After entrusting the raw materials to Faenas and placing an order of quiver and a sum of arrows on Greimen she went onto to wrap up the remains of the Rockhide lizard in silk for easier handling as a courtesy for using the Trolls as corpse disposal. During her visit the smith was more interested in inspecting her sword and pestering her to give it a proper name more than processing her request. And with those taken care of Alicia had some free time that she spent on meandering about as there wasn’t anything else to deal with immediately.

‘She seemed surprised by those horns by the way she was examining it. Hope there’s nothing wrong with it… After getting my bow, quiver, arrows… with the sword… I’m gonna face some storage problems… Maybe I should have a  proper baldric made. Then where should the sword go… on my back or on my hips… hm…’

Thus she was taking a stroll along the forest, with the occasional change of path to avoid unnecessary encounters with bellicose dwellers of the woodlands, to pass the time while thinking of what to do.

‘Now that I remember I got that trait didn’t I? Let’s see what it was…’

‘That one… Modified Venom sacs. I remember it now, something about being able to spit out silk and venom? Let’s give it a try… though without help from Alice… I’ll test it out with my canines first, now if I recall correctly…’

She could feel her upper canine pushing out, bulging from within her gums and scraping her teeth.

‘It’s hard to get used to this but now what? Do I just spray it out like I am injecting venom…?’

Alien sensation of blowing out something with a cross of fang and tooth could be felt as from each fang an erratic stream of fluids were expelled out. Because of how her humanoid fangs were pointed downwards and she had little control over the rushing flow, the immobilizing mixture of silk and toxins had mostly landed in her own mouth. The compound immediately started to congeal, what this meant for Alicia is…

• “MPeaa! mmPFF blyerT!”

…that she had just glued her own mouth half agape.

• “abEfEm eelPh!”

Fortunately for her she was within the range limit of Telepathy so she could consult on an expert.

• ‘Alice, Help! My mouth is stuck with webbing!’

Even without words or responses through the extrasensory connection abstract emotions and feeling could also be conveyed, from it what Alice was sending was… confusion.

• ‘eat…’
• ‘Seriously?’
• ‘yes…’

Trusting in her partner whom she shared a body with until recently, she followed her suggestion and started to chew on the silk. Dry wiry and off tasting silk, eventually balled up into a sort of small gum of silk. She was more concerned about the terrible texture and the taste than the venom contained in it. Something she can afford to do by the virtue of one of her skills. Even though she would not be harmed by her own venom… mentally it helped her to know she had a backup. Swallowing it down, she could feel the individual threads lining her throat and esophagus. At a cost of gag reflex, choke and teary eyes her mouth was free once again.

• ‘Thanks for the tip…’
• ‘……is okay…?’
• ‘I’ll be fine… No worries…’

‘I’m pretty sure she meant me to eat it with the other mouth, bleh. And that's a good idea too, maybe use a spider related trait through spider anatomical feature who would’ve thought! I need to stop being reluctant about turning back into my original form… It’s what I started with and I’m not turning fully human in the foreseeable future.’

⟨ Mimicry ⟩

‘Let’s give this another spin… with the proper equipment.’

⟨ Pallesthesia ⟩

‘Hm… what’s this…? Giant rats… not quite a swarm… maybe a cluster?’

Driven by hunger, swept along the crowd psychology or simply lacking the mental capabilities to properly assess the danger the rats charged at her with their screeching squeaks and teeth bare.

‘I think I just found myself a good practice target.’

Moving her chelicerae up and down to develop a feeling for it… Finding it was obvious from the way her fangs were pointed that she needed to do a little more than just positioning her fangs the right way. Shifting balance to her back - the abdomen, she raised up her front legs, leaning back with her cephalothorax. In order to still see what’s infront of her, with her human torso she had to tip forwards. And when they entered her range.

‘Now!’

