Selia Specter felt like a silly name, but it was starting to grow on her. She preferred it far more than the ugly last name she had worn while registered with her last ludus. Even though she insisted that Murphy was a fake addition, it was the only way they’d let her stay. The only legal documents she possessed contained them, after all. Now, the old name was gone, and she couldn’t be happier. Her life almost felt perfect. Selia loved her time in the Control World. Her work with the Weave was fulfilling. She had learned a lot over the past several months and even made a few excellent friends.

  Just missing the one piece.

  The Broodmother, the Weave’s leader on Ashe Fall, had stuck Selia with one frustrating limitation on the day of her arrival. She wasn’t allowed to see Nil. The half-woman-half-spider woman—it was how she portrayed herself, but Selia suspected illusion magic—believed that romance, love, and relationships were silly obstacles that got in the way of the work that most mattered.

  “Nothing takes priority over maintaining the eternal web,” the blind old bat would bark whenever Selia brought up meeting Nil between missions. All of her eight eyes stared into the distance, unfocused and not looking at anything in particular. “Do you understand, girl? Your little plaything will still be around when your time here is done. For now, don’t let your base urges get in the way of your work.”

  It was a frustrating limitation. Selia’s ‘sisters’ and superiors kept a strict eye on her and kept her in line. She believed it was a part of her training. It took Selia almost the full year before she became proficient enough with her ability, techniques, and general sneaking skills before she was good enough to get away from everyone’s watchful eye. The night felt worth any punishment she’d face for getting caught. It wasn’t just about missing Nil. Her head felt clearer. She felt whole.

  Now, it was time to get back to work. Selia already had her next mission, and it was supposed to begin fifteen minutes before she left Nil’s quarters. She didn’t regret her tardiness and didn’t have far to go. Her mission involved infiltrating Onyx Dragon Mountain, and she had already completed the first step.

  It was a desirable job, and only the best new spiderlings got the chance to attempt it. Selia proved herself by regularly bypassing the mountain’s wards and collecting little tokens from the forge and manors. It gave her the opportunity to peek in on Nil.

  I hate lying to him.

  Selia’s body ascension wasn’t due to begin until later in the evening. She didn’t want to worry or alarm Nil or make him feel any less special than he was with the truth. There were also concerns regarding his views surrounding her and the relationship changing. It was no secret that individuals with the rogue archetype power seeds often got involved in thievery, sabotage, and espionage. When the Nexus issued the quests, the targets and purpose were more obvious, and motives less questionable. Matters felt far more complicated with the Weave. Selia wasn’t sure Nil would understand.

  Most spiderlings and people in her role worked at night, especially when thievery was involved. Unfortunately, accessibility to residences and mess halls became more challenging when everyone wasn’t off training or working. So, daytime was the best for the job. However, foot traffic around the teleporters skyrocketed after sunrise, making infiltration all the more challenging. As a result, Selia had to find a way in during the cover of darkness, and the security of Nil’s room gave her the perfect hiding place.

  Stolen robes helped Selia blend in with the academy's cleaning staff. The students were familiar with each other, and most of them seemed to come from well-to-do families. Despite Ashe Fall’s supposedly utopic society, class disparities persisted. People with wealth, power, and great futures ignored all beneath them. None met Selia’s eye line as she walked, carrying a mop and bucket full of dirty water. In fact, none, besides a handful of young men whispering to each other and wearing mischievous grins, spared her a second glance. The charcoal grey robes equipment proved a far more potent sneaking tool than any Weave technique or the semi-translucence granted by phase shifting.

  The constructions on Onyx Dragon Mountain appeared random, but Selia learned during her several explorations that there were three distinct sections. Researchers and scholars occupied the spaces closest to the peak. It was where Ashe and the volcano’s Qi met and intertwined, creating the perfect environment for their experiments and studies.

  Manors, barracks, and combat training areas filled the mountain’s midsection. Blind Dragon Manor, where Nil worked and lived, sat near the top of the area on a rocky outcropping that crossed into the researchers’ territory. Selia never dared to venture above it. The more powerful wards and enchantments interfered with the enchanted tattoo that helped her to move freely, using restricted teleporters. She didn’t want to risk getting caught and exiled to a prison dimension. Broodmother claimed that neither the Nexus nor the Weave would come to her rescue.

  Next came the academy’s artisan workshops, where Andrew lived and trained. The area sat well above the mountain’s base and extended into the volcanic vents. Forges, alchemy laboratories, warehouses, and vaults filled the section. It was where Selia’s quest demanded she go. Cleaning staff and porters were even more common in Onyx Dragon Forge, and blending in became easier as Selia continued to descend.

  It took a handful of minutes to find where she needed to go. Selia had spent most of her previous visits casing the area, gathering information regarding all the buildings and the routines of the residents. If not for all the collected data, Selia doubted she would’ve received the job. It would’ve gone to the spiderlings with seniority and more accolades. Many of her peers believed that she enjoyed preferential treatment.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Some also appeared to resent her for her power seed. They had to train and practice all of their abilities before they reached the same potency as a freshly ascended person’s power seed. The fortunate few who came from influential families inherited manuals that outlined techniques from the Mortal Realm across several ascensions. Even then, they had to spend days, if not weeks and months, on practice and training before any of it became useable on the field.

