Explorer of Edregon

"Why spiders? We already did spiders!" Vin lamented, staring at the practical wall of webbing stretching around the treeline. Their group had pulled up short on the edge of Alka's fragment, but hadn't dared step across just yet. The next fragment was so densely covered in webs that in order for any of them to move across the border, they'd have to cut their way through a thick wall of webbing.

Well, Scule was small enough that he could probably slip through, but he wasn't exactly volunteering.

"They're definitely not the same spiders," Alka said, leaning forward and inspecting the webs more closely. "This is far too dense to be the result of a roaming monster. It's definitely from something that lives within that fragment."

"Actually, I think it's something intelligent too," Shia added, squinting at the webs. "Look at how they're set up. It's like something purposefully wrapped up the border of its fragment, otherwise, why not continue outward and start making webs in Alka's fragment?"

"Which raises the question, is it to keep others out, or to keep something inside safe?" Scule asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Aren't those the same thing?" Vin asked.

"Not at all! If it's to keep others out, they might just be weak cowards terrified of outside threats. But if it's to keep something inside safe, that means we have a reason to go in," Scule grinned, pulling his blowgun out from within his cape. "Get to slicing Alka, we've got a fragment to ro-explore!"

Vin rolled his eyes, but to his surprise, Alka actually listened to the petian and unsheathed her sword. With a few quick slashes, she cleared a path through the dense wall of webbing, giving them access to the fragment proper.

"What?" she asked when Vin stared at her. "He's right, no sense wasting time. I'll trap him under a cup or something later."

That settled, Alka led the way into the new fragment, and Vin sighed as he followed behind her. The moment he set foot in the dark forest he felt a chill go down his back as the temperature dropped from a lack of sunlight, and he heard drips of water and scuttering coming from somewhere deep within the woods.

Second ring fragment discovered! 1,000 exp gained.

"Well, this fragment is creepy as all the hells," Scule muttered, his eyes tracking a rather freaky insect that looked like a fuzzy caterpillar with spindly legs as it scurried up a nearby tree.

"You were so eager just a moment ago," Alka laughed, slicing through a few more strands of webs in front of them as she began walking. The rest of the forest wasn't nearly as heavily webbed as the outer boundary, but there was plenty of it hanging here and there from the many trees.

As they ventured deeper into the forest, the level of light grew more and more dim, until Vin was forced to cast Light just to allow them to see. While the floating ball of light solved their vision problems, now Scule was jumping at every shifting shadow along with the random noises and things scurrying about.

Because boy were there a lot of them.

Not only was the forest filled with all manner of creepy insects, there were small animals all over the place. Tiny birds with black feathers that blended in with the shadows and silently watched them walk underneath. Thin weasel looking things that slithered up trees like snakes before snatching unsuspecting insects in their claws. Small bundles of fur without any eyes darting around on the forest floor, hissing at them whenever they got too close.

It was like someone had taken a young child's nightmare of a spooky forest and turned it into reality.

The deeper they went, the more worried Scule grew, and Vin couldn't blame him. After spotting a small, thin arm reach out from under the roots of a tree and snatch up one of the hissing furballs, dragging it deep within the roots and most likely tearing into it based on the screaming and shredding sounds, Vin decided this wasn't exactly his favorite fragment either.

"Do you guys really think anyone actually lives in this freaky place?" Scule asked, shivering at the sight of the birds staring down at them. Vin did a double take when he thought he saw one of the black birds staring at Scule lick its beak.

"According to what we've seen during our own travels and what Forpurt told us, every fragment is either totally abandoned, or has some sort of civilization living within," Shia said, thinking out loud as they walked. "Other than the library, I suppose, though divine sanctums might be a unique case."

"I have a theory about that actually," Alka admitted, actually punting one of the hissing furballs deeper into the woods when it refused to move. Even more freaky was the fact that it never stopped hissing even while soaring through the air and being snatched up by one of the dark birds before vanishing into the canopy. "So after that divine warrior 'killed' me, while I was just intangible scraps hanging onto Vin and the two pieces of Dancing Leaf, I wasn't exactly gone," Alka continued. "I wasn't exactly conscious either, though, I was in some strange state in between. It was like I was dreaming, even though I knew I wasn't."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Why are you only telling us about this now?" Vin asked, hoping Alka wasn't planning to punt anymore of the wildlife into oblivion. "We thought you weren't aware of anything while we were trying to save you."

"I wasn't aware of anything you were doing, but I was drifting through my own thoughts. And seeing as I couldn't really do much of anything else, I got to thinking."

Alka paused, tilting her head as she tried to put her thoughts into words. While the Slayer was much more of a doer than a thinker, Vin had spent enough time with her by now to know she was pretty cunning when she wanted to be.

"Shia, you said a while ago that the formation of Edregon must have taken an insane amount of magical power, right?"

"Yeah," Shia nodded. "I couldn't even give you an estimate or a comparison. Something like that is literally unimaginable."

