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Prelude: Disturbing the Web

Foreman Burris strolled down one of the mine tunnels close to the surface. They had well established their presence in this tunnel. Ventilation fans were working as he could hear the low, faint hum and feel the slight wind as they drew fresh air in from the outside. Tracks had been laid and a mine cart sat on them, ready to be filled. Light bulbs hung on wires strung along the walls to provide some light. However, like all of his people, Burris had little use for his weak vision beyond getting the general layout of his surroundings. His sensitive nose told him more about the details of his surroundings than his eyes ever could.

He lifted his long, tapered snout up and sniffed the air. He smelled what he had smelled since they arrived here: lifelessness. He was still astounded by how barren the Crag Mountains were. The staggering, jagged peaks were bare as were the valleys between the peaks. There were no trees, and finding even a small shrub or tuft of dry grass was a rare occasion. However, it was the dust that really let him know how dead this region was. It carried no organic scent. Burris never realized soil could be so devoid of life until he took a whiff of the dust carried on the lonely wind here.

However, there had been life here once. Mines were built into the mountains, though they had been abandoned for at least a thousand years. Burris had doubted this barren region would hold any coal which his mining company came here searching for. Still, he was never one to let a premade mine go uninvestigated.

He was glad he had decided to stay. None of the mines had any coal, but this mountain was filled with gems. Diamonds, rubies, garnet, emeralds, sapphires; the full spectrum of precious gems stuck out of the walls, ceiling, and even floor of the tunnels in unbelievable abundance.

Moleducs did not have much use for these colorful, shiny rocks. However, more visually oriented species paid handsomely for them. Even the few tunnels they had opened up so far contained enough gems to make him and his miners all ridiculously wealthy. Most of the mine was still unopened and they had yet to dig any new tunnels into the mountain too.

Even though they had removed a lot of gems from this area already, there were still some here and there. He shoved his long, sharp claws into the rock around a diamond and yanked it from the wall to examine it. The milky, irregular gem had to be at least fifty karats. It was a fortune in its own right, and all he had to do was pull it out of the wall.

However, the more Burris thought about the mine, the more unsettling it seemed. Why would such an enormous wealth be abandoned? What could scare away fortune hunters for a thousand years? Along with nature, civilization gave these mountains a wide berth. The nearest settlement was several miles away and roads and trails were kept well away from the mountains, even if it meant going out of the way. The locals said something about a demon being sealed here, but Burris did not believe in such superstitious nonsense. However, he could not get the idea something was down here with them out of his mind.

"Foreman Burris!" A shout came from deeper in the tunnel. Diggswell ran into sight from behind the incline of the tunnel. He stopped in front of Burris and took a moment to catch his breath before speaking again. "Foreman Burris, we found something."

"What?" Burris asked.

"We're not sure," Diggswell answered. "Some kind of barricade, but we don't know what it closes off. We thought you should see it and decide whether or not we should take it down."

Burris felt his throat go dry and gulped to try and wet it again. His mind immediately fell upon that unsettling question as to why the mine had been abandoned. They might have stumbled across the answer. However, there was only one way to find out. Burris shoved the diamond in his coveralls. "Take me to it."

Burris followed Diggswell deep into the mine. They left the tunnels that already had lighting and tracks installed. They had lamps on their helmets to provide some light, but Burris concentrated what his nose told him. The air was stale as it had not been disturbed for centuries until now and was well removed from their ventilation fans. It was also hotter and the air seemed heavier as they descended deep into the mountain. However, that dead smell to the air remained.

They came across the entire mining crew huddled around a barricade made of grayed planks nailed to the tunnel wall. "Is this it?" Burris asked.

"We found it while opening this tunnel," a miner replied.

Burris eyed the barricade intently. The barrier looked like it had been flimsy even when it was first erected. The boards had wide gaps between them allowing air to flow between the tunnel and the chamber beyond them. There was a marking on the planks of a large, barely discernible oval with eight lines radiating from it.

Burris instinctively sniffed the air coming through. He knew mines could hold pockets of natural gas or other gaseous toxins. However, he smelled no gas or toxins. He glanced at the canary in a cage one of the miners held. The yellow bird flitted around its cage, as lively as ever. Whatever called for the barricade, it was not to stop a leak of any kind.

Burris felt more at ease now that he saw the barricade. This mine had been sealed off a thousand years ago. If it was not a leak, they might have sealed something down here which was almost certainly dead. Even if something was still alive down here, they had nothing to fear from something stopped by some planks of wood. He felt stupid for giving any credence to the overly superstitious locals.

Curiosity and even bravado came in to replace his dread. He wanted to know just what was so horrible that it would keep everyone away from these gems for so long and show everyone there was nothing to fear. "Pull it down."

"Are you sure we should?" a miner asked timidly. "Maybe we should just leave it alone. We have enough gems already."

Burris turned to the miner cowering against the opposite wall and glared at him scornfully. "What are you afraid of? If something is down here, it's no match for us if this barricade can hold it in."

He looked to the others. "I said pull it down!"

The miners grabbed pickaxes and crowbars and quickly yanked down the planks. They shined their lamps inside the chamber behind it. It was the size of a large room with the once barricaded mouth as the only entrance or exit. Even compared to the rest of the mine, the walls, ceiling, and floor were rich with gemstones.

In the center was a rock devoid of gems. It looked artificial as it had flat, smooth surfaces and all the corners were roughly square. It was rectangular, longer than it was wide than it was tall, and about the size of a coffin. Its crude resemblance to a coffin sent a shiver down Burris' spine and made his thick, black fur stand on end under his coveralls.

Despite his apprehension, Burris stepped into the chamber. He sniffed the air. It was like the air in the tunnel, stale, hot, stuffy, and having that dead smell like everywhere else. The other miners followed, examining whatever came into the small circles of light from their lamps and sniffing the air. They gripped their tools close to their bodies as their attention shifted from wall to wall.

