A Restoration of Faith

A short story found in Side Jobs

“Magic, the best kind. A little light in the dark.” - Harry Dresden

In this first chronological story of The Dresden Files, we are introduced to Harry Dresden, a wizard for hire living in Chicago. Harry works for his buddy Nick, who owns Ragged Angel, an agency that specializes in locating missing children. Harry is working on getting his license to be an independent private investigator, but has six more months of working under Nick, an already licensed investigator. Earlier, Ragged Angel took a job from the Astor family, a rich family whose daughter, Faith Astor, has run away.

The story starts with Harry calling Nick from a payphone telling him that he found her, the runaway daughter, and that he needs Nick to come pick him up. Nick tells him that the Astor’s have since changed their tune and have recently reported their daughter, Faith, as kidnapped by Nick and Harry to Chicago PD. Nick explains that that way they don’t have to pay them the fee for finding their daughter and can also look good for their rich friends who might think ill of them for having a daughter who runs away.

It is here that we see the character of Harry Dresden for the first time. Harry tends to have a soft spot for helping others who are having a hard time in life, and he always tries to make the right decision even if it hurts him in doing so. Nick tells him to ditch the girl, Faith, and to get out of there so that they don’t get arrested for kidnapping. Harry and Faith are in a bad part of town and Harry can’t just leave her there. Harry decides that they should take Faith to the nearest police precinct and drop her off there so that they know she will be safely returned to her parents. Nick begrudgingly decides to meet up with them nearby to pick them up in his car.

As Harry is escorting Faith to meet up with Nick, they cross a bridge and are attacked by Gorgoth the Troll who lives under the bridge. After a short confrontation they go back the way they came, but then see a police car so they run and hide with a police officer trying to chase them down. While hiding, Faith tells Harry how things are at home and she doesn’t like living there as her parents ignore her. Harry gives her a pep talk and gives her one of his magical rings that will light up when she thinks of happy things.

They attempt to cross the bridge once more, and again Gorgoth tries to take Faith, but Harry fights back and Faith is able to cross the bridge and meet up with Nick who has just arrived. As Harry is fighting off the troll, the officer who was chasing them intervenes and saves Harry from getting cut in half by the troll and his cleaver. Harry is able to recover and then defeats the troll by using the troll’s own cleaver against him. The officer is astounded that she just fought a troll and that they really do exist. We learn the officer’s name -Officer (Karrin) Murphy, which for Dresden Files fans means a lot. This is the first meeting between Harry Dresden and Karrin Murphy which is fun to see. Officer Murphy questions Faith about her kidnapping and Faith denies that Harry had anything to do with a kidnapping and that she instead ran away from home. Officer Murphy lets Harry and Nick go before her partner arrives.

While Jim Butcher himself admits that this story is amateurish, as this was one of his first attempts at writing short fiction for the professional market, this is a good start for Harry Dresden’s story. We get a glimpse of the type of person Harry is, we get a glimpse at his magic, and we are introduced to Karrin Murphy and we get to see when they meet for the first time. These three things are foundations for the Harry Dresden we come to know throughout his journey in The Dresden Files. Overall, it’s a great introductory story for Harry Dresden in my opinion.

Next up is an original story created specifically for a graphic novel - Welcome to the Jungle.