Chapter 16

The lingering remnants of Anne’s voice, her teachings, still echoed in my mind as I slowly emerged from the dreamscape. My body felt heavier than before, the paralyzing toxin still pulsing through me, but the storm within my consciousness had granted me clarity. I blinked, the cold, dim light of the cave returning to focus, and I found Felix’s concerned face hovering over mine.

“You’re back,” he whispered, his voice thick with relief. He gently placed a hand on my forehead, his touch light and cautious. “You’ve been out for hours. I thought—" His voice cracked for a moment, and he swallowed hard before continuing. "I thought I might lose you."

I blinked at him, trying to process the weight of his words. "Hours?" I rasped, my throat dry and scratchy. My body felt weak, my limbs sluggish as though I was still battling to shake off the last remnants of the venom. “How long has it been since... since the fight?”

Felix glanced away briefly, as if ashamed to admit how much time had passed. "It's been... six hours, maybe more. I did what I could, but you got a fever and I ran out of mana—“ He trailed off, his eyes scanning me as if searching for any sign of lingering danger. "I used time magic to slow it down and stop it from spreading. But I—I thought I was too late. You weren’t responding for so long, Maura."

My heart tightened at the vulnerability in his voice. He had been holding me together, keeping me here when everything in my body was fighting to pull me away. “I’m sorry I scared you,” I whispered, reaching up to touch his arm, my fingers brushing his sleeve weakly.

Felix shook his head quickly, as though dismissing my apology. “Don’t be. I’m just... I’m just glad you're okay. I thought I had lost you more than once. Byte’s been keeping watch too.”

Byte buzzed at the mention of his name, his usual cheerful beeps a little more somber. He hovered close to my face, nudging me gently as if to remind me he had been there the whole time. The look in Felix’s eyes—worry mixed with exhaustion—hit me harder than I expected. He had been fighting for me, and it wasn’t just the venom that had taken me down. It was the weight of everything—the raid, the battle, and somehow I’d ended up somewhere else. The Archive of the Eons.

“I’m here,” I said softly, forcing a small smile. “I’m still here, thanks to you.”

Felix exhaled deeply, his shoulders sagging slightly with the release of tension he’d been holding for hours. “You had me worried. I was trying to keep the venom at bay, but healing wasn’t working. Luckily I leveled up and got a spell to cure status effects. The only problem was how low I was on mana I tried everything.” His voice cracked, and he looked away, clearly shaken by how close things had gotten.

When he mentioned leveling up a inkling of a memory swam to my mind and I pulled up my HUD. Several notifications blinked awaiting my attention.

Level Up!

Level 10 Technomancer!

New Skill Selection Available.

Quest Completed: Technological Tinkerer!

Reward: 1500 Credits

1500 Points

“I knew it! I saw Anne," I managed, pushing past the pain in my arm. "She... she showed me something. A way to upgrade Byte. I thought when I was telling you about it it was a dream- but I just checked. I completed my quest. It was real Felix.“

Felix's brow furrowed as he tried to process my words. "Anne? The first technomancer? You… what?”

“I saw her Felix. It wasn’t her- in her entirety. She said it was just a piece of her left behind to- like, watch over that place. She showed me a schematic for Byte. And I have it now, the schematic. I can enhance him after we loot those spiders.”

Byte chirped, more alert now, clearly eager for whatever upgrade I had in mind.

Felix looked at Byte, then back at me, skepticism and concern dripping from him. "Maura, you've been through hell tonight. Are you sure you're ready for this? We really need to rest. I have next to no mana and you can barely sit up without wincing.”

I shook my head, grimacing slightly as the pain shot through me again. “We don’t have time. We need to be stronger, Felix. After everything that happened at the camp, after what we saw today... we need to be prepared.”

Felix sighed deeply, but there was understanding in his eyes. He knew I was right, even if it made him uncomfortable to think about what might come next.

"Okay," he said softly. “But only looting tonight and no going further than what Byte’s already catalogued.”

I smiled weakly. "Deal."

We both turned our attention to Byte, who buzzed excitedly, eager to receive the upgrades Anne had shown me. We moved slowly through the evening conserving all of our mana as we collected the spoils of our battle.

While fighting them, the spiders had seemed huge, but now that they lay splayed out in front of us, they were even larger than I’d imagined—at least the size of a badger. Their exoskeletons gleamed under the dim light of the dungeon, slick with oil and ichor. It was hard to think of them as mere machines. They were something else entirely—a unique fusion of metal and flesh, cybernetically enhanced creatures built for stealth and lethality.

Stolen novel; please report.

The spiders weren't purely mechanical, nor entirely organic; they were cyborgs. Their mechanical components meshed intriguingly with sinew and muscle. I could see veins pulsing around intricate gears and wires embedded deep within their twisted bodies. These creatures were built with purpose—perfect predators, faster, stronger, and more terrifying than anything I could have expected.

I opened my HUD and tapped into the schematic from my dream, using it to guide me through the process of disassembling the spiders. Byte hovered near me, his sensors flickering as he processed the layout of the creatures. Meanwhile, Felix worked nearby, carefully prying apart old traps and collecting bits of wood, metal, and stone that we could use later.

At first, the work was slow and meticulous. My hands were shaky, and the venom still coursed sluggishly through my system, making me feel foggy and disconnected. But the longer I worked, the better I felt. I became more focused, my body regaining its strength as the last remnants of the toxin left me. With each piece I extracted from the spiders—each wire, gear, and piston—I felt a strange sense of satisfaction. I was reclaiming something, understanding how these creatures worked. It was as if, by dismantling them, I was slowly regaining control over the situation.

