Chapter 49 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 49 — Bijou, Theia and Khepri

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 48 — Colonel Prepotente · Next: Chapter 50 — The Temple of the Dagda · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by Crawler Carl, 25th Edition>

Summary

Carl's Cookbook note, twenty-fifth edition, from what Rosetta, Tipid and Justice Light are feeding him to write down: when someone first worships a god, a Bijou — a tiny non-corporeal fairy mob — drags a whisker-thin tendril of invisible light from the god, through the floor's strongest temple, almost always in Club Vanquisher from the third floor to the eleventh, to the worshipper's heart, in about two minutes; more tendrils grow as the adherent moves; nobody has ever caught a Bijou, though Mordecai thinks a trap could; and Edgar's level-15 Sense Movement can see their upward motion. That is the tell. The theory: of fifteen light deities with temples in Club Vanquisher, all have Travel the Path, which turns the caster to light along a route at light speed — not teleportation, and lethal if a shadow crosses it; six grant it on worship; four of those add Welcome Home, usable once, which follows the Bijou's tendril to the temple even if its entrance is buried. Problems: the Sultana has never shown signs of worship, so the missing guard is the worshipper who stays behind; and how do seven travel on one skill? Two of the four gods carry recruitment quests with a 'prospect' day pass: Theia turns prospects into pocketable motes of light and hosts weeks of wooing in a temple no crawler ever enters and no viewer can look into — a perfect hiding place, and, with her Ascendency history, never sponsored. Except this season: Theia is sponsored by someone in the Pacifist Network's employ, not Porthus, because Theia is Samantha's mother, sponsored on Carl's behalf before anyone knew the naga connection; she was the one who tore Slit in half. She will be a weapon later; today she would smite Vinata for them, so Vinata will not choose her. Which leaves Khepri, an obscure, unsponsorable god of light whose quest fires only for a female worshipper: prospects become beetles, she swallows them, and in his temple — an endless buffet crawling with insects — she sits on the table and gives birth to them. In three or four minutes Vinata and her guard will be in that room, and Carl, Katia, Pony and Samantha will break into Club Vanquisher and 'kill every motherfucker in the room.'

Characters

• Carl — Writes it down for the next crawler; ready to break into a temple.
• Edgar — The only eyes that can see a Bijou climb.
• Rosetta Thagra — Her theory, down to the god.
• Samantha — Her mother is Theia, sponsored by the Network.

Locations

• Club Vanquisher — Fifteen temples of light; a buffet of insects.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Carl's own note, on the mechanics of worship.
• The gods — Bijou fairies, tendrils of light, Travel the Path, Welcome Home.
• The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network — Sponsored a goddess to save Carl on the fifth floor.
• The Blood Sultanate — Khepri's beetles: the escape, explained.