As Sui started to flail more, the thread she controlled reached out half instinctively about to grab the first thing that it could for leverage… which would have been Aife’s head and neck, though Sui shut that down.

No! She is strong, but it is not worth that risk. I shall take the chance that I have survived long enough. Sui’s thread seemed to freeze hovering above Aife’s face as she continued to fall backwards. In this moment though Aife moved.

She yanked herself forward, and over before throwing her right arm up towards Sui’s thread and shouting “Sui arm!”

Receiving the message loud and clear Sui quickly moved her threads around Aife’s arm, securing it. The second this happened her descent was stopped, but she wasn’t out of the woods yet. The threads weren’t wrapped around her and were entirely supported by her own power.

This manifested in buckets of sweat and the feeling of her mind slowly being crushed as the mental strain from supporting her whole body with her thread and stopping it from simply unwinding and freeing itself of her.

Aife moved to pull her up but Ito seeing Sui already struggling sprinted up Aife’s arms and crossed both her legs. Aife paused at this and narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t exactly look behind her with Sui already below her shoulder… but could she trust this random spider?

Sure, she’d seen how smart Ito was, and it, no she, had proven to be smart enough to understand them… but was it better to trust a spider over her own instincts and simply pull on the thread?

Aife evidently thought so. The deciding factor was that she was a soulbound companion, presumably very closely and permanently bound to Sui, and as such anything bad that happened to one would affect the other.

So Aife froze herself in place, muscles straining to keep the thread exactly in place, not moving the slightest amount. Sui on the other hand was still struggle with her mind. It was getting harder and harder to move her thread as she wanted as the weight burned itself into her mind.

The issue was she needed to wrap herself, ideally her midsection with the thread she was using so that it could pull her up, and barring that, wrap it around the thread she was already using as a belt and hope it could support her weight when concentrated to a single point of failure.

The problem with this, was that moving the end of the thread wasn’t so bad when it wasn’t supporting her weight even through the air when considering her increased stats. No, the issue was that she had to move them over while keeping the thread under her control.

Currently she was in a strange state. The thread was around the spindle, and she’d grasped the end somehow. Like placing a hand on the edge, and stopping it from simply unwinding from her bolt. This prevented her immediate fall, but if she started to have Aife pull on it, her mind might not be able to handle it.

Ok… carefully one at a time. Just little bits and pieces of thread… and it will be fine. The bolt she was controlling was actually three collectively wrapped strands of thread. This was what gave her them the ability to hold her weight, with a bit of reinforcement from her power holding it all together.

Slowly, she started to move. Placing her arm on the thread in question, she pulled herself up slightly lessening the mental burden. Once this was done, she started to slowly unwind the last vestiges from the spindle, careful to unwind it slowly, and ignoring the slight spikes of pain she felt in her mind.

After what felt like forever, Sui had unravelled the last of the thread, but her arm was starting to give in. She couldn’t afford to assist as much with her power while keeping everything stable so she’d just have to grin and bear it.

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Gritting her teeth Sui’s eyes started to glow with a soft light. Wrenching herself forward the slightest amount she threw the thread behind her, before wrapping it around twice. When she did so, Aife’s already taught muscles hardened to something closer to steel, making sure she didn’t move at all.

Twice around her waist, and Sui could relax. She felt her power slipping and slowly let herself fall backwards slightly only for the tug on her shoulder to remind here she’s not out of the woods yet.

Just when Sui was about to give Aife the all clear. The weight of everything doubled. Sui instantly felt it in the remnants of power she had in her threads, and new instantly they wouldn’t hold together without her now.

Concentrating hard and pulling her thread together to keep herself from falling, her jaw locked shut with the pressure on her mind and body. She couldn’t see it, but blood had started to leak from her nose.

She had managed to stabilise it barely. Aife meanwhile looked almost unchanged. Except that now her legs and neck had veins being highlighted showing she was no longer immune to the weight’s effects.

Sui tried to give Aife the all clear but no sound escaped her. Luckily Ito was still on the job. She started tapping rapidly on Aife’s hand and miming pulling back on the thread.

Aife saw this and nodded, before practically hurling the thread forward Aife pulled up and across with great force. Sui flew upwards, dragged along by the thread she was desperately holding together until she sored over Aife’s shoulder and headed for the ground.

At this point Sui was starting to lose consciousness, but Aife was ready. Once Sui had cleared her shoulder she moved. Letting go of the thread and letting it hang down, she first bounced Ito into the air and then shifted to the side, to allow the spider to land safely on her shoulder.

Sui was still heading for the ground, Aife took this into her own hands though. Quite literally. Aife reached out with both hands and placed them underneath Sui’s arms. Careful not to interrupt her fall to quickly Aife moved down with Sui, slowly absorbing the impact, taking more than half the weight as Sui crashed into the ground.

Sui stumbled slightly but with Aife’s support she didn’t fall at all. “Thanks” mumbled Sui.

“Sui!” shouted Trina “Are you ok?”

Sui tried to face her friend but couldn’t seem to work out where the voice was coming from. So, she answered “I’ll be fine”

“Sui, you’re bleeding from your nose. You are not fine” said Trina

“I’ve got her” said Aife shifting Sui so she was leaning sideways and supported her with the one arm. Aife used her other arm to lift up Sui’s metal over her head, and placed it over her own.

“Aife! You can’t do that!” said Trina

Aife tried to shrug, but taking on Sui’s metal as well made it hard. “Well, she hasn’t been eliminated, and I’m fine with the weight so yeah I can actually” said Aife

Trina herself looked worse for wear as well. Sui may have been barely standing even with Aife’s help, but Trina wasn’t much better. She was shaking in place, sweating heavily and was taking sharp rapid breaths.

Trina was about to argue again, but Aife simply lifted Sui slightly to move next to Trina before taking off the top half of her metal. Sadly, she’d secured the one around her stomach a bit too well for Aife to simply remove it.

Trina tried to scramble and prevent Aife from lifting off half of her weight when she saw what was happening but was unable to muster a proper response.

During this time, Ito had clambered over to the hand holding Sui. She poked Aife a few times until getting her attention before miming a slow descending motion. Aife wasn’t certain what Ito was after until she repeated it a few times and pointed to Sui in between.

Nodding Aife bent herself at the knees and slowly lowered Sui down to the ground. “Ima fine” mumbled Sui

“No, I’m fine” said Aife

“You speak exhausted?” asked Trina, with what little remained of her breath.

Aife grinned “I speak exhausted Sui, that’s for sure”

Trina let out a hacking laugh, that nearly did more harm than good, making her shoulders heave, and stance wobble but she recovered. For Sui though, the lights were already fading. You know… this ground is very comfortable… maybe I should catch up on sleep? But isn’t something important happening? Hmm… I’m not sewing… must be fine.

And with that, the last vestiges of fight left Sui’s body as she slipped into a gentle sleep. Trina stared dumbfounded with mouth agape “How can she sleep at a time like this!”

“Now is the best time. I think she must have overused her power or something, look her nose is still bleeding a bit I think” said Aife

Trina frowned but didn’t say anything else. Air was precious for the moment.