History Literature / PeaceTalks

* ShesAllGrownUp: Harry is not comfortable noting that Ivy is now old enough for prom. He also acknowledges that Hope Carpenter is old enough for Michael to officially be worried about her dating life, and realises it won’t be long before he’s in a similar position with Maggie.

** While the vote hasn't happened yet, there is a very strong chance that Harry could suffer this from the White Council and be stripped of his title of Wizard because of his various actions in the past books, including a fear of his dual loyalty to the Council and Mab as her Winter Knight.

** While never evil, Ebenezar has always been far more down the {{Antihero}} scale than Harry. He does not understand why Harry would defend Thomas even if it means turning against Ebenezar, [[spoiler: and it results in Ebenezar killing Harry's doppelgänger]].

** When Harry arrives at the svartalf embassy after the attempted assassination, he realizes he is being covertly interrogated by Etri's sister as she takes him to retrieve Maggie. They will keep track of everything he says and will not like any discrepancies with his first story, so he ends up giving them a bare bones statement omitting things like his encounter with Mab.

* DirtyCoward: Marcone asks Carter [=LaChaise=] if he’s one and states if he and his kin [[spoiler:run, hide, and refuse to honor the Accords' mutual defense pact]] then he will be seen as one to the entire supernatural community.

* DirtyCoward: Marcone asks Carter [=LaChaise=] if he is one and states if he and his kin [[spoiler:run, hide, and refuse to honor the Accords' mutual defense pact]] then he will be seen as one to the entire supernatural community.

* KansasCityShuffle: Harry's father used this, as part of being an illusionist - the audience ''expects'' misdirection, so you have to be good at having them look one way while you do something in another direction. Harry uses this when he has to [[spoiler:retrieve Thomas from the basement of the BFS castle, and uses a combination of a veiling potion and a distraction]].
* LetsYouAndHimFight: This is part of [[spoiler:Corb and Ethniu]]'s plot. If the villains succeed in [[spoiler:razing all of Chicago to the ground, then it will draw the outrage and notice of the entire mortal world, which they will make war on all the Supernatural forces. And while they fight, the Fomor and Ethniu will watch safely from under the seas]].

* NeverTrustATrailer: ''Peace Talks'' was billed as the bloodiest entry in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' to date. [[spoiler: Numerous of Marcone's staff are slaughtered, but the only named characters who die were either introduced in this book and had only a single, relatively unimportant scene, or were from a short story rather than the novels themselves.]] This is probably because the book grew too long and was split into two, with the latter half being the one the trailer refers to. [[spoiler: And the ''implied'' bodycount of unnamed, offscreen civilians is immense.]]

** Exactly what did Lara do for Mab that led to the Queen of Air and Darkness owing the Queen of the White Court ''three'' favors?

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: The ending of the book [[spoiler:results in the Unseelie Accord Nations all forced to engage in open warfare against the Fomori, meaning TheMasquerade almost certainly will be irretrievably shot]].

* ParkingGarage: Harry and Ebenezar fight a pack of [[EldritchAbomination cornerhounds]] in one, mainly to keep the potential collateral damage down.
* PeaceConference: The titular peace talks are a gathering of the Unseelie Accords signatories to finally hash out an arrangement with the Fomor. [[spoiler: Except the Fomor and Ethniu are really just gathering everyone to announce their intents to wage war on humanity, and to tell the signatories to JoinOrDie.]]

** Assuming he survives, [[spoiler:the sidhe noble who places a mental whammy on Warden Yoshimo will suffer this assuming he lives from his injuries and being made into an ice sculpture by decree of Winter Lady Molly]].

** All the guests and attendants to the Peace Conference are expected to abide by these rules. Those who don't will suffer Mab's displeasure. Harry realizes that as Mab's Knight, he will be her man in doling out that displeasure unless the person is out of his league. So, when [[spoiler:a sidhe noble uses a charm whammy on Warden Yoshimo with his fiddling as another tries to claim no actual harm had been done, Harry kicks the charmer into a stone wall, breaking many bones, and then flash freezes him. If he survives being an ice sculpture that night, Lady Molly will have his title stripped and he will be banished from Winter's domain for his actions]].

