It took a bit more than a day, but once they found a building on a flat piece of land, cocooned in dark grey webs with no wildlife whatsoever around, they knew they were there. Of course, it would be the building setting off every single red flag the group knew.

  The webland surrounding the building was completely desolate in life, a grey wasteland starkly contrasting the abundant jungle surrounding it. The webs curved up towards the trees surrounding the field, forming the surface of a torus with the building in the middle. The building itself had probably once stood high and mighty, but now it looked more like a pile of rubble, with the webs acting as a supporting structure.

  “This is most definitely it,” Vaetra said, turning to Oris. “Should we go up to a branch for a vantage point?”

  Oris narrowed his eyes, looking up at the webs blocking their way. It almost looked like they were a huge wall meant to keep stuff out, or inside. He said, “Yeah. Anyone know anything about spiders?”

  Lio grinned as Oris grabbed her, clutching her tablet close. “Seriously, can we talk about this for one minute? Look at these webs- this is not some sloppy spider nest the jungle churns out. It’s not just a ball of webs, but a torus! I mean, a perfect torus! The symmetry, the curvature, and the way they connect these webs to the surrounding trees, it’s like nature’s own version of hyperbolic geometry gone wild. It’s as if some ancient civilization of arachnids designed it with precision, using tensile structures that would make modern architects weep with envy. How is it even possible for these strands to hold up a building like that? But this building shows signs of a completely different architecture- Xendarii architecture. This spider, arachnid, whatever, repurposed it and turned it into some sort of trap.”

  She paused, her eyes glinting with a mix of awe and irritation as Oris constructed a boundary around them and quickly jumped up to a vantage point. “I’m telling you, if there’s anything we need to document and get back to our archives, it’s this freakin’ masterpiece of natural engineering. There’s a story here- complex mathematical patterns, hints of lost technology fused with evolution, and a whole lot of mystery. Oh, maybe the arachnid just has an innate sense for this sort of things. We have to document every inch of this. Who knows what secrets these webs hold? Honestly, it’s a goldmine for every nerd out there. And don’t even get me started on the spiders- if they’re behind this, they’re not your everyday creepy crawlies; they’re the architects of old, and they’ve got some serious game. The web strands are huge as well- it must be some truly massive spiders. Monsters! This is your job. We need to investigate this!”

  “Calm down, Lio,” Oris said, chuckling softly. “I just wanted to know if you could tell if it was poisonous.”

  “Actually, you mean if it’s venomous,” Lio corrected him habitually, grabbing onto the trunk of the tree and calling up another document to note down everything. “I don’t know, I don’t think there’s anything in my logs that’s like this... and I couldn’t actually interface with Elari, the alterations from Zavari and his folk- Shit, I forgot to ask for their name- their alterations kind of broke the regular ways to access it.”

  “So you’re useless,” Vaetra grumbled, looking over the web structure.

  Lio snapped off a twig from the branch they were standing on and chucked it into the webland. “Oris, spike that into the ground.”

  Oris did as asked, constructing a boundary around the twig as it flew through the air. Lio wasn’t particularly fit, so he had plenty of time before he multiplied the gravity affecting it, causing it to shatter against the webs on the ground.

  “What now?” Vaetra asked, a smug grin playing across her lips.

  Lio didn’t answer, keeping her eyes glued to the central structure with an excited grin.

  A few moments later, her confidence began to waver before a movement inside the webs caught her eye.

  “Apply some more gravity down there, left then right,” Lio ordered, crouching down to get a better look.

  Oris wanted to say something about how expensive that would be, but decided to play along and apply some weak force to the area indicated after constructing a boundary, wiggling the webs around. “Are you trying to lure it?”

  Before Lio could reply, a deep shudder ran through the web-strands as if something massive stirred beneath their grasp.

  There, amid the shifting geometry of the torus, the monstrous arachnid burst forth. It dashed out like a living shadow, a behemoth of black chitin and glistening, venom-slick limbs. Its eyes- hundreds of glimmering, predatory orbs spread all over its segmented body- flashed with an eerie luminescence as it propelled itself across the webland with an unnatural fluidity. Its eight legs moved rapidly with an unnatural grace, causing its body to move forward with only the slightest change in altitude, like a projectile aimed straight at the disturbance of its web.

  The creature’s legs, thick and segmented like polished obsidian, thumped against the fibrous surface, sending ripples through the grey webbing. With a sudden, fluid motion, it arched its massive, spiny abdomen and leapt forward. It slammed into the webbing Oris had manipulated, sinking its sturdy, dripping fangs into the ground in an attempt to pin down whatever had disturbed its web.

