Motif · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

The tenth floor

The floor where, the first announcement says, 'additional rules come into play.' Odette reached the thirteenth floor's stairwell and never went down: 'I'd struck a deal. That's a long story, and it's not for today.'

Segment appearances

• Chapter 3 — Quasar
• Chapter 12 — No matter what
• Chapter 42 — Warrants
• Chapter 52 — Gehenna Bramble
• Chapter 53 — Iota
• Chapter 58 — The last stall in the women's bathroom
• Chapter 77 — The mask
• Epilogue — Epilogue

Progression

Everything Carl has read implied lawyers 'didn’t become a thing until the tenth floor', so his counsel is early — a crawler who reaches it is a Syndicate citizen, and the Syndicate bends citizens over (ch. 3); the crown puts only one of Donut or Katia on the stairs from the ninth floor to the tenth (ch. 12, epilogue); 'Tenth floor rules apply, but only at the door' of the club (ch. 58); Carl's leverage: get as many people to the tenth floor as possible (ch. 77).