Tallah

Are you really considering that monster? Now?!

“No need for hysterics, Christi. Calm yourself. I have a plan.”

Oh goody, that’s bloody reassuring. We’ve hung on by our teeth up to here, and now you mean to do the one thing that could possibly make everything worse. Have you gone daft?

“Don’t stare at me like that,” Tallah said.

Vergil was looking at her agape, mouth working out what sound it wanted to make, his eyes on the empty space to her side.

“Out with it, whatever it is,” she demanded. If only to get his stupid fish-like expression sorted away.

“Give it back!” he whined. Like a kicked dog. “I need it.”

“I frankly don’t care. It’s not safe.”

“I don’t care if it’s safe. I need it.”

Her well-practised glare got him taking a step back, but he came back just as adamant. Was he gripping the hilt of his sword? Adorable.

She cut him off before he could say something stupid, “You’re done with the helmet, Vergil. I am not wasting you on its whims.”

She didn’t need the Ikosmenia to see the thing moving behind his eyes, panicked at the loss of its conduit.

A step forward brought her chest to chest with the boy. He was tall enough that he could meet her eyes. “I know you’re in there, somewhere, dwarf. I can’t deal with you just now. But make any more trouble for me and I will find a way to drag you out of the helmet and set you into a piss pot. Am I understood?”

Had that been Vergil nodding? Or the parasite? No matter. As long as the boy kept the influence under check, she would be perfectly happy to leave it be. For the time being. Bigger problems to worry about just then.

“I thought you couldn’t control the ghosts you brought in?” Sil said without looking at her. Her attention was wholly on what the white spider was doing to the gemstone. “If the binding puts you in the same kind of mood as it did with Bianca, I don’t see how it’s going to help us any.”

“It won’t.”

“Help? Or leave you brainless? Why not?”

“Because both Christina and Bianca are available now. I think they’re more than a match for Anna’s will.”

An annoyed snort said just how much Sil believe her.

“So you’ll use two ghosts to keep one useless one in check. I can’t see the advantage you gain.”

It was simpler than Sil believed. With Christina and Bianca holding Anna’s reigns fully, Tallah could ascertain control. She’d done it several times with Bianca in the beginning but could never maintain enforced control for long as the ghosts were too evenly matched. With two on one, she expected less trouble.

Using her like this will not endear us anytime soon, Christina whispered. You’re not going to gain her willing compliance easily after this.

She paced around the small room. Vergil and his pet spider kept out of her way even if she could see it on him how he wanted to protest her decision.

The other spider, the big and gnarled black beast, watched her with eyes too wise for its form. Their staring attention made her uncomfortable.

It was impossible to fight the creature out there without the Ikosmenia. It had been difficult to survive it even with the bloody thing. Anna would be an equalising force if only for how she’d expand Tallah’s perception of the battle field. She had to be, or else the gambit would fail and they’d all be dead.

Funny how you taught the boy not to rely on gambits, but they seem to drive every single one of your decisions.

She ignored Christina’s barb. The ghost wasn’t wrong and she’d need to give the matter consideration if they survived this accursed place. Up to then, she’d need to make due with the consequences of her bad planning.

“No. Stop. Don’t force so much of it into the strand. It’ll shatter under strain. Yes. Like that. Less.” Sil instructed the spider and supervised its progress.

They didn’t have anything resembling their spinning wheel from Solstice, but the spider was producing its silk in strands much finer than any she’d seen or used before.

One of the others was attempting to sculpt a piece of bone—what manner of bone it was Tallah preferred not knowing—into the kind of curved needle they needed. The work progressed smoothly and much faster than they would’ve managed even with all their tools.

It was still too slow.

Impatience brewed in her guts as every sound of the place sent her heart into fits. What stopped the creature from coming in there? What could stop it just forming a barrier to halve them all at once? She believed little of what the spider said. They thought too innocently.

Humans would take their time enacting revenge, to better savour its sting. If she were the girl, she would allow the spiders their safety just to enjoy their despair when she snatched it away.

So she paced. First to the door, then back to the edge of the library. Then farther among the shelves, careful not to disturb a single thread dangling in the air. Not that she could, what with a gaggle of small spiders following her progress to move the silk lines out of her reach.

A skeleton sat slumped between two shelves, tightly wrapped in layers of silk, tiny spiders crawling across its bones. One of the makers of the place if the remnants of wings were any indication. Those too had been preserved in silk, tied forever to the books and scrolls, the only relevant remains of a long-dead people.

A human skull poked half-way from under the silk, grinning at her.

The whole thing made for a grim display, especially as it didn’t look to have been moved from it death position, one hand clasping its throat, the other its chest. Some sort of asphyxiation? Poison on the air?

Too late to worry about that just then.

More remains lay caught up in the webs spanning among the shelves, like strange, desiccated flies. Many had died grasping for support. Some had hands outstretched to the skies. Were she to look down, into the very bottom of the library, she expected she’d find a whole mound of winged corpses turned brain cells for the spider collective.

I will deal with Anna, Christina said, exuding a confidence that Tallah doubted. Bianca’s mobility is more useful for now than my own paltry strength. I will try and subdue Anna on my own.

You will need my help, dear. You could barely subdue me, and I have no high impression of my strength compared to our old friend’s.

If I’ll need help, I’ll ask for it. Let’s not give all of our resources to this until we’re certain we need to.

…agreed. But let’s try and not let your pride lead us to ruin again.

