Part Twenty

*A new player, an impossible decision, a final confrontation...*

### Content Warnings

Severed head, gore, blood, corpses, mention of ear trauma, animal pain, animal death, torture (bones breaking),discussion of parental/child death, suicide attempt.

## Summary

Arthur and John enter the city and find it deserted. The population had been slaughtered by an entity that calls himself Kayne. Kayne is intrigued by the situation and gives Arthur a dagger to use at the right time. Arthur and John face the King in Yellow on the plateau. The King attempts to emotionally manipulate Arthur to let John go; when that fails, he resorts to torture. In his desperation, Arthur sees no other way than to sacrifice himself to prevent the King from winning. John rejoins the King to save Arthur, who is returned to his world still bleeding.

## Synopsis

After finding and retrieving his daughter’s music box from the trader, Arthur enters the city. The streets are deserted; as they travel deeper, they find damaged buildings. They find the inhabitants of the city torn apart with apparent cruel violence, as if their entrails were played with. Hearing music, Arthur follows it into an amphitheater.

A bloody man in a black suit and no shoes is sitting at the piano, playing Faroe's Song. He evades the question when Arthur asks who he is (answering only 'a friend, the only friend you have right now'), though he seems aware of everything that has happened to Arthur and John so far. The stranger is also able to hear John. Demanding the music box, Arthur hands it over and is indignant that the man gets blood on it. The stranger also admits he killed the residents because he was bored, and that the music box was only a lure. Arthur and John have caught his interest, he says, because the King in Yellow is tearing worlds apart to find a way to break Arthur -- but, ultimately, the stranger doesn't care what the outcome is. He claims his interest in Arthur: how Arthur could be so special that he could survive being bound to John, when everyone else would have died. Arthur suggests that it is because he presents the best and worst humanity has to offer. The stranger disagrees.

Arthur asks if the stranger can see the future; to that, the stranger says that the King will win. He gives them a dagger tells Arthur: “But when all is said and done, you can always flip a coin.” He gives his name as Kayne before he disappears.

Arthur and John debate what to do next and settle on going deeper into the city. They find Lilly, who is wounded and suffering. With a heavy heart, they end Lilly's life with a dagger. They give Lilly a brief funeral, with Arthur reciting the eulogy that John gives. John cries tears out of Arthur's eyes.

They decide to face the King in Yellow, further on the plateau. On the way up, Arthur reveals that he used art as an outlet for his grief after his parents' suicide -- which ultimately lead to him picking up music. He recites a poem that he wrote after his parents' death for John.

On the plateau, the stairs vanish behind them and the King’s dancers appear. One of them cuts Arthur before the King himself arrives. The King blocks John out, leaving Arthur and the King alone. He tells Arthur that John wants to be free, but Arthur disagrees. The King notes how attached Arthur is to John despite his betrayals and harsh words, concluding that Arthur loves him. Arthur admits that he can’t lose anyone else; in rebuttal, King says that death surrounds Arthur. The King emphasizes that he is alone and that John doesn’t care about him, citing Parker's and Emily's murder as proof of his monstrosity. Arthur counters that John means something to him and that he believes that people can change.

After being refused, the King begins to break Arthur's legs so that Arthur will set John free. John asks the King to stop and wants to know what will happen if he leaves the body willingly. His terms are for Arthur to be returned home and left in peace.  Before John can leave, Arthur pulls out the dagger and, determined to not let the King win, slits his throat. Pleading for the King to save him, John leaves Arthur and the King dumps Arthur back into his world, still bleeding.

## Votes

* Chapter 96: "Why are you so different, Arthur? No wrong answers here!" [write-in]
	+ Top-voted comment: You're asking the wrong question; the thing that makes Arthur special is not what saved him. The reason Arthur survived upon opening the book is us. His gut feeling, his spiritual advisors; just like John protected his sanity simply by being there, so did we. We're invested in his survival (well, most of us), and we're nudging him to make the decisions that will protect him and John. But the reason Arthur is special? It's that he's so very human. His stubbornness, his compassion, his unthinkable mistakes. We can only nudge, make the big decisions—Arthur makes decisions every moment of his life by virtue of being human. We didn’t make Arthur who he is, and we didn’t keep him sane. If Arthur gave up, if Arthur wasn’t Arthur, there’d be nothing we could do. If Arthur hadn’t been so stubbornly, beautifully human, then a fragment of a god would never have realized all he could be. He would have no desire to stay separate from his other half, to protect the meat suit he was walking around in. So that’s my answer, as one of those advisors. But we can't put the words into Arthur's mouth, because we don't control him. We can only try to understand him from what little we've seen of his life, and try to protect him because we've come to care for him too. Let Arthur answer.
* Chapter 97: Head Back Toward the Gate [8] / **Head Deeper Into the City [12]**
* Chapter 98: **Kill Lilly [22]** / Leave Lilly Alone to Die Slowly [3]
* Chapter 99: **Arthur [23]** / **John [23]**
* Chapter 100: No vote.

## Additional Notes

* When listing all the items in Arthur’s possession, Kayne doesn’t mention the lighter.