THE SPIDER'S THREAD: A TALE OF JUPITI

Episode 9: The Spider Hunts

They split up after the clock tower. Smart.

For anyone else.

I followed Kaia first.

She was angry. Angry people make noise. She stormed through the lower market, knocking over crates, muttering about Sela and betrayal. Didn’t check rooftops. Didn’t check alleys. Rabbits are fast, but they’re predictable when they’re emotional.

I let her run for an hour. Let her think she lost me.

Then I cut the rope holding the water tank above her path.

Dust Weaver doesn’t need magic. Just timing and gravity.

The tank burst. A flood of sludge and dust hit the street. Kaia jumped back, but the ground was slick. She slipped.

Before she could get up, I was on her.

Not to kill. Not yet.

I pressed the totem to her forehead.

Memory Thread.

Her memories hit me like a punch: training with Jik when they were kids, Sela promising them status if they brought me in, Sela telling her to take the fall if things went bad.

“Did you know?” I whispered.

Kaia’s eyes widened. “Know what?”

“That Sela planned to throw you to the Jackals if I didn’t die tonight.”

I let go.

She didn’t move for a full 10 seconds.

When she looked up, the hunt was gone from her eyes. Replaced by something colder.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

“Because I don’t need to kill you,” I said. “I need you to stop running.”

I left her there.

One down. Two to go.

Vorr was harder. He didn’t panic. He doubled back, set traps, moved silent. But Thread Sense meant I heard his heartbeat 15 meters before I saw him.

I found him in the tannery, same place Sela ambushed me.

He was waiting. Blade out.

“You’re alone?” he asked.

“For now.”

He attacked. Fast. Hare Step made him a blur.

I didn’t dodge. I pulled.

The old drying racks collapsed between us. Dust, salt, dried hide filled the air.

Vorr coughed, stumbled.

I didn’t fight him. I talked.

“Kaia knows,” I said. “About Sela’s deal with the Jackals.”

He froze mid-step.

“Liar.”

“Ask her,” I said. “When you find her crying in the market.”

He didn’t believe me. But doubt slowed him down.

And slowed down, Vorr was just a man with a blade.

I disarmed him with a line of silk and left him tied to a post with his own belt.

Two down.

Sela was the last.

And Sela didn’t run.

She waited.

She knew I’d come for her. She knew the Rabbit family was breaking apart. The only question was whether she’d try to kill me first or cut a deal.

I found her in the dead district, by the old well where Chapter 6 ended.

She stood by the stone edge, blade out, face calm. No Jackals. No backup.

“Good,” she said when I stepped out. “No tricks this time?”

I held up my hands. “Just me.”

She didn’t believe me.

“Where’s Vorr? Where’s Kaia?”

“Thinking,” I said. “About whether hunting me is worth dying for.”

Sela attacked.

She was faster than Vorr, cleaner than Kaia. No wasted movement.

I didn’t meet her blade. I moved.

Web Step.

One moment I was there, the next I was behind her, using the thread of shadow between the well and the wall. It took everything not to vomit. First time using it always felt like falling.

Sela spun, surprised for half a second.

“Anansi’s tricks,” she muttered.

“Not tricks,” I said. “Threads.”

I pulled.

The old rope around the well snapped taught and wrapped around her ankle. She cut it instantly, but it bought me time.

Time to use Fate Snare.

I threw a strand of silk between her and the Jackal sigil tattoo on her forearm. It was faint, but it was there. She’d made a deal with them. Blood for blood.

The thread tied.

“Whatever happens to you,” I said, “happens to them too.”

Her eyes widened.

Then the ground shook.

The Jackals had felt it.

From the alley behind her, three of them stumbled out, clutching their arms, bleeding from nowhere.

Fate Snare worked both ways.

Sela cursed. She lunged at me, blade flashing.

I let her come.

At the last second, I dropped.

She overextended.

I swept her legs.

She hit the ground hard, blade skittering away.

I put my knee on her chest and held the totem to her throat.

“Where are my mother’s journals?”

She spat in my face.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I lied. I don’t know where they move them.”

I believed her.

So I did the only thing left.

I cut the Fate Snare.

The Jackals stopped bleeding.

Sela stared at me. “Why?”

“Because I’m not you,” I said.

I stood up.

“The Lion wants me dead. The Jackals want my blood. You want to live. So here’s the deal.”

I threw her blade back.

“You help me find the journals, and I don’t tell the Lion you knew about the mask.”

She looked at me like I was insane.

“Why would you trust me?”

“Because you’re out of options,” I said. “And because if you betray me, I’ll hunt you again. And this time, I won’t stop at tying you up.”

She was quiet for a long time.

Then she nodded.

“Granary basement,” she said. “But they changed it. Now it’s under the old slaughterhouse. Under the floor with the Lion sigil.”

I didn’t smile.

“Get up,” I said. “We move before dawn."

Sela walking beside me, not in chains, not as a prisoner.

As a partner.

For now.

Behind us, Kaia and Vorr were still out there.

And the Jackals were angry.

The hunt wasn’t over. It had just changed direction.