”Turn that off dude.” Caius grumbled, trying to force his eyes closed. A bright white light was blinding him, keeping him awake when he just wanted to sleep.
”No can do sir, I need you to try and stay awake for a moment.”
Caius groaned, leaning forward. A hand went behind his back, pushing him up to a sitting position. The light went away, allowing him to comfortably open his eyes.
There were way too many people in an office this size. Eight people in blue robes sat around, a few of them looking exhausted. Someone was missing.
“Isolde?” He asked the room, his voice weak and trembling. A hand landed softly on his shoulder, prompting him to turn his head. Oh, the other half of the room was over here. That made sense. Isolde knelt next to him, a stain of red around her mouth.
“Heh, Kool-aid mouth.” Caius giggled, slumping slightly against her.
”I think just one more round of treatment and then we let his body do the rest.” A robed person said. Oh they were the healers. Duh. One of the standing healers walked to him and knelt down with Isolde. Closing his eyes, he muttered a few words under his breath and laid a hand above Caius’ heart. An orange glow came from inside the healer’s, like shining a flashlight through skin. It passed from him into Caius’ chest, glowing brighter as it went.
Feeling your heart physically start pumping harder is an incredibly strange sensation, and Caius tried to jerk away. Isolde held him in place, tapping him lightly on the back of his head.
”He’s healing you, idiot. Let him do the work.” She admonished
The magic pumped from his heart, inching down his veins. It was a soft warmth, infusing him with a sense of comfort. When it seemed like every one of his veins were full of liquid gold, the healer removed his hand. A small whimper slipped from Caius as he felt the source of the warmth leave him. Like a ripple on a pond, the light faded outward from his chest and dimmed throughout his body.
Reality became clearer as his body repaired itself, and replaced the lost blood from the draining, the fog over his brain slowly fading. He was suddenly very aware of how close he and Isolde were, basically pressed against each other as she held him upright. He shifted away from her, coughing as he turned and tried to stand.
”Thank you guys for that. I would hate to have seen what would happen without you.”
”You took a dangerous chance sir.” One of the healers said, crossing his arms as he stepped to Caius. ”You put your own life in peril for someone else. You just transferred the danger to yourself, and we came in prepared for the wrong situation.”
Caius hung his head, feeling admonished. He nodded, but looked at Isolde out of the corner of his eye.
“I would do it again.” He saw her head jerk toward him, eyes wide for a moment before schooling her expression and standing beside him.
”Idiot.” She muttered before she moved to lead the healers out the side door.
When she came back, she studied him for a moment, sniffing the air gently. They stood in silence, a coil of tension between them slowly tightening as they both searched for the right words.
“Thank y-“ she started as the alley door banged open, revealing a panting Elias, leaning against the door frame.
“You,” he panted, “MORON, ISOLDE! Explain everything, now!”
The Pursuit Agent and her trainee sat in the chairs and watched Beck pace back and forth, ranting at them.
”The point of this assignment was for him to JOIN YOU, not for you to chain him to a desk and do paperwork while you ALMOST GET YOURSELF KILLED!” Caius could swear that a trench would begin to form if Elias put any more energy into his pacing.
”GOING OUT IN THE FIELD ALONE IS STILL AGAINST THE RULES!” His voice echoed off the walls like they were being berated by several of him at once. “NOT ONLY WERE YOU SEVERELY INJURED, CAIUS WAS FORCED TO OFFER YOU HIS DAMNED LIFEBLOOD BECAUSE YOU WEREN’T PROPERLY PREPARED! YOU ARE SLIPPING ISOLDE!” That was a little too much for her.
”Watch it, Beck.” She growled, “I am still sharp.”
”Then prove it, Blackthorn.” He spit at her, vitriol soaking his word, her moniker said with no small amount of sarcasm. “I will take your fucking license if you do something this stupid again and put yourself or Ward in danger because you are too prideful to trust someone. I have had so much patience, Isolde, and I am officially out of it. Hold yourself to the standard, or I will!”
Caius raised a hand
”Uh, why am I being yelled at as well?” He asked lightly, trying to bring some levity.
”You are a team now.” Elias said. “All punishments levied will be against both of you.” He sighed, dragging a hand over his face. “Okay, I need to get some sleep before I have to be up in-“ He checked his cell “-four hours.” That came out in a small sob. “You two should rest and prepare. If you go back after the Jorogumo, you will need to go in much better than you did.” He pushed open the door, and waved a hand at them as he departed.
The door clicked shut behind Elias, leaving silence in his wake. For a long moment, neither Caius nor Isolde moved.
She leaned back against the desk, arms crossed, eyes locked on the wall like she was staring down a ghost. Caius let out a slow breath, rubbing the back of his neck.
“So… we’re doing this?” he asked.
Isolde didn’t answer immediately. Her voice, when it came, was quieter than usual. “We’re doing this. I’m not leaving it unfinished.” She uncoiled from her relaxed position, moving toward the closet. The green light clicked on, letting her rifle through a few different cases.
She pulled out a set of runed cones, purple metal with most of its runes dim. An identical rune on each was lit.
”These are isolation nodes.” She explained, tossing them one at a time to Caius. “It will allow us to set up a ward around a location and keep anything from crossing it.”
“So this is for keeping the Jorogumo trapped?” He asked, “Don’t we need to find it again first? No way it is still in the theater.” She continued to rifle through boxes as she answered. “No, I don’t think so. It did some serious damage, I am pretty sure it thinks it got me. Most other people besides, like, a troll, would be dead right now. Besides, a triggered Jorogumo would rarely give up a nest. Especially one so obsessed with the theme of her location.” Caius nodded, slipping the nodes into his bag. He pulled out his baton, checking the runes to make sure it was still fully functional. Not that he understood what they meant, but they were all glowing still.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
”You are gonna need something else besides that.” Isolde said from about a foot away from him. He jumped as she spoke, not realizing she had gotten so close. In an outstretched hand, she held a shoulder holster with a gun in it. “This is a Hexline Six. It was my old partner’s. Not really my thing, but you should be able to use it.”
Taking the holster from her, he slipped the gun out of it. Milo had mentioned these and he had seen a few since arriving. Spellarms were not too uncommon, but were only generally used by people untrained in using magic. They were powerful but simple alternatives to casting. The one in his hand was not the shiny new ones he had seen in the hands of other Pursuit Agents. It was a revolver, a dark green metal making up most of its body. The cylinder had six runes inscribed around the edge, dim for now. It would spin as he fired, pushing mana into the rune before it aligned with the barrel. The grip was black leather, worn from use but still fit comfortably in his hand.
“Thank you Isolde.” He said, quite moved by the gift. She shrugged and started to help him pull the holster over his shoulders and fasten it properly.
”It’s a good spellarm, and it should be used by someone. We are going to have to get you a license for it eventually, but I will just keep it out of the report.” She finished tightening the holster and stepped back, not meeting his gaze. “Besides, I would prefer you have something that keeps you out of hand to hand combat.” It was quiet for a moment before she jumped back in. “I mean, if you are going to have my back and not be totally useless.”
Turning on her heel, she went back to the closet to grab a new coat. Throwing it over her shoulders, she motioned her head toward the door.
”Let's go get this spider.”
Isolde’s car was gorgeous. Or ‘runemobile’ he corrected himself, though everyone still called them cars here. Hers was a sleek black Wyrmling Glyph Runner-MX, and she obviously took very good care of it. It had a solid looking frame, like it could take a few hits and still haul ass across Noctwyn. Isolde gushed about it when he asked, showing a side of herself that Caius had yet to see as she got excited about it. This was no show piece to her though, it was a tool for her to use. It had a job to do, and she wasn’t going to be upset about little things like the blood that had been splattered across her seats from her earlier retreat.
They glided along Noctwyn’s streets, Isolde giving him the rundown of what she had come across earlier that night.
”The kind of Jorogumo that can transform their victims are really rare, so I was pretty confident about taking her myself. I caught her scent in the alley next to the building and followed it through a side door, and only made it a couple dozen meters into the building before I was ambushed. Those poor kids, she turned them into monsters.”
”Are we going to use a different entrance? She has probably reinforced the one you entered and we would just be asking for trouble going in there.” Isolde nodded her agreement, the wheel sliding smoothly through her practiced hands as she took a corner.
”I want to try and find an upper level entrance, see if we can catch her unawares first. Her pets will be less organized if her connection to them is broken.”
”How are we going to do that?” Caius asked. “Do we have some suppression manacles or are we just going to knock her out?” He was looking out his window, taking in some of the sights as they drove
Isolde was quiet, not answering him for a few moments. The light from the street passed over her face, exposing a cold expression he couldn’t see.
”We will figure it out when we get there. Best not to plan these things too carefully.”
They pulled to the side of the road about a block away from the theater. This little section of the district was quiet at night, soft street lights illuminating the sidewalks in a welcoming atmosphere. The theater sat on one side of a small plaza, a few other shops lining the perimeter. A bakery across the plaza from The Soulfire was the only one with lights on, the chefs coming in early to start their day. Strings of manalights lined the walkways that they crept along, making their way toward their target.
The theater itself was gorgeous, with majestic pillars framing large displays across the front. Faded posters from old shows were plastered in different locations, and topiary was left untrimmed. The doors and windows he could see were fully blocked off and boarded up from the inside.
They stopped about a yard from the corner of the theater, Isolde beckoning for Caius to hand her a node. After passing it to her, she set it on the ground and spun the top section of it, a second rune glowing as she completed the turn. They set up the second on the other side from them, the fourth down the alley she had entered from originally, and then the final one on the other side of the building.
“Make sure you’re standing inside when I activate this last one, or you will be stuck outside it and we will have to restart this whole process.” Caius stepped closer to the wall behind him as she spun the tip of the final nodes, four runes lighting up immediately. Over the next minute, the rest of the runes began to glow, and a ripple passed over Caius’ body. A nearly see-through wall with a slight blue tinge rose over their heads, the ward activating.
They stood and walked quietly to a ladder on the back of the building they had passed while setting up the nodes. Isolde went first to clear the roof, Caius right behind her. His baton was gripped tightly as they examined the top of their building. Once they were sure it was empty, Isolde pointed at a small door near the center of the roof that looked like it led straight into the top of the theater.
