Chapter 18 of 35 · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

Chapter 18 — One

Book: The Gate of the Feral Gods · Previous: Chapter 17 — Jennifer and Dale's house · Next: Chapter 19 — Orren · Floor: Floor 5 — The Bubbles · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by Crawler Coolie.

Summary

Coolie's notes from the 19th edition frame the chapter: he was taken to a program on a ship in low orbit with a window open to his lost planet; he hid bugbear paste in his boots to blow it with two admins aboard; the admins were holos and the forcefield held the wreck together, and his last note has him short of breath, looking at Qurux, praying someone will avenge her. Carl, with ten minutes before the taping, infuses a smoke curtain with an invisibility potion (Infusion 3): a Hobgoblin Disco Ball, blinding to everyone including the thrower, which robot Donut knocks off the table and Carl steps on. In the rainbow smoke the doll's voice drops an octave: 'This is what we all see in the end. I'm always here for you, Carl.'

The production trailer is an underwater security rental, the same model as Odette's, with a picture window held by a forcefield. Loita, in a rebreather on the couch, is 'comically small' and contemptuous: 'for such a famous crawler, you sure are a coward'; the trailer is shielded once you arrive, nobody in or out until the show ends. Asked why she is so angry: 'You. Your cat. Your people. Your ugly culture. This is a cancer upon the Bloom' — the crawl spreads human filth for the fry to see; when every dry vermin is dead Borant will close its borders and 'the reawakening' will come. And Zev: 'Do you know what we had to do just to bring Zev back into the fold? Unspeakable things to her mother and her aunts.' Carl's hands shake. He sets robot Donut on the couch beside her: 'Stay next to Loita.' The hosts of the Veriluxx New Toys Showcase are two Soothers, Gravo in a Styrofoam cowboy hat and a misspelled 'Sherif' badge and 'Professor Liddi' in a Wish-dot-com Superman suit, whose favourites are Donut and Lucia Mar; the ad will play at fueling depots to poor families, because research says children prefer a trusted adult speaking down to them. On camera Carl goes off script: the doll's best feature is compliance, like its parent company Veritan Linkage wants; trackers in the toys; 'The dungeon is another story, though, isn't it?' Gravo stops the tape. Carl needs only one thing: for Loita to get up off the couch.

The lights die. Robot Donut has self-destructed beside her. The window is cracked and the forcefield holds; Loita, missing an arm and both lower legs, flash-fried, cannot be teleported out without dropping the shield that keeps the water off Carl and Donut, and Borant must choose. 'You… you did this.' 'It was an accident. The robot blew up. You're the one who made them put that self-destruct sequence in it.' 'The Bloom will prevail. You will be forgotten.' 'Nobody likes melodrama, Loita.' She dies. Carl's note in the 25th edition: Coolie's passage gave him the knowledge and the confidence for a first step, taken for Coolie and for Bonnie; if there is a second, it is for himself and his people, and 'As long as I am alive, I will do everything I can to make them burn' Then a second note: 'One.'

Characters

• Carl — A disco ball; a doll left on a couch; a first kill of an administrator; 'One.'
• Princess Donut — Phones in her lines; 'Talking Fancy Feast'; sees Loita dead.
• Mordecai — An hour's work ruined by rainbow dust.
• Katia Grim — Laughs at the disco ball; brushes Donut.
• Loita — Her creed: the Bloom, True Unity, the Great Consensus; what was done to Zev's family; dead.
• Zev — Loita: unspeakable things to her mother and aunts, and 'only then did she take the badge.'
• Gravo and Liddi — Soother hosts in costume; a toy commercial made to play at fueling depots.
• Coolie — A bugbear-paste bomb in orbit; holos; a planet called Qurux; avenge her.
• Bonnie — Named in Carl's note as the reason.
• Lucia Mar — Everybody's favourite.

Locations

• Production trailers — An underwater security rental, shielded once you arrive; a cracked window.
• The Royal Palace of Princess Donut — Rainbow residue and burnt cotton candy.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Coolie's three notes and Carl's two; the first step; a count begun.
• The count — Loita, by a self-destructing toy she ordered.
• Borant — The Bloom's creed from an admin's mouth; a choice between an admin and two crawlers.
• Sponsorship — Veritan Linkage named on camera; 'Sherif'; compliance.
• 'You're not going to break me' — 'They will not fucking break me.'
• Explosives — Infusion: a smoke curtain that dances to the beat.
• The show — A taped commercial nothing can be said on; the trailer's rules used against it.
• Entertainment as machinery — 'Research indicates that children prefer to have a trusted adult speak down to their level'