Chapter 38 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 38 — Edict

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Unhinged Child · Previous: Chapter 37 — The rainbow bridge · Next: Chapter 39 — Prepotente Town Number Four · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

» Carl: Mordecai, how safe is it to bring him in here?

Summary

Edict, Mantis, level 50, Merchant, the Dark Hive — 'I'm not a hunter. Or a fighter. I'm just the accountant' — hunched without the females' blade arms, who attacked Bomo twice in the saferoom to be frozen for a minute and then an hour. He cannot give up the loot: it is contracted in advance to the Burrowers, the mantis royal government (the Dark Hive is a private amusement-park corporation, 'a fucked up version of the Disney family'), already handed to a third party for delivery; his hive, Deep Mind, would be ruined. Vrah has ordered him to mate with her, which is how she can pass the disease on and how he dies: a mantis female eats the male's head and a secondary brain in his abdomen keeps him mating for hours — and couplings between a government hive and a for-profit one are treason without a bond and a licence. Give the loot and his family is ruined; refuse and Vrah's family takes revenge; mate and he is a traitor. 'There's only one way to maintain honor […] I need to die in battle.' He straightens as he speaks: 'Finding the stars was the worst thing that ever happened to my people […] Expansion to the point of oblivion. The primals finally understood, but it was too late for them. The kua-tin, I think, know this, too […] They call it the Great Consensus. But it's not.' Vrah limps into the hallway, smoke rising from her crotch, the heads all dislodged — to make herself lighter, Carl guesses —, healing and burning again in a loop no saferoom stops. Edict lunges at Carl's crotch with a fist, is flagged Super Naughty, and is teleported naked to the nearest monster nest — the best outcome, Carl suspects, for his family — and a jackpot of gold buries Carl to the ankles. Donut, through the door: 'Maybe you can put some ointment on it. It looks infected.' 'Catch you later.'

Characters

• Edict — A mantis accountant of Deep Mind who chooses death in battle over three dishonours.
• Vrah — Ordered a mate to cure herself; burning, headless of trophies, in a hallway.
• Carl — Wanted only to keep the disease on Vrah; gets a philosophy and a floor of gold.
• Princess Donut — On bug penises and lipstick; ointment.
• The Sledge — Bomo punched twice; 'Stupid bug.'
• Mordecai — 'You probably should have thought this through'; picks up the coins.

Locations

• Zockau — A hallway of personal-space doors at one of its few true saferooms; the tavern shielded after the raid.

Motifs

• The hunters — The Dark Hive and the Burrowers; a merchant's contract; mantis mating law.
• The Great Consensus — 'Finding the stars was the worst thing that ever happened to my people.'
• Faction Wars — The Burrowers, the mantis government: rarely do well, usually knocked out second after the nagas.
• Safe rooms — Super Naughty: a third attack sends you naked to a nest.