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Paul put a damper on spider time by saying, “Absolutely not yet.”

“We need to know a few things first.” Julia rattled off, “Where are they? What are their abilities? Are we in a time crunch? And do we need to talk about what happened in that courtyard? Aren’t they going to deliver some books soon?”

“You still got those blood charms, right Boss?” Tiffany said, “I don’t know much about Blood Weavers, and especially not about Primal Blood Weavers, so we probably shouldn’t rush on out yet.”

“All good points.” Ezekiel set down the antirhine research he had gotten from Star Song on a table, saying, “We’ve got at least a day on those spiders, but we do have to tackle both of them as soon as possible.”

“Okay.” Julia asked, “I want to get to the Registrar, first, though.”

“Right! That too.” Ezekiel asked, “So let’s split up some duties. I need to read these books, and then I might need to burn them so no one else sees them.”

“Then Ezekiel and I will stay here.” Paul said, “Julia and Tiffany can go to the Void Temple.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Ezekiel added, “To that effect—” A pair of Odins shimmered into the room with magenta light, then took their tiny perches on Julia and Tiffany’s shoulders. As they set down, Ezekiel said, “Tell them where you want to go and they’ll do it; no need to spend your own mana.”

Tiffany said, “Fine by me.”

Julia eyed the bird on her shoulder, then said, “Hopefully it won’t take that long, but there will likely be a line.”

“There’s going to be a line,” Tiffany said.

Ezekiel said, “Better get going. It seemed to me that Riri had been holding those treasures back from everyone else for a long time, and that if we wait too long, then they’ll be gone by the time we get there.”

Julia frowned. “Did it seem like Riri was tricking you?”

“There was some sort of trick in there, but I’m sure we can weather it. It can’t be that bad of a trick if she wants to remain on good terms with us, and I am sure that she does.” Ezekiel said, “It was not a joke when she spoke about hostile takeovers if we butt into her spider silk market, though.”

“I didn’t think it was.” Julia said, “Okay. See you two, soon. Come on Odin, take us to the Teleport Square nea—”

Both women vanished in a flash of magenta light.

Ezekiel checked through Odin, to make sure that he arrived on target, then came back saying, “Odin is getting pretty smart, isn’t he?”

Paul shrugged. “Hard to tell sometimes.”

Ezekiel smirked, then returned to his bundle of new books and papers. Paul spoke of making tea, then made some, while Ezekiel sat down in a reading chair and began to sort through what he had been given.

- - - -

Ezekiel sat on the floor surrounded by his lightform and spread-out sheets of paper, reading, studying, and thinking. His mind ripped off course when a gentle knocking came from the front door. In a flicker of light, Ezekiel was at the door, opening it.

A runner in white and blue garb offered him a paper-wrapped package containing two journals. Ezekiel accepted the offer and the runner girl went away, back to the blue and white building down next to Darzallia’s Teleport Square.

He could already see what was inside the package. He opened it. One book looked mass-produced, likely because it was. The inside of the front cover had the Seal of the Arcanaeum Consortium. The other book looked handmade and well-worn, but also solid. Two minutes after that delivery, before he had the chance to read the first delivery, another runner arrived with another package. This second shipment contained one mass-produced book titled, ‘Anatomy for the Class: Doctor’, and two small journals, one penned by Arilitilo Star Song, the other by Xue Star Song.

The one by Arilitilo had a personal message written on the inside.

‘Dear Scion Ezekiel Phoenix.

‘In the light of this new sight you have given me I realize that what I have written here is childish, but it has still served me well over the last few decades. If my humble words help to enlighten you a fraction as much as you have enlightened me, then I will count my small words as successful. In either case, we can sort out all questions you might have, together, in the coming days and weeks.

‘Elder Arilitilo Star Song.’

Ezekiel smiled. It was a nice message.

He leafed through the books, looking for one thing in particular, at the moment. He found what he was looking for soon enough. Both Riri’s pair of books and Arilitilo’s selection had information on the raising and harvesting of Blood Weavers and Nacreous Weavers, but they were small sections, as the books mostly dealt with what to do after you gain the various threads of both beasts.

After reading those small sections, Ezekiel didn’t suspect it would be too troublesome to kill either spider, or in the case of the Blood Weavers, to pick out one spider from the whole for his daughter and escape the rest.

Except… It was a Primal Blood Weaver. Not a normal Blood Weaver. Julia would not settle for any but the best monster of the bunch, and Ezekiel didn’t want to have that argument anyway, so while the ‘Primal’ beast shouldn’t be a large problem, it would be some sort of problem, for sure. Riri’s note explained that she did not know what those problems would be, exactly, but they would likely be of the ‘Health Drain’ and ‘[Inflict Wounds]’ sort. [Blood Weaver] was the base ability of the same-named animal and monster, and that would pose problems, but Ezekiel was confident he could overcome that problem.

He had [Minor Anti-Blood Charm]s, but while he could load up his people with dozens of charms each, they would all activate against the first Blood spell, instead of spacing out. [Minor Anti-Blood Charm] was rather terrible in that regard. So. He would need to make a [Blood Dummy] before they go, using the methods Tenebrae told him about. 

They’d have to be extra careful with the Nacreous Weaver, too, but in a different way. A better name for such a monster would be ‘Reflection Spider’, or ‘Fragile Spider’. Or, as Riri had noted in a slip of paper in that section of her journal, ‘The only spider capable of murdering a hundred people sent to capture it, and then dying because it had worn itself out; they’re truly motivated little monsters!’.

Calling them ‘little monsters’ was obviously a joke, though. They were not little. Blood Weavers weren’t little, either.

Why were there such big spiders on Veird? Spiders! Ick! Who in their right mind would want to make such horrible things larger than they already wer—

Ah. Right.

Shades.

Duh.

- - - -

Under privacy spells, Ezekiel read of antirhine. Over the course of an hour, he gained quite a few understandings of this anti-magic metal, and more than a few questions. Most of his questions he could answer himself, after he read over his reading a few times and the information therein settled down.

Antirhine was lead, of that there could be no doubt. It was silver-white in its base form and when diluted in certain solutions. But in powdered, ore form, antirhine was anything from white, to black, to red, each color of the antirhine having a different level of antimagic power…

Or maybe not!

There were records of red antirhine taken out of a mine having the same reactivity as white antirhine, which had the second largest antimagic effect, but there were also verified records of red antirhine having a lesser-sized anti-magic field than the white powdered antirhine.

There were contradicting records all over the place.

Except when it came to black antirhine. That lead compound was universally weaker than all the rest. Usually. There were some stranger instances of white antirhine being weaker than black.

Ezekiel understood the problem after reading it over for a little while, after odd thoughts began to emerge from the shadows of his memory.

Lead had a few different natural forms. A lot of the ones he was seeing here had to do with how much oxygen was bonded to the lead. Lead monoxide came in a ton of different forms; which explained the color issues, somewhat. Lead dioxide was black; which explained that.

His memory went off in a few different directions.

He remembered how lead had been used to make various colors of paint back on Earth, when he read of how anithrine had been used as a paint here, on Veird. There were many places that needed perfect, and kinda dangerous, protection. Mostly, those lead paints were applied to plates that were then further sealed behind other paints so that the lead would never come off of the plate. Those ‘antirhine plates’ could then be manually attached to whatever walls needed them.

That reminded Ezekiel…

Most people ‘painted’ with wardlight, but actual, physical paints had a luxury market to them, and that meant money. The problem with this market was that many pigments were deadly, and [Cleanse] stripped those types of paints off the walls. Which was why paints were a luxury good; it was hard to find unobtrusive coloring methods.

But titanium white shouldn’t have that problem.

Titanium dioxide was white and biologically inactive. He mentally marked off ‘titanium white paint’ and promised to tell some people at Candlepoint about that. There were actually a lot of paints that Ezekiel could ‘invent’, and then have Candlepoint manufacture and distribute.

But back to lead:

Lead needed to be in a long chain of particles before it became inert; Ezekiel was sure. But why would this matter for inertness, anyway? Were individual particles of lead as dangerous as a whole lot of lead? What did this mean for casual lead poisoning in the environment? Was there casual lead poisoning in Veird?

… Hmm. That last one.

Probably not widespread poisoning. They’d been using lead on Earth for a long time for it to get everywhere; thousands of years, and even in the pipes, too. People strictly stayed away from the stuff on Veird because it was a great deal more deadly here. Ezekiel hoped lead stayed that way, even after Star Song invented chelation, for the more he read on it all…

The more it seemed like lead was purposefully designated as the ‘antimagic metal’, by forces above and beyond mortal ken.

Ezekiel was pretty sure that Rozeta, or someone else, had designated lead as antimagic in order to fulfill a need, or something. He wasn’t quite sure why this had been done, but he was sure that it had been done.

As far as Ezekiel could tell, nothing made lead special. The density of lead, at atomic number 82, was outclassed twice over by osmium, at atomic number 76. Lead was malleable and ductile, but so was gold. It was organically reactive, but so was mercury, and other metals.

Maybe they needed some sort of antimagic metal in order to protect or attack something? Something that could poison…

… Could poison a god? That had a biological body?

Did…

Did a Wizard do this?

Did the gods do this?

To Melemizargo?

Or… Did Melemizargo do this to Veird?

Ezekiel had to sit back for a minute when he had that thought. And then he got back to the books.

There was nothing in Star Song’s writings about the deep history of antirhine on Veird, except a small passage at the beginning, that said that antirhine was here when the first people started exploring the Underworld after the Sundering. Before that, in the Old Cosmology, there were anti-magic magics. Maybe, at the start of Veird in this New Cosmology, someone had condensed the Old Cosmology anti-magic effects down to lead, because it had to be done. Or… Something...

Or, more reasonably, some god made lead anti-magical. The goddess of Knowledge, when they sacrificed her, perhaps?

But why lead?

There was a weirdness, here, and Ezekiel didn’t like it.

Anyway, the chelation particle everyone might have been working toward was called ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, or EDTA, for short, but that was just the precursor molecule. What was actually needed was calcium disodium EDTA, with an extra calcium particle on one side and two sodium atoms on the other, and four less hydrogen. The extra calcium and sodium (and less hydrogen) atoms were there to protect the body from the reactions of the precursor molecule so that when the CaNa2-EDTA bumped into the Pb in the body (or any heavy metal, actually), it would ‘unlock’, discarding the CaNa2 and picking up the Pb, because the molecule was much more stable with metallic lead in there instead of the other particles. The lead-infused molecule would then be carried out of the body through the normal cleaning actions of the body, through the kidneys, and then discarded through the urine, removing the antirhine from the body in the process.

Ezekiel looked down at the paperwork spread out on the ground around him.

Calcium disodium EDTA was a huge molecule, wasn’t it? How did it go...

What were they—

Oh yeah!

C10H12CaN2Na2O8

… Hmm…

Yup! That was correct. And it looked like a bunch of oxygens hanging out at the ends of a frayed nitrogen-carbon spoked chain, with two frayed ends on one side of the chain circling around into a calcium, while the other frayed ends dangled in four directions with a calcium on two of those ends.

Ezekiel looked down at the paperwork in front of him.

“Ah.” Ezekiel mumbled, “I remembered that I read about this, once, and barely deeply at all. And yet, everything just... came together, it seems. I think 75% of the pieces to this puzzle were missing, so I made up the rest myself.” He looked over to Paul, his voice rising as he said, “Hey I—”

Paul was staring at him.

“… I figured it out?”

Paul blinked a few times, as though clearing cobwebs out of his mind. “That was the deepest thought tunnel I have ever seen anyone go down.”

Ezekiel asked, “Should I go ahead and make it?”

Paul frowned. He thought. He said, “I’m not going to answer that.”

No easy answers, eh?

“Hmm.” Ezekiel looked down to the paperwork all around him. “I think I should… Not make it. And yet. I should, if at least to have for myself. But if I make this then I will want to give it to them, and then they won’t learn on their own. And they have to learn on their own, don’t they?” He said, “And if I make it for myself, it would surely do more harm than good, for all I know is how it works, but not how it works as a medication to a person… Or.” Ezekiel frowned. “Ah. It seems I can fill in those puzzle pieces, too.” Ezekiel’s frown deepened. “I could, theoretically, make this and then treat everyone I wished, but— No. They need other antibiotics and such to fight off infections during treatment, and a whole host of other necessities that are needed to treat the side effects of antirhine poisoning, which are a lot, and I have none of that.

“So if I gave them this part of the puzzle, they would plow ahead with this, and none of the other necessary pieces.

“And Calcium Disodium EDTA isn’t the only chelator out there. They might have invented a different one. This is just the one I remembered most of the pieces of, and which these notes helped me to figure out. Star Song doesn’t use the same words I would, but there’s acids and bases and solutions here and they all make sense...

“But if I gave them Calcium Disodium EDTA... They’re going to push this hard. They’re going to kill someone because they don’t have all the pieces, and I cannot give them all of the answers. But.” He asked Paul, “Should I, anyway? If I could prevent a death due to medical malpractice, should I? Because that’s what is going to happen here. I could prevent a death by solving this for them; by holding their hands as they administer this drug. But the only people who get Elixir’d are all mass murderers anyway, right?” He turned away, back to the papers. “So it’s fine if they die?

“And yet, Star Song wouldn’t risk their aunts and uncles to this treatment, would they. They said as much. Some would, though. Some would choose a different option.

“They would inflict the Elixir on a normal person, and then they would try to rid that innocent person of their lead poisoning. Maybe they already have test subjects lined up, down in the depths, chained to walls, destined to die for advancements in medicine.”

His voice trailed off.

Ezekiel stared at papers, his mind going dark places, unable to tear himself away peering deeper and deeper into the abyss. He thought back to when he saw that homeless guy picked up off the street, then shoved in a wagon that was off to war. How difficult would it be to shove a few of those poor souls in a different direction? Into the testing houses of the Alluvial District? Had that gathering last night, where he ate good food and enjoyed conversation with Scions and otherwise, happened high above underground caverns full of people filled with Elixir? Were there test subjects bleeding out in the dark down below, crying for help that would never come?

Or maybe the help would come, but it would be in a syringe that would kill them, and their body would be disposed—

“Sir.” Paul repeated, “Sir. You’re spiraling.”

“That’s all my thoughts are these days,” Ezekiel said, unable to tear his eyes away from the research in front of him.

“You need to step back, Sir. Erick.” Poi said, “Step back.”

Erick blinked long, and turned his head away from the papers. He shifted his body away and opened his eyes again. The papers weren’t there anymore. Ah. Poi had picked them up.

Poi looked to Erick, hard, then asked, “Do you want to talk about this? About these thoughts?”

Erick drew his knees up, crossed his arms over his legs, and buried his head. “Not really. I want these awful thoughts to remain fantasies; idle thoughts with no bearing on reality.” Moments passed.

Poi waited.

Erick lifted his head and sighed. He forced himself to relax as much as he could, which was not a whole lot. He said, “But it’s not possible for these thoughts to remain fantasy, is it? The Shades did this shit all the time. And Hunters go out and kill. I remember that room full of heads and body parts, from… Ah. Yeah. We saw that twice now, didn’t we? Once when the Hunters were at Spur, and again at Treehome. And monsters are monsters.”

