Read Novel Full Chapter 1983: Spiders
Chapter 1983: Spiders
"You could try."
Kitsara’s ears lifted with interest.
"Hmm..."
Across the stream, their expedition leader was inspecting her reflection in the still water. She touched the circlet, adjusted a curl, then came back to find Celia laying out bowls on a clean cloth.
"Mine without those leaves."
The girl paused with the ladle in her hand.
"I’m sorry, they’re already in the broth."
"Then pick them out."
Celia reached for a spoon, but Lucille caught the bowl before she could begin fishing through it.
"I’ll have that one, sweetheart. It smells lovely."
"Thank you..."
"I’m sure Marielle can manage the leaves in hers."
"I didn’t ask you."
Lucille smiled at the mage over the steaming bowl.
"I heard you perfectly."
Celia brought Quinlan his portion. She had tucked a slice of bread against the bowl’s rim and wrapped a cloth beneath it so he could take it without burning his fingers.
His gauntlets made the precaution entirely unnecessary, but he appreciated it anyway.
"Thank you."
He turned toward the overhang before lifting his visor, keeping his face out of the others’ view. Kaelira settled beside his free shoulder with her own bowl.
Across the fire, Marielle leaned to peer around the smith. Kaelira shifted closer to Quinlan, neatly blocking the gap.
The mage leaned the other way.
Kaelira turned her back fully toward her and raised her spoon, leaving Marielle staring at her armour.
"> <This bitch is getting old.>
"> <Patience. Just a bit more.>
"> <Yeah...>
"It’s only simple food," Celia said. "I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I..."
Blossom made a delighted sound around her first mouthful.
Celia turned toward her so quickly that the ladle knocked against her hip.
"Is it alright?"
"It’s really good!"
The relief on the girl’s face made Quinlan take a spoonful. The broth was hot and savoury, with enough softened vegetables to make a proper meal of it.
"She’s right."
Celia stood a little straighter. "There’s more if you’d like it."
"Blossom would!"
"After everyone has some," Ayame told the dogkin, opening one eye.
"Blossom knows! She’s reserving her place!"
Even Andre smiled at that. Marielle ate her portion with the offending leaves arranged along one side of the bowl.
Quinlan lowered his visor before handing his empty bowl back to Celia. She added it to the other dishes and scrubbed them downstream from where she’d drawn the cooking water. She washed the pot, dried its handles, then spread the cloths over a sunlit stone.
Serika glanced at the girl’s untouched bowl.
"Celia. Your lunch is getting cold."
"I’ll just finish-"
"Could you eat first? We’re resting too."
The girl looked from her to the waiting bowl, then finally sat beside her with a bashful smile.
After eating, Celia wiped the mud from the lantern’s casing and cleaned the grit out of its fastening. She offered the damp cloth to Kaelira, who was checking the straps of her armour, then helped brush the road dust from the buckles where it had gathered.
Quinlan watched her pack everything only after it had dried. She had fed them, cleaned up, and was already checking that nothing would rattle loose on the next climb.
"You were worried about earning your place," he told her as he stored the cookware again. "How do you think you’re doing?"
Celia glanced at the empty pot just before it vanished.
"I... I hope well?"
"Very well."
Her smile stayed with her when they returned to the road.
...
The first spider came out of a cleft beside the survey road, dragging a web-bound animal behind it.
"There!" Blossom called.
Andre brought his shield forward as the creature dropped its meal. Its body was as broad as the path, with hooked forelegs that scraped sparks off the exposed rock.
More legs unfolded in the cleft behind it.
Celia fumbled for an arrow. Serika caught her wrist before she could draw across Lucille’s back and guided her toward the clear ground behind them.
"From here. You need room for the bow."
Marielle was already chanting.
"[Shield Reinforcement]!" Andre called, bracing as a silver sheen spread over the metal on his arm.
The spider struck his reinforced shield with a crash that sent loose gravel skipping around his boots. He drove it upward and forced the hooked legs apart.
"Now!"
"[Fireball]!"
Marielle thrust her staff forward, sending the spell through the opening he’d made.
The creature shrieked as Marielle’s spell burst beneath its raised body. Flame poured from the cleft behind it, and the shapes crowding the entrance convulsed against one another before dropping out of sight.
Andre shoved the burning carcass off the road.
"Anything else?" he asked Blossom.
She sniffed, then pointed toward a crack above the cleft.
"One went up there."
Marielle followed Blossom’s finger with her staff, already speaking the next incantation.
"[Flame Lance]!"
A narrow shaft of fire pierced the spider before it could pull its abdomen through. Its burning remains tumbled down the slope, bouncing past Celia’s drawn arrow.
"There," the mage said, lowering her staff. "That’s how we keep an expedition moving."
She looked directly at Quinlan.
"You may put your weapons away."
He glanced at his empty hands.
"Perhaps now you’ll take this seriously," Marielle muttered, then touched the circlet’s cooling rune while Andre checked his shield.
The blue robe stirred around her legs as she passed the scorched cleft, careful to lift its hem despite the fabric already clearing the ground.
Quinlan crouched beside the dead spider. The fire had entered through the softer underside, leaving the upper shell intact. He pressed a thumb against one of its ridges while Aurora studied the fangs.
Serika observed.
Ayame replied.
Their timing was good, but Quinlan had seen nothing to justify her smugness.
"Black?" Marielle called from farther up the road. "Are you coming, or do you need me to explain which feet should be placed where?"
Aurora held a sample vial beneath one fang while Black Fang pressed the venom sac through the split mouthparts.
"We have antivenom," Marielle said.
"A mediocre one."
"Yes, and I’d like to reach the ruins before nightfall."
Aurora stoppered the vial and stood. "Then you can run ahead."
"What?! I can’t believe this! I’ll have so much to tell the guild when I get back..." Marielle growled as she stomped ahead.
Quinlan waited beside Aurora until she’d packed the vial away, then rose and brushed the dust off his gauntlet. Behind Marielle, Andre had unfolded the map again.
The survey road ended at a hillside split by an old stone arch. Broken paving descended beyond it into darkness, with pale threads stretched between the weathered blocks.
Celia stepped past Quinlan to look inside.
"This is where they went."
Her hand closed around the strap of her father’s expedition notes. Seraphiel stopped beside her while Kaelira opened the lantern’s shutter.
Its light reached a flight of worn steps and a torn leather glove caught in the webbing below.
Andre spread the map against the arch while Celia found the matching page in her notes. The underground route continued across several sheets, with passages branching away into blank spaces at their edges.
"How far does this go?" Serika asked.