Chapter 57 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 57 — Samantha's secret

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: The Bedlam · Previous: Chapter 56 — The Fumble · Next: Chapter 58 — Amayon · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

» Time until level collapse: 4 days, 12 hours.

Summary

Tipid (4th): 'It was me or him, and I chose to save myself […] Does that make me evil? […] Then why do I feel that way?' — A wooded pocket in Havana, five kilometres from the church, fifteen from the Capitol; Quan will pick the far one. Ren: the teleports scattered them and a Backstreet Boys alarm trap had to be pocketed; Khulan not back yet. 'YOU'RE LUCKY HE DIDN'T BLOW YOUR CHEATING ASS UP.' 'Donut, chill. We need them.' Ren's squad of seven or eight is down to three. 'Ren is our friend, too […] I will use that bone key if it means I don't have to fight either of them' — and neither of them trusts the bone key; Carl thinks of Tipid's last entries and a terrible suspicion about how it works. Samantha, heavy, vibrating, the club tattoo fading: 'If you want to date me, you must get in line.' 'You haven't been honest with us.' Once, with her body, she grew on prayers, charms and Acid Bath; her father took her power and 'my whore of a mother tried to steal my man'; now she can fly, 'fuck up anybody', and enhance spells that overshoot or fail, magic doing things unasked; her dissolve spell only works on the inside. 'I'm useless! […] I've been faking it the whole time […] Everybody always leaves me.' 'You're part of the team.' She cannot teleport; she reached MaeMae by sticking to a train that left the map and bounced her into the web ('I might have wrecked the train, too'). 'Why don't you do what that scary lady does?' — Lucia's teleport traps. 'Samantha, I could kiss you.' 'I'm not a whore, Carl.' Florin goes down early to test: the stairwell chamber is 'outside the level', no traps allowed — 'after what you did with the bubbles on the fifth floor'; Lucia buys every teleport trap and all the alcohol, has good days and bad, just took out half the keyless squads in Beijing; 'Looking forward to tearing it up again with you.' The workaround: anchor halves on spider automatons pushed into Samantha's neck hole (her 'Juice' burns only flesh; Donut's Automaton Pilot 5 lets her set one too), triggers armed in the clearing, an arrow spray-painted to the third. Mordecai: two-part traps need one setter for both halves — but the automaton carried by someone else breaks that: Carl can go anywhere; train Donut's trap skill; 'Saving Imani, I understand […] Self-preservation is not being selfish.' 'I almost made that mistake already on this floor, and I would've lost everything.' One more trap kept inside her ('That's what kegels are for, Carl'). Ren: he's here, invisible, cautious; Chuluuna (stone-skinned tank, Khulan's husband) can see him. Donut is to start a hundred-duende battle and keep it going. Samantha hurled fifteen kilometres over downtown: 'I QUEEFED OUT THE SPIDERS!' Carl steps into the first trap.

Characters

• Samantha — Confesses the limits and the growth of her power; a courier of anchors.
• Carl — Invents automaton teleporting; refuses the easy sacrifice.
• Princess Donut — Distrusts Ren and the bone key; starts a fight to hold a line.
• Tserendolgor — Three left; holding the Capitol.
• Florin — Goes down early to test a rule; asks after Lucia.
• Mordecai — 'Everybody else needs you more.'
• Lucia Mar — Buys traps and alcohol; killing keyless squads.
• Khulan — Ren's paralyser, not back yet.
• Chuluuna — Stone skin; sees the invisible.

Locations

• Havana — A wooded pocket of the city; the Capitol fifteen kilometres off.

Motifs

• Samantha's power — 'It's because of this stupid body'; enhancement, flight, no teleport.
• Explosives — Two-part teleports carried inside a head; the stairwell chamber off-limits.
• The bone key — Tipid's last entries and a suspicion Carl will not name yet.
• Found family — 'I will be damned if I'm not going to do everything in my power to prevent it first.'
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Tipid on choosing yourself.