Iteration 616: Border, Abidan Sector 61 Control

Sharani wasn't that special for an Abidan. As a 3-star Spider, with a secondary 2-star Ghost rating, she mostly handled coordinating the actions of her fellow operatives, as well as keeping an eye out for spacial violations. Needless to say, she mainlined elixirs to replace her need to sleep. Sector 61 was a major shipping lane, goods harvested from frontier worlds traveled through on their way to the core sectors. This meant a lot of work, especially for Spiders.

However, there was one thing about Sector 61, and Iteration 616 in particular, that made it special. It was, to simplify from a massively complex 5D representation, right on the edge of the Way. And on the rare time to herself that Sharani had, she engaged in a personal project. One of the more esoteric lines of research in the Ghost Division was the possibility of a second Way, disconnected from the one the Abidan resided in. It made a certain amount of sense if you thought about it. Whatever conditions caused the Way to form in the Void, there was a non-zero chance it could happen a second time.

Of course, this was a low priority project, doubly so since Ozriel vanished. Nevertheless, Sharani enjoyed looking. And due to the fact that doing so help hone her as both a Spider and a Ghost, she couldn't even get yelled at for wasting time. Lately she's been focusing on one direction, for want of a better term, in particular. She was certain she could see something, albeit something incredibly faint. It looked somewhat like a web, a 5-dimentional web, but a web none the less. This time, when she looked, she saw something new.

"Do you see that?" she asked their Presence.

"Confirmed," it replied. "Observed phenomena can be modeled with 21.627% accuracy."

Sharani's eyes widened; the accuracy had never exceeded 3% before. "Where is this headed?" she asked, pointing at what had caught her attention, a thread that connected this Web with the Way.

"Accurate prediction is impossible. Best estimate, Sector 11, 7.557% probability."

Sharani paled as she started composing a message, the Judges needed to hear this.


Iteration 110: Cradle; Moongrave

Akura Loyalty considered himself blessed. Not only was he honored to serve the Sage of the Silver Heart, but he was chosen by the honored Monarch Akura Malice herself to train her youngest daughter. The fact that said daughter is a joy to train is just a bonus.

"Morning Old Man Lo," Mercy said as she came down for breakfast, stifling a yawn.

Loyalty felt an eyebrow raise; Mercy was generally quite prompt when it came to bedtime. "Did you have trouble sleeping last night?"

"Not really," Mercy said as she reached for a glass of juice made from the apples of a 500-year-old sacred tree. "I did have a weird dream though."

Loyalty concealed a frown, "What sort of dream?" If this was an enemy of the Akuras targeting their probable heir with a Dream technique, her mother needed to know.

Mercy took a sip of her juice before answering. "I was in a big city, kinda like here, but the towers were made of metal and glass, and there were strings all over the place. There were Sacred artists all over the place, although they looked funny."

"How so?" Loyalty said as he served her a plate of bacon and eggs that practically radiated Life and Blood aura.

"They had odd outfits on, covering their whole body. Most of them were red and blue, but there were other colors too. They all had a picture of a spider somewhere though, are there Sects like that?"

"There are," Loyalty said as Mercy dug in. "Some Sects that don't have a signature Path, such as those that specialize in Refining or Soulsmithing, allow their disciples to wear the colors of their families, as long as they wear the Sect's icon."

Mercy nodded before swallowing. "That's good, I was wearing the same thing except purple."

Loyalty felt his heartbeat increase, if this was an attempt to subvert Mercy, he needed to hear more. "What happened next?"

"Well, I saw people use a Striker Technique, or maybe Forger? Anyway, they shot out strings that let them swing from building to building, so I did it to! I used that Technique from mom's book."

"I see," Loyalty said as his concern rose. Forget the heir, the Book of Eternal Night falling into enemy hands would be disastrous.

"Anyway," Mercy continued, "I swung around a bit until I found a nice park. I landed their and saw a statue."

"What was the statue of?"

"A nice-looking old man. There was a message on the base, I liked it."

"What did it say?" If the message was an attempt to turn Mercy against the family, he would take her straight to the healers to have the Technique purged.

"With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility."

Loyalty minutely relaxed. "Wise words. Now, finish your Breakfast and get to cycling.

As soon as Mercy left, Loyalty pulled out a communication construct from his soulspace. Malice needed to hear this.


Malice considered the message she received. While she understood Loyalty's concerns, hers were higher. While Loyalty thought this might be an attempt by an enemy Sect to subvert her daughter, Malice's first thought was that the Abidan might have their eyes on her.

After a few breaths, she dismissed it. The Abidan wore white armor and flew, the figures in her daughter's dream did neither. The same applied to every Sect she knew of, and she knew many. Also, while there were cities somewhat similar in the world to the one in her dream, none matched.

Malice relaxed as a new thought occurred to her. Mercy's dream included a use of the Strings of Shadow that Malice had never thought of but was definitely useful. Perhaps the Book of Eternal Night was reaching out to her, or one of the other books that had that technique. And the message on the statue was one that Malice agreed with. Her power was great, and so were the responsibilities she bore, it was good for Mercy to learn such a truth so young.

Last, but certainly not least, she had scanned Mercy herself and found no sign of mental manipulation. She would have Charity double-check, no sense taking chances, but this was not something hostile.


Earth-001: Web of Life and Destiny

"That's weird."

Zarina's head shot up. When Madame Web, greatest clairvoyant in the multiverse, said something was weird, that was cause to worry. "What's up?"

Julia pointed, "That strand, it's connected to somewhere… strange."

Zarina looked. Sure enough, the Web had a new strand, stretching off into nowhere. "Looks like it's not sturdy enough to crawl across, yet."

"Yet," Julia agreed.

They sat in silence for a while before Zarina broke it. "I'll spread the word; you keep an eye on it?"

Julia nodded as Zarina swung away. Unseen to both, a third figure watched the strand. Her gaze, however, was one of childish mischief.

Neith giggled to herself. The Abidan were too controlling, and they didn't even do Spiders right. She'd let them have one of hers, they'd be better off. The tree shape was nice though.