I mean you could just lie as well, you have a subterfuge excellency.
Anyway, good night guys, see you tomorrow as we close in on Demonreach.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
I mean you could just lie as well, you have a subterfuge excellency.
Anyway, good night guys, see you tomorrow as we close in on Demonreach.
COMMENTARY
Great-Aunt Mary sounds hilarious.
The Murphys had a police commissioner as well as a captain in living memory? The Murphy extended family are turning out to be one of the entrenched dynasties of Chicago-area law enforcement. Which means they are very connected.
Thats something to keep in mind. Also explains just how difficult it was to make a case against Karrin.
It also puts a different picture on precisely who was Rudolf's patron in his harassment of Karrin Murphy.
Murphy's father
This is where I point out that since Kate's mother had actually read the letter?
Kate's mother's grave and any belongings would have been an applicable focus for discovering the contents of it.
There's also an Exalted Sorcery spell for looking a couple years into the past, but we dont have it yet.
NOTE 1
The head of the Chicago Police Department is currently known as the Superintendent of Police
NOTE 2
2007 Chicago PD pay scale
Murphy, who we know has been a lieutenant since the beginning of the series 7 years ago IC, would be at Step 6 of the Lieutenant pay scale. Which would put her gross pay at $92,886 a year, before taxes.
Not counting overtime.
COMMENTARY
So dude was both a Warden, and THE Warden. Interesting.
Im trying to figure out WHY Kemmler would have thought his ghost would linger; an observant priest has a claim on his soul, one that's backed by angelic firepower if necessary.
How very Old Testament.
Yeah, that smells like a Lasciel play; its rather similar to what she tried with Hannah Ascher vis a vis Dresden in Skin Game.
And I called it that this didnt feel like the sort of thing that Eschamidel would be working on alone.
This entire affair is illustrative of a point we want to keep in mind: Just because we only see one villain, doesnt mean they are the only ones involved in a plot. This is a recurring principle in a lot of the Dresden Files; there are often silent partners, sometimes more than one, involved in most major plots.
In Storm Front, someone unknown taught Victor Sells black magic, and gave him the same curse ritual that was used at Chitchen Itza. In Fool Moon, someone gave the hexenwulf belts to the rogue FBI agents and pointed them at Harley MacFinn, to the point of telling them about his loup garou condition, and the circle they should sabotage.
In Grave Peril, Cowl and Kumori were in the background at Bianca's ball, and helped get the Nfested athame to the Leanansidhe. In Dead Beat, the Formori made the chemical WMD that the Red Court used in Central Africa to wipe out the hospital with injured Wardens and a chunk of the city as well.
And here, we see that Echtamidel and his host had a silent Denarian partner, in the form of Lasciel.
Might even be others.
Makes sense; if you're trying to invoke or otherwise get your hands on the Grace of a not!Raksha that is a serious supernatural player, you want as much magical firepower as you can get to survive the experience.
Maskelyne notably didnt survive his Plan B.
====
This does imply that Lasciel has had plans in the Chicago area for the last century and a half.
Which puts a very different face on her attempted recruitment of Harry Dresden, the only wizard in Chicago.
And since Lash didnt know about this, it says that Lasciel deliberately edited that memory out when she was making her.
Along with everything on Demonreach.
Which might imply ongoing ambitions in the area. Thats something to keep in mind.
Tiffany would be best advised to avoid Demonreach until a formal introduction is arranged.
===
I was initially worried about how Molly would describe how she knows what she knows.
But then I remembered that both of them know that scrying/divination is a thing in the Dresden Files; this is in part what Harry was hired for by SI.
Karrin Murphy specifically was there when Harry tracked Molly to Arctis Tor with her mother's blood.
Father Murphy as a Catholic priest and a member of the Ordo Malleus knows about divination, magical and divine; even aside from the Knights have been guided by prophecies before, the Old Testament has instances of the tribes of Israel using divination by the casting of lots to guide important decisions.
Besides, anyone who paid attention in Sunday School will remember the Witch of Endor
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. Saul had expelled the mediums and the wizards from the land.4The Philistines assembled, and came and encamped at Shunem. Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa.5When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.6When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, not by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.
7Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go to her and inquire of her." His servants said to him, "There is a medium at Endor."8So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes and went there, he and two men with him. They came to the woman by night. And he said, "Consult a spirit for me, and bring up for me the one whom I name to you."9The woman said to him, "Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?"10But Saul swore to her by the Lord, "As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing."11Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" He answered, "Bring up Samuel for me."12When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said to Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!"13The king said to her, "Have no fear; what do you see?" The woman said to Saul, "I see a divine being coming up out of the ground."14He said to her, "What is his appearance?" She said, "An old man is coming up; he is wrapped in a robe." So Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.
15Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" Saul answered, "I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; so I have summoned you to tell me what I should do."16Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy?17The Lord has done to you just as he spoke by me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, David.18Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord, and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you today.19Moreover the Lord will give Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me; the Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines."
20Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.21The woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, "Your servant has listened to you; I have taken my life in my hand, and have listened to what you have said to me.22Now therefore, you also listen to your servant; let me set a morsel of bread before you. Eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way."23He refused, and said, "I will not eat." But his servants, together with the woman, urged him; and he listened to their words. So he got up from the ground and sat on the bed.24Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house. She quickly slaughtered it, and she took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened cakes.25She put them before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
7Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go to her and inquire of her." His servants said to him, "There is a medium at Endor."8So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes and went there, he and two men with him. They came to the woman by night. And he said, "Consult a spirit for me, and bring up for me the one whom I name to you."9The woman said to him, "Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?"10But Saul swore to her by the Lord, "As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing."11Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" He answered, "Bring up Samuel for me."12When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said to Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!"13The king said to her, "Have no fear; what do you see?" The woman said to Saul, "I see a divine being coming up out of the ground."14He said to her, "What is his appearance?" She said, "An old man is coming up; he is wrapped in a robe." So Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.
15Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" Saul answered, "I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; so I have summoned you to tell me what I should do."16Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy?17The Lord has done to you just as he spoke by me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, David.18Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord, and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you today.19Moreover the Lord will give Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me; the Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines."
20Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.21The woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, "Your servant has listened to you; I have taken my life in my hand, and have listened to what you have said to me.22Now therefore, you also listen to your servant; let me set a morsel of bread before you. Eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way."23He refused, and said, "I will not eat." But his servants, together with the woman, urged him; and he listened to their words. So he got up from the ground and sat on the bed.24Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house. She quickly slaughtered it, and she took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened cakes.25She put them before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
Molly just needs to say, absolutely truthfully, that she has some divination, and leave it at that.
She doesnt have to clarify just how broad or powerful it is, or what limits there are on it.
We do need to prioritize learning Divination 1 as a cover, though. Thats a priority for the March turn.
====
Anyway, we've established:
The Grace is on the island, but its not in the prison. It wasnt Sealed, and John Murphy did not imprison it; a security protocol secured and contained it. So its just a matter of convincing Demonreach/Alfred to give it back.
Which is going to be non-trivial, but a LOT easier than getting something out of the Well.
Thats just Molly not paying attention to the details in the Bible.
Not to defend the Fallen, but its just societal standards have changed.
Abraham married his half-sister Sara, who bore him Isaac, father of Jacob and Esau, and grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel. His nephew Lot was intoxicated by his daughters, who then slept with him in order to continue the family line after their mother died during their flight from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Jacob married his first cousins Rachel and Leah, who between them and their concubines, bore him 12 sons.
Judah, patriarch of the tribe of Judah, slept with his widowed daughter-in-law Tamar when she went out and pretended to be a prostitute after he declined to let her remarry.
Jacob's first son Reuben slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, who was mother to two of his half-brothers.
Moses' mother is his father's father's sister; she's both his mother and his grand-aunt.
During his coup attempt against his father, David's third son Absalom went into his father's harem and publicly raped his father's ten concubines.
The Old Testament does document a fair number of this sort of thing in fairly dry language.
Easy to overlook what it means if you dont pay attention.
Thats inaccurate.
Its explicitly stated by Sanya that after you pick up a Coin, at least some of the Fallen try to debauch you until they compromise your free will completely then ride you as they wish.
