Maddie held the roll of gray fabric up and let it unroll, holding the corners up so it hung from her hands and Cal could see the full glory of it.

The fabric was about three feet by two, a long rectangle of a strange gray color, unlike anything Cal had ever seen before. The color was like rain on a stormy sea. It glistened as if it were wet in the bright daylight from the window.

“Woah,” Cal exclaimed, jumping up. “You made that from my spider thread?”

“I sure did,” Maddie said. “And I tell you, it was the easiest weaving experience I’ve ever had. This stuff just works, it’s like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. Cal, this is really something special. You need to get me a steady supply of this. I’ll build up some stock, and soon we’re going to be making some serious money selling this product.”

Cal moved over and touched the strange fabric. Maddie let him take the fabric, and he stepped toward the window carrying the sheet draped over his hands. It was about as big as a medium sized rug, and it looked like it should have been heavier than it was, but it weighed strangely light in Cal’s hands. Even cotton or silk would have weighed more than this. The stuff hung as if it were heavy, but as Cal moved across the room he felt as if he was dragging nothing more than a sheet of light silk.

“So strange,” he said quietly as he saw how the light moved across the fabric, gleaming and glinting off the surface like light off wet crystal, but at the same time absorbing the light in a colorless way.

“What about the color?” Cal asked, coming

“Adding dyes?” Maddie said. “That’s the only downside. There’s nothing I’ve been able to do that’s enabled me to put color into this fabric. Nothing at all.”

“That’s weird,” Cal said.

“It is,” Maddie agreed. “It’s very unexpected. I’ve tried a bunch of techniques, all kinds of different things, but none of them have worked. Nothing will make this fabric take dye, but also nothing seems to be able to damage it except a blade.”

“Nothing?”

“Not even fire. I’ve tried burning it, tearing it, treating it with caustic chemicals - I have quite a little laboratory set up in my apartment here - and nothing seems to work.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Oh, it makes the fabric very durable, there’s no doubt about that,” Maddie said. “And I’m not suggesting it’s a bad thing. It’s just very, very strange. And it raises another point. Ultimately, there’s no possibility that we’re going to be able to go to market with this stuff without causing a massive stir. There’s going to be a lot of interest straight away, so I think we’re going to need to make sure that this is registered as a magic item before we begin. You said last time that it’s a byproduct from some of your magical processes and that means it’s going to need to be registered with the Pedantus Guild?”

Cal looked at Maddie.

“That’s right,” he said.

He had the fabric in his hands, light, soft, dense, and strange. Maddie was completely involved in his project now. When he’d first met Maddie, he’d wanted to keep the spiders a secret. He hadn’t known her then. He hadn’t known how this would go.

Things were different now.

“There’s no one else here?” he asked.

Her eyes widened slightly, and Cal could tell that she knew what he was about to say.

“We’re entirely alone,” she confirmed quietly.

“It’s spider web,” Cal said. “There are enchanted spiders in my shop, a hangover from Darkworth, the previous owner. He created a brood of enchanted spiders, and I’ve discovered quite by accident that their thread becomes like this when it’s dried. When it’s fresh, it glows bright purple and though it’s elastic, you can break it with your fingers. Once it’s dry, it loses its color and becomes this unbreakable, gray material.”

“Spiders?” Maddie said, amazed. “This is spider webbing?”

“Enchanted spiders,” Cal said. “So not just any old spider. But yes, basically it’s dried spider webbing.”

Maddie stood silent for a few minutes, as if thinking deeply. Then she walked over to Cal and took the woven web from him. “Let’s put this away for now,” she said. “Come into the kitchen. I’ll make us a drink and we can talk about this some more. If you and I are going to go into business together on this, it’s best we talk over all the implications.”

Maddie’s kitchen was as cozy and well-designed as her lounge. The colors in the kitchen were greens and pale yellows, with details picked out in clean, bright white. Here and there, bold reds defined details of the room. The floor was tiled, and the tiles were warm under Cal’s feet.

“Have a seat,” Maddie said, gesturing to the little table and chair that sat near the window. Cal sat, looking out the window to see the view from the back of the house. There was a shared garden at the back, with lines for drying clothes, a well-kept lawn of grass, and borders that, in summer, would be full of flowers.

“Tea? Coffee?” Maddie asked.

Cal glanced at the big clock on Maddie’s wall. The afternoon was getting on, but it wasn’t so late that he couldn’t get away with having coffee. “Coffee would be great,” he said. “Thanks.”