Poi listened.

Erick asked, “I know you can’t talk specifics, but… Could you tell me if Star Song is full of the worst kind of people, or not? Are they worth being friendly with? I thought I knew. I thought I was making the right decision. But now… If I think too much about what people do behind closed doors… I start to spiral. It wasn’t always like this. This is the exact opposite of who I used to be.”

Moments passed in silence as the weight of Erick’s fears filled the room. Even Ophiel’s tiny twitters went away.

Poi broke the silence, saying, “Star Song is full of normal, powerful people. I can’t tell you specifics, but I can say that scandals can rip apart a Clan as fast as war is capable of the same. Hunting would be a scandal. Sapient experimentation would be a scandal. Star Song is not full of Hunters. They’re certainly not Shades. And if people do bad things around here, Clan Star Song is one of the ones that enforce propriety. And besides that: These Clans we’re dealing with are middle managers; they still answer to the High Clans.” He said, “Star Song is dangerous, yes, but these particular thoughts of yours are unwarranted. Star Song has given you no reason to think these awful thoughts of them. The only reason you’re thinking like this is because of your own trauma, causing you to imagine shadows before you actually see them.”

Silence returned. And then Ophiel sang a tiny song of concerned flutes, on his perch next to Erick. Erick looked up at his [Familiar] and the magenta guy flickered to white as he gained a dozen more eyes and leaped down onto Erick’s shoulder, becoming a fluffy ball of mostly feathers. Erick smiled as he patted the little guy. The little guy affectionately pushed against Erick’s face and hand.

And then the moment passed.

Odin turned into a magenta bird again, and took his place on Ezekiel’s shoulder.

Ezekiel breathed deep. “That did it. Thank you, Paul.” He stared at the ceiling, and said, “Star Song hasn’t shown themselves to be bad people. I shouldn’t judge them otherwise.” He looked to Paul. “You know how to make this molecule, now? Go ahead and tell your Mind Mage people, please. I don’t want to make this myself, for I know I will use it and Star Song won’t learn anything. But, I can’t let it be forgotten. Can you do that?”

“Um.” Paul eyed Ezekiel for a moment, then said, “Okay… Done.”

Ezekiel felt lighter. He stood up, saying, “Good. Thank you. Now to make some anti-Blood Magic spells.” He touched the dense air and the privacy in the room, then paused. “Ah. No. Not here. I’ll make it on the way to the weavers.”

Paul set his book down, and got out of his chair, saying, “I’m going to make you some tea, okay? Do you want any cakes or something— Ah! We can order room service. It’s near lunch anyway. Let us order room service.”

Ezekiel smiled. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”

Fifteen minutes later, the hotel owner’s wife and a few servants dropped by with a large set of tea cakes, some rice wines, and a great big covered dish of white rice alongside several meats and sauces in smaller dishes. The wife wanted to set up the meal herself, but Ezekiel asked her not to, as he paid her double what the meal cost. It was a bit of a social blunder to not let her set up the meal, but Ezekiel was still on edge, and the wife seemed to understand that easily enough. He didn’t want to make her worry for her property and her life, but she seemed to worry, anyway. Perhaps it was time to get out of her hair.

As Ezekiel ate a hot meal with Paul, a tension in his stomach relaxed. He said, “This was a good idea.”

“I have them occasionally.”

Ezekiel laughed, while Paul smiled. Ezekiel said, “Thank you for sharing every good idea you share.” He glanced away to Odin, then came back, saying, “Looks like they’re still in line, but they’re close to the front.”

Paul laughed. “She could have gone around the world and back, by now.”

“Oh yeah.” Ezekiel said, “And she knows it, too. She’ll come back here with complaints, no doubt.”

“No doubt.”

- - - -

“I had the option of having a ceremony inside the Registrar’s room!” Julia said, as she stabbed her spoon into her rice bowl. “A whole gods’ damned ceremony! That’s why it took so damn long!”

Ezekiel joked, “I’m pretty sure ‘damned’ is the exact opposite of what happened.”

Julia frowned pointedly at her father.

“And she didn’t do the ceremony!” Tiffany said, digging into the leftovers, making herself a bowl. With a forlorn look that was also completely false, she teased, “After all that wait time. Such an opportunity! Lost forever!”

Julia frowned pointedly at Tiffany, too.

Paul teased, “Could have gone all the way around the world in less time than it took you to have your little ceremony.”

Julia exclaimed, “I didn’t know they were having ceremonies until we got inside the room! Everyone else seemed to know, though.” She added, “Everyone in line was mad at me when I came out after only 2 minutes.”

Tiffany laughed. “Oh yeah they were!”

“Enough about stupid ceremonies.” Julia changed the subject, “You got more books, dad.” She gestured her rice-flecked spoon at the nearby books. “Anything interesting in what Riri sent you?”

“Lots!” Ezekiel said, “From what I’ve read, Healthy Form is crucial to spider thread enchanting and spellwork, because it allows you to craft intent-imbued threads. Personal skill will allow you to turn those threads into long-lasting Charm Magic.”

Julia’s eyes went wide. “I was hoping I could do something like that. It’s Charm Magic? Specifically?”

Tiffany ate while she listened. Paul sipped tea; he and Ezekiel had already finished lunch an hour ago.

Ezekiel explained, “Spider silk is used for much more than that, but I remember you said you wanted to try some of that Charm Magic back when we were with Tenebrae, so that’s why I mentioned it.” He said, “Spider thread works well for all sorts of protective and small-use magics. Charm Magic. Warding. Binding Magic. It’s a form of enchanting, but not quite the same.

“What you do, broadly, is you have a base Charm spell, for instance. [Blood Dummy], let’s say. —I’m gonna make that one before we charge into the Blood Weaver’s place, by the way.— And then, with your base Charm in one hand, you need to get your enchanting spell in the other. All high-level enchanters use an enchanting spell to make their items. But you don’t need to worry about much of that for spider silk magic, because, for spider silk enchanting, you just use [Fabricate]! You might make spells you don’t want along the way, but the goal is to not make any new spells.

“It is suggested that you eventually make a tier two [Fabricate] spell that is specifically used for enchanting with spider silk, that you make specifically so that it will play well with your other magics, but won’t combine with your other magics. You don’t have to do that in the beginning, while you’re learning, but it is suggested for higher level ‘enchanting’.

“Spider silk items aren’t the same as those multi-use items made of wrought-quality metal that can last for a decade with little decay, like rods of [Greater Treat Wounds] with 50 charges. Spider silk magic usually only lasts days, or weeks, at the most, with durations based on the original magics you use to create the items. Whatever the duration, though, you can usually get a few ‘uses’ out of a well-made charm. Spider silk charms are great for short-term, inexpensive work.

“All you need is Healthy Form and the appropriate spider forms in order to make the appropriate thread. The reason why you can do this at all, is because magical spider threads are magically conductive, in the way that wrought-quality metals are conductive. But they’re less stable, due to being organic in nature. Though if there are metallic spiders out there with metal thread that never decays, I’m sure you could make true magical items. Riri’s notes postulate this, but do not prove it as possible.” Ezekiel concluded, “Anyway, I could talk a lot more about it, but thread magic is more about weaving skill and even a bit of gridwork, than most enchanting. It’s a great field which lends itself well to Charm Magic.”

Tiffany gave an approving nod as Ezekiel finished. Paul glanced to Julia.

Julia’s spoon sat in her bowl, untouched. She said, “Huh.”

It wasn’t a dismissive sound, though. It was one of someone realizing that the path they were on was unexpectedly nice. Ezekiel smiled a little, knowing that he had helped a spark in his daughter to blossom brighter.

He asked, “Have you worked on any Charm Magic?”

Julia smiled, but it was a sad expression. “Yeah. I have. It’s not tactically great. Here.” She handed him a spell.

--

Charm of Ward, instant, close range, 100mp + Variable

Create a charm of the contained spell that the wielder may activate on command, or upon taking heavy damage. Charm lasts 24 hours.

Create a Small Ward in the space where the charm is used that will prevent Variable damage.

--

She said, “The goal was a [Personal Ward] charm so that I could have endless [Personal Ward]s whenever one of them broke, but I’m having trouble putting that into a charm.”

“Ohh!” Tiffany said, “Smart.”

Ezekiel’s eyes widened. He smiled, saying, “That’s brilliant!”

“Eh.” Julia waved a hand, saying, “I don’t think I can do it. My latest theory on why some people are a lot better at magic than others, is that some people try to squeeze out every bit of power they can, and the Script doesn’t like that. Or maybe the mana itself doesn’t like that.” She said, “I’m still going to try, though.”

Ezekiel happily said, “Tell me when you get it right, so I can steal the design from you.”

Julia laughed. “Sure.” She asked, “So what did you find out about the spiders? Are we still going after them this afternoon? You don’t have to go, you know. Just tell me where they are.”

“Yeah. That’s not happening.” Ezekiel said, “I’ve already scouted them and they’re dangerous and I’m here and therefore I am participating in this monster hunt. We all are.”

Paul frowned a little, but said nothing. Tiffany, though, looked happy.

Julia scowled, briefly. Then she lost her scowl, and asked, “What did Riri’s books say about them?”

Julia was less than happy about Ezekiel’s decision, but she let it go, for now. They’d likely have an argument later, but for now...

Ezekiel began to explain, “The Nacreous Weaver can reflect most spells, like a Crystal Mimic, but its [Reflection] is better, and...”

- - - -

The forest sprawled across a dozen low-lying mountains, green and full of life. This was not the deep Tribulations. This was barely twenty kilometers into the mountain range, in a specific area about 4500 kilometers south of where they had found Tadashi, almost at the very end of the southern tip of the South Central Tribulations. Beyond that tip, the mountainous land plunged into the ocean, becoming a series of ever smaller islands.

Here, the Tribulations were beautiful. It reminded Ezekiel of the Appalachian mountains, with rolling green land as far as the eye could see. Birds sang in the forest. Monkeys howled for mates. The trees were normal-sized, and yet larger than most, with a sparse, light-filled canopy only ten meters off the ground. Game trails cut through the underbrush.

Three small deer moseyed down a game trail, toward a watering hole where they drank sparingly, and watched the green all around them.

Nothing was out of order. It was idyllic.

And it was a lie.

Here and there, tiny threads held to the trees, and laid across the ground. But there were no tangled webs in the canopies. There were no overt signs of spider predation. There was light and life aplenty. But that life had been cultivated, for sure.

Ezekiel’s magenta Force boots crushed grass as he stepped forward, following grey-armored Tiffany down the game trail. They passed in sight of the watering hole. The small deer bounded away upon the encroachment, into the thick bushes, effortlessly bounding through webbing that was not meant to stop them.

The sun was high in the bright blue sky. Sunset was hours away.

A cool breeze blew through the forest, wicking away sweat.

Paul stepped behind Ezekiel, following, while Julia took up the rear.

Tiffany led the way, silently, mostly, but she was seeing what Ezekiel was seeing, and she had to comment, “There’s thread absolutely everywhere.”

“I see it, too,” Julia said, her eyes dark as black. She had shifted to her Shadow Spider eyes a little while ago. She pointed at a tree, saying, “Look at those ones. A bird made a nest out of some of the visible threads.”

Ezekiel had seen the brown bird and its spider-thread nest. He glanced up anyway, and said, “Yeah. It’s sitting on eggs. Ah. And there’s the mate coming back with food.”

A bird with bright blue feathering flew past tree branches and alighted on its webby nest. With a quick shove, it fed its mate with a captured bug of some sort. The mate greedily ate the bug. They seemed to be doing okay in this environment made by the Nacreous Weaver. The spider threads on their nest didn’t seem to bother them, probably because the spider probably didn’t bother with them, either.

Nacreous Weavers liked large meals, and birds and small deer didn’t rate. The only one out here who truly rated was Tiffany. The weaver would settle for human-sized meals, too, though.

Tiffany stopped. She gestured forward, saying, “There’s a thread across the trail. Looks strong.”

“It is. Just break it.” Ezekiel said, “The spider isn’t anywhere nearby but maybe it will come.”

With a flick of her conjured mace, she did just that. The thread snapped.

“Ahh. Yep.” Tiffany said, “I don’t like that they break like that for me, and not for you.”

There were more threads just off the game trail. Julia touched one, and it broke like gossamer wind; like it wasn’t even there at all. She said, “That one had just as much magic in it, too.”

Ezekiel said, “You don’t rate as prey. Tiffany does. The thread is cast only to break like that for a big enough meal.”

Tiffany chuckled, both dark and happy, then said, “I’m finally going to be able to tank like I’m supposed to, aren’t I?”

The four of them waited. Moments passed with nothing appearing or any shifts in the surroundings. Maybe the spider was shy. If it wasn’t hungry at the moment, it still would have come; spiders always hunted, for they could wrap their prey and set it aside for later meals.

“Let’s keep walking,” Paul said, eyeing the world around him.

They resumed walking.

They came across another empowered thread across the path. Ezekiel broke that one, and it whispered away like dust motes in an old room.

Julia said, “You don’t rate, either.”

Tiffany the tank resumed the lead.

Ezekiel asked, “Where does that term come from, anyway? ‘Tank’? Anyone know?”

Julia perked up. She smiled. “Tiffany told me the story.”

“That I did!” Tiffany’s grey force boots crunched the dirt and small plant life as she remained in the lead, on the lookout, with her mana sense spread wide. She said, “Paul can tell it, though. He’s not doing much right now.”

Paul scoffed as Tiffany laughed.

Ezekiel and Julia glanced at Paul, then resumed scanning their surroundings.

Paul said, “The term comes from the Tank Anomaly series of monsters that came out of Ar’Kendrithyst however many hundreds of years ago. 800, I think. Some people think they came out of the Fractured Citadels of Quintlan, but we’re pretty sure they came out of the Dead City.

“They were little more than brains and eyes in large [Glassshape]d tanks of [Oozeshape] water-slime. They each had a base spell, [Tank Preservation], which was constructed out of the two previous spells and a monster ability called [Harden]. This single spell made them near-indestructible. There were dozens of varieties with more coming out every week. They got all over the world. Tank Anomalies were one of the greatest threats to civilization because they could not be easily broken.

“Of course, if you broke the tank, they were dead. They were little more than 10 Health monsters. The problem was overcoming the tank.

“Thus, the origin of the word.”

A lightbulb went off. Ezekiel said, “Oh! I was just messing up the Ecks word for ‘tank’ with the English word for ‘tank’, which has multiple meanings in English.” He said, “That clears that up.”

As she looked all around while she walked, Tiffany asked, “What’s a ‘tank’?”

Ezekiel glanced at Julia.

Julia said, “A box of metal on wheels that crushes anything it rolls over, with the primary weapon of a giant cannon on top that can rotate and fire in any direction. They’re really tough. The English word is actually derived from the idea of a ‘water tank’, for the British were trying to feed false information to the enemy, to mixed success.”

“Oh?” Ezekiel said, “So I wasn’t… actually messing up on that translation. Was I?”

“Nope!” Julia said, “Same sort of derivation. Tanks are tanks.”

“We’re all just sacks of red water surrounded by hard shells.” Tiffany tapped her grey chest armor, saying, “Some harder than others!”