How long it takes depends on the person and the situation; Sanya had five years carrying a Coin, and still had the will to toss Magog into a Venetian canal. However, Sanya is very much not the norm.
The more powerful Denarians are partners, but not all Fallen want partners.
The core function of the Swords, according to Michael, is supposed to be to intercede for those people who are hosting the Fallen. Thats because in most other situations, a Fallen who so chooses, or who has invested the effort, can straight up prevent you from hearing other people, or put you in a full sensory hallucination at will..
Lash could straight up make Harry see things that werent there, and she was only a shadow.
Thats why seven words to Dresden were ajudged to have sufficiently compromised his free will that Uriel was allowed to take overt action in return to redress the balance.
No its not.
Its pertinent information to the case in question
And neither of the people in question here are exactly going to be the sort to make it the object of idle gossip.
Furthermore, not saying anything does not destroy knowledge of it.
It just means that the people who have the true story are Lasciel and Echtamidel, and the hosts of Hell that provide their support. You DONT want the only reference to be a Fallen.
VOTE
[X] All of it, they've been with you so far, you trust Father Forthil and Murphy deserves to know if anyone does
Murphy has been a police officer in a major city for more than ten years at this point, and has been embroiled in the supernatural for more than 7 years. Father Forthill has been a priest for more than twenty five years IIRC, and got involved in the supernatural while in the seminary, which was when he and some peers first hunted and killed a vampire.
I guarantee they have both seen and heard of much uglier things than attempted incestuous sexual seduction.
And they might need to know.
[X] All of it, they've been with you so far, you trust Father Forthil and Murphy deserves to know if anyone does
Murphy has been a police officer in a major city for more than ten years at this point, and has been embroiled in the supernatural for more than 7 years. Father Forthill has been a priest for more than twenty five years IIRC, and got involved in the supernatural while in the seminary, which was when he and some peers first hunted and killed a vampire.
I guarantee they have both seen and heard of much uglier things than attempted incestuous sexual seduction.
And they might need to know.
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[X] All of it, they've been with you so far, you trust Father Forthil and Murphy deserves to know if anyone does
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[X] All of it, they've been with you so far, you trust Father Forthil and Murphy deserves to know if anyone does
I mean, its worth remembering that the first case in the Dresden Files was a man and woman whose chests had exploded mid-coitus, and were left looking like this:
Murphy and her partner kept a straight face.
Dresden puked.Storm Front chapter 2 said:
Murphy and her partner kept a straight face.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] All of it, they've been with you so far, you trust Father Forthil and Murphy deserves to know if anyone does
I mean, I expect that we won't go into the details of the thing, which means that I see no reason to not tell the whole of this. Especially since it seems likely enough to be relevant.
I mean, I expect that we won't go into the details of the thing, which means that I see no reason to not tell the whole of this. Especially since it seems likely enough to be relevant.
- Location
- Germany
That's not really fair.
Murphy and partner had obviously seen the situation before calling Harry.
We haven't seen their real reaction at all, since it happened before the PoV-character appeared on scene.
My best guess is that Warden souls are supposed to linger as part of being the Warden of Demonreach.
I dont think so.
She's a woman in a fairly sexist police culture. And a non-physically imposing woman at that. Her success is reliant on being demonstrably better than male peers to get ahead. If she had a weak stomach, or lost her composure, or showed any sign of weakness, the police grapevine would be ragging her for it years later. Instead, she has a reputation as an all-round hardass.
Also, she was 29. 4 years older than he was. That actually matters at that age with regards to life experience.
No evidence one way or the other.
I doubt it though. Thats the kind of security hole that the designer would have specifically avoided, and any subsequent Wardens would have immediately patched the fuck out of if it had been there.
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Not a hole, a feature, to transfer knowledge to / teach the next Warden.
How, precisely, is it pertinent? Explain why hat actions will be taken based on them knowing the salacious details?
As you, yourself pointed out, Murphy is from a dynasty. Her success is very likely based on the fact that she's incredibly connected. Being competent then leverages that basic fact.