  “Fascinating,” Lio whispered under her breath, careful to not catch the creature’s attention. She made the hand gesture for silence and kept recording every minute detail of the arachnid as it scurried around the torus in search of its target.

  It kept going around the torus until it went back to the rip Oris had made. Bringing down its two front limbs, it started to weave a web between them and using it to repair its lair. It laid down an additional layer before hooking the tip of its claw under it, letting it spring back and testing it.

  Then, just as rapidly as it appeared, it ran back to the middle of the torus and disappeared in the remains of the building.

  Lio turned to Vaetra with a smug grin. “So. It’s highly dextrous, venomous- probably a paralytic venom- and relies mostly on sight. It can make springy or sturdy webs, easily keeping track of what is which for its traversal. It’s an ambush predator, relying on its targets getting stuck in its webs before paralysing them, probably liquidating their insides and sucking them out with its fangs,” Lio explains, humming in thought, “The shape of the web kind of makes that unsuitable though so it might have some symbiotic relationship with another creature- or maybe it sustains itself off of magic and the webs are just for defense! Oh, can we please investigate? Or- Well, if we kill it, could you let me cut it open? Ahh, we don’t have authorisation to hunt it.”

  Oris scowled, grabbing a small fruit from his bag and popping it into his mouth whole. “I thought you could give out authorisations. Isn’t that what all your training is for?”

  “Well, yeah,” she replied, shuffling nervously, “but we don’t have to kill it... at least not until we know that there is a shuttle inside its nest.”

  “Yeah, but we won’t be able to confirm that unless we engage it in a fight,” Vaetra noted. “Maybe Oris and I could distract it while you while you investigate. As long as we get you a path without its webs giving you away, you’re gonna be fine.”

  “Well, that depends on if it is actually intelligent and defending itself with the web structure or if the entire thing is just a result of its territorial instinct,” Lio said.

  Oris thought about her words for a moment before looking at Vaetra and asking, “Do you still carry matches with you? We could try to burn the webs down.”

  “Yeah-“

  “No!” Lio blurted out, shaking her head, “There might be a shuttle in there filled with highly volatile fuel. Actually- oh no. The fuel could have broken down into unusable compounds unless... Hm, I hope they haven’t been using an old shuttle design. If it’s aerodynamic and small enough, do you think we could make it up back to Caldrith’s shard with just your magic?”

  “I don’t know,” Oris replied honestly, looking over the webland in front of them, “but it’s our best chance by far. I doubt that there’s much of a civilization here. I don’t recall seeing any harbours when we were falling and I feel like we’ve been incredibly lucky so far with our encounters. Did you see some of the scars the natives had?”

  “Yeah...” Lio agreed, running her hands through her hair in frustration. “Okay, here’s the plan: you two engage it, from somewhere else and once it’s fighting you, I’ll throw a few rocks into the torus. If it rushes in my direction, I hide and you disengage. If it keeps fighting you, I’ll sneak inside to investigate.”

  Vaetra thought for a moment, her thoughts churning. “Okay. Do you have a knife and do you know how to use it?”

  “Of course I know how to use a knife,” Lio answered.

  “Alright, let’s watch it for a while and see what we can learn,” Oris said, sitting down more comfortably for the wait.

  In the end, they waited a lot for nothing. Barely anything got stuck in the webs, and when it did, the arachnid just webbed them up and then easily brought them back to the center. There were no fights, nothing that could hint at its capabilities as it killed all the prey in a single, decisive strike from ambush.

  After they had deemed the observations a dead end for now, Oris and Vaetra walked along the edge of the monster’s territory in silence, their footfalls silent on the damp ground of the jungle.

  “Don’t be too harsh on Lio,” Oris said after a while, holding out his hand for Vaetra to take. “I know she insulted you, but she’s our coworker. We don’t need to like each other, just get along and work well together.”

  Vaetra scoffed, but took his hand. “Oris, she insulted both of us. She doesn’t fit with us.”

  “We can talk about this later,” Oris replied, urging her to transform. He really didn’t want to talk about it at all, hoping that they would just forget about the subject with time.

  Vaetra complied, transforming and settling into his hand, the cloth straps winding around his arms like tails. “Please be careful.”

