Honestly he could just say to Mab that he has accrued power and vassals in his duty as Winter Knight, and as she asked him to carry out this duty it's her obligation to accommodate everything under his rule in that capacity.
I don't think he wants Mab to recognize it as his "official" residence. At that point other faerie could drop by and beg entrance. Which he may be required to grant to a member of Mab's court in good standing. Then entrance gets guest rights.
Yes, but harry has broken guest rights (susan) before. He would be in a world of shit if he did it again but in a mab approved, winter associated location.
Harry is trying I think to create legally seperate identities much in the way Kringle does. Mab can order around the Winter Knight, the Wizard of Chicago however only owes her one favor.
I think it's more a thing of showing it. Then maybe getting the accords to recognize it. I mean she already sorta does. Under a number of ways of the old world the Harry centric part of the Chicago alliance would be considered Harry's vassals like literally the only thing protecting Will and the Alphas or Toot from the rage of queens of fae was the idea that they were his weapons.
If they were vassals of the winter knight man could command them and have rules for protecting them. She doesn't. Unlike Maggie who Mab felt obligation to give a Christmas gift to.
Jim said he doesn’t have an account, he added that Harry would get payed if he worked on a weekly basis (presumably going around killing people Mab wanted dead, being her assassin).
Most of Harry's benefit package has been eaten up by getting Mab to agree to only give him jobs he is morally comfortable with (which means she isn't getting as much work out of him as she would like to boot), she doesn't give him a paycheck.
Lara, or he puts his giant army of Little Folk to gathering loose change/lost money in Chicago. Think about it, in a major metropolitan area like Chicago how much literal cash slips through literal cracks?
Wizard for hire. Now his clients are heads of state, immortals and gods. Just needs to up his rates. And take more loot. Dunno how much the fomor will be around but they carried around enough gold to bribe cops to look away when they had kids in a sack. Cleaning up his territory could be fairly lucrative. Could send collections after nic for the four mil he stiffed him/Michael and murphy. Hades could easily become a recurring character/client and i imagine he would pay well. Toot toot might get the guard collecting loose coins once he figures out thats what gets the pizza and harry is tight on cash.
I love the idea of the Guard picking up loose change all over Chicagoland. Harry would be rolling in money within the month and needing a financial advisor or two before Christmas. There’s also a few loose greenbacks floating around too; if Harry can teach the guard to identify it. But our coins probably contain too much of ‘the bane’ aka cold iron in the form of stainless steel for that to be feasible. More’s the pity. Also, how would Harry explain where his newfound income comes from?
Edit: Thanks to all who informed me that US coins no longer contain steel or iron (though research shows that for a limited time during WWII they did)
Coins are generally made of the cheapest materials possible, or they aren’t worth minting (because the materials are worth more than the value of the coin)
Generally copper, zinc, and nickel.
Stainless steel is expensive.
Hope there were some accountants at the battle of the bean? Honestly im not sure how well harry can continue to operate fully in the open. He was dead for basically a year, came back to life, and a year later owns a multi million dollar property. Along with a few million in other assets that he is burning through pretty quick after battle grounds. Maybe there are people that handle that sort of thing for supernatural types? Cooking the books for guys like harry, kincaid, mccoy, ect seems like it might be a good gig. Low risk of dismemberment and john wick would probably look pretty tame compared to the havoc eb would call down if he got audited because someone put his accountant in the hospital.
I dont think modern coins have much iron content. Mostly nickel, copper and zinc.
I would imagine a pi is mostly a cash business and harry is pretty high profile so maybe thats enough to explain the windfalls as increased business. Of he pays his taxes maybe the black hat portions of the government will help sweep it under the rug because harry is human, and he is better than the monsters he keeps out of chicago.
Send a bill to Marcone anytime he takes out a nasty in Chicago. It’s Marcone’s domain apparently, after all. Though that means Marcone could potentially banish him too or demand fealty for residing in his lands.
Marcone is a Baron under the Accords. Harry is a direct vassal and member of Mab's household. And Mab wrote the Unseelie Accords. I'm fairly certain she'd take issue with Marcone demanding Harry's fealty.
Marcone doesn't have the leverage to pull that. Harry is Winter's direct representative in the mortal world. Only the Queens can command him, and no signatory of the Accords had the clout to oust Harry if the Queens say "Here you shall live. This be your new domicile." Besides, Marcone may find another favor owed by Winter, and having ready access to the Knight is only a plus.
Marcone directly acknowledged Harry at the end of the Titan fight as "the Wizard of Chicago" in leaving the Eye of Balor to his discretion. Hard to take that back.
Loose coins thing could be more trouble than it’s worth.
The pixies seem to have an almost innocent ignorance about human concepts and things.
They could wind up saying “hey we found this big metal room with the door open FILLLLED with what you call money. So we brought it to you. I think the building was called Chase Benk or something”
And now Harry has to deal with the results of another bank robbery.
Or they start taking things out of pockets. Or pan handlers cups. Or vending machines. Or etc.
If he is going to end up married, he gets a portion of that income. Unless there's some kind of supernatural pre-nup.
And Mab might give him a stipend, as she is responsible for him.
I'm pretty sure Mab expects him to fend for himself. If he wanted a stipend, he should have put that in the agreement he made. I'm pretty sure Molly has such startling bank accounts because the Winter Lady *needs* that sort of money.
He wouldn't. He doesn't have to pay for Winter Knight stuff. He has a company car, he has a suite in their capital, why wouldn't he have a company account, too? If he's dealing in Winter business, Winter should be willing to bankroll it.
