Departure

Alice yawned and carefully massaged her face with her fingers, that is, her ten fingers from her two working hands; just the thought was enough for her to break into another round of gleeful giggles.

She had finally managed to grow back the arm she had lost so many weeks before, overcoming her fears and the hurdles imposed by her own magic to reform that incredibly complex subsystem.

Now, however, she was only feeling really tired.

The girl had spent far too many hours recreating the bones and tissues of her hand and, all in all, she had been pretty much working non-stop for more than a day, expending massive amounts of magical energy and resources in the meanwhile.

She yawned once more, her right hand twitching slightly as her fingers traced round circles on her heavy eyelids.

Careful of the greatly enhanced strength in her digits, Alice had elected to only apply the minimum pressure on the rest of her body, at least until she could adjust to the improvements she had made to the muscles, ligaments and bones of her forearm and hand.

Or improve the rest of my body. she thought with a smile, but let’s not get too worked up after a single hand.

She forced herself to divert her attention from the hand and eventually took a look around the place, finally noticing the greatly increased numbers of busy spiders continuously scurrying in and out of the caves, stopping only when addressed by one of the four Thinkers currently finalizing the expedition.

I better hurry up and take a nap because I don’t know how long it will be until our departure. I should probably search for a new set of clothes but… Another huge yawn escaped her mouth and her eyes filled with tears of tiredness.

…maybe later.

The girl tucked herself further into the burrow, using as an impromptu blanket the cloak she had been wearing, and curling up underneath it. She let out a sigh of contentment upon feeling the smooth silkiness of the cloth against her skin.

She closed her eyes.

Morpheus had almost brought her into his embrace when the thin barrier keeping her hidden from the rest of the world was ruthlessly ripped away from her, exposing the sleepy biomancer to the breeze and the multi-eyed stares of far too many spiders.

“We are ready to depart, I take it?” she groaned, sending a withering look at Skitter, still holding her cloak between his pedipalps.

Eisor moved forward with a click of assent, pointing at the exit to the cavern with one of her frontal spears.

“Okay, okay. I still haven’t gotten a new set of clothes but I guess it really isn’t going to be an issue when I’m being escorted by a literal textile factory. I’ll still need a weapon though, most of all since I don’t have a weaponized crab prosthesis anymore.”

Her ramblings were immediately answered by the Overseer who, with a few clicks and hisses, sent a couple of spiders scurrying out of the cave.

In the meanwhile, Alice tentatively took a couple of steps and wobbled slightly, her legs a bit numb after a long time without using them. “I don’t suppose you can carry me right?” she dryly chuckled as she moved towards Skitter, taking back her only garment with a tug and wrapping it around her shoulders.

She had just knelt to grab the shadowy core she had left on the ground—still unconnected after the scurvy emergency—when she heard an excited clicking behind her back.

Alice barely had the time to grasp the fist-sized orb before she felt the familiar sensation of newly-extruded silk being wrapped around her skin.

With a startled scream, Alice was suddenly lifted up in the air and loosely enveloped in a thick layer of warm silk. An instant later, she found herself being gently held between the massive pedipalps of Chillushrith who, without another sound, started walking out of the cave.

“It was a joke!” she shrieked, the plinking and clicking of a huge number of spiders her only reply.

After a good fifteen minutes spent trying to squirm and worm her way out, the living luggage finally decided to simply accept her situation and snuggled deeper into the cocoon, letting herself get lulled to sleep by the fluid movement of her carrier.

“Stupid Eleanor…” she muttered before sleep finally took over her weary body.

You have reached Level 19 in the Biomancer of Symbiosis Class.

You tread the path of change. Through trial and error you are becoming something more. You have learned the Mutagenesis skill. Your control and ability to shape yourself have been increased.

I’m really becoming something else, huh?

Alice woke up by the startling sensation of falling down, a feeling that turned out to be true when her cocoon was lowered onto the ground and carefully ripped open by Chillushrith’s massive fangs.

She crawled out on all four, grumbling at the treatment she had received but inwardly feeling much better than before; the out-of-the-blue traveling solution had been unexpectedly comfortable, at least for her extremely tired self.

When she finally stood up on her feet, Alice’s eyes widened at the sight.

She gawked at the huge swarm of Spear Spiders currently focused on setting up camp, building a number of large burrows that would allow them to comfortably rest for the night.

The expedition, composed of probably more than two hundred arachnids, had stopped in the middle of the large tunnel she had passed through in her journey towards the Nest a few weeks before, its hard, black basalt forming a strangely beautiful contrast with the silvery spiderwebs.

Alice heard the plinking sound of metallic legs against the hard stone of the floor and turned around, finding herself staring at the silent form of Skitter. The tiny male had brought over a small block of metal, carrying it between his pedipalps and then lowering it at her feet.

Deciding to forget about his previous annoying behavior, Alice lifted up the coconut-sized chunk of silvery alloy and inspected it thoroughly.

“What do I need to do with this?” she finally asked to the expecting arachnid who, in response, pointed first at one of his spears with another limb, and then at the distant form of Eisor, busy directing the construction of the last temporary lair.

“Ah, I have to ask her to build me a weapon? Sounds good, thank you.” she replied before heading towards the larger female and getting her attention.

