a roar ripped through the desert.

    flames exploded up from the ground alongside a massive plume of sand, licking for the sky. a thick cloud of smoke and fire rolled out from the explosion.

    linestra’s mouth dropped open. even though they were far from the auction house, she could still see the hazy waves of heat twisting up from where it had been.

    linestra spotted lee slipping away from the party and darting over a sand dune but paid little attention to it. her eyes were transfixed on the molten air.

    “gods above,” linestra breathed. “what happened?”

    “spider,” aylin whispered. the glow of the flame flickered in his eyes, making them shimmer as if in reverence.

    “he’s dead?” linestra swallowed. “just like that? there’s no way he could have survived an explosion like that, is there? i heard someone say he was only a rank 4.”

    “there’s absolutely nothing only about spider,” yoru said.

    “but how will he complete his promise? he said he would fix us!” linestra said. “was that a lie? did he really just... let himself die? just to save us? why?”

    “you don’t have to lay it on so thick. i’m going to get an ego if you keep that up.”

    linestra’s blood went cold.

    that voice was familiar. but it was impossible. there was no way it could be here.

    she twisted in jalen’s grip, looking to the dune that lee had vanished over.

    standing at its top was spider. he wore the coat he’d given lee and had his grimoire slung back over his shoulder, his potion at his hip.no?v(el)b\\jnn

    he was alive.

    not only alive. he was completely unharmed.

    “how?” linestra breathed. blood thumped in her ears as her brain struggled to process the information her eyes were feeding it. ice gripped her veins.

    “afterlife’s full,” spider said with a careless shrug, as if coming back to life was something one did on an average afternoon. “they sent me back.”

    what the fuck does that even mean?

    while linestra tried and failed to pick her jaw up from the floor, aylin reached up to the mask and pulled it away from his face. she was already in such a state of disarray that she barely even registered the motion until she caught a glimpse of his face.

    what she saw was enough to momentarily rip her out of her surprise — with yet even more surprise. aylin’s features were young. he couldn’t have been older than 20 — and she didn’t suspect it was because he was so powerful that his aging had halted.

    even if she didn’t have a domain, there was no magical pressure coming out of aylin. even salthazar had possessed a magical weight about him. not quite a domain, but more than this. that meant aylin had to be less than rank 5 or 6 — and yet, he was somehow one of spider’s new demons.

    “i don’t understand,” linestra muttered. her eyes flicked from aylin to spider as he made his way down to join the rest of them.

    speaking of features — spider’s were strikingly... normal. he was an average looking human with long black hair and a messy carpet of a budding beard. an average looking man that had just saved the lives of dozens of demons and destroyed a room of inquisitors with a single fell swoop.

    “how fortunate. that makes two of us,” spider said. he glanced around the group. “nobody’s hurt, yes?”

    they stood in a field of grass, surrounded by plump blue flowers. linestra staggered as they arrived, stomach lurching in so many directions that it may as well have been a marble rattling around inside her.

    this is torture. i thought arriving in the mortal realm from the damned plains was bad, but this mortal teleports like a drunk man drives a wagon.

    there was an instant of stillness. she swallowed back the bile in her throat. “are we—”

    the world shifted.

    dirty brownish-black ground snapped into being below linestra’s feet. looming burnt trees swam all around her and the smell of ash prickled against her nostrils. her head spun and she staggered, nearly tripping over her own feet before a hand caught her by the back of her collar.

    “no,” jalen said, pulling linestra back to her feet with the ease of a child righting a toy.

    linestra’s stomach lurched. she couldn’t even muster the words to thank him — especially since he was the reason she’d nearly fallen on her face in the first place. her teeth clenched as she prepared herself for another teleportation, but nothing came.

    “are... we done?” linestra asked, tasting bile on each word she spoke.

    “do you want to be done? i can go for a few more rounds,” jalen offered.

    “please don’t.”

    “i have to agree with her,” aylin said. “that was... less than enjoyable. it was, however, enlightening. i’ve never gotten such a good demonstration of spatial magic before. your reserves must be incredible.”

    “flattery,” jalen said with a scoff. he paused for a moment, then arched an eyebrow. “go on. nobody said you had to stop. compliment me more.”

    “that was it for now,” aylin said.

    “you are an egotistical man,” yoru said.

    “you have no arms,” jalen said.

    “now that just seems uncalled for,” spider said.

    “i was under the impression we were just stating the obvious.” jalen scratched at his chin.

    spider visibly repressed a sigh. his gaze swept over the burnt forest surrounding them before landing on linestra. she shrank back.

    this does not bode well for me. how did this job go so wrong? it should have been so cut and dry. salthazar... what have you gotten us into?

    “now, then,” spider said. “tell me, what was your name?”

    “linestra. i—”

    spider held a hand up. “i’ll be more than eager to hear everything you’d like to share, but you’re going to start with a name.”

    “a name?” linestra asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.

    “orlen.” something in spider’s eyes gave rise to a primal fear deep within linestra. they were... wrong, for lack of a better word. she’d heard the phrase that eyes were the windows to the soul before, but spider’s were more like portals into the depths of an endless, uncaring sea. “you’re going to tell me who — or what — orlen is.”