Toby swiped at his face with his bare hand, spitting and yelling incoherently. Nim, who had been creeping nearly silently through the thick, marshy forest floor, stopped and stared, annoyance clouding her small features.

“Spiders,” Toby explained, still wiping at his neck. “They’ve left their webs all over this cursed swamp.”

“I’ll leave you in this cursed swamp if you don’t pipe down,” Nim hissed. “Do you want to be bewitched?”

“Not particularly.”

Nim shook her head and continued moving slowly through the squelching mud.

“The Hideprine witch is known for her bewitchment skill. Take care and hope she’s distracted by her experiment with her vampire visitor,” she said.

Toby frowned, glanced around, and followed Nim more slowly, one hand waving in front of him to catch webs.

Fortunately, only a few minutes later, Nim stopped abruptly. He nearly slammed into her back, and she slapped at him, her open hand glancing off the thin leather armor covering his abdomen.

“Shhh,” Nim said. “Stop.”

She knelt, her knee sinking into the stinking slime, and stared hard into the trees.

“Do you see it? Just there.” Her small finger pointed toward a clearing about twenty feet ahead.

Toby squinted, searching the spaces between the bark.

“No,” he said finally. “I don’t see anything. I can surely smell something, though. This swamp reeks.”

Nim grabbed his hand and jerked him down, into the mud beside her. “Look! See the squiggles? The waves in the air, like hangs above the sand in a desert?”

Toby took a second look, straining his eyes in the dim light of the swamp. Just as he was about to shrug and give up, he saw it. A faint shimmer in the vague shape of a box. But much larger than a simple box… a house.

“You sure that’s it?”

“I’m positive. And you know what that means?”

“What?” Toby asked, disturbed by the tone of her voice.

“Traps,” Nim said, her teeth flashing into a wide grin in the gloom.

The tall bard groaned and sank deeper into the muck as he struggled to stand. “I should’ve known. You always get so jolly around traps. It’s one reason I question your sanity sometimes.”

“Are there other reasons?” Nim asked, then held up her hand. “Best not to keep talking. You can write a song about it later. The Madness of Nim, or something similar. Right now, I need to stay here. Remain very still and wait for my word to move forward.”

Toby nodded and Nim hurried left then right, zig-zagging low to the ground, her attention laser-focused on each step, eyes darting between each placement of her soft, brown boots and the air in front of her.

She halted suddenly and laughed, a light, lilting sound.

Her hand flashed forward so fast Toby barely saw it then Nim motioned him forward.

“It’s safe now,” she said when he reached her. “A fire trap, meant to scorch unwelcome visitors. But it was easily disabled and seems to be the only danger… at least on this side of the house.”

“You sure?”

Nim shrugged. “Mostly. And I know the invisibility spell on the witch’s lair. When we get close enough to make contact, it’ll be clear to our eyes. It only masks the area from afar.”

The two crept closer, slow and methodical in their approach, until Nim’s tiny fingers brushed the side of the house. As soon as she touched it, it leapt into view, nearly sending Toby backward onto the reedy ground in surprise.

“Now we get to meet the witch,” Nim said, her eyes sparkling.

“She probably won’t take well to being called ‘the witch,’” Toby commented, his hand straying to the dagger in his belt.

“Well, we didn’t get her name from Thom, did we?” Nim responded. “We’ll just ask for Trissia.”

“What are you going to do? Knock on the door?”

Nim shrugged. “What other approach do you suggest? We need to give Trissia Thom’s message.”

Toby shook his head and gestured toward the front of the small, ramshackle house. “Lead the way.”

Nim listened at the door before knocking but heard nothing. Then she knocked. No answer.

The two looked at one another and Toby raised his eyebrows.

“Now what?”

“Maybe no one’s home,” Nim said. “In that case…”

Nim twisted the door’s brass knob. As soon as the large, oaken door swung open, she drew her blade. Toby followed suit, though he couldn’t see what was inside.

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When he did peek past her still form and into the dark interior of the unexpectedly cheerful home, he spotted something that made all the blood drain from his face: a spider. And one that put the swamp spiders to shame.

It was on the wall across from the door, tapping one long, curled leg against the wood. Its many eyes glimmered in the dim light from the open door.

Nim grimaced and pointed to the corner of the small, well-kept room. Following her direction, Toby noticed an older woman, dressed in splendid purple robes, partially wrapped in spiderwebs. The webbing encircled her arms, keeping her from moving, and covered her mouth. The woman’s green eyes, however, stared widely at them.

“Obviously, something hasn’t gone as planned,” Nim hissed to Toby, watching the spider closely.

“Where’s Trissia?” Toby muttered back, gripping the handle of his dagger.

“I don’t know,” Nim said. “Hopefully, not in that spider’s belly.”

The spider moved slightly as if considering an attack. However, it seemed hesitant to move toward the light and the two blade-wielding intruders.

“Can you distract it?” Nim whispered. “While I get the witch out of her binds?”

“I can try,” Toby replied. “Though that didn’t work out fantastically with the hound, did it?”

Nim shrugged. “We don’t have many options.”

Toby frowned, glancing around. He noticed a lantern sitting on a table near the door and grabbed it.

“Fire,” he said. “Spider’s hate it.”