Isolde moved with feline-like grace, her every step was poised and she seemed to slide over the roof. Caius tried to copy her movements, but he felt like a toddler trying to chase his cat through a house. She shot him an amused smirk when she saw his careful steps, but refocused as they reached the door. Turning the handle, she sucked her teeth for a second when it didn’t turn all the way.
She knelt next to the door, pulling out an inscribed disk that glowed softly in the early morning dark. Pressed against the door, it grew brighter for a few moments before the lock clicked and the door swung open.
“Lockbreaker from BPER.” She whispered to him as she stood, “Useful but kind of easy to detect if your target is sensitive to magic. It was a risk, but it was quieter than busting open the door would have been.”
Caius nodded, not used to this informative Isolde. Generally The Blackthorn said as few words to him as humanly, or vampirely, possible. Her attitude had shifted over that night though, and she seemed to have accepted him as her apprentice. This warmed him a little, content in the knowledge that he had been accepted finally by her at least a little.
The two of them snuck into the building, the door depositing up in the catwalks above the stage. A few lights glowed deep within, and a soft spotlight lit the stage below them. They were concealed in shadow, creeping along the catwalk toward the denser part of the building behind the stage.
A door near led them into a storage room, props and costumes filling every available space besides the walksways. Dust and normal webs crusted every surface of tall shelves that went up to the ceiling. Isolde sniffed the air, drawing the air deeply into her lungs. She shook her head and they continued further in. The storage room let out into a stairway and they descended into the Jorogumo’s nest.
The door at the bottom of the stairs sat slightly ajar, a warm light illuminating the bottom of the stairwell. Isolde unsheathed her knives, the bright green metal of the blades glinting with red runes. She looked back at him as they approached, nodded at him, and then quickly slipped through the door.
Following her, baton raised, Caius found himself in a well lit hallway. The age of the storage room above him seemed to not extend all the way down here. A sense of calm overcame him as he studied the comfortable hallway, nice doors of dark wood with plaques on them were spread apart down the walls. Tapestries lined the spaces between them, scenes from plays woven in beautiful colors seemed to shimmer in the light. Caius ran a hand over one near him, the fabric softer than would have seemed possible. It felt fantastic and his eyes drifted shut as he reveled in the silken surface-
“Caius!” Isolde’s voice hissed in his ear, jarring him from his revelry. He blinked, turning to face her. “You have to stay focused. Really look around us. Really look.” She whispered, gesturing to their surroundings. He scrunched his brows, turning in a circle. It was a nice hallway. The lights were nice, the walls were nice, the doors were nice, the smell-
The smell did not not match. Inhaling through his nose, a smell he recognized drifted through his sinuses. It smelled like dust and decay like the storage room had. How was that true though, if the hallway looked so…nice.
“It’s an illusion, Ward.” Isolde’s voice cut back in. “She is more powerful than I thought. This is impressive work. Stay focused.” She started down the hall, sniffing the air as she went. Caius focused on her back, using her presence as an anchor and keeping his eyes off his surroundings.
Caius followed close behind as Isolde led them deeper into the illusion-shrouded corridors. The deeper they went, the heavier the air became—warm and velvet-thick, like breathing through silk.
Distant notes of music drifted from nowhere. A violin string hummed faintly. Soft, ghostlike laughter echoed down the hallway. Every thread of sense whispered comfort, beckoning them forward. But underneath it all, rot clung to the edges—too sour to ignore.
They stopped outside a modest wooden door. At least, that’s what it looked like. It pulsed faintly with a warm light, shadows dancing in rhythm with something deeper.
Isolde raised a hand, signaling for silence. She crouched low, her eyes narrowed.
“She’s here,” she murmured, barely above a breath.
Caius tightened his grip on the baton. The metal felt colder than it had a moment ago.
The door creaked open with light push from Isolde. Warm golden light spilled into the hallway—inviting, serene. Inside was a rehearsal room, though it didn’t look like one. Not anymore. The illusion cloaked the space in grandeur: velvet-lined walls, candlelight flickering along gold-framed mirrors, and a small stage at the far end, dressed like something from a dream. A bed sat at the back, decadent and plush, rumpled like its occupant had just risen for the day.
A woman stood at the center of the stage. Barefoot. Draped in strands of silk and shadow, her long hair trailing like a curtain behind her. She moved slowly, swaying, humming a soft tune as she danced in silence—unaware of her audience.
Caius’s breath caught.
She was beautiful.
Too beautiful.
Like something that had borrowed a face from a storybook just long enough to lure something closer. The Jorogumo twirled in place, arms raised, basking in her own imagined performance. The illusion rippled around her, letting her soak in her imagined grandeur.
Isolde moved like a wolf hunting, steps steady as she flowed across the floor toward the stage. About a meter from it, she lept, soaring toward the spinning enchantress. Mid turn, the Jorogumo saw her, and her eyes widened in surprise. Isolde collided with her and she screamed, the illusion shattering into a million beautiful pieces like a stained glass window.
