Three ravens darted down at them. Wisp flicked her wrist. A dozen wisps of spider thread burst from her hand. Two of the ravens retreated, but the threads wrapped around the third. She yanked, and the raven jolted out of the sky. It crashed into the branches. Wisp leapt on it. Before it could jump up, she quickly bound it to the tree.

She hadn’t wanted to fight. She was still recovering. But she would have been gravely injured if she’d had to escape through that fire on her own. Ike had taken the flames on for her. Injured himself, to bring her to safety. She couldn’t turn away from that.

Wisp leaped on the downed raven. She bared her fangs and bit it. Poison flowed into its veins. The raven’s eyes widened in panic as its body numbed.

“And stay down,” Wisp muttered.

The other ravens circled, croaking. She gazed up, counting. Four, five… With the one on the ground, that’s six. Five to go.

If I was at my full strength, they’d already be dead. As it is…

Laughing, Wisp gestured the birds toward her. “Come on, flea-rags! Give me your worst!”

The birds cried out. As one, they darted down toward Wisp.

Wisp’s hands blurred. The birds struck an invisible wall and cried out. Blood and feathers rained down. An entire wing sheared off one of the birds. Another one lost a leg. Screaming in pain, they dropped one after another. Blood painted invisible, razor-sharp lines on the sky, lines that stretched between trees and twisted together into a hideous web.

Wisp grinned. As it is, I have to exert a little effort.

One bird survived the initial collision. It struggled, fighting to break free of the web. Wisp jumped up. She stood on a still thread just outside the range of the bird’s motion, watching emotionlessly as it flapped and struggled in the web.

“I was going to let Ike deal with you. Let him grow stronger. But instead, you had to hurt him like that.”

The bird flailed, fighting harder than ever before.

“For your crimes, die.”

Wisp snapped her fingers. The bird’s head dropped off its shoulders, cut through at a surgical precision.

She looked around at the carnage and sighed. “Ike would steal these things’ bodies, wouldn’t he.”

Wisp did a slow turn. Severed bird parts hung all over her web. Bits of bird dropped to the ground. Feathers and blood mingled on the floor. “Yeah. That’s a lot of work.”

A second later, she shrugged, carefree. “Well, that’s Ike. Not me. I wouldn’t do that. And I won’t! Easy.”

She hopped down and jogged over to Ike. Carefully, she picked him up and set off through the woods again. She hummed under her breath, an upbeat tune.

The poisoned raven trembled behind her. Its dark eyes burned with hatred.

--

Sun flickered against the backs of Ike’s eyelids. He shifted, then flinched as his skin brushed against cloth. Frowning, Ike opened his eyes.

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White thread all around him. Thin enough the sunlight filtered through, but too thick to clearly see the world around him. He bounced, gently. Someone’s back moved against his.

“Uh… Wisp?” Ike tried, a little discombobulated. He blinked and wiped the crust out of his eyes, swallowing away dryness in his throat.

“You awake?” she asked.

He touched the threads around him. Spiders only put one kind of creature into a cocoon—their prey. “You’re not going to eat me, are you?”

“What?” The shadow of Wisp looked over her shoulder. She stared for a second, then burst out laughing. “What are you gonna do if I try?”

“Cry a lot, I guess?” Ike joked back.

She snorted. “You’d already be shit if I wanted to eat you. It’s just easier to carry you like this. And it keeps your burns protected.”

“Burns…” Ike lifted his arms to get a better look. Faint red patches discolored his skin. While he was asleep, Salamander Healing had done good work. They were mostly healed. Still a little tender to the touch, but no longer raw and oozing.

That’s right. Those ravens set up a wall of fire around us, and then… Ike jolted. “The ravens!”

“They’re gone. I got away from them while you were sleeping.”

“Oh…good. That’s good,” Ike muttered. He turned his arms over. Salamander Healing circulated neatly inside of him, continuing to heal his wounds. It didn’t stop and start on aether, like all his other skills did. It ran easily. If anything, more easily than it had beforehand.

It’s a beast’s skill, so of course it runs smoothly on aether. Still, is that all there is to it? He dove into his core and watched the aether circulate. If there was something about Salamander Healing’s structure that let it handle aether more easily than other skills, then he could copy that structure into his other skills and resolve the burst problem.

Aether flowed smoothly through his passages, circulating in and out of his core no differently than mana. Still watching his passages, Ike activated Lightning Grasp.

His passages jolted. They widened slightly to allow more passage of mana. Aether flew through them all at once, bursting out of his hand in a blast of lightning at the end.

“Hey! What’re you doing back there?” Wisp demanded, annoyed.

“Just, uh, trying something out,” Ike said.

“If you’re awake, get down and walk on your own!” she demanded, thumping the cocoon on the ground.

Ike winced as his wounds jostled. He drew his sword and sliced his way out of the thread. It fell away, revealing the same forest as before. There was no sign of the scorched forest, save a distant pillar of grey smoke billowing into the sky.

“How long was I out?” Ike asked.

“Only a few hours.” Wisp grabbed the cocoon and shoved it into her mouth.

Ike stared.

Mouth full of cocoon, Wisp cocked one brow. She finished shoving it down and swallowed. “What?”

“Er… nothing?” Ike said, not even sure how to breach the topic.

She snorted. “No point wasting that thread. I can reconstitute it if I eat it.”

“Oh…”

“It’s very common amongst spiders.” She shook her head at Ike. “Typical inferior human, unable to understand the importance of conservation of resources.”

“No, I get that, it’s just… a little…” Ike shook his head. On second thought, I don’t want to know anything else about this whole thread reconstitution thing. The less I know, the better. “No, you’re right. Inferior humans.” He gestured for Wisp to head on.

Wisp chuckled. She shook her head at Ike and took the lead. “Up ahead, we should reach the edge of the forest. From there, you can reunite with your dog… or try to escape, if you like.”

Ike looked at Wisp. “How did you know I wanted to escape?”

“Everyone wants to escape. Don’t be stupid. Especially someone as new as you,” Wisp said.

“Reasonable,” Ike agreed. It wasn’t like he was hiding his desires or keeping a secret. He’d simply been startled that Wisp had known. But it wasn’t that shocking she could guess.

“Plus, you burned the hell out of your bridges with Abyssal. Took the unpopular Tana side to begin with, then absolutely ruined your chances of getting ignored by destroying the king’s dolls. I don’t disagree with your choices, but you sure fucked your long-term survival in Abyssal.”

Taken aback, Ike looked at her. “How do you know that much about human politics? Don’t you ignore people?”

“I do, but you know. You pick stuff up. Figure out which kind of people you’re eating, and, you know…” Wisp trailed off. She cleared her throat. “Figure out which kind of people keep getting sent into the spider forest, and—”

“No, I—I understood the first time,” Ike said, cutting her off.

She snorted. “In any case, the best place to escape is just up ahead. The barrier that cuts off escape is weakest in this far corner. There might be room to wiggle out, if you do it perfectly.”

“And what about you? Back to the spider forest?” Ike asked.

Wisp looked up at the cliffs high around them. She grinned, cutting her eyes to meet Ike’s. “What do you think? I’m coming out with you!”