“I think I want a coffee too,” Maddie said with a smile. She glanced at the clock too. “Normally I wouldn’t in the afternoon, but I think I’ll treat myself today.”

She took pre-ground beans from a tin in a cupboard. Her stove was built into the wall, a huge, complicated contraption with various hobs and ovens, and a stack of well-dried firewood to one side.

She put the kettle on the top of the stove and the water immediately began to boil. She took a glass and steel press from another cupboard and gave it a wipe before spooning a generous amount of ground coffee in, ready for the water.

“Ah, that smells good,” Maddie said as she poured freshly-boiled water, then brought the coffee pot over and sat down opposite Cal. She handed him a cup and then sat back, looking at him thoughtfully.

“I know a bit about magic regulation,” she said after a minute of silence. “An enchanted spider… that counts as a monster, am I right?”

“You’re right,” Cal said.

“And that means that there’s no way you should have these spiders in your shop. All monsters are supposed to be in the monsterlands?”

“Right again,” Cal said.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Maddie scratched her head and frowned. “It’s a tricky situation,” she said. “On the one hand, you’re going to need to be able to demonstrate the source of this material if you want to reap the benefits. On the other hand, if you try to register the presence of the monsters with the Pedantus Guild and the decision goes against you…”

“I agree,” Cal said. “And I’m really not sure how to go about solving the problem, but there’s only so long I can keep the presence of the spiders under wraps for.”

“Well, I do have one idea that might help,” Maddie said with a smile. “The clothmakers have a guild, too. We meet in our guildhouse over in Seawitch Village, a bit south of the area where most of the other guildhouses are. You know where I mean?”

Cal knew that Seawitch Village was the name of a district of Jutlyn on the south bank of the river, where the Jut river narrowed and bent south, creating an elbow or lyn in the river. Seawitch Village wasn’t a village in any real sense - it was just a part of the city now - but it was said that in the old days, before the city proper was founded, there was a settlement there. It was the bend in the river that gave Jutlyn city its name, so it was said, and in that sense Seawitch Village had the distinction of being one of the oldest continually inhabited areas of the city.

These days, the area did not retain any of its character as an ancient place. Seawitch Village was trendy and modern, with elegant bars and cafes, some very expensive residential housing, and a few guild houses like the Clothmakers Guild.

“I don’t know my way around that part of town,” Cal said, “but I’m sure I could find the guildhouse easily enough.”

“No need yet,” Maddie said, “but I think this is what we’ll do. The Clothmakers Guild has a lot of influence in the city. They make a lot of money, and they have political connections and many contacts in the Parliament of Elders. Many people in the higher echelons of Jutlyn society are obsessed with clothes, fabrics, and fashion, and they take a keen interest in the work of the members of my guild. If I get some samples of this fabric made - some more samples than just this prototype, I mean - and then take the samples to the guild and present them to the guild leaders, they’ll be amazed. My guild will want to leverage its full influence to get this stuff out there.”

“The Pedantus Guild…” Cal began doubtfully.

“The Pedantus Guild is just a regulatory guild like any other,” Maddie interrupted, shaking her head and looking annoyed. “They like to think they’re tougher and scarier than the rest, but I tell you they’re no more powerful than anyone else, and they won’t stand up to the combined weight of the Clothmakers Guild and an army of fashion-obsessed politicians and court officials. Honestly, Cal, we’ll be able to wangle it. This fabric is totally unique. No member of my guild will be able to stand by and watch the Pedantus stop this fabric from being produced.”

“Well, you know more about it than I do,” Cal said, “so I’ll take your word for it. I don’t know much about the other guilds in the city, but it sure sounds like the clothmakers have a lot of influence.”

“Depend on it,” Maddie said. “We’ll be able to swing it.”

She poured the coffee for them both and Cal took a sip. “Hey, that’s really good!” he exclaimed. He was used to drinking the coffee from Alyn’s bakery, and there was nothing wrong with Alyn’s coffee, but the cup that he’d just been handed by Maddie was something special.

She smiled. “Only the best,” she agreed. “I like to treat myself well, and coffee’s something that’s worth spending extra on if you can.”

Maddie settled back in her chair, sipping her drink and heaving a sigh of contentment. Then she shook her head and laughed.

“Magic spiders,” she said. “Who would have thought it?”

Cal grinned. “I know. I didn’t expect it at all. To tell the truth, I do think it’s genuinely a side-effect of something else. I wasn’t just saying that.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you were,” Maddie said, “but what do you mean?”

