Storm Front

“They had used magic to wreak harm on another, violating the First Law. The White Council was going to go into a collective apoplexy. This hadn’t been the act of a malign spirit or a malicious entity, or the attack of one of the many creatures of the Nevernever, like vampires or trolls. This had been the premeditated, deliberate act of a sorcerer, a wizard, a human being able to tap into the fundamental energies of creation and life itself.

It was worse than murder.”

At several points, Harry explains various aspects of how magic works, and this expository passage introduces the concept of “the Nevernever,” a liminal space consisting of magic and spirit that exists alongside the normal world yet is separate from it. He also explains that because magic is based on the powers of life and creation, the act of killing by magic is particularly depraved. This explanation helps establish Harry’s sense of outrage over the double murder, and his words introduce the governing body of the White Council, which plays a fundamental role throughout the novel and the entire series.

“She didn’t know about my past, or the White Council, or the Doom of Damocles hanging over my head. Most days, I could pretend I didn’t know about it, either.

All the Council needed now was an excuse, just an excuse, to find me guilty of violating one of the Seven Laws of Magic, and the Doom would drop. If I started putting together a recipe for a murder spell, and they found out about it, that might be all the excuse they needed.”

In this passage, Harry elaborates on the harsh, uncompromising outlook of the White Council as they seek to uphold the Laws of Magic by which all human wizards are governed and judged. Additionally, his mention of the Doom of Damocles provides vague hints about his dark past, adding depth and complexity to his character and backstory.

“Those who deal in magic learn to see the world in a slightly different light than everyone else. You gain a perspective you had never considered before, a way of thinking that would just never have occurred to you without exposure to the things a wizard sees and hears.

When you look into someone’s eyes, you see them in that other light. And, for just a second, they see you in the same way. Marcone and I looked at one another.”

The soul gaze is a crucial aspect of a wizard’s skill and provides a brief glimpse into each person’s soul; in this scene, Harry gains the dubious advantage of seeing into the feelings and motivations that guide Chicago’s most notorious crime boss. The soul gaze appears often in Storm Front and throughout the series, and after this brief yet telling glimpse into Marcone’s essence, Harry often refers to the gangster as being “tiger-souled,” a term that emphasizes Marcone’s pragmatic, ruthless, and essentially predatory nature. Additionally, Harry sees the soul gaze as a personal risk, as he deeply fears what others might see in him. This moment therefore reveals an undercurrent of shame and guilt that Harry tries to keep hidden.

“The brown husk of a dead, dried scorpion, glistening with some sort of preservative glaze, clicked down onto my desk. A supple, braided leather cord led off from a ring set through the base of its tail, so that if it was worn, it would hang head down, tail up and curled over the dried body to point at the ground.”

When Monica hires Harry to find her missing husband, Victor, she gives him the scorpion talisman to aid his search. Harry reflects on the dark implications of the scorpion, which represents malevolent intent in the magical world. This observation foreshadows the significance and danger that this scorpion will represent later in the novel when it comes to life, grows, and attacks Murphy.

“I picked up a prethumbed newspaper nearby and scanned the headlines. ‘Hey, look at this. Another ThreeEye rampage. Jesus, this stuff is worse than crack.’ The article detailed the virtual demolition of a neighborhood grocery store by a pair of ThreeEye junkies who were convinced that the place was destined to explode and wanted to beat destiny to the punch.”

Harry mentions the new drug ThreeEye to Mac while he eats dinner at the pub. This seemingly unimportant detail proves to be crucial foreshadowing for future events, as ThreeEye becomes a vital clue to the mystery. This early sign of disturbance and unrest also hints at the broader turf war over drug distribution that exists in Chicago, which explains both Victor’s plans and Marcone’s involvement in the murders.

“There are two parts of magic you have to understand to catch a faery. One of them is the concept of true names. Everything in the whole world has its own name. Names are unique sounds and cadences of words that are attached to one specific individual—sort of like a kind of theme music. […] If you know something’s name, you can create a magical link to it.”

In this quote, Harry explains the mechanics of true names and magic circles as he prepares to summon Toot-toot the faery. This explanation provides important world-building details that make the magic system more concrete, and the information also proves relevant to the novel’s climax when Harry uses the demon’s true name to wrest control away from Victor.

“Morgan was my Warden, assigned to me by the White Council to make sure I didn’t bend or break any of the Laws of Magic. He hung about and spied on me, mostly, and usually came sniffing around after I’d cast a spell of some kind. I would be damned if I was going to let the White Council’s guard dog see any fear out of me. Besides, he would take it as a sign of guilt, in the true spirit of paranoid fanatics everywhere.”

Morgan’s appearance allows Butcher to expound upon the functions and rules of the White Council. Harry’s contemptuous tone when he describes Morgan also hints at the long history of animosity between the two, and the hints of Harry’s dark past raise the question of whether he will always adhere to his own moral code or whether he will be tempted to engage in dark magic again.