* SensoryOverload: When up against enemies that have an echolocation similar to bats, Harry briefly stuns them with a spell he'd been saving to prank Butters: the sound of a ''Tyrannosaurus Rex'' roaring the tune of "Happy Birthday" at 160 decibels.

* StealthPun: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Well, if the pin is one of the nails from the Crucifixion and incorporated into a holy sword, the answer is now canonically one.

* SurprisePregnancy: White Court Vampires aren't totally infertile, but they have a hard enough time conceiving that nobody was really expecting Justine to get pregnant[[note]]And considering that screwing both each other and humans almost ''constantly'' is their hat, it speaks to how often they have to have sex in order to conceive at all[[/note]]. Thomas also says they were using protection just in case, so it's even more unlikely to have happened.

--> '''Ebenezar''': Boy, tell me you ain't dumb enough to try this.\\
'''Harry''': Oh... (plants staff on ground, glowing spell-work appears) I'm more than dumb enough.

* TwoPartEpisode: With ''Literature/BattleGround2020''. Apparently, one of the reasons ''Peace Talks'' took so long to be released was that the initial draft turned into a Creator/DavidEddings level {{Doorstopper}}. The publisher gently suggested to Butcher that perhaps it would be better served as a two-part story. Butcher split up the character developments, came up with a second Action Plot and re-wrote both parts into the final ''Peace Talks'' and ''Literature/BattleGround2020''.
** SpoilerTitle: The title of the follow-on book, announced so quickly after this one came out, makes the outcome of the titular peace talks rather obvious.

* WebcomicTime: Due to the six years between the release of ''Literature/SkinGame'' and ''Peace Talks''. The previous books occurred more or less in real time, released yearly with in-universe intervals lasting between six months to roughly a year. In the book trailer, Harry and Murphy are shown sitting cosily on the couch together, with Karrin's left knee still in a cast from her injuries in ''Literature/SkinGame''. Harry says that he's been a full-time dad to Maggie for "over a month." This together implies that it's been at most several months since ''Literature/SkinGame.''
* WeNeedADistraction: Harry recalls that Malcolm once told him the key to a good illusion is the magician needs to make a great distraction. This will draw the attention of all the people and away from the sleight-of-hand Malcolm does. When Harry [[spoiler:is preparing to sneak Lara, an unconscious Thomas, and Freydis out through the party while using the obscurity potion, he tosses a second potion onto Rameriez's cloak. This creates a gale-force wind and throws him about. It draws everyone's attention save Ferrovax and Vadderung, but before the former can reveal the trick Vadderung draws his attention with an unspoken message, "Reveal them and I will fight you." This allows the group to bypass the pair]].
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: Thomas is arrested for trying to kill Etri, and in the process of trying to save him Harry potentially gets himself kicked out of the White Council, gets into a fight with Ebenezar that not only ruins their relationship but results in Ebenezar finding out Thomas is Harry's brother, and in the end Harry has to seal Thomas in Demonreach to save his life. Meanwhile, Ethniu the Last Titan is revealed to be TheManBehindTheMan to the Fomor, and after smacking down Mab and blacking out Chicago as a show of force, announces her intention to raze Chicago in the opening move of a war against all of mankind.]]

** Harry fires back at Ebenezar, criticising his own parenting skills and pointing out that his approach of keeping Margaret Dresden isolated didn't work (and implying that it contributed to her death), and his leaving Harry to the foster system (which Harry is clearly bitter as hell about) didn't work out either. Plus, Susan already tried hiding Maggie, and [[{{Literature/Changes}} that didn't turn out so well.]]

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Harry experiences this twofold. After the svartalf embassy burns [[spoiler:and Thomas is responsible,]] he knows he'll have to move out of there. Then he has to enter Marcone's castle built on the remains of his old boarding house and experiences pangs of homesickness, cursing Marcone for taking his home away (while still acknowledging the Red Court were the ones who actually destroyed it).

