Gods apparently took the form of giant flying snakes here.

The specimen soaring though the panicked, scrambling Sighted Path traffic at Heaven's Tread's core could have comfortably stretched across a couple football fields. Its flat body featured wide frills like the flying lizard she'd seen at a zoo half-a-lifetime and several universes back. Each sinuous ripple twisting down its length echoed in her bones and her body swayed mesmerotically to its rhythms. Not only did it wave side-to-side as a normal snake might, but simultaneously wove up and down, frills flaring. The sinuous motion propelled it forward with startling speed. A Chinese dragon crossed with a king cobra.

The monstrosity's mouth distended, swallowing anything in its path. Many travelers launched off drifting cargo to gamble on catching a net, platform, or a Reacher tentacle while risking a plummeting descent to the city below.

At the tail end, the god's body widened into a spined fan and there the whole scene became even more bizarre. In several dozen places, hooks sank into scales to anchor a broad skein of ropes and wires. This trailing ropy web culminated in kites and gliders bound together in a riotously-colored snarl and stitched to one another by yet more lines. Squinting, Aida discerned human figures pulling themselves across the ropes or moving about the box kites that resolved in her mind as improbable tent-like dwellings.

More figures crawled along ropes affixed about the god-snake's body, many carrying long hooked poles with which they snagged unescorted bundles of merchandise or snared the occasional helplessly-drifting traveler.

"I... what are... those people..." Her brain and tongue couldn't seem to work together to form a coherent question.

"God-dwellers, the godly nomads." Fallon said, tone reverential. "Sacrosanct and holy, devoted entirely to their god. Live and die in the god's wake or upon its scales."

"Their whole lives?" Her imagination struggled and failed to envision it. "What about the stuff they're stealing?"

Fallon's body swayed subtly with the snake's undulations. A glance around confirmed that all who watched it did likewise, entrained with its swaying motion. Nearby, a scruffy-looking adolescent exaggerated it to ridiculous extremes, drawing uproarious laughter from his watching mates and disapproving looks from his elders. Apparently, teenagers were teenagers no matter the universe.

"Those items become holy offerings to the god and its keepers. Should those merchants survive, they will find many blessings upon them."

Aida snorted. "With their livelihoods swiped by a bunch of snake monks I'd sure hope so."

Fallon graced her with his patented disapproving look.

"Why doesn't someone stop it or kill it? It's eating people!"

"To be god-eaten is the holiest death." Fallon peered up at monstrosity plunging through a panicking convoy. "Every child memorizes the God's Rote before even the Sacrosanct Chant. 'The gods are uncreated, the First Ones. The gods are unique, no two alike. The Gods are undying-'"

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"I get the gist." Aida pointed, horrified, as the caravaneers pushed off their baggage and launched in all directions. "They don't seem to be excited about dying holy."

"Surprising how many prefer a terrible life to an excellent death."

Aida felt the the great beast's movement in her blood like jazz. Memories flashed of the speakeasy her older sister snuck her into when she was ten. Like an idiot, she'd blabbed to her parents and gotten her sister kicked out of the house. The speakeasy, however, had been all thrills and excitement but now she felt a mix of horror and awe. Awe in the original sense of the word.

A distinctive figure in a deep green dress and flowing black hair tumbled from the Sighted Path. The woman sailed past a Reacher's swinging tentacle, gaining speed until she slammed into a Wicker Way's scaffolding.

Others died horribly as she watched, ground in a snake-gizzard or plummeting to their doom. She felt detached yet simultaneously caught up in the sensual sway and shocking spectacle.

The ring at her throat jerked violently. She clasped it tight, afraid it would break free from the choker.

"What the hell is this thing doing?" she muttered.

Then the whispers started.

A glance around failed to reveal a source for the sibilant sussurations. Only Ghillie stood close enough to Aida to whisper, but the mute girl couldn't possibly be the origin. Gradually, the sounds became louder. Insistent, hissing bursts of inhuman language.

"Fallon." She shook her head, tapping at her ears. "Fallon, something's not right with my head."

Halting at the carriage stairs as he climbed back inside, Fallon turned. "Perhaps the first statement you have made with which I can agree wholeheartedly."

"No, I think there's something wrong with the strings. The ring keeps shaking and humming. And I'm hearing... what are those?"

Sinuous figures darted, whirled, and writhed about the god's body, liquid smoke beings mimicking the movement of the huge beast they accompanied. Somehow Aida knew those shadowy beings produced the whispers and, at an equally instinctive level, knew they sensed her. Several twisted and thrashed about, seeking. Half-a-dozen turned her direction, broke away, and dove towards her.

"They're coming at for me!" she shouted, blood turning to ice. Her knees gave out as she stepped backwards and she found herself clinging to Ghillie as the girl motioned some indecipherable signs.

Fallon stood over Aida, staring up at the snake and shaking his head. "I see nothing, what are you on about-"

"They're coming!" She screamed, covering her ears with her hands. "The voices, they're getting louder. They won't stop. I can't stand it! Get them out of my head!"

"What are?" Fallon raised his hands in confusion and spun about. Ghillie stepped back, watching her critically. Clearly, neither saw snake-ghosts hurtling towards her. Overlapping scraping and hissing voices overwhelmed all other sound, every other sense, all thought and sensation.

"Get away from me!" she screamed, clutching her head and crumpling into a crouched ball.

Fallon reached for her. "Dynast, I think... wha!"

Ghillie tackled Fallon, driving him to the ground.

Aida's whole body shook. "Get... AWAY!"

Something snapped.

Energy surged through her in an overwhelming flood, propelling her upright. She convulsed. Her scream never made it to her lips but caught resonantly at her throat. The wire-strung ring shuddered. Aida clawed at it, choking as the reverberations inside grew to shake her very bones. As it amplified, her body arched backwards, gathering energy like a bow stave pulled taut to the point of breaking. She thought she might come apart.

It exploded from her, amplified beyond even the God-voice in the Black Court.

Passersby, the teens at their antics, and everyone else nearby hurtled through the air or flattened to the ground clutching their ears as the scream unleashed a tornado-force blast in all directions.

A nearby clay-brick tenement collapsed completely.

The royal strider toppled over with a bellowing groan.

And every glass pane in the Optomime's shop shattered simultaneously.