Reinforced Piston and Gears

Common

Description: Thick, sturdy gears and pistons designed to provide the spiders with strength and agility. These gears are durable and could be used for crafting heavy armor or tools.

Mechanical Spinal Column

Common

Description: A sturdy mechanical spine designed for flexibility and strength. Useful in crafting, this component could be used to create reinforced armor or structural enhancements.

The first couple of spiders I was only able to get common rarity items removed in one piece. The spinal column was particularly intriguing. Spiders on Earth did not have spines. Unlike humans, who have internal skeletons, spiders rely on their exoskeleton to maintain their shape and safeguard their internal organs. These creatures were different.

As began to understand their biology more the way they fit together it became clearer to me how to extract new components. With a pop a silk gland came out whole.

Webweaver Silk

Uncommon

Description: A fine, nearly invisible silk spun by the spiders. This substance can be woven into cloth for lightweight, durable armor or used in traps.

I chewed on my lip, suddenly nervous, as a thought bubbled up in the back of my mind. The silence between Felix and me felt heavy, and with the repetitive nature of our tasks, I found myself thinking back to something from our very first day.

“I don’t have anyone I’m looking for,” I blurted out, my voice loud in the stillness of the cave. At the same moment, an oily fluid spurted out of the Mechweaver spider I was working on, splattering across my armor. I grimaced, trying to wipe it off.

Felix, who had been focused on pulling apart another trap, paused. His brow furrowed in confusion, and exhaustion laced his voice when he finally responded, “What?”

I shifted uncomfortably, feeling the weight of my own words. “Our first day here. You asked if I was looking for anyone,” I clarified, suddenly embarrassed by how unceremoniously I’d brought it up.

“Oh,” Felix grunted, glancing over at me as he added more wood to the pile. We had gathered enough by now for several small fires. His eyes softened as he connected the dots. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice trailing off, clearly assuming the worst.

“No, no. There’s nothing to be sorry about,” I assured him, shaking my head as I worked. “I mean, I have friends I’d love to check in on. But they all have families now. Kids, partners. They’ve moved on in ways I haven’t. I guess more than anything, I just hope they’re okay. But it’s not like I’m trying to reunite with anyone specific, you know?”

Felix sat back on his heels, wiping sweat from his forehead. His face was a mix of empathy and understanding. “That makes sense. What about your family?”

My stomach tightened at the mention of my family. I hadn’t thought about them in a long time—not really. I shook my head again, trying to brush it off. “I have parents, but we had a falling out years ago. They were… controlling, to say the least. Everything had to be on their terms, their way. They had this perfect image of who they wanted me to be, and it was exhausting trying to live up to it.”

I hesitated, feeling the old hurt creeping back in as I continued. “When I finally got out on my own, I realized life didn’t have to be that way. I could be myself—who I really wanted to be. I stopped trying to fit into the bubble they wanted me in. That’s how I got into programming, actually. I’ve always been obsessed with computers and electronics. I used to take things apart just to see how they worked.”

Felix looked up from his task, nodding as he listened. “Yeah? You were a natural then?”

I smiled faintly, the memory bittersweet. “Yeah. I remember once, when I was in high school, I took apart my alarm clock. I had every gear, every screw, labeled and laid out perfectly. I was so proud of myself. This reminds me of it so much.” My hands deftly removed a small unbroken chip and I held it out into the dim light of the cave to get a better look.

Neural Relay Chip

Uncommon

Description: Tiny chips used by the mechweaver spiders to process their environment and react to stimuli.

My smile faltered as the darker part of the memory surfaced. “Then my dad walked in, saw what I was doing, and he raged. He hit the table so hard that all the pieces scattered everywhere. I wasn’t able to get it back together after that.”

Felix winced. “That sucks. I’m sorry.”

I shrugged, trying to shake off the weight of it. “That was kind of the beginning of the end for us. After that, I just stopped. I stopped taking things apart, stopped being curious. I went to business school like they wanted, but none of it ever felt right. I ended up bombing an interview at my dad’s company after college, and that was it. He screamed at me in the parking lot. It was humiliating.”

I paused, the memory still fresh even after all these years. “That night, I packed up and left. I haven’t spoken to them since.”

Felix nodded thoughtfully, his expression serious. “That takes guts, walking away like that.”

I shrugged again, feeling the sting of old wounds. “It didn’t feel brave at the time. But looking back, maybe it was. I just couldn’t live their life anymore. So, I started up my shop and I was trying to get my webpage going I ended up going through way too many tutorials and falling in love with programming. It just reminded me of building things as a kid. And now I’m here and I modified this phone!”

The cave fell silent again, save for the soft sounds of dismantling. Felix and I looked at each other and then the phone communication device I held up.

“I completely forgot about this with everything else going on.”

Felix nodded eyes wide. “Yeah, me too. How does it work.”

I turned the phone on and looked at Felix, “So, John had the phone. If he still has it and it’s on theoretically all I have to do is push my mana through the device and I should be able to call John.”

On my custom operating system I had but one contact available. I pulled it up wincing at Elara’s name on the screen, a painful reminder of what we’d lost.

I hesitated for a moment, my breath catching in my throat. Then, steeling myself, I pressed the call button. The phone screen flickered, and the soft hum intensified as I pushed a small surge of mana into the device. The familiar sound of a ringing line echoed in the stillness of the cave.

Felix and I exchanged a glance, both holding our breath, waiting.

The ringing continued.