The day after his little escapade in the ruins, James was back to work.

"Yo, James!"

"Hi there, Maggie."

Thankfully, work now included someone he liked hanging out with on the regular. Part of the Silhouette persona dictated he had to be aloof and keep some distance away from his people, and those he did enjoy the company of and considered friends were usually busy with their own work. Mesker's presence also included paying the man, though James couldn't help but notice that those prices had lowered over time, and the pyromancer had waved off the payment for training sessions more and more these last few days, claiming the new insights into magic Silhouette provided were reward enough. James wasn't sure that was the true reason, but he would leave the old mage his pride.

"So, another busy day ahead?"

"Yeah. Silhouette is going to show another inventor the grounds, and someone has to do the paperwork."

"Ouch. You do a lot of that."

"That's my job. At least on paper, it is. I do other stuff too, but paperwork has been the most common lately."

"Man, I can't imagine how you handle all that boring stuff."

"A lot of multitasking, and knowing that my livelihood edges on it helps. But yeah, the first few days were rough."

"Can't imagine. Say, uh... Silhouette doesn't plan to have the creative team filling paperwork as well, right?"

James chuckled at his friend's reaction, her face drenched in horror more fitting of a movie character about to be killed than someone threatened to handle some paperwork. Though to be fair, he couldn't fully deny that he, too, shuddered at the thought of bureaucracy.

"I mean, you'll have to do some, to have reports ready and describe what your things can do and all that jazz, but as a whole, he'd rather have you do your inventing than put ink on paper. Or, well, text to screen."

"Argh. What a pain."

"But it's worth it, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah, for sure. Working in my new workshop these past days has been awesome."

"Glad to hear that. Have you met any of the others yet?"

"Yeah, I met the gal with the hyper-resistant weave. Fascinating stuff. Add in some special designs, and you could sneak in some funky runes and enchantments. You don't wanna be the guy who has to fight someone in this kind of magical textile armor, doubly so if Silhouette makes some using his special spider silk. Say, James, you wouldn't happen to... You know... Know about the spider thing?"

"Sure. His name's George."

"Silhouette uses a guy named George's silk? What is he, a drider?"

"Oh, no! No, no, no. Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. George's a regular human. He's just really good at handling the giant spiders. They love the guy. Once you ignore all the extra eyes and legs and the deadly venom, they're adorable when they cuddle up to him."

"I'll take your word for it. So, Silhouette found some kind of giant spider colony?"

"He found individual ones, and luckily, they're smart enough to be fine with cohabitation. Last I checked, there were half a dozen of them, living happily together. All under George's care."

"Uh. Don't spiders hate each other's guts normally?"

"Depends on the species, but yeah. It's why it's hard to farm spider silk. So, for our giant buddies who produce far more to also be fine with each other? That's great for us."

"Uh, neat. I don't know that much about creepy crawlies, but I figured spiders weren't the sort to cohabit with stuff."

"Well, again, it's a species thing. Like, I know of one that keeps frogs as pets. The frog eats bugs that would eat the spider's eggs, and the spider eats stuff that would eat the frog."

"What kind of hellish spider eats things that can eat frogs?"

"Can't remember the exact species' name, but it's not that weird. Like, I remember reading about a spider that eats birds once. Funnily enough, both were different kinds of tarantulas, I think."

"Wait, aren't tarantulas the ones that don't make webs? How the hell does it catch a bird, then?"

"I dunno. And I think they still make and use silk, just not in the classic web patterns we're used to. I may know some things about spiders, but I'm no entomologist."

"Entomologist?"

"Bug scientist."

"Oh. Wait, spiders aren't bugs, I know that one."

"Spiders aren't insects, yeah. Uh, thinking about it, maybe spider scientists do have a different name. I'll have to look it up."

"So long as the spiders stay far away from me, you can have your fun."

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"Don't worry, we keep ours in a safe location. They have a nice ranch with plenty of food. You'll never see them in the Penumbral Palace. Can't promise you won't spot a few normal small ones, though."

"Bah, I can deal with regular spiders. I'm still a wizard. Even if my thing is enchanting, I can still throw fireballs."

"You can? Uh. I didn't think you knew how to fight."

"Oh, I don't. But making a ball of flames and throwing it in someone's general direction works well enough. I'm no Super, but I could fight off a creep."

"Uh. Nice for you. The magic tricks I showed you aren't that impressive in comparison, uh?"

"Nah, don't worry about it. We all start with stuff like the candle trick and Everlanterns. Plus, your little shadow theater trick is impressive. It shows a degree of control most folks our age don't have. I wouldn't be able to do the same. Sure, whatever shadow affinity you have helps a ton, but still."

"Oh, thanks. I mean, I could try teaching you? I'm not sure I'd be that great at it, though. I'm more of a learner than a teacher, but I could give it a go. I only know so much thanks to Silhouette, it's only fair I try and spread the knowledge."

"Right, you did mention that previously. Man, I can't believe mister eldritch darkness himself showed you the ropes. That must have been quite something."

"It was... enlightening, to say the least."

"Think he could teach me a thing or two, too?"

"I'll ask him when the time is right. I don't promise anything, he's pretty busy, but I could see him taking the time to show you a thing or two. Fair warning, he isn't that great of a teacher either. I think I really only managed to learn so much from him because of how similar our situations are, as well as the powers we have in common. I mean, Silhouette might as well be a legend now, and I don't want to compare myself to him when it's clear that a regular shmuck can't hope to match him, but there's still obviously some points in common I can't deny."

