Returning to the center of the room, I sat down in a lotus position. I slowly gathered all the mana flowing throughout my body and began carefully weaving together the complex pattern of the ' Window into the Past' spell. The magic is notorious for being practically useless except for viewing events within the past 24 hours despite the great name. With my mana reserves at a decent level, I could start casting spells again. Yet, I can't hope to cast anything more significant without having at least two human-sized 'batteries.' With things as they are, I can only hope to start seeing the benefits of being a Fateweaver even with this simple spell. In moments my mana drained out of me and formed what appeared to be a perfectly cut square in reality. Staring into the 'window,' I was able to see the laboratory still in disrepair yet not abandoned. Panting heavily, I saw a wounded man lying still in the corner, surrounded by three men wearing dark robes. Focusing harder, I was able to hear the men talking.
"Tell us, Devon, was it worth it?"
"It's not like those nobles cared about you."
"Was it worth betraying your own kind?"
Looking closely at the wounded man who had remained silent till now, I noticed something that made my blood run cold. Mythical monsters that should only be visible with the combined efforts of two archmages supported by a team of at least twenty runemasters. Yet there it is. One of the ' Spiders ' was sitting on their shoulder unnoticed by either the men surrounding him or himself. Sitting calmly, no doubt scheming to steal the fate of its chosen prey. Focusing back on the situation in the window, I noticed that the three men had left the one named Devon to bleed to death after determining he wouldn't survive. Such a stupid decision could only be the result of tampering with that 'Spider' which means that this Devon must be some kind of chosen one. Once the men had left, I followed Devon as he staggered around the lab, searching for something to treat his wounds. Not finding anything, he walked deeper and deeper into the sewers. For him, this journey might've been a random and desperate grasp to survive, and yet all around him, I could see him being surrounded by what appeared to be translucent webs. Once he had been entirely covered in webs, I saw him fall to the ground, and at that moment, the 'Spider' sitting on his shoulder began to crawl itself into his skin. Dispelling my magic, I looked around this forgotten corner of the sewers I had followed this Devon into. Lying on the ground, I was able to see the corpse of Devon, and yet the webs surrounding him had vanished. In fact, there was no trace of the 'Spider' anywhere, and yet I knew it was there. Going off of what I remember of these monsters, they attached themselves to any being that could affect significant change. Once they've bonded with them, they slowly steer the person's destiny towards their desired outcome and then have their fate abruptly severed. Devon must've been the lynchpin in some sort of peasant revolt, and when he was at the point where he could induce the most significant change, the 'Spider' had him killed. Being pulled from my thoughts, I sensed a slight shift in the mana surrounding me and abruptly looked behind me only to see a tiny black spider with no distinctive marks on it slowly approaching me. Immediately I yelled at the monster.
"Stop there!"
and surprisingly, it actually listened. With no clear plan, I simply stood there staring down at it, unsure of what to actually do, when the soft melodic voice of a woman entered my ears
"Ohh, how interesting.... you can see me, can't you, human."
Not sure of what to do, I simply nodded while frantically trying to recall whether there was any information that the ' Spiders' were capable of speech. Without waiting for me to come to terms with reality, the monster continued.
"You aren't from around here, are you, though? This is the first time I've seen a human able to manipulate mana, and what was the thing you were looking into earlier? It was amazing! I didn't know you could do something like that with magic!"
Noticing that she seemed to have no hostile intent and that her curiosity was probably equal to mine, I began to slowly make a plan in my mind on how to get the most from her.After making up my mind I quickly interrupted her-
"Let's make a deal..."