Orb Weaver: Within the Serpent's Coils: Chapter 1

The room was quiet. Well there were whimpers, but it was quiet. A group of E88 gangers with some drugs, mostly, I judged for personal consumption, and several parole violations. The city was still on edge, FEMA and other agencies were working to get housing for the people, so I wouldn’t start out… loud.

Besides, I had some new ideas and toys to try out and the men here would be my test subjects. They should feel special.

They didn’t seem to agree. My first new idea was to create a limb, actually ants and other bugs, interlinked, using their bodies as “muscles” to move the limb, which could look like a tentacle or clawed arm. Using cobwebs, covered with a light black dust I’d made, they could be made to look like they were some kind of daemonic beast, while still being light enough to bound through the air—just before they vanished into a cloud, or rather, the ants and such letting go, only to be grabbed by another swarm as the cobwebs were shredded.

That last could only work at a distance or at night, but not in the confines of an apartment building. But the bugs held two small LED lights, letting the front “eyes” of my hellhounds glow with a daemonic light.

Better yet, since the insects didn’t have to hold together, I’d had them infiltrate the room, hiding under chairs and sofas, in air vents until they just… appeared.

“Gentlemen,” I said, and that was the neatest part. There were enough bugs in my hounds that I could talk through them. It lost me the whole “building talking” thing, but it helped encourage the view that I could form bodies, and talk through them, and would put more doubt into the various attempts to ferret out my (quite minor compared to Eidolon’s) power.

They whimpered as my hound “jumped” onto the couch overlooking where they’d fallen to the ground, soiling themselves. It looked down at them, tilting its head, the gleaming light from the LEDs reflecting off the bodies of the bugs, creating a diffuse glow through the cobweb… like there was a light inside the being… or the fires of hell.

“Lewis… I am disappointed in you. The judge gave you mercy, a year’s probation  for that regrettable lapse that saw a black woman put into the hospital. For a felony like that… but we know what the Bay is like, do we not. And yet, here you are, with money. Money that is not yours.”

“I—it is, man! It’s mine!”

It had been the work of a few hours of waiting before Lewis started to brag to his friends. But saying that wouldn’t produce… the mood I was looking for.

“Then let us follow the threads of your destiny. Let us look into your soul… you call your mother every night, from the bathroom. Worried about your friends? Lewis, Lewis, Lewis… friends who would mock that are no friends of yours. One day, there may be nobody else on the other side.”

“You’re not going to hurt her!” Lewis got up, then flinched back.

“No. I do not hurt the blameless. She goes to church, does she not?” Everyone flinched at that, but it had been brought up while I was listening. Give them some time, and they might think of it. But I would give them no time. “She prays for you, does she not?” Lewis flinched, visible in the little camera I’d secured in the vent. That was why I’d put them in that part of the room, after all.

And this was simple. A tactic, asking questions, seeing reactions. It would be familiar to any poker player in the world. His face, and his friends’ faces told me what I needed to know.

“What does she pray for Lewis? You know. Do you not?”

“How did… She… She wants me to get a job. To become one of the shee—Aih!” he flinched back as my hound lunged, and another one appeared. I had two ready to go, but adding the pressure was part of any proper interrogation, so I’d kept one in reserve—for a moment like this. I also started my bugs in the walls making sound. A sound like a crying woman.

“Sheep? Those who labor for their daily bread are not sheep. Nor are you a wolf. I have seen your kind, again and again… and they come to the same end. Do you know what that is, Lewis?”

“I—“

“Death, Lewis. That is the end. A long death in a prison, when you do something the E88 cannot or will not protect you from, or a short death at the hands of your would-be victims.”

“I—the Empire—“

“The Empire cares nothing for you, Lewis Mitchell, Son of Beatrice Mitchell… How many of them come to your father’s grave? I look in your past and I see his ending. Gunned down in front of an Empire bar. Bleeding out, looking to the sky, only to see it dim.” The Internet was a delight! But I expected Lewis wasn’t thinking about Internet searches right now. “How many of the Empire’s greats come with your mother to offer her comfort? How many times have you joined her?” I couldn’t be too specific here. The fact was that I didn’t know if his mother did visit the grave, so I just left the more general “joined her.”

“Sometimes!” he gasped out. “I go sometimes!”

“And is she proud?”

“I… No.” Nobody else was speaking. I expected they didn’t want their secrets to come to my attention. Too bad.

“Homer, expelled. Peter, on probation for a hit and run…” I tsked again. “Maybe you should become one of my… associates.” The whimpers got louder and I scrapped my plan for showing off my next toy. I didn’t want anyone to die from a heart attack, after all. “But I am very busy right now… Maybe I should just consume you, unless you gentlemen have a offer.”

“We, uh, don’t know anything, sir,” Homer said.

“Oh I know that. I looked down the lines of your past and the possibilities of your future before I spoke to you, after all. I was thinking of a way you could show me that you will not be a problem in the future. But I can’t quite…”

“What if we turn ourselves in!” Lewis shouted. “I broke probation!”

“I don’t know, you might use your associates to get off.”

“No!” Homer shouted (more of a squeak). “We’ll stay in, honestly!”

“Hmmm….”  The hounds stared at them. Then one nodded, and just seemed to vanish from their perspective, while in reality the insects were steaming down the back of the chair. “I might be… Lewis, I have a certain affection for mothers. We should respect them, don’t you agree?”

“Yes, oh yes!”

“Good. And you will. After this, you will cut ties with the Empire. You will earn your living by the sweat of your brow—and not that of your fellows. And Lewis?”

“Yes?”

“When you have the opportunity, I would suggest attending church with your mother. After all, our souls are very important, and yours… Is in dire need of tending to.” He whimpered. Well, it wasn’t my fault that he assumed I was some kind of psychopomp.

I turned to the other two. “As for you two, I suggest you also re-evaluate your connections with the Empire. I may not be quite so… merciful if we meet again. Also, when the police arrive, give them a message.”

“Um, yessir! What is it?”

“The city has faced trauma and I would not wish to add to it, so for the last week or so, I’ve been… quiet. That time is past. I will be taking a much more… direct hand in things.”

“Yessir!”

And then I pulled my last hound away, to the terrified men, looking like it was deflating before it vanished.

*****

I finished my tea at the little cafe as the men tried and failed, three times, to dial 911, but soon enough the police were driving to where some rather completely demoralized men waited to confess to their crimes.

I’d also managed to finish reading the files that were given to me. Most of the students were regular issues, but one…

Diagnosed with ADHD and Dyscalculia. Interesting. I didn’t know much about it, but I’d gone through the local library for information, so I would have to check out some books from the college library, as well as check the Internet. Fortunately, anyone who was investigating me would just assume it was the Investigator’s abilities, rather than being able to read forty or more books at a time.

Come to think of it, I’d never actually managed to hit my limit, not yet. I chuckled, the image of asking the city to loan me the stadium as a reading room was funny, not the least because of the image of a librarian demanding that I have a library card for every bug.

But, it’d been a good day. Orb Weaver was officially active again, and I’d had a relaxing tea and got some reading done while I’d spoken with Lewis and his friends.

A productive day indeed.