CHAPTER 28: UNSEEN THREADS

The darkness was thick, almost tangible. The labyrinth, even after the ordeal, hadn’t stopped pulsing. Paths continued to shift, climbing living stairs that twisted like roots in search of sustenance. Eren walked alone through one of the galleries, his footsteps echoing on a chitin bridge that cracked with each step. Kaela and Nyssa had fallen asleep leaning against a damp wall, exhausted.

But not him. Something unsettled him—and it wasn’t just the tension from the combat. It was the spider.

"What do you want from me?" he murmured, more to himself.

Morwynn’s words hammered in his head since their last encounter. "I collect." "Tremors." "Threads."

It wasn’t just curiosity. It was as if he were being watched—not by eyes, but by a mind that organized thoughts like traps.

At the end of a tunnel, a gallery opened up. The floor was smooth as glass, reflecting soft lights dripping from the ceiling like suspended drops. In the center, there was a void. Literally. A space without texture, without light, without sound. And in it, Morwynn.

She appeared as if she had always been there. Just revealed herself.

"You’ve been... thinking. That’s good. Humans think little after surviving. Most just scream. And... die."

Eren took a step back.

"Are you watching me? Do you like spying on me while I sleep too?"

Morwynn descended from the side wall, hanging by an almost invisible web. She stopped upside down, a few meters from the ground.

"Spying is rude. I... observe."

"Hm. Any difference besides semantics?"

She didn’t answer. Just spun, landing lightly.

"Which threads do you prefer? Mental? Emotional? Carnal?"

Eren narrowed his eyes.

"Is that a pickup line or a test?"

Morwynn approached slowly, her steps making almost no sound.

"Your body responds to touch. Your monsters... are touched. You touch them. And... hear them. That’s not common."

"So what?"

"So I don’t feel repulsion. Curiosity... is a different thing. I want to understand. I don’t want to dominate. I don’t want a contract."

She stopped beside him, raising part of her carapace as if breathing.

"But... I want truth. If I’m to touch... let it be real."

Eren studied her in silence. She wasn’t lying. She didn’t even seem capable of it. The darkness around them enveloped them like a cocoon.

"You’re strange."

"Thank you."

Silence.

"If it’s for... study," Eren said, "I might accept. But don’t expect poetry."

"I detest poetry. Dead words."

Morwynn turned and extended a foreleg, indicating a crack in the side wall. A narrow passage opened there, hidden by shadows and curved shapes.

"Dark gallery. Isolated web. Away from the others. No one will hear. No one will judge."

Eren followed.

The entrance swallowed them like a tongue of living stone. And the lights of the labyrinth behind them went out, one by one.

The dark gallery was lined with veils of web hanging from the ceiling like sacred curtains. The light was minimal, filtered by filaments that flickered, as if breathing. The air was thick with humidity and the subtle smell of something organic—not death, but gestation. Life in its raw stage.

Eren entered slowly. The floor seemed to welcome his steps, and the walls, organic, seemed to retract at the touch of the faint light. Morwynn was already waiting further ahead, standing on a stone ledge covered with silk.

Her body seemed different under that lighting. Pale and delicate skin, contrasting with the black and smooth carapace covering parts of her legs and shoulders.

Her eyes shone in different shades, moving in pairs, studying him. The human legs blended with arachnid segments in elegant transitions. Every movement was fluid, as if she glided through the space between worlds.

"You hesitate. But you walk. That’s... rare."

Eren stopped a few steps from her.

"I’m here. You wanted... to study. So study."

Morwynn extended one of her hands—human, but elongated at the fingers—and touched Eren’s chest, right in the center. It wasn’t a sexual gesture, nor romantic. It was... inquisitive.

"You touch. I remember."

She said.

Morwynn’s eyes glowed, and her body began to approach, as if enveloping him without enclosing him. The web on the floor reacted to their presence, subtly changing shape and color.

"In darkness... there is no shame."

She touched him again, now on the shoulders. Then, slid her fingers along the sides of his body. Eren didn’t move. Her gesture wasn’t one of provocation—it was of understanding. She was deciphering him.

"Your warmth... spreads quickly. Your skin... tightens when touched. Is that... good?"

"It’s... normal."

He replied, his voice lower than he intended.

Morwynn undid part of the carapace covering her own body, revealing more of the white and unreal skin beneath. Her abdomen was smooth, with a texture of living silk; the small, well-shaped breasts rose with her silent breathing.

The curves, though unusual, followed a different aesthetic logic—sensual not by resemblance to the human, but by strange harmony.

The narrow waist joined well-defined hips, where black and smooth plates framed the light skin as if they were natural ornaments. Thin lines of web emerged from her shoulders and ribs, adhering to the sides of her bust like mist straps.

There was no shame there. Only surrender. It didn’t seem lascivious—it seemed ritualistic, but a ritual shaped with silent desire.

She approached, her face close to his, without kissing him. The webs moved behind them, as if the environment enveloped them. And then, slowly, she touched her lips to his—a light, experimental kiss. As if she were tasting an idea.