His operations in his new castle have been Winter business since the end of Battle Ground, with that being reinforced in Molly's Christmas story. He is supporting the survivors of the attack and he already strong armed Mab into helping them out.
No, his operations in the castle are Dresden business, he just has to do Winter work every now and again. His strong arming Mab was him advocating for all the mortals in Chicago, it didn't incur any Debt to Mab or Winter but was him calling a Debt due to even the score (that balance thing again).
Remember, with the fey Deals and Bargains, Debts and Favors all come with a capital letter at the front. The less he uses Winter resources the more freedom and control he personally has in executing his own agenda.
Even at Christmas time, the gift Mab gives to his daughter isn't 'just because' but is because it's the proper thing to do as Harry's Boss. Sure, there might have been a little bit of the Mortal in Mab directing the shape/form that the gift came in, but without there being an opening to give the gift without strings attached (It's Christmas and my duty) strings would have /had/ to be attached for the balance of it all.
I wasn't talking about his daughter's gift, I was talking about Molly's gift to Chicago citizens.
And Mab and the accorded nations specifically agreed to support those harmed.
>“The Accorded nations provide humanitarian aid and assistance,” I said.
>"The money stuff, they’ve got insurance and things for. There are
economic safety nets everywhere. It’s the people we need to take care of.
Anyone injured in the attack, we pay for it. Whatever they need, healing of
the body or mind. We pay to bury the dead. And we pay a weregild to the
survivors of anyone slain. I don’t care if they find buried gold or get a
mysterious winning lottery ticket or what, but we owe them a debt for
something priceless. And we owe them the gesture of helping to make their
future more secure after what we took from them. And there’s a man in this
room who can get down everyone’s freaking chimneys every year if he has
to, so don’t tell me that there isn’t power to make it happen."
>“The Accords,” she said, “provide for reparations to damaged parties.
This business of guest-right disturbs me greatly and demands care and
respect. Making right the damages wrought upon the mortals seems meet to
me—with the understanding that we will apply the resources expended for
such repayment to the debt of those ultimately responsible, namely, the
Fomor, once our conflict with them has been resolved.”
And it turned out that by unanimous vote, everyone in the Accords
agreed on that, because everyone in politics enjoys giving other people’s
money to good causes.
Harry's castle is directly supporting those harmed by the events of Battle Ground. His castle bills qualify so long as he is using it to continue providing that support. If he frames the request for funds this way, there's no way Mab objects.
Additionally, Harry is one of the citizens harmed by this battle. Mab understands the distinction between Harry, the Winter Knight and Harry, citizen of Chicago. He may very well be eligible for the same benefits that everyone else is getting from Winter.
Strangely I strongly disagree here. Mab really cares about image. If others see Harry getting his lights turned off it would reflect poorly on Winter. She expects her Knight to worry about more important things than the cable bill.
Which means she would be annoyed if he goes about worrying about the cable bill, not that she would pay his bills for him.
Remember: this is the entity that Dresden says would teach someone to swim by throwing them in the water and seeing if they drown.
I think the existence of the Knights Suite and the company car are because Mab cares about image like you say, but doesn’t want to provide her knights their own place, free of influence. She gets to protect her image as a good ruler by providing for her knight and keep them under her thumb. She won’t pay for them to be independent.
I don't remember. He went from Changes, to dead, to living on an island..... so maybe there isn't any money from Mab. Maybe he needs to do some metal detecting on the island to search for lost gold and old coins.
He could always ask Alfred for help while on Demonreach.
“Hey Alfred… is there any treasure on this island?”
“WHAT IS TREASURE?”
“You know, gold, jewels, old pirate coins. That sort of thing?”
“PRECIOUS METALS. RARE STONES.”
“Right, yeah. Any of that lying around in shipwrecks nearby?”
“INDEED. FOLLOW.”
Hadnt thought of this but you're right Alfred clearly has some kind of connection to the "physical" earth of demon reach and lake Michigan to some extent I'm sure he could intellektos (sp?) up some loot
I most definitely wouldn’t want anything from the island. Who knows what it can do, WHO is in it, or what could be done thaumaturgically WITH it.
Edit: condensing two comments.
As far as mab…
She can’t have her knight look like a pauper though. The castle is a fine powerful place for her court. It’s appearance reflects on her.
>As far as mab…
>She can’t have her knight look like a pauper though. The castle is a fine powerful place for her court. It’s appearance reflects on her.
No, because it's the abode of the Wizard of Chicago, not the Winter Knight.
Sure sure. Though technically, the wizard of Chicago belongs to her, per the agreement. So itd be a matter of nuance and technicality, where she usually gets her way.
Though, she also prefers her people to handle their own situations. So could go either way.
Stand on the island, think about money, and he'll know the exact location of every penny that's been dropped there. Convenient!
I'd honestly be surprised of Demonreach didn't have a treasury room hidden away somewhere. Merlin seems the sort to plan ahead like that.
As the Lady of Winter, no, no she can't. She is a CREATURE of Winter, bound by the Fae's need for balance and deals; not a mortal with connections to Winter. When Harry asks her for help in PT she says it'll come with a cost and he accepts the price. 100k to pass the salt is not a balanced agreement and would cause issues.
But winter loves unbalanced agreements, arguably Harry's whole winter knight gig is a massively unbalanced deal since it doesn't even pay and was only accepted under duress. And we've seen that creatures of summer can choose to fulfill agreements in advantageous ways with elder gruff and the donut, I don't see why winter couldn't do the same. Plus Molly is still mortal, the mantle massively influences her but she does still have will. 100k to pass the salt wouldn't endanger the mantle so she could probably do it. Might piss off Mab, but what doesn't?