  Oris cut through the wall of webs in front of him with one swing, the curved edge of Vaetra making quick work of the webs. He stomps his boots into the mud, covering them thoroughly as he took a step forward onto the webs. The mud served its purpose, flaking off to keep the sticky threads from stopping him- at least for the first few steps. As he walked, he kept Vaetra readied, cutting through the webs behind him.

  “Here it comes,” Oris announced, readying Vaetra with a flourish.

  Combat, proper one this time. He steadied his breath, straining his spatial sense to its max as he saw the spider monster emerge from its lair. The layers of web below him were dangerous, a multi-layered menace that could cost him his life. He really wanted to just burn it all down, but he’d probably need to be more selective about it. If he blew up their only escape from this island, he’d never hear the end of this.

  The webs below him slowly caved downwards as he kept cutting a groove through its terrain. He stopped the moment he felt his feet stick even slightly and grinned up at the approaching monster.

  He would need to be careful. Taking another step back and finding solid ground beneath his feet as he stepped into the cut he had made earlier. “Oh, it’s pretty big...” he said out loud as it kept looking bigger and bigger with each moment it rushed closer.

  “It just has long legs,” Vaetra tried to reassure him.

  Oris tightened his grip on Vaetra as the behemoth loomed closer, its shadow sprawling over the torn webs like a dark omen. The creature’s every movement was a blend of calculated precision and raw instinct. Its segmented legs moved in synchronous arcs, each step sending tremors through the desolate lattice beneath it. He inhaled deeply, the humid air heavy with the tang of ancient decay and something sharper- an undercurrent of predator’s pheromones that electrified his nerves like a warning for his core.

  He would need to be careful. If he went overboard immediately and tried to kill it with no success, he would be unable to defend himself for any follow-up. He needed to test its defenses and see how resilient it was. From what Lio had said, this should be easier than he expected. It was an ambush predator that relied on its venom and webs.

  He just needed to avoid ever getting hit, easy.

  It knew that he wasn’t restrained by its threads, but still immediately went for the killing blow. Shooting forward like a bullet, it tried to spear him with its fangs.

  He ducked under the blow, wanting to slide under its carapace clad body. He stumbled over the web covered ground but managed to catch himself and turn his stumble into a roll. Swinging Vaetra with a flourish, he used their momentum to cut through the surrounding webs and stop just below its segmented body.

  Up close, they looked a lot more like blunt instruments than something used to pierce and inject its venom. They were still dripping with something, so it was probably a contact venom, or maybe it had some other way of administering it. But why would a spider be salivating like that?

  It tried to strike him the moment he stopped below it, punching with its two front legs, alternating and scurrying around to try to get in a favourable position. Its two front legs were gnarled at the top, curling in on themselves like hooks.

  He wove between the legs, trying to deflect its strikes with the curve of her blade and cut through its carapace in the same motion. Vaetra’s curved blade skittered over the monster’s carapace, catching momentarily before gliding off.

  “Shit,” Oris cursed under his breath as Vaetras blade caught on the spider’s hooked leg, pulling him towards its maw. He desperately pulled at Vaetra’s handle, trying to free her from its leg. As his breath caught in his throat, he stemmed his feet into the muddy ground to try to gain traction.

  He couldn’t spare the time to construct a boundary before it pulled him into its maw, but he needed to do something or he’d find out firsthand if that venom was contact based.

  The space around him bulged around him, gravity lessening on him as he pushed off of the ground. His power strained as the space pushed back with no boundary to contain its effect. The monster stumbled slightly as Oris shot past its maw, venom dripping onto his right arm.

  Space bounced back the moment he passed its jaw, a probing strike glancing off of the monster’s head as he spun around midair. He turned back to the monster, readying Vaetra for a parry and holding her in front of him as his momentum carried him further.

  The moment his feet touched the webbed ground, Oris realised his mistake. Despite that, he tried to take a step back, only for his feet to stick to the web and cause him to crumble backwards onto the webs.

  Panic spiked through them as the monster launched itself forward to follow him. It flung itself forward with reckless abandon, trying to finish the fight as quickly as possible now that its ambush had failed.

  Cutting through the webs surrounding him with a twist of Vaetra, he stumbled to his feet and kept spinning Vaetra while swapping her between his hands to cut through the webs in front of him, staggering through the falling web strands to get back to the area he had cleared earlier. A few steps into his cutting spree, Vaetra snagged on one of the heavy strands, Oris’s left arm jerking as he kept steady.

  Sticky webs covered his legs and back, slowing him down as the monster turned behind him, ready for another exchange of blows.

  Meanwhile, Lio was running over the webs in a full sprint in the distance.

