The memory of the trapped person was like cold water to her system. There wasn’t time for congratulating herself. She needed to free them.

She scooted up beside them. They were wrapped tightly in thick strands of spider silk. Cass put a hand on the silk’s surface experimentally. It was smooth to the touch and cold.

The person struggled within. They made a noise that might have been grunting or it might have been cursing, but Cass couldn’t make it out through the layers of silk.

“Hello?” she said, “Can you hear me?”

They grunted something else, their struggling increasing.

“It’s going to be okay. I’m going to get you out.” Cass tried to make her voice soft and calming. She was pretty sure she managed soft. If the stranger’s continued struggling was anything to go off of, she hadn’t quite nailed calming.

Well, she’d try again once she got them out.

Speaking of, how exactly was she going to do that?

She ran her hand over the silk again. It was smooth, the threads lying tightly together. Cass couldn’t get her fingers under any of them to pry them loose.

“This would be easier if I had a dagger,” Cass muttered. “Something I can manipulate with a little more control than my staff.”

Wind Blade was plenty sharp, but it could only be applied to a melee weapon. She supposed she could try breaking her staff into two smaller batons, but she was loath to give up her trusty weapon like that. Even if she recognized the pieces as weapons (not necessarily guaranteed) she didn’t have a Baton Mastery skill and she wasn’t confident that she could get Staff Mastery to convert that easily. And she had no illusions she knew the first thing about fighting without that skill.

No, she needed a dagger, but all she had around her was a dead spider and empty hallways. Empty stone hallways. She smacked her forehead and squatted down putting a hand out over the nearest tile. Honestly, it was still weird to have magic powers at her fingertips.

She activated Elemental Manipulation, pulling up material from the floor to make a short dagger. It was dull, she wasn’t going to try to put an edge on it, the stone would just fracture the first time the true edge hit anything. No, she intended for it to be a basis for Wind Blade instead.

She probably could have formed a plain rod if she wanted, but decided to make it easy on the System, making it clear this was a dagger, a melee weapon. Hell, she might be able to use Mana Blade on it directly this way. Nothing said the blade needed to be particularly sharp after all.

Cass activated Wind Blade on her stone dagger and held it poised over the cocoon.

“I'm going to get you out now,” Cass said, again trying to channel soft and reassuring. “So if you could just hold still?”

They did not hold still.

Cass scowled, was it safe to attempt this while they were wriggling so much? What if she accidentally cut them?

“Can they even hear me?”

They probably just don't understand you, Salos replied.

“What?”

Well, you are not speaking a language anyone I have ever met has ever spoken.

“But you understand me!” It was as much an accusation as a rebuttal.

Well, that has less to do with the words coming out of your mouth and more to do with the intended meaning I get through our connection.

Cass took a deep breath. This wasn’t worth panicking about. She was already in a magic otherworld with a demon talking to her in her head. She had magic powers and just killed a spider the size of a golf cart. What was ‘No one speaks the same language you do’ next to all of that?

She needed to double-check anyway. “You don't speak English.”

No. I doubt I have heard of it.

Deep breath, Cass, deep breaths, she whispered to herself. Aloud, she asked, “Then, how do I understand you?”

Same way. We're speaking on the more fundamental level, through intended meaning. It works because we want the other person to understand us. I'm speaking to you with the intent of conveying information to you. The language your mind interprets it as is entirely on you.

Cass sighed. “I guess it was too much the hope that the fantasy world would just speak English.”

I don't know why you would think it would. From what I can tell, our worlds have no connection. Why would language be shared?

She shook her head. This wasn't helpful right now. She was just going to have to figure it out.

“Fine, I’m not speaking their language. How do I get this person to stop struggling then.”

Cut them out?

Cass scowled again. “Helpful.”

But there wasn’t much else for it. If the trapped person wasn’t going to stop struggling, Cass was just going to have to go for it and hope for the best.

Carefully, she inserted the blade between strands of silk and started cutting.