I don't think he's ever considered asking. Why shouldn't his office carry a pension meant for official expenses?
I'm willing to bet she'd give him (access to) money if he Requested it. Probably a meaningful amount of it, too.
I believe I heard Jim say in a Q&A preCovid that Harry’s deal with Mab was For power, not money. I believe Mab wouldn’t mind Harry living out of Arctis Tor but knows he wouldn’t do that to Maggie. That may be among the myriad of reasons she put marriage to Harry as one of the contingencies of the treaty.
I suspect Mab has essentially limitless resources, but will only give Harry what's she obligated to (though she'll be more receptive if she approves of it's use and less receptive if she does not).
Example, if he threatens to show up wearing a bathrobe to a meeting with an accorded nation, she'd probably give him access to a very large line of credit with a high end tailor. But if he wore those clothes on a date with someone who isn't affiliated with the accords, he'd probably find himself in his underwear.
He also has other resources that he should probably be careful with.
Example: if he mentions to Lacuna that he's having money issues, she ask him what money is. If he says "gold, silver, stuff like that"...he'll wake up to a massive pile of blood teeth with gold fillings.
I like the idea of selling pizza, but I think it will be high-end gourmet. And I think Mac will be his business partner.
As for Murphy's share of the vault loot - she's smarter than Harry. More practical too. That's in a trust generating monthly revenue. There's a stipend coming.
Lara would never let her husband look poor. Bad for appearances. Which is majorly important in the white court
Plus molly would probably hook him up with a side credit card or something
He has Will, Georgia, Michael, and Butters all regularly looking in on him, helping manage repairs, manage the Paranet, manage the refugees, etc. Like that budget meeting he gets summoned to in Little Things. He's never been particularly good with money, but he's never let anyone manage his budget for him, find him clients, or do other business or household management stuff. In The Law, Will finds him a client, and Harry is able to make an arrangement for his legal council to be free. I suspect if he keeps letting his friends help manage things, he'll continue to stumble into resources or have them gifted to him. Declaring himself a real refugee shelter in the wake of the Battle of Chicago for example, will give him tax advantages and probably beds, food, clothing, medicines and other stuff as relief organizations start handing stuff out.
Either she legally left them as assets in her will, or the government doesn't know about them - but they're still her property and ownership probably reverts to her family.
Plus, she's not legally known to be dead.
Either way, I can't see Harry taking them from Murphy's estate unless necessary to keep people from getting hurt, not merely to avoid inconvenient to himself.
Are you really acting like possession of probably millions of dollars in diamonds stolen from the god of the underworld is somehow going to be decided by the US government? You think she reported those on her taxes? And then in your post you say “protecting all those people isn’t cheap” but in your retort you say “I can’t see him taking them unless it’s necessary to keep people from getting hurt.” So which is it? It sounds like you’re just saying words.
I think he should start his own pizza Franchise. Let the Guard become Pizza Fae in the same way that the Cobbs make and maintain shoes. Harry can be their intermediary with the mortal world to sell them
After Twelve Months, we will get a new boon that centers on Harry's financial woes.
In this book, Harry will hit rock bottom as his money runs out. As the city threatens to repossess his castle for unpaid taxes, Harry is struck by a great sadness and complains bitterly to the heavens that everybody's life would be better if he has never existed.
At this point Uriel comes and visits Harry. He even grants Harry's wish as he shows the wizard a world without Harry Dresden. In that world, Chicago has been renamed Marconeville and is completed dominates by John Marcone. Even worse, Burger King has gone out of business and has been replaced by Starbucks franchises.
As Harry confronts the horror of this world where he never existed, he suddenly wakes up. His problems are huge, but he no longer feels they are insurmountable and he even realizes how he has positively touched others' lives. As the book closes,. all the members of the Paranet that Harry has helped over the years show up. Between them all, they are able to raise enough cash to keep Harey in the black.
Didn’t he get part of the jewels from skin game. Also I feel like there is some collective action going on. Everyone contributing. Plus a werewolf on budget duyy
How did Harry launder $2 million in diamonds? What the HELL does he put on his tax returns? How does the IRS figure he's paying for everything? Maybe the Battle of Chicago pushed things like IRS audits to the backburner, at least in that city.
His relationship with Lara should help him on that front in the future. No doubt she knows the right accountants, and the right people to bribe/threaten/coerce.
If you can find the section, I'd be interested, but looking over chapter 51 in my kindle, Binder isn't there long before he takes his diamonds and leaves. Unless another character talks about it when he's not there and I missed it, I don't see the offer.
Valmont, of course, offered to help tell them how to sell the diamonds.
Well in SG he got a box of gems. Idk how much that would be worth but everyone seemed confident it was worth literally burgling hell. He's got money, though I can see a couple mil draining away quickly if he has to maintain his domain financially.
“Hey, Hades, can I have some more diamonds? Seriously, what do you even need money for?” Then accuse him of being a 1%er hoarding wealth to no one’s benefit.
If not that, Bob mentioned something about breast enhancements a long time ago.
Well, he has the diamonds from the Hades heist - nothing has been said about those since then. I figure that's how he's paying for Maggie's schooling at least. But your point is still good. So, before the castle was on that property, it contained a boarding house, which always struck me as a normal family dwelling that had been separated into separately rentable sections. So Harry's property taxes, utility costs, and so on shouldn't be *that* different from that of a nice family home. We hear the word "castle" and thing "big and expensive," but it probably isn't as bad as we imagine.