  She held her canteen ready, stopping and pouring more of her scotch onto her boots the moment she felt the webs stick. It hurt to use her liquor like that, but it broke down the sticky coating of the webs and acted as a barrier for what remained.

  It was a shame that she only realised it after Oris and Vaetra had already left, but she also only had the one canteen.

  She kept frantically looking around, searching for any sign of a shuttle within the desolate webland as she made her way to the center. If it was anything like what she thought the shuttles to be like, it would need to be big with even bigger wings, something that could support its own weight and that of its passengers. Additionally, there’s the problem of fuel no one had managed to completely figure out yet: The more fuel you stock up for the flight, the more fuel you need to use to move that mass.

  It’s a fascinating problem, but most archivists Lio had talked to could only think of making up more efficient fuels instead of decreasing fuel consumption. Oh, if they got a shuttle, Oris could probably drastically reduce their fuel usage with his magic. She quickly made a note of that idea.

  The center of the torus loomed ever closer as she looked around with not a single hint of where the shuttle could be. If this used to be some sort of launch place for the shuttle, it would make sense for one to be in the middle of the area.

  She needed to venture into the nest of it. If her entering the weblands didn’t cause it to attack her, that definitely would.

  The structure in the center had no visible entrance Lio could use and the monster exited from the top so she would have to make her own entrance. She could do that. It was just web that she could cut through with her knife.

  She slowed down as she approached the tower of web and rubble, clutching her knife tightly. Oris and Vaetra were relying on her to get intel and make a decision.

  This was her job.

  Grabbing her knife, she slashed at the webs stretched across the walls of rubble. Her knife cut through two strings of web before stopping at the third, not even nicking the silk. She swung again, and again, cutting through the webs inch by inch to get inside. Her blade sliced through shimmering filaments.

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  Lio grunted with the effort, sweat prickling at the back of her neck as she worked through the fibrous mess. Each strand seemed more resistant than the last, some almost humming under her blade like drawn wires. She paused for a moment as the breach was big enough for her to squeeze through, panting, eyes flicking up the height of the collapsed tower.

  She looked back over her shoulder and saw the form of the arachnid monster dancing around in the distance, preoccupied with Oris and Vaetra. She wondered how they dealt with the webs, but simply turned back around with a determined expression.

  She stepped into the spider’s nest.

  Inside, the air was stale and thick, filled with the scent of rot and decay. Every breath Lio took tasted faintly of iron and mildew, like a damp basement where old things went to die. The webbing inside was denser- less like strands and more like translucent curtains strung between broken machinery and cracked stone. It caught the light filtering through fissures in the structure, casting ghostly reflections in every direction.

  Lio crouched low as she moved deeper in, careful not to touch anything she didn’t have to. The webs were everywhere- layered, crisscrossed, sagging under their own weight. Her boots stuck with each step, the scotch slowly losing its edge. She’d have to ration her remaining splashes, just enough to keep her moving.

  She passed what looked like the frame of an old launch console, half-swallowed by the silk. Its metal surface was warped from time, dented from impacts. A shattered viewport revealed nothing but more web beyond it. She couldn’t tell if this was once a control room or just where the monster dragged its prey.

  She took another cautious step forward- and froze.

  Something shifted in the corner of her eye. Not movement exactly, but a kind of pressure in the air, like the nest exhaled. Lio spun toward the sound, blade ready, but saw only a cocoon- massive, man-shaped, suspended upside-down and gently turning in the still air.

  She inched closer.

  The cocoon was slick with a dull sheen, fibrous threads knotted tight. Something inside shifted, subtle but unmistakable. A body. A person. She swallowed hard, reaching out to brush the webbing with her knife. The cocoon twitched again. Lio jerked back.

  Still alive.

  She exhaled slowly, eyes scanning the nest again. More cocoons, smaller, clustered along the walls like grim trophies. Maybe scavengers. Maybe settlers. Maybe just unlucky. She didn’t have time to check them all, and she doubted any would still be breathing.

  The central tower opened up into what must have once been a loading bay- wide, circular, with the remains of massive clamps embedded in the floor. She recognized the layout from old shuttle schematics she’d pored over in the archives. This was it. The shuttle had to have launched from here- or it still was here, buried in silk and rot.

  The edge of a wing, curved and carbon-black, barely visible beneath a thick veil of webbing. Her pulse kicked up. She stepped forward quickly, then stopped again, eyes scanning above. This thing- this shuttle- was huge. Bigger than she’d imagined. If it still had a working core, even a fraction of one, they could fly. They could leave.