Incidentally, intended meaning is how our nonverbal communication works as well, Salos continued while Cass worked. I intend for you to hear these words, so you do through our connection. As you seemed to have mostly figured out during your fight a minute ago, you can do it too with a little concentration and practice.

“And that isn’t mind reading?” Cass asked.

No.

“How much exactly do you hear?”

Just what you want me to. Anything you project to me, I will hear. It is exactly the same as how I talk with you. And you can’t hear all my thoughts… He paused as a spike of panic arced off him. You cannot hear all my thoughts, can you?

“Which way does it work, Salos?” Cass growled, cutting through another layer of silk.

I suddenly worried you were asking because you could, he said quietly. I don’t know all the ways our relationship might be unequal due to our relative statuses.

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Cass flinched. Right. Salos was a demon.

Her demon. The same way the necklace he was bound in was her necklace or the way her staff belonged to her.

She cut away more silk. The inner layers were sticky to the touch. She had to be careful to keep her fingers from sticking to it as her Wind Blade cut through the strands.

“No,” Cass said. “I don’t.”

The layers of spiderweb didn’t seem to end. They came away in sticky sheets, one after another after another. Cass had to go slow, unsure where the layers ended and the skin of the stranger began, unsure when or how their struggling would shift that divide.

The quiet was long and awkward and liberally punctuated by the grunting of the still-struggling stranger.

Salos broke the silence first. What do you intend to do with this person once you free them?

“What do you mean?” He couldn’t be trying to get her to abandon them still, could he?

You were going to clear the Temple. The path ahead is impossible for someone with a physical body.

Cass hadn’t thought that far, honestly. She still stood by her decision. She wasn’t willing to just leave someone to their fate if she could do something about it. But, to a certain degree, they were her responsibility now.

Did you intend to let them attempt to navigate their own way out? The temple is a labyrinth. Under the best of times, it can take teams with dedicated mappers a month to clear it. How will they fare alone, injured, and under the time limit of the coming Storm?

“What is your point?” Cass asked. He had to know her at least a little by now. If he wanted her to abandon them, pointing all this out wasn’t the way to do it.

I just want you to think your actions through. They affect more than you.

Cass sliced through another bundle of threads, the wrap loosening with every slice. “Sure. That’s how that works. That’s how that has always worked.”

But what was she supposed to do now? She couldn’t in good conscience just turn this person loose to find their own way back. Maybe that’d be what they wanted. Presumably, they were an adult and knew the risks.

But what would she do if they wanted to stick together? Cass knew in their place that would be her preference.

“Can you translate for me?” All this was irrelevant if they couldn’t communicate. It didn’t matter what plans Cass made if the other person couldn’t understand them.

I can probably tell you what they are saying. I might be able to convey the sounds you need to make to speak the language but it will be slow at best in that direction.

Better than nothing, she supposed.

Cass cut another clump away as the figure jerked. A gloved hand, caked in blood, broke through the loosening threads. It clawed up, tearing at the webbing.

Cass leaned back out of the way.

The hand pulled away another clump, freeing the arm all the way up to the shoulder. There were bloody rends in their sleeve. Pieces of crimson armor hung from the shoulder.

The hand reached up, tearing another section free. Their face pressed through the loose strands, their lips gasping for air, green eyes softening with relief.

It was a woman, her dark skin smeared with blood. A long gash ran across her temple. Spider webs clung to her curly, red hair.

Their eyes met and the stranger’s eyes hardened into sharp daggers. They promised swift and ruthless violence completely at odds with their still spider-silk-restrained state.

The stranger rattled off something in a language Cass didn’t recognize, her voice sharp.

Cass set her stone dagger down and lifted her hands slowly, waving once they were level with her face. She smiled sheepishly and said, “Hi. I’m Cass.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed into suspicious slits. Her free hand pulled at the spider webs, though those eyes never once left Cass.

