Chapter 166 - Flame in the Dark

"Xi!" Ao Wen shouted, darting out to catch Feng Xi as her lover's eyes rolled back and she began to topple over backward. No sooner had Ao Wen caught her love than Feng Xi jolted out of whatever trance she'd been pulled into. 

"Wen," she cried, clutching at the shorter woman and burying her face in her shoulder. "I, I saw it. I saw the spiders killing the miners. They wrote the word 'prey' on the barricade in blood," she said between heavy sobs, trembling in Ao Wen's arms. 

Glancing over Feng Xi's shoulder, Ao Wen inspected the splatters of blood on the barricade but saw nothing that resembled the word 'prey.' It was, however, the word she felt insidiously clinging to Kui Cong when she treated him. "Xi, did you touch anything? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"What, no, I," Feng Xi started before reaching up to her hair where she'd felt the faintest sensation of a tug. "Ah," she said, pulling her hand away with a slender, sticky, and dark thread of spider silk. "Just this," she added with a shake of her hand to get rid of the sticky thread. "Dark Weaver Spiders are supposed to be far too big to latch onto someone unseen, right?"

"They don't have to be present to affect you," Ao Wen countered, conjuring a wisp of emerald flame to burn the strand of spider silk before pressing a flame-warmed hand to Feng Xi's head. "There, how does that feel?"

"Much better," her lover replied honestly. "My heart isn't racing anymore. All that terror from a bit of remnant energy?"

"Maybe," Ao Wen said. "Let's get the others in here, then we can talk, but first," she said, pausing to draw a fan from her waist. Unlike the first time she used her fan, this time, she gave the storm of butterflies purpose as they swept through the entrance of the mine. From the ceiling, several long strands like the one that Feng Xi had run into draped like a beaded curtain and in the corners, thicker webs had gathered. It took Ao Wen several minutes to burn away every hanging thread that she could find. 

The disturbing thing was that when she sent a flaming butterfly to burn a denser collection of webs in the corners, the webs actually managed to capture her flames! Darkness enveloped the butterfly and a chill settled over Ao Wen's heart. For a moment, she felt like it was impossible for her flames to push back the darkness. There wasn't anything she could do against the dark except be consumed by it! The feeling lasted for only a moment before her butterfly was snuffed out and the connection she had formed to the dark web collapsed. 

"Wen, how can those webs capture your soul flames?" Feng Xi asked, pulling out her bow and knocking an arrow, just in case something came skittering out of those large tangles of web. 

"Wind Born Embers aren't very strong flames, they're best for something small where setting a little flame can do a lot," Ao Wen explained, keeping her amber gaze fixed on the cluster of webs. "Watch the others for me, just in case," she said firmly. With a flick of her wrist, Ao Wen snapped her fan shut, pointed it directly at the offending cluster of web, and poured out a deep crimson jet of flame. Lately, Ao Wen's flames had been for purification and healing, but flame was never restricted to just those things. The crimson flames struck the webs in a blast of light and heat, consuming the darkness that crept upon them and every trace of web with it. 

Ao Wen repeated this move six more times, giving free reign to destruction until there was nothing left at the entrance of the oppressive dark webs. When she was done, the entire entryway seemed brighter, as though the webs had been consuming the light cast by their Blazing Sunstones. 

"Bai, Jin," Ao Wen called once she knew the room was clear. "It took a few minutes to clear a hazard, you can go ahead and finish opening things up. It looks like some folks were trapped down here last time so let's clear the whole barricade instead of just a hole to crawl through, I don't want to get trapped if we have to make a rapid escape," she advised. 

"So what do we do while they remove the barricade?" Feng Xi asked, trying to shake off the sense of dread that emanated from the tunnel before them. 

"Cover me," Ao Wen said, reaching into her cosmos sack for several vials and tweezers. "I'm going to head down the tunnel just far enough to get a few samples of that webbing. If nothing else, even if we don't find a single spider down here, I won't go back empty-handed," she promised. 

"Somehow, I think it's unlikely that we won't find a spider down here," Feng Xi replied with a shudder, clutching her bow tightly and looking for a good position to practice the stillness her father had taught her while she covered Ao Wen. More than anything, she wanted to still her heartbeat before it galloped out of her chest! 

It took almost as long as it took a stick of incense to burn for Tang Jin and Zhang Bai to clear the barricade away and enter the tunnel. By the time they did, Ao Wen had already returned with several samples, one of which she handed to the two young men. "Don't touch that, but you can pull the cork off and get a feeling for the stuff," Ao Wen instructed when she passed over the vial. "It has a dark, clinging energy to it that can affect your mind. The spiders hung that stuff all over the place. For once, I'm lucky for being short, but Xi bumped into some and suffered a dark vision for it."

"Are you sure these things aren't worse than the vengeful spirits at the haunted villa?" Tang Jin asked, quickly passing the vial to Zhang Bai and wiping his hand on his pants several times even though he'd never directly touched the strand of dark spider silk. He didn't have to touch it directly for his hand to feel… foul, and sticky, even if it wasn't really. 

"Positive," Ao Wen said with a reassuring smile. "These things have physical bodies, and they're alive so they can be killed. Putting the dead to rest is much harder than killing something that's currently alive," she explained cheerfully. 

"Will normal flames burn these webs?" Zhang Bai asked. "I know we spent a lot on the Blazing Sunstones but if we need to burn things, a torch would be handy."

"I don't know about normal flames," Ao Wen said as she pondered. "But, I might have a way to make a special torch. Jin, since you have a hand free, I'm going to ask you to blaze our trail, literally in this case, with a torch in front of you. Think you're up to being our vanguard?"

"You can count on me," Tang Jin said, giving his chest a solid 'thump.' "I've been wanting to try my new technique on these things anyway. It'll be good to be up front." 

"Great, give me a few minutes," Ao Wen directed everyone while she began pulling out several ingredients from her cosmos sack. "Bai, Jin, if you can cut down some of the branches from the barricade into reasonable lengths for torches, that would help. I'll make a small torch for everyone and a bigger one for Jin, that way if anything happens and we get separated, you have something to burn webs with." 

"Don't even talk about getting separated," Feng Xi responded instantly. "I'm staying right next to you the whole way."

Fortunately, it didn't take long for Ao Wen to prepare an infused lamp oil that she could dip cloth in to wrap around the head of their hastily cut torches. The infusion not only gave the flames a faint azure hue, but it ensured they burned without smoke. "Okay Jin," she said, handing over the torch. "You're up. Go slow, clear the way. I'll be right beside you to clear anything that's stubborn or can't be reached with the torch but I need to conserve my energy. Bai," she said, finishing her instructions. "You've got the rearguard. I haven't done much fighting in tunnels but I've heard stories about people getting ambushed when something came down a connecting tunnel. Xi can support either direction from the center. Everyone ready?"

When the group nodded, Ao Wen smiled in anticipation. "Jin, lead the way," she commanded, following close at his side as the group left the entrance of the mines behind to venture deeper into darkness.