Burris examined the rock closely. It seemed to be a monolith with no seam or division to suggest it was anything but a solid rock. The dimensions were a very orderly at two feet high by four feet wide by eight feet long suggesting it was an artificial construct, but seemed to serve no purpose except to sit there.

The light from his lamp happened to pass over a gold medallion on the side near the top. A blue flower emblem decorated it, but that was all he could tell as it quickly became red hot and melted away. It oozed down the side and disappeared.

Burris jumped back when a couple seconds later a line of light formed where the medallion had been and extended horizontally in either direction. The line circled the stone and the thin slab above the line lifted up and slid away, landing beside the main body with a dull thud. The miners watched fearfully as this unfolded and bright light flooded the chamber from the interior of the stone.

"I told you we should have left well enough alone," the miner who stated his apprehension before said with a quiver to his voice.

Burris ignored him. However, it was because he knew the miner was absolutely right. They had just witnessed powerful magic being broken and the sense of dread was back to shove away his foolish curiosity and pride. Were the locals right about a demon and the barricade was meant to keep people out and not something in? He was an idiot for not leaving well enough alone. However, they were in too deep now to stop.

Burris stepped cautiously towards the stone and peered in the hollow cavity. The light came from the bottom beneath a body lying in repose with its arms crossed across its chest. He was apparently not too far off comparing it to a coffin.

The body resembled a tall human man. However, his skin was steel gray, and he was so thin he looked like skin was stretched over a skeleton with little else between. His long, wiry hair was yellowish-white and covered by a gray hat with a wide brim, and his attire was mostly covered by a tattered, gray duster coat.

The other miners slowly joined Burris looking into the stone. "Is he dead?" a miner asked.

"He has to be dead," Diggswell replied. "He's been buried here for a thousand years."

A miner sniffed. "He doesn't smell dead."

Burris sniffed. The body did not smell like a corpse, but did not smell alive either. He smelled like dust. He also appeared to have expired moments ago if at all as his body was in perfect condition if his appearance was natural. He must have been preserved in this stone casket.

"Check out the instrument in his hand." A miner pointed to the gold flute in the body's bony right hand.

"Do you think it's solid gold?" Digswell asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Burris reached for it. He moved slowly. The thought the body might wake up nagged at the back of his mind, even though it was ridiculous. This was not one of those "curse of the mummy" novels.

He almost had his clawed hand on the flute when someone yelped. He drew his hand back and spun around. His heart pounded rapidly against his ribcage so hard he could hear it thumping.

A miner was frantically batting at his shoulder. He stopped and looked up at everyone and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. It was a spider."

Burris rolled his eyes and grumbled. His heart quieted to normal and he heaved a sigh out of relief and exasperation. Getting that worked up because of a little spider? Miners should be made of tougher stuff than that.

He turned his attention back to the flute. He reached in more quickly this time and almost had his claws on it when the body's other hand suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist. Burris' heart felt like it was going to blast out of his chest as the hand tightened its grip. The body's eyes popped open and slid in their sockets to gaze at him, black where they should be white with gold irises.

Burris was petrified, practically hyperventilating, as he gazed into the eyes staring blankly at him. He could not resist when the hand holding the flute grabbed the collar of his coveralls and pulled him in so his face was next to the mouth. The mouth opened slightly, revealing many jagged, yellow teeth. The breath escaping from it smelled rancid and carried dust and dryness from within the body. The voice was a wheeze like air slowly escaping a balloon formed into words. "How long?"

"How long what?" Burris managed to ask.

The body swallowed to wet his mouth. "How long have we been trapped here?" he said slowly in a more clear voice.

"I don't know, but this mine has been sealed for a thousand years," Burris stuttered.

The very alive body released Burris to let him fall backwards. The body's eyes shifted in their sockets as he seemed to contemplate the answer.

The wherewithal returned to Burris to see what was happening around him. The gems had suddenly disappeared. Instead there were spiders descending on lines and scorpions crawling down the walls everywhere. The walls, ceiling, and floor seemed to be in motion. A relatively large scorpion crawled out his pocket where he had put the diamond earlier and held up its pincers menacingly before he batted it off his coveralls. He backed up into the corner where the others had huddled. He tried to plant his hands and feet where the rock was still bare to avoid touching any of the arachnids.

The spiders and scorpions gathered around the stone. It was hard to tell, but it looked like they were bowing. The body…or rather…the man sat up and the arachnids stood up straight.

"Who are you?" Burris asked, trying to keep the stutter out of his voice.

The man turned his head to them. "I am known as Arachnis the Captor," he said in a low, naturally menacing voice. "Who are you?"

"We're just simple miners," Diggswell stammered.

"Indeed." Arachnis slowly stood up and stepped out of the stone. The arachnids created a large open area for him to stand. "I should reward you for releasing us from our prison."

"Reward?" Burris asked fearfully.

Arachnis threw his head from side to side, making a sickening crack sound in either direction. "A swift death," he said plainly. "It's an honor we rarely afford our prey."

The spiders and scorpions turned to the miners. They moved in mass towards them and climbed onto them. The miners' blood curdling screams echoed through the tunnels and shafts even after the source had been cut short.

Arachnis walked out of the mine. His horde followed him like a moving carpet with a bare area for him to walk on. More arachnids poured out of carts as they were released from their crystalline state. He shielded his eyes from the bright sun which they had not seen in a millennium. He relished in feeling the sun's warmth and smelling something even if it was just lifeless dust. He chuckled. "We're free," he said. He then laughed and shouted "WE'RE FREE!" so loud it echoed off the faces of the surrounding mountains.