Chapter Text
Let’s start with ironing out any specific differences with canon – that I can think of as I write this. Also, if anyone wants clarification on a specific topic, leave a comment! I am more than happy to babble.
- Power levels
- Mothers > Queens > Leanansidhe > Ladies/John > Knights
- Mab is a Galaxy Buster. If she gets into a fight with John. She WILL crush him like a bug. This is not up for debate.
- The River is part of the Nevernever. The Necromancers (the capital N is to distinguish them from wizards using necromancy) have a limited discernment of it, because they are unintentionally limiting their own perception of it. The Sidhe think this is hilarious, but are also happy because it means John isn’t going anywhere near the Outer Gates.
- Speaking of the Outer Gates. Whatever ascended John, cracked a giant hole in them. At the beginning of the story, Winter has finally managed to seal the breach.
- I’ve altered the Mantles.
- The Lady mantles no longer make their bearers attempt murder any man who tries to sleep with them. Just anyone who isn’t there knight.
- I’ve also added two Knight mantles. Now the Queens and Ladies each get their own! So, you have the Summer Queen’s Knight, the Summer Lady’s Knight, etc.
- The queens can heal their knights through basically anything – and this now includes aging. So, Harry is still kicking around as the Winter Knight. With all his references.
- Following Dresden Files rules, ghosts/spirits/other undead with a personality, are more like echoes of the original. You die, your soul peace out, and an echo/clone of you sometimes gets left behind.
- Thus, (and here we get to the “And YOU get to live”) the cavaliers involved in Lyctor ascensions aren’t technically dead. Just... Out of commission – Sleeping beauty if you will. Out of commission, subsumed within the soul of their Necromancer, but not in pieces. Because if they died, their Necromancer wouldn’t be getting the power boost from their soul.
- As far as a definite timeline changes go:
- Dresden: the only major difference is that Maeve – grudgingly – accepts Mab’s help in Cold Days. So, at the beginning of the Story, she and Lily are still kicking around as the Winter/Summer Ladies.
- The Locked Tomb: Alecto starts of her time in the tomb as a very active and angry prisoner. Who constantly tries to get Anastasia to let her out.
On to the story:
We actually start at the chronological beginning of Harrow the Ninth – she has just arrived on Mithreaum, and hasn’t yet erased her memory of Gideon Nav. Because it’s a space station, with limited room; Harrow is going to get Anastasia’s old room. When Anastasia left for what would become the Ninth House, she locked to door, and considering everything nobody has gone back in since.
After a bit of humor about keys that ends with them having to pick the lock, they get in. Anastasia left behind things; and as they clear out the room they look through what she left behind. The only things relevant to the story are several books that set up Anastasia’s knowledge of the Sidhe (and serve to back up what the Sidhe explain about their race/powers), and an old photo/painting. It’s of Anastasia, Samael, and an unidentified redhead – who is quickly identified as Anastasia’s godmother, or the Empire’s closest equivalent there off.
The people who knew Anastasia start sharing stories about her – with some very clear, if unintentional idolization her - a strange creature arrives at the Mithreaum. A messenger, calling themselves a Sidhe. They have a human shape but are very clearly not human. There is just something wrong about the fluidity of their movement, the composition of their outfit. Lots of little details are wrong that a human would instantly notice, but not something badly trying to be human.
The messenger is polite, but cold (pun), standoffish, and has a terse letter announcing the imminent arrival Lady Winter and her Knight.
The Winter Lady is on her way because the Winter Queen has an offer for the Emperor – it would be to his advantage to accept. (The tone of both message and messenger conveys a very firm unspoken ...or else). Context clues prove that the Sidhe messenger is very standoffish, because they are of the Winter Lady’s court and the Lady is... Not happy with/very angry with/hates with the fiery passion to rival ten-thousand suns John.
The Sidhe messenger gives enough clues through their evasive answers to put together that the Winter Lady is in some way connected to the Ninth. A little pressing has the messenger divulge a minor sorcery of using water as a prism to observe the past. Coincidently, there is just enough time before the Lady arrives to go to the Ninth, do the spell, and get back in time to meet her.
