Chapter 64 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 64 — The crystal shows itself

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: Open Hostilities · Previous: Chapter 63 — Into the Madness · Next: Chapter 65 — Bear Witness · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

» Boomer: Samantha start moving, kid!

Summary

Yarilo bellows for Psamathe — 'By his left tit, stop running!' — and Samantha runs where Boomer says: he blames her for his banishment. Then a funnel of prismatic light blazes straight up through the clouds a mile into the Madness's woods and waves like a shaken flashlight; the Scavenger's Daughter 'has blinked her eyes, but she does not know what she sees'; Emberus's quest updates: the Memorial Crystal: Apito 'has just shown itself. Abandon your current task and obtain it.' Osvaldo, in the woods with his Team Flamengo, cannot put it away — 'Vai pra puta que pariu! You don't think I'm trying?' — and the message log goes to Victory as possible illegal corroboration. The trees grow taller where the light falls. Carl's reading: the god who comes for an escapee from the Nothing is the one who banished them; Yarilo was banished for ruining one of Apito's masquerades; Apito is dead and not dead; another clue. 'You wanted chaos, Carl.' Subterfuge is negated; Prepotente reports the other half of the Madness's host turning from the 103rd toward the rainbow: 'Carl, I suspect you're about to be in extreme danger.' Plan B without the gate: summon Jurgen's half of the 105th here — 'Heidi and I are ready to fight' — at the cost of Prepotente's psionic cover for Bodi's 103rd, whose retreat Donut must cover instead once Bodi is clear of 'the seeds'; 'Don't just fake retreat. Haul ass out of there.' Eighteen automatons pulled for the original team. Hundreds of missiles fall on the castle and strip its shield; backlit by the fires, hundreds of dune buggies race toward them; Elle calls cheese cutters, the last anti-personnel missiles; it will not be enough. A strange calm. 'Well, that's not how this was supposed to go.'

Characters

• Osvaldo — A crystal he cannot stow, lighting the sky; swears in Portuguese.
• Carl — Told to abandon the raid for a crystal; chooses the raid and Plan B.
• Prepotente — 'Carl, I suspect you're about to be in extreme danger.'
• Jurgen — 'Heidi and I are ready to fight.'
• Bodi — Ordered to retreat without cover; 'Very well.'
• Samantha — Chased by a god who hates her.
• Elle McGibbons — 'You wanted chaos, Carl.'

Locations

• The Madness territory — A castle under a missile rain; buggies coming.

Motifs

• Memorial crystals — Apito's crystal wakes and signals to the whole floor.
• The gods — Yarilo, Apito's masquerade, banishment and return.
• The Scavenger's Daughter — Blinks at something she does not recognise.
• Faction Wars — Illegal corroboration by message log; a retreat uncovered.