Chapter 25 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 25 — The crab trap

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: Havana · Previous: Chapter 24 — Raul · Next: Chapter 26 — MaeMae · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

“Okay,” Donut whispered after a minute.

Summary

Donut on Size-Up reads Raul: Intelligence 150, Dexterity 75, Strength 50 with claws at triple, Chi Cultivator (permanently triples his power if it ever lands; eats all his mana), Water Cannon, 'Bris', a ten-second chanted shell. 'Magic juice' is Louis's word. A painted-over U-Haul with the roll-up door half open; Phase Through Wall lasts nine seconds and only works on solid unnatural things with space on both sides — snap off early and you are cut in half. 'I sense your aura […] No, no. That wasn't powerful enough. You can do this, Raul.' Hole under the crab drops him into the cargo bed; Mute; Carl phases through the tailgate swinging, in and out through floor and wall, Fear smoke, Donut's Brain Freeze and magic missile from a car roof while she dangles mouth-first from the door rope with three hundred pounds of free weights on her tail. 'No, please.' The flag; a common card; the door rope pulls down with no effort at all ('That was obviously a thumb-oriented task, Carl'). The other crabs eat the ones who noticed. Five of six. The phase potion was a bad idea. Samantha unmuted: 'ME AND MY NEW BEST FRIEND, MARIA. SHE’S GOING TO CAST THE SPELL TO GIVE ME MY BODY BACK, AND THEN SHE’S GOING TO GO ADVENTURING WITH US.' An hour of migration; the Bahamas book on The Screamer (Shi Maria among the alternate names; Prepotente has not met one): a colossal translucent hairy spider, a Volkswagen abdomen, and a human-sized burned old woman's head with a jaw hinged open to scream, fangs, four black eyes — 'How in the goodness did she swallow Samantha when her head is so small?' A demigod banished from the celestial realm, trickery and illusion, in unending torment for a missing husband from a forgotten pantheon — legend says she ate him; 'sometimes, during her more lucid moments, she’s not so certain of her own innocence […] Beware her lies' Unending Insanity and Lights Out, both level 15, curable only by gods; Mordecai's Liquid Therapy, once a day until sleep, brewed for the whole guild on a table bought with Carl's two upgrade coupons; Spinneret and Venomous Bite; weak only to psionics. Nothing in her spells can animate Samantha's body. 'You know how they love to plot twist us with these back stories.' A system message — the Goddess Semiramis has re-ascended — the sixth or seventh: the twelfth-floor players waking ancient gods through crawlers. Then the Chowder War: Sister Ines has warned the Monk Seal Abbot; the sneak attack will become a slaughter; side with a fellow crawler or make it 'a rumble for the ages'. 'Hopefully that whole quest resolves itself without us.' 'Does it ever?'

Characters

• Carl — Two phase potions and a punch through a truck floor; reads about the Screamer.
• Princess Donut — Hole, Mute, Brain Freeze, and a rope pulled by teeth.
• Raul — Panics, begs, becomes a common card.
• Samantha — Bored, with a new best friend who promises her a body.
• Shi Maria — The Screamer, per the book: a banished demigod who may have eaten her husband; 'Beware her lies'; a missing husband; a body she cannot give back.
• Sister Ines — Has picked the seals' side.
• Mordecai — Liquid Therapy for the guild; has not left the crafting room.
• Prepotente — 'No.'

Locations

• Havana — The wetland pile-up; a U-Haul as a trap.
• The swamp of the Bride — Ahead, in the rain.

Motifs

• T'Ghee totems — Five of six; a skittish crab with potential.
• The Bahamas book — The Screamer's entry matches Samantha's account exactly.
• The Celestial Ascendency — Semiramis re-ascends: crawlers used to wake gods for the twelfth-floor game.
• The Chowder War — Ines with the Abbot; a slaughter pending.
• Samantha's body — The promise in Carl's inventory.