Chapter 84 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 84 — And then there were two

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Peeling of Larracos · Previous: Chapter 83 — Psamathe confesses · Next: Chapter 85 — Zerzura · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

» 66 Minutes Until the destruction of the 9th Floor.

Summary

'66 Minutes Until the destruction of the 9th Floor.' Emberus: 'This so-called Psamathe claims she was part of my son's death. Capture her for me […] I will cleanse this world in fire […] Fly, martyr. Bring my enemy to me.' It is already warmer. Team quest This is How the Gristle Grinds, no host, no opt-out: win Faction Wars fast and get out before the floor cremates; delay possible if Samantha shows up; reward a year off an indentureship on a first deal and 'extra toasty' food boxes. Elle: a positives-and-negatives analysis of the pet sex doll. Carl: 'Everyone haul ass back to the city […] This is your plan.' Katia must eat the orchid now — sixty minutes unconscious, then the goddess — with inventory untransferred and no goodbyes: 'Remember how I said you were going to Carl it up?' 'This one is on Samantha.' 'I love all of you.' Justice Light: 'Oh. Is that all? […] The trap is already turned on. It has been turned on for days now.' Louis's surgery: thirty minutes. Retribution abandons the Dream throne room. Rosetta: the stairwells appear in a ring around the castle ten seconds after the win with a 72-hour collapse clock. The ceremony needs ten more minutes than they have; Carl will stall with Samantha — the head-chucker goes on his hotlist; Donut: if Emberus picks her up it summons him to you. Donut leaps to the table too late: Katia is out at 1 per cent, Waiting for the Goddess; 'The Orchid of Eileithyia has been consumed.' Huanxin Jinx arrives two minutes before the melt. Donut cannot leave before Katia is taken: the Crown of the Sepsis Whore's price. Princess Lunette's golem — Signet's mother, once a tattoo — has gills; Loita's kua-tin rebreather will go inside. Edgar's procedure: Mordecai cuts, Donut pours, Carl and Tipid hold the ribs (Bautista has fled the tent), Imani and Rosetta open Lunette, thirty seconds of Special Brew, Juice Box activates, graft. 'what I’m aboot to do is a surgical procedure and is allowed under the non-combatant code. The second party in this is an empty shell.' Tagg's organs are machine threaded with pulsing red flesh; he panics. Donut stalls him: 'HOW ARE YOU GOING TO LOOK YOUR MOTHER IN THE EYE KNOWING YOU HAD SEX WITH HER?' and renames herself EPITOME TAGG'S SEXY MOTHER ('MY HAND IS STUCK IN THE WASHING MACHINE') until the name locks for the day; the Facebook insult was Bea's, and the Godfather's. 'Fuck this existence […] You don't deserve singularity.' Heart stopped; Bucket Boy yanks the organs out with a squelch (Mordecai cannot attack); potion; Lunette's organs squirm like an octopus seeking attachments; the rebreather sewn into the bronchial; Water Breathing by scroll and tubes to new gills held open with stops. The chest snaps shut like a mousetrap. Louis coughs water: 'I feel weird.' Applause. Samantha: 'We're cousins now' — a kiss. Mongo spits out the chewed plastic heart: 'Warlord Epitome Tagg of the Dream has fallen […] it's going to Mongo. Consider it a present for the baby shower.' 'And then there were two.' Thirty-two minutes. 'Sledge! It's time!'

Characters

• Katia Grim — Eats the orchid without goodbyes; 'I love all of you.'
• Louis and Firas — A naiad's heart and lungs and a rebreather; gills; cousins with Samantha.
• Princess Donut — EPITOME TAGG'S SEXY MOTHER.
• Epitome Tagg — 'You don't deserve singularity.' Chewed by a dinosaur.
• Mongo — Kills a warlord with his beak.
• Mordecai — A surgeon under the non-combatant code.
• Bucket Boy — Pulls the heart when nobody else can.
• Emberus — Sixty-six minutes to fire and lava and wrath.
• Justice Light — 'The trap is already turned on.'
• Daniel Bautista — Flees the tent.

Locations

• Larracos — A hospital tent, a clock, and heat rising.

Motifs

• Eileithyia's boons — Consumed; the goddess summoned; sixty minutes.
• The Crown of the Sepsis Whore — Donut cannot leave until Katia is taken.
• The gods — Emberus enters the realm; a martyr's errand.
• Princess Lunette — Her heart in Louis; a tattoo's second life.
• Faction Wars — 'And then there were two.'