Chapter 27 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 27 — Gavrilo Princip

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 26 — Milk; the Empress marked · Next: Chapter 28 — Toyotomi; Agatha is looking for Carl · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

The five points to Intelligence flashed into my interface, followed by several notificatio

Summary

Five points to Intelligence, then the achievement: Gavrilo Princip. Stockade's death barely rippled — the Lemig council's parts are interchangeable — but D'Nadia was the last living heir of a small, powerful trading dynasty, now dead and bankrupt, and the probate courts are girding; for real chaos, the AI suggests, 'Try killing that Dream guy. Or the Viceroy. Or that Jello-looking thing […] when you start killing off investment bankers' A Legendary 1914 box. The kill credit goes to pet Mongo; the Prism is defeated; its assets pass to the Posse, with a warning that non-adjoining property cannot be dismantled and its throne room is vulnerable. Ten gnoll mercenaries burst in — eight now under a blinking red Posse banner, conscripted for a week and unable to attack officers, one Madness, one Dream — and stop at Donut's 'Stop!'. Corporal Pillbox: they guarded communication gear on the moon and want no part of this; Lockjaw and Mange are their mates, Mange his cousin, 'and my ma would never forgive me'. Carl's finger itches under the ring and he takes it off with everyone watching. Boomer reports the NPC mercenaries accepted new colours; Carl refuses the push to the naga castle. The anger drains out like air through an airlock and leaves mourning, bewildering and strange. Nobody has to die; the two must be separated; Pillbox's men are ordered to kill their friends if they turn. Nihit, unable to leave, goes to join Panford on the eighteenth floor. Victory: a live roundtable of every remaining warlord tomorrow, Juice Box and Ferdinand included, hostilities frozen meanwhile. Florin: the north cannot hold without air support and the new NPCs; the castle is preparing for a siege. Donut asks whether they are going to talk about it, and Carl fears she means D'Nadia; she means the notification he set aside — his base stats now make him Party Leader of the Royal Court of Princess Donut. 'It was inevitable.' The outrage is mostly for show now, which saddens him. In chat: 'I want you to throw that ring away, Carl […] You're scaring me.' His mother said that to his father. 'Not yet. I need it for just a little longer.' 'It's not going to matter if it kills you first.' Rend is gnawing the rhino.

Characters

• Carl — Gavrilo Princip; party leader at last; Donut's 'You're scaring me', words his mother used to say to his father.
• Princess Donut — 'Stop!' and eight mercenaries stop; a broken home threatened, for show.
• Corporal Pillbox — A gnoll who guarded a moon and asks for his cousin's life.
• Mongo — Credited with an empress.
• Nihit — Off to the eighteenth floor.
• Baroness Victory — News of a roundtable; off to watch the north.
• Florin — Cannot sustain the north.

Locations

• The Prism headquarters — Taken; indefensible.

Motifs

• Achievements — Gavrilo Princip and a 1914 box; investment bankers as the real chaos.
• The Ring of Divine Suffering — Taken off, shaking, in front of the room.
• Faction Wars — Conscripted mercenaries under a red banner for a week; the Prism's land as a liability.
• Carl's family — 'You're scaring me' — what his mother said to his father.