As far as I can tell beyond the fact that she was a denarian and carried the grace to demon reach there is nothing. All the gruesome details say is exposing the dead for no apparent reason without benefit as well as heavily exposing the level of detail our strong divination is capable of for no reason.
A security vulnerability to be exploited by necromancers.
There is literally a genius loci, a spirit in Demonreach, that can and does handle information transferral if and when necessary.
Alfred trained Dresden in canon, no problem, once he took the time to stay and learn.
A ghost that can be summoned and bound is a blatant security vulnerability.
Like putting a password on a PC, then writing it on a postcard in German and putting it on the office noticeboard.
We dont know. But we can make guesses.
It can help the Ordo Malleus refine their current working models of how individual Fallen operate; Nicodemus has made such a practice of destroying their historical records that they have to rebuild them repeatedly every couple centuries.
Similarly, as the head of SI in a city that the Denarians have already visited this decade, Murphy benefits from knowing how individual Fallen operate as part of the early warning tripwires we lay down around the city.
Especially since Tiffany's presence means we'll be seeing more of them sooner rather than later.
You're basically asking that we hide the particulars of how a serial killer operates from people who might run into them in the field because the details might embarass the memory of some of the killer's dead victims.
====
Dynastic politics can get you rank and opportunity and accelerate your promotion.
They dont get you respect.
You still need to take advantage of opportunity.
Murphy specifically craves that respect, and she puts in the work for it.
She's a known marksman and martial artist, and she had a very good rate of closing cases, as well as cultivating connections in the FBI. Even after she was demoted in canon after Proven Guilty, she was trusted among the rank and file.
And she is STILL a woman.
Her dynastic privilege is not enough to make that particular disadvantage go away entirely; in some scenarios, it might actively make it worse, because some people will be loath to directly risk her and the ire of her clan.
I don't think they have to debauch you to do that, there's just a sliding scale of how much will the mortal keeps which directly relates to the power the fallen can exert on the world.
The end result is broadly the same, but I think it was pretty heavily implied with Magog that if you consent to carry the coin the fallen within can immediately turbo fuck your mind. It's just a suboptimal idea because it makes them hilariously inefficient.
It's possible that this is done in a "I'm not touching you" way by using subjective time acceleration to brainwash, but to my eye that doesn't seem like something Magog would do. If he was willing to spend a subjective lifetime talking around a mortal to surrender themselves to him he could just do it in something closer to real time for significantly better rewards.
Most probably use a medium impact tactic like you're describing, but it seems like it's at least possible for them to take someone who consented to them once and crucify them within their own soul on the spot if they want to.
I think you're right that the ghosts aren't kept around since we see Demonreach personally tutor Dresden just fine, but I don't think such a system would inherently imply a security risk.
Kemmler was the guy looking for the ghost, and we know he was Warden at some point. I'd bet on Demonreach being able to block necromancers trying to take a spirit it's keeping around, even really powerful ones, but Kemmler would be the guy who's supposed to have access in that situation.
Vote closed.
1) Apparently they do. Small Favor chapter 15
I exhaled and glanced after Michael. "I don't know what else I could have done."
"Da," Sanya agreed. "But he is still afraid for you." He fell quiet for a moment, while his stone slid along the sword's blade.
"Mind if I ask you something?" I said.
The big man kept sharpening the sword with a steady hand. "Not at all."
"You looked a little tense when Tessa's name came up," I said.
Sanya glanced up at me for a second, his eyes shadowed and unreadable. He shrugged a shoulder and went back to his work.
"She do you wrong?"
"Barely ever noticed me. Or spoke to me," Sanya said. "To her I was just an employee. One more face. She did not care who I was."
"This second of hers, though. The one who recruited you."
The muscles along his jawline twitched. "Her name is Rosanna."
"And she done you wrong," I said.
"Why do you say that?"
"'Cause when you talk about her, your face says that you been done wrong."
He gave me a brief smile. "Do you know how many black men live in Russia, Dresden?"
"No. I mean, I figure they're kind of a minority."
Sanya stopped in midstrop and glanced at me for a pregnant moment, one eyebrow arched. "Yes," he said, his tone dry. "Kind of."
"More so than in the States, I guess."
