Tonight, she chose the outer side of the non-blooded residence as her spying ground. The smaller windows made it easier to stay out of sight should anyone inside want to open a window and take part of the night city view, which was a relatively common occurrence, and also the biggest risk for Evarista herself. Moreover, the angle of the building was less exposed to the general traffic canals, which made it even more vulnerable to undetected intrusion.
Climbing down onto the rooftop of the lower building, Evarista gauged her options for descent. Her initial attempts involved simply climbing down the wall, but it was a slow, laborious and dangerous procedure. Recently, she has discovered a much more efficient alternative, one she ought to have thought of much earlier: her silk. By wrapping her torso in it and securing the other end somewhere on the roof, she could descent along the outside of the building much faster, and with much less risk of tumbling down into the canals if she lost her footing. Falling into the cold water wasn't all that dangerous, considering the relatively short falling distance, but it was a highly unpleasant experience that practically spelled doom for any more spying efforts that night. Her fragile body also tended to catch colds from the unwelcome dips, which did happen occasionally, so that was all the more reason to find safer ways of plying her 'trade'.
She had used the silk in as a sort of mountaineering equipment in the past, spinning a rope first and then wrapping it around herself like a harness. It worked well enough, but there was potential for something even more practical. Why'd she continue to use her silk as if she was human, when she could use it like actual spiders did? Of course, that would take a bit of additional engineering. She's seen spiders lower themselves from an elevation by simply spinning a bit of silk, fastening the loose end somewhere, and then simply hang on it. Due to the way the silk organs worked, the spider's body weight would pull the silk out of the grand, generating the extension of the fiber, thus making the string longer and lowering the spinner down in the process. It was a genial system, but slightly difficult to replicate with human anatomy.
Evarista chewed on her lip and looked around the roof with a troubled expression, as if seeking a solution on the dusty surface. No, she couldn't do it like spiders did. Supporting her entire weight while having the silk organ in her mouth would end up breaking her neck. She had to move the organ somewhere closer to her center of gravity, which would logically be somewhere close to her bowels. However, suspending herself upside-down on a rope that came out of her rear end would be not only extremely awkward, but also would potentially make her dizzy, and eventually make her lose her dinner. Just picturing the scene made her wince. No, there had to be a different way. Perhaps she could make the principle work with some alterations.
Taking off her blouse and tying the sleeves around her hips, she morphed a series of silk glands in her upper abdomen, careful not to disturb any other organs. The spinneret opened up at her sternum, secured by a series of sinews that ran from the sternum and all over her torso. Having breasts helped, as it provided some otherwise useless tissue to turn into an additional harness of security sinews, distributing the potential stress across her entire hull. This way, she would be able to suspend herself upside-up, while not risking to overstress any joints or tear anything soft. It still looked very awkward, and anyone who saw her now would probably faint from disgust, but her only concern was functionality, and that she had plenty of. Hopefully.
It was time to try the setup out. Producing a thin scarf of silk out of her sternum-mounted spinneret, she secured it around a chimney close to the corner of the roof. She never needed to worry about the silk tearing, but she did need to worry about it coming untied, so a good knot was important. Done with that, she swung her legs down the cornice and carefully shifted her weight from her limbs to the fortified spinneret, until she was hanging more or less freely in the air with nothing else for support. There was an uncomfortable pull and pressure in her chest, making it slightly difficult to breathe. She wouldn't be able to dangle like this for very long, but it would be enough to descend and find a foothold further down on the wall. Bracing herself for the slip, she opened the spigot within the spinneret and let her weight shear the silk.
The sudden sense of weightlessness told her that she was falling. Panicked, she closed off the spinneret again and looked around worriedly, taking a few heavy breathes and wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. