Chapter 74 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 74 — Bijanbi

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Peeling of Larracos · Previous: Chapter 73 — An act of fiendish cruelty · Next: Chapter 75 — Stayfast Ink · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

“Sorry,” Rosetta said. “It’s gotta be a tattoo, and Milk here is going to etch words of po

Summary

Not a spellbook: a tattoo, with Milk's words of power written over it to lift it past level eight for War Crime. 'You will not be shaving my ass!' Rosetta's plan replaces Laundry Day, which might strip the fleshers from the enemies and turn them on friends: Hamzo is too narrow, so a Dinner Bell variant from a cleric who fell at the FUPA — his god's spell, once called Heel, this season Bijanbi — will drag every enemy out of the broken ball into a Wall of Fire; fleshers resist fire, symbiotes do not, so any who resist are pounced and burned; the fire is the finisher because War Crime keeps them alive, and it also kills the baby war mages. 'Oh. Oh fuck.' Killing Tagg and Fang would do it too, but Fang is 'worse than a changeling' to find. The full War Crime card from Carl's scratch pad: starts at level 5, plus 5 per cast; Atrocity; a beam from the caster's eyes; one mana; once per floor on Scolopendra levels 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18; three casts ever; combines two spells (three at 10, four at 15) 'in a creative way'; health to 1 per cent; the spells lost for the floor but chainable later; cannot kill — 'They will want to die. They won't'; the only prior casting, an Operatic warlord's Fireball plus Paralysis on two hundred mantid mercenaries, left them paralysed and burning for two weeks, the caster earning experience by the hour, later reset and re-absorbed, 'Part of his essence eventually formed into Hortense Leadership Unit. I’d like to think that’s why he has a twitch to him.' — a last paragraph only Carl saw. Li Na: Harpocrates is fighting the conscription; go now. Carl: 'She’s not doing it' Donut: 'I hoped none of them would be on the outside.' 'The scars.' Carl: not a scar, a badge, because it was your choice; you can still say no. 'I'll only do it if you also get a matching one. A matching ass tattoo.' 'Absolutely.' A bald patch on her right flank ('I will not have a tramp stamp on me'); Edgar: this ink, made with Milk's help, is like the toraline's but not identical, captures a fallen crawler's essence and lends one spell; the Book of Voodoo could share spells the same way, more temporarily. 'What are you drawing?' 'A dog.' About five hours before the war mages holding the castle win Faction Wars, and the rerouted lava is filling the funnel's upper levels and will soon force the defenders out of the college.

Characters

• Princess Donut — 'Do I look like someone who doesn't love their mother?'; consents, on a condition.
• Carl — 'This is no scar, Donut […] because it was your choice.'
• Rosetta Thagra — Scissors, a pink Bic, and a rare smile.
• Edgar — A different kind of tattoo; 'A dog.'
• Milk — Ink tips; words of power to come.

Locations

• The Nest — A tattoo parlour at the top of a dying tower.

Motifs

• Atrocities — The War Crime card entire; Hortense's twitch.
• Scars — 'It won't be a scar. It will be a badge of honor.'
• Edgar's tattoos — Ink that borrows from the willing and takes from the unwilling.
• The Filthy Little Crawler's Book of Voodoo — A way to share spells, Edgar thinks.