“Exactly. So try to be more delicious, Tiffany,” Julia said, “We haven’t got all day to find this thing.”

Tiffany chuckled.

They walked, in silence.

They reached a hunting ground that looked nothing like a hunting ground. Ezekiel involuntarily shivered as his mana sense touched upon a body pile underneath a tree, about fifty meters ahead and to the right.

He whispered, “Do you see that, Tiffany?”

Julia asked, “What?”

“Piles of animal bodies under a tree, surrounded by threads. Up there about forty meters” Tiffany pointed with her mace, clipping three more threads with the movement, shattering the relative calm of the forest with three more loud snaps. “The Weaver stacks the bones and carnage into small disposal spaces to keep the hunting grounds clean, and the prey unwary.”

The carrion pile was desiccated, like the bodies had been dried out and preserved. There was no rot, because there were no liquids left. Even the bones seemed hollowed out. There were lots of furs and scaled hides and spines, though. It seemed that the Weaver’s digestive venom, or maybe its magic, helped it to digest everything but the skin and bones, making juice boxes out of its food. The bodies weren’t wrapped in thread, but the whole dump had been hidden behind thread.

And there were smaller spiders inside that dump.

Ezekiel shivered again.

He checked his active magic, just to be sure he was prepared. [Animadversion] held to his wrist, all magenta and spiky. His [Personal Ward] was topped. He had four Odins, each with their own [Animadversion], ready to hand off their shields to each of his people, and one extra, just because. [Greater Lightwalk] and [Lodestar] hung out on his back, ready to spring up at a moment’s notice. He was prepared. Mostly.

He activated [Hunter’s Instincts]; it was time. He was ready.

His boots made no sound as he walked. His mana sense heightened, along with his sight and his hearing, to focus on his surroundings. He moved quicker, but he maintained formation. With a sniff, he smelled the various scents of the forest, from carrion, to musk, to plants, to water and… something else on the wind. Ah. Ezekiel touched a thread hanging by the trail and it broke like gossamer, leaving behind the scent of the spider. Kind of musky, but with an ozone flavor. That’s where that scent was coming from. Not a terrible smell—

He faltered as he walked, but he caught himself quickly enough. A sudden sadness weighed upon his chest, as he caught sight of yet another trauma in the world. A different sort of body pile.

Tiffany saw him stumble, even though she didn’t visually see him. She said, “Another body pile. This one is people. Looks like they were camping over that way.” She gestured forward, to the left. “Fifty meters away.”

Julia’s jaw clenched. She couldn’t see what he could see, or what Tiffany could see, or even what Paul could see, through sharing Tiffany and Ezekiel’s senses. Julia didn’t like that.

Ezekiel spared a glance at the second body pile.

It was a group of human bodies, without any insides. They had been stuffed into a hole in the base of a tree, just like the previous pile. Their camp was near their graves, but Ezekiel couldn’t see that camp until they got closer. And, yeah, that was a camp. A fire pit. The rubbled remains of a building made through [Stoneshape]. Other broken stone structures.

“Nacreous Weavers don't like oddities in their territory.” Ezekiel said, “It destroyed that hut, for sure.”

Paul grunted his assent. Tiffany said nothing; she was on high alert. Julia silently wished that she had a mana sense, too. But she had plenty of abilities none of the rest of them had. The four of them went dead silent, as they walked into the lair of the beast.

Nacreous Weavers were dangerous. Ezekiel considered the skills of his people, and how easy they had it.

Two people with mana sense, so that they could see the threats well before they approached. Reflective magics, that should negate much of the weaver’s own reflective magics. [Greater Treat Wounds], on their person who was the hardest to kill. Domain magics, if necessary. Paul’s mind magics to mess up the enemy and aid the party. Tiffany, being a great big tank.

For all those defenses, Ezekiel didn’t feel too secure. He sighed, making the loudest noise of the group. The forest was still loud with the sounds of life, of course, but the spiders obviously didn’t care about undersized meals, and the threads around them were thicker, now.

More full of power.

Tiffany swiped through five threads, woven across the path at her head height; three meters up. The first four snapped like breaking metal wires. The last one twanged, bouncing her mace away. She smiled under her solid grey helmet.

Contact.

She smacked the solid thread again. And again.

Twang. Twang.

Ezekiel whispered, “That did it. Movement. Take these shields.”

Odins offloaded their spiked magenta packages to the team. Thorns flashed in the afternoon sun, becoming shields on forearms, then becoming small, hovering discs on 10 minute timers.

The weaver was still forty meters away but closed distance with each second, its many legs weaving it across the land, touching threads as it went, delivering itself to Ezekiel. It was beautiful.

It was also massive.

And it was practically invisible to his mana sense, and also to the Odins hovering high above.

Easily four meters long, it was one and a half times the size of Julia’s Shadow Spider, but whereas Julia’s spider was of huntsman-make, built thick for combat, this spider was not. It was an orb weaver type. With long, thin legs, a body strong enough to hold all those legs, and a bulbous, small abdomen, it might have been larger than the shadow spider, but it had to weigh less.

It was pale green and iridescent violet, with pure white eyes that ringed its head on tiny bumps like a crown.

It was magnificent.

And it needed to die.

Ezekiel cast to the sky, ripping a hole in the air and bringing the sun closer to Veird. Radiant billowing heat blasted out of the [Major Sunlight Rift], cooking the forest, setting fire to magical threads that refused to burn too much, and then, suddenly, caught fire. In a flashing second, 90% of the threads around them vanished. The monster seemed not bothered by the heat, as it raced forward, but the spell wasn’t meant to kill the spider. It would just prevent minor threads from building up as the spider tried to control the battlefield.

And no one in his party was bothered by the heat. [Animadversion] cut this small amount of friendly fire down to nothing.

Branches broke. The spider charged into the game trail, right at Tiffany, its front legs reaching forward like spears as its back legs propelled it faster than an animal that size had any right to move. Tiffany raised her left arm and her magenta shield with it, forming a dense barrier of magenta spikes.

One second passed, and everything changed.

The spider was not charging Tiffany anymore. It was directly above Paul, and spearing down with three legs full of power, with green venom swirling around the tips. Paul caught two spears on his shield. The third struck Julia, who had [Interception]ed the attack.

Decay splashed in every direction except the one it was meant to go, as reflection warred with reflection. Green acid caught on trees, on conjured Force. Ezekiel’s own shield splashed that acid back to the ground, pitting dirt where it fell.

Julia counterattacked with a [Strike] from her long blue blade, barely touching the spider.

Her sword broke in the contact.

The spider moved again, faster than it had any right to move, and struck at Tiffany’s back with three more flashing green limbs. It was moving too fast for her to completely dodge. Tiffany sacrificed a hit to the leg to protect her abdomen and chest. Acid sprayed.

Ezekiel threw a [Slowing Bolt] at the beast. Magenta frost struck, and then reflected, to bounce back at Ezekiel—

He canceled the spell before it reached him, not wanting to take the chance on testing his own reflection against the monster’s. The reflection was too strong. It wasn’t supposed to be that strong!

The weaver also wasn’t supposed to have [Lightwalk] but it had that, too. That’s how it was moving everywhere in the light, faster than it had any right to move.

Tiffany smashed down with her mace, missing the beast because it turned to light—

Ezekiel slashed at it with [Lightshape], the perfect counter to [Lightwalk] users. Rainbows filled the air, but Ezekiel had only clipped the very edge of the spider’s lightform. Reflection still worked when the beast was in lightform, it seemed.

The spider slipped around the battlefield, triple-stabbing at Julia.

Paul did something. The spider froze, briefly, but Paul froze in the action, too.

Ezekiel had a few fully-Physical spells he could use, but the only ones that could work here were [Luminous Beam] and [Vivid Gloom], and he didn’t want to destroy the spider.

He tried [Hermetic Razor], scattering 25, 100 point damaging molecular wires throughout the battlefield, outside of their own area. The spider broke free of Paul’s working and flicked through the razor wires like they were nothing. They might have been Particle Magic, but they were still mostly magic. He had hoped that they would work a little, but no.

The shockwaves of his [Physical Domain] might work, but again, he didn’t want to destroy the thing.

Julia reached over and touched Tiffany with a shadowy tendril, casting [Greater Treat Wounds]. Her leg hadn’t gotten that bad in the seconds since the acid strike, but it was oozing red, and it did not look good. The healing magics helped.

Tiffany Roared.

Ezekiel felt his body tense with power as Tiffany’s buff inundated him.

The weaver reacted, too. It flinched, turned, and attacked Tiffany, all in the same action, flickering through the light to strike at Tiffany again.

Ezekiel cast a large box of [Luminous Trap] in the spider’s way, sized to the monster. It was using lightform, so trapping it might do something.

The weaver crashed into the sudden darkness. Where it touched, the edge of the spell flickered like broken pond water. The weaver got sucked in, anyway. Ezekiel threw a [Merciful Ether Slime] at the black box and then wrapped the whole thing in a force cage of instantaneous, layered [Quick Wall]s, hoping that it would keep the monster inside.

But.

Those Force walls might not keep the spider in there.

When Julia swiped her Force sword at the weaver, her sword broke. The weaver punched right through Tiffany’s Force armor like it wasn’t even there. This Nacreous Weaver had abilities far outside of what Riri’s notes had said.

A moment passed, as everyone waited for something else to happen.

… A second moment passed.

With his mana sense Ezekiel saw that the spider was in there. His [Quick Wall]s weren’t supporting the monster's weight, though. The monster was all the way in lightform, and supporting itself in the black box. It was just… Hovering there.

… It wasn’t doing anything.

It was just standing still in the center of the very, very bright box, its eyes alight with white glows. The [Merciful Ether Slime] was spilling thick air into the space, so it was working, but none of the spell actually reached the lightform beast.

The fight slowed down, as nothing continued to happen.

Fifteen seconds passed.

The ether seemed unable to reach the monster, but… Maybe it was doing something?

Julia tentatively sent, ‘Is it dead?’

‘It’s not doing anything,’ Tiffany sent, not moving at all. ‘It really likes the light.’

Paul said, ‘Don’t anyone move, or do anything. It really likes the light. A lot. It doesn’t even notice that it’s dying.’

‘Is that going to kill it?’ Ezekiel asked. ‘Ethyl Ether kills insects back home, but I doubt it would kill spiders here? Right? And it’s in lightform. Is it using its lightform to breathe?’

‘I use shadowform to breathe when I’m a shadow spider,’ Julia said, staring at the black box hanging in the air.

‘It’s definitely dying.’ Paul sent, ‘I was about to suggest we run away, but if this works, it works. And I don’t think it’s dying to the ether. I think it’s dying to the sunlight. The Sun Rift isn’t doing much damage because of the spider’s innate reflection, but inside that box it is doing something.’

Ezekiel glanced upward at the bright Rift. ‘The sun can stay, then, but this other one can go.’

He canceled the ether slime before that ‘Volatile’ tag on the spell exploded the monster in their face. The ether didn’t seem to be doing much of anything, anyway, since the spider was definitely in lightform.

The spider did not react.

… Or maybe it relaxed into the heat and the light a bit more? Hard to say.

Tiffany sent, ‘Is this a deprivation reaction? All monsters are created, but some are created with specific weaknesses in order to control them during creation, but usually those are bred out of them before they’re released into the wild.’

‘The original versions were created, sure.’ Julia sent, ‘But Variants and mutations occur all the time in the wild. This is a Variant. Maybe the weakness came back.’

‘It’s definitely a Variant, for sure.’ Tiffany sent, ‘Destroyed my mace with a touch.’

‘It’s a much stronger Variant than Riri told us about,’ Ezekiel sent.

Did Riri send them into a trap? Or… No. Maybe not. Riri was being spied on, for sure, since she had said ‘even a hint’ would be too much, and there were no hints about this particular monster in her books; just general information. Riri had personally given him this weaver’s location while she was juiced up on Intelligence, so maybe she hadn’t been at her best?

… They were in the middle of a fight. Ezekiel got his head back into the game, even if the ‘game’ seemed to be at a strange standstill.

‘Its reflection is as good as yours, dad,’ Julia sent.

‘I have nothing that works on this monster.’ Ezekiel sent, ‘Nothing that won’t blast it away. I was about to suggest that we run away, too. And then this happened.’

‘I need to get a real weapon,’ Tiffany sent, holding up her empty hand. Her mace was gone. ‘Something that can’t be [Dispel]ed.’

‘It broke my sword, too,’ Julia sent.

‘That wasn’t a [Dispel]. That was something else,’ Ezekiel said. ‘Some Force-specific effect.’

Ezekiel watched through the mana as Julia silently tapped Tiffany with another hit of [Greater Treat Wounds], and the oozing hole in Tiffany’s leg sealed over. Mostly, though, he focused on the spider, inside of its cage. The spider’s eyes flickered with radiance, while the entire monster was awash in brilliant, hot light. It had stepped on that light to secure itself inside the black box, but it could step out at any time it wanted; all it had to do was go physical for a moment. The only thing keeping it in there was itself. The [Quick Wall]s around it were no match for it at all.

What sort of solid spells could he use, here, that wouldn’t obliterate the beast? Riri had warned that it was much more fragile than it looked, and he was inclined to agree. As for his smaller spells... He had [Incandescent] and [Frozen Mist] that would both exude physical heat and cold… But that would disturb the spider.

It was likely best to not disturb the spider while it was killing itself.

If they needed to evacuate and come back, Ezekiel would come back with a [Shadow Wall] spell that he could wrap through the battlefield, to prevent lightforms from escaping and from moving so well. If necessary, he could even vibrate the monster to death with his [Physical Domain], but that would likely obliterate it, too.

Julia sent, ‘You have [Flying Striker], dad. You need to make a true flying sword. Something solid. Something to use in this situation.’

‘I’ll think about making you one if you want it, Julia.’ Ezekiel sent, ‘I don’t want a sword.’

‘I’ll take a sword,’ Paul sent.

Julia wanted to laugh and Tiffany wanted to chuckle; Ezekiel could tell. He wanted to laugh, too. But no one made a single sound or moved a muscle. The situation was tense enough for levity, but not for actually enjoying that levity.

Julia sent, ‘I’ll take a sword made out of some bullshit fantasy metal, please. Something that can cut through solid rock as well as my Force sword can.’

‘Sure,’ Ezekiel sent. ‘We can visit the Adamantine Smiths of Underworld Nelboor. Their head offices are in the Northern Chasm Region of the Tribulation Mountains.’

Silence returned.

Tiffany’s buff ended, and Ezekiel sagged a fraction. He wasn’t the only one.

The spider didn’t care.

Julia added, ‘If you hadn’t turned off damage notifications, you would see that you were killing it.’

‘I’m not watching oceans of blue screens every time I fight, Julia.’

Julia joked, ‘Maybe you could get Rozeta to turn on global notifications. Little numbers appearing above damaged enemies.’

‘… I’m not going to do that, either.’

Tiffany added, ‘Tiny damage numbers and damage done to things you don’t know you’ve damaged isn’t shown anyway.’

Silence returned.

