Chapter 75 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 75 — Stayfast Ink

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Peeling of Larracos · Previous: Chapter 74 — Bijanbi · Next: Chapter 76 — The Oak Fell · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

Donut didn’t even look at the tattoo on her ass.

Summary

Two rude achievements — traitor, and a stolen catalytic converter — and the spell, level two, from a god called Wepwawet of the Court of Nekhebit; Donut may now worship him, or Odette. Milk, hands unbound, writes Words of Power over the tattoo in black then purple ink, the calligraphy guild's style; the line-art dog lifts a leg and licks itself and stays that way; the spell jumps to 15, temporarily, fading with the ink but good for training. Milk to Carl, a webbed hand on his cheek: 'Inks and letters that shine the brightest burn out the fastest'; she once wrote her recipes in a book, changed inks to share more widely, and everything after the change faded — 'Some of my best recipes were lost […] It is my fault that I didn't write them properly.' Rosetta grunts. 'No single recipe is a feast in itself.' A wineskin: Stayfast Ink, 825 ml, 'Nothing will ever make it fade […] Not even distance or time or the death of a star', and an Adept's fountain pen ('Or will you literally stab someone in the neck with it again?'). 'IS SHE HITTING ON YOU?' Milk: 'He also has another book […] Anything he writes in it will be given to everybody who already has the book.' Rosetta jumps with Edgar on Feather Fall; Milk glides on her wings. Dong at the tower's foot with a crowd of sluggalos from nowhere. The pets go in their carriers. 'She said it was my fault that Li Jun is dead' — Li Na to Donut; 'she's not wrong, either.' 'You keep forgetting how strong I am now […] You're overprotective of me. You're almost as bad as I am with Mongo.' 'They're all screaming, Carl […] I hope they don't remember their time in there.' 'They put us here. This is their war […] we won't stop until each and every one of them has paid their debt tenfold.' 'Katia and I have a plan […] you can't tell Bautista […] she says you'll Carl it up.' By message: 'I got a benefactor box when you weren't looking' — the Apothecary's. Li Na: Go. Harpocrates tosses the ball into the funnel; the castle's water is acid and the last digger will drain it; the towers spin up on the ball; Bounce House will catch the fallers. The ball lodges three-quarters down. Then Donut's paw hits a wall: a second net, Lucia's, on the whole structure, triggered when the first timed out and powered by Power Siphon off the Larracos towers ('It's genius,' says Victory); Lucia is 'off the playing field' and cannot be ordered; the trigger is a marble on the ground that only a hand can take. Carl: abort — too late, the ball is breaking. 'Cast it, but don't pick fire! […] Anything but fire!' Dong is sent to pick up a burning marble in a field about to fill with fleshers. 'The ball has broken! Cast now!'

Characters

• Milk — Stayfast Ink and a pen; a lost book of recipes; 'No single recipe is a feast in itself.'
• Princess Donut — Wepwawet's spell at 15; a plan with Katia; a benefactor box.
• Carl — A pen, an ink, and a Book of Voodoo that copies to everyone.
• Lucia Mar — A second net, waiting for a power source.
• Baroness Victory — 'It's genius. I would never have thought of that.'
• Dong Quixote — Sent for a burning marble.
• Li Na — 'It's a little late for that.'

Locations

• The Nest — Netted at eight per cent over a field about to burn.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Ink that never fades; the recipes that did; a pen.
• The Filthy Little Crawler's Book of Voodoo — 'Anything he writes in it will be given to everybody.'
• The Krakaren — A benefactor box Donut has not told him about.
• The gods — Wepwawet, the Court of Nekhebit, Odette as a worship option.
• Faction Wars — 'This is their war.'