Chapter 24 of 26 · Book 2, Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Chapter 24 — Remex

Book: Carl's Doomsday Scenario · Previous: Chapter 23 — Ten sticks of dynamite · Next: Chapter 25 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario · Floor: Floor 3 — The Over City · Series: the series

Opening

“Do not approach. No, no. Stay away.

Summary

Remex: a Soul Leech Capacitor, level 1, a bereft minion of Miss Quill — her dead husband, a former magistrate, yanked back as a battery and now agonised by power with nowhere to go. He must tell the whole story and keeps falling off-script: Quill planned her husband's resurrection, killed Featherfall with the feedback, ran the town with a forgery spell, glamoured the elves with a fake angel, and collected women and feathers for The Final War, a three-night heirloom spell to kill everything in the Over City that cannot fly. She had cast the first night. Quest complete; Remex weeps; 'a tenner.'

Then the loudspeaker: The Fools Who Broke the Glass, a group quest for eighty crawlers in a 45-square-kilometre blast radius, hosts Carl, Donut and Katia, seven minutes. The Desperado Club's back room is the only shelter and Katia has no pass. Carl closes the Sheol Glass case around the vibrating soul crystal like a firefly, sits down with the cat in his lap, and Donut says: 'I'm not as dumb as I pretend to be. I know she's dead.'

Characters

• Remex the Grand — The story, at last.
• Miss Quill — Her plan, posthumously.
• Katia Grim — Getting NPCs indoors; 'Run, guys.'
• Carl — The firefly; 'I'm proud of you.'
• Princess Donut — 'I know she's dead.'
• Quan Ch — 'Thanks a lot Carl and Donut, you fucking assholes.'

Locations

• The swordsmen's warehouse — The floor above the guards.

Motifs

• The tenth floor — 'He called himself a tenner.'
• The Sheol Glass Reaper Case — Closed on the crystal.
• The stuffed figures — Kimaris is the top of Carl's inventory by value.
• Quests — An event quest with no opt-out.