Vergil opened his mouth to protest the idea. A glare from Sil shut it for him.

The Oldest deflated slightly as its eyes swung from Tallah to Sil and back again. “You go back on your decision?”

“I haven’t given you my decision. Not yet.” She thumbed in Sil’s direction, “She can go and do whatever she pleases. I'm not her. I haven’t decided if you’re worth preserving or not.” She turned and gave a long look to the library. “Whatever’s grown in there should be preserved. But if I leave you its caretakers, or I help the girl, remains to be seen.”

“Will we need to convince every one of your people? Are we to be weighed always?”

“Yes. If you ever get out into the wider world, you’ll never be loved as you are, not on sight. So, what do you offer for my help?”

“What do you desire?”

Tallah grinned. “The healing water Sil mentioned. And time in this library of yours.”

Words seemed to sting the Oldest as it drew back from her, palps raised. Its bristly hair stood on end. “You cannot disturb the Knowing. You cannot break it!”

Tallah shrugged and winced, hand reaching up to her shoulder. “I do not aim to disturb. You may hold the books yourselves. I only mean to copy some of them.”

That calmed down the Oldest, its prickly hair smoothing over.

Luna piped up, “We can give you Knowing. One bite gifts Knowing to those with no Knowing.”

“I’ll pass. I don’t need your understanding of your… knowing. I need my own. Deal or not, spider?”

“We consent to the exchange. Save us from the false mother, and we will give you anything within our power to give.”

“Good. Sil, I need a tonic. You two get yourselves ready to march out.”

“You’ll need to do without. I can’t channel.”

Tallah’s eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean you can’t channel?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. Something’s blocking me. Every time I try, I feel sick. I can’t pull in illum.” She shrugged. “Was hoping a purger from your store would clear it up, but it did nothing. I need to take the stud off Vergil and can’t at the moment.”

“Then it wasn’t your trail I was following? Odd.”

“What trail?” Sil’s turn to look confused.

“There’s an illum leak out there. It brought me to you. Strong stuff.”

“Not me, no.” She turned to Vergil and gave him a long look. “Did the trail lead you exactly to us?”

“A bloody, high-up balcony. From there to some clash of spiders. And then a staircase leading to that wonky forest.”

“I don’t like how you’re looking at me, Sil.” Vergil squirmed under the healer’s stare. It promised dissection in his near future.

“Stay here, Sil.” Tallah signalled for him to join her and they set out among the shelves. “Spider, tell your siblings to clear a path. I mean to head up.”

They scrambled out of the way as she led them several stories up the stairs. The library had a near infinite quality to it, as if there would always be more shelves and more stairs to climb. Tallah went up briskly, as if she weren’t tired at all.

“This should be far enough, I’m guessing. Hold still.”

“Wh-what for?”

“So I can kiss you.” She smiled sweetly, then cackled when he shuddered. “Right. It’s not you. I don’t feel anything coming from you.”

“I… I could’ve told you that.”

“Could you, though?” She shrugged and headed back. “Last I checked you couldn’t feel illum. I assume nothing’s changed in that regard.”

“I think the dwarf’s got in my head. Does it count?”

She shrugged and had the good grace of not reminding him she’d been right. Still, her dismissal of the thing made it easier to accept it as a constant presence now.

As they walked back, she pulled one of his axes out of her rend and tossed it to him. “Have the ghost be useful if it’s loitering about.”

And that was that. No other questions. No concerns. The rock was back even as blood seeped into the back of her shirt.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Why’s your forehead bleeding?” Tallah asked when rejoining Sil and the Oldest.

“Bugger. Not again,” Sil pressed a hand to the cut and smudged blood. “Thought this cleared up.”

“She received a message from her goddess,” Vergil put in while Sil launched a stream of angry cussing that made his ears heat up. “Said she’s watching and coming.”

“You got marked?” Tallah looked more carefully at the blushing healer.

“Yes. I don’t know why and I don’t know what it meant. Kept getting some strange pulses since. They hurt.”

“Never heard of your goddess descending on one of you in the field. I thought punishment generally meant you’d get struck dead or some such.”

Sil shrugged and threw her hands in the air, “I don’t understand anything of what happened since we got in here. I just can’t channel.”

Tallah’s eyes narrowed. She flinched back a moment later as if struck.

“It’s in here. You’re the source. Pulling next to you is like dipping a hand in molten rock.”

“Is it poisonous?”

