Now that I'm not sick anymore, welcome back to your regularly-scheduled updates!

Don't forget to listen to the songs!

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Chapter 4: Ave Plague (KING PLAGUE)

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Next day, as Kid was putting on his usual clothes, he noticed three white spots on his hair. They were barely thicker than a hair's width, and were located on the side of his head. Kid grimaced and rearranged his hair so that the offending spots weren't visible. The boy's first thought was that the stress of hiding things was getting to him and that he should get more rest, but then he remembered what happened last night and all thoughts of relaxation went out of the window.

After last night, Kid had hidden all evidence of his experimenting; the rats were freed outside the castle, the dead rat was hastily thrown outside and he had hidden his notes in the usual spot on his bed. The only evidence of what had happened was Kid's mind which was still processing the events.

At first he was scared that he had woken someone up. After some minutes passed and no one came to check up on him, a tiny part of Kid relaxed. Only he would know what happened.

Still… what had happened? He had killed that rat, he had torn apart the connection between body and soul. Kid knew that only severe physical damage done to a body could do that, either because of a confrontation or due to old age. The only way to actively break it was if you wanted to consume the soul, yet Kid knew he wasn't a Kishin Egg -quite the opposite- so that left more questions unanswered. Maybe it was like Mother's Wavelength? Maybe Kid's particular niche was ripping souls apart?

That still didn't explain why the rat had initially slept though. Maybe his Soul Wavelength's effect depended on their ferocity? He had certainly used 'more' of it the second time.

The boy rubbed his eyes. Augh, this wasn't making sense.

Still. He could think about that later tonight. Now it was Saturday morning and he had to follow his usual routine.

With that in mind, he finished putting his clothes on. It was casual wear, a black shirt and black dress pants.

The boy made his way into the dining hall, where Mother and a few important members of Arachnophobia seated each day to take their meals. Mother was there, but almost everyone else was absent, due to how early it was. Kid sat on her left side as always. Her right side was reserved for Giriko -Mosquito was on serving duty and would later sit next to Kid. It signified that Kid was important to the Witch, but also that he wasn't the one she referred to in official Arachnophobia matters. He was fourteen after all.

"Good morning child," the Witch greeted him, looking up from her tea. Mother preferred to have tea on most calm mornings. Her having tea means that there was little to worry about. It was when she was having coffee, especially the Greek type, that one knew the situations were grave.

"Good morning Mother."

"Have you had a good night's sleep? You look tired."

Damn. Why did she have to be so observant? "Nightmares," Kid replied. "It wasn't anything serious though."

"That's good to hear." It was a believable excuse. Nightmares weren't an uncommon phenomenon here.

Their conversation was cut short by an Arachnophobia member, short in stature and covered head to toe by the standard issue uniform, barged into the Dining Hall. "Lady Arachne!"

The Witch in question frowned at the robed woman. Their limited off time was precious and should only be interrupted for serious matters.

"Last night-!"

Kid's frame tensed.

"We got an intruder! They won't tell us where they're from, but they're a Weapon-Meister pair!"

"The Academy," the Witch hissed. "How did they get here in the first place?! My spiders would have sensed them!"

"We do not know Milady! All that we have is that we caught them while patrolling! They were ill-equipped to fight so we quickly subdued them for interrogation!"

"Not equipped to fight?" the Witch repeated. "If they were not here to fight then what was their purpose?"

"We do not know milady."

"Did ya know why they were here though?" Giriko asked. "People can't just stumble into this place."

The woman shook his head. "We have confiscated their belongings but can't make heads or tails of their purpose."

The Witch sighed. "Very well. It appears I have to cut breakfast short." She motioned to the blonde man. "Giriko, come with me."

"Alright! We doin' some old-fashioned interrogating?!"

"Don't be crass. Such methods will probably yield us false information. I've done enough research to know so," the woman said as she led the way out of the Hall, Giriko in tow.

When Arachne left the dining table, Kid soon excused himself too. The excuse he gave to Mosquito was that he wanted to work on his studies over the weekend. The man of course took the excuse hook, line and sinker and allowed the boy to retreat to his quarters.

There Kid locked the door behind him. He didn't want to be interrupted. Taking his secret notebook out of its hiding place, he began thinking back on the night before.

Truth be told, the qualities of his wavelength were only a small part of the puzzle. There were more things he wanted to explore.

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The prisoners were a man and a woman. They were both well-built, with dark brown dreadlocked hair and dark skin. The man was the bulkier of the two, dressed in casual sportswear. The woman had bandages covering the upper half of her body and one eye, with a loose camo pants.

"Sid," the captured woman nudged at the man who looked up to see Arachne.

"The Witch herself came. I feel honored."

"It's not any day that someone comes unprepared into my base."

"Touché. Don't really have a retort for that and I'm not the kind of man who won't admit to his mistakes."

"Lady Arachne," an Arachnophobia member motioned her from the edge of the cell. "They were caught at 2 in the morning, but we think they infiltrated us at midnight. We did not notify you earlier as we wished to confirm they weren't a…"

"A hallucination influenced by the Madness," the Witch completed her minion's line of thought. "Very well. You mentioned their belongings were unusual. Where are they kept?"