  But something was wrong.

  It didn’t matter. She could give Oris the authorisation now, tell him that he could kill it.

  Then she saw it, a movement in the corner of her eye, something small. A spider the size of her head scuttling over the shuttle, followed by four identical ones.

  There was no need for Lio to fight them so she turned and ran back outside. The moment she was outside, she just dumped the rest of her scotch onto her boots and started sprinting towards where she saw Oris fight.

  “Kill it! You’ve got permission to kill it!” she yelled, waving her arms frantically.

  Oris couldn’t hear her. She wasn’t close enough.

  Lio kept running, lungs burning, scotch-stained boots slapping against the webbed ground. She shouted again, louder this time. “Kill it, Oris! Kill the damned thing!”

  Still nothing. She didn’t want to turn around and check if the hatchlings were following her.

  Lio reached into her jacket, yanked free the flare. She’d been saving it, one of three, but it wasn’t doing any good sitting in her pocket. She snapped the cap, bit off the tab with shaking teeth, and held it high. A hiss. A burst of red fire. She waved it over her head, smoke trailing behind.

  Oris turned.

  His eyes locked on hers. She didn’t speak- just pointed, jabbing a finger toward the nest, then made a slashing motion across her throat. That needed to bring the message across!

  Permission granted.

  And then the last of the scotch on her boots evaporated, causing her foot to stick to the webs. She fell down, sticking to the webs like a fly with her face against the ground.

  Oris saw the flare- red smoke curling in the air like a blood trail- and the signal that followed left no room for doubt.

  He dodged the next strike from the monster, running around the ever increasing area Oris was clearing of webs. His lungs were burning, each breath causing his chest to ache even more.

  Throughout the entire time, he hadn’t managed to scratch its carapace. It was still just as dangerous as when they started fighting it. They couldn’t use spatial distortions to kill it like he had done with the embermaw, because they’d need to get Vaetra to pierce its hide first.

  “Any ideas?” Oris panted, ducking another swing of its legs.

  Vaetras voice rang out in his head, “Do you think you could shape a spatial distortion along my blade to cut through it? It’ll cut right through the space alongside its legs.”

  “I have no idea,” he replied, taking a step back as the monster stopped attacking. At this point, his left arm was hanging limply by his side. “...What’s it doing?”

  It took a step back, staring down at Oris as he caught his breath. Its head bowed low, three of its many eyes staring at him. Its mandibles clicked together repeatedly before it punched its two front legs together, spanning a web between the two limbs and slamming it down on the ground across the previously cleared area.

  Oris’s heart hammered in his chest as the monster’s rapt gaze bore into him. The creature’s mandibles clacked ominously while it stretched that newly formed web. It was preparing something, but he didn’t know what.

  Keeping an eye on the monster, he tried to follow Vaetras suggestion. He constructed a spatial boundary across Vaetras edge, making it into a thin line just thick enough to cut through the material and let Vaetras blade spread the enemy apart to reach further.

  “If I keep it close to the base of the blade, can you keep it steady enough to not hurt you while I swing?” Oris asked, trying to steady the boundary, but not shattering the space inside yet. “I can’t swing and move the tear.”

  “I think so. Yeah. We won’t be able to keep it up for long, though,” she replied, her voice ringing out in his head as she took over control of the boundary.

  The monster glared down at Oris, its many eyes scanning everywhere around itself while it kept layering webs around it. It repaired the area around them that Oris had cleared.

  Oris let it, going through the motions of redrawing the boundary once and replacing it before taking a step forward. “Spider!”

  It stopped its repairs as he stepped forward and stared at him, something intelligent gleaming in its many eyes as it kept surveying the entire area. It slowly stepped forward, mirroring Oris movement and rearing up on its hind legs.

  As it lifted its front legs slowly, continuing to stare directly at Oris, it shuffled forward. It crashed forwards, tossing its entire body at Oris in an attempt to catch him off-guard.

  He jumped aside and swung Vaetra in a large arch, his eyes gaining a tint of golden as he twisted the boundary along her edge to break the space apart as cheap as possible. With the spatial tear in front of the blade, Vaetra cut through the monsters leg with ease.

  The monster shrieked in pain, reeling back and tearing webs off of the ground as it staggered away from Oris. It shot a glob of webs over its stump, the bluish blood dripping down before it could bandage the wound properly.

