Motif · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Carl's bare feet

Carl loses his borrowed Crocs in the first minutes and the AI notices: the Smush skill, the breathy item descriptions, the Enchanted Pedicure Kit of the Sylph, the Platinum Shoe Box. By the second floor his soles no longer feel the ground, his buffs require him barefoot, and the Maestro's parting gift of tactical boots is a taunt.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — Porthus; Welcome to Faction Wars
• Chapter 52 — The Temple of Khepri
• Chapter 57 — Thirty-two boxes; the last prisoner
• Chapter 61 — The War Mage Rebellion
• Chapter 65 — Bear Witness
• Chapter 68 — The Grease Monkey

Progression

A frozen coffee drunk with a finger (ch. 0); bare feet sloshing in the mud of a Larracos alley (ch. 1); a patch of four-leaf clovers being smashed under a bare foot, which Carl will never wear (ch. 57); a war mage staring at his feet — 'Nice shoes, asshole' (ch. 61); the AI's 'a babbling idiot with your bare feet buried in an All Tree root' (ch. 65); and bare feet on a trapped white floor, and Gloom Wraith Phase, as Burcu falls (ch. 68).