The weave of magic that covered the hillside before us was a work of art, there were no two ways about it. It made me want to go back to Neyto, simply to sit there for a year or five, slowly and carefully unravelling what the Grandmother had crafted, just to see how her work looked. Back then, I had been too weak to even begin comprehending what she had done and had been blinded by the sheer power of her work. Maybe now, I would be able to actually see what she had done, as I could here.

Looking past that first layer of magic was surprisingly simple, accomplished within just a quarter of an hour, a careful application of Darkness-Magic around us allowed the two of us to shield ourselves from the effect the magic had on our senses. In many ways, it was similar to the way Olivia had explained her Sanctuary-magic, a spell that kept people from noticing you, only that the Sanctuary was more complex, fooling the mind itself, not just the senses. The magic here merely, if you could call it that, prevented people from seeing, hearing and smelling what was hidden beneath, other senses would still be able to detect the deception. Which was why Lenore’s special, magical sight had only been muffled, at least that was the consensus between us.

Once we managed to shield ourselves, a little more became visible, a fascinating sight in its own right. The magic we had noticed before wasn’t just floating in the air, untethered from the physical plane, instead, it was integrated into the physical, just like it was in the defenses of Neamov and Kolyug. But where those places had anchored their magic in stone, here the magic was anchored in a web, countless wispy strands of silk, all filled with delicate magic, woven together into a frighteningly beautiful tapestry.

Now that we were able to look past the magic that concealed the area, we were able to make out the inhabitants. I felt myself recoil for a moment, their figures too alien for me, reminiscent of the Ankhegs we had fought further to the north, in the windswept plains, only instead of insectoid, these creatures were arachnoid in nature.

My first instinct was to retreat, to flee away from the monsters, or maybe to create a storm of jagged Ice, ripping them to shreds with razor-sharp icicles. But, at the same time, these creatures were almost certainly responsible for the weave of magic that filled me with awe.

Calming myself, I looked at the creatures objectively, the Legend of Arachne instantly coming to mind. Similar to centaurs, their bodies had two relatively distinct parts to them. One looked almost human, a torso that was parallel to the ground, carried by a front-pair of legs, coming out of their shoulder-area, with a pair of slender, almost human, arms set a little further back. They didn’t quite reach the ground when dangling, making me think that the arms, and hands at their end, were for fine manipulation and maybe for magic. Behind the arms, protruding from the torso, were three more pairs of long, slender legs, keeping the torso off the ground. Where a human would have a set of hip-joints, these creatures had something similar, behind the last set of legs, their torso narrowed before bulging out in a large, roundish abdomen.

“Have you ever seen something like those creatures?” Lenore asked, both horrified but fascinated.

“No.” I replied, before continuing, pushing down my horror as I spoke. “But I’ve heard tales about creatures that might look like them. You know how stories are, so I can’t be sure they are what I’ve heard about, and the stories don’t agree anyway, but I think we are looking at Arachne.” I explained, hoping that the developers had used that particular myth, while also hoping that the beings we were looking at wouldn’t notice us. Studying from a distance, while they hopefully had no idea we were here, was one thing, but I wasn’t sure I would be brave enough to walk amongst them, assuming they wouldn’t attack on sight.

What made the creatures even creepier than their arachnoid parts was the fact that the other parts were obviously human, or at least humanoid. I wasn’t close enough to see if they had the grainy skin I had seen on Adra, if they had pointy ears like an elf and even the question of their average size, possibly hinting at some sort of giantblood was moot, due to their arachnoid features. But those parts were what truly made them grotesque to my eyes.

At the top of their torsos, between the two front-legs, was a head, apparently human and, when looked at in isolation, objectively beautiful. Long, silky hair, finely chiseled features, a little reminiscent of the effect the switch from human to elf had during my character-creation, their facial features simply fit together very well.

And it wasn’t only their faces, while their torsos were dressed in clothing adapted to fit their strange frames, even from a distance it was obvious that they had secondary female characteristics of mammals, to an extent that would make me worry for their backs, if they were humanoid.

Yet, for all their grotesque appearance, their actions didn’t match. If you heard about a town full of monsters, there would always be an image of some sort of vicious behaviour, maybe that they were keeping prisoners to be used as sacrifices or something like that, but not the picture of mundanity Lenore and I could observe. They just walked around, oftentimes vanishing from view when they reached different parts of the magical weave we had yet to see through but there was nothing monstrous about them, other than their bodies.

Utterly boring.

“Let’s get going.” Lenore suggested, after we had watched for most of the day. I agreed, studying the magical weave had been interesting but I wasn’t willing to risk actually moving into the area to see more, let alone make contact with the arachnoid creatures, just in case they turned out to be hostile.

Taking to the air, we carefully made our way away from the area, noticing that there were a few more, well hidden, webs filled with magic spun between the trees below, forming what I recognized as an alarm-spell, likely set to warn the caster of intruders. Unless you were incredibly cautious, sneaking up on the area was nigh impossible, and even if you were cautious, you’d need quite a bit of magical prowess to circumvent the alarms without triggering them.

It made me wonder, was it worth it to guide the others to this place, maybe to try finding out what the arachnoids were up to, possibly even make contact in some relatively secure manner? Were they the monsters their appearance suggested or was there more to them, as their behaviour indicated? Normally, the answer would be obvious but was the same true on Mundus? That, I didn’t know.

“We should hurry, the others will start moving tomorrow if everything goes as planned.” I told Lenore, reminding her that we were some five days ahead, if travelling normally, only one if we used magic to push her flight-speed to the maximum.

With her agreement, I mentally embraced her, letting my Blood Magic soak into her body, strengthening her wings, while her Wind Magic swirled around her form, pushing us forward with the force of a gale. We must have made for an impressive sight, deep-red magic forming glowing runes on black feathers while leaving a trail of azure light, only that we made sure to be high enough not to be easily noticeable from the ground. It was almost a shame, really.

By the time we stopped, the sun had set and both of us were exhausted. Travelling like we did was the fastest way known to either of us, but it came with the massive draw-back of exhaustion and was limited to the two of us.

Instead of trying to track down a suitable spot on the ground, and with no suitable cliff-face in sight, the easiest way to find a secure place to rest was to use one of the countless trees. After landing in one of the tree-crowns, Lenore and I switched places, allowing her to rest her aching wings in her Hallow, while I had to figure out the best way to sleep in the green, leafy shelter high above ground. Luckily, Ice-Magic was an incredibly useful tool, allowing me to create a hanging bed, almost like a solid hammock, and anchoring the contraption to the trunk of the tree. While it wasn’t my throne, it was both cool and secure, two things I valued a great deal, especially after the magically exhausting travel of the last few hours.

Letting out a yawn, I decided to try checking up on Sigmir again, before getting some shut-eye and meeting the others during the next day.