve will not be able to hold it for long, but it will give us time enough to act."
"What if I hadn't realized it in time?" I asked her. "What if I hadn't used your fire?"
She smiled at me, a little sad. "You would be dead, I suppose."
I glared at her. "And my friends with me."
"Even so," she said. "Please understand. The compulsion my Queen has laid upon me permitted me few options. I could not make explanation of what I had in mind. Nor could I simply stand by and do nothing while the Council was in such desperate need."
"But now you can tell me all about it?"
"Now we are discussing history," she said. She inclined her head to me. Then to Charity. "I am glad, Lady, to see your daughter returned to you."
Charity looked up at her long enough to give her a swift smile and a nod of thanks. Then she went back to holding her daughter.
"Lily," I said.
She arched a brow, waiting.
She'd manipulated me, turned me into a weapon to use against Mab. She hadn't exactly lied to me, but she had taken an awful gamble with my life. Worse, she'd done it with the lives of four of my friends. She had good intentions all the way down the line, I suppose. And she had faced limitations that my instincts told me I still did not fully appreciate or understand. But she hadn't dealt with me head-on, open and honest.
But then, she was a Faerie Queen in her own right. What in the world had ever given me the impression that she would play her cards faceup?
Thats involved whispering that Mab is mad, or irrational and untrustworthy. And because Maeve is Nemesis-infected, she can LIE.
You keep working under the impression that Nemesis is other people's problems.
It isnt.
Canon had Sarissa as backup candidate in the event of Maeve's death, and Molly as a secret backup
We dont have the backup candidates to replace Lily as Summer Lady if she gets killed or infected.
We cant afford it to go to some untrained rando either.
1)Outsiders have no connection with the Neverborn we know of.
In the World of Darkness, Neverborn are at the bottom of the Underworld, and sleep in the Labyrinth. In this AU, Neverborn are connected with the origin of Black Court Vampires.
Nowhere has it been suggested that they have anything to do with Outsiders, or stuff outside the Outer Gates.
You can tell that because Mab and Titania and the White Council and Powers like Odin dont freak out about Black Court vampires the way they do about Outsiders.
2)Thats just not true.
Whether or not a person is paranoid has no bearing on their trustworthiness.
And Mab is paranoid for very good reason. Summer Lady Lily died due to insufficient paranoia.
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