"Tactile memory... acquired." she whispered.

The touch turned into a caress. Her hands ran over his body, tracing muscles and scars. Morwynn reacted to each new point of contact with short sighs, almost calculated sounds. As if cataloging the pleasure.

Eren gently pushed her against one of the web-covered walls. She didn’t resist. She embraced the gesture with closed eyes, lips slightly parted, her body arched as if waiting to be unraveled.

"Your firmness... it doesn’t scare. It’s... instruction."

The clothes were coming undone, in almost silent movements. Her hybrid legs enveloped Eren carefully, as if she feared marking him. Yet her body trembled in anticipation.

When he entered her, she let out a muffled sound—not of pain, nor of uncontrolled pleasure. It was a sound... of realization. As if a calculation had been confirmed.

"Now... I understand."

Eren took a deep breath. Morwynn was not warm like Nyssa, nor wild like Kaela. But there was something hypnotic about her.

The cold, thin skin against his, the way every part of her body seemed carefully positioned to envelop without dominating.

The muscles beneath the carapace reacted to the touch, tense and curious. She did not moan loudly. She sighed as if each sensation was a guarded discovery. A scientific note being taken with the body.

He observed every inch: the small breasts pressing against his chest, the black plates sliding beneath her thighs like living armor, the strands of web that clung to the skin like decorative bands. Her eyes—all of them—open, attentive, not with lust, but with analysis.

The rhythm began slowly, as if both were still testing each other’s limits. Morwynn followed with smooth, flexible hips, like wet silk in motion. The hybrid legs held him with surprising firmness, but there was no domination. Only... surrender.

"Your warmth... sinks... I... get lost."

Eren did not respond. It wasn’t the best sex of his life. Probably not hers either. But still, he continued, performing as an act of mutual respect and curiosity. Her body seemed like an organism of multiple wills—each sigh, each contraction, as if different parts tried to understand and feel at the same time.

She pulled him with her legs, trapping him in an intimate embrace. Her eyes closed, all of them. Her body shivered, and he felt the firm contraction, followed by a deep, muffled moan that echoed through the chamber.

The sound was strange. Almost sacred. Eren also reached his climax shortly after, his body exhausted, but his mind strangely clear.

As if he had crossed a line he didn’t even know existed.

She pulled him with her legs, trapping him in an intimate embrace. Her eyes closed, all of them. Her body shivered, and he felt the firm contraction, followed by a deep, muffled moan that echoed through the chamber.

Eren also reached his climax shortly after, his body exhausted, but his mind strangely clear.

The system, which had remained silent until then, glowed:

[Bond Established: 87% Affinity]

[Shared Ability: Prey’s Vision | Reflexes +2]

Both remained lying on the living silk for a few moments. Morwynn still enveloped him with her legs and arms.

"Was that... authentic?"

Eren, still breathless, replied:

"Authentic enough."

She smiled. A strange but genuine smile. Then she released him, retreating lightly, and wrapped herself in her own webs like a cloak.

"I’ve learned."

And she vanished into the shadows without a sound.

Eren stayed there for a moment, feeling the silk beneath his back. It was warmer. More... familiar.

Eren returned through the labyrinth’s galleries as if nothing had happened. Morwynn followed at a respectful distance, walking along the walls as if she were part of the environment—but now there was a lightness to her movement, almost satisfied. The silence between the two was comfortable, dense, complicit.

Kaela was the first to open her eyes as Eren approached. Her instincts sharpened immediately. Her nostrils flared.

"There’s a strange smell in the air... — she murmured, but didn’t finish. She glanced sideways at Morwynn, then at Eren, and decided to say nothing more."

Nyssa only yawned, still in the midst of a slow stupor.

"Eren... you seem... lighter"

She commented, rubbing her eyes.

"We have company now."

Eren replied, deflecting the subject naturally.

The system, which had remained silent since the bond, suddenly issued an alert:

[Hostile Presence Detected Nearby]

Kaela immediately stood up, the hair on her neck bristling.

"This is not good."

Eren walked to one of the crevices in the ceiling of the labyrinth’s main entrance and climbed high enough to peek beyond. Sunlight filtered through the trees and cliffs with difficulty. But soon, he saw them.

Paladins.

Marching silently. White armor with burnt red details. Symbolism engraved on their chests: a flaming eye, the sacred insignia of the Order of the Flaming Eye.

They advanced like a living wall, coordinated steps, sheathed spears, runic shields glowing with purification spells.

Eren turned to his companions.

"Trouble."

Kaela growled.

"Let them come. Kaela will warm the blood of these fanatics!"

Nyssa trembled slightly.

"They’ll... purify us, won’t they? Hunt us... like things."

Morwynn, hanging high above, watched the scene without visible emotion. But her eyes glowed in a sinister way. And then, she whispered, her voice like a thread of wet silk:

"The faith has arrived... and it came to burn.