He quickly lit the lamp and held it in front of him, also removing a flask of oil from his pack. “If the monster moves toward me,” he said. “He’ll be doused and lit aflame.”

“You’ll set the entire house on fire.” Nim shook her head. "Put that away."

Toby rolled his eyes and discarded the lantern.

Nim leaped into action, racing toward the desperate woman. She hacked at the sticky webs carefully, avoiding injuring the witch, until the ties began to fall away. In the background, Toby stomped, screamed, yelled in terror, then gave a triumphant shout. He’d slashed one of the spider’s spindly legs and it oozed greenish blood onto the otherwise spotless floor.

"See," Nim yelled. "Didn't even need the fire."

The witch, who had a much more pleasant appearance than Nim anticipated, gagged and breathed deeply when Nim released her mouth.

“Thank you,” she said, “I must put the beast to sleep, and quickly. Before your friend kills it.”

Nim didn’t ask any questions, she merely cut at webs, slicing and pulling them away with her hands, wiping the residue on her pants in between gooey handfuls.

As soon as she could, the witch wriggled free and rushed toward Toby, who stood eye-to-eyes with the arachnid, his weapon dripping.

“Stop!” she shouted. Then words began to tumble from her mouth, one after the other, so fast they seemed to blend together. The spider, seeing its victim free, scurried toward her, its pincers snapping.

Just as Toby was about to intervene, the witch finished her incantation and the spider stopped, twitched, and fell motionless to the floor.

The witch slumped down beside it, stroking its long leg, which still oozed from Toby’s strike.

“I’m not sure what we’ve walked into, but we’re here for Trissia,” Nim said, watching the witch with concern. “Has she gone?”

“Trissia?” The woman looked up, her bright eyes flashing. “No. Not gone. Right here.”

“You’re Trissia?” Toby asked.

She cackled. “Not I. The spider.”

She stroked its leg again apologetically. “My mistake.”

“You turned Trissia into… this?” Nim asked, sitting down heavily in a wooden chair near the door.

“It’s not permanent. I’ll restore her momentarily. I would have restored her immediately. But unfortunately, she trapped me in the web before I could perform the spell.”

She heaved herself up and hurried about the cozy room, gathering herbs and various oddments, including a newt’s eye, a swan’s feather, and a bat’s wing, before asking the pair to leave the house for a short while.

They acquiesced and sat quietly on the porch, listening curiously to the strange but also soothing sounds of the swamp, until she summoned them.

Inside, Trissia, her face pale and one arm wrapped in a bandage, lay on the witch’s own bed. She looked up at them, unsurprised, when they entered.

“Thom sent you, didn’t he?” she asked at once. “He wants me to return.”

Nim nodded. “He’s agreed to undergo the experiment with you if that’s still an option.”

She glanced at the witch, who smiled. “It was a success.”

“You call that a success?” Toby shook his head. “I’d hate to see a failure.”

“I’m so glad you’ve come,” Trissia’s tears ran down her cheeks, wetting the pillow. “And that Thom saw the sense of it. What is the value of life when one is immortal? What is the value of anything?”

She ignored Toby’s statement, entirely focused on her lover. “I’ll go back at once. Can you come with me, Niccia?”

The old witch nodded. “I can perform the spell once more in your home on your husband… safely this time and with the proper precautions taken.”

She paused and rubbed the side of her nose, thinking. “It’s such an excitement, creating a new spell. I’ll need to create a fitting name for it. Mortalmaker or something similar.”

The woman began muttering to herself, pacing the small room while tapping her nose, deep in thought.

“I think we’ll accompany you to the estate,” Nim told Trissia, who seemed preoccupied with staring at her hands. Mortality seemed to have given her a different perspective on them. “Your husband has promised us something in return for fetching you.”

“Of course,” Trissia said. “Of course you must come with us to receive your payment. Thom is such a generous fellow.”

“Toothy, though. And you’re… sure she’s mortal now?” Toby looked the woman up and down then glanced to Cissia. “Not a vampiress any longer?”

“Not a bit of vampirism about her,” the witch stopped her pacing and clapped her hands together decidedly. “She’ll be strong enough to travel tomorrow.”

***

When the time came, the four traveled back to the vampires’ manor with haste. Trissia, because she was eager to see Thom again so they could enjoy a mortal life together. Niccia because she wished to perfect her immortal-to-mortal spell. And Nim and Toby because they needed the Globe of Mourning, which Thom gave them promptly upon arrival.

They stayed just long enough to watch the forlorn vampire embrace his lost treasure, reveling in her beauty, even as a mortal. He stroked her long, dark hair with pale fingers and kissed her bright lips. Then the rogue and bard fled the vampire’s manor, a bit glad to see the back of it, and their own treasure in tow.

“There’s no telling what he might turn into,” Toby said as they passed the vicious hound on the way out. The foul beast paid them no attention as they walked through the iron gate. “A lion? A bear? A dragon?”

“The witch assured me she knew what went wrong and it wouldn’t repeat,” Nim said, pursing her lips. “Though, I must tell you. I’m rather glad to be leaving before she finds out for sure.”

A short while later, while Nim and Toby took lunch on the side of the path in the sunny, dry grass, a loud roar sounded in the distance. The pair looked at one another.

“Surely not,” Nim said. “What on earth could make that racket?”

“Well, he’s definitely not a spider,” Toby replied.