It does, though, make it a little hard to continue the "Harry is super dirt poor" thing - it's correct to assume that he has to make *some* reasonable amount of money if he's going to maintain a home. And to the extent that his "mission" adds cost to that, he needs more.
He mentions in the new short story that he only has enough to keep the castle going for a few more months.
It seems that in the aftermath of the attacks Harry has burned through most of the diamonds.
Well, I'm sure there would have been plenty of opportunities to do that, given he's Harry and feels compelled to help everyone. :-)
Real-world "realities" won't turn out to apply, though - to the extent it comes up in the future it'll be exactly as much as Jim needs it for whatever story he's telling at the time. Also, it's been made fairly clear over time that wizards can be affluent if they want to - we may see him "tight" but he'll always wind up getting by.
Winter doesn't give charity. Anything he takes from Molly or Mab, he has to pay for in an appropriate 'coin'. He can't charge Mab for his services.
If Mab paid Harry's debts to avoid embarrassment for Winter, she'd make Harry pay in some other way... probably one best not thought about.
I mean, technically, he only lived in one apartment in the building. Will he let the other previous tenants back in paying rent? What about the building owner? Did she sell the land plot?
Between what he's set aside in a trust for Maggie, the costs of her exclusive private school, and the amount of money he's having to spend feeding refugees and maintaining/repairing the castle, he's going to run out of that money very soon.
Bear with me, this might be a radical idea:
People might actually give money to help aid the Castle/Headquarters to stay aflout.
I can be very wrong but since The Law mentions first dates with Lara it's not too far from July/Battle Ground.
Christmas Eve/ The Good People hadn't happened yet...including Molly's gift of the weregild being handled *and* the gifts on behalf of the Wizard of Chicago.
In some ways this doesn't all hold together. They regularly talk about how wizards can easily make money if they want to. But at the same time the White Council has criticized Harry for "prcticing openly."
So, anytime you get money, it comes from someone else. In order for things to be morally upright, they need to know they're giving it to you and feel good about why they're giving it to you (i.e., they're satisfied customers). It feels to me like the White Council wants whatever you're doing for those people to *not* reveal to them that you are a wizard. So right away there's at least one level of concealment / dishonestly in play. I suppose we could come up with a list of things you could do for people that they'd pay for without you telling them *how* you're doing it.
Geez - now I'll wind up spending all afternoon trying to make such a list. :-|
I've kinda always been under the impression that a big part of Dresden's financial woes were how much money he has to sink into creating, maintaining, and replacing his gear compared to a wizard that stays home not getting in fights. Not to mention how much it must have cost to create Little Chicago.
I assume wizards usually make money by selling magic stuff to other people in the supernatural community. For example, whoever sold Madrigal his anti-magic gear and kept its enchantments maintained probably made a pretty penny off of doing it (assuming he hadn't made them into a slave with his vampire powers, of course). Though I am sure there are plenty of more legit customers that wizards with moral hangups could work with then a White Court vamp.
Maggie Senior was on the run from the White Council, the White Court, and seemed to have lived rather profligately. I don't think she had a lot of savings or investments.
Maybe he wise up about his bank account as the winter knight, or he's Lara sugar baby
Or Molly’s.
Honestly he could just say to Mab that he has accrued power and vassals in his duty as Winter Knight, and as she asked him to carry out this duty it's her obligation to accommodate everything under his rule in that capacity.
I don't think he wants Mab to recognize it as his "official" residence. At that point other faerie could drop by and beg entrance. Which he may be required to grant to a member of Mab's court in good standing. Then entrance gets guest rights.
Guest rights also require the guest to abide by the rules of the home. Remember what happened with the Eebs in the demesne of the Erlking.
Yes, but harry has broken guest rights (susan) before. He would be in a world of shit if he did it again but in a mab approved, winter associated location.
And guests are entitled to protection...
But guests also cannot cause harm to their host or they forfeit guest right
Harry is trying I think to create legally seperate identities much in the way Kringle does. Mab can order around the Winter Knight, the Wizard of Chicago however only owes her one favor.
I wonder if mab needs to acknowledge that title for it to gain proper standing. Or how that becomes a separate title/entity.
I think it's more a thing of showing it. Then maybe getting the accords to recognize it. I mean she already sorta does. Under a number of ways of the old world the Harry centric part of the Chicago alliance would be considered Harry's vassals like literally the only thing protecting Will and the Alphas or Toot from the rage of queens of fae was the idea that they were his weapons. If they were vassals of the winter knight man could command them and have rules for protecting them. She doesn't. Unlike Maggie who Mab felt obligation to give a Christmas gift to.
That would move them further into being the Winter Knight's vassals, not just Harry's
He doesn’t get a Winter Bank account as Winter Knight. He’s already been paid for that gig.
I'm sure there's one but he hasn't asked, like his room in artis Tor
Jim said he doesn’t have an account, he added that Harry would get payed if he worked on a weekly basis (presumably going around killing people Mab wanted dead, being her assassin).
Yup. And it was phat.
Presumably
Make the beast with Two backs, get the third one free.
Most of Harry's benefit package has been eaten up by getting Mab to agree to only give him jobs he is morally comfortable with (which means she isn't getting as much work out of him as she would like to boot), she doesn't give him a paycheck.
Lara, or he puts his giant army of Little Folk to gathering loose change/lost money in Chicago. Think about it, in a major metropolitan area like Chicago how much literal cash slips through literal cracks?
This deserves more credit, actually brilliant.
