Motif · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

The Gate of the Feral Gods

An artifact, celestial-tier by Carl's reckoning, in three parts — two pocket watches and a winding box — buried by legend in the Necropolis of Anser and hunted by a gnome commandant, a changeling principal, a glass mage and a dead bugbear. Dial a time on one watch and it mirrors on the other; times are places; wind the box and a one-way portal opens for twenty minutes, and when it closes the opening side stays open into the Nothing until a feral god comes through. Carl assembles it on the fifth floor and uses it to empty bubbles, and then to flood a city.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 2 — Hills Cyclops
• Chapter 19 — What's in the box
• Chapter 32 — Minge
• Chapter 51 — Residuals
• Epilogue — Homecoming Queen

Progression

They were angry at Carl for having it because he might break a level, and Prepotente broke one anyway (ch. 2); Katia got her box for opening it and flooding Larracos at the start of the sixth floor, and hid it (ch. 19); the Nothing's entrances are one-way except when the Gate is used (ch. 32); Orren refuses to give it back before the floor ends, knowing what it could circumvent (ch. 51); an equaliser, but not enough (epilogue).