  The Weave’s intelligence said that the Silverleaf Manor had recently completed a contract for Edwin Miles, one of Ashe Fall’s three rulers and an Immortal Realm arcane engineer. It was, apparently, the most affluent artisanal faction on the mountain. The size, architecture, and decorations confirmed the speculation. Selia hoped that what she needed was in the master’s office and that she wouldn’t need to infiltrate the heavily guarded workshop and vault.

  Selia spent close to half an hour mopping the stone pathway outside the building before she found her opening. She phased through the walls, scanning every ground-floor room. It mostly consisted of staff and assistant bedrooms. A small library and study room gave her pause. She scanned the locked-away scrolls and documents. A few appeared valuable and Selia helped herself to them. The Weave would claim most and pick what she was allowed to sell or keep. The contribution would improve Selia’s standing, granting her more privileges, equipment, and techniques.

  The second floor came with more hope. The entire level was a shrine to the master’s vanity. Busts and paintings of the man filled it. Prototypes of the creations that made him rich and famous sat in enchanted glass cases. Selia pocketed quite a few valuables and scrolls the master had scribed himself. She also took a few of his ledgers for good measure.

  One manual Selia found gave her pause. She deviated from the mission for a moment to study its contents. Ghastly Chains looked like a direct upgrade to her Spectral Tethers spell. The stack of handwritten notebooks also included a research document on a material called Sunmetal and forging techniques she didn’t understand. Selia stuffed them all into her mop bucket’s hidden bottom. The Weave had spatial bags and pockets, but the mountain’s teleporter had devices to track such things.

  A creak and clatter almost made Selia jump out of her skin. She spun around just in time to see a wide-eyed teenager staring at her. The boy snapped out of his shock, spun on his heel, and ran for the stairs. Selia was much faster than him. She phased through display cases and cabinets, beating him to the stairs. Her new energy detection ability suggested he had not long ascended to the Bronze Realm. However, the soft features and lack of muscle tone confirmed her suspicions of him not being a combatant.

  “I don't want to hurt you,” Selia said. The Weave's exercises helped get her breathing under control and veil her surprise. “Let me tie you up and finish what I came to do. Then, I'll be on my way.”

  Broodmother will rip me an actual Web hoke if she finds out about this.

  “I'll get in trouble if I just let you leave,” he replied.

  “It's better than ending up dead.” Selia whipped out her dagger, her heart thundering in her chest. “I don't want your blood on my conscience, kid. Do the right thing?”

  Much to Selia's relief, the boy complied and let her tie him to a pillar. She was extra happy because looking Nil in the eye wouldn’t be easy if she killed someone Sam's age for a job. Spiderlings were taught not to question their orders. They needed to have faith in the Weave and sometimes eliminate the innocents who wandered into webs. It was the way of life and vital for maintaining the Weave's integrity. But, Broodmother and her superiors had listened to her boundaries and respected them. Moral limitations would keep her from climbing high in their organization, but Selia didn't care.

  The boy's darting eyes told her where to look, turning the lapse in her detecting and scanning skills into a boon. It was still a failure she intended to later analyze and ensure the same never happened again. Such mistakes during the Cleansing wouldn't just jeapordize her life but that of Nil and her friends.

  Phase shifting finally uncovered Master Silverleaf's secret office. There was no cliched bookcase hiding it. The space sat behind an innocuous wall with no apparent trigger mechanism for unlocking it. Wards and alarms protected the space, but Selia’s improved phase shifting also altered her density. She applied almost no weight to the magic-circle-marked floor.

  Much to Selia’s relief, no alarms went off as she opened the ledgers and blueprints contained in stoppered metal tubes. She carefully analyzed them all, and in the fifth document Selia uncovered, she found the necessary document to graduate to the rank of Spider.

  Master Silverleaf had designed a concealment spell for Edwin Miles. It masked the contents of spatial containers from up to Silver Realm arcane scans. Selia didn’t know what Edwin Miles could be concealing. The Weave never provided spiderlings with all the information relevant to a case.

  “Spiders are survivors,” Broodmother often said. “They do whatever it takes to survive, including ripping off limbs, abandoning their webs, and leaving eggs to predators. The less information each individual spider has, the greater the chance of the Weave’s survival.”

  Selia added the document to her fake mop bucket, stole a few more valuables, including a scroll that she believed Andrew, if not Nil, would benefit from, and then returned to her prisoner. Panic flooded his hazel eyes.

  “Relax.” Selia punched him in the face twice, breaking his nose and busting open the lower lip. “I'm keeping my word.”

  “Then why hit me?” The teenager cried, blood gushing from his nostrils.

  “Do you want your master to think you just rolled over and let me do what you want?” Selia asked. “This way you can tell the story of how you put up a valiant fight, but the master thief beat you into submission. It was a tall man who summoned and commanded specters. Got it?”

  The boy nodded.

  “And he wore Longshore Mining's delivery uniform.” The detail wouldn't do much but the company was recently robbed, and she hoped it would sell the story better.

  The boy nodded again.

  “Good man.” Selia smiled sweetly. “If you tell them the truth of what happened, I'll come back and slice your neck while you're sleeping.”

  After departing Silverleaf Manor, she didn’t dare approach the teleporter off the mountain. There was always the risk of wards detecting her loot. Instead, she found a hidden outcropping to leap from. Previous scouting had helped her uncover it, and she had practiced her escape several times before. Lowered density meant Selia didn’t need to bother about gravity. She made herself so light that the wind carried her away from the mountain as she floated to the ground.

  This better be enough.