“Far from it. Dense more like. Intense. Like elend coffee compared to human.” She raised a hand and opened a small rend to extract a cloth bag from inside. “No tonic means I’ll make due with coffee. Where can I boil some water in here?”

One of the spiders provided copper mugs from some hidden alcove above. They smelled of something long-ago turned to dust.

Tallah and Sil continued their conversation from earlier while Vergil washed and filled their mugs. He objected to some of what he was hearing, especially with regards to Ludwig, but couldn’t find the heart to voice his concerns.

Yes, Ludwig had done something monstrous. His abandonment of Tallah wouldn’t endear his case to either woman. No matter what sort of defence Vergil considered for the old man, this betrayal of their trust wasn’t something even he could forgive or understand. More and more he found himself coming back to Tallah’s polarising way of thinking.

He knew one thing for certain: the spiders deserved to live. Yes, they’d done something terrible. But they weren’t terrible in themselves. Luna wasn’t. The Oldest wasn’t. Maybe the library ones weren’t either. Or the ones that were dying in that pit down there, in pain and fear of something much more terrifying than them.

How could he help?

Sil had chewed him out about interfering, but he found himself talking when handing out the coffee.

“Can’t you take the soul of the girl?” he asked Tallah. “Like… you did with the one on your back?”

She shook her head while heating the mugs. Steam curled in the air, and the aroma of fresh coffee drove away some of the old scents.

“I need her given name and parentage. And I need to get close to where her core self is. Who knows how she’s spread out among the spiders.”

“We have her name.”

She waggled a finger. “We don’t. Egia is a calling. The School hands new names to its healers when taking them in. Erisa is, likely, not her birth name either.” She gave Sil a long look and then went on, “In all honesty, I agree the idea could work. Probably. I have two more gems and am willing to sacrifice one for an Egia’s soul.”

“Wasn’t the ability genetic?” Sil tied a wad of gauze against her wound to staunch the persistent bleeding. It refused closing even after downing an accelerant. “I don’t think it’s got anything to do with any mindscape.”

“Fine bloody question. It was never studied properly. But, even if it is…” Tallah grinned and stuck out her tongue. It forked at the end and wiggled. “We have a blood mage among us.”

Sil nearly spat out her coffee. “Don’t do that. One more time and I promise you won’t even know the name of the poison I’ll douse you with. Bloody gross.”

It got a cackle out of Tallah.

“So… what are we doing then? Just kill every spider infected?” Vergil went on, sitting with them on the bare rock.

“Pretty much. I have a theory regarding the girl’s body, but I need to reach it. And I need the Ikosmenia to confirm it. All in all, Ludwig first. Body second. A lot of fire third or in-between.” Tallah downed her entire steaming mug. “And we’d best get to it fast.”

“Why are you grinning like that?”

Half of Tallah’s face was stuck in an ugly half-rictus, teeth showing clenched. She massaged it with the heel of her palm until back to normal.

“It’s going to keep happening. Christina’s got Anna subdued, but the witch is strong. Subdued or not, she’s still trying to wiggle free. At one point I’ll need to deal with her in truth before she breaks out of confinement.” She cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulders. “Let’s get those doors open and move out. No time serves like the now.”

“I’m useless at the moment,” Sil said. “May as well go on without me.”

“Not happening. Move your ass. You’re my secret battery right now.” Tallah threw Vergil a grin. And a wink? “I used that right, yes?”

He laughed. She was so calm about heading into imminent danger. By her words, the creature down there had her dead to rights. Now, she looked forward to facing it again, grinning like a fool.

And what of the fucking girl?!

We’ll figure it out when we get to it seemed like poor planning to him.

No matter. If she didn’t mind their chances of survival, why would he? He got to his feet, stretched and popped his joints, and accepted the vials Sil handed out.

“If you get bit, drink the green one immediately,” she said. “If you get hurt, the amber. I’d give you a flask, but you don’t know the quantity so you’re likely to poison yourself with it. Be careful with these. Tallah already broke some, and we’re on the back end of our stock.”

He stowed the flasks well, as protected as they were likely to be on someone that was going to end up fighting eight-legged monsters. No offence intended to those present, of course.

Luna climbed up to his shoulder and gripped tight. “We will guide. We will help if we can.”

Help with what? Tallah was going by instinct. Solve what comes when it comes. It’ll all be fine. It hadn’t so far, but why let technicalities slow them down? A bad plan was still a plan.

Except they had no plan, bad or otherwise.

How lucky he was...