He grunted. "For Moscow I was very, very odd. If I went out to any smaller towns when I was growing up, I had to be careful about walking down busy streets. I could cause car accidents when drivers took their eyes off the road to stare at me. Literally. Many people in that part of the world had never seen a black person with their own eyes. That is changing slowly, but growing up I was a minority the way Bigfoot is a minority. A freak."
I started putting things together. "That's the kind of thing that is bound to make a young man a little resentful."
He went back to sharpening the sword. "Oh, yes."
"So when you say that Tessa prefers to take recruits she knows will be eager to accept a coin…"
"I speak from experience," Sanya said, nodding. "Rosanna was everything that angry, poor, desperate young man could dream of. Pretty. Strong. Sensual. And she truly did not care about the color of my skin." Sanya shook his head. "I was sixteen."
I winced. "Yeah. Good age for making really bad decisions. I speak from experience, too."
"She offered me the coin," Sanya said. "I took it. And for five years the creature known as Magog and I traveled the world with Rosanna, indulged in every vice a young man could possibly imagine, and…obeyed Tessa's commands." He shook his head and glanced up at me. "By the end of that time, Dresden, I wasn't much more than a beast who walked upright. Oh, I had thoughts and feelings, but they were all slaves to my baser desires. I did many things of which I am not-" He broke off and turned his face away from me. "I did many things."
"She was your handler," I said quietly. "Rosanna. She was the one getting you to try the drugs, to do the deeds. One little step at a time. Corrupting you and letting the Fallen take control."
He nodded. "And the whole time I never even suspected it. I thought that she cared about me as much as I cared about her." He smiled faintly. "Mind you, I never claimed to be of any particular intelligence."
"Who got you out?" I asked him. "Shiro?"
"In a way," Sanya said. "Shiro had just driven Tessa from one of her projects in…Antwerp, I believe. She came storming into Rosanna's apartment in Venice, furious. She and Rosanna had an argument I never completely understood-but instead of leaving when I was told to do so, I stayed to listen. I heard what Rosanna truly felt about me, heard her report about me to Tessa. And I finally understood what an idiot I'd been. I dropped the coin into a canal and never looked back."
I blinked at him. "That must have been difficult."
"My entire life has been one of a snowball in Hell," Sanya said cheerfully. "Though the metaphor is perhaps inverted. At the time I judged the action to be tantamount to suicide, since Tessa was certain to track me down and kill me-but Shiro had followed her to Venice, and he found me instead. Michael-not the Chicago Michael, the other one-met us at Malta and brought Esperacchius, here, with him, offering me the chance to work against some of the evil I'd helped to create. From there I have been Knighting. Is good work. Plenty of travel, interesting people, always a new challenge."
I shook my head and laughed. "That's putting a positive spin on it."
"Da," Sanya agreed. "But he is still afraid for you." He fell quiet for a moment, while his stone slid along the sword's blade.
"Mind if I ask you something?" I said.
The big man kept sharpening the sword with a steady hand. "Not at all."
"You looked a little tense when Tessa's name came up," I said.
Sanya glanced up at me for a second, his eyes shadowed and unreadable. He shrugged a shoulder and went back to his work.
"She do you wrong?"
"Barely ever noticed me. Or spoke to me," Sanya said. "To her I was just an employee. One more face. She did not care who I was."
"This second of hers, though. The one who recruited you."
The muscles along his jawline twitched. "Her name is Rosanna."
"And she done you wrong," I said.
"Why do you say that?"
"'Cause when you talk about her, your face says that you been done wrong."
He gave me a brief smile. "Do you know how many black men live in Russia, Dresden?"
"No. I mean, I figure they're kind of a minority."
Sanya stopped in midstrop and glanced at me for a pregnant moment, one eyebrow arched. "Yes," he said, his tone dry. "Kind of."
"More so than in the States, I guess."
He grunted. "For Moscow I was very, very odd. If I went out to any smaller towns when I was growing up, I had to be careful about walking down busy streets. I could cause car accidents when drivers took their eyes off the road to stare at me. Literally. Many people in that part of the world had never seen a black person with their own eyes. That is changing slowly, but growing up I was a minority the way Bigfoot is a minority. A freak."