Minutes passed. No one spoke. Small fires started here and there in the forest, and Ezekiel got a few notifications for smaller monster life dying, but mostly, it was just a very hot day. The birds barely cared, the deer ran through the forest, unperturbed. The [Animadversion]s on his people kept the damage off of them, just like the spider’s own reflective carapace, or ability, kept it alive through the magical damage.

But the physical damage caused by Elemental Sun and a very, very bright space, would eventually get through its lightform. It was likely hotter in there than if he had thrown an [Incandescent] inside.

The ‘battle’ continued.

The spider was slowly dying. Its reflective powers were great, and the ability of its lightform to shrug off a great deal of the physical damage of the heat was strong, but slowly, surely, the damage piled up, and because it was such small amounts, the spider didn’t seem to care.

It was enthralled by the brilliance.

Seven minutes. Eight minutes. The Sun Rift would go out, soon. Their magenta shields were about to give out—

Without warning, the spider relaxed.

Its lightform dropped. Its long, iridescent green legs touched upon the walls of Force holding it in the cage. For one last, stretching moment, the weaver stared at the light, and the light burned.

The weaver died, slightly smoking, the light in its eyes going out as the entire monster went dim.

--

You have slain Radiant Nacreous Weaver!

85% participation!

+90.186e12 exp

--

It wasn’t enough to move Ezekiel’s Status at all. His own experience meter was ‘e20’. The Radiant Nacreous Weaver was only ‘e12’.

He breathed out, canceling the Sun Rift as he said, “It’s dead.”

At the same time, Tiffany relaxed, exclaiming, “Holy shit! Fucking Variant!” She laughed. “Radiant Nacreous Weaver!”

Paul blinked, breathed, and said, “Can we PLEASE do the Primal Blood Weaver from far away and with extreme power? Please?”

Julia rushed toward the black box, saying, “Let it out, let it out!”

Ezekiel canceled the [Luminous Trap] and the [Quick Wall]s surrounding the beast. Tiffany stepped back as the green spider dropped to the ground. It curled in on itself as it steamed slightly, but not too bad. It was only barely cooked.

It smelled like shrimp. Or maybe lobster.

“It should be okay! Right?” Julia spun into herself, flesh becoming more of a suggestion and less of a reality, as she discarded her clothes and armor, turning into shadows that then morphed into a three-meter-wide Shadow Spider. With a voice like Evil, she said, “Bone apple teeth!”

Tiffany escaped, rapidly rushing down the game trail, saying, “Seeing you eat one spider was enough for me!”

“I hope to never see it,” Paul said, rapidly following Tiffany, getting out from between Julia and her prize. “Let’s go bury those bodies.”

Ezekiel escaped too, saying, “Love you, Julia! Have a good lunch! It’s certainly a pretty spider!”

As the first crunching sounds echoed in the slightly burned forest, Ezekiel caught up to his people who were still shaped like people. The three of them walked through the forest, headed toward the burial mound, breaking spider threads along the way like they weren’t even there. The magic was gone in those threads now. To distract themselves from the crunching sounds echoing from behind, Tiffany asked about burial customs, and why Paul suggested burial, to which Paul spoke of various burial customs the world over.

“We cremate in Spur because—”

Crunch!

“— Because necromancy is outlawed because people use it to—”

Crack!

“—use it to raise demons or angels because of the—”

Snap!

“—Because of the Quiet War—”

Splat!

Paul winced, his eyes closing briefly as they walked on, saying, “She’s doing that on purpose.”

A horrific, shadowy voice called out, “I am!” followed by awful, evil cackling. In a much nicer, [Prestidigitation] voice that was closer to her own, she said, “It’s just monster meat! You guys eat this stuff, too.”

Tiffany called back, “I like my meat on a plate and well seasoned, thank you!”

“This is half-cooked!” With a smaller, no less evil voice, Ezekiel heard a worried mumble, “Too cooked.”

Ezekiel distracted Paul and Tiffany from the crunching and munching, which was now quieter, asking everyone, “They bury in order to dig up later, and to question the people?”

They reached the burial site at the base of a tree, which was more like a garbage pile, and yet not at all. Despite the horror which was apparent only to his mana sense, Ezekiel at least appreciated the weaver’s cleanliness. The weaver had dug down into the roots of a normal enough tree, and then stuffed desiccated bodies and all of the belongings of the people into one location, and then covered it over with layers upon layers of brown and green thread. It almost looked like the tree was simply thick around the base, but anyone with true eyes to see could tell that this was the barest attempt at hiding something.

And that something was a small nest.

Spiders lived amongst the bodies. Small and brown, they nested.

“They bury bodies to maybe raise with necromancy one day, yes,” Paul said. “It’s part of the judicial system, sometimes.”

“Weird,” Tiffany said, as she reached forward into the brown and green threads, and pulled.

Thread snapped, revealing desiccated bodies, bags, rotten food, broken weapons, and more than a few animal corpses, too. Tiffany pulled out the first body from the desiccated pile, dislodging the tiny brown spiders who had hidden deeper when they sensed people tromping around nearby. ‘Tiny’ being relative. They were still the size of Ezekiel’s hand. Maybe they were babies? Or maybe there was something else going on there; Ezekiel wasn’t quite sure. There were no rads in these spiders though; they were not monsters.

“Dun glint weavers. Not monsters.” Tiffany brushed away a spider that had decided to attack her hand, gently tumbling the spider to the soft grass below. “No biting, please.”

Ezekiel used his lightform tendrils to help dislodge the bodies from their garbage mound, and set aside the glittering brown spiders. They weren’t as pretty as the Nacreous Weaver, but they weren’t monsters, so there was no need to kill them. In minutes, they had seven very dried humanoid corpses laid out on the grass, in the sun, and most of the spiders were trying to remake their colony around the animal bodies that were left behind. The dun glints might not have killed the people they nested around, but they had taken advantage of their larger cousin’s efforts to keep the forest clean. After their disturbance, the spiders began to spread green and brown thread over the remainder of the corpses, to once again hide from the light.

Ezekiel was pretty sure the Radiant Nacreous Weaver was female though, so… where were those eggs? Where was that nest? Or did the entire Nacreous Weaver / Light Weaver line start off as Dun Glints?

Were there any Light Weavers around here? Those would certainly be monsters.

Ezekiel sent his Odin out to look, as he went over the bodies they had found.

The bodies of the people were categorized and checked for identification, and then they were buried in a normal gravesite, with unadorned tombstones to mark their final rests.

There had been four women of various ages, and three men of various ages, all of them between 20 and 40. All human, or barely demi. Three of them had identification for Alaralti, the second main city of the Songli Highlands. The rest had nothing. Ezekiel put those papers into a pocket of his conjured armor; they’d report the deaths and the location later.

Looking down on the graves, Ezekiel wondered how the afterlife worked in Nelboor, since a lot of people were demi. Where were the lines drawn when it came to the Quiet War? Incani souls were more stable than human souls. Did that nuance of souls transfer to demi children? Did all demis go to Hell, automatically? Or was there a choice?

He could ask Phagar—

All somber thoughts fled as Julia walked into the clearing as a four-meter wide, two-meter tall, brilliant green spider. After the initial shock, he sighed. Why did Julia have to like spiders, like this? Why were spiders so useful? And why were there spiders at all?

Whose idea was it to make spiders after the Sundering? Were there spiders in the Old Cosmology?

Whoever made spiders exist on Veird did not need to have done that.

Tiffany stared at Julia. Paul stared at Julia.

Ezekiel frowned a little, but he stared, too.

Julia twisted her body around, displaying herself, asking in a pretty voice, “What do you think?”

Tiffany said, “You’re an unholy abomination of too many different monsters.”

“I agree,” Paul said.

Julia laughed.

“Prettier than the Shadow Spider.” Ezekiel asked, “What are the abilities?”

The giant pale-green spider that was his daughter, popped a blue box into the air, saying, “It’s a lot more than I thought it would be.”

--

Body:

Spider Mind

Vibration Sense

Radiant Presence

Venom Weaver

Prismatic Thread

All:

Force Weaver

--

She said, “Throw a [Force Bolt] at me!”

“No.” Ezekiel asked, “Are you using [Radiant Presence]?”

“Innate ability! There’s no need to ‘use’ it at all.” Julia twisted a little bit, showing off her own iridescence. “I have to have this nacreous shell in order to have [Radiant Presence] in the other forms, but I can do that. Watch.”

The green spider vanished into a swarm of light and shadow and came back out smaller, and yet twice as heavy with limbs twice as thick and powerful. Julia had great big green eyes in front and long fangs, with pedipalps ready to grip and tear, and an entire body made of green-black iridescence, in both shell and hair.

Julia said, “Shadow Spider form, Radiant Nacreous Weaver body, [Telekinetic Thread] from the Red Thread Weaver. There’s a lot of different options combined into a chimera, here. Much more than the usual 6 listed in the Familiar Form. A lot of thread options, mainly. And also! This is what the Weaver did to get through our armors. Give me a [Force Wall], dad.”

At Ezekiel’s cast, a wall of clear magenta Force sprung up to the side.

He asked, “Don’t you have that spell yet?”

“I Remade them! But it’s more impressive if it’s someone else’s Force spell.” Julia pressed her forelegs to the wall saying, “Watch.”

With gripping paws, Julia pressed through the Force, deforming it like it was made of gelatin. Then she lifted her paws away, and the Force Wall re-solidified in its deformed shape. She pressed her paws back to the magenta wall, and with a swipe, she yanked the solid wall into something not solid at all; into thread that coiled into the air, and then came down into Julia’s foreleg like a self-coiling garden hose.

With another motion, Julia transformed the collection of Force thread into a condensed ball of jumbled twine. She pointed that ball of magenta twine to the side. The ball rocketed away and spacked against a tree’s trunk, unfolded like strangling goo, enveloping the trunk with dense Force.

And then it turned hard again, wrapping the trunk in solid Force.

“Huh.” Ezekiel said, “One’s own conjured Force is usually extremely resistant to the control of another. I had thought the monster had just pierced through and reflected our conjured items. But… [Force Weaver] is a strong ability.”

“That’s why I wanted to use your [Quick Wall]!” Julia laughed an evil laugh, then spoke in her [Prestidigitation] voice, “Impressive! Isn’t it!”

Once again, Riri’s notes said nothing about [Force Weaver]. The abilities that the Nacreous Weaver were supposed to have were [Deflective Presence], [Light Thread], and [Light Weaver]; not [Radiant Presence], [Prismatic Thread], and [Force Weaver]. This was a Variant, of course. Maybe Riri just didn’t know that?

“Our armaments didn’t break due to reflection. The weaver willed our Force constructs to part.” Julia glanced toward the graves. “I bet the same thing happened to those people.”

Tiffany nodded toward the graves. “Yup.” She asked, “And [Venom Weaver]? The poison on its legs, I guess.”

“Correct.” Julia held up a foreleg. Venom flowed out of her fangs and became a spear-tip. She splashed the venom to the side, away from everyone, saying, “Useful.”

Ezekiel moved on, asking, “What does Healthy Form require?”

The green huntsman spider winced. Julia said, “I need to live as a form for a while and naturally produce some of the diet and life-based products of that form. I’m guessing it would take me a week to make the anti-magic venom of a Shadow Spider. Maybe less to make the fire-proof thread. Not sure about the rest.”

Ezekiel had wondered what the venom of a Shadow Spider was, way back when he first encountered that, and it had almost taken his daughter away from him. Now, though, he guessed, “Could it be an Extreme Light effect? Radiation injected into a victim to destroy while it impeded spellcasting? You’re not actually making antirhine, because normal shadow spiders [Shadowalk] all the time, and they couldn’t do that if they had antirhine in them. Unless the Shades had figured out chelation long before the people here did… I doubt that, though. Severely. That postulation doesn’t stand up at all.” Ezekiel asked, “How do you think your anti-magic venom works?”

Julia did a spider shrug, then said, “No idea. I could eventually find out, but I haven’t had the need to try until now.”

Ezekiel asked, “Do you want to live as a spider for a while? It can’t possibly be comfortable.”

“Sturdier than my human body. More physically comfortable, too.” Julia said, “But socially comfortable? This form has much to be desired.” She became dark blue light which transformed into her human body, already wearing her conjured armor like overlapping dark blue scales. She threw back her helmet, revealing her normal, human face, as she said, “I haven’t succeeded in a drider form, yet, but somehow I don’t think that’d go over well, either.”

“… Drider?” Ezekiel narrowed his eyes, then widened them, as he remembered. “Oh! Those human-spider people!” He instantly said, “That would not go over well.”

Julia waved him off, saying, “Meh!” She asked, “Are you going to make your [Blood Dummy] spell before we tackle the Primal Blood Weaver?”

“Yes.” Ezekiel glanced around at the gravesite, and at his people. “Not here, though. Let’s move closer to the target and take a small break.”

- - - -

The four of them reappeared in a flash of magenta light on the western side of the South Central Tribulations, and a bit more north than their previous latitude. The ground under their feet was an expansive, bare hillside, high up on the mountain, where trees had yet to encroach. But down in the valley, the trees were as large as the smaller ones in the Forest of Glaquin.

It was as though they had appeared on a rocky island amid a sea of green and darkness.

The wind blew with a gentle force, whistling on scattered boulders and sharp grasses. Odin, sitting upon Ezekiel’s shoulder, joined in the whistling as more and more of his bodies rejoined the team, to watch down from high above.

They were only a few kilometers from the start of the Blood Weaver nest, but they were already in the monster’s territory. Close enough that they needed to be on alert in case the monsters prowled this far, but they were in no danger of an imminent attack. And besides, Tiffany and Odin kept the best lookout that was possible for mortals and [Familiar]s to keep.

Tiffany sat down on a boulder. Paul joined her. Julia stood nearby, watching.

It was time for a small bit of magic making.

“Here’s how this one is supposed to go.” Erick discarded his magenta affectation as he held up his hands, projecting white light through them. “[Interception] on one hand. Blood Altering with Destruction in the other.” An Ophiel alighted onto the ground in front of Erick and sang one song, while another Ophiel sang a different one. Erick said, “[Conjure Force Elemental], and [Ward]. From there, it’s a matter of joining them all properly.”

He heard the sounds before him, and they were… strange.

“Ah.” Erick said, “There are some oddities here. There might need to be some adjustments to the plan.”

His audience watched as two more Ophiel came down and took over the sounds for [Interception] and Blood Altering—

He found two problems.

The first one was an easy problem to fix, but it would require certain bloody sacrifices that were easy enough to sacrifice. Looked like Erick was finally getting to use his Blood Mana Class Ability.

The other problem came from Destruction, so Erick focused on Destruction for Blood Magic, himself, while his four Ophiel took up the rest of the song. Soon, they were singing the sounds of a primordial life rushing to defend its creator from the worst kind of mutative magics; of surrounding the holder of the charm with absolute [Interception] of all harmful Blood Magic.

Blood pulsed in Erick’s ears as he listened to the sound of life.

The mana bade him raise his arm. He did.

He cast, molding songs into substance. Mana rushed out of him as blood slipped out from burst capillaries in his hand, and pushed through his skin, appearing like dew. The bloody dew detached. It floated upward.

Life gathered into a thumb-sized drop of bright red blood.