⟨ Venom Fang ⟩

Faster than the eye can blink¹Spitting spiders finish deploying their web spit under 1/700 of a second or in 1.4 milliseconds. For comparison, the average duration of human eye blink ranges from 400 to 100 milliseconds. This means spitting spiders can immobilize their prey about 71 times faster than you can blink in an optimistic scenario. Bibliography? Piper, Ross. Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 2007, archive.org/details/extraordinaryani0000pipe/ Page 105-107. the silky fluids sprayed all over the earth in wanton abandon; a thin film of silk covered a fair amount of area including the rats, ensnaring them. Only a few lucky outliers were spared though they blindly charged into the web covered grounds and were subsequently entangled as well.

‘Shoot I focused too much on a single area… Maybe I could’ve gotten more of them if I swayed my fangs a bit. That’s staggeringly short… Ranged? ‘Yes.’ Will I use it in a long range engagement? No. But hey, that is so much better than the first time since my mouth is not cemented shut. This incidentally helps with trapping, now I don’t always have to spin a web in advance.’

They tried to bite and tear their way through the web but to no avail, the only thing they could do was to squeak and squeak; so they did.

‘Though since it's simply a vomit of web for lack of better descriptors, I question the integrity and strength of it. Should still come handy in a pinch… I suppose I still need to get good with the bow… Not good, just enough is sufficient.’

With her experiment concluded her attention returned to the captives.

• “I could free you if you promise you won’t try to bite me.”

Giant rats were individually very skittish and fearful but when they swarm they are overcome with false courage resulting from the safety of numbers. This swarming behaviour makes them more aggressive and combative giving them an advantage yet this also serves as their downfall. As difficult as it may be, once fear spreads there’s no stopping it among the swarm. They care not about individual losses in a swarm mentality but when they’re singled out and trapped…

• “So now your tone changes… But I’m not eating through all that…”
• ‘You guys are up, free them but you don’t have to be friendly with them, I need one of you to stay.’

Hex Crawlers that reside within the depth of her hair abseiled down with their silk. With her platinum hair and milky silken threads it appeared as if hair strands of her were growing longer to let down the spiders attached to them.

‘Since I went ahead and got their trait needed I might as well see what I can make with modified venom sacs, should be spiders that can do what I just did…’

 

• ‘You’re turning into a webslinger…²Their made up binomial name Reteiactus comes from latin ‘Rete’ meaning net/network + Iacta/Iactus meaning to ‘throw and cast over/cast away’. The translation is supposed to be The Netcaster. They describe the Family only, the species… Well that’s too much for me to think up of right now.
• whatever that means.’

>Commence epigenetic trigger for subject A.Reteiactus?

• ‘Go ahead’

The usual morphing process started. White body with long slender legs spotted in black. Smooth domed cephalothorax and abdomen wearing patterns of  dark asphalt.³RGB 19/10/6 With only three pairs of tiny eyes one would distrust their sight if they didn’t take into account that they inherited Presence Detection from their creator. It’s figure was simple and ordinary. It wasn’t the largest, it wasn’t the most visually enticing nor was it agile, strong or stealthy as the others. With the size only half a meter⁴When describing the size of spiders, I refer to only their torso and leave out their leg span. So if it’s simply dimensions they’re much much larger, some of you might need to notch up the size of the spiders. in diameter and from it’s measured slow strides it was hard to consider it an immediate threat compared to Alicia’s other Spiders under her command. However their unassuming nature was their strength. Any who underestimate them might not realize they are in their spitting range.

>Subject Webslinger. Specialization. Stealth, Anti-personnel, Abduction, Apprehension.

‘Excuse me, Abduction?’

• ‘Ahem uhm… since I don’t have a particular need for any… abductions… for now. Could you just go back and… you know settle down?’

Although they are slow in nature, they borrow Alicia’s speed and as such they show noteworthy speed if the situation asks for it. She learned of this in a rather startling way.

