Motif · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

The Butcher's Masquerade

A party the top fifty crawlers and the surviving hunters are transferred to whether they like it or not, in the high elf castle at the end of the sixth floor — and a spell: one of Apito's holiest sacraments, cast once in a life by the most divine, with a guest list chosen by the goddess to sow discord, a celestial peace seal that feeds anyone who breaks it to the Nothing, goodwill ballrooms in which enemies cannot touch, and a boon nobody has ever won. No masks. The name, Carl decides afterwards, has one butcher in it.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 10 — Hamed's club; the small wedding
• Chapter 13 — The FUPA; a suicide bomber
• Chapter 14 — The flag room and the Ramp-Up
• Chapter 17 — Eleven hours
• Chapter 26 — Milk; the Empress marked
• Chapter 30 — Comrades
• Chapter 42 — The warlord council; Princess Vinata
• Chapter 64 — The crystal shows itself
• Chapter 67 — Hey, Dickless
• Chapter 84 — And then there were two

Progression

Donut has had Ferdinand's turban since it (ch. 10); Tina woke up during it, and Kiwi was changed back to a bear there, which won the Tina quest (ch. 13); Bonnie came with the changelings after it (ch. 14). The goodwill ballroom in the transferred castle is a different one from the one Carl was in (ch. 17); D'Nadia remembers sitting with Signet there (ch. 26); Carl thinks of Donut sobbing at its end (ch. 30); Ferdinand sentenced Chaco to death at its prize counter (ch. 42); the memorial crystal Prepotente and Osvaldo fought over at its end is glowing (ch. 64); Burcu was met there (ch. 67); and Princess Lunette, the body meant for Samantha, was given to Carl by Signet in its last moments (ch. 84).