Chapter 40 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 40 — Little Günter; a dragon chain

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 39 — Alliances break; Operation Snake Pit · Next: Chapter 41 — The production facility; Aryl goes dark · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

» Donut: THE NEW WALL IS COMING ALONG NICELY.

Summary

The castle is painted pink; the new wall and Shanty Town's clock tower are almost done; Jamal has broken his legs again. Carl's 1914 box: a spellbook that grew centipede legs, skittered into a corner dripping black goo and whimpers 'I'll die if you read me!' in a cartoon Austrian accent — it does not appear on the map, like the celestial potion and Donut's War Crime. The cleaner bot fetches it. Run, Little Günter, Run, a Special Edition learned at level 5: summons a one-hit-point child-like creature who stores whatever attack you land on him and runs, toward a target or at random, delivering it when he arrives or times out; his constitution rises to the caster's once activated, and a second hit triggers him early; at 10 he splits in two, at 15 in five. A bomb with legs, Carl realises, for Daughter's Kiss. Katia rotates Donut's tiara through the pillows: twenty-three jewels lit, constitution and Dodge added, a wasted one per cent Intelligence, a plastic baseball cap with Steady next. Spells are getting stranger — Tran's turns his arms to noodles. Then Rosetta's ink: Li Na has given her blood freely, losing five levels of her chain skill temporarily; intention matters, unlike the eye taken by violence, and the tattoo is permanent though the skill lasts the floor if it is well drawn and 'properly themed'. Li Na has not spoken to Carl since the eye; she is angry at herself, Katia says; Li Jun bought Walk on Air back with a book, and nothing heals the eye since the healer in Larracos died in the flood. Edgar, the tortoise, is scouting naga territory with level-15 Part of the Background and Sense Movement, which sees the invisible and the non-corporeal inside buildings; so Katia, who has only done Samantha's neck, holds the poke-and-stick kit. Donut in chat: draw it in the Voodoo book first for approval. 'It has to be a chain. A chain shaped like a dragon.' After: Louis, Elle, Imani and Katia tense in the room; Mordecai with potion balls, Tiatha with coils of wire; Zev announces the warlord council, broadcast live at the AI's insistence, in randomised rooms at the production facility, Juice Box virtual because dungeon-born may not enter, Ferdinand in the same room, no ship to space, a security check on site. Operation Snake Pit has begun.

Characters

• Carl — A crying spellbook; a dragon-shaped chain on his right forearm; the Emberus ring hotter.
• Katia Grim — Charging a tiara; a first real tattoo; 'Intention matters.'
• Li Na — Blood freely given; five levels lent; not speaking to Carl.
• Edgar — In naga territory, unseen, sensing movement through walls.
• Princess Donut — The castle is pink; design approval required.
• Zev — The council is not optional and goes out live.

Locations

• The Royal Palace of Princess Donut — Reached through Shanty Town now; pillows in separate rooms.

Motifs

• Loot boxes — A 1914 box and a book with legs.
• The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — The eaten eye set against blood freely given.
• The Tiara of a Thousand Lights — Twenty-three of ninety-nine.
• The Blood Sultanate — Snake Pit: subterfuge, a separated warlord pair, a council as cover.