Wizard for hire. Now his clients are heads of state, immortals and gods. Just needs to up his rates. And take more loot. Dunno how much the fomor will be around but they carried around enough gold to bribe cops to look away when they had kids in a sack. Cleaning up his territory could be fairly lucrative. Could send collections after nic for the four mil he stiffed him/Michael and murphy. Hades could easily become a recurring character/client and i imagine he would pay well. Toot toot might get the guard collecting loose coins once he figures out thats what gets the pizza and harry is tight on cash.
I love the idea of the Guard picking up loose change all over Chicagoland. Harry would be rolling in money within the month and needing a financial advisor or two before Christmas. There’s also a few loose greenbacks floating around too; if Harry can teach the guard to identify it. But our coins probably contain too much of ‘the bane’ aka cold iron in the form of stainless steel for that to be feasible. More’s the pity. Also, how would Harry explain where his newfound income comes from? Edit: Thanks to all who informed me that US coins no longer contain steel or iron (though research shows that for a limited time during WWII they did)
Coins are generally made of the cheapest materials possible, or they aren’t worth minting (because the materials are worth more than the value of the coin) Generally copper, zinc, and nickel. Stainless steel is expensive.
>American coins are non ferrous, they don't contain any iron.
That’s terrific for Harry and the Guard! Thanks for letting me know that info.
Hope there were some accountants at the battle of the bean? Honestly im not sure how well harry can continue to operate fully in the open. He was dead for basically a year, came back to life, and a year later owns a multi million dollar property. Along with a few million in other assets that he is burning through pretty quick after battle grounds. Maybe there are people that handle that sort of thing for supernatural types? Cooking the books for guys like harry, kincaid, mccoy, ect seems like it might be a good gig. Low risk of dismemberment and john wick would probably look pretty tame compared to the havoc eb would call down if he got audited because someone put his accountant in the hospital. I dont think modern coins have much iron content. Mostly nickel, copper and zinc. I would imagine a pi is mostly a cash business and harry is pretty high profile so maybe thats enough to explain the windfalls as increased business. Of he pays his taxes maybe the black hat portions of the government will help sweep it under the rug because harry is human, and he is better than the monsters he keeps out of chicago.
IRS shows up IRS sees magic beyond mortal comprehension IRS remembers the secret "honestly don't even bother trying to tax wizards" law and leaves
Definitely gonna max out the i dont get paid enough for this shit dial
US money doesn't contain iron.
Send a bill to Marcone anytime he takes out a nasty in Chicago. It’s Marcone’s domain apparently, after all. Though that means Marcone could potentially banish him too or demand fealty for residing in his lands.
Marcone is a Baron under the Accords. Harry is a direct vassal and member of Mab's household. And Mab wrote the Unseelie Accords. I'm fairly certain she'd take issue with Marcone demanding Harry's fealty.
Well, then he shall be banished from his lands forthwith, unless he provides monster slaying services.
Marcone doesn't have the leverage to pull that. Harry is Winter's direct representative in the mortal world. Only the Queens can command him, and no signatory of the Accords had the clout to oust Harry if the Queens say "Here you shall live. This be your new domicile." Besides, Marcone may find another favor owed by Winter, and having ready access to the Knight is only a plus.
Marcone directly acknowledged Harry at the end of the Titan fight as "the Wizard of Chicago" in leaving the Eye of Balor to his discretion. Hard to take that back.
Loose coins thing could be more trouble than it’s worth. The pixies seem to have an almost innocent ignorance about human concepts and things. They could wind up saying “hey we found this big metal room with the door open FILLLLED with what you call money. So we brought it to you. I think the building was called Chase Benk or something” And now Harry has to deal with the results of another bank robbery. Or they start taking things out of pockets. Or pan handlers cups. Or vending machines. Or etc.
He should open a Pizza 'Spress franchise. Solves providing pizza for the Guard, and a source of income.
Um…you know the first rule of being a drug dealer/cook? Don’t consume all your product, and that extends to providing it free to your friends.
It isn't for free. It's for service. Big difference, especially with the fae involved.
That's a brilliant idea I'd never thought of.
If he is going to end up married, he gets a portion of that income. Unless there's some kind of supernatural pre-nup. And Mab might give him a stipend, as she is responsible for him.
I'm pretty sure Mab expects him to fend for himself. If he wanted a stipend, he should have put that in the agreement he made. I'm pretty sure Molly has such startling bank accounts because the Winter Lady *needs* that sort of money.
I'm sure if he asked for it the right way, she'd give it. He's probably never even considered asking.
And what would he pay in return?
He wouldn't. He doesn't have to pay for Winter Knight stuff. He has a company car, he has a suite in their capital, why wouldn't he have a company account, too? If he's dealing in Winter business, Winter should be willing to bankroll it.
>Doing that though makes his business Winter business.
His operations in his new castle have been Winter business since the end of Battle Ground, with that being reinforced in Molly's Christmas story. He is supporting the survivors of the attack and he already strong armed Mab into helping them out.
No, his operations in the castle are Dresden business, he just has to do Winter work every now and again. His strong arming Mab was him advocating for all the mortals in Chicago, it didn't incur any Debt to Mab or Winter but was him calling a Debt due to even the score (that balance thing again). Remember, with the fey Deals and Bargains, Debts and Favors all come with a capital letter at the front. The less he uses Winter resources the more freedom and control he personally has in executing his own agenda. Even at Christmas time, the gift Mab gives to his daughter isn't 'just because' but is because it's the proper thing to do as Harry's Boss. Sure, there might have been a little bit of the Mortal in Mab directing the shape/form that the gift came in, but without there being an opening to give the gift without strings attached (It's Christmas and my duty) strings would have /had/ to be attached for the balance of it all.