-->'''Queen Mab:''' I expect her to show respect for my Court and my resources. I expect her to ask nothing of you that she would be unwilling to ask from me. Within those constraints -- yes... [If she asks you to steal something, then] I expect you to acquire it...[If she wants you to burn down a building, then] I expect a mountain of fine ash... [If she wants you to kill someone, then] I expect their corpse to be properly disposed of."

** Ebenezar promotes this trope in regards to parenting, and given what happened in this book and previous books, he's got a point; Harry, however, is right that Maggie being with a foster family didn't save her from the vampires, just as foster care didn't save Harry from Justin trying to turn him into a magical enforcer and Ebenezer staying away from Harry's mother didn't save her from the White King.

** Ebenezar can't comprehend that a vampire of any Court can be anything other than a scheming monster. He'll kill one at the slightest excuse, [[spoiler: even his own grandson.]] [[JustifiedTrope In fairness,]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil 99% of the vampires we meet are scheming monsters.]]
*** And it's not as if Thomas himself hasn't pulled off some impressive schemes of his own -- they just usually have goals like "protect my family and lover" and "keep me from being a complete monster."
** Odin's employees view all of the Forest People as monsters because Grendel was one of the Forest People who took to war against them. River Shoulders at one point takes an Einherjar aside and tells him Grendel was a loony and that the rest of the Sasquatch bear the Norse pantheon no grudge over it.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The cells in Demonreach turn out to not just be a stasis prison for its monsters but closer to PhysicalHell. The monsters are tormented perpetually as both a way to enact revenge but also prevent them from escaping.
* FictionalDisability: Harry develops “Conjuritis”, a disorder where an image in his head becomes real when he sneezes. Ebenezar and Lara give him odd looks and claim it usually hits magically-gifted adolescents.

* GivenNameReveal: River Shoulders reveals that “Genoskwa” is a title for warlike people of his kind, and the one Harry met is really named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Blood On His Soul]].

* HeroicBSOD: When Harry realizes how driven by hatred Ebenezar was, how out of control he became, and how [[spoiler: if Harry had actually been there and not secretly on the boat, he really would have died by Ebenezar's hand]], he also has a break down knowing that things will never be the same between them.
* HeroicSacrifice: This is how Austri's death protecting Etri is seen. The fact he does so to protect his sovereign means that it moves it beyond what weregild can buy.

** Harry grabs one at the end. [[spoiler:It's Spear of Destiny and the Placard of Christ in order to fight Ethniu]].

* InfoDrop: Harry finally gets an explanation of what it means to be "starborn." [[spoiler: Harry was born when "the stars were right," an event that happens once every [[NumberOfTheBeast six hundred and sixty-six years]]. This allows him to use magic on Outsiders without [[GoMadFromTheRevelation slowly going nuts.]]]]
** It's implied that this also makes him immune to infection by [[MindVirus Nemesis]].

** Harry reveals [[spoiler: that Thomas is Ebenezar’s grandson to Ebenezar himself]]. That bit of news goes down like a lead balloon.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Ebenezar may come off as very harsh for his knee-jerk reflexive hatred of the White Court and the way he lectures Harry for allowing Thomas to know about Maggie...but he ''does'' have good reason to hate the White Court, and given that they're a race of mind-benders who've enslaved and feasted on countless people for centuries, he's not wrong to worry about their influence on his grandson and great-granddaughter. All Harry can say in Thomas's defence is 'He's my friend, he's ''different,'' just trust me!' [[RightForTheWrongReasons Which, as he correctly notes, is what abuse victims always say.]] [[note]]Additionally, the first time Ebenezar encountered Thomas the latter had ''just'' been thwarted in the act of trying to rape and devour Molly Carpenter (albeit after having been tortured by the Naagloshi for several days) and Ebenezar got a good look at the aftermath of Lara Raith ''succeeding'' in raping and devouring her cousin Madeline; it only reinforced his opinion that the White Court are insatiable monsters who turn on their own kin if they're hungry enough. [[/note]] Ebenezar is also not wrong that Harry has an impressive RoguesGallery, most of whom WouldHurtAChild to get to him. In fact, that's ''exactly'' what happened in ''Literature/SkinGame'', not two months previous, when Nicodemus tried to kill Maggie in order to get vengeance on Harry. [[spoiler: And the next best thing happens later in this book, when the svartalfs try to take Maggie hostage after Thomas attacks and tries to assassinate Etri.]]