Que evil Laughter.
So, they go to Ninth. Everyone gets dragged along. It's kept on the down low so they can sneak in and out without any pomp and circumstance. They do the spell, and are thrown into Anastasia’s memories of just after the establishment of the Ninth House. We get some color commentary from the older Lyctors and John. Mostly clarifying things to Harrow and Ianthe. To them it's like they are watching a movie shot through Anstasia’s eyes/ears. They can’t hear her thoughts or experience her other senses.
Since her failed ascension, Anastasia had taken her duty to keep the Tomb locked very seriously. While she occasionally spent time in the newly formed Ninth, she spends most of her time at the Tomb, and thus, most to the time with Alecto as her only company. Well, not so much company as constant temptations. Alecto knows what John did, and has been very skillfully using that to undermine John’s gas lighting of Anastasia and trying to get the girl to ally with her.
We get Anastasia’s experience of her failed lyctoral ascension – things felt like they were going correctly; she could feel Samael’s soul and was reaching out to carefully grab it. Then things when wrong. He started slipping from her grasp and she panicked. Everything goes black, and she can’t remember anything after that until she came to with the other Lyctors gathered around and John trying to be soothing.
Anastasia takes a moment to gaze sadly at her pendant (a gift from Samael, that functions kinda like a wedding/engagement ring. Because I view these two as a couple)
This is when Anastasia’s godmother shows up. Surprise, its Lea! Dresden Files fans will recognize her as The Leanansidhe, Mab’s closest friend and advisor. Apparently, she likes being the fairy godmother. Or maybe Anastasia’s mother offered her a really tempting trade. Who knows: its Lea. She’s kinda crazy on principal.
(The watching characters also recognize Lea. But they all thought she’d you know, gotten old and died by that point in history. The fact she looks exactly the same as when they last saw her is surprising. Also, her eyes are just like the sidhe messenger’s eyes – the catlike pupils of a high sidhe.)
Alecto knows who Lea is: which is odd because as far as the viewers are aware, they never met. Yet, they recognize each other. Why? Well, Alecto isn’t human: she’s a sidhe unallied with either Summer or Winter: a Wyldfae. Lea has a low opinion of her.
More importantly, this causes Lea to confirm to Anastasia (who she habitually calls nicknames like “Pet” or “Sweetling”. Or by the diminutive “Nastja”) that Alecto cannot outright lie. Oh, she can mislead and obscure the truth, but she cannot outright lie. And Alecto, has been being very plain in her speech.
(Que massive explosion from all the Lyctors who knew Anastasia and Samael. Everyone is very lucky that they are currently in a dream state and can’t get at John – also, this is where Ianthe notices that spell keeps pausing to let them all shout at each other and not miss the compelling drama.)
Lea and Alecto then get into a bickering fight that references lots of noodle incidents that are the reasons Lea has a low opinion of her. Getting bored, Lea does something that freezes Alecto through the Ward to make her stop talking. And to let her make her (well Mab’s) offer to Anastasia. Lea has both the Winter Lady, and Winter Lady Knight mantles and has been instructed to offer them to Anastasia.
Lea’s here to deliver this because
- Mab though Lea would be able to talk to Anastasia better – because of that whole ‘Godmother’ thing
- It lets me make a joke about how Mab, upon taking back the Winter Lady’s mantle, turns to Lea and asks “So, does your goddaughter have kids?”
- Maeve’s death has left Mab in “I’m so mad my voice has become lethal” mode, and Mab doesn’t want to melt the brain of a potential Lady
- Because of the above, it lets me make a joke about Harry Dresden walking around in Artic Tor with earplugs in to keep his brain from melting. And squeeze in another Joke about how Harry and John are never allowed in the same room to prevent a quip battle.
When John became... that, something punched a hole in the Outer Gates. It’s unclear how it happened. (Which is the only reason John is not explicitly on Mab’s hit list.) The point, is that it has taken Winter from that moment, to well...now to reseal the Gates – and it cost them the Winter Lady. Does Anastasia want to be the new one? She can even have Samael as her knight.