Cal took another sip of his coffee. The rich, multi-faceted flavor of the drink rolled over his tongue, and the stimulating effect flowed through his veins. He thought for a moment about how much of the truth he wanted to share.

In general, it was unusual for someone of one profession to show this much interest in the details of another, but in this situation it made sense. Cal trusted Maddie now, and anyway, he was against the keeping of secrets for their own sake. Maddie was a friend and a colleague. He decided to share more with her than she necessarily needed to know.

“It’s about the cores that are used for enchanting,” he said. “I told you before that I use different monster cores, and each one has a different kind of power that can be put into an item?”

“Like the power to warm up a space, implanted into a key?” Maddie suggested.

“Exactly,” Cal said. “But there are other cores, cores that don’t have a specific effect within them. We call them blanks in the trade. They have power - quite a lot of power, actually - but they’re not used in the trade.”

“Why not?” Maddie asked.

Cal shrugged. “I don’t know - that’s the truth. I’m afraid it’s a mystery to me. I know quite a lot about how to enchant, and I know quite a lot about the enchanting process, but I don’t know much about the history of the craft. The question of why blanks aren’t utilized is something I’ve often wondered about, but I’ve never managed to get a decent answer from anyone I’ve spoken to about it.”

“What do people say when you do ask?”

“To be honest, the few times I’ve asked enchanters with more experience than me about it, the response has been pretty disdainful. The thing about enchanting is that people are very stuck in their ways, more than any of the other magical crafts that I’ve come across. People don’t want to be challenged, to look at new ideas, or to consider doing things differently. The line seems to be that blanks are not used because they don’t have any power, but that’s obviously wrong. What’s meant is that they don’t have any specific power, any power that’s actually shaped already, for the enchanter to use. They have power, but it’s formless, and the enchanter establishment doesn’t like that because it doesn’t fit into any recipes.”

Maddie shook her head in disapproval and poured herself more coffee. She gestured with the pot toward Cal’s cup and gave a questioning look, and he nodded and pushed his cup forward.

“Of all the self-defeating ways to be,” Maddie said as she poured more out for him, “that makes the least sense to me. In my trade, people are always looking for new things, and for new ways to do the things we already know. Innovation, experimentation - these are the things that keep a trade moving, that keep it advancing, and that keep things exciting!” She sighed. “It sounds like enchanters are doing the exact opposite of that.”

“I’m afraid that’s only too true,” Cal said. “Most other trades have guilds that help each other out, support each other. Like yours! There’s no way the Pedantus Guild would put its weight behind a clothmaker who’d found some new innovation that helped enchanters! They’d look down their noses and say they didn’t want to get involved.”

“I must say,” Maddie mused, “it did seem strange to me that getting the new item registered with your guild was such a sticking point.”

“I don’t really think of the Pedantus as my guild. They’re the regulator, they don’t really behave as other guilds do. I’m obliged to be a registered member, and so I am, but it’s never done me any good.”

“That’s just what I mean,” Maddie agreed. “The Clothmakers Guild, the other guilds that support magicians, and the trader and seafarer guilds, they all support their members, and they act as social clubs and networking organizations, too. It seems like the Pedantus Guild is only interested in stifling innovation and making sure everyone toes the line and never does anything new.”

“I think if I was a more traditional enchanter it might be different. The Pedantus do have a guildhouse and everything, and some people do go there socially - but it’s only for you if you know the right people.”

Maddie banged her fist on the table, and there was a smoldering in her eyes that spoke more of the person she had been in the old days than of the quiet, mischievous elderly lady in her colorful apartment in Blue Mile.

“That’s the whole point of a guild,” she growled, “to bring people in and introduce them to the right people, not to exclude them if they don’t have the family connections or the money already. Ugh, it’s ridiculous. It makes me angry, and if this project of ours allows me to annoy some members of the Pedantus Guild, so much the better.”

She drank her coffee and glared into the middle distance for a moment, then sighed, and the anger left her. “Ah, well, complaining about it isn’t going to do any good. But how did we get on to this anyway?”

“You were asking about the spiders, and I was telling you about blank cores.”

“That’s right, I remember now. So what’s the connection between the spiders and the blank cores?”

“The spiders can be harvested for blank cores,” Cal said. “That’s the connection. Before he disappeared, I think Darkworth was trying to create a source of blank cores for himself.”