Spell Weaver [Book 2 Complete]

Alex’s boots echoed through the narrow tunnel as he followed behind the mana spinner. It moved silently along mana threads that magically dissolved as it passed, making it look like a mix of Alex’s movement skill and ice skating. Alex thought it was mesmerizing to watch through his Heavenly Eye.

He ducked under a curtain of magical webs in the tunnel, noting how frequently the rituals and layers of strands seemed to be laid as he moved deeper.

Alex was surprised by how deep the spinner territory extended into the Night section of the Rift. They descended through steep declines and branching tunnels until the ground finally leveled out beneath them.

That tunnel suddenly widened and opened into a vast underground chamber that caught his breath. The ceiling disappeared beyond his vision, and the space had to be larger than a stadium. It was the only vast open space that he could think to compare it to, and if it weren’t for the small lantern he held and the webs covering most of the walls, he wasn’t sure he’d even be able to sense the general space around him.

Mana coursed through the room’s many webs in a pattern that reminded him of the beat of a pulse.

"Incredible," he whispered, turning to look around the space.

The large hunter-spider he'd been following extended a mana-tendril toward Alex. There were intense feelings of pride, protection, and... mother? He felt the hair on his body stand on end as the spinner made a chittering sound with its small mandibles. It motioned for him to follow and began moving toward the center of the cavern.

In the dense darkness, Alex relied completely on his lantern's reflected light to see with his right eye, though the webbing-covered ruins helped him track his surroundings through peripheral vision. At first, he thought that the ruined buildings were stalactites that created a sort of maze, but as they moved between the sections, he saw that they were man-made walls of stone.

They had more carvings on them, similar to the ones in the underground tunnels leading toward Eura's resting place, but his guide didn't slow or respond to further attempts to communicate.

As they rounded a final bend, and he could see the large open space at the center of the chamber, he let his lantern’s beam scan the space before stopping in his tracks. There she rested… the Spinner Queen.

She was easily four times larger than the normal spinners, which already came up to Alex’s waist. Her body was pale and almost translucent in some places, as he could see mana coursing through her body. It was fascinating enough that Alex nearly forgot himself, wanting to look closer at how different her body was from the normal hunters. The spinners he’d known could pull their mana into their body and prevent any of it from leaking out, but the queen didn’t seem to bother. He suspected that some mana could be seen through her semi-translucent body even if she did bother to try.

Alex attempted to gently prob at the queen with his mind, curious if he’d be able to scan her, and was surprised that he could with ease. He wasn’t sure if that was from his Willpower being so much higher than hers, or perhaps she just allowed him to scan her, as the first mana spinner he’d ever run into had.