Come morning, Lenore and I were ready and waiting. We had overheard enough from the Travellers to have a reasonably good idea of their plan, namely to launch a direct magical attack on the small valley, hoping that their apparently powerful area-of-effect magic would allow them to carry the day against the spiders. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible plan, at least the part of using area-of-effect magic to diminish the number of spiders they’d face, before charging in and finishing off what their magic left over. Simple, effective and against a normal, beast-like enemy perfectly reasonable.

Against the arachnids they were facing, they’d all die horribly, but that wasn’t really my problem and I certainly wouldn’t want to tell them that they were getting lured into a trap, baited like fish, not even seeing the hook even as they were about to swallow it. Instead, Lenore had found a nicely tall, slightly out-of-the-way tree, with strong branches and dense leaves, where I would be able to hide easily. We had decided that I would be the one outside, with her hidden within her Hallow, simply due to my greater abilities in concealment and the option to dive into the shadows, which should allow me to escape. In addition, there was that shadow-teleport, still unreliable but it had come in clutch before and might allow me to escape from the maw of another beast, if it came to that.

“Now that’s just mean.” Lenore snickered in my mind, as we were studying the skittering trap prepared by the spiders.

“Mh?” I asked, not quite getting what she meant, until I felt her vision overlap with mine, allowing me to see what she meant. Where I saw countless spiders of all sizes, some of them small, barely visible from the distance, despite my good eyesight, others almost the size of my torso, Lenore saw something else entirely. Namely, a whole lot of magic, with a few physical spiders skittering in between. Most of the spiders I could see were actually magical decoys, no more alive than the shadow-clones I had experimented with, just a whole lot more realistic, at least to my untrained eyes. To me, the spiders all looked the same, especially from hundreds of meters away.

Before I could comment on the deception, the Travellers started to appear, carefully making their way through the forest, heavily armoured dwarves interspersed with lightly armored orcs and beastmen. Their martial forces obviously protected a smaller group of ten, all of them clad in light leather-armor or even in soft, yet-sturdy, clothes, similar to what I was wearing.

Making sure that the shadows were completely covering me, making me no more remarkable than any other shadow cast by the surrounding trees, I allowed myself to grin. Lenore and I had made a good choice with the tree we were on, not too close to the area where the Travellers were gathering, not too close to the spider-trap but also not too far away. Just right. If only I had popcorn, it would be even better.

As I was lamenting the lack of snack-food, the Travellers had finished their advance and instantly started their attack, showing that they had planned things out quite well. Thanks to Lenore’s sight, I was able to easily perceive what they were doing, as four of their spell-casters started to glow, harnessing enough magical power to be visible even without special senses. I had to blink a little, to keep their radiance from overwhelming me, not wanting to miss what they were actually doing.

Luckily, the light-show only lasted for a few moments, before their individual powers merged into a single spell-formation, engraved on a scroll they had brought with them. Just from that, I was reasonably impressed, especially when their magic took effect, a magical circle quite similar to one of my runic formations, only a whole lot more complicated, appearing before their lead-caster, mirrored moments later above the spiders’ trap.

The side-effects of their magic almost shook me from my lofty perch, as hundreds of lightning-bolts boomed out of the circle above the spiders’ trap, striking the ground while bone-rattling thunder shook the air. Their magic only lasted for about a minute, but in that time, there was not a single moment without lightning splitting the air. It was an overkill on a scale I could quite appreciate.

After a moment, I understood their reasoning, they had known that the spiders knew about them, they had noticed their magical spying the day before after all, and had decided that if the spiders had set up an ambush, they would simply strike with overwhelming force, to shatter that ambush. Reasonable, if you assumed that what they had seen was that ambush and in that case, it certainly had dealt heavy damage to anyone within the area. Only that there hadn’t been more than a few dozen actual spiders in the area, with magical constructs giving the appearance of a whole lot more.

“Charge!” A shout came from the Travellers and the armoured fighters started their attack, a few staying back to provide protection for the caster, some of whom used their magical abilities to provide cover for their compatriots. It was a thing of beauty, to watch as the hapless fighters managed to run right into the trap that had been laid out. Instead of hacking the few spiders that had somehow survived the magical onslaught to pieces and penetrating deeper into their lair, the fighters got entangled in prepared magic, while illusions settled over them, making the air hazy and things difficult to see.

It was then that the remaining Travellers realised that things had gone off the rails in a very unexpected fashion. They unleashed more magic, likely trying to wash away the haze with blowing wind, while trying to dispel the magic that had settled around their friends.

“Want to help?” Lenore asked, obviously suggesting to help push the remaining Travellers into the trap, allowing me to establish myself as an ally to them.

“We could use our Avatar-form, just in case one of the Travellers realises what is going on.” I considered for a moment, while their actions became more desperate as it became obvious that they had fallen into a trap.

“Sounds good.” she agreed and I felt her mind close in with mine, closing my eyes to focus on the joining.

With a beat of our wings, carrying powerful wind-magic, we left our arboreal perch. Our foes should see us, see us and fear us. They had yet to realise that there was more trouble approaching, their attention focused on the trap woven by the crafty spiders, when we reached out with our magic.

Their Shadows became ours, allowing a direct path into their minds, their inattention becoming their downfall. Their world turned into a dark mirror of reality, isolating each and everyone of them from their companions, making them unable to perceive anything but what we wanted them to perceive. Isolated, alone in the dark.

Screams started to rise, as panic flooded their systems, a wish to escape from the cold darkness that was all around them, a desperate wish to find light, to find warmth and compassion. A futile wish.

Guided by their animal instinct to flee, they started to run, plans forgotten, even their situation barely entering their minds. There was only one wish within them, to get out of the dark. If only they had known that the darkness was within their own minds, they might have found a patch of light.

Alas, they did not and in their panic, they moved exactly as I hoped they would, running right into the webs prepared for them and already containing their compatriots. One they were within the threads of silky webbing, it only took moments for the magic around them to take hold, trapping their minds in another nightmare.

We waited for a few more minutes, our wings and magic allowing us to hover in a respectful distance, until we were certain the Travellers were unable to perceive anything around them.

“The Raven’s Shadow greets the Weavers of Magic. We hope you don’t mind that we gave them a little push.” we called out, letting the wind carry our voice.

For a moment, nothing happened, until we could see magic flow through the webs from a place deeper in their territory, concealed by their powerful illusions. It formed into a magical construct, similar in shape to the humanoid-faced arachnids we had seen before.

“Another visitor? And one who is polite enough to introduce themselves? How interesting.” The construct spoke, the words coming out in a chittering manner, difficult to understand if not for the blessing carried by one of our bloodlines.

“I greet you, Raven’s Shadow. Normally, I would invite you in, for a civilised discussion, alas, the events of the day prevent that. If you would, please return on another day, so we can speak without the troubles of this day hanging over things.`` The construct continued, her voice making clear that there would be no discussion on their stance.

“We shall return in three days.” We agreed, taking enough time to check with the others before returning. “Where there is one now, there will be two then. As we are one, but two.” we left them with a few cryptic words, before our wings carried us away from the area, away from any potential treachery.