• “Ueeagh! Damn that’s creepy how fast they can run… Do I look like that when I’m running…? I hope not… That explains why Faenas fled the first time meeting me… I wouldn’t want to be chased by them… either… or me.”

>Unknown skill Analysis complete.

>Quarantine Lifted………Restoring functions…

>No matching database entry. Registering null void…⁵Most computer systems register empty parameters that can’t be empty with either a Null value meaning either There’s no information about this or I have no idea what the fuck this is.

>Heuristics Analysis suggests an ability to control unknown [REDACTED] realm.

>Zero-Filling missing data…

>Rebuilding database.

>Void Acquired.

>Caution. Use of unknown skills may have unexpected consequences.

‘That doesn’t sound good… I might need help for this…’

• ‘Leave one intact for me…’

Most of the captured rats had already fled and while last few were about to be freed a new order came. Sense of impending doom washed over them all.

‘Nothing… I don’t feel anything from it. Usually with any magic I can pick up a certain feeling, like heat for fire, breeze for air or firm breath from earth from using the method from that girl… This skill has nothing… maybe someone else can help… It’s either the spirit or Sardak… Faenas is already working on my bow, don’t want to interrupt her now…’

Balling the few remaining ‘test subjects’ in a web she headed for the spirit lake.

---

• “So you don’t feel anything from it?”
• “Exactly.”
• “Peculiar… Unfortunately I can’t help you any further. Perhaps you need someone to look at it from a different viewpoint. Magic can’t be fully grasped with a cursory look.”
• “That’s fine… thanks.”

‘So Sardak may just be that different perspective.’

• “You look dim… is everything alright?”

‘Dim? As in weak…? Ah. It’s the first time I’m meeting her split in two.’

• “Yes, I just have something to take care of.”

Brushing off the lake spirit’s doubtful glare Alicia headed to the tribe once again. Some time later she was outside the Witch doctor’s teepee. After confirming his presence she enquired if he was able to meet her and entered abode. 

• “Tell me… what is magic really?”

For a while there was something nagging her… the true nature of magical energy and magic itself in general. Although she had understanding of how it flowed inside her, she had no clue how it behaved in the atmosphere, outside her body.

• “To request answer to such topic reserved for wisemen and sages from this one, I be honor’d n humbled.”

Old troll grounded up odoriferous verdure in a bowl and put it in an incense burner, lighting it up glowing red cinders taking a deep whiff and basking in its aroma.

• “If tis not bold of I to tell a great Loa like you… White lady of the black forest, I can impart what little knowledge I’ve divined. Magic is the ebb and flow of magical energy interacting with matters physical.”
• “Hey just between you and I. Stop giving me names. I already have one. It’s Alicia.”
• “Why of course.”
• “Back on to the topic. What is this flow?”

Closing his wrinkled eyelids for a moment, he seemed to be racking his head for the right information.

• “It is chaos.”
• “What do you mean?”
• “Look. The smoke…”

Fume steadily raised upwards in a straight line before billowing outward and then diffused in air.

• “To control magic is to master and give purpose to this smoke. At first coming out from the source it is orderly then it spreads into chaos, unknowable, unpredictable. It is much the same to you. You are a source, magic you use has purpose, straight and with intention for a while much like the smoke. And then just like the smoke, too far from you and it collapses into chaos, dispersing into the air, into the natural flow of magical energy.”

‘So it’s literally a flow of a fluid… Laminar and Turbulent…’⁶You wanna have turbulence?

• “If you may witness the flow, interacting with them is as easy as this…”

Sucking in some smoke he gently blows a vortex ring of smoke over to Alicia, her nose being able to pick up on its unique smell.

• “Even smell can be something to sense magical energy.”
• “What if you don’t… what there’s nothing?”
• “Perhaps nothing is the answer…”
• “What do you mean?”
• “That incense is scentless… but letting it permeate through you, you can now smell my previous incenses yes?”