"Yeah. Ever worried someone will mistake you for him and try to kidnap you for a ransom or something?"

"A bit, but then I remember who the boss is. Seriously, if someone thinks they can capture him, they're either an idiot or far beyond my pay grade. And lucky me, the boss cares about his employees' well-being. Like, back in the slums, around the Black Block, he rushed as fast as he could to chase off a guy who was threatening his workers. Guy ran away as soon as he saw Silhouette pop up."

"Whoa. You remember his name?"

"He was one of Runar's dudes. I think his name was Speareau? He used a lance enchanted to create and control water."

"Oof, sounds scary. What happened to the guy? Did he join during the takeover?"

"Oh, ah. Uh. No. There was a big fight, and... Look, some of Silhouette's other guys aren't as nice as Larry and Barry. Not bad people per se, but... Well, they don't bother with non-lethal options if the boss doesn't order them to play nice. And when the other side wants to kill or enslave you... Well, you don't play nice."

"Oh. Ouch. Uh... Is it weird if I ask how it happened?"

"I don't know if it's weird to ask, but... Well, one of the guys I mentioned is an acid shaman."

"Ah. Aaah. A good acid shaman?"

"I'm not an expert, but from what I gathered, they corrupted the water jets that Speareau used to move."

"Oh. Right. Yeah, that's... Well, water is good for dulling acid, so for someone to fully taint it with acid, even with magic in the equation, shows a certain degree of skill. And you said Silhouette's best magic person was the rune scribe he didn't trust?"

"The goblin shaman is exclusively a fighter, and one entirely specialized in their field. So, yeah, they don't make things, at least not stuff we could sell, and their solution to unknown or hostile magic is trying to melt it down."

"Right. Can't exactly study stuff if you destroy it first."

"Precisely. Hence, Duskenfer."

"You gotta tell me how Silhouette managed to befriend the guy. The Duskenfer family is a highly prestigious line of exorcists, and Mesker the Third is a great demonologist on top of that. Not to mention, the guy barely accepts contracts these days."

"Funny story, it was pure coincidence. Silhouette moved in somewhere near Duskenfer's current home, and the wizard came to greet the newcomer, along with the other neighbors. The two hit it off from there. I don't think Silhouette spoke to the other neighbors much since then."

"Uh. I mean, it makes sense when you think about it. The two of them specialize in powers with generally negative connotations. Their bonding over it isn't that surprising."

"You know, I never thought about it that way. But yeah, shadow stuff isn't the most popular, and demonology... Well, the first time I heard about it, I thought it was way worse than it truly is."

"Yeah. The study of demons is not to be confused with the worship of them. Or enslavement, depending on the demonist you ask. But yeah, I mean, they can be good people too, but it's much rarer. It takes a special kind of crazy to fully rely on demonic powers to do stuff."

"Yeah. Seriously, I don't see how people think getting involved with demons is a good idea."

"I mean, there are good demons out there, but yeah. The vast majority are insane maniacs only pretending to be friendly at best. I'm happy to have never met one before. Though I gotta admit, demonic materials could be fun to research... In a safe and controlled environment, of course."

"You know, I think Silhouette has a demon corpse stored somewhere. Along with the Nightsnatcher that the police gave him back the other day. I could ask him if the creative team can study them, if you want. Last I heard, he planned to keep them locked away until he found a proper head mage to dump them onto."

"Oh, sure, that sounds awesome!"

Maggie smiled at James before looking away, focusing on her coffee. He was ready to continue speaking until he noticed her eyes widen as she spat her drink, her head whipping back to him.

"Wait, what? Silhouette has a what? How? When?"

"The demon thing? He ran into it a while back. It tried to kill him, he took care of it instead."

"James. Buddy. Pal. Amigo. You don't just get a demon's corpse. Do you have any idea how hard it is to kill a demon? It's easier to just banish it or seal it or hell, even just let it do its thing! Are you sure Silhouette didn't just banish its soul in a way that left its body behind or something?"

"What can I say? Silhouette just did it. The thing's dead and gone. Our expert confirmed it."

"Alright. Fine. Okay. I'm cool with this. Yup. Cool."

Maggie managed to last all of five seconds before seizing James by the shoulders and shaking him.

"I am not fine with it! Seriously, James, killing a demon is a big deal! A bigger deal than the Nightsnatcher! And you're telling me Silhouette just did it!"

"It can't be that rare. Duskenfer was more intrigued by the Nightsnatcher."

"Because Mesker Duskenfer is a demonologist! He knows these things about demons! He probably knows how to banish souls exclusively and has autopsied demons before! Hell, maybe he even knows how to permanently kill a demon under very specific circumstances! That doesn't make the whole thing any less weird! How did Silhouette do it?"

"NDA, remember?"

"Argh! I hate these stupid things!"

"Look, maybe you can ask him yourself when you two run into each other next time?"

James' phone chose that moment to ring. Maggie, still exasperated by the situation, still let him go to answer the call. James thanked silently before taking it.

"Hello?"

"James. This is Silhouette. We have an emergency. To my office, now."

James exchanged a look with Maggie - well, as well as he could since his facsimile eyes weren't easy to spot on his monochrome face - before running off.

Sure, he had ordered Solvent to call him to make his leave more natural, but the emergency was very real, as Mischief had signaled him.

The Empress was making her move.

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