Only when Eisor pointedly asked her for the shape she desired, did Alice realize she hadn’t even thought about what weapon she actually wanted to utilize.

What could I use? A sword is immediately out, I don’t know how to use one and I don’t have the time to learn.

A knife would probably be easier but it’s far too short and I’m definitely not interested in getting into the face of a monster to stab him, most of all when they generally have armor, can attack at a distance, or both at the same time.

A spear would probably be the best choice but what if I get it stuck on a low ceiling or narrow tunnel? I guess it’s time to go back to something like my old club, at least it’s easy to use.

Having finally decided, Alice didn’t take chances with uncertain translations and, instead, used her ability to control the luminescence of her body to actually create an image on her bare belly, showing her idea to the expecting Eisor.

After a couple of minutes of careful, if uncomfortable, observation, the spider clicked in assent and gently placed one of her legs on the cold chunk of metal.

As she had seen many times before on the Queen’s exoskeleton, a ripple shook the silvery surface of the Overseer’s carapace, travelling down the limb’s length before sinking into the small block of alloy, which immediately turned almost fluid as it started taking the desired shape.

Many long minutes later, Eisor moved away with a soft hiss of tiredness, leaving on the ground what was basically a medieval mace, a long metal stick with a wide, heavy end from which jutted outwards six sharp and pointed flanges that, in her mind, would increase the damage she dealt to any kind of enemy, be it armored or not.

The other end of the mace ended with an apricot sized pommel; its center had been hollowed out to form a heavy ring of steel she could comfortably tie a rope to.

When she tried swinging the weapon, she found its weight somewhat comfortable, if a bit on the heavier side, but the girl hoped extra weight would be useful if she ever found herself fighting against something more heavily armored than normal.

“I’ll also need a backup knife but until I find another chunk of metal that’s gonna stay in my dreams” she muttered to herself between swings.

When she felt satisfied with her choice, Alice left Eisor to rest and instead went and bothered Ricee and a few of the spiders in her retinue. After a bit of explaining, pointing and showing images on her skin, the young woman managed to obtain the materials she would need for her crafting.

As the swarm slept, she slowly and carefully sewed a short and somewhat ugly dress using some of the silken thread and specifically shaped cloth she had requested. The end result, while a bit misshapen, was not unlike the one she had previously crafted, if only lacking the increased protection and bulk of interwoven chitinous plates.

Content to be finally clothed once more, Alice also crafted a sturdy bandoleer and then retired to rest for the night.

In the Main Nest, a deep bellow of anger, grief and helplessness echoed through air, crystal, metal and stone.

The next day, Alice elected to walk alongside the expedition and use the trip as a way to train up her body which, during her weeks spent in the Nest, had slowly been losing muscle mass.

That gradual loss was something that, with the increased connection to her body granted by her powers, had quickly become almost unbearable for the young woman who could practically feel the changes happening in real time.

Therefore, it was an incredibly sweaty biomancer the one who stumbled out of the wide crevice that led out of the deeper part of the cave system, dropping on her knees on the small stone ledge that overlooked the enormous, rippling expanse of dark waters she had hoped to forget.

Too focused on her trembling legs, pumping lungs and madly-beating heart, the young woman took a lot of time to notice the excited chittering coming from the darkness in front of her.

She barely had the time to brace herself before she felt something slamming painfully against her knees and caught sight of the small form of Ozren, who, while continuously tittering and chattering, was trying to pull her forward with one of her legs.

She winced as she rubbed her bruised legs and sent a trickle of her warmth to empower her regeneration in the injured spots.

“Hello Ozren, what are you doing here? I didn’t see you in the expedition.” she finally stated, staring in confusion at the practically vibrating Thinker that was pulling her towards the start of the dam-bridge, still enshrouded by darkness now that her eyesight skill wasn’t active, her core still unconnected.

A few steps forward and Alice saw a shape emerge from the dark in front of her; she stared at the much-larger, unnamed female spider she had once seen in Ozren’s cave, her mottled carapace melding almost perfectly with the color of the stone they were standing on.

“Hi! I don’t know your name but you were the one with stone magic powers right?” she asked, receiving only silence in response, “Did you want me to see her?” she turned to the smaller one who, in response, kept clicking excitedly and pointing past the unmoving and silent form of her sister and into the darkness behind her.

Even if her skill wasn’t active, the changes Alice had made to her eyes still allowed her a low-light vision much better than the one of a normal human; therefore, she strained to pierce through the veil and immediately began spotting some darker shapes in the blackness in front of her, long and thick shapes that extended forward and disappeared into the void.

Intrigued, the biomancer grasped the orb that she had tucked into a pocket of the bandoleer and quickly reformed her connection to its shadowy magic. She was pretty sure she could use her powers to forgo the need for the core but she thought that the reduced strain of her magical reservoir was still useful.

As soon as everything was back into its place, Alice activated her Eyes of the Eventide Hawk, now able to pierce the veil of darkness and see what lay beyond.

She froze, her eyes moving from detail to detail, unable to believe or even comprehend what she was staring at.

The dam she had crossed, destroyed by Chillushrith’s weight, was no more.

In front of her lay an unimaginable display of earthen modern architecture and two spiders’ pure improvisational skill.

“Is that the Golden Gate Bridge?”

*****

This chapter is officially sponsored by matthew b.! Thank you for your support!