Cass smiled dumbly anyway, still waving with both hands.

She can’t understand you, Salos reminded her.

It took everything Cass had not to scowl at him. That he had no body to target helped.

He’d said that no one spoke English, but she still had to try. She couldn’t let the fact he was right get her down.

The other woman said something else. Or maybe repeated her original words. She spoke too fast for Cass to get a good grip on the sounds.

Still trying to keep her voice friendly and agreeable, she asked Salos, “What did she say?”

She demanded you speak a human language, Salos translated. And asked who you are and who you work for.

“How do I tell her my name is Cass and that I don’t really speak her language?”

Salos carefully projected the sounds for Cass to copy, which she did, butchering it in the process.

That was rough but passable, Salos said when she was done.

The woman squinted at Cass. Was it distrust or disbelief in her eyes? Was it that strange that she didn’t speak the language? Maybe it was. In all the fantasy stories there was usually a common, universal language. It would be strange if that was the case here and she didn’t know it.

On the other hand, this was a real world, not just a setting for a fantasy adventure. It was more likely it followed the conventions of a living world where language developed and evolved in different ways in different places, resulting in a wide tapestry of languages.

Which didn’t mean foreign languages were common in the part of the world she’d stumbled into.

While Cass was spiraling through her own thoughts, the woman started talking again.

Her name is Alyx Veldor, Salos summarized. She seems to have decided you don’t work for the Warden, whoever that is, and that makes you trustworthy enough to ask if you’ve seen the rest of her team.

Cass shook her head.

The woman grimaced at the answer.

Or no, not the answer. Her free hand was clamped down against her side.

“Are you hurt?” Cass knew it was a stupid question the moment it left her mouth. She could see several wounds already and barely half of her had been freed from the webs. “I need to get you out of there.”

She still does not understand you.

Cass picked up the stone knife again. Alyx’s eyes narrowed again at the movement. Cass held it up so she could see it and then picked up a clump of web she’d cut away earlier.

“That’s a dull knife,” Alyx said, translated by Salos for Cass’s benefit. Cass didn’t need his help to catch the distrust in her tone.

Cass nodded and activated Wind Blade again. She cut through the clump of webbing she’d picked up.

Alyx’s eyes couldn’t possibly narrow further.

Cass tapped the silk still wrapping the other woman with her free hand and made a cutting motion with the knife.

Alyx’s jaw was clamped tight but she nodded.

Slowly, Cass resumed cutting her free.

Cass opened her mouth to ask Salos a question but thought better of it. With other people around, it was probably better to get into the habit of projecting her thoughts at him instead of talking out loud.

Can we ask her how she ended up here alone? Cass asked.

Isn’t it obvious, Salos replied. Her party was ambushed by Grotto Spiders. Given that the only signs of a struggle here are from your fight, I would assume it happened elsewhere. Probably outside the Temple.

Her party was overrun. Perhaps there was more than one spider, perhaps they were ambushed in the night. Perhaps they had dead weight in the party dragging the entire group down.

Either way, she was captured and dragged back here. The rest of her party is likely dead.

Cass cut her other arm free. Not captured too?

Short of another soft-hearted fool wandering into them, they are dead, Salos said. You are in no condition to go fighting more of these things, even if you knew where they were.

Cass sighed. Once again, Salos wasn’t wrong.

It took another couple of minutes to free Alyx from her webby prison, but eventually, Cass’s blade snapped the last strands immobilizing her.

“There we go,” Cass said with relief. “How’re you feeling?”

Alyx frowned at Cass, shaking her head.

Ask that like this, Salos demonstrated the words for Cass, who repeated them carefully.

Alyx’s scowl didn’t change as she tried standing. Her body shook from the effort. Her scowl slipped into a pained grimace.

Cass leaned down and extended a hand.

Alyx ignored it, forcing herself up without the help.

“It will take more than this to kill me,” Salos translated for her. Though she swayed on her feet, she held her head high.