It had taken days of effort but it had already paid off. Val rolled the last of his mind spikes across his knuckles before driving it into the mortar between two bricks belonging to a building just outside the marketplace. Already they had proven useful, if not as effective as he wanted. She was remarkable in that she had found several of the spikes only a whole day after they were planted. He had to replace them of course as Sira had gone so far as to dig them out before the web could be complete yet still he had been impressed she'd sensed them just based on the fact he'd crafted them. What a smart little mouse.
Now to set the cheese.
He pressed his hand flush against the wall and leaned his weight in until he could feel the cold spike against his palm. He willed it in further so it would take more than a little effort of one magic-fearing doctor.
Once content that it was good and lodged he closed his eyes. He focused the energy he'd been harvesting, not just from Sira, though hers was certainly....potent....but from many humans within the city. For Nexus dwellers so many of them had no protection from an aberration like he. It was a risk to spend so much of his life force on a single task, but he hoped the reward would greatly outweigh.
With every passing tick he could feel his energy flow and jump from spike to spike until it'd created an elaborate spider web through this quadrant of the city. He would have liked to have spread it farther but he knew that was both too too ambitious and greedy. And not to notice visible. As it was the web would touch a well traveled path and that was risk enough.
He drew a thread with his hand as he pulled it from the wall letting it twist and twine through his fingers. He brought it near his mouth. "Quiet." He crooned to it. The hum it created lessened. It's razor edge dulled. Pleased with the result he let the thread go. It shrank and recoiled into the spike.
He turned to look deeper into the web and grinned. To his eyes it shined like silver. To most they would never notice it at all. Like that human woman there completing her daily errands who stepped through. She noticed nothing but a brief dizzy spell that passed after a few moments.
Where Val stood he felt a trickle of energy return. A bit of his color returned.
Yes. This should work out nicely.
Now to set the cheese.
He pressed his hand flush against the wall and leaned his weight in until he could feel the cold spike against his palm. He willed it in further so it would take more than a little effort of one magic-fearing doctor.
Once content that it was good and lodged he closed his eyes. He focused the energy he'd been harvesting, not just from Sira, though hers was certainly....potent....but from many humans within the city. For Nexus dwellers so many of them had no protection from an aberration like he. It was a risk to spend so much of his life force on a single task, but he hoped the reward would greatly outweigh.
With every passing tick he could feel his energy flow and jump from spike to spike until it'd created an elaborate spider web through this quadrant of the city. He would have liked to have spread it farther but he knew that was both too too ambitious and greedy. And not to notice visible. As it was the web would touch a well traveled path and that was risk enough.
He drew a thread with his hand as he pulled it from the wall letting it twist and twine through his fingers. He brought it near his mouth. "Quiet." He crooned to it. The hum it created lessened. It's razor edge dulled. Pleased with the result he let the thread go. It shrank and recoiled into the spike.
He turned to look deeper into the web and grinned. To his eyes it shined like silver. To most they would never notice it at all. Like that human woman there completing her daily errands who stepped through. She noticed nothing but a brief dizzy spell that passed after a few moments.
Where Val stood he felt a trickle of energy return. A bit of his color returned.
Yes. This should work out nicely.