* CallingTheCopsOnTheFBI: Harry and Murphy discover that they're being tailed by several unmarked vehicles containing two InternalAffairs detectives and a surveillance team investigating her. At her direction, Harry puts on speed, then takes an off-ramp and turns their car invisible, which gets their various tails pulled over by an Illinois State Police speed trap at the bottom of the ramp.

* CerebusCallback: The sixth book of the series started with the famous line “The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault.” The phrase is invoked here at the end of an early chapter with “The embassy was on fire, and my daughter was inside.”

** When hearing Lara has three favors owed to her by Mab for previous deeds done, and two are being paid for by having Harry complete them when Lara voices them, Harry notes all he got for his favor from Summer was a doughnut. Mab simply notes that Lara is using her debt more wisely than Harry.
** When Titania is needed to be told some information, Mab requests Fix play messenger because Titania is still not taking her calls.

* CruelToBeKind: Harry’s grand plan to save Thomas and make sure he can’t be traced is to [[spoiler: put him in a cell on Demonreach, a side effect of which is to be confronted with all the pain he has inflicted on others.]]

* DangerTakesABackseat: Harry is about to get the car going when he finds two monsters - Mab and Lara Raith - have teleported into the backseat, scaring the hell out of him. At least the encounter ends non-fatally for all involved.

* DirtyCoward: Marcone asks Carter [=LaChaise=] if he is one and states if he and his kin [[spoiler:run, hide, and refuse to honor the Accords' mutual defense pact]] then he will be seen as one to the entire ''Supernatural'' community.

** While never evil, Ebenezar has always been far more down the {{Antihero}} scale than Harry. He does not understand why Harry would defend Thomas even if it means turning against Ebenezar, [[spoiler: and it results in Ebenezar killing Harry's doppelganger]].
** Lara Raith has similar troubles with Harry when they ally [[spoiler: to rescue Thomas. She assumes every action Harry takes forces her to support him if she wants to save her brother. Harry tries arguing but only ends up DiggingYourselfDeeper.]]
*** When Harry tries to explain himself, Lara invokes the trope directly by stating that if he's really telling the truth then she doesn't understand him as well as she thought she did.

** Harry uses this to explain what he's doing with Thomas. [[spoiler: Lara assumes it was a devious Winter trick. It's just Harry not explaining it properly.]]

->"I had that sinking feeling that life was about to get hectic again."

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Harry calls Lara “an apex sexual predator”, which she smirks at and says he’s not wrong.

** As if flagrantly mocking the Unseelie Accords and SacredHospitality wasn’t enough, Corb ''really'' pisses off Mab [[spoiler:when he mocks how Merlin kicked her out and asks how the man would think of her now.]]

* BigBlackout: [[spoiler: Ethniu]] announces her intentions by unleashing a magical EMP that shuts down everything electrical in and around Chicago. [[spoiler:Harry notes that later on there were nearly ''1,500'' automobile accidents in the single moment and scores of resulting deaths]].

** Lara Raith, Ebenezar [=McCoy=], Justine and Carlos Ramirez all play major roles. [[spoiler: Carlos is still limping, thanks to the events of the short story ''Cold Case'', and is still bitter about it, indirectly calling Molly a monster.]]

--->'''Harry''': [[LampshadeHanging "Reunion week out here."]]

-->'''Harry:''' ''(admiringly)'' Oh. That's just mean.

