Harry Dresden does some theorycrafting

Just going through 12 Months for my first re-read of it, and I happened upon an interesting passage.

Harry has just found out that Bock Ordered Books sits at the center of the Black Magic attacks in Chicago, and so he starts reminiscing about Bock Ordered Books. Lasciel, the run in with Cowl...

And then he does something he doesn't often do.

He puts on his tin foil hat like a true Gary (who says Harry doesn't wear a hat? Also, while we're on the topic - if the final three book covers don't feature Harry wearing a tin foil hat, Butcher will have failed us all), and does a little theorycrafting.

He postulates that Cowl is holding a coin.

And here's the deal, this isn't big news right? We all already suspected that Cowl is a coin holder, although I wish I'd remembered this when I put up that post yesterday that mentioned twice hidden villains. Here it looks like we have one that I forgot. Both Circle AND a coin holder.

This thought isn't going to like, shatter the theorycrafting community with its significance. There was an attack on Arctis Tor, and there was a wizard practitioner involved in that - holding Thorned Namshiel. That practitioner is widely suspected to have been Cowl, and thus the theorycrafting community has been speculating that Cowl is at least a part time Denarian for years and years.

Except... maybe it is significant, because it forces us to go back and rethink what we think we know.

And I have to mention, Butcher likes to mislead. Its entirely possible that this is a sign pointing the wrong way. Its entirely possible this is another misdirection... but... I tend to think this is right. I'm buying it. The reveal is of something we already kind of thought we knew, so it isn't much of a reveal. Its just too small a reveal to bother obfuscating.

So, if we assume that this is a legitimate semi-reveal, what does it mean?

Well... the first thing it means is that Marcone might know Cowl's true identity.

The logic for this is simple. Cowl held a coin. The coin he held was likely Thorned Namshiel - at least during the attack on Arctis Tor and possibly through to the Aquarium scene (was Cowl there, but wearing a coin? That scene would be worth a re-read I think. There's a good question for an AMA with Butcher, was Cowl present at the Aquarium Scene in Small Favor. That's one he might be willing to answer). Thorned Namshiel was working with Cowl. Now Marconne holds Thorned Namshiel.

And yeah, this is a bit tenuous. Cowl might not have held Namshiel. Cowl might not have been at the attack on Arctis Tor, Namshiel might not have told Marcone. But there's at least a link there.

What else?

Well, I suspect there's more. Theorycrafting is like stripping wallpaper (if you've ever done that). Stripping wallpaper seems impossible until you get a corner of a piece of wallpaper up, so that you have a good solid piece to hold onto, and then you can just rip it off the wall in large sheets.

This... might be one of those little corner pieces. If you suspect that Cowl is holding a coin, maybe he is, and maybe there are hints in the files that we missed that will tell us more.

If we tug at this, by looking around at all the scenes that involve Denarians for clues that Cowl is present, we might just find something significant. Or maybe we'll find nothing, but if you want to put out an original theory, looking at the Denarian scenes for clues that Cowl might be present is one way to do it. Find something that aligns with Cowl being there, and you'll have evidence for a new theory. You might well discover something new along the way.

And I can't end this post without at least a shout out to the big mystery involving Denarians. At the end of Battle Ground Nemstine repeated a phrase uttered by Nicodemus way back in Death Masks. "Apocalypse is a Frame of Mind". There has to be significance there.

We have a contradiction. This link between Nicodemus and Nemesis suggests that Nicodemus is working for or alongside the Outsiders. The fact that they are both repeating the same catch phrase implies similar goals and ideas.

On the other hand, the Aquarium scene strongly indicates that Nicodemus loaths the Nfected, and is working against them.

Which is it? I certainly don't know. Impossible to answer because you can't trust any of the characters involved. Is Nicodemus leading Harry astray? Is Nemstine framing the Nickleheads as Outsider aligned? Who knows...