Motif · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

The Celestial Ascendency

The Cookbook's warning: the big gods are always sponsored by some rich prick who paid to play a game called the Celestial Ascendency, contained on the twelfth floor, with its own followers and storyline; Grull is one of its few trueborn heirs. 'The gods are invulnerable except on the 12th and above floors.'

Segment appearances

Prologue — Prologue
Chapter 11 — Asojano
Chapter 15 — The Thorn Room
Chapter 16 — Ogun
Chapter 17 — Two goddesses
Chapter 19 — What's in the box
Chapter 25 — The crab trap
Chapter 36 — Nekhebit
Chapter 37 — The eye of the Bedlam Bride
Chapter 48 — Mass Layoffs
Chapter 51 — Residuals
Chapter 54 — Demon Eviction
Chapter 55 — Survival Royale
Chapter 58 — Amayon
Chapter 61 — Three out of four
Chapter 64 — Spunky Jefferson
Chapter 66 — The Missing Piece
Chapter 72 — Falling Up
Epilogue — Homecoming Queen

Progression

A goddess's bargain in a channel the system cannot read: Adjutant, votes, the twelfth floor (ch. 17); Mordecai on retainers, the council seat and the bookies (ch. 19); Semiramis re-ascends, and Carl understands the crawlers are waking gods for the players above (ch. 25); Odette as Nekhebit, nobody's retainer (ch. 36); Ysalte wanting a prince of hell at her side (ch. 66).