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 antirhine 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.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

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 had swiped her Force sword at the weaver, her sword had broken. 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.”