The night, and day after, were a lot more interesting than that first day. What annoyed me was that the first truly interesting thing happened when I had been logged out, editing a video-clip, taking a shower and getting some food. I had assumed that after the Travellers went to bed, with one of their number keeping watch, nothing interesting would happen, but as they say, to assume means to make an ass out of you and me. In this case, I made an ass only out of myself, while Lenore noticed a creeping figure, hiding in the trees just like she did, watching the camp.

When looking closer, she realised that the figure was a reasonably large spider, roughly the size of my palm, gigantic for the area but not for a fantasy-world. The only reason she spotted it was that the figure was a purely magical construct, similar to the constructs of Darkness I had used in my own scrying, allowing a distant spell-caster to get a glimpse of the Travellers.

In turn, Lenore repositioned herself to watch the watcher, while also keeping an eye on the Travellers themselves, but from a longer distance. Once I logged back in, we discussed it and agreed that we should keep an eye out for potential magical traps that might be spun around the camp. Neither of us had the desire to be the fly that stuck around in the spider’s parlor and got an invitation for dinner.

With me back in Mundus, Lenore could take a bit of time to sleep, with her hiding in her Hallow while I carefully balanced on a tree-branch, using magic to blend into the shadows around me. I didn’t quite step into the shadows as I had done before, my perception of my surroundings was too muted when I did, but I was on the boundary, ready to fully make the transition, even if that space gave me the creeps. Whenever I entered, I felt as if something was watching me, a lurking presence right behind me, with a cold breath ruffling my feathers. But other than that uncomfortable feeling I hadn’t noticed anything, making me think that it might be a feature of the realm itself.

Combined with the knowledge that there were other realms, some deeper within the Astral River, like the spaces where spirit-beasts like Lenore originally hailed from, others side-by-side with Mundus, only separated by a thin barrier, keeping the horrors of those realms away. The Nethersprites, and to a lesser degree instanced dungeons, were examples of such realms, at least that was my current hypothesis.

With that in mind, there had to be a reason why those realms weren’t easily accessible for everyone, both within the natural laws of Mundus itself and for reasons of game-balance. The easiest way, in my opinion, was to make those realms innately hostile to normal life, with your personal affinity allowing you to endure. There were loopholes, for example the Hallow of a spirit-beast, but other than that, it was a decent mechanism. The Realm of Shadows might simply be the easiest one to access, at least of those I had any chance to access at all. It made me wonder, was there a realm of air or wind that Lenore could access, allowing her to travel at an even faster pace, without the dangers of Mundus being able to get to her? It was a question I would have to ask her, once she was back awake, as it might be an interesting and powerful ability to pursue.

Other than the arachnid watcher, the night passed uneventfully, with the Travellers keeping a sensible watch-schedule, with each of them getting some sleep. During the morning, they had their breakfast, before a group the two male dwarves and the taller, humanoid spellcaster went out into the woods. I thought the spellcaster was a Pan, as the male version of a dryad was called, unless I misremembered what Adra had told me, a few months back.

That left the giantblood and the female dwarf in the camp, giving me an option to attack them, quite possibly killing them in the process. On the other hand, I could also sneak after the three who had left, to check out what they were doing.

After a moment of consideration, I switched places with Lenore and the two of us went after the three scouts, or rather, we went after the arachnoid watcher that went after the three scouts. There was a bit of humor in the situation, that we were now a raven, stalking a spider, stalking a couple of dwarves that were scouting the spiders’ lair. Hopefully, the one laughing last would be me, or at least the one getting away at the end.

For a few minutes, nothing much happened until the spellcaster raised a hand, prompting me to reflexively reach out, covering Lenore in a field of magical concealment, just in case they did something. We were quite far away, but luckily, Lenore’s high Intuition gave her exceptional hearing, allowing her to listen to their words.

“We are being watched!” the Pan remarked, his head swivelling around, while Lenore could see some magic gathering in his hand.

“The same one that Observed me a few days ago?” the dwarf, who I somewhat pegged as the leader of their group, asked, studying the surroundings as well.

“Maybe.” the other replied, when the arachnid construct started to fade away, likely because the caster had abandoned the spell. My evaluation of the Pan went up by a level, when he instantly focused on the space the construct had been in, green-brown magic flowing out of him and filling the area the construct had been in.

The three of them were moving over but other than some residual Astral Power, nothing was left there. Still, it was interesting to watch the spellcaster work, even if I was utterly unable to understand what he was doing. It looked relatively similar to the way Adra had worked when tracking those bandits near Neamov, making me rather wary. I had no idea if he was similarly able to query the trees and if so, if they would tell him about the elf lurking in their crowns. Or if they would recognise Lenore as something more than a bird and had the communication-skills to pass that information along. The whole idea gave me a headache, how was one supposed to hide within the forest, if you had to hide from the trees?!

Tense minutes passed, with both Lenore and me ready to throw our magical prowess into the ring in a bid to escape. It wasn’t what we hoped, it would almost be the worst-case scenario to get found out, but after some time, the Pan simply shook his head, looking at his companions.

“There’s nothing left here. And whoever used that magic, they are skilled and know the forest well, if I hadn’t been looking for magical observation, I likely would have missed it.” the Pan explained, his eyes still scanning the surrounding forest.

“So the spiders will know that we are coming?” the leader-dwarf asked, sounding rather unhappy.

“Probably.” the Pan admitted, when Lenore did something new. For once, it wasn’t me, borrowing her magical eyesight, but she borrowed my perception of magic, allowing her to taste it on the wind and in the air. I was tapped into her senses deeply enough to help with the interpretation and together, we noticed a subtle taste of magic in the air around us. It wasn’t directed, merely the Pan projecting a wide net, trying to find anything that stood out. What made the whole thing ingenious was that his magic was almost the same as the magic of the forest, the difference minute and nigh impossible to notice.

Before he managed to notice that the Arachnid hadn’t been the only intruder, Lenore took to the sky, flying away from the area, still covered by my concealment-magic.

“They are good.” Lenore admitted, as we were flying away.

“True, but we are going up against him on something akin to his homeground. During the night, part of his advantage will vanish, but until then, we need to be careful.” I replied, suggesting that we should take another look at the Arachnid-village, before returning to the Travellers’ Camp during the night, carefully taking another look at them and their preparations.

Hopefully, that would allow us an idea where the action would take place, so that we could get there first and prepare for the show. I really needed to figure out some way to make a popcorn-analogue, if I wanted to really get into the mood.