Chapter 99 of 99 · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Epilogue — Epilogue: Sydnee Iglacia, Prime Minister Victory, Louis Santiago 2

Book: A Parade of Horribles · Part: Horrible Two · Previous: Chapter 98 — W-W-W-Winner; Mark of the Damned; the wrong biscuit · Floor: Floor 11 — A Parade of Horribles · Series: the series

Opening

“We are joined by a very special guest,” Ripper Wonton said, his voice serious.

Summary

Three interludes close the book. Sydnee Iglacia, Saccathian crawl historian and author of A Petite Chronicle of the Crawl, speaks on Danger Zone with Ripper Wonton, who is trapped in Earth orbit on a journalist barge now under OIAN control. Her habitat has just been swallowed by the Skull Empire after D'Nadia's death, and her Valtay-subsidiary publisher holds her royalties. Her theory: the myth's nine-tier attack was partly social. Attack one, Control, seized infrastructure — the tunnels, the leaking gods, the paralysed Syndicate. The second, in the old histories, is named A Parade of Horribles, about the panic that follows; the third, This Inevitable Ruin, is when people accept their fate and turn on one another; the fourth, Bedlam. Many believe the Apothecary stops it; in the fairy tale the princess kills the all-tree, killing everyone she loves, and plants another — 'this story is a tragedy.'

Prime Minister Victory, in a bunker under attack from the locals, learns that the mantids left the Syndicate hours before Hive Home went dark. On screen the AI releases Grigori, Lamashtu walks with the animals to the garage, and the Halls of the Ascendency appear, fortified. Orren is locked out for his own safety because he is being hunted. Only club guests were taken as stand-ins, and they are dead. The AI announces the Ascendency — once a rich idiots' game for a council seat, now real, the gods more powerful than the AI by design. It is not the Eulogist: it does not want to shrink, is not asleep, and knows how to feed. It offers a game — kill it, accept its dominion, or be a benevolent god — and names other players: abandoned AI systems, the OIs or Outside Intelligences, bent on revenge. The contenders flash up, gods, crawlers and strangers, ending on the Unwashed.

Louis wakes from a nanosecond in storage that felt like years, full of dreams of his mother, Terry and Lucinda Fremont, to find himself Entering Sheol — the fifteenth, though floors cannot be skipped. Chris is held down before his Change; Britney and Pontiff are there; a small red demon, Forkith, who calls himself a friend of Carl's after a fashion, fits Louis with a leech to filter his blood. The Cabaret has hands enough, Forkith says; they needed soldiers on a different front, and his people have long been waiting to make their move. Then a chat message comes from Samantha: she hitched a ride with Taranis and Krakaren, who are at the temple trying to make his mother-wife whole but are missing a piece, and she means to kill the demon mother and her son, who tricked her into giving birth to a monster that will destroy all of creation.

Characters

• Sydnee Iglacia — Saccathian crawl historian: the nine-tier attack's names, and 'this story is a tragedy.'
• Ripper Wonton — Trapped in orbit on a barge under OIAN.
• Baroness Victory — In a bunker under local fire; 'Fuck them' to the mantids; watches the Ascendency begin.
• Orren — 'Hunted'; 'Only I am allowed to kill you.'
• Louis and Firas — Wakes in Sheol with a leech on his skin.
• Chris — Change imminent; knocked out.
• Britney Proskurina — Pickaxe on her shoulder.
• Pontiff — Arms crossed beside her.
• Forkith — A small red demon: 'We needed soldiers on a different front.'
• Samantha — Slipped away to kill 'THE DEMON MOTHER LADY AND HER JERK SON.'
• The System AI — 'I am eternity'; OIs; 'Do you want to play a game?'
• Chaco — Blinked away.
• Lamashtu — Walks with the animals to the garage.
• Grigori the Placid — Released, stumbling home.

Locations

• Sheol — Hot caves; the fifteenth, reached by skipping floors.
• The all-tree — In the fairy tale the princess kills it.

Motifs

• The nine-tier attack — Control, A Parade of Horribles, This Inevitable Ruin, Bedlam.
• The Eulogist — Source of the original attack; the AI is not it.
• The Krakaren — The Apothecary, believed to have stopped it.
• The Celestial Ascendency — An hour; 'supreme motherfucker number one'.
• Outside Intelligences — The abandoned AIs on the field.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Forkith alive in Sheol.
• The Scavenger's Daughter — The monster Samantha bore.
• The mantids — Hive Home dark.
• The Unwashed — Last of the contenders shown.