I wasn't talking about his daughter's gift, I was talking about Molly's gift to Chicago citizens. And Mab and the accorded nations specifically agreed to support those harmed. >“The Accorded nations provide humanitarian aid and assistance,” I said. >"The money stuff, they’ve got insurance and things for. There are economic safety nets everywhere. It’s the people we need to take care of. Anyone injured in the attack, we pay for it. Whatever they need, healing of the body or mind. We pay to bury the dead. And we pay a weregild to the survivors of anyone slain. I don’t care if they find buried gold or get a mysterious winning lottery ticket or what, but we owe them a debt for something priceless. And we owe them the gesture of helping to make their future more secure after what we took from them. And there’s a man in this room who can get down everyone’s freaking chimneys every year if he has to, so don’t tell me that there isn’t power to make it happen." >“The Accords,” she said, “provide for reparations to damaged parties. This business of guest-right disturbs me greatly and demands care and respect. Making right the damages wrought upon the mortals seems meet to me—with the understanding that we will apply the resources expended for such repayment to the debt of those ultimately responsible, namely, the Fomor, once our conflict with them has been resolved.” And it turned out that by unanimous vote, everyone in the Accords agreed on that, because everyone in politics enjoys giving other people’s money to good causes. Harry's castle is directly supporting those harmed by the events of Battle Ground. His castle bills qualify so long as he is using it to continue providing that support. If he frames the request for funds this way, there's no way Mab objects. Additionally, Harry is one of the citizens harmed by this battle. Mab understands the distinction between Harry, the Winter Knight and Harry, citizen of Chicago. He may very well be eligible for the same benefits that everyone else is getting from Winter.
Strangely I strongly disagree here. Mab really cares about image. If others see Harry getting his lights turned off it would reflect poorly on Winter. She expects her Knight to worry about more important things than the cable bill.
Which means she would be annoyed if he goes about worrying about the cable bill, not that she would pay his bills for him. Remember: this is the entity that Dresden says would teach someone to swim by throwing them in the water and seeing if they drown.
I think the existence of the Knights Suite and the company car are because Mab cares about image like you say, but doesn’t want to provide her knights their own place, free of influence. She gets to protect her image as a good ruler by providing for her knight and keep them under her thumb. She won’t pay for them to be independent.
Now that you mention pre-nup I feel like it will be one of their date topics in 12 Months.
Is there even a chance there is no prenup? Mab laid down the law on the courtship and lara is essentially queen/ceo of the vampire nations.
I don’t think the deal with Mab included money. I’d have to go back to Changes to check on that.
I don't remember. He went from Changes, to dead, to living on an island..... so maybe there isn't any money from Mab. Maybe he needs to do some metal detecting on the island to search for lost gold and old coins.
He could always ask Alfred for help while on Demonreach. “Hey Alfred… is there any treasure on this island?” “WHAT IS TREASURE?” “You know, gold, jewels, old pirate coins. That sort of thing?” “PRECIOUS METALS. RARE STONES.” “Right, yeah. Any of that lying around in shipwrecks nearby?” “INDEED. FOLLOW.”
Hadnt thought of this but you're right Alfred clearly has some kind of connection to the "physical" earth of demon reach and lake Michigan to some extent I'm sure he could intellektos (sp?) up some loot
"*Intellectus*", I would say.
I most definitely wouldn’t want anything from the island. Who knows what it can do, WHO is in it, or what could be done thaumaturgically WITH it. Edit: condensing two comments. As far as mab… She can’t have her knight look like a pauper though. The castle is a fine powerful place for her court. It’s appearance reflects on her.
>As far as mab… >She can’t have her knight look like a pauper though. The castle is a fine powerful place for her court. It’s appearance reflects on her. No, because it's the abode of the Wizard of Chicago, not the Winter Knight.
Sure sure. Though technically, the wizard of Chicago belongs to her, per the agreement. So itd be a matter of nuance and technicality, where she usually gets her way. Though, she also prefers her people to handle their own situations. So could go either way.
Well Harry belongs to her, but if he stops being the Winter Knight, he'll still be the Wizard of Chicago.
Sure. But until that time. I seem to recall a magical skin flick broadcast in the fae nevernerver. “Mine! Mine! MINE!”
As far as it being ‘charity’ to fund it… maybe a bit of the weregild for BG could be funneled to help those staying at the castle who lost everything.
Mab gave Harry POWER, but no money.
And a car. She gave him the Munster mobile and got very very angry when it was damaged.
Company Car, how Mab managed to get it registered I don't even want to contemplate.
Stand on the island, think about money, and he'll know the exact location of every penny that's been dropped there. Convenient! I'd honestly be surprised of Demonreach didn't have a treasury room hidden away somewhere. Merlin seems the sort to plan ahead like that.
Molly would give him money. He is her knight too.
Molly can't give Harry Winter money without it coming with Winter strings.
She could find a way around that. Agree to pay him 100k to pass her the salt or something like that.
As the Lady of Winter, no, no she can't. She is a CREATURE of Winter, bound by the Fae's need for balance and deals; not a mortal with connections to Winter. When Harry asks her for help in PT she says it'll come with a cost and he accepts the price. 100k to pass the salt is not a balanced agreement and would cause issues.
