A Mirrored Crime

“What? That has never happened to me before. I would start with one spider, and I would end with one spider. Why is it different with you?” He asks, looking more confused than he has ever been.

“Someone is putting spiders back through. Therefore, extra spiders come out. Maybe they are trying to encourage their spiders to sleep in stone.”

“Or maybe… Professor, can you show me your hands?” Says Hitch with a suspicious look

Mr. Zant holds out his hands. They are ink-stained and slightly swollen from spider bites. But perhaps there is something that only certain scholars can see?

“These are not the hands of the one who stole the figurine.”

“I have been many things, but I do not steal from fellow scholars. Well, I don’t idly steal from fellow scholars. Others do though. Perhaps you should check with my colleges as well.” Mr. Zant is quite offended.

“There’s a symbol on the spiders. Either it means ‘a great and terrible ambition,’ or ‘drama told only in dreams.’ Of course it could be a very similar sign which just means ‘simple illusion to distract.’ What are your interpretations?”

"A great and terrible ambition? That must be the vision I saw. What is more terrible than the takeover of London?"he asks looking alarmed

“Well, if you were to ask me to get creative. . .but taking over London certainly is a great and terrible ambition.”

“The mirror is probably imbued with some property that turns spiders into figurines. But why? They’re hardly powerful weapons unless alive. Unless… What if they are using these mirrors to turn their spiders into these artifacts, then steal them back in order to create some kind of mechanism or relic out of all of the figurines. The vision I saw was probably the thoughts of whoever puts the spiders through the mirrors and reaching through the mirror created a link. But why did the spider only become a figurine the second time it went through the mirror, not the first, like yours did?” he asks the professor, pacing around the room in a random fashion.

&quotWhatever is being built is probably something big, so they’d need a lot of open space for it, so I say we try to track any suspicious purchases of large buildings or rooms.&quot Says Koldun excitedly

“Or large boats. They could use a close island on the zee as their base as well. Not to mention the extensive basement system underneath some of the buildings. They also could’ve set up base in some of the wilder areas around Watchmaker Hill or Forgotten Quarter. In fact, there is quite a lot of areas once you leave the inhabited part of London behind.”

“There is one thing we could do.” Takes on of the figurines from the professor, looks at the large cracked mirror on the wall, smiles and runs forwards and attempts to jump through. “I’m going straight to the bastards!”

The reflection of the spider-council twitches and crashes out of the mirror. It’s skin blazes with the correspondence as it turns to face the investigators.
“Figures the mirrors have ears,” Dirae Erinyes mutters as they pull out their knives. Evensong cocks a pistol.

“Surround it. Don’t give it room to get to another mirror.” Draws his Ravenglass dagger.“Come on you abomination, let’s dance.” Lunges in to stab it

Dirae Erinye’s flanks moving quicker then their size would suggest. Evensong keeps her bullets flying whenever the the spider council tries to edge way from the circle. Dirae Erinyes lunges for the top the spidery mass, bringing down a bloodied blade and stony blue one. The mass shutters but is still strong as legs grab them. Dirae Erinye seems calm, as they strain against the spiders-council’s grip. They continue to strike hard, even as they legs tear at the cloak and mechanical whines are heard beneath it.

“Quickly,” Evensong hisses, “my darling is merely the distraction.”

Meanwhile, Professor Zant hides behind the stuffed original.

Slowly walking up behind the creature, Koldun quickly plunges the blade in to its back, slightly twisting it and says “You’re in our trap this time.”

As both Kuldon’s and Knobby’s attacks strike the creature, it dissolves with a contralto scream. The Correspondence signs melted off it with a burning hiss. Dirae Erinyes is left in a mess of spider legs and eyes.

“I’m not sure if this cloak will ever be clean again. However, this does prove that the mirror route isn’t going to be a bed of roses. Still ready to go through?”

Mr. Zant peers around his stuffed spider-council. “They are supposed to, talk you know. Maybe these reflections from the broken mirrors are variations of the caster.”

Edit: Fixing a typo
Edit2: More typos
edited by Shadowcthuhlu on 1/6/2016
edited by Shadowcthuhlu on 1/6/2016

“Could the stuffed spider.itself be the caster? Maybe there is something inside.” Says Koldun eyeing the stuffed creature on the chair