I started putting things together. "That's the kind of thing that is bound to make a young man a little resentful."
He went back to sharpening the sword. "Oh, yes."
"So when you say that Tessa prefers to take recruits she knows will be eager to accept a coin…"
"I speak from experience," Sanya said, nodding. "Rosanna was everything that angry, poor, desperate young man could dream of. Pretty. Strong. Sensual. And she truly did not care about the color of my skin." Sanya shook his head. "I was sixteen."
I winced. "Yeah. Good age for making really bad decisions. I speak from experience, too."
"She offered me the coin," Sanya said. "I took it. And for five years the creature known as Magog and I traveled the world with Rosanna, indulged in every vice a young man could possibly imagine, and…obeyed Tessa's commands." He shook his head and glanced up at me. "By the end of that time, Dresden, I wasn't much more than a beast who walked upright. Oh, I had thoughts and feelings, but they were all slaves to my baser desires. I did many things of which I am not-" He broke off and turned his face away from me. "I did many things."
"She was your handler," I said quietly. "Rosanna. She was the one getting you to try the drugs, to do the deeds. One little step at a time. Corrupting you and letting the Fallen take control."
He nodded. "And the whole time I never even suspected it. I thought that she cared about me as much as I cared about her." He smiled faintly. "Mind you, I never claimed to be of any particular intelligence."
"Who got you out?" I asked him. "Shiro?"
"In a way," Sanya said. "Shiro had just driven Tessa from one of her projects in…Antwerp, I believe. She came storming into Rosanna's apartment in Venice, furious. She and Rosanna had an argument I never completely understood-but instead of leaving when I was told to do so, I stayed to listen. I heard what Rosanna truly felt about me, heard her report about me to Tessa. And I finally understood what an idiot I'd been. I dropped the coin into a canal and never looked back."
I blinked at him. "That must have been difficult."
"My entire life has been one of a snowball in Hell," Sanya said cheerfully. "Though the metaphor is perhaps inverted. At the time I judged the action to be tantamount to suicide, since Tessa was certain to track me down and kill me-but Shiro had followed her to Venice, and he found me instead. Michael-not the Chicago Michael, the other one-met us at Malta and brought Esperacchius, here, with him, offering me the chance to work against some of the evil I'd helped to create. From there I have been Knighting. Is good work. Plenty of travel, interesting people, always a new challenge."
I shook my head and laughed. "That's putting a positive spin on it."
Unlike, say, Hannah Ascher/Lasciel.
Or even Dresden himself, who started hearing Lasciel after touching her Coin, but only got Tiffany/Lash actively manipulating his perceptions after the first time he used Hellfire.
2)We dont know when Kemmler was looking for his ghost.
It might have been during his tenure as Warden, or it might have been after the White Council fired him and had him replaced by someone else.
And its not just necromancers.
If a Walker got its hands on the ghost of a former Warden, it would be able to strip-mine the ghost's memories for details of the island's defences. Which would be....suboptimal.
Arc 13 Interlude 8: Reasons in Dark Places
Reasons in Dark Places
13th of February 2007 A.D.
"I think we need to talk about this in the car," Molly Carpenter said quietly, still looking like someone who had seen a ghost, which for all Karin knew she may have. This was a graveyard and she had just been talking about a 'necromancer' looking for the soul of her great-great-grand uncle so maybe his sister was still around.
Maybe she's not the only one, a small unwelcome voice at the back of her mind piped up, unwelcome because she had dealt with that part of her life, she had and this was not the time to unearth the dead, no matter what magic bullshit was in the cards. Her right hand moved on its own to the jacket pocket with the pencil to just get all this down some place where she could look at it, spirits of fire, the names of demons and islands in Lake Michigan. But that's a paper trail and as Agent Leo had pointed out 'some spooks can read your mind, all of them can read plain English'. There was a whole complex categorization system for what kind of notes were recommended for what kind of entity as far as the Special Collections Division was concerned. At the very highest level some wag had simplified it to 'if it can survive an air strike no personal files.' Fallen Angels definitely qualified.