Erick’s arm stopped bleeding when enough blood had gathered. It barely hurt.

And then mana flickered through the floating plasma and red blood cells and otherwise, turning liquid life into something less real, and more Real at the same time. Magic crystallized into a perfect red sphere that was cracked inside like broken dreams. It was bright, and it was powerful.

Erick swept a [Cleanse] across his upheld hand, dispersing the bloody beginnings of his spell into so much thick air.

The glowing charm descended into his grip.

A blue box appeared.

--

Sanguine Charm, instant, close range, 1000 mana and 1000 health

Create a major charm that prevents a multitude of harmful Blood Magics from affecting the holder. Absorbs a large amount of Blood Magic damage before breaking. Major Blood distortions made against the holder may automatically fail. Lasts a maximum of 48 hours.

--

He held the charm in his hand and watched as its crystalline form became liquid then twined around his hand, to slip around his wrist to hold there, becoming a red-ribbon bracelet with a central ruby. He held it up to the light and smiled as it glittered.

He sucked in a lungful of fresh air, barely registering that he had briefly stopped breathing. Eh! He was fine. Ezekiel looked to Paul, and said, “Finally found a use for Blood Mana!” He willed the blue boxes for his new spell to all of his party. “What do you think?”

“First: this.” Julia tapped him with a [Greater Treat Wounds], saying, “You stopped breathing for a moment there.” Then she read the box.

Ezekiel was pleasantly surprised that her healing spell still worked; if what Arilitilo had said was true, then [Greater Treat Wounds] was, if not Blood Magic, then at least adjacent to Blood Magic. [Sanguine Charm] seemed rather solidly against only the ‘harmful’ types of Blood Magic, though, so… Maybe there was a nuance between ‘harmful’ and ‘helpful’ that was more than just a matter of perspective? Or maybe [Greater Treat Wounds] was not actually Blood Magic, but instead merely attained through that discipline, sort of how he had Remade [Force Bolt] even though he had Remade it using his lightform, which was certainly not Force.

Something to ask Arilitilo about.

Paul finished reading the new spell. He said, “We should ignore the possibility that this spell will make the upcoming Primal Blood Weaver a simple affair, and you should kill them all from afar and not take the risk.”

Tiffany read the charm, saying, “Ohh! That’s pretty good. Reads almost the same as the Charmer at the guard station back home. A lot more duration, though.”

Julia read the box three times, then hummed, and looked to her father. “I think I need Blood Mana.”

Paul instantly said, “No you don’t.”

Ezekiel smirked as he conjured another [Sanguine Charm] to test the cost, now that the Script’s reductions kicked in. The initial creation of the spell took 1000 Mana and 1000 Health, but the next cast took 54 Mana and 63 Health.

… Huh.

Ezekiel cast another charm, and the cost was the same.

There was something odd going on, there.

Constitution reduced damage taken to Health by a diminishing return percentage. He currently had 81 Constitution. He also had 81 Intelligence, which reduced Mana costs by what appeared to be the same diminishing return percentage. … When [Defend] was active, though.

Ezekiel activated [Defend] and recast [Sanguine Charm].

Same costs.

The problem was that Dexterity was the New Stat which reduced Health costs by a diminishing return percentage, and he only had 71 of that. Which meant that his Health cost reduction was less than his Mana cost reduction, which is exactly what happened with the costs of [Sanguine Charm].

It made sense that Dexterity reduced that Health cost, because that is what it was created to do, but Ezekiel had thought that Constitution would have been the modifier, here. It was more intuitive for the reduction of damage to his body to be the modifier when it came to extracting damage from his body in order to fuel his magic.

But… Now that he considered a few other facts…

Namely, Dexterity was the ease at which the body could live and move and function. So, looking at it from that perspective...

Constitution just reduced damage taken, and he wasn’t inflicting damage on himself when he used Blood Mana. He was using the resources of his body to fuel magic costs.

Ah. Okay. That made sense.

Yes. Dexterity wasn’t exactly ‘Dexterity’, it was the ability for the body to function well.

Strength was more than physical strength, and though Strength had perfectly understood Health benefits, it gave rather undefined physical boosts. An orcol with 50 Strength was stronger than a human with 50 Strength, after all. For an orcol, their Vitality lets them regrow body parts. The same was not true for a human. Willpower wasn’t anything except for a measure of the mana a person could hold at any one time.

But why didn’t Constitution reduce damage taken to [Personal Ward]s, too, when armor and other defensive structures helped reduce damage to both Health and [Ward]? Dexterity had odd effects, too, now that Ezekiel reorganized his thinking on the subject. He was a lot more limber than he had ever been in his life, now that he had Dexterity.

Perception had odd effects, but numbers? It had none. All Stats were odd. All of them were abstractions.

Ezekiel’s minor detour into the workings of the New Stats and the Old ended almost as soon as it began, with barely a second passing. He returned to Julia’s comment about needing Blood Mana, and said, “I tried casting healing spells with it and it hurt like a fucker, so it likely won’t work how you think it will.”

Julia paused, thought a bit, then said, “There are a lot of different ways to work around that. I could still easily exploit Blood Mana to cast spells for an indefinitely long combat.”

“True. Healing yourself with regular, cost-effective mana, and then using that Health to make big spells. It’s a valid tactic.” Ezekiel said, “But Arilitilo’s books warn that a person would tax their body too much if they used too much Blood Mana, leading to systemic stress. But anyway—” He held out a hand, where his charms had stuck. Only one remained of the few he had cast. The charms beyond the first had tried to attach to the same spot and they had turned to red dust that spilled to the ground. “Can’t have more than one, it seems.” He conjured another one and put it on his other wrist. It turned to dust, too. “Yup.”

“I’d still take one,” Julia said.

Ezekiel handed out charms, saying, “One for everyone.”

Julia’s charm snapped around her wrist. Tiffany’s went around her thumb. Paul held his blood charm in his hand for a moment, then placed it against his wrist where it became a bracelet just like Ezekiel’s.

“So!” Julia said, “Thanks for the charm. Seems like it’ll protect me from the weavers, so I’ll hunt this horde on my own.”

A breeze passed through.

Ezekiel wasn’t sure he had heard that right.

He asked, “What?”

Julia said, “I’ll hunt this weaver on my own.”

Ezekiel felt his world crumble. He asked. “Please don’t do this to me. Not against Blood Weavers. Not against anything like this.”

Julia froze as the weight of Ezekiel’s displeasure fell upon her. She stared into his eyes for a moment, seeming soft for a long second. Then she turned hard, and said, “I can turn into liquid flame. Or metal. I have [Aura of Freedom]. Not only am I naturally immune to whatever Blood abilities they have, and I doubt I even need your charm, for I am capable of freeing myself from literally any binding spell they could possibly throw at me. [Blood Control] spells will not work on me. The only people in danger in this situation are you, Tiffany, and Paul.” She rapidly turned to Tiffany and Paul, saying, “No offense meant, but you don’t even have an Elemental Body.”

Tiffany stayed well clear of the conversation. Paul did too. Both pretended not to hear anything as they looked away.

Julia turned back to her father, and said, “I could have taken that Nacreous Weaver, too, if I didn’t have to watch out for you. I am much more competent in this arena than you think, and I do not appreciate this smothering.”

Ezekiel felt empty. Gutted.

Julia stared, unflinching.

A moment passed, while Ezekiel tried to put his own thoughts in order. She was right. She was wrong. But above all, Ezekiel had to let her do this. He had expected her to try this. He had expected to lose this argument, too.

Ezekiel said, “You’re right. But I’m sending an Odin with you, who will [Withering] them if needed.”

“… Acceptable.” Julia said, “Please keep Odin away from the actual fight. I will be going in, now.” She shifted to light and stepped ten meters away where she instantly immolated into liquid fire and splashed outward into a flowing pool of orange ooze. The red dot of her [Sanguine Charm] was a spot of red shadows in the billowing heat of her brilliant form. She spoke with [Prestidigitation], saying, “Thank you for watching over me.” Another twist of light turned her into a shooting star that took off toward the north, toward…

Toward what was likely certain death.

... For anyone else except for Jane.

Why was this so hard? It would never get any easier, either.

Erick watched. He waited. He could do nothing else, lest he drive away his daughter. He had learned that lesson long ago.

Besides… Jane could handle this fight.

- - - -

The world was cold and Jane was fi—

Julia was fire.

Ah. That talk with her father had gone less than great. But it had gone. And now it was in the past, and they’d talk about it when they all got back home, and everything would be fine.

Eventually.

Everything would be better if he would have let her go on this entire hunt on her own. She hadn’t spoken up when the plans were made to get the Nacreous Weaver, and that was on her, but there hadn’t been a ‘best moment’ to talk about it. If it had just been her attacking the monster, then no one would have gotten hurt at all.

She didn’t expect all that reflection, but if she wasn’t constrained to fight with her father nearby—

That wasn’t fair of her.

She could have gone oozey right away and flanked the monster while Tiffany struck from one side and everyone attacked from every angle. That had been her own plan, but then her father had lucked out and mesmerized the weaver.

Paul would have gotten hurt, though, for sure. He had strained to freeze the weaver for that single moment. He could have done it a few more times, maybe, but even once was a lot. Probably due to the reflection, again. Paul had frozen too when he froze that weaver.

Ezekiel had been almost useless, too, until he lucked out.

Eh. They all got lucky. [Force Weaver] was no joke. Even she didn’t expect that. She could deal.

Her Unicorn Form would have worked, too. [Beautification Aura] would have been an instant kill, with less chance of accidentally burning her own party. But Poi would have gotten hurt… Maybe. He could probably piggyback off of everyone else’s sights. Back during the Unicorn Hunt, Marric had been fine fighting the Unicorns, and he was a Mind Mage, too.

She could have done that fight so much better.

And she could have trusted them to fight beside her as a monster, too. Why hadn’t she tried that with them? Was it because her father didn’t like seeing her as a monster? He certainly didn’t like spiders.

Was she embarrassed?

Julia loved her father, and everyone else was pretty great, too. Tiffany was warming up to her, finally, but…

She had sunk a lot of that just now, hadn’t she? By demanding to fight on her own, she had basically said that they were all useless.

Dammit.

She was better off alone.

Or maybe, she just hadn’t found the right people yet. She needed people who actually wanted to war and destroy, who were capable of keeping up with her own desire to fight and tear a swath through the world, so that other people could come behind and fix it all up.

That’s all that was happening here.

She wanted to be on the front line.

Her father wanted to be on the backline, and his people were there on that backline with him.

There was nothing wrong with this. It’s just how it was.

Anyway. There’s the spiders.

Pretty nest.

The crevasse was a kilometer long and a dozen meters wide, like a crack in the world that ran from deep in the forested valley to halfway up the bare mountain.

The entire crevasse was filled with glittering red darkness that extended into the world above, the red threads spreading out like blood from a wound. It might have truly been a wound, too; a kilometer-long wound in the world caused by someone’s spell or strength, that then got infected with spiders.

Julia descended to the edge of the crevasse, partway up the mountain, where red thread touched bare rock. She was going to stay away from the forest if she could; the blood weavers were a known threat, but they had to feed on some other monstrous species, for sure.

Her lightform touched the threads, ten meters from the edge of the lair. She plucked threads with a dozen tendrils, and she waited. She did not wait long.

She couldn’t see them yet, but she could feel them. Oozes had [Vibration Sense], just like spiders, and in her lightform, her [Vibration Sense] covered a great deal of space. Oozes were fractionally better at this particular sense when it came to sensing threats that touched the same solid surface. But for threats in the air, spiders won that contest.

Chittering, plucking feet clamored up from deep below. The larger ones had to be a hundred meters away. Less for the smaller ones. Maybe only twenty meters down. They had been hidden in holes carved out of the side of the crevasse and layered over with blood thread, but now they sensed prey upon their nest, and they hunted.

The wound in the world boiled over with the first wave of crimson Blood Weavers. Each spider was the size of a head, with legs twice as long but thin as needles. They shimmered in the afternoon sun as they rushed Julia, who was an ooze, but still in lightform.

She dropped the lightform, becoming bright burning ooze.

The shift in temperature was a minor explosion. Wet threads burst into steam, flash-frying then burning. Heat heralded Julia’s assault as she oozed forward, burning away more threads. Dumb spiders were caught in the flames. They advanced for a moment more, to kill the thing that was killing them, but they never got close.

The vanguard burst into flames, five meters away. The second line overheated, boiling first, and then they too caught fire. The third line, still cresting the edge, wisely decided to rush in other directions, and then away from the threat. Every single one of them was between level 20 to 30, with most being in the lower range. Not many of them were monsters, either, it seemed. She didn’t have [Eyes of Magic] in this form, for that was the basic nature of Shadow Spider eyes, but she did have the All Ability of [Life Sight] of her Hidebound Sneakeye form. [Life Sight] showed none of the usual gathering of life around a core that a monster usually had.

Julia briefly checked her resources. Health? Check. Mana? Check.

Yup. She was fine.

For a brief moment she considered Intelligence again, and decided that maybe she would do it, later. Or maybe she’d pick that up after she saw how it affected those people at Star Song. Intelligence had changed her father, but not by much. Mostly, he just picked up everything she put down, and that was kinda nice.

He even remembered what ‘chuuni’ meant.

Discarding thoughts other than the fight ahead of her, Julia oozed closer to the edge, burning away everything that came close, charring a path to the crevasse. Spiders fled at her encroachment. She reached the edge, intercepting a weaver that was larger than most, almost as large as she was. Ah. This one was a monster. Certainly didn’t look like a ‘Primal’ anything, though. It was just a normal, monsterized Blood Weaver.

It screamed as it charged up, aiming for Julia.

Julia stepped back from the edge, taunting the beast to attack her at her level. Her heat flowed out and up, after all. It didn’t flow down.

The weaver crested the ridge and Julia slipped forward, directly underneath the spider while it stabbed down at her oozy form. It struck, yeah. Julia barely felt the attack, and barely took damage.

The weaver, though, standing above Julia, instantly caught fire and exploded from the expansion of gasses inside its body. A blue box appeared, and yup! Just a normal Blood Weaver. Level 40ish, if Julia’s guess was correct. Spider legs and body parts went everywhere, as they burned.

Some of those burning bits fell into the wound in the world.

Julia poked a bit of herself back over the edge. She didn’t see much, as the flaming wreckage went out of range. That was one bad thing about flame oozes; they didn’t have normal sight. Oozes had [Surround Sight], which was great in most situations, but not in this situation, where the enemy was some hundreds of meters down a dark, blood-soaked hole. [Surround Sight] ended after about a hundred meters, and it couldn’t see around corners like a proper mana sense.

Julia was still glad that she had taken it as her Hidden Monster Class Ability, though.

She sent a [Fireball] sailing down into that red darkness.

Ain’t no way she’d walk into that trap.

Fire exploded. Probably. Julia couldn’t see the damage, but there were vibrations, for sure. She sent more [Fireball]s down into the wound, hitting here and there and lighting a few things on fire. Heat billowed up the hole, and flame oozes were good at seeing heat in the world, so there was definitely some burning down below. She got damage notifications and kill notifications, too.

But not much more than that.