This makes Anastasia break. She cries for her lost friends and lost love. She cries because of the absolute betrayal by the person she had invested absolute adoration and trust. Lea lets her cry, holding her, stroking her hair, and when the Anastasia runs out of tears and is mostly just hiccupping? Lea drops a bomb
Sameul’s soul is within the Anastasia’s necklace. When he died, she had instinctively concealed him in the necklace. The bond it symbolized would have made this easier: especially since it was clearly done in a panic. And, he is only mostly dead – he still has a living soul even if it isn’t connected to a body.
With the power of the Winter Lady’s Mantle, and the connection it shares with the Knight to the Winter Lady mantle it would be so easy to bring him back fully.
Lea is actually very upfront about what taking the Winter Lady’s mantle will do to Anastasia. And Anastasia takes it anyway. (It’s a real choice, even if Mab would have advised Lea at exactly what to say and what to do, to tempt Anastasia. It is not a coincidence that Lea turned up when she did in Alecto’s manipulations.)
Her vision actually changes slightly – her hearing certainly is much better. There even is a shot of her reflection that shows off her fancy new cat eyes.
Lea then gives us the exposition dump about how to bring back Samael properly. The CliffsNotes version is
- The ghosts in the River are not actually the true souls of the dead. They’re just echoes. This is why you can’t just grab any ‘soul’ in the river to ascend someone to a Lyctor. You need a living soul.
- So, to quote myself - cavaliers involved in Lyctor ascensions aren’t dead. They are unconscious and sunk into their necromancer's soul. Lea makes an explicit comparison to Sleeping Beauty. Actually, if you had the time and power, you could absolutely finish any of the lyctoral ascensions to make them perfect.
- Once Samael has the Knight’s mantle can heal him to reconstitute his physical body. After all, a Sidhe queen can heal her knight as long as they are alive.
(This news is met by simple shock. The deaths of their friends/family/loves has deeply affected the Lyctors. Lea’s casual “Oh, yes. Any of them could come back, not just perfectly fine, but in a way that perfects that whole lyctorhood thing” is further evidence of John’s betrayal. But hopeful – even with the secondary issue of HOW to get them back, and where to get the power to do so. Plans of assassination may be getting put on hold for this to happen. Also, Gideon the First isn’t dumb. He has to start wondering if maybe his blackouts could be related to this – after all, they only really started after his ascension.)
Back in the memory, Anastasia reaches out and manages to contact Samael in the amulet. We don’t hear what they say to each other, but the physical object Mab gave Lea to carry the Knight’s mantle cracks open and dissolves.
Anastasia closes her eyes when she actually heals him. We can see light flickering behind her eyelids. She opens her eyes and Samael is there, perfectly healthy – if a little disoriented. She jumps into his arms and it is all very adorable and romantic.
Lea, kindly, gives them a few minutes. Then she opens a portal/door to somewhere, where it is snowing very heavily. Lea makes a joke about using snowball fights to teach the newly mantled pair about their powers and then all three of them leave through the portal.
When the portal closes, the watchers are thrown out of the memory. There is more shouting. The lyctors are naturally very angry about John sabotaging Anastasia - Although, the Winter Lady’s anger at him now makes a lot of sense.
Somehow, they make it back to Mithraeum without anybody doing anything they would regret/would be fatal. They find Anastasia and a fully armored Knight (obviously Samael from observing them interacting before anyone walks in) waiting for them. They're both in full Winter colors: icy blues, dark icy blues, whites, purples.
Anastasia has clearly grown into the Winter Lady mantle. Her hair is now snow white, and fancily styled. She’s got little golden snowflake ornaments. She’s wearing this shimmering gown of blues and purple. She also now has that same energy as the Sidhe messenger - something not human, pretending to be and missing critical details.
The valiant life support systems are fighting a losing battle against Anastasia’s presence chilling the environment around her.
She turns to them, greats them, and smiles. It’s not a nice smile.
And then the story ends.