  “Oh shit, we did it,” Oris laughed out, glancing at the spatial tear they cut into space. He clamped the boundary along Vaetras edge closed, not wanting to hurt her. He was almost tapped on magic as well.

  The monster didn’t give Oris a chance to follow up his attack and immediately fled. It stopped avoiding the sticky threads, bulldozing through them on its way back to the center. On its way to the center, it noticed Lio and changed course.

  Vaetras voice rung out through Oris’s head, “It’s going for Lio. Run!”

  Immediately running after it, Oris tried to step only on the already cleared areas, but couldn’t help as more and more threads stuck to his legs and slowed him down.

  He had enough magic left in him for maybe one more spatial tear cut or a teleport, but not both. The monster was faster than him, his legs protesting with every step he took, but he needed to catch up or Lio would be done for.

  Constructing a boundary around himself, he bent space and reduced the gravity affecting him. Running and running, he took three huge steps before jumping with all his might. With the reduced gravity, he shot through the air like a cannonball and bent gravity to his whims to accelerate himself. He kept just enough magic for a spatial tear.

  The monsters eyes widened as it saw Oris shoot at its back. Vaetra held below him in preparation for a strike with all his momentum. It dodged to the side, preparing itself to smack him out of the air like an unruly fly.

  “I’m sorry, Vaetra,” he muttered.

  Before she could ask him what he meant, he constructed a boundary around them and teleported himself in front of its head, slamming Vaetra into its eye with all his speed and might. A crack run up Vaetras shaft, causing her cry to ring out through Oris’s mind.

  Her blade penetrated up to the shaft, causing the monster to reel back in pain as Oris slammed onto its back, gripping Vaetras shaft as tight as possible to not let go. He felt his hands grow slick with sweat as the monster bucked beneath him, trying to toss him off as Vaetras blade stirred up its insides.

  The monster lifted one of its legs and twisted it, slamming it down on Oris to try to get him off. He held on, so it did it again, and again.

  At the fourth strike, Vaetra couldn’t hold her weapon form anymore. She transformed back into a human, her hand stuck in the wound and blood pouring down her leg. “Fuck!”

  Oris fell, bouncing on the webbed ground once before sticking.

  The monster didn’t even glance at Oris, but ran towards Lio. It fled to safe food as Vaetra clung on for dear life. The rough edge of the carapace cut into the palm of her hand, her grasp on what little remains of their magic slipping away with each staggering step of the monster.

  She grit her teeth and brought up her second arm up to reach into the wound. Grabbing whatever she could get, she yanked it out and tossed it aside, which only got the monster more angry.

  It brought up its leg to try to scratch Vaetra off of itself, but found its front leg too short to reach her. With a last stumbling step, it crashed forward in a wave of chitin and blood. Its momentum carrying its bulk forward through the layers of web until it slid to a close next to Lio.

  Vaetra fell from its bulk, tumbling through the webs until she landed atop Lio, her and the spiders blood soaked into her clothes.

  “Vaetra? Please say that’s you,” Lio whined, struggling in the webs.

  Vaetra didn’t immediately answer, instead sitting up on Lios lower back and looking at the twitching corpse of the monster. “Yeah, we did it... I’m just gonna catch my breath, then free you two.”

  “Heh, Oris got stuck?” Lio asked, an unsteady chuckle bubbling from her throat.

  Vaetra lightly slapped the back of Lios head, but a smile spread across her face, anyway. “We saved your life. Did you find a shuttle?”

  “Oh yeah, big one,” Lio answered, feeling Vaetras blood run down her back. “But there are hatchlings inside. I counted... three, I think. Can you two deal with them?”

  “I’m pretty sure Oris broke some bones and can’t use his left arm. My leg hurts a lot and I need my arm bandaged,” Vaetra listed, tapping Lios neck just above where the Xendarii implants were located. “Where are your bandages, backpack?”

  Lio nodded and wiggled the knife in her hand, still struggling against the webs. “Yeah, but cut me free first please. I’m not hurt at all. I can take the lead on those hatchlings with you two just supporting me. Afterwards, you two can rest inside while I- uhm, how do others put it again?- While I nerd out.”

  “They have a contact toxin that numbs or paralyses you, you can’t do that,” Vaetra replied, grabbing the knife with her healthy hand and starting to work on the webs sticking to Lio. “... do archivists get any combat training at all?”

  “Do Incarnates?” Lio retorted.

  Chuckling, Vaetra kept cutting Lio free. “Not traditional training. It’s more of a freeform exploration of how our magic works, then a bunch of drills. I can’t wield a weapon. I am one- at least that’s how I was taught.”

