Cross Swords Views

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Michael Joseph Patrick Carpenter is married to Charity Carpenter and father of Molly, Daniel, Matthew, Alicia, Amanda, Hope, and Harry (named for Harry Dresden after the events of Grave Peril). Michael is a Knight of the Cross, an ancient order dedicated to bearing and using the three Swords of the Cross: Amoracchius (Love), Fidelacchius (Faith), and Esperacchius (Hope). Michael is the most recent bearer of Amoracchius, which in Proven Guilty is hinted at being the legendary Sword in the Stone, having once been kept by the original wizard Merlin and arranged to fall into the right hands. However, at the end of Small Favor, Michael entrusts Harry with the keeping of the sword until (presumably) a new bearer can be found for it.

Once a member of the Order of the Blackened Denarius, Sanya renounced his allegiance to the Fallen. He claims that shortly afterward he was approached by the Archangel Michael to take up service for God. Sanya is a Russian of African royal descent who, despite dealing with angels and demons on a constant basis, claims to be an agnostic Trotskyite. He wields the sabre Esperacchius which is one of the three holy swords that incorporate a nail from Jesus' cross into their blades. He has in the past been the lover of the Denarian Rosanna, Tessa's lieutenant. As of Small Favor, Sanya is the only working Knight of the Cross, Shiro being killed, and Michael incapacitated. He admits to Dresden that bearers for the other swords must be found before he is overwhelmed.

Anonymous, the hacker collective known for its attacks on WikiLeaks detractors, has crossed swords with HBGary and two other private security firms in what has come to seen as the latest retaliation to the HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr's plan to hand over the identity details of the faceless hackers to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

NEW DELHI – Two celebrated heroes who, as president and army chief, helped end Sri Lanka’s long and brutal civil war against the Tamil Tigers are now crossing political swords. Whichever candidate wins Sri Lanka’s presidential election on January 26 will have to lead that small but strategically located island-nation in a fundamentally different direction – from making war, as it has done for more than a quarter-century, to making peace through ethnic reconciliation and power sharing.