“The energy from magic comes from a lot of places. It can come from a special place (usually some spectacular nature site, like Mount St. Helens, or Old Faithful), from a focus of some kind (like Stonehenge is, on a large scale), or from inside of people. The best magic comes from the inside. Sometimes it’s just pure mental effort, raw willpower. Sometimes it’s emotions and feelings. All of them are viable tinder to be used for the proverbial fire.”

Once again, by concretely explaining the mechanics of the in-world magic system, Harry’s expository passages lend more complexity and realism to Butcher’s world building. This information also becomes relevant later in the novel when Harry realizes that Victor is using both the power of strong emotions and the natural energy of storms to perform murder spells that would otherwise be impossible for a magic user of his relatively low caliber.

“Vampires are like demons, like wolves, like sharks. You don’t let them think that you are potential food and get their respect at the same time. The vampire’s true appearance was grotesque—but it wasn’t as bad as some of the things I had seen in my day. Some demons were a lot worse, and some of the Elder Things could rip your mind apart just by letting you look at them.”

Harry’s encounter with the vampiric Bianca, the owner of The Velvet Room and Jennifer’s employer, proves to be something of a waste, as Bianca’s connection to the case is a red herring. However, this encounter reveals the dark underbelly of the magical world and gives Harry a new appreciation for the power of vampires and the tenuous peace that the White Council has built with them. Thus, Bianca represents the balance between good and evil.

“I looked away, quickly, before I had to see any more of it. I got the feeling that I didn’t want to see Linda Randall’s soul. 

‘Because it’s what I do, Mr. Dresden. For some people it’s drugs. Booze. For me, orgasms. Sex. Passion. Just another addict. City’s full of them.’ She glanced aside. ‘Next best thing to love. And it keeps me in work.’”

Harry experiences a soul gaze with Linda, who unsettles him with her bleak and cynical outlook and her veneer of wanton sexuality. Though he is momentarily distracted by her seduction routine, Harry views Linda as another “damsel in distress” and immediately resolves to protect her.

“There was a lot of potential in storms, that a sorcerer could tap into if he was desperate or stupid enough. A lot of energy to be used, up there, where the forces of ancient nature brawled and tumbled.”

For the first time, the significance of the novel’s title becomes apparent as Harry considers the storms blowing through Chicago. With sudden insight, he realizes that a magic practitioner could use the storms to power the murder spells. As the novel’s conflict accelerates, these storms come to symbolize Victor’s addiction to power and Harry’s looming death.

“Then I turned, took a step toward the oncoming demon. I couldn’t leave Susan to that thing. Not even if it meant dying. I’d never be able to live with myself afterward.”

In moments of fear, when Harry must choose between running or dying, he turns to his personal sense of integrity and responsibility rather than relying on an externally imposed system of morality. This focus on his own morals allows him to face dangers with bravery, as when he fights the toad demon to save Susan in this scene.

“Murphy’s jaw tensed, little motions at the corners of her face. Then she said, ‘Greg and Helen Beckitt. Three years ago, their daughter, Amanda, was killed in a crossfire. Johnny Marcone’s thugs were shooting it out with some of the Jamaican gang that was trying to muscle in on the territory back then. One of them shot the little girl. She lived for three weeks in intensive care and died when they took her off life support.’”

The background about Linda’s employers, the Beckitts, proves to be a vital clue to the entire case, though neither Murphy nor Harry understands this just yet. The death of the Beckitts’ daughter explains how they might be involved with Marcone, but it is not until Harry learns that Monica’s missing husband is related to the murders that he fully realizes the couple’s significance.

“I understood the pressure she was under, her frustration, her anger, and her determination to stop the killing from happening again. If I was some kind of hero from a romance novel, I’d have said something brief and eloquent and heartrending. But I’m just me, so I said, ‘I do understand, Karrin.’

[…]

And I walked away from Murphy, who I couldn’t talk to, and from Linda, who I couldn’t protect, my head aching, weary to my bones, and feeling like a total piece of shit.”

In this scene, Harry turns his gritty, cynical outlook on himself, blaming his perceived shortcomings for all the misfortunes happening around him. The moment also emphasizes that Murphy, like Morgan, views right and wrong in absolutes and does not believe that there is ever a good reason for Harry to withhold information about a case. Harry, on the other hand, views himself as a protector first and foremost, and because Murphy knows very little about the supernatural world, Harry believes that he must keep her safely away from magic— even at the cost of her trust and friendship.

“I stood there for a moment, stunned. Grand entrance or not, this wasn’t what I had wanted to happen. I didn’t want to kill anyone. Hell, I didn’t want anyone to die, not me and not them. I felt sick. It had been a sort of game, a macho contest of showmanship I had been determined to win. All of a sudden, it wasn’t a game anymore, and I just wanted to walk away from it alive.”

Harry is forced to reconsider his own use of magical power and displays of dominance after his “grand entrance” leads to a man’s death (219). That the man had just attacked him and intended to help Victor murder him does not matter. He still feels responsible for the man’s death. This moment increases the tension as well, as Harry fully realizes that his own life may be at stake.

“I was at the end of my strength, my resources. I hadn’t thought of anything, hadn’t come up with any brilliant ideas. The killer was going to get a spell together to kill me the next time he had a storm to draw on, and from the way the air felt that could be anytime. If he didn’t kill me, Morgan would certainly have the White Council set to execute me at dawn on Monday.”