  Lio stayed silent and Vaetra took that as a sign to continue, “It was always ‘That’s how you channel your wielders magic.’ or ‘This is what you need to do to serve them better.’ It was annoying, but I was basically a child so I believed everything they told me. Then Oris just... treated me like a person consistently, even with others around...”

  Vaetra stopped as she realised she had been ranting, cutting the last of the webs and finally freeing Lio.

  “I’m sorry...” Lio murmured as she sat up, not trusting herself to look Vaetra in the face. She pulled out the bandages and unrolled a stretch.

  Vaetra scoffed, standing up and turning towards where Oris was still struggling in the webs, but not leaving yet. “You didn’t know any better.”

  Without waiting for her reply, Vaetra walked away from Lio and to Oris. While the spider monster tore down the majority of the webs leading to him, she still had to cut through some to get to him.

  “You alright?” Oris immediately asked, grabbing her bloody arm with his right one. He carefully twisted her arm to investigate it, his gaze softening as he noticed the twitching corpse in the background. “This is from the spatial tear move, is it?”

  Vaetra knelt down next to him with a nod. “Yeah... Lio said there are some hatchlings in the center, but she can deal with them. We’ll get us bandaged up and then we’ll rest inside. She really wants to see that shuttle.”

  “I think it broke my leg. You remember how to do a splint?” He asked, letting go of her arm and trying to stand up.

  Vaetra grabbed his arm again and gently forced him down. She put one hand on his damaged thigh, her lips stretched in a dangerously thin smile that did not quite reach her eyes. “Stay down, darling,” she said, her voice strained.

  “I’m fine, Vaetra,” he insisted, the adrenaline still wearing off and numbing his pain. All he could smell was blood and mud.

  She exhaled slowly, her eyes narrowing as she swept her gaze over the ruined battlefield. The broken carcass of the monster lay in twisted stillness, its malicious momentum now spent. A short, ragged laugh cut through the silence- a humor both bitter and fleeting as she half-smiled at him. “You always did exaggerate, darling, but don’t- don’t try to hide the extent of your injuries. This isn’t training.”

  Lio walked over, her backpack now hanging low on one shoulder. “Come on, guys. It looks like its going to rain soon. I have no idea how weather works on this island and I’d like to get inside the nest before it does. The hatchlings are gonna take some time to clear out,” she said, still trying to wipe the remaining webs from her chest but failing miserably.

  Vaetra glanced around the bloodied webbed battlefield, eyes sharp and practiced even as exhaustion dragged at her limbs. The shuttle wasn’t far. Hatchlings were restless. They had to move. “Hold still. I’m making you a splint.“ she said, voice tight.

  Oris huffed through clenched teeth. “With what?”

  Vaetra didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes locked on a snapped length of chitin—one of the monster’s cracked leg segments, still glossy and jagged, just thick enough to brace a thigh. She crawled over, careful not to jostle her wounded leg too much, and snapped the chitin again against a stone, breaking off a workable length.

  She returned with two of them. Not perfect. Not clean. But strong.

  “Monsters are good for something,” she muttered, sliding one piece beneath Oris’s thigh and pressing the other against the outside. “Stay still. This’ll hurt.”

  “Everything already hurts,” he said, but he didn’t move.

  She fished a torn strip of cloth from her sleeve, soaked with half-dried blood but intact, and began binding the splint into place. Her hands worked fast—efficient, tight knots crisscrossed over the crude supports. The chitin bit slightly into his skin, but she needed it firm. If it shifted mid-fight, it’d do more harm than good.

  “That’ll hold until we get inside,” she said, sitting back and wiping her bloody hands on her already-ruined tunic. “Don’t put weight on it unless something tries to eat you. And even then, maybe just let it chew a bit first.”

  Oris managed a pained laugh. “How do you know how to make a stint? You weren’t there for any of the first-aid courses.”

  “I was there. I snuck inside,” she admitted, pulling Oris up and wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

  Lio chuckled and readjusted her grip on the knife. “Okay, Vaetra. You can never complain about me again just because I get excited about stuff. Let’s get you two to the edge of the nest and then I can... do your job for once.”

  The rain began its relentless assault just as they made for the edge of the nest, the falling droplets glistening on ruined webs and bloodied skin.

  Vaetra and Oris stopped at the edge of the nest as Lio continued inside, each step measured as she tried to find the hatchlings that remained.

