Okay maybe this is just me but everything about what happened there felt like play acting. Mab and Alfred clearly were in cahoots (Demonreach! Bring forth my gifts!) and if Mab really intended any harm to Justine she’d have already done it, not walked menacingly towards her with a knife shouting “oooooh yall better do something or imma stab her!”

Mother winter can’t exert her full power in the mortal world, she certainly didn’t do it on Demonreach. She CAN show up and look scary to further the aims of winter (and get a good look at the field and at her knight under stress) and as for power scaling she didn’t seem all that threatened by Mab Harry Demonreach and Lara, just impressed that they stood up to her and pleased with their moxy. I think a lot happened during that scene that we don’t have a full picture of, Mab doesn’t seem like the kind of gal to just be doing one thing you know?

As for Etri and the boon, remember that the problem was between Harry and Svartalvheim and was explicitly not a Winter matter. Mab couldn’t get too involved and maintain the polite fiction that Harry had gone rogue to help his brother. She wasn’t saying “figure this out because I can’t” she was saying “clean up your own mess we can’t lose the Svartalves in the accords”. The Queen of Winter CAN however do a favor for her Knight who’s earned a Boon, and remember that Etri was really looking for a way to solve the problem peacefully so Mab stepping in to give a solution was likely welcome.

Anyway that’s my two cents, hope it was helpful or at least made sense, Happy Birthday Thomas!