Motif · from book 4
The changelings
Shape-changers on Hump Street and in the bubbles — a school of principals, Svern's card, Henrik's confession — hunted for one creature, fed against Compression Sickness, promised a home on the sixth floor and a Gate they would not use; the survivors fly beside a house as geese to the Hunting Grounds. Carl's promise to bring them down every floor.
First appears: Book 4
Series arc
As of book 7. Hunted in book 4, promised a home, hidden in book 6; in book 7 Juice Box's army and something more. Ungated by a fifth-floor quest, they copy anything they touch, and she spends them touching gods; a war mage's card cites 'that pissed-off changeling army'; Architect Houston calls them the key to the Beautiful Place and wires himself to a dead one, whose roots become Li Jun's face; golden ogres stop a god at a threshold; and they go down with the city to hold the gods off it on the twelfth.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Houston's Beautiful Place: the changelings as the key | B7 ch. 68 | open — 'They are the key. The changelings. This world. Why do you think we come here, cycle after cycle? […] It was here all along, right under our mandibles.' A dead changeling grew roots and became Li Jun's face; Carl was held spinning as with Paulie. The Viceroys' study of life and death, and the thing some see at the moment of death. |
| Juice Box in the Nothing, to be reborn 'the ultimate weapon' | B7 ch. 87 | open — She took the long way to the twelfth believing he would follow; 'I have something inside me, Carl. Something very, very powerful'; the Beautiful Place is a form she can take. Her changelings and her city are in the Court of the Ascendency without her. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 4
Shape-changers on Hump Street; a school of principals; Svern's card and Henrik's confession; hunted for one creature and fed against Compression Sickness (B4 ch. 2–B4 ch. 15); the principals thought by Juice Box to be in the necropolis and found dead on the Akula's bridge (B4 ch. 13, B4 ch. 26); the survivors flying beside a house as geese through a portal to the Hunting Grounds (B4 ch. 33), and Carl's promise to bring them down every floor (B4 ch. 34).
Through book 5
Through book 6
Through book 7
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 22/35 | 1–3, 5–7, 9–17, 21, 26, 28, 31–34 · the book's own page |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 18/78 | 3, 8, 23, 52, 54, 56–59, 63–67, 70, 72–73, 76 · the book's own page |
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 6/74 | Ch. 12, Ch. 20, Ch. 22, Ch. 30, Ch. 40, Ch. 48 · the book's own page |
| 7 — This Inevitable Ruin | 28/89 | 8–14, 19–20, 22, 25, 30, 42–44, 56, 59, 61, 68, 70–71, 73–74, 78–79, 82, 84–85 · the book's own page |
By book
The changelings in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
Prostitutes changing shape on Hump Street (ch. 2); Mordecai's warning and Juice Box's viper-fast catch (ch. 5); Svern's card and Henrik's confession (ch. 6, ch. 10); heads that read hotter in Donut's sunglasses (ch. 10); one creature hunted, a food against Compression Sickness, a home on the sixth floor, a Gate they would not use (ch. 15); the principals vanished, assumed gone into the tomb, and six of them dead on a submarine's bridge (ch. 13, ch. 26); Juice Box remembering (ch. 28); every survivor, adults and children, flying beside a house as geese and going through a portal to the Hunting Grounds (ch. 33). Carl's promise to bring them down every floor.
The changelings in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
Juice Box's people, whom Carl has promised to help get down, some of the children sick with compression sickness, in the saferoom and then the castle: Ruby, Skarn, the bear cubs, the children in human form (ch. 56–ch. 59, ch. 63); dead in the castle fight and alive with the castle on the ninth floor (ch. 72, ch. 73, ch. 76).
The changelings in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Building Carl's stronghold on the ninth floor (ch. 12); only the ones with compression sickness came with Mordecai — Ruby among them, in six attendant slots (ch. 20); a movie (ch. 21); Juice Box in the faceless default form, her own team, and better at infiltrating castles every time (ch. 22); once the secret is out, Mordecai leaves them to the workers (ch. 30); asleep in a heap with the strippers (ch. 40); water balloons, and Christmas with Samantha chasing them in blinking lights (ch. 40, ch. 48).
The changelings in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin
Golems and changelings begin the stronghold (ch. 12); spies in every court (ch. 19); ungated, Justice Light suspects, by a fifth-floor quest, able to copy anything they touch (ch. 56); spent on gods — one touched Bast and died, one 'is… wrong' (ch. 56). The war mages' card cites 'that pissed-off changeling army' (ch. 61); Houston calls them the key to the Beautiful Place and wires himself to a dead one (ch. 68); golden ogres stop a god at a threshold (ch. 70); basilica guards to hold the gods off the city on the twelfth (ch. 85).