{Loading…}

{Loaded.}

[>>Now replaying: Log 1.18 - I think I spider]

Date: Error

Location: Zephyro’s Domain?

//Spiders are the only animals that produce silk throughout their entire lifetime.//

//Not all spiders build webs. Some are excellent hunters, with four pairs of eyes that give them near 360-degree vision.//

//Spiders existed long before humans. They even outlived the dinosaurs. They are eternal and will be here when you are long dead and gone//

[>>DATA CORRUPTED]

E2 %Well one thing’s for certain, she’s the reason our families got banished for their sins, and why we have to prune the Path before it grows out of control.%

E1 %The Path isn’t evil, and it doesn’t grow, Pina.%

E2 %It’s literally where all the Ferals come from!%

E1 %And also all the machines!%

E2 %Machines that the Lords have to take away to save us from ourselves.%

I spun around, my broken scepter ready to strike, but there was nothing in the alley besides debris, ash, and flickering firelight.

“I just heard something,” I said before Zephyro could ask, slowly backing up in his direction. Someone else might have laughed it off or thought they imagined it, but through many, many painful lessons, I had learned to trust my instincts.

Steadying my breath, I closed my eyes for as long as I dared. I strained to listen past the crackle of flames. There was the dim sound of people fleeing and dying, several streets away and fading fast. There was the wind, billowing the flames, driving them across the city. And there was the hesitant clatter of razors on stone…

My eyes snapped open. I spun and looked up. There, on one of the walls, was a giant spider with oversized scalpels for legs, and a hateful red light in its manifold eyes.

I shoved Zephyro aside a split second before the spider pounced. I could feel it slicing through the air behind my back as it missed. Barely. We landed in the dirt, and I immediately rolled off of Zephyro. I turned as fast as I could, but when I finally got a good look at the Feral, I couldn’t help but stare.

It was an unholy replica of an insect, made of steel and wiring, but it had eight legs and six eyes, a technophile’s rendition of arachnophobia. It chittered, and its mandibles made a sound like an arc furnace malfunctioning.

“Sultana, why—“

Trying to rise from the dirt, I pointed at the monster behind us, coughing dust and ash. “Giant spider!”

He turned, stared into the dark, then back at me. “Where?”

“Right there!” I yelled. “How can you not see that? It’s gigantic!”

The spider pounced again, just as Zephyro rolled over me to cover me with his body. The creature landed on his back and sunk its fangs deep into his armor. The additional weight slammed him down on me, and I wheezed as the impact pushed the air out of my lungs

“Where, Sultana?” he asked again. He probably couldn’t feel it through his armor.

“Still on your back!” I coughed.

With a trained motion, I twisted out from under the Vizier. I rolled a few times to get some distance and got up just in time to spot two monstrous, four-legged forms entering the narrow street. Their fat bodies hung low against the ground, long faces pulled back into a snarl. They showed too many teeth, dripping a green liquid that smoked when it hit the ground. Their erratic movement would have seemed ridiculous by daylight. But in the darkness, where no fire could reach, they were terrifying.

“Two rats in our way, too!” I hissed.

They came closer almost ponderously as if they had us down to rights.

Behind me, Zephyro ineffectually swatted at his back, muttering small curses interrupted by the sound of his sword hitting his own armor as the Feral dodged blow after blow while pinning him down.

I was all that stood between him and the two rats, defenseless, and without a weapon.

Just the broken replica that I still carried around for no reason that I could put into words.

I tensed. The scepter felt right in my hand. I was ready. My instincts took over. In one motion, I turned around and hit the spider atop Zephyro with a massive swing.

It chirped an angry noise and flashed its mandibles at me, but my attack didn’t leave any noticeable wound. I briefly wondered how much Essence it had eaten before trying to hit it again.

The spider didn’t care at all. The scepter just bounced off while the monstrous insect kept biting Zephyro over and over.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I’d probably need to hit it harder, and far more often, but that was easier said than done with Zephyro moving erratically, trying to shake it off.

“Yakhsaf allah bih al’ard!“ He screamed in pain as another spider dropped from above and sunk its arc-welder fangs into his uncovered neck. How the fuck had I not seen that one coming? What if the next one landed on me?

My heartbeat pounded in my head. Despite not wanting to turn my back to the spiders, I threw a worried glance back over my shoulder at the approaching rats. They were still a ways off, closing in at a slow but steady pace. Their approach was too confident, too casual, and too brazen for a scavenger. It was as though they knew we couldn’t run, or perhaps they had somehow learned their prey couldn’t see them.

Ever since I arrived on Tobes, since that first day in that clearing close to Peruti, I’d grown to hate both spiders and rats with equally fierce passion. The only thing I hated more was wolves.

I grimaced and took a fighting stance.

Unimpressed, the rats kept their casual pace as Zephyro fought the spiders. I chanced another look back. Zephyro seemed to be losing his patience, just as I would if I were fighting invisible spiders.

I cursed and turned back to the mutated rodents sauntering down the alley. If they had thumbs, they’d probably be snipping. Should I dash forward, and attack them? No, that would give my advantage away. I needed to let them come to me.

Behind me, Zephyro yelled something in Arabic. Suddenly, the air tasted like ozone and burnt hair. A spider chittered angrily, and I turned just in time to see one of the spiders lying on its back, burnt to a crisp. White lightning, steaming like dry ice, still arced over its form.

One down, but that still left one spider. Before I could try to help Zephyro, though, a coarse hiss echoed through the street.

My head swung back to the two rats, now dangerously close. They had spread out, blocking the path and giving themselves the opportunity to flank me if I wasn’t careful. They still approached cautiously but with a predatory quality to their steps. To them, I was probably easy, if skittish, prey.