She waited. The ground melted under her presence. Small dribbles of burning rock slipped over the edge of the crevasse, tumbling down into the dark, rapidly cooling as they fell.

This was not comfortable, for multiple reasons. One, in particular, was worse than the rest.

As a flame ooze, Julia needed to exist within certain temperatures in order to feel comfortable. It was, quite frankly, frigid as a witch’s tit out here, in the bright sunshine in the heat of the afternoon. This was like being in the middle of a blizzard. She could deal; she had dealt with this level of awfulness before and she would continue to do so. But the cold was easier to deal with when there were more burnable supplies nearby, and she could start her own fires.

She turned partially to shadows, both to get a better look at what was happening down in the hole, and to escape the cold. It worked. She wasn’t cold anymore.

Julia sent a few shadows downward.

The enemy stood revealed.

Julia jiggled in the shadows, suddenly wary. The target had been waiting, just out of her [Surround Sight], but her shadow sight from her shadow form had revealed all.

Fires burned here and there, but they were small things already being smothered by the concerted efforts of smaller spiders. The true illumination of the monster was from Bright blood spells hovering to the sides of the beast; four spells in total, each spinning like red globes.

The Primal Blood Queen, for that was the only thing a monster of this size could be. It had a body the size of a truck and the legs to match, each the size of tree trunks. It was a tarantula-type, with dark crimson chitin and absolutely covered in bright red needle-hair that shimmered in the light of its own ruby-red spellwork. Two main eyes, lidless and red, watched Julia stand on the edge, while smaller eyes surrounded its head, allowing it to keep focus on its smaller kin.

It was absolutely beautiful. More beautiful than the Nacreous Weaver; Julia had no idea why her father had thought that spindly thing was pretty.

Now, this! This was power! This was beauty.

It was rather smart, too. It had dealt with oozes before; that much was obvious. It had likely dealt with a lot of odd threats before now, and oozes were massive threats. Even if most monsters attacked until they either died or they killed enough to survive everything they attacked, most monsters were still wary of oozes. Unicorns went after oozes first and foremost because they were the only natural monster that could kill a unicorn, and the unicorns knew that.

The Queen Blood Weaver seemed to know that Julia was beyond dangerous, too.

So the monster sat there on the side of the crevasse, perfectly motionless so [Vibration Sense] was useless, out of range of [Surround Sight], and even out of range of most spells. This monster had realized that this particular ooze had shot out [Fireball]s, and it was wary for other tricks. It didn’t sense the shadows moving below it, though, under the threads under its feet.

Julia left the shadows there, but only to watch. She did not attack through them. She could have, but then the corpse would fall down and likely break into dozens of pieces, or otherwise get lost in the nest. Instead, she poked over the edge again, showing her orange ooze self.

The weaver did not move, but its hovering blood globes pulsed with power, growing slightly larger.

The weaver’s one-sided staredown continued.

Some smaller weavers, which were only the size of Julia herself, blitzed out of the crevasse, and rushed her. These were the stupid ones. Sacrificial pawns, no doubt. Some of them held small floating orbs of blood, though, and those were slightly more dangerous than the rest.

Julia let the sacrifices get close. She barely fought back, pretending at more sluggishness than was real. She was feeling slow, for sure, but she hammed it up for the obvious audience. She even allowed herself to be wounded. When a spider carved a [Blood Beam] from a floating orb, aiming at Julia, Julia let the spell clip off a few kilograms of orange ooze before she flexed her fire and burned the beast under 800 degrees of heat, Celsius.

It wasn’t really Celsius, but that was easier than calling it Yols, since they were about the same measurement.

Hmm.

This wasn’t working.

Julia dispatched the wave of medium-sized threats.

The queen refused to move. Or attack. Or reposition. Or anything. She waited. She watched. She did not move.

… Julia looked over her recently created spells and picked the one appropriate for the situation.

--

Flaming Replication, instant, close range, 250 mana

Create a replica of yourself that moves like you and attempts to attack with your normal attacks, dealing fire damage with a chance to ignite. Or, the replica can run, evading all attempts to capture or contain. Choice is made at the time of casting. Lasts 1 minute.

--

She had made one of these spells for each of her primary Elements, but there had been no use for them until now.

She cast. A flaming ooze oozed out of Julia and rushed over the edge of the crevasse, burning a path down the stone, through the webs, aiming directly for the Queen Blood Weaver. Julia turned to shadow and vanished from sight.

The replica detached from the wall and fell directly toward the queen, who instantly obliterated it by telekinetically swiping a blood orb across the air, striking the replica, splashing fire in every direction as the queen moved in the other direction. She repositioned so that the bits of obliterated fire touched upon anything but her. One of those pieces splattered on the webs near her, catching the web on fire.

The queen splashed the web with thick blood spells from one of her hovering orbs, dousing the flames. The size of her orbs diminished as she cast, but she didn’t seem to care.

Julia watched from the shadows, motionless. Watching and waiting.

Moments passed. The queen remained motionless.

Eventually, the queen tested a step forward. When nothing happened, she took another. Then she walked across the side of her web, avoiding the smaller spiders as she moved. The larger ones got out of her way as fast as possible. Julia saw why the larger ones moved so quickly when one of them didn’t get out of the way fast enough.

That large spider became another blood orb. Julia barely saw how the queen did it. One second the smaller-than-her spider was living, the next it had churned into itself, becoming another orb of glowing red blood, and then the queen’s four orbs were each back up to full size.

… Julia had made the right decision in telling everyone else to stay away. She could handle this herself.

Now with four blood orbs around her head, the queen proceeded to stamp out every fire in the area, smushing her blood orbs against the fire until the fire went away. She moved slowly, but fast enough. One well-burned area had to be re-webbed. The queen took a blood orb and made wrist-thick cable-like thread from it, laying down structural threads. The smaller weavers took over from there, quickly filling in the gaps in the nest while the queen watched. After a minute, the queen must have deemed progress ‘good enough’, and moved on. When she went away, the smaller weavers stopped caring about being so thorough in wrapping up their web. They kept at it, but they slowed.

The entire colony had been quiet during Julia’s attack, but slowly they began to chitter and shake their abdomens, and twang the thread near them as they communicated with each other. The queen’s orbs went dark as she started to walk with purpose, shaking the world as she moved down, down, into the dark.

There was intelligence behind that spider’s many eyes.

How intelligent, though?

While she was under the shadows, Julia restored her body with [Greater Treat Wounds]. When that was done, she spoke from the shadows on the other side of the crevasse. “Yo yo yo.”

The entire colony went silent again.

The queen turned around. She began walking back up the crevasse again, slowly, silently, her great big eyes watching for any movement at all.

Julia asked, “Are you intelligent enough to speak?”

The queen froze. Her blood orbs spun back up, returning to brilliant red life.

Julia switched her languages, asking, “Do you speak Ancient Script? Do you speak Inferni? How about Karstar? How about Gargantual? How about good old Ecks?”

The queen had zeroed in on the spot where the sound was coming from. Julia would have been surprised if she hadn’t. But then she ignored that spot, and kept looking, scanning the world for the speaker. Yup; she was intelligent. Also a monster. The core in her body was a grand core, for sure.

The queen spoke, in Ecks, “Help me! I’m down here!”

The spiders around the crevasse began to prowl with a purpose. They poked at shadows, and poked at air. Julia didn’t react when a spider poked at her shadow. The spider was obviously looking for movement, and Julia didn’t give it the satisfaction.

A few other spiders, the medium-sized ones, echoed their queen.

“We’re down here!” “The spider trapped us!” “We’re in the webs!”

Julia felt a lot better about killing them, now. She had to be sure they were monsters, and they were. Plus, her father would appreciate checking, and this way, he wouldn’t have to worry himself over if his daughter was killing sapient beings. Odin was still up there, high in the sky, watching, after all.

Probably.

Julia decided it was best to ensure that he was watching and seeing.

She asked, “What’s 2 plus 2!”

The weavers responded, “Down here! Help us!” and “It hurts!”

The Queen said, “Four! Why the math!”

Ah. Shit.

… Now Julia just had to know. She asked, “Do people often fall for that trap? Or are you truly not that bad of a monster?”

“I’m not a monster! I’m a [Polymage]! This is my life now because I can’t transform back!” The queen scanned her surroundings, as she asked, “Did you come here for thread? I can sell you some! Just bring us monsters. The bigger the better!”

Okay. Well. Now the Queen was starting to sound like a person. And Julia, dammit, was starting to fall for it. She did not like that she was falling for it, but that’s how it was.

Julia had absolutely no problem killing a monster that preyed on people, but this one was too smart, and that was a problem. She was like the Unicorn Queen. In that same way, this Queen Blood Weaver spoke like a person and spawned monsters that followed in her footsteps to kill people, for sure. But Julia had no problem killing that Other Queen, either.

Julia lied, “I’m going to come out now, and talk to you.”

The queen tensed. “I await your arrival.”

Shadows rose from the edge of the cliff face, high above; a purposeful usage of shadows created more by skill than any spell. Every weaver turned toward the figure. None of them moved. Julia remained off to the side. ‘Shadow Julia’ walked down the side of the crevasse, not caring for the spiders nearby. None of them attacked the illusion. Most weavers walked out of the way.

On a vertical battlefield, Shadow Julia walked down, toward the Spider Queen. They met in glowing red darkness, surrounded by the reflective red eyes of their audience.

A figment stood before a Queen ten times her size, and asked, “Are you truly a [Polymage] trapped in there?”

“I assure you, I am.”

“Prove it.”

“I cannot. How would I?”

“Cast [Cleanse]. Monsters cannot do that.”

The Queen said, “I cannot either, but that does not mean that—”

Orbs of blood turned into carving spells of death, ripping through Shadow Julia, and then the Queen moved. She covered two hundred meters in a flashing moment, coming to stand right above where the real Julia hid in the shadows, under the webs. Blood orbs soaked into the webs, turning a portion of the crevasse into blood spikes, killing a hundred smaller spiders in the process. Deaths fueled the return of the blood orbs.

But Julia suffered no injury. She was already on the other side of the crevasse.

The Queen directed her orbs into a different sort of soaking spell that went into the wrist-thick webbing of the crevasse and set the battlefield aglow. Light erupted. Shadows vanished.

Julia turned to light and ripped across the Queen, taking a leg at its joint, tearing it away, into the light. The Queen screamed as Julia dragged its body part up out of the crevasse, into the sun, making sure that her trail was highly visible.

The Queen followed, raging, and so did her horde.

Julia did not want to drag out the kill. Even monsters deserved this much respect.

But the Queen ate its young when it got injured, to restore lost legs and lost Health, and replenish its resources. And then there were the tricks. Three times the Queen managed to snare Julia, as an ooze, in an unburnable cage of solid thread, with neither light nor shadow allowing her escape. This was its most dangerous attack, but even that failed to matter, for Julia simply walked out of the space with a small application of [Aura of Freedom], acting as though the [Blood Web Cage], or whatever spell it was, didn’t even exist.

Somewhere in the fight, Julia figured out how the Queen had seen her when she was in the shadows. It was the [Sanguine Charm] Julia had kept inside her burning body. The charm didn’t burn away, for it was more magic than real, but it was a blood source, and that was enough for the Queen to notice where it was all the time.

Julia asked the Queen to stop fighting, twice, just so her father would see. Just so he would know this was a true monster. It refused. It killed its young in order to live longer. It attacked even when Julia stood still, and stayed away. Julia had survived worse attacks, and oozes could regenerate with just a bit of [Greater Treat Wounds], or, since Julia had [Shedding Form], she just re-[Polymorph]ed into a flame ooze again, for less mana cost.

Every time Julia emerged from her own sliced-down bit of goo as a fully large and in charge flaming ooze, the Queen chittered angrily.

In two minutes, well before Julia ran out of resources and would have been forced to retreat, the battlefield shifted. Julia had clipped off twenty legs and burned away countless crimson hair, burning through the Queen’s Health twenty-times over. The Queen could have kept going, except she had run out of medium-sized weavers to eat. She ran out of resources first.

Julia killed the Queen with a spear of shadows through its center mass. She would have physically gone into the monster and ripped its core out from its abdomen and ended the fight early, but the Queen’s heart was all around its core, and that action would have brought flame into the spider and destroyed the heart. That was an untenable solution. You needed the heart and the brain to get the Familiar Form, after all.

Upon the Queen’s death, Julia got a minor surprise. She had been calling the weaver a ‘Queen’ in her mind, but the kill notification box revealed the truth. The ‘Primal Blood Weaver’ was truly a ‘Queen Blood Weaver’. Not a ‘Primal Blood Weaver’.

Riri had been wrong, yet again. Odd, that.

The horde went crazy with the death of the Queen, and then they calmed as normal mental functions came back. The Queen obviously had some sort of [Spider Mind] ability that allowed it to control lesser spiders; most magical spiders had that ability.

Freed from control, the animal spiders rushed to get away from Julia; there were no monstrous ones left since the Queen ate them all. The young weavers vanished down the crevasse. Julia considered burning them all away, but there might be a need for more blood weavers at some point in the future, and they were just animals.

Julia transformed into light. She came out of that light as a Shadow Spider that gleamed iridescent black in the afternoon sun. Briefly, she felt the minds of a few smaller, closer spiders like they were extensions of her own body. She discarded those minds, telling them to go back to whatever they were doing, but in fewer words than that.

And then she got to eating third lunch.

Halfway through, she sighed out a horrific chuckle as she got another surprise.

There were no notifications for gaining essence, except for when you gained a new ability, and then lastly when you gained the full Elemental Body. You could feel it when you absorbed essence, though. It was sort of like a piece of the universe revealing itself in the shade of a tree, or the sound of a brook. The Queen Blood Weaver had essence, for sure. Eating the monster felt like reveling in something bloody, which was not unexpected, but still… Kinda surprising. Was there ‘Blood Essence’? Maybe.

But then reality appeared, and the notification Julia got was:

--

Dragon Essence Blocked and Discarded.

--

She thanked her Class Ability Draconic Inoculation for the meal, and continued.

- - - -

Ezekiel watched as his daughter ate the Queen Blood Weaver.

He came back to himself.

Nothing had happened to them while they waited there, on that mountainside. Tiffany sat on her boulder. Paul sat on his smaller boulder. Odin chirped on Ezekiel's shoulder. And nothing happened.

This was in stark contrast to what had happened to Julia. Spikes of worry seemed to slam into Ezekiel’s very soul, at least three times, as he watched the slaughter. Once, when Julia just looked over the edge while the Queen was there. Then again, when the Queen spoke. Then again, when it went straight for his daughter.

… There were a few more times there, for sure.

But.

Julia had it under control.

It was a one-sided slaughter.

But if he had gone in there with his own people…

Ezekiel turned to Tiffany and Paul, and said, “I am so sorry. There was no need to put you in danger. I had no idea what I was asking of you— I mean… I thought I knew. But I didn’t.”

Tiffany smirked, and her words sounded sincere, as she said, “Eh! Don’t worry about that. We could have taken them, especially with your [Sanguine Charm]s, but you can’t go overriding your daughter’s choices, can ya?”