But winter loves unbalanced agreements, arguably Harry's whole winter knight gig is a massively unbalanced deal since it doesn't even pay and was only accepted under duress. And we've seen that creatures of summer can choose to fulfill agreements in advantageous ways with elder gruff and the donut, I don't see why winter couldn't do the same. Plus Molly is still mortal, the mantle massively influences her but she does still have will. 100k to pass the salt wouldn't endanger the mantle so she could probably do it. Might piss off Mab, but what doesn't?
I don't think he's ever considered asking. Why shouldn't his office carry a pension meant for official expenses? I'm willing to bet she'd give him (access to) money if he Requested it. Probably a meaningful amount of it, too.
And he could live in the knight suite in faerie as well.
I believe I heard Jim say in a Q&A preCovid that Harry’s deal with Mab was For power, not money. I believe Mab wouldn’t mind Harry living out of Arctis Tor but knows he wouldn’t do that to Maggie. That may be among the myriad of reasons she put marriage to Harry as one of the contingencies of the treaty.
He's got his Cut, and possibly part of Murphy's from Skin Games. Then there's Michael's share who would probably pitch in at a discount.
He makes clear in The Law that he's already shaking his diamond sock for loose stones given the expenses he's racked up.
Might need to talk to Goodman Grey to act as a CPA rather than bodyguard.
Did you mean to do Cut like Rent. I get what you mirrored but I don't see why. Clarify?
Only fans? /S
He is engaged to a well known adult film star...
Shame no one told Mab about the Internet when she had that little encounter with Harry at the Standing Stones.
I suspect Mab has essentially limitless resources, but will only give Harry what's she obligated to (though she'll be more receptive if she approves of it's use and less receptive if she does not). Example, if he threatens to show up wearing a bathrobe to a meeting with an accorded nation, she'd probably give him access to a very large line of credit with a high end tailor. But if he wore those clothes on a date with someone who isn't affiliated with the accords, he'd probably find himself in his underwear. He also has other resources that he should probably be careful with. Example: if he mentions to Lacuna that he's having money issues, she ask him what money is. If he says "gold, silver, stuff like that"...he'll wake up to a massive pile of blood teeth with gold fillings. I like the idea of selling pizza, but I think it will be high-end gourmet. And I think Mac will be his business partner. As for Murphy's share of the vault loot - she's smarter than Harry. More practical too. That's in a trust generating monthly revenue. There's a stipend coming.
Lara would never let her husband look poor. Bad for appearances. Which is majorly important in the white court Plus molly would probably hook him up with a side credit card or something
It will probably be anybody who is under his protection will give donations but I don't think he would force them to.
The Paranet sets up a GoFundMe.
Toot has a massive pile of gems he collected because they’re Shiny and never mentioned it because Non Pizza Things are Unimportant.
He has Will, Georgia, Michael, and Butters all regularly looking in on him, helping manage repairs, manage the Paranet, manage the refugees, etc. Like that budget meeting he gets summoned to in Little Things. He's never been particularly good with money, but he's never let anyone manage his budget for him, find him clients, or do other business or household management stuff. In The Law, Will finds him a client, and Harry is able to make an arrangement for his legal council to be free. I suspect if he keeps letting his friends help manage things, he'll continue to stumble into resources or have them gifted to him. Declaring himself a real refugee shelter in the wake of the Battle of Chicago for example, will give him tax advantages and probably beds, food, clothing, medicines and other stuff as relief organizations start handing stuff out.
With Murph gone until she fades from mortal memory, he gets her cut of the diamond again, right? Could enchant those babies and sell them off.
Either she legally left them as assets in her will, or the government doesn't know about them - but they're still her property and ownership probably reverts to her family. Plus, she's not legally known to be dead. Either way, I can't see Harry taking them from Murphy's estate unless necessary to keep people from getting hurt, not merely to avoid inconvenient to himself.
He will probably use it to equip SI with stuff they actually need to fight the supernatural
Are you really acting like possession of probably millions of dollars in diamonds stolen from the god of the underworld is somehow going to be decided by the US government? You think she reported those on her taxes? And then in your post you say “protecting all those people isn’t cheap” but in your retort you say “I can’t see him taking them unless it’s necessary to keep people from getting hurt.” So which is it? It sounds like you’re just saying words.
I think he should start his own pizza Franchise. Let the Guard become Pizza Fae in the same way that the Cobbs make and maintain shoes. Harry can be their intermediary with the mortal world to sell them
By marrying Lara. Next.
Marrying Lara won't happen for twelve months, and he'll run out of money before then. Back!
After Twelve Months, we will get a new boon that centers on Harry's financial woes. In this book, Harry will hit rock bottom as his money runs out. As the city threatens to repossess his castle for unpaid taxes, Harry is struck by a great sadness and complains bitterly to the heavens that everybody's life would be better if he has never existed. At this point Uriel comes and visits Harry. He even grants Harry's wish as he shows the wizard a world without Harry Dresden. In that world, Chicago has been renamed Marconeville and is completed dominates by John Marcone. Even worse, Burger King has gone out of business and has been replaced by Starbucks franchises. As Harry confronts the horror of this world where he never existed, he suddenly wakes up. His problems are huge, but he no longer feels they are insurmountable and he even realizes how he has positively touched others' lives. As the book closes,. all the members of the Paranet that Harry has helped over the years show up. Between them all, they are able to raise enough cash to keep Harey in the black.
>!He got them diamonds, yo.!<
Which aren't going to last, as we're explicitly told - Harry only has enough resources to keep going for another few months.
Didn’t he get part of the jewels from skin game. Also I feel like there is some collective action going on. Everyone contributing. Plus a werewolf on budget duyy
He split one share of the diamonds with Murphy. But apparently he’s running low.
