Novel Full Chapter 1901 Anti-climax
Chapter 1901: Chapter 1901 Anti-climax
— Kat —
“I ACCEPT THIS CHANGE” shouted Kat. The area had been cleared out, finally. There were big piles of webs off in the distance alongside piles of nicely folded curtains that Hedera had moved out of the way. There was a good fifty metres of space around Kat in every direction. Perhaps a little much but they really didn’t want anything to go up in flames.
So it was slightly awkward when nothing happened. They’d even gone so far as to make sure that Kat was the one holding the ’scroll of change’ for the announcement so that if the lightning was going to do real damage Kat could regenerate through it. That and she’d argued her pain tolerance was probably the highest. She was right, but it didn’t make Lily happy.
Initially anyway. Now they were all looking around, very confused. Kat glanced at the scroll in her hands and wondered if it hadn’t work when it glowed gold for a moment before vanishing. Kat tensed, readying herself for the lightning that was sure to follow… right? “Is that it?” asked Kat.
Hedera sniffed a bit. “Do you smell any smoke Lily?”
“Not at all,” said Lily as she transformed into her Memphis form to double check. Sniffing around… there was still nothing. Swapping back Lily confirmed as much. “Yup. I smell no burning, no ozone… nothing to indicate there was any lightning at all…”
“So… this DID activate right?” said Kat gesturing vaguely towards the empty air in front of her where the scroll had been. “I know it was meant to crumble… but that was only if we officially rejected things. I wouldn’t exactly call ’vanishing in a puff of light’ crumbling so I think we’re good but… this has all been a bit strange.”
“Does it just not show up if we’re underground?” asked Hedera.
“I doubt it,” countered Lily. “Surely Thyme wouldn’t make it so easy to avoid the downside… unless that was part of the point? To make it really easy to avoid?”
“Maybe?” agreed Kat uncertainly. “So… do we run back to Weaver or…” Kat didn’t have time to make a decision because the air seemed to shift as a bunch of the silk at the edges shuddered. A moment later, Weaver was stepping out from seemingly nowhere. “Weaver you’re ok!”
“What happened?” asked Weaver.
“You sort of just froze up after the chest was open. We… dealt with it but we needed to clear some space for that. Um… it should be fine now?” offered Kat uncertain as to what to say.
Weaver let out a long sigh. “Well… I suppose that’s fine. Just… please don’t open such things in my domain. I was curious to see what was inside but now I find myself wishing to be done with them. In fact,” Weaver threw a chest vaguely towards the three. Nowhere close to hitting them. “just take this now. It’s your reward for finishing the mission later today. Which I do expect you to do just… yeah I don’t want it anymore for obvious reasons.”
“What are you going to do with the other chests you have?” asked Hedera.
Weaver sighed. “I’m not sure. Part of me wants to destroy them but I’m not entirely certain that I CAN. I might find somewhere to dump them or perhaps I’ll give out the rest to you three. We’ll have to see. I certainly don’t want them anymore.”
*Push to take the other two off her hands?*
[I don’t think so. If she wasn’t being played by Thyme we might be able to justify it to her character but because it’s Thyme I’m sure they’ll have an excuse… and they’re probably being watched closely by others. I doubt they can justify just giving away the other two because of ’what happened’.]
*So… think we found a bug?*
[Yup. I think this space here is meant to be underground or something but it’s actually a separate space so the lightning didn’t work properly. That or perhaps we’re too deep underground? Depends on where Thyme built it.]
*Fair. So… head off?*
[Well… maybe after calming Weaver down a bit?]
Ah yeah probably. “So… what do you want done with the stuff we moved?” asked Kat as she gestured off to the side where the curtains were. “Hedera folded the curtains neatly… which is better than what Lily and I did. We honestly just piled the silk up, expecting that your manipulations would sort it out more neatly than we ever could,”
“It’s fine. This place was a lot neater once upon a time but I’ve sort of let it fall into disrepair. The reason there is webs everywhere is a combination of the spiders that moved in to be close to see, as I seem to attract them… and just… well… I sort of spread my silk out everywhere it could reach to try and find a way out. I didn’t find it, and I repurposed some of that silk but ultimately just left a lot of it lying around. It serves its purpose but I’m not overly put out. I might turn the area into a garden or something like that…”
Weaver shook her head. “Would you all like to have something to eat before you head off?” Kat glanced over to Lily and shrugged. Lily shrugged back and turned to Hedera. Who seemed concerned everyone was now looking at her.
“Um… sure? Yes, yes I think that would be nice. This was… well it wasn’t hard but it was a fair bit of time for what turned out to be absolutely nothing…” mumbled Hedera.
“What’s she talking about?” asked Weaver.
Hedera froze like a dear caught in headlights so Kat spoke up, “We said we dealt with the item correct? Well we were expecting there to be lightning and the potential for it all to go up in flames. We wanted to make sure none of your webs were set alight, especially while you were out of it… and then nothing happened. No lightning, no fire. Not even any noise. So, feels like it was a bit of a waste… but the risk you know?”
“Ah,” said Weaver as she nodded in understanding. “While it is still rather awkward that I seem to be missing a chunk of time, and more of it because you needed to spend time cleaning out webs… I do admit that I appreciate the fact you went to such length’s to keep my home safe. Though…”
Weaver summoned the silk over and then summoned a new thread to shoot off into the distance. A moment later a lighter came over and Weaver flicked it on, pressing it against the silk. The edge touching the fire did catch alight but the flame soon spluttered and burned out. “My silk isn’t entirely immune to heat but it can quickly dissipate it. Depending on the specifics of what you were worried about it could’ve been an issue… but perhaps not one as large as you all thought,”
*Welp. I feel like a bit of a fool now.*
[We had no way to know and it’s not like we could’ve asked her.]
*I guess so. Still feel a bit silly.* Hedera wasn’t feeling much better, but with Weaver’s piece said she started to herd the three back to her house. “Would you like me to simply bring you all back to my cabin?” asked Weaver, “Or keep walking?”
Kat shrugged while Lily and Hedera nodded along. Accepting that, Weaver bundled them up in a ball of silk and then unwound it just a few seconds later to show they were back in the cabin. Lily hadn’t even felt the transition.
Hedera pulled out more tea for everyone and then some basic meat skewers with mushrooms on them as well. The meat was mostly from Kat’s haul, while the mushrooms were picked by Weaver, presumably. Kat hadn’t handed any of her stock of them over after all.
*So, what’s the plan once we head out? I think we could maybe make it to the wall if we sprinted full out. Not sure if we want to test if the rule is working or not…*
[Is it really close enough?]
*Maybe? I’m not really sure what time it is anymore but we don’t have to meet with the mayor until the afternoon.*
[Eh… I think it’s probably a bit of a risk. There’s definitely some space shenanigans going on with the size of the island and I’m not sure the wall is really as close as you’d think. I’d say we’re better off looking around until we find a quest that can be completed in town. Doesn’t have to be anything big, just helping out to kill time and not ’lose’ time as we do so.]
*Yeah that makes sense. Might be able to go bug Mol as well. Get the insider info.*
[You just want to bully the poor girl because she can’t stay in character.]
*Look, she clearly didn’t read her backstory documents properly and it amuses me. I wouldn’t use it for a serious advantage or try to get her in real trouble… but…*