Chapter 19 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 19 — What's in the box

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: Havana · Previous: Chapter 18 — Club Vanquisher · Next: Chapter 20 — Ruby · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

The crown formed into existence on Katia’s head.

Summary

The crown appears on Katia's head. Eva did it at the last minute — 'I'd talked when I should've just killed her.' Katia promises Carl: 'I will never fight you. I will die before I let that happen.' Then Carl opens the celestial prize for opening the Gate of the Feral Gods and flooding Larracos, carried unopened since the start of the sixth floor: the Engaged Lock Box of the Night Wyrm, two of three seals broken, a pink orchid inside.

The Orchid of Eileithyia's Grace, females only, leaves its eater an hour unconscious at 1% health, then grants one of three permanent boons, choosable for the goddess's worshippers: triple base Constitution (lost if Eileithyia dies or after the twelfth floor); Celestial Attendant, transferred to the twelfth floor as a frozen, protected NPC until the Ascendency games, then an exit option; or birth race restored and pregnancy, disqualifying her to the Kinder Facility in the former city of Mumbai. It is attuned to Katia, and her death destroys it. Either of the last two is an exit, made urgent by the crown and the Popovs.

Katia's worship came through an emergency sponsor box from Princess Formidable of the Skull Empire; Huanxin Jinx then messaged her that repairing the shrine would win Eileithyia help in her twelfth-floor game and Katia a boon that saves both — Anton and Paz died for that message. Katia will take the Attendant boon. Bautista and Mordecai hate it: the twelfth floor is a viper den, the sponsors Larracos cost want payback, and attendants, protected 'because of an incident a long time ago', get hurt anyway.

Mordecai's briefing: about a hundred sponsored gods of thousands; a new retainer rule lets each recruit a second, unsponsored god for the Ascendency; the ninth floor is for governments and the rich, the twelfth for true elites; the winner gets a ten-season council seat. Huanxin is CEO of Icon Industries, a Grixist who has played the Ascendency since childhood without winning, suspended for bribery and banned from her old goddess. Mordecai hates her — his brother died the last time someone crossed her — and Carl cannot tell him she is also engineering Odette's descent with the protections off.

The third seal belongs to the Guild of Suffering, the Night Wyrm's guild. Katia has already found it — Damascus Steel's elbow tattoo, the Penis Parade atop the Desperado Club as its front — and taken a job that needs a guild member: kill Astrid, level-125 Bloodlust Sprite, Assistant Manager of the Desperado Club and owner of the Naughty Boys Employment Agency, with proof of death. Achievement: Secondary Gig, opening a Guild Jobs tab.

Characters

• Katia Grim — Crowned; the box, the orchid, the worship, the plan; a job to kill Astrid.
• Princess Donut — Goes rigid; 'Who would be the daddy?'; betrayed by a stripper.
• Carl — Holds the box and the skin; keeps the goddess's half of the deal.
• Mordecai — Explains retainers, the Ascendency and Huanxin Jinx; 'my brother died.'
• Daniel Bautista — 'I don't like it'; determined about something.
• Huanxin Jinx — A plotter like Circe and Vrah, on a different scale; banned once for bribery; Mordecai's brother's death.
• Eileithyia — Three boons, one flower, a scroll of worship from Princess Formidable.
• Princess Formidable — Sends a scroll of worship from outside the ninth floor.
• Eva Sigrid — The crown at the last minute; the first seal.
• Astrid — Named in blood on a slip of skin: the job.
• Damascus Steel — The tattoo that gave the guild away.
• The Night Wyrm — 'My little darling'; the family with many eyes.

Locations

• The Royal Palace of Princess Donut — A kitchen table with tea and a crackling box.

Motifs

• The Crown of the Sepsis Whore — Eva's parting gift; 'They want us to fight.'
• Eileithyia's boons — Two seals broken; the orchid; attuned to #9,077,265.
• The Celestial Ascendency — Retainers, the twelfth floor, a council seat, bookies.
• The Guild of Suffering — A strip club for a front; a contract on skin; Secondary Gig.
• The Ring of Divine Suffering — The tattoo as a key: Carl, Prepotente, Damascus Steel.
• Secrets — What Carl cannot tell Mordecai; what Katia hasn't told Meadowlark.
• The gods — A hundred sponsored gods of thousands; bribery bans.
• Faction Wars — A cash prize headed for the fan club.