Tallah’s attention drifted away from the plans being made on her behalf.

“What are we going to do once… you finish?” Vergil asked.

He’d followed her into the maze of dusty books and kept wringing his hands, afraid of even getting near one of the strands. The spider on his shoulder looked as nervous as Tallah had ever seen an animal.

“Follow Ludwig, of course. I aim to get my mask back and rip his tongue out.”

“But… where? He could be back in the maze for all we know.”

“Don’t be daft. He’s going for the girl, else he wouldn’t have taken back the pendant.” She glared at the spider and it hid behind Vergil’s collar. “And your unpleasant friend there can take us straight to their false mother, am I right?”

“We can, yes,” the spider answered. It had tinny voice that slightly grated on the nerves.

“Its name is Luna,” Vergil objected. “Don’t call it unpleasant. It’s helping us.”

Lovely name for the creature, she’d give it that much. “Fine. Luna. Is it far from here?”

“No. We cross the feeding place and it will be there. The false mother guards it.”

“Good. Then I’ll need to face the creature regardless. No time serves quite as well as the now.” She gave Vergil a look over. He’d really handled himself remarkably well given the circumstances. Not much damage on him, aside from a big splotch of dried blood on his side. “I will rely on you once I engage that thing. Keep Sil safe.”

“But you took my helmet.”

“I trust you’ll manage without. You seem hale enough for it.”

Before he could go on, Sil called them back from their wandering.

“We’re as ready as can be,” she called. Her voice sent dampened echoes among the shelves.

The white spider held out a ball of thread between two fine claws. It shone with oily rainbow colours, catching the odd light and reflecting it back in a mirage of dancing echoes. To Tallah’s eyes the quality of the thread was superior to any she’d ever managed spinning up. The gem lay completely inert at their feet, its inner glow dulled. It remained as vacant as any old rock.

Sil threaded the hooked needle while Tallah got out of her coat and the leather armour. The chill goose-pricked her skin.

“Where do you want this sewn in?” Sil asked. “Other shoulder? Across the scar she gave you?”

“There, yes.”

That would leave her lower back for Deidra and Lucretia, were she to ever find them. Dangerous place, but for now Anna was much more dangerous. If she wouldn’t manage to gain control, having the weave on her shoulder meant easy access for anyone with a knife to cut the ghost out of her. Insurance against costly failure.

“Well. Bite down on something and we’ll begin.” Sil prepared two more needles to have on hand in case the first broke. It had happened before.

Tallah unfastened her scabbard and sat cross-legged on the floor with it. She entwined her fingers on the back of her neck and fitted the ebony sheath tight in the crooks of her elbows. It pressed like a gag between her teeth. Tasted of dust and blood.

Spiders gathered around, swarming up the walls for a better view. Curious eyes regarded every part of their preparations but the horde kept a respectful distance of several paces. Without Sil’s sprite, they made do with torches, much to the horror of several of the smaller critters. Some of the larger ones waited with water jugs tied to their bodies.

A deep breath. Held for several heartbeats. Released. Another.

Sil plunged the needle through skin. The pricking, in and out, didn’t hurt. The thread reaching flesh… agony! Vision flashed red at the first contact between Anna’s essence and her flesh. Fire spread throughout her back. Like being dragged in the nude across broken glass and burning coals.

She squeezed her eyes tight and let out a low moan of pain as Sil continued the work, insensate to the suffering she caused. It would take five hundred strokes of the needle to finish. Each was fresh agony and nothing would or could help.

They’d tried with Christina. She’d screamed herself mute against all the poppy that Sil could give without outright killing her. Bianca had been worse.

This went beyond reasoning.

And then came the first of Anna’s wisps. Jumbled fragments of sensations. Vague, uneven memories. Feelings alien inside Tallah’s own. It started as a trickle, then grew into a torrent, and finally became an avalanche. A mountain of self spilled into her, digging deep, searching for roots that should have been there but weren’t.

Sil worked fast. On an intellectual level, Tallah knew that.

She couldn’t help but feel every depth of hatred she could muster for the healer and how slow her hands were. Suffering stretched moments into centuries. A tooth cracked against the scabbard. Fingernails dug into the back of her head and pulled, trying to somehow mask the burning agony.

By the time the last stinging thread was pulled tight into her bloodied back, there were no more screams left in her chest. The back of her throat tasted of blood and bitter bile. It took long heartbeats before she could pry her fingers apart.

It gave Sil time to wash her back with disinfectant and apply a balm over the torture she’d inflicted.

The soul thread burned in its cradle. It writhed like worms across and through her skin. And what flowed from it was madness. Too many feelings. Too much sensation. Nerves flayed raw. Rebuilt. Remade. Undone. Every bit of suffering inflicted and consumed by Anna, now spilling out to pollute Tallah’s own mindscape.

I am here, Christina’s voice reassured through the blood-red haze of pain. She is resolving now. I am here. I will hold her.

The words meant nothing.

Assurance meant nothing.

Her nerves screamed when Vergil gently moved her fingers away from the trenches they’d dug in the meat of her neck so Sil could treat it.

First came her voice back and she bit down on every curse and scream her head demanded.

Then came the wrenching pain as the thread wound tighter into her and settled.

Anna’s essence touched hers in truth and contact was… indescribable.

And then, finally, the deafening scream and the ghostly hands around her throat. Real fear dug long claws into her chest as Anna screamed in her mind.

I will not be held. You will pay, Tallah, for all which you’ve stolen from me.