Chapter 69 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 69 — Interlude — Several days earlier; Interlude — Rosetta; Zarogoths

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Peeling of Larracos · Previous: Chapter 68 — The Grease Monkey · Next: Chapter 70 — City of Broken Dreams · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

“No,” Katia said, looking about.

Summary

Several days earlier: Carl was meant to see Shi Maria's dream, but a second connection bound him into Katia's, and for a moment he glimpsed everyone — Mordecai's sadness, Rosetta's rage, Imani's guilt. 'This is what the dungeon sees' — but it has never been human. Katia's memory is a children's hospital in Iceland: Fannar, the ex, 'Telling them the truth'; the adoption denied; and baby Annie in the only occupied crib, with brain cancer. The memory is about a year old; Annie died later, in that room, Katia thinks, before the dungeon came, and Katia learned of it only by chance from a nurse. 'It's also my favorite memory.' Katia had been sure she would kill herself. She worries about Daniel and Huanxin Jinx; 'I love you and Donut more.' Shi Maria bursts in — 'I didn't kill him!' — and a new voice: 'Bitch, you swallowed me whole.'

Rosetta: Victory reports the money has reached the Naga system, enough for two ships, with which, if all goes to plan, Porthus and the crawlers' families flee toward the Plenty system and the forbidden gate of the Impetus Point; the Homecoming Queen is to shoot down the orc yacht carrying Stalwart's children, one of them now king, leaving Formidable or the Maestro — a deal brokered by Porthus and Victory long before she was adjutant. She speaks of the Apothecary, a collective mind she does not trust, whose reason Porthus will not tell her lest the local AI and then the Eulogist learn it. Agatha is a residual of the rarer kind, in line with the Nebulars who worship the Eulogist, which makes her the Apothecary's enemy; and Justice Light has a project Porthus does not know about. Her mission done, she decides to fight for her friends and orders the army to fight on in the city. Her card: Gazetteer, Crest, level 91, took the deal at the start of the eleventh floor, ninth edition of the Cookbook.

Now: five teams remain; the Rebellion's castle timer is under six hours, and the lava reaches Shanty Town. Zarogoths pour from an antenna the war mages built. Victory, running beside Carl, says Agatha is co-warlord as Ferdinand was, Deng Bao the adjutant; Carl asks why, when Zev's order not to speak to her came from the Syndicate prime minister himself. Fopsy, the Dream's adjutant, arrives, which tells Carl that Tagg is in the ball too. Donut's second Atrocity rips the corpse field into fleshers. A war mage inside the ball strips Eris's soul armour; Nami, her driver, is thrown out, taken by fleshers, and killed by Carl's hob-lobber before she can rise as a war mage. The war mages traded the Gate of the Feral Gods at the Midnight Market for five hell-kissed Conscription potions; a mage conscripts Yarilo and explodes; Li Na stops the one sent at Harpocrates. Carl heals the ball and has Donut roll it back toward the city rather than break it with a conscripted god inside. Fopsy: the residual is trying to end the Ascendency to trigger the hard-coded shutdown before the spreading AI becomes a threat to the Eulogist. A flesher of Derek Reilly approaches, and Carl runs.

Characters

• Menerva — The missing crawler from Porthus's own crawl, whose finding is his unhealthy obsession.
• Katia Grim — Annie, a hospital in Iceland, her favorite and worst memory.
• Carl — Inside a dream he was not invited to; 'the last moment of the crash'.
• Rosetta Thagra — Her mission complete; Brooks, her mother, Rust; chooses to fight anyway.
• Porthus — A generation ship, the goats, the Impetus Point; trusts the Apothecary.
• Baroness Victory — Two ships bought; a yacht to be shot down; 'I will not cheat.'
• Agatha — A residual of the Eulogist's kind, co-warlord with a man who dislikes her.
• Fopsy — A tripod adjutant who theorises and will not say more before a combatant.
• Nami — Blown out of a goddess, fleshered, hob-lobbed.
• Li Na — Installs her brother's eye.
• Bianca — Kills a meteor; crashes in purple smoke.

Locations

• The Madness territory — A corpse field boiling into fleshers; a ball rolling home.
• Larracos — Zarogoths, an antenna, lava in Shanty Town, a submerged castle held by mages.

Motifs

• The Krakaren — A collective mind Porthus trusts and Rosetta fears; the Eulogist's enemy.
• The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network — Stolen funds, two ships, families fleeing the center system.
• The Residuals — Agatha's kind; the Nebulars; a plan to shut the system down.
• Dreams — Two dreams collide; the dungeon sees but does not understand.
• Atrocities — Donut's second: 'What a naughty kitty.'
• The war mages — Meteor jumps, conscripted gods, Zarogoths from an antenna.