* IdiotBall: Harry is confronted by the Wardens, who detect that he's just had sex. You'd expect for him to simply swear on his magic that he has never, and does not plan to ever, had sex with Lara. Instead, he acts defensive, refuses to give anything resembling a straight answer, and his mannerisms practically ''screams'' "I have something to hide."
** Harry living with Maggie at the svartalves'. You'd think Harry would leave Maggie at the Carpenters--between Michael's angelic guardians, Molly's Sidhe, Mouse, an archangel-powered safe room, and [[BattleCouple Michael and Charity themselves]], Ebenezar correctly notes the Carpenters' house is one of the safest places in the world. Unlike what happened in ''Changes,'' where she was with a normal foster family in the middle of Red Court territory. Additionally, while Harry is a single parent with a lot of duties on his plate, Michael, Charity, and their kids can provide a loving and stable home. Nor would it look odd for Harry to often visit the home of his old friends as much as every day, or to take their adoptive daughter out for trips once in a while. As Michael pointed out in the previous book, given what happened to the Red Court and Nicodemus, it's highly unlikely that most monsters would want to mess with Maggie even if they did know her relation to Harry.

** Later, he notes that pissing off his grandfather is an incredibly stupid thing to do--and that he'd just spent the last ten minutes arguing with him.

* UnprovokedPervertPayback: invoked by Freydis as a distraction.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Ethniu [[spoiler: is a god above Mab and more powerful than the entirety of the White Council as well as other Unseelie Accord members put together. There's no possible way to fight her and doing so is a BolivianArmyEnding everyone agrees to. The thing is ''she'' doesn't know that Harry has access to both the Athame and placard stolen from Hades, and control of Demonreach.]]

** When Harry meets with Lara at her house, he makes sure to ask directly if he is her guest every time to keep her and him working under the protections of this concept. [[spoiler:When she requests that he indulge her in helping with a training session, Harry notes internally any injury or even his death could be excused because it is a "tragic training accident".]]

** Ebenezar promotes this trope in regards to parenting, and given what happened in this book and previous books, he's got a point; Harry, however, is right that Maggie being with a foster family didn't save her from the vampires, just as foster care didn't save Harry from Justin trying to turn him into a magical enforcer and Ebenezer staying away from Harry's mother didn't save her from the White Court King.

* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler: Harry and Murphy as well as the entirety of the Unseelie Accord races are going off to fight the Last Titan and the entire court of the Fomor. Harry and Murphy have some ArtifactOfDoom help as well as Demonreach but it does feel very much like a last stand.]]

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: The Carpenters still don't know about Molly's role as the Winter Lady. Harry insists she tell them at some point, which she agrees to, but other matters get in the way.

* OffingTheOffspring: When Ebenezar discovers [[spoiler: that Thomas is his grandson, he immediately begins a spell to destroy the boat he's on. Harry stops him, and the spell appears to kill Harry instead. For a moment, we see Ebenezar completely break down as he realizes that he's just murdered his grandson, although it's unclear how much it's sunk in that this happened while trying to kill his ''other'' grandson.

* OffingTheOffspring: When Ebenezar discovers [[spoiler: that Thomas is his grandson, he immediately begins a spell to destroy the boat he's on. Harry stops him, and the spell appears to kill Harry instead. For a moment, we see Ebenezar completely break down as he realizes that he's just murdered his grandson while trying to kill his ''other'' grandson, meaning that he [[OutlivingOnesOffspring finally had outlived his entire family]].]]

* PowerIncontinence: It comes up via Lara sparring with Harry that while she can turn ''on'' her lust-induction power whenever she wants, she can't always turn it ''off'' when it's unwanted.

** Considering the whopping number of characters for whom TheBusCameBack, it’s worth noting that this is the first full novel without an appearance of Bob the Skull[[note]]Since this book and the next were originally one, it kind of counts since Bob ''does'' show up in Literature/BattleGround2020[[/note]].

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: The ending of the book [[spoiler:results in the Unseelie Accord Nations all forced to engage in open warfare against the Fomori with TheMasquerade almost irretrievably shot]].

** Ebenezar promotes this trope in regards to parenting, and given what happened in this and the previous book, he's got a point.