"Exactly. I don't know why, but for whatever reason, while I was waiting for you guys to bring me back, my scattered thoughts seemed to focus on Edregon as a whole. Almost like someone was pushing my focus in that direction…" After a moment, Alka shrugged, looking at the rest of them. "Anyway, on to my theory. I think in order to pull off such an insanely large magical working as this, the Gods had to preselect the different locations they were going to steal away and use as the building blocks for Edregon. I don't know how far in advance they marked them before going through with the actual stealing, but that would explain why some fragments ended up abandoned, like mine."

"So all the other 'abandoned' fragments are like yours," Shia muttered, tapping her chin. "In between the Gods marking them for use and actually ripping them away from their worlds, the inhabitants unknowingly left the set-aside area for one reason or another, just like how yours left to attend the ceremony required to help you move on into the afterlife. It makes sense at the very least."

"How do you explain the death fragment though?" Scule countered. "I don't see how anything could live in that one."

"Maybe people live underground," Alka shrugged, turning and continuing deeper into the forest. "Lumel's people live at the bottom of a giant lake, so it's not like it's impossible."

Huh, Vin thought, realizing Alka might actually have a point. It wouldn't take that much raw dirt and stone to stop the insane radiation from the sun. Even so, he was in no rush to put her theory to the test.

"In the end, it doesn't really matter, which is why I hadn't brought it up until now," Alka said. "Fragments either have people or they don't. What does it matter why that's the case?"

Vin chewed it all over as they walked, careful not to step on any of the critters running about. Even if they were far creepier than they had any right to be. Something about the way Alka described her thoughts being pushed in one direction struck a chord with him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Something about a dream he'd had recen-

"Everybody freeze!" Shia suddenly shouted, tearing Vin from his thoughts as he did exactly what the Druid asked. Glancing around, he spotted Alka and Scule also standing motionlessly just ahead of them, clearly wondering what the hell was going on.

"Shia?" Alka's voice rang out, her strange method of speaking not actually requiring her to move a single muscle. The Slayer had been just about to cut through another stray cobweb, and her sword now hung frozen in midair. "What's wrong?"

Holding up a finger, Shia leaned closer to one of the trees, inspecting a particularly thick portion of spider webs suspended between a few of the branches. After a few seconds she nodded, motioning for Vin to join her.

"Does this look like anything to you?" she asked, nodding toward the thick webbing.

"Is this some sort of Druid thing?" Vin asked, looking at the complicated cobweb as he tried to figure out what Shia was on about. Unlike the cobwebs from Earth, whatever spider had made this one must have been drunk or something. Rather than symmetrical, even lines, the threads seemed to go every which way, more like an abstract painting than anything. In fact, the strange shapes almost reminded him of-

Vin's blood ran cold as he finally picked up on what Shia had noticed somehow. Turning slowly toward her, he lowered his voice. "Is that…"

"You see it too?" She nodded, her lips pursed.

"I swear to the Gods, if you guys are just doing this to freak me out," Scule began, pausing when Shia shook her head.

"I didn't notice at first because it's absolutely crazy. But some of these spider webs aren't normal." Taking a deep breath, Shia finally came out with it. "…They're runic formations."

Scule and Alka shared a confused look, before Alka spoke up. "Huh? What the hell does that mean?"

"Remember the runic carving the people of Sakis specialized in? It's basically that," Shia tried to explain. "But rather than carve runes into something, somehow, whatever did this wove these threads into runes. This shouldn't be possible."

"Why not?" Vin asked, narrowing his eyes and trying to figure out what the rune they were looking at did. He thought he recognized smaller runes for 'sound', but couldn't make heads or tails of the rest of it.

"The success of runic engraving depends on the skill of the mage and the material used," Shia explained. "These runes are using cobwebs. I literally can't think of a weaker material."

"Yeah, I've been cutting through all these things like they aren't even here," Alka nodded, waving her sword about. "Not exactly the use I thought I'd get out of my fancy new sword."

Slowly, Vin and Shia both turned to stare at the Slayer, only now understanding what they'd been doing ever since entering the creepy forest.

"Alka…" Vin said quietly, suddenly realizing just what that runic structure incorporating the rune for 'sound' might have been placed for. "By any chance did you try cutting through any of the cobwebs with anything other than your fancy new sword? Didn't you say the mithral Deorer added was supposed to make it cut through solid materials better?"

"Yeah, blade cuts like a charm," Alka said. "And no, why do you ask?"

"Just humor me for a moment," Vin said, nodding toward the web she'd been about to cut through.

Shrugging, Alka lowered Dream Shredder, raising her dwarven warpick arm instead. Aiming the point of the pickaxe right at the cobweb blocking their path, she brought down the warpick made from pure darthsteel.

And stared in shock as it rebounded off the cobweb like the thin strands were made of solid steel.

Before Vin could even register just what that meant, he detected a slight magical signature from behind him, and a voice drifted out of the rune Shia and he had been investigating mere seconds before.

"Oh, new guests? How exciting!"