She had said those words, for sure, but Ezekiel could tell that Tiffany was relieved to not get into that fight. Not once the Queen started talking. Ezekiel had freaked when the Queen did that, and Tiffany had seen it through her own mana sense, for sure.

… He wasn’t sure how he would have handled that fight, but only that he would have been less aggressive once the intelligence of the monster had been revealed. He would have liked to think that he would have protected everyone, making them all practically invulnerable to the Queen, but doubt was an insidious poison. It made him think of the worst possible scenario, and that scenario was not good.

“I would have pushed harder if we truly went to engage the monster, but I am glad we did not.” Paul said, “Polymages are strong as individuals, and your daughter is among the strongest I have ever seen. I am glad you let her go on her own, Ezekiel.”

Ezekiel glanced at the Odins hovering in the light, all around the battlefield. Some hovered only twenty meters away from his daughter. He didn’t think Julia had seen the majority of them, and that was slightly worrying for a different reason, but he had been ready to swoop in and save his little girl.

Except she wasn’t a little girl. And she hadn’t been for a very long time.

He knew he needed to trust her. But…

It was hard.

He glanced back to the battlefield. The Queen’s abdomen and cephalothorax were carved open, the heart and brain devoured along with a fair bit of the insides.

A second Queen walked around as though testing herself, poking at the ground with massive legs. With a gesture, the former Queen’s gore became an orb of blood that hovered above the second queen. With another gesture, the orb sprayed across the ground, becoming thread. A second gesture pulled that thread back into a blood orb, but it was lesser than it had been before. Without another gesture, the orb became a carving [Blood Beam] a meter wide that gouged into the ground, exploding dirt and stone into the air like a line of excavation detonations.

The battlefield was full of such devastation, but now it had even more.

With her blood orb fully discharged, the second Queen turned to light and shot off—

Ezekiel came back to himself.

Julia stepped down onto the ground ten meters away. Ezekiel was thankful he did not have to worry about having a heart attack right then. It had been a close thing!

Julia waved, saying, “Hello!” She walked forward. “How did you like that fight?”

Ezekiel said, “I am reminded daily that you’re strong enough to do anything you want to do, but always I forget. That is a failing of mine. Sorry.”

Julia paused, then she stepped in front of her father. “I’m sorry, too.”

They hugged, briefly.

Julia tore away first and summoned a blue box for Ezekiel as she said, “So this is pretty awesome.”

--

Body:

Queen Spider Mind

Perfected Self

Vibration Control

Blood Mana

Extra Resources

All:

Blood Weaver

--

Ezekiel’s eyes went wide. “Ah. It was a Queen, then? I was just calling it that.”

“Yup! Level 68-ish Queen Blood Weaver.” Julia said, “It didn’t have [Body Control] like it should have had, but I have no doubt that if anyone with blood or a traditional body got anywhere near her, they would have died. I think its [Blood Weaver] Ability used to be [Body Control].” She said, “I’m glad you let me go on my own.”

Ezekiel smiled softly, and said, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Julia looked to her father, then looked away, seeming happier than before. She turned back and said, “Did you notice the weird thing about this form?”

Ezekiel asked, “The Queen Mind, right?”

“Right.” Julia said, “I think that’s a problem. I also think I’m done with the bigger forms, because I think this one was much, much stronger than anything else I ever encountered. Mentally, that is. If I get anything else, it’s going to be small and purely for its usefulness.” She turned to Paul. “Can you check me over?”

Ezekiel paused.

‘Check her over’?

… For…

For mental contamination?

Many thoughts fled, leaving panic in their wake.

While Ezekiel had a minor panic attack and kept it to himself, Paul agreed to Julia’s request for a scan and checked her out for mental contamination.

And he could do that? Ezekiel didn’t know that. Had he done this before, for her? Ezekiel watched. Time passed.

Paul declared, “Your Triple Familiar Forms Ability gives you a great deal of leeway, but you are pushing the limits. 55 base Willpower is no longer enough. You need 60, at least. 70 or 75 would be preferred. Or you need to get rid of a few forms. I calculate that you have a year to do this before the contamination becomes noticeable. If you don’t do this, the next powerful form you gain could be your last.”

Another panic attack struck Ezekiel’s core. Larger, this time.

Much larger.

A detached part of himself mused that Willpower must have mental side effects that dealt with the ability to keep oneself together, and wasn’t that odd? Did Intelligence help that function, or would it harm that function? Should he foist Intelligence upon his daughter? Even if she objects?

But the main part of him was in shock.

He stood, silent and staring. Not even blinking; barely breathing.

Julia brushed off the concern, saying, “I’m only level 71. I got time to get higher, and there are always Quests around here, right?”

Ezekiel’s eyes went wide. He cOulD sOLvE ThIS PROBLEM RIGHT NOW.

He opened up the Quest—

Julia instantly turned to him, knowing what he was about to do. “No. I can get this on my own.”

Ezekiel put on a calm face even though he was screaming inside. He casually tried, “Allow me to help. Please.”

Julia said, “I appreciate your help, but I can do this on my own.” She asked them all, “Anyone want to go explore a nest? Find some treasure?” She added, “We actually have two nests to explore; we never cleared out all of the other weaver’s nests.”

Nope.

Ezekiel instantly had his Odin scatter. They turned to magenta sunforms. Half of them dove deep into the Blood Weaver lair, lighting up the red darkness in search of bodies and treasure. The other half lightstepped back to the Nacreous Weaver’s hunting grounds, in search of spoils.

He had checked out the Nacreous Weaver’s grounds already, but he didn’t search that place nearly well enough.

“We won’t be clearing either nest,” Ezekiel declared, happy to have the distraction. “Odin is doing both right now.” He half-glanced away, saying, “Ah! Not five seconds to find the tragedies produced by the monster. I’ll try to keep the sites separate so that we can report where the people therein actually died.”

Magenta sunforms deposited a mound of corpses twenty meters away to the right, and also to the left; blip blip blip! Bones stuck out of dried gore. Webs got everywhere. Crusted metals laid dull in the afternoon sun, while clothes and the furs of beasts were vague suggestions of what they had once been. A few small spiders of both kinds had come along for the ride, but they were instantly dispatched by the ripping tear of an Odin who solved the various problems before they could become problems.

Julia, Tiffany, and Paul watched.

In ten seconds, the Blood Weaver pile of bones and gore slipped down the side of the mountain, for it had gotten too large, and sunform Odins kept bringing more. Most of the gore was not people. Mostly, it was monsters of all sorts. Chimeras. Frogs. Snakes. A lot of ant-like monsters that were small, but multitudinous. Wolves.

The Nacreous Weaver pile was much smaller, but contained a high percentage of people. Thirty-one people, so far.

In a minute, Ezekiel’s anger and sorrow over his daughter’s various decisions was matched for his feelings about the horror show that laid before him. He calmed, as many different thoughts swirled and organized.

This was yet another reminder that there was a larger threat out there than the ones that people made for themselves; than the one Ezekiel made for himself whenever he wanted Julia to stay home and safe and not go anywhere or do anything dangerous. He would have to apologize later. Again.

That thought swirled back to the Calcium Disodium EDTA he had almost reinvented earlier in the day.

War was going to be the outcome from that new technology, sure. But another outcome would be that at least one decent-seeming nation of Nelboor would gain a true foothold on power, and that power would allow them to spread even more civilization across this war-torn continent; allowing them to kill more monsters and make more of the world safe for people.

For in his brief time here in Nelboor, he had gotten a good look at this land.

Most of it was uninhabited. Like the Crystal Forest in some respects, but in others, not. The Crystal Forest held no water, and no greenery, and any greenery that showed was ripped to shreds by rampaging mimics. The monsters were the problem, there, just as much as the environment was a problem. But in the Crystal Forest, people couldn’t live without a complete environmental overhaul.

Here, half the problems of Nelboor stemmed from ever-present war, and that required different solutions than the solutions required to fix the other half of Nelboor’s problems, which was a problem of monsters.

An expansion of civilization would help to solve the problem of monsters, but would simultaneously exacerbate the other half of Nelboor’s problems of war.

Ezekiel hadn’t seen much of those brutal, flashing contests of blood, as his Odin prowled the skies. But he had seen the aftermath. Bodies rotting in fields. Scorched spaces in the middle of green prairie. Broken swords. Viscera and worse.

Which was worse?

War?

Or monsters?

This was a complicated problem, with no easy solutions. Plus, was it right for Ezekiel to even make these decisions? Likely not. Except, he had to live in this world, too, and if he did bring Candlepoint’s Gate network here, then he damn fucking better have a fucking say in how this part of the world worked!

While Ezekiel thought, silently, and watched bodies both new and ancient fall down the mountainside in an ever-growing pile of gore…

He thought.

“Sir,” Tiffany spoke over the continuous sound of tumbling bones. “Are you okay?”

“I am fine. I am angry, but I am fine.”

Julia began, “Dad, I—”

“I am allowed to be angry. So are you. It happens. I don’t want to talk about it right now.” Ezekiel said, “There are larger concerns.” He gestured at the pile. “There are a lot of people-bodies in that pile.”

Julia went hard. “Later, then.”

“Later.” Ezekiel turned away from the still-growing pile, to face Tiffany and Julia, as he said, “Now that the spider hunting is done, there is another issue. I remembered how to solve antirhine poisoning. Should I tell them, or should I give it to them, or should I do nothing and let them solve it on their own? I am partial to the last option, but I could be swayed in a different direction.” He continued, “From what I have seen, the Highlands could well serve the rest of the world by expanding, and by this expansion, they could end conflicts and erase the true threat that is the monsters. But I don’t know a lot about the Highlands. I don’t know if I should give them this technology. Perhaps they should come to it on their own. It might take them days, or months, or years to get where I already am. Or it could happen tomorrow. Or it could never happen. What say you?”

Julia and Tiffany went a little wide-eyed. They said nothing. Tiffany frowned a little.

Paul abstained, saying, “I already told you my feelings.”

Ezekiel nodded.

Tiffany said, “Don’t give them anything. Give this magic to Spur.”

Ezekiel said, “Right. This is a good option. I have already given it to the Mind Mages, but I could also give it to Spur.”

Tiffany continued, “Songli has proven they can make a society out of a shitty culture, but so what? They don’t deserve what you’ve already given them, or what you could truly offer them. Not yet.” She shook her head, and said, “We haven’t even been here a full week. At least wait longer than this.”

Julia said, “I agree with Tiffany. Don’t give them this yet, and especially not before we’ve had a chance to talk to Riri. I’d like to know how she had planned on these spider encounters going. That might shift my opinion.”

“Yeah. That too.” Tiffany asked, “Did they try to get one of us killed? Or did she expect you to Wither both sites and then to pick up the pieces afterward?” She added, “I expected a [Withering].”

Paul said, “I would have suggested as much if we had continued toward the Blood Weavers.”

“Yes. I apologize for that.” Ezekiel said, “Please tell me if I am ever this ridiculous ever again, and I will reconsider the plan. Neither of you signed up for this level of danger.”

“Eh!” Tiffany said, “Ah. Well. I still like this sort of thing. Don’t get me wrong! But… Ah. Thank you.” She added, “It’s been nice adventuring. I do like this. Definitely don’t give out more magic, though, Boss. Not this soon.”

Ezekiel resummoned his Odin who had depleted themselves moving around bodies, then sent the new ones out to gather more, and said, “There will be no dissemination of technology right now. Maybe not ever.” He looked to Julia, and said, “I will be using whatever happened here to gain concessions from Star Song in the form of points for you so that none of us have to worry about mental contamination. Please do not countermand me on this when we visit Riri.”

Julia looked at her father, briefly going hard, before she softened. Somewhat. She said, “Tell them I will work for those concessions. This will also give me a better chance to see what they’re about, and besides that, I can handle myself in the field against whatever they might have me do.”

Ezekiel shoved away unproductive thoughts that would only lead to more arguments.

Julia’s change to his plan was an acceptable idea.

Ezekiel nodded, saying, “Okay.” He turned to Paul. “You can check for mental contamination?”

“Of course.” Paul said, “One of the first things I ever learned, since I have to check myself for it all the time. It’s easy enough to do for another.”

… Right.

“… Right.” Ezekiel said, “Of course.” He turned to the bones and otherwise still piling up, still tumbling down the mountainside. There were more ancient bodies down in that hole, but there was no need to grab the rest. Ezekiel was suddenly tired. He had the Odin stop. Bodies and bones continued to slide down the mountainside like a minor avalanche.

Everyone stared at the flow, as ten magenta sunform Odin hovered high above.

“Look at all this death!” Ezekiel asked his people, “This sucks, doesn’t it?”

Tiffany and Julia laughed, tension vanishing as the horror of monsters settled into a gallows humor background. Paul affected a smile, but there was no heart in it.

Ezekiel added, “There’s a hole into the Underworld at the bottom of that crevasse, about hundred meters long and twenty wide. Removing this trash sent half of the rest of the trash falling down into the dark. It seems the weavers hunted from both directions. Yes, there are the bodies of sapients in this pile, but the weavers keep the Underworld monsters at bay. Shall I do anything... About any of that?”

Paul said, “Throw some stone pillars across the hole to block out the bigger monsters. Let the weavers open it more if they need to. Don’t kill the weavers. Underworld threats are worse.”

Tiffany gave an all-encompassing, “Yup!”

Julia nodded.

Ezekiel sent five Odin back into the hole. They [Stoneshape]d crisscrossing pillars from one side of the crevasse to the other, building up a thick network of blockages. It didn’t restore the webbing that had been there before, but it did enough, for now.

The other five Odin got to work on the pile of bodies sitting out in the sun, sorting people from otherwise.

When Ezekiel remembered, he cast a few [Sealed Privacy Ward]s across the land, at points where someone might [Witness] something they shouldn’t. With secrets once again hidden, he got back to work.

Half an hour later, Ezekiel, Tiffany, Julia, Paul, and Odin, had sorted out four hundred and sixty-four skulls from the rest, some with horns, some with scales, some with nothing. Some of the skulls were attached to bodies. Some were just separated heads.

There had been some treasures in the pile too, but no one wanted to loot the dead. Back in Spur, there was an endowment that anyone could pay into, in order to support the families of adventurers who had died in the line of duty. No one was sure if The Fund still existed in the Clan Exchanges of the Songli Highlands, but if it did, it would be getting a hefty donation at the end of the day.

Together, Ezekiel and Tiffany spotted barely a hundred sets of paperwork in the Blood Weaver pile, and most of the papers were too degraded to read, but the Nacreous Weaver pile had rather intact paperwork. By the time the sun began to set and the world had turned orange and gold, the team had recovered a hundred and seventy-one identification papers. Only seven of them could not be [Mend]ed back to quality. The paper was thick stuff, for the most part. It was designed to survive rain and weathering and unfortunate deaths in the dark places of the world.

Ezekiel buried the skulls in individual nooks in the mountainside, then raised an obelisk monument in the middle of them all. He carved upon the stone an image of Phagar on one side, Koyabez on another, Rozeta on the third, and a small prayer on the fourth that was a common epitaph in some parts of the world.

It read: ‘To those who have lost their lives defending us from monsters, may your gods guide you to a better world. The ones you have left behind will continue to toil against the Darkness, but your fight is over. Thank you for your service.’