  One jumped from the shadows, but Lio managed to move her knife into the arc of its jump and made it impale itself. Its legs furled around her hand as its body twitched with its last breaths, blood pumping through its body and down Lios hand.

  “Wow, these are so squishy!” she exclaimed, grabbing the young hatchling and squeezing. She watched the blue blood spurt out before tossing it aside. “Do you have enough magic to lock down one of these? I want to study them.”

  “We’re not keeping a monster that almost killed two of us as a pet for you to study,” Oris said, taking another step inside the nest and sliding down one of the rubble pieces next to the entry Lio had made earlier.

  Vaetra helped Oris down, sitting in front of him with her backup dagger out and ready. “We’re also keeping the magic for emergencies. Please just take care of them and don’t take any unnecessary risks.”

  Lio continued skulking forward, her head on a swivel for any hatchlings attacking her. “Did you two ever get taught how to secure areas?”

  Vaetra’s eyes flicked toward Oris as the rain intensified, her own thoughts slowing down as she rested. Oris didn’t answer, so she did in his stead. “Yes. The most important part is to not blab on about how you want to capture and study the monsters in a room where every word echoes around.”

  “I’m sure you had similar training, but kept your hat on and didn’t listen to a word that was said,” Oris added, keeping his vigilance and sweeping his gaze across the room. “Right side, low.”

  Lio whipped around at his command and stepped forward, lifting her boot and stomping down on the hatchling that tried to sneak up on her. “Thanks. You’re still mean.”

  She kept walking around, trying not to let her gaze wander over the buried shuttle. There were still hatchlings around, she was sure of that, but she didn’t know how many. She couldn’t get distracted, no matter how tempting it was.

  “In front, atop the piece of rubble,” Vaetra called out.

  Lio quickly followed Vaetras shoutout, dashing forward and stabbing the hatchling before turning around and slicing at a strand she had noticed moving out of the corner of her eye. Another hatchling fell from the suddenly loosened strand and splattered against the ground like a ripe fruit. “Oh fuck,” Lio swore, taking a step back from it.

  Lio’s curse blended with the sizzle of rain as another hatchling scuttled from beneath a collapsed web, its movements both frantic and oddly graceful. Vaetra’s gaze snapped in its direction. “Steady- don’t let them catch you off guard,” she barked.

  “O-Okay!” Lio returned, staggering backwards to make some distance between herself and the newly approaching Hatchling.

  Lio’s knife met its mark again as she steadied herself, the rain blurring the chaotic battlefield into streaks of dark, bleeding shadows. Each deliberate swing was punctuated by splatters of blue blood and errant droplets of rain. She moved with both precision and reluctant urgency- her eyes flickered, almost imperceptibly, toward the distant hulking form of the Xendarii shuttle. Tucked beneath a collapsed web of ancient fibers and twisted metal, it kept distracting her. She wanted to just start investigating it and tear it apart, but they needed it.

  She knew she wasn’t as strong as Oris or Vaetra, but she could handle a knife. She was precise and could keep her thoughts steady- it was a prerequisite to becoming an archivist after all.

  Lio’s heartbeat quickened as each new hatchling fell to her blade, yet her focus wavered every time her eyes caught the hulking shadow of the Xendarii shuttle.

  Steadying her grip on the knife, Lio reminded herself that distraction was a luxury she couldn’t afford. Still, fragments of her mind wandered- wondering what secrets the shuttle might hold, and whether its battered hull concealed tools, weapons, or just spoiled crates of food. At this point, the food would be more mold than anything else, though.

  As she kept going, clearing hatchling after hatchling with precision but she couldn’t dodge everything. A glancing cut from a hatchlings leg here, its venom dripping on her legs or arms, or even just the momentum of their jumps making their corpses slam into her body. It all added up until she staggered back to Oris and Vaetra.

  “Done... I think...” she panted, just sitting down on the ground in front of Oris and Vaetra. “Did you notice how dry the inside is? Look where all the rain is going.”

  “Is this really what you want to talk about after clearing a nest of hatchlings?” Oris asked, chuckling softly as he reached over to grab some bandages. He shuffled forward to start bandaging Vaetras arm now that the nest was cleared.

  Lio leaned back, stemming her hand against the ground and lowering herself onto her back. “We gotta talk about something... and I am not... healthy enough to actually start to explore the shuttle itself. It looks functional though- kind of. The webs are constructed so that almost all of the rain collects in the hole at the back. It made a pond.”

  “Lio,” Oris said.

  “Yeah?”

  Oris sighed. “Please shut up for just a few minutes.”