I rotated my wrist and twirled the bent scepter through the air, just to get a better feel for its weight. It was lumpy and completely unbalanced, and whatever edge its golden head once possessed, it had long been bashed out of the soft metal.

Still, it would have to do.

The rats hissed and ducked back as I twirled the scepter. Even if it was broken, at least it looked imposing enough to scare off weaker enemies. That was always useful. If only I knew how strong these little fuckers were. The rodent on the right bared its sharp little teeth at me and tensed, trying to match my posturing.

If it hadn’t been so hideous, it would have been cute, but mostly it was an opening. I lunged and brought the scepter down on it with all my might. In my mind, it was better to go for overkill from the start. Perhaps I was able to scare the other one away before more of its brethren arrived.

The stylized Torch moved through the air like a wrecking ball, an unstoppable force of metal and sharp edges. It crashed against black fur.

It felt like hitting a brick wall, and even though the rat hissed again, this time in pain, I’d failed to do any significant damage. I fell backward as the other rat launched itself at me. It came in high, and it was all I could do to jam the scepter’s handle into its mouth to stop it from sinking its teeth into my face. Even so, it had caught me on the back foot, and I stumbled and fell with the animal still clamped around my weapon. I hit the floor with a grunt, and the Feral’s face came so close to mine, I could see little ingrown hairs in its fur.

“Yueaqab!” Zephyro yelled behind me, and something big hit the floor right next to my head. I worried it was Zephyro for a second, but then something disgusting touched my face. A spider’s leg? It spasmed in its death throes, rubbing tiny metal hairs over my cheek. Combined with the atrocious breath of the rat, it almost made me throw up. But it was dead, and that meant Zephyro was free to help me. I’d never been happier to touch something hairy and disgusting while getting drooled on by a mutated rat.

“Sultana!” Zephyro rushed over, swinging his sword in the general direction of the rat still chomping on my scepter. The rat dodged, moving to the side. It tried for a feint and to bite my face again, but I managed to jam the handle in a second time. Zephyro was still swinging blindly, and while I appreciated the help more than anything, his sword hit the scepter, and that almost cost me a finger.

The Vizier flinched, but I was too busy to register his apology. “Second rat to my right!” I yelled, inhaling more of the rat’s disgusting smell than I ever wanted.

Zephyro lifted his sword in a fighter’s pose. The animal hissed, flinging spittle everywhere. A few drops hit the floor so close to my ear, I could hear it sizzle. Quite a few, however, hit Zephyro.

The Vizier cursed and drew back, then raised his left hand and projected a small shield around his front. He stepped forward, between me and the last rat. While that bought me some more time, it left his back open to the Feral still trying to gnaw my face off. With wild swings that sent the air aflutter, he tried to stop his rat from double-teaming me while I wrestled with mine. Neither of us said anything.

Perhaps sensing its time was running out, the rat bore on me harder. It panted with the effort, and the stench of its foul breath engulfed me. I had about enough.

“God. You. Fucking. Stink!” I yelled, kneeing the rat in the belly with each word. On the last syllable, the rat finally shifted, allowing me to get some leverage with my feet. I pushed with all I had. It lost purchase immediately and squealed in frustration and fear as I launched it into the air. Somehow, I managed to hold on to the scepter as I used the momentum of the push to roll backward. Still in motion, I pointed in the general direction of where the rat had slammed against the wall. “Zeph—“

Before I could even finish saying his name, Zephyro’s sword swooped down in a quick series of strikes, impaling the rat. It was a lucky hit, and the Vizier swung far more often than necessary, but it was clear the rat was dead even before blue sparks exploded from the corpse. The remaining rat looked at us, chittered, soaked in the blue sparks, then dashed away.

Relief washed over me as we watched the rat scramble around the corner, bathed in a bright cyan glow.

“We take those,” I croaked as I forced myself to my knees. The dead spider had been leaking Essence, and the dangerous liquid had come dangerously close. I frowned. The pattern almost looked as if the stuff had crawled towards me. Creepy.

“Praise be to Allah,” Zephyro said with obvious relief as he reached out to pull me up. I took his hand, letting go as soon as I got to my feet.

“You couldn’t see them at all?” I asked, pointing at the dead Ferals.

The Vizier shook his head. “No, Sultana. I didn’t receive the same blessing as you from the Maker.”

“I didn’t receive anything,” I said. “My vision just kind of flickered for a second, and after that, I heard that spider sneaking up on us.”

“Are you sure, Sultana? You were granted sight beyond sight, right after you besought the Maker for aid. Were anyone but you to call it a coincidence, I would call them a blasphemer.”

I wasn’t quite sure, either.

“Chris?” I asked the warm air.

There was no reply but the roar of fire and the faint taste of ash in my mouth.

I licked my lips. They were rough and dry, thirsting for moisture as much as I yearned for a break.

I was so done. With all of it. All I wanted was to have some breakfast with my friends, then get ready to make peace with a bunch of assholes so we could finally build a home for ourselves. But before that, I needed to wake up and return to reality.

“Let’s get moving,” I sighed, even though I really wanted to sit down for a moment.

Zephyro nodded and took the lead again. “This way, Sultana. We should stay away from the main thoroughfares, for it is there that the Shackled and Ferals will flock for their hunt.”

“That’s going to take longer, isn’t it?”

“Just a little, Sultana. Barring any unforeseen dangers, if we cut through the alleys, we will reach the palace with plenty of time to spare.” He turned on his heel and started walking…

…straight into the field of view of the giant, mutated wolf that I could see, but he could not.