Once they were back in the cruiser Molly took a deep breath and said: "Kate was a host, a Denarian, that's how she got healed, you could still feel the echoes of it and I think her mother buried the ashes of her letter with her which considering... well considering. Look I don't need to tell either of you that the Fallen are vile, but Lasciel, that's the Fallen whose Coin Kate was given, is the kind to take the things that make people virtuous, that give them strength through adversity and twist them, instead of just breaking their will the way her more brutal peers do."
"Is this strictly something we need to know Molly?" the good Father asked, though it was Karin he was looking at.
"I appreciate the concern Father, but I've never known these people, they're names I barely heard of and stories I learned today. Go deep enough in history and you will find bad apples up any family line." And not so far either, she thought, recalling some of the things her uncles and cousins had said about cops in the family who had not honored the badge and the uniform. Some of those stories had been told seriously, some as little jokes, but she still remembered all of them. Granted that wasn't service to Lucifer himself, but Karin was enough of a Catholic to figure that it was all a matter of degree. Given repentance God would forgive all sins save one.
With one more deep breath the girl explained plainly: "Lasciel got Kate to try to seduce her brother under a glamor that's anchored with the thing we are looking for, in shape it's a bright green emerald by the way..."
Karin could see the realization in the priest's eyes at the same time she had it. "You saw it?" Leaving the 'it' intentionally vague. To be entirely honest Karin was not sure how she'd take seeing something like that in first person personal, but she knew from Harry that things seen in visions stuck with the wizard and while Molly Carpenter wasn't exactly a wizard she was an eighteen year old girl who thought she could fix the world. Seeing something that nasty that she knew she couldn't fix since everyone involved was long dead was sure to leave a mark.
"Yeah, that's how Lasciel works, but when that failed Eschtamidel decided to do it his way. Plan B was apparently to use the fact that the Grace was still on the island to get the mutilated spirit to rage in a storm of flame towards it. He got Father Murphy somehow, sacrificed him... and the rest you know."
"Eternal rest grant unto Them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace," Father Forthil said quietly, solemnly to himself. "May Their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen."
Through the prayer Karin bowed her head, as much as being the driver allowed at least, but her mind was still racing, still trying to put the pieces together. Kate must have been remorseful once her brother died, enough to have thrown away the Coin and god knows where that was after all this time, but they couldn't just assume the, literally, damned thing had lost interest or that it had never lead another dupe to Chicago in the last hundred and thirty years. The last pieces on the board here in Chicago were the island itself...
"You said this island had some kind of presence, or spirit that snatched up the magic emerald?" Karin asked.
"Keep it, it's a jail, that's what it would default to, not to mention that it probably does not belong in this age of the world either." There was obvious relief in that answer that she had not taken the revelations about her family any worse than she did. To be fair if Karin had been a bit more like her mother she probably would have. Not to mention Lisa... Briefly, very briefly, Karin tried to imagine her sister in her place dealing with the fact that Fallen Angels are walking the Earth. The snort of silent laughter and spike of guilt for going there were both familiar feelings, easily put aside on the job.
"Alright so the island isn't going to do anything, spirit or no. That just leaves... 'Embername', the moment he does something unusual it will be a sign that someone is messing with the emerald which means they might go to the island and interact with the spirit jailer. That would be the Fallen Angels' chance to strike. I'm assuming that they'd have some way to monitor the situation with spells and it's not like the fire spirit will be scouring his area for 'bugs', he's just wallowing you said."
"I... didn't think of that," the girl admitted her gaze going far-off, though not in a seeing-magic kind of way. "We are going to have to go over and see if there are any scrying foci in his demesne."
At least that's a skill that still works, Karin Murphy thought grimly.
"When it comes time to go to this island I'd like to come along with whoever else you bring, see this through," she added just as the car slit to a stop at a red light.
What does Molly reply?
[] Yes, Detective Murphy 's proven very useful once and if it comes down to it protecting her isn't that much different from protecting Harry
[] No, there are some places regular humans, no matter how impressive shouldn't go
[] Write in
OOC: This felt more interesting from Murphy's PoV so I did an interlude. Hope it works.
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What was Molly's subterfuge roll? To pretend she didn't see it?
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