"This way milady," the minion addressed her and headed further away from the cell into a small room built in the stone. "We have put all we have found on the table."

The woman took the duffel bag and emptied it on the table. A few objects fell down. Most were survival gear; a torch, water bottles, rations and a few iodine tablets to purify water. The unusual objects were a container filled with a strange black substance and a peculiar wooden tube. The latter object smelled strongly of incense.

She recognized the smell. It was used for a location spell, one aimed to pinpoint an individual's locations. Did that mean they were searching for someone?

Arachne inspected the small tube. One way to determine who the spell was trying to locate was by seeing what name was written inside the tube. To do so however, one would have to break the cylinder, thus the spell.

It was hardly a dilemma. Arachnophobia was well-stocked when it came to Witchcraft ingredients, so she could easily recreate the spell if need be. Arachne liked to experiment, after all.

The Witch dug her fingers into the point where the main body and the cap of the tube connected. She forced it open using her long fingernails and emptied its contents on the table. Rosemary, sugar and a few seeds of wheat fell out. That was strange. They had used the same basic spices but different complementary ingredients. Such things were used when you wanted to increase the spell's attributes, such as sensitivity. Problem was, this variation could only be used for certain distinct individuals, for example, a powerful Witch like her. This ruled out a major portion of Arachnophobia -since if the Academy pair had ended up in her doorstep meant that it was looking for someone in her base.

Oh well. She would find out soon enough when she saw the name written inside the tube.

Placing the tube in her grip, she tightened it and crushed the pipe underneath. Opening her palm, she let the tube's content fall to the table. Sorting them out, she picked a large fragment with writing on it. The ink was black and had settled deep into the wood.

The Witch's eyes widened at the name on the plate.

Death.

Arachne took a step backwards, accidentally letting the piece fall from her hand.

It… it must have been some kind of mistake! The Academy pair must have been lead here by accident. It was impossible that Death was in Arachnophobia, much less anywhere else on this Earth-!

But if they truly were lead here… was it possible the spell had been badly made? That it was a fluke? The spell could have very well pointed them out in a person that had been involved with Death, the person that knew most and could guide the to it.

Even then though, if the individual the tracing spell was homing on had passed away, then it would point to where the remains were. In that case, the two humans should have been lead to Nevada, not here of all places.

"Lady Arachne?" the Arachnophobia members asked worriedly.

"Give me a moment," the Witch shot back. "Go to the cell. Make sure our prisoners do not escape."

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Arachne fell back on her couch and rubbed her temples. She was in her private quarters, mulling over the events with a glass of aged red wine.

Her interrogation was all for naught. The prisoners seemed as lost as she was on why they were headed in Arachnophobia. The Witch thought that maybe it was a ruse, to cause her to doubt her own members. However, even with her strongest spells and truth serums, she got the same answer.

"The spell pointed us in your way."

As for how they got here, they managed to weave in a simple pathfinding spell allowing them to teleport at close range towards the individual they were tracking. That had explained how they got inside her base, though it raised the questions of how they had acquired such knowledge about the spells in the first place.

Arachne had to do something about it. She had to investigate. Such rumors would only eat away at her waking moments. If Death had infiltrated her organization, there was much more at stake besides her own life. There was the matter of everyone else's souls, Giriko's, Mosquito's, her child's.

No, the Witch should make her own tracking spells and confirm her suspicions. She had already faced Death once, when they were in full power; she had the strength to do so again.

There was a knock on her door. The Witch stood up straighter. She wasn't expecting anyone.

"Come in."

The door opened, revealing a black-haired boy looking up at her. It was her child. Right, of course. She should compose herself.

"Mother, are you-?"

"Everything is fine. Just a minor inconvenience," she reassured the boy. "Now, is there something you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, yes," the boy said. "They haven't been mentioned in any of my lessons thus far, but I'm curious and wondering if you could give me an introductory lesson on them..." he rambled off.

"On what?"

"Magic Circles."

Arachne raised an eyebrow. "That's a difficult subject. It requires not only knowledge, but a steady hand and creative thinking."

"Yes, well…" Kid trailed off.

"Child," Arachne said in an unamused tone. This was no time for secrets.

"…I may have borrowed a book about them and started practicing…"

The Witch sighed in relief. And there she was thinking Kid had done something reckless. "Oh."

"I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"

"No. I'm impressed. Have you done any practice?"

"A few things."

The boy took out a notebook and opened it to the first few pages. Inside were perfect circles and squares.

Arachne smiled. "The shapes are very well made."

"Yes, I didn't find it very difficult. After all, you have to make sure they're symmetrical-"

"Kid," The mother immediately said when she said that particular word. She found that a gentle warning was more than enough to curb his child's unusually obsessive nature when that word was concerned.

"Um right. I meant to say that I find it easy to construct the shapes..."

Arachne thought about this. On one hand she wanted nothing more than to spring to her lab and create a tracking spell on her own. On the other hand, she had duties and responsibilities as a mother and a caretaker, and her services were requested for.

Oh, well. It couldn't hurt if it only took a few hours.

The Witch smiled. "Very well. I can only give you a brief crash course. After that you will have to study on your own. Make sure you don't attempt to do a fully-fledged spell."

The boy nodded. "Yes, Mother."

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