Motif · from book 5
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.
Apito's sacrament, the first masquerade and the seal, in the mythology: the pantheon.
First appears: Book 5
Series arc
Through book 8
Yarilo was banished to the Nothing for breaking the peace of Apito's spell there (B8 ch. 70).
Through book 5
Through book 7
A body from its end (B7 ch. 84).
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 23/78 | 8, 20–21, 37, 51–52, 54, 56–60, 63–70, 73–74, 77 · the book's own page |
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 16/74 | 2, 5, 8, 10–11, 14, 21–22, 32, 41, 43, 47, 52, 54, 63, 72 · the book's own page |
| 7 — This Inevitable Ruin | 10/89 | 10, 13–14, 17, 26, 30, 42, 64, 67, 84 · the book's own page |
| 8 — A Parade of Horribles | 3/99 | Ch. 5, Ch. 40, Ch. 70 · the book's own page |
By book
The Butcher's Masquerade in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
First named on a severed hand (ch. 8); a trap for the top fifty, per Lexis (ch. 20); mandatory, seven days (ch. 37); a dance card delivered as lightning (ch. 51); the rules and the plus-one tokens (ch. 56). Then the thing itself: a goodwill overlay and a queen who skips the pet show (ch. 64); a sacrament with a guest list built for discord (ch. 65); sealed rooms and a stage where the overlay thins (ch. 66); 'Violence is blasphemy' (ch. 67); a boon no cleric has earned (ch. 68); the host's most valuable item as a prize (ch. 69); the host sealed in with her guests (ch. 72, ch. 73); the seal broken by a suicide, and Apito turning her back (ch. 74). One butcher; the mask worn the other way (ch. 77).
The Butcher's Masquerade in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Prepotente's cube and the boxes left unopened from it (ch. 2); the AI's greeting to the champion murderer supreme (ch. 2); Gimli eaten and Osvaldo's crystal at its end (ch. 5); Burcu met there (ch. 8); Donut's flawless performance, and the talent contest that got ruined (ch. 10, ch. 14); her platinum fan box for singing there (ch. 11); D'Nadia last seen at its very end (ch. 21); Britney, Tran and Louis, three it broke (ch. 22); the darkness since (ch. 63).
The Butcher's Masquerade in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin
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).
The Butcher's Masquerade in book 8 — A Parade of Horribles
Yarilo was banished to the Nothing for breaking the peace of Apito's spell there (ch. 70).