Curious to check she noticed many different distinct odours. Some calming and rustic, others energizing and invigorating, another weary and dull, lastly there was one which she couldn’t tell.

• “Five?”
• “Seven. Just because you can’t see the smoke in the air or feel it on your skin does not mean that they are not there. These smells were already here, but you only realize them after I give you a different, empty shell.”
• “Huh, now come to think of it…- Ah Thank you that was very helpful.”

---

Far from everywhere important she knows. She was in a secluded part of the forest.

• “Emptiness itself might be the clue huh… ”

Lending an ear to the hollowness that’s humming in her chest, she tried exerting the feeling along with some energy, holding out her index finger and focusing all of it on its tip.

⟨ Spellweaver ⟩

Strange coldness came over her. Black… substance grew out her fingertips, like an ink in water it didn’t mix so it was suspended in air around the height of her shoulders, it’s overbearing color of amethyst and cold sable evoking unpleasant feel.

‘It’s just like what he said… chaotic… That can’t be it right…? Let’s see what you really are… Let’s focus you into a single point.’

The snaking tendrils of dark although initially rejecting eventually coalescenced into singular circle, a hole of absolute pitch black. Her sword was strangely starting to shake and quiver as if reacting to it. This hole was an unnatural object that nature of the universe itself seemed to deny its existence evident by how much energy she expended to keep it in this world. Even light seems to bend around it allowing her to see through it and also into it. The edges of the circle looked as if they were torn away fabric, individual. From within this breach she could hear a squall of raging winds, but she didn’t feel it at all, in this crack suspended in air she could see a small sliver of light… cold blue light. The same unwelcoming light she saw in a dream or a nightmare. Hysterically raving whispers of doom slipped through the gap.

‘So it is that place… Not just a dream hm… I’ve remembered a few things too…’

• “Shush… I’m working here…”

As if soothing a child throwing a tantrum, she gently silenced the whispers of lunacy. Only the song lonely winds were all that’s left.

‘What am I supposed to do with this…? Maybe…’

Picking up a decently sized rock near her feet she placed it inside the crack. It didn’t fall down, just suspended in it gently floating as if it had forgotten what gravity is… And pulling her hand back in she let go, letting the world correct itself. The hole snapped shut in an instant.

>New entry detected. Registering Untitled.

Eerie silence domineered over the area. Calmly she walked somewhere… five steps… ten steps… fifteen steps… and stopped. Like the first time she focused and opened another breach. Maybe because it was the second time it was much faster and easier. Reaching her arm in she pulled something out clenched. Gap shutting close behind her hand. Opening up her palm it was the very same rock she placed in it.

• “It’s like a vault… I can access it from anywhere it looks like. Hm… Isn’t there a rule about not placing living things in something like this? Let’s find out why…”

On her back a silken ball was dangling, webbed to her clothes. Porous silk allowed what was in to breathe. Yes there was a living being in them. One of the rats she captured. Tearing through the silk she grabbed the rat and examined it.

• “Sorry but you’re gonna have to be my lab rat…”

Fear was evident yet there was no resistance. It had already accepted that there was no escape from its fate. Moment it was placed in the vault it’s body relaxed and became listless. Closing and opening it again to pull it out…

• “Dead…? No it’s breathing…

⟨ Pallesthesia ⟩

and I can feel it’s heart beating…? Hold on…”

⟨ Soul scryer ⟩

>Diagnosing…

>No Physical damage detected…

>Bodily functions continues normally…

>Minimal neurological activity… Unresponsive to pings.

>Prognosis: Subject in persistent vegetative state. End report.

• ‘Wait. Now I feel bad, can we heal that?’

>Recovery viability… 56.1%

>Begin recovery?

• ‘Not a hundred is it? But chance is still a chance, Yes.’

>Attempting to reconstruct neural pathways…… standby. Estimated time for completion: 51:17:22…

‘Let’s not step into the vault for now…’

>Updating entry registry. Title changed to [Void Vault].