In this moment, Harry faces a “dark night of the soul” in the aftermath of his confrontation with Marcone. He knows that the murderer will soon kill him, and he feels that he is out of options. Noir fiction often contains moments of complete demoralization for the hero; however, such scenes are usually followed by a lucky break that compels the protagonist to leap back into action.

“Donny Wise shook his head, his eyes drawn past me to the bed again. ‘Linda. Some other people. No one I knew. They were having some kind of party. All candles and stuff. It was storming like hell, a lot of thunder and lightning, so I couldn’t really hear them. I worried for a while about someone looking up and seeing me in the lightning, but I guess they were too busy.’”

At Harry’s lowest point, when he succumbs to despair and resignation, a new clue drops into his lap. Donny Wise is the photographer that was spotted outside the lake house; he was hired by Linda to take illicit photos of her employers. This piece of information concretely connects Linda’s and the other murders to the seemingly unrelated case of Victor Sells and spurs Harry back into motion.

“‘He started making more of the drug. But he could never make enough. It drove him berserk, furious. And then he started to realize that when he was angry, he could do more. He’d look for excuses to be angry. He’d drive himself into rages. But it still wasn’t enough.’ She swallowed. ‘That’s when…when.’

[…]

‘That’s when he realized that he could touch other people’s emotions, too,’ I said. ‘Use them to help power his magic.’”

Monica’s story about her husband finally puts all the pieces of the case into focus so that Harry now understands what Victor is doing and why. Additionally, the foreshadowing in Harry’s previous explanation about using emotion to fuel magic now comes to fruition and explains the significance of Victor’s sex parties at the lake house.

“That was when the scorpion exploded toward me from the shadows beneath my desk, a harsh burst of dry, scuttling motion. It wasn’t a bug I could squash with my fingers, anymore. It was the size of a large terrier, all brown and glinting, and it was almost too fast to see coming.”

The scorpion that Monica gave Harry at the beginning of the novel now reappears to attack Murphy, bringing that piece of foreshadowing to a close. This moment is important to the plot because it increases the tension as Harry runs out of time to act, and the strenuous battle also ensures that he is at his lowest point, physically and magically, when he finally confronts Victor.

“Here was power, power I had thrust aside once before, in the past. I had thrown away the only family I had ever known to turn away power exactly like this. This was the sort of strength that could reach out and change the world to my will, bend it and shape it to my desiring, could cut through all the petty trivialities of law and civilization and impose order where there was none, guarantee my security, my position, my future.”

Harry senses the dark power that hangs over the house and feels tempted by it and called to it. As he considers all the things he could do with such power, his temptation highlights The Addictive Nature of Power, which impacts Harry just as powerfully as it impacts Victor. However, Harry possesses the integrity to resist this temptation.

“I took deep breaths, struggling to see clear of the anger, the hate, the deep lust that burned within me for vengeance and retribution. That wasn’t what magic was for. That wasn’t what magic did. Magic came from life itself, from the interaction of nature and the elements, from the energy of all living beings, and especially of people. A man’s magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man’s character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power.”

As in Chapter 2, Harry reflects on the nature of magic, which he believes to be inherently tied to life and balance. This thought proves to have a grounding effect on him and allows him to shake free of the siren song of black magic. As he confronts the idea that Victor has used the power of life itself to bring about death, he finds the inner will to resist this path himself. For Harry, his use of magic is at the core of his identity, and he refuses to change who he is by succumbing to the use of destructive and corruptive forms of power.

“‘The Fourth Law of Magic forbids the binding of any being against its will,’ I grated out. Pain was tight around my throat, making me fight to speak the words. ‘So I stepped in and cut your control over it. And didn’t establish any of my own.’

Victor’s eyes widened, ‘You mean…’

‘It’s free,’ I confirmed. I glanced at the demon. ‘Looks hungry.’

‘What do we do,’ Victor said. His voice was shaking, and he started shaking me, too. ‘What do we do?’

‘We die,’ I said. ‘Hell, I was going to do that anyway. But at least this way, I take you out with me.’”

The previous explanation of true names proves vital to the novel’s climactic moments as Harry uses the demon’s true name to take control of the monster away from Victor. This development—and Victor’s subsequent insecurity—reveals the antagonist’s lack of training and magical knowledge. Additionally, this moment highlights Harry’s integrity and his willingness to die in order to stop Victor and protect others from harm.

“His hard expression never changed, but he said, ‘You weren’t guilty. You’re a part of the White Council.’ His mouth twisted as though the words were fresh lemons. ‘Technically. I had an obligation to preserve your life. It was my duty.’”

Even when his own personal feelings are involved, Morgan proves to be consistent in his beliefs, holding himself to the same rigid standards that he applies to others. No matter how much he dislikes Harry, Morgan’s moral code will not allow him to let Harry die or take the blame when Morgan knows that Harry is not guilty. In keeping with Harry’s sarcastic personality, he uses the moment to tease and mock Morgan.