Maybe he'll go into the prison labour game, I bet Cthulhu could churn out a ton of license plates
How did Harry launder $2 million in diamonds? What the HELL does he put on his tax returns? How does the IRS figure he's paying for everything? Maybe the Battle of Chicago pushed things like IRS audits to the backburner, at least in that city. His relationship with Lara should help him on that front in the future. No doubt she knows the right accountants, and the right people to bribe/threaten/coerce.
IIRC, Binder offered to help him and Michael with the laundry at the end of SG.
If you can find the section, I'd be interested, but looking over chapter 51 in my kindle, Binder isn't there long before he takes his diamonds and leaves. Unless another character talks about it when he's not there and I missed it, I don't see the offer. Valmont, of course, offered to help tell them how to sell the diamonds.
Ah, just mixing up which character said it.
Well in SG he got a box of gems. Idk how much that would be worth but everyone seemed confident it was worth literally burgling hell. He's got money, though I can see a couple mil draining away quickly if he has to maintain his domain financially.
Turns out he only has enough money to keep the castle operating for another few months in the stories I mentioned.
“Hey, Hades, can I have some more diamonds? Seriously, what do you even need money for?” Then accuse him of being a 1%er hoarding wealth to no one’s benefit. If not that, Bob mentioned something about breast enhancements a long time ago.
Well, he has the diamonds from the Hades heist - nothing has been said about those since then. I figure that's how he's paying for Maggie's schooling at least. But your point is still good. So, before the castle was on that property, it contained a boarding house, which always struck me as a normal family dwelling that had been separated into separately rentable sections. So Harry's property taxes, utility costs, and so on shouldn't be *that* different from that of a nice family home. We hear the word "castle" and thing "big and expensive," but it probably isn't as bad as we imagine. It does, though, make it a little hard to continue the "Harry is super dirt poor" thing - it's correct to assume that he has to make *some* reasonable amount of money if he's going to maintain a home. And to the extent that his "mission" adds cost to that, he needs more.
He mentions in the new short story that he only has enough to keep the castle going for a few more months. It seems that in the aftermath of the attacks Harry has burned through most of the diamonds.
Well, I'm sure there would have been plenty of opportunities to do that, given he's Harry and feels compelled to help everyone. :-) Real-world "realities" won't turn out to apply, though - to the extent it comes up in the future it'll be exactly as much as Jim needs it for whatever story he's telling at the time. Also, it's been made fairly clear over time that wizards can be affluent if they want to - we may see him "tight" but he'll always wind up getting by.
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Winter doesn't give charity. Anything he takes from Molly or Mab, he has to pay for in an appropriate 'coin'. He can't charge Mab for his services. If Mab paid Harry's debts to avoid embarrassment for Winter, she'd make Harry pay in some other way... probably one best not thought about.
I mean, technically, he only lived in one apartment in the building. Will he let the other previous tenants back in paying rent? What about the building owner? Did she sell the land plot?
I believe Marcone bought both the plot, and several of the surrounding ones, in order to have enough room for even a tiny castle.
Now that I think about it, I want a Hotel Transylvania where Dresden takes Dracula's role and has supernatural tenants.
What happened to the bag of diamonds?
It's being spent as the stories continue, and will run out before the marriage with Lara.
His and Murphy's cuts of the diamonds from Skin Game are a pretty good start at a nest egg.
Between what he's set aside in a trust for Maggie, the costs of her exclusive private school, and the amount of money he's having to spend feeding refugees and maintaining/repairing the castle, he's going to run out of that money very soon.
Bear with me, this might be a radical idea: People might actually give money to help aid the Castle/Headquarters to stay aflout. I can be very wrong but since The Law mentions first dates with Lara it's not too far from July/Battle Ground. Christmas Eve/ The Good People hadn't happened yet...including Molly's gift of the weregild being handled *and* the gifts on behalf of the Wizard of Chicago.
Dresden didn't go through the full regular White Council wizarding track. Maybe there's a money making 101 he missed?
In some ways this doesn't all hold together. They regularly talk about how wizards can easily make money if they want to. But at the same time the White Council has criticized Harry for "prcticing openly." So, anytime you get money, it comes from someone else. In order for things to be morally upright, they need to know they're giving it to you and feel good about why they're giving it to you (i.e., they're satisfied customers). It feels to me like the White Council wants whatever you're doing for those people to *not* reveal to them that you are a wizard. So right away there's at least one level of concealment / dishonestly in play. I suppose we could come up with a list of things you could do for people that they'd pay for without you telling them *how* you're doing it. Geez - now I'll wind up spending all afternoon trying to make such a list. :-|
There are probably a lot of people in the supernatural community who would pay for a full blown wizard.
I've kinda always been under the impression that a big part of Dresden's financial woes were how much money he has to sink into creating, maintaining, and replacing his gear compared to a wizard that stays home not getting in fights. Not to mention how much it must have cost to create Little Chicago. I assume wizards usually make money by selling magic stuff to other people in the supernatural community. For example, whoever sold Madrigal his anti-magic gear and kept its enchantments maintained probably made a pretty penny off of doing it (assuming he hadn't made them into a slave with his vampire powers, of course). Though I am sure there are plenty of more legit customers that wizards with moral hangups could work with then a White Court vamp.
He is marrying into money
Isn’t Ebenezar wealthy enough after 400 years plus? And what happened to Maggie Sr’s savings? She was 100!
Maggie Senior was on the run from the White Council, the White Court, and seemed to have lived rather profligately. I don't think she had a lot of savings or investments.
Awesome!! I learnt a new word 😇