The magenta light of [Cleansing Flame]s lit the coming night, burning the avalanche of bodies to thick air.

- - - -

They stopped in at the Clan Exchange in Eralis. The ‘Mage Guild’ in the main city was larger than the one in Darzallia, by a lot. It was five stories of stone and steel and seemed to be specially protected by the Void Song in the air.

They walked in with a massive bag of spider silk slung over Tiffany’s back, much to the surprise of many of the clansmen in the building. Some eyed them, seeing their wealth, and not knowing who they were except that they were unknowns. Some people almost made a move. But others held back those who moved, telling them in silent commands that this was not a procession to be interrupted. Even if they didn’t know Ezekiel and his people as ‘Clan Phoenix’, they certainly recognized a death procession when they saw it.

Ezekiel and his people soon found that, yes, the Clan Exchange had a ‘Fund’. They called theirs ‘The Office of the Lost’, and it was not exactly the same.

In a somber room, Ezekiel handed over a large stack of paperwork to a professional man in stark-white garb. In small words, they spoke of the location of the monument, and of the graves. Then they deposited the spoils gathered by too many monsters.

Many of the papers belonged to people outside of the Highlands, but the Office of the Lost respected death when it had been caused by monsters. The clansmen who had perished fighting against the darkness would find solace in that they had been found, and their graves had been marked. Their families would be told if they could be told, and the treasures Clan Phoenix had found would be used for this service.

A small amount of the treasures would go to the families who had lost people, but most would go to the Border Clans, who keep the monsters out of the Highlands.

It was the perfect sort of corrupt-government note to get Ezekiel’s anger up and fuming before he went to Star Song.

- - - -

Ezekiel sat across from Riri and Patriarch Zalindi at the very same courtyard they had been in earlier in the day, but now the sky was dark. Stars glittered above while gentle white lights illuminated the grey stone and the pink willow trees, and a cold wind blew across the Alluvial District.

Julia sat to Ezekiel's side. Elder Mirizo stood behind Zalindi and Riri; still silent. There was no tea, for there was no need. This conversation wouldn’t take long. Ezekiel had told them as much when he contacted Zalindi not ten minutes ago in a sending.

Ezekiel said, “Thank you for agreeing to meet so soon. Is everything going well with your Alchemists?”

“Most of them are still sleeping off their gifts.” Zalindi’s voice was that of a mountain rumbling. He said, “Loremaster Riri was also sleeping, but not too soundly, it seems.”

Riri looked as well put-together as ever. If she had been sleeping ten minutes ago, Ezekiel couldn’t tell. She affected a small smile, and asked, “Should we have reason to worry about the gifts given?”

“No.” Ezekiel said, “I was trying to break the tension, but I see that raising a concern over the Alchemists was the exact wrong way to break the tension.” He sighed. “I am concerned, but not for the Intelligence I have given you. What I am here for is the truth about the spiders you sent us toward.”

Zalindi gave no impression of tension or worry. But he turned an eye toward Riri, and that was enough. Zalindi was concerned now, too.

Riri, however, was perfectly poised. She asked, “Was there a problem?”

“A few small ones.” Ezekiel said, “A few possible poisoned treasures which make me wary of further treating with you.”

Mirizo watched, a slight concern in his eyes. Zalindi casually glared.

Riri focused, hard, and yet she remained soft. She diplomatically asked, “Please inform me of the issues experienced and I will try to reduce the severity of your suffering or remove it entirely, if it is within my power.”

Ezekiel nodded to his daughter.

Since a part of the deal Ezekiel had made with Star Song was to teach him and his daughter spider silk magic, Riri would need to know of Julia’s capabilities. So instead of simply showing off the Kill Notifications, Julia produced the Familiar Form boxes she had recently gained, then handed them to Riri.

The Loremaster’s eyes went wide. Zalindi watched Ezekiel, but he spared a glance toward the boxes, too. Mirizo read over Riri’s shoulder.

Ezekiel waited.

Riri dismissed the boxes and became utterly professional. Or maybe she merely discarded her apologetic persona, since such an affectation would have been harmful in this situation; Ezekiel wasn’t sure.

Riri said, “The Nacreous Weaver and the Primal Blood Weaver were exactly that the last time I knew of them, which was four days ago and five days ago, respectively. You have gained a great deal more than we bargained for. I fail to understand the issue you believe you have.”

Ezekiel expected this tactic. He came ready to counter it. He said, “I understand that Star Song participates in Stat Quests. I want twenty points for my daughter. This extra allowance from you to me would counteract the disaster of the Queen’s mind emerging in a year. That is why I call this gift of yours a poisoned treasure, for it certainly seems that way to me.”

Zalindi breathed out of his nose, a little louder than normal breathing. He said nothing.

Riri said, “We cannot do this unless you are willing to work further with Star Song, past previously established bargains.”

Zalindi spoke up, “We cannot do 20 points. No. Five points; this is what we can offer in recompense for putting your Clan in danger, and each point would cost you in gold.”

“Not acceptable.” Ezekiel asked, “What needs to happen for 20 points?”

Riri took control of the negotiation, “Two hundred thousand gold per point. 4 million gold.”

“A lesser offer,” Ezekiel said.

“For 10 points,” Riri said, “Clan Phoenix can become a branch family of Star Song.”

Zalindi glanced to Riri, then turned back to Ezekiel.

With not a little bit of pride, Ezekiel said, “I have a counteroffer. For my daughter’s personal help in killing whatever monstrous threats you deem worthy, you will give her 20 points. Half upfront. If needed, I will step in, but I doubt that will be necessary. As of today, Julia has killed an Ancient Unicorn Queen and also this Queen Blood Weaver, solo. She has a Flame Ooze form and many others that are capable of countering many of the monstrous threats of this world. What say you?”

Zalindi and Riri turned toward Julia.

Silence.

And also trepidation.

Small lines of thought passed through the manasphere between the Patriarch and his Loremaster. More lines of thought went elsewhere, tapering off into nothing as they vanished in the distance. Julia waited. Ezekiel waited.

Riri said, “We can afford the 20 points if Julia agrees to do a month of missions. She will be sent out to branch families all across the Highlands. Border Clans, mostly. There will be a few deeper missions into the Tribulations where she will be expected to solo various threats that encroach upon our interests. There will be minor jaunts into the near Underworld. Most of the points she gains will be paid by us. Some points will come from standing Quests that have yet to be cleared, and that need to be cleared. We will not pay half upfront, and Clan Phoenix will become a branch family.”

“You will pay some lesser amount upfront,” Ezekiel said, “And Clan Phoenix will not become a branch family.”

“This is an unwise decision.” Riri said, “Branch families of the Highlands gain much power and opportunity. Are you sure you wish to take this route?”

“Clan Phoenix will not become a branch family,” Ezekiel repeated.

Riri said, “We accept that decision.”

Zalindi silently watched it all.

Ezekiel looked to both of them, while he sent to Julia, ‘Is this okay?’

‘Yes!’ Julia sent, ‘This is great.’

Ezekiel said, “She will not assist you with assaults on people, and 5 of those points will be granted as soon as possible.”

“It will be as you say.” Riri added, “Clan Star Song looks forward to a closer working relationship with Clan Phoenix.”

“We will cement this relationship now.” Zalindi placed his hands together in a near-silent clap and stood. Ezekiel, Julia, and Riri stood with him. “Young Mistress Phoenix. This way.”

Zalindi walked over to the edge of the stone courtyard, where a water fountain spilled from chest level down into a shallow stone basin. The flowers of pink willow trees laid upon the clear surface. A small stone vase sat near the edge of the water.

Julia joined Zalindi at the water’s edge.

He said, “Whenever you are ready.”

He handed her the Quest that they had seen days ago.

--

Quest!

Deliver a vase of water to Patriarch Zalindi Star Song.

Reward: 1 point.

Poster: Rozeta, Dragon Goddess of the Script

Lesser Poster: Patriarch Zalindi Star Song, of Clan Star Song

--

It was a ceremony.

Zalindi stood on one side of the burbling fountain. Julia on the other. With a quiet joy and a reverence that Ezekiel couldn’t match, Julia dipped the stone vase into the basin, filling it to the brim. Julia was enjoying this. She stood, and handed the vase to Zalindi. He took the vase and spilled the water back to where it came.

Julia repeated this process four more times.

At the end, she bowed to Zalindi, and it was done.

Zalindi said, “Someone will pick you up in the morning. Clan Star Song looks forward to a close working relationship with Clan Phoenix.”

Ezekiel gave a thankful nod toward Zalindi, Riri, and also Elder Mirizo, who still had yet to say a sound in Ezekiel’s presence. The three of them gave deference to Ezekiel, but Riri went further than the other two, fully bowing.

After it was over, Ezekiel had some thoughts. This transference of points had been made possible by the sacrifices of lesser clansmen who gave up parts of themselves in order to gain access to a clan. This is how they did it here, and the transaction seemed uneven, somehow. It seemed exploitative. Ezekiel didn’t like this part of this culture, but if they did this to themselves, willingly, then it was okay for him, and for Julia, to take advantage of this aspect of their culture, right?

Maybe.

Maybe not?

Maybe he was thinking too much; this was certainly true. Julia was better, now, with 5 more points stuffed into Willpower. She’d be even better, later, when she had 75 Willpower.

By the time Ezekiel got back to the hotel room with his people in tow and his daughter safer, he was feeling better about most everything. He was even feeling okay about his various decisions of the day, and his new obligations going forward. Sure, there had been some rationalizations there at the end, but this was fine, right?

Even the fact that Star Song was scheming was fine.

Ezekiel was pretty sure that the schemes weren’t that bad. But there were schemes, for sure. It was fine.

Except…

One part of him was certainly not feeling fine.

“We ran around a lot there. No breaks.” Ezekiel touched his own stomach, asking, “Everyone else is really damn hungry, right?”

“Gods yes,” Tiffany exclaimed, as she dropped the second spider-silk bag Ezekiel had made onto the table. It clattered with the tell-tale sound of clinking coins. “One grand core means one fine meal!”

“Hopefully more than one meal,” Paul added.

“Blughh,” Julia said, sticking out her tongue. “No food for me.”

“How does that even work!” Tiffany loudly asked, “How do you eat in other forms and not get hungry in this one? It makes no sense!”

Ezekiel laughed.

Paul smirked, saying, “You can still drink beer, Julia.” He said to Ezekiel, “Let’s get dinner. I’m starving, too.”

“I could drink a beer,” Julia agreed.

“I could drink a keg,” Tiffany said.

Ezekiel gestured to the door, saying, “Onward! To dinner!”

- - - -

In a small room where none would see, Riri stood with Patriarch Zalindi and Elder Mirizo. The two men did not look happy with her, but this was to be expected. Something had gone wrong somewhere in the plotting. If one of her ‘underlings’ had fucked up like this, they might even be out of a job, depending on the severity.

Riri had made allowances for many unexpected events, each allowance designed to draw Erick Flatt deeper into her web, but this event came at her from the shadows.

Mirizo asked, “Did you plan on angering him like that?”

No. She had not. But she could not say that truth. She could not reveal that she hadn’t planned for every contingency. Yesterday, if this had happened, she would have considered throwing herself on the mercy of her betters, but today, her mind was clearer.

Riri said, “He was not angry. He was worried.”

“Of course he was worried!” Mirizo said, “Worry leads to distrust which leads to anger which leads to death at the hands of—” He stopped. He said, “I have been prepared for all of that to happen, eventually. I have been prepared at every stage of every possible breakdown, but I cannot properly prepare for our own people handing him poisoned treasure. Especially not you.” He added, “I am not angry that it happened. I am angry that you didn’t tell me of your plans ahead of time, Riri.”

“Have I ever led Star Song astray? No. I have not. Do not talk to me like I am some simple Loremaster or one of your Enforcer underlings.” Riri said, “This was simply an advancement of certain timetables, for while today’s upset was unexpected, it was within projected parameters. We were always going to lure them in with something unavailable elsewhere. So it happens to be points! So it happens that he could have gotten this from any Clan of our standing! We are lucky he came to us for this.

“This is acceptable. He could have asked for more and we would have given it.” She said to them both, “We are poised to expand, and greatly. Along with our own advancements in Particle Magic thanks to Ezekiel, this new deal with him is a perfect reason to go on a large recruitment drive. We will gain these points back in a single week. And! With Julia taking care of some long-standing threats and gaining half of her points that way, and with her father backing her up, we are set to expand in ways Star Song has never before been able to expand before! This is perfection. This is what we wanted. All the pieces might not have been planned, but they will be exploited, of that, you can be sure.”

Mirizo listened, silently.

Zalindi told them both, “Riri is trusted, and yet I cannot help but feel that it is we who have been taken advantage of here. Two unknown and potentially lucrative Variants.” He turned to Riri. “How much did they gain from the resources we could have had?”

She said, “We have not lost much revenue. We have lost options, which I would have turned into revenue, but not as of this moment. Pearlchan laid her eggs while I was sleeping, and none of them appeared special, therefore, nothing was truly lost.

“Except, the [Prismatic Thread] from the Radiant Nacreous Weaver is a qualitative upgrade over [Light Thread], usable in many different ways. I could have abandoned six different forms and taken up that one, opening up five slots for other forms. This is the only true loss. The Queen spider has gifted Julia with [Queen Spider Mind] and [Perfected Body], both of which I already have, but both abilities are paired with two different forms. I could have dropped two forms, for that one.” Riri said, “Another lost opportunity, but nothing serious. When I gave those treasures to him they were worthless to me. He has lucked out. Let him have his luck.”

Small lies, but they would serve. If Riri told herself those same lies enough times, she might even start to believe them. A special spider corpse was waiting for Riri under preservation and cold spells, but it could wait longer.

Mirizo frowned.

Zalindi relaxed. “A shame, but no real loss.”

Riri said, “True. It is more vexing than anything real.” She declared, “The cost for Ezekiel’s deepening interest in Star Song has been paid, and it was as inexpensive as we could have made it. It is up to us to lure him deeper if we wish to do so, but let us not push too hard. The fish might escape if we tug at the wrong time.”

Mirizo frowned. “Spur will push back.”

Zalindi smirked, and said, “Why would Spur get involved? We’re dealing with Scion Phoenix, and he has no connection to that Dark Land.”

Mirizo added, “Holorulo and Alaralti will become involved soon, if for no other reason than because of our solution to the Elixir problem. Void Song knows of Clan Phoenix’s truth.”

“Your second news is more troubling than the first, but we have accounted for this.” Zalindi asked Mirizo, “Which Enforcer will you send to guide Julia?”

“Enforcer Sikali.” Mirizo said, “She already knows Julia, and she has a violent personality. Considering what we already know of Julia, they might get along well.”

“Make it so.” Zalindi asked Riri, “How is Intelligence treating you?”

Riri said, “I feel clarity in odd and unexpected ways. I’ve already thought up a dozen new approaches to our daily operations to make them more efficient and stronger. I have already implemented a few, and will do more tomorrow when daylight operations resume.”

Zalindi gave a rare half-smile, and said, “I look forward to seeing the bounty of your prowess. Both of you. Good work.”

Riri and Mirizo bowed to their Patriarch.