* AdultFear:
** Harry arrives back at the svartalf embassy and finds the place on fire and his daughter still inside.
** [[spoiler: An EMP wiping out everything electrical in and around a major city. Numerous people were killed in the resulting car crashes ''in the first few seconds alone.'' Then begin to factor in all the hospitals and emergency wards, public transport, any planes that might have been overhead at the time, and both the horror and the body count build...]]
** When Ebenezar discovers [[spoiler: that Thomas is his grandson, he immediately begins a spell to [[OffingTheOffspring destroy the boat he's on]]. Harry stops him, and the spell appears to kill Harry instead. For a moment, we see Ebenezar completely break down as he realizes that he's just murdered his grandson while trying to kill his ''other'' grandson, meaning that he [[OutlivingOnesOffspring finally had outlived his entire family]].]]
*** On the other end of this, when Harry realizes how driven by hatred Ebenezar was, how out of control he became, and how [[spoiler: if Harry had actually been there and not secretly on the boat, he really would have died by Ebenezar's hand]], he also has a [[HeroicBSOD break down]] knowing that things will never be the same between them.

* TheDeterminator: While naturally a part of Harry's character from the beginning, this book actually takes a long time to both {{Reconstruction}} as well as {{reconstruct|ion}} what it means to be one for Harry. Both his allies and enemies are stunned that Harry is perfectly willing to die for someone that they think is a FriendlyEnemy at best. [[spoiler: Not realizing that Thomas is Harry's brother.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** Karrin is now under investigation for her role in the ''Literature/SkinGame'' bank robbery, especially since it resulted in an innocent bystander being killed.
** Karrin is permanently injured from her beating at Nicodemus' hands. She'll never be able to fight effectively again. [[spoiler: That doesn't stop her from showing up to do so.]]
** Harry is about to lose his position in the White Council as well as status as a Warden due to being the Winter Knight.
** Harry wonders if telling Ebenezar that Thomas is his other grandson might help improve their relationship, but decides that [=McCoy=]'s long history with the White Court wouldn't be patched that easily, and it may even backfire and make things worse. [[spoiler:Sure enough, [=McCoy=] goes through a lot of emotions at once when he learns the truth, but seems even ''more'' determined to kill Thomas out of horror and disgust.]]

[[TheOneWith The one where]] Harry handles security for a convention of some of the most powerful entities on the planet.

** When Ebeneezer discovers [[spoiler: that Thomas is his grandson, he immediately begins a spell to [[OffingTheOffspring destroy the boat he's on]]. Harry stops him, and the spell appears to kill Harry instead. For a moment, we see Ebeneezer completely break down as he realizes that he's just murdered his grandson while trying to kill his ''other'' grandson, meaning that he [[OutlivingOnesOffspring finally had outlived his entire family]].]]
*** On the other end of this, when Harry realizes how driven by hatred Ebeneezer was, how out of control he became, and how [[spoiler: if Harry had actually been there and not secretly on the boat, he really would have died by Ebeneezer's hand]], he also has a [[HeroicBSOD break down]] knowing that things will never be the same between them.

** When Harry meets Lara [[spoiler:in her training dojo, they both get a reveal from the other. Lara learns of Justine's pregnancy and Harry learns Lara has known since his birth of Thomas being Ebenezer [=McCoy=]'s grandson]].

** Who sent the cornerhounds after Harry and Ebenezer.

* MagicalGesture: In the climax of the story, Ebenezer rides to a confrontation on a large flying boulder that he keeps in the air with his fingers crooked in what Harry refers to as a "mystic sign." Harry further describes it as a "mystic shorthand" for the spell keeping the boulder aloft.

* NothingIsScarier: Ebenezer admits that he doesn't know what the cornerhounds do with the people they carry off, which Harry finds more terrifying than a straight answer.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: Thomas is arrested for trying to kill Etri, and in the process of trying to save him Harry potentially gets himself kicked out of the White Council, gets into a fight with Ebenezer that not only ruins their relationship but results in Ebenezer finding out Thomas is Harry's brother, and in the end Harry has to seal Thomas in Demonreach to save his life. Meanwhile, Ethniu the Last Titan is revealed to be TheManBehindTheMan to the Fomor, and after smacking down Mab and blacking out Chicago as a show of force, announces her intention to raze Chicago in the opening move of a war against all of mankind.]]