NG EY

8 | A quick recovery.

That's not very hopeful. 

It's better than being tortured and killed for disobedience. 

Is it, though? 

Well, do you have a better idea?  

315 Nova Street was a welcome surprise. While a little run-down, the building's stone front had a mural painted onto it. The bright colors depicted rahva flying over a forested hill. Kellyn's unlocking spell worked on the front doors of both the building and Cyril's apartment. "Cute place," Nalia said.

Rigo nodded in approval, and Kellyn smirked at the assortment of rahva-themed decor. The couch was a scaly purple, and several rather impressive pencil sketches of rahva were hanging on the walls. A few of them were even inked and painted.

"Anyone want to play cards?" Fox asked, pulling his deck out of his pocket. Rigo squinted at him.

"How can you think about games at a time like this?" Nalia said. "We're on the run!"

Fox shrugged. "Oh, come on. There's always time for-"

Rigo had tackled Fox to the ground. Gold from his cyon was wrapped firmly around the gold bracelet on Fox's wrist, encasing it and separating it from his skin, and a knee-height shape had appeared next to him, with a black strand connecting it to Rigo's cyon. It was a crystalline spider, as black as obsidian. Nalia yelped and backed into the kitchen counter. Kellyn just stared, too stupefied to move.

"Fox." Rigo's voice was shaking. "It's going to tell you to fight back. Don't listen." The huge spider lifted its front four feet over Fox's head, calculating its attack. Wisps of black spirit material flowed from the tips of its legs and wove together to form a black box.

"What are you talking about?" Fox's voice suddenly shifted, and he started to struggle, but Rigo kept Fox's arms against the floor. "Get off, you moron!"

The spider reached into Fox's head. The box and its legs looked solid, but they didn't interact with his body. They just passed through. "Got it," a strange, genderless voice said, presumably the spider's, and it removed the box again. Many threads of black material were connected to something inside the box, leading inside Fox's body.

Fox instantly cried out in pain. "Put it back. Put it back!" he screamed, but the box floated to the ground, seemingly controlled by the thicker stream of black material that connected it to the spider, and Rigo stayed firmly on top of Fox. Nalia whimpered. She had covered her eyes a long time ago.

"How much longer?" Rigo said to the spider, his eyes filling with tears.

"Working on it," the spider replied. It was starting to reach pairs of its sharp legs into Fox's limbs, and each pair pulled out a thin circle of black material that it had cut. Twelve of these rings were removed, and when they were all out, the large spider gathered them and put them near the box. One final strand led from the box to Fox's bracelet.

"Quickly!" Rigo hissed.

The large spider made a whine-like noise. "I'm sorry! I've never had to compose so quickly!" It started to hum four or five cacophonous notes at once. They weren't terribly loud, but they were still grating.

Fox went still, and Rigo put an ear to his chest. He breathed a sigh of relief. "He's passed out." Only then could he address Kellyn and Nalia. "I'll explain everything," he said as he slid the bracelet off Fox's wrist. He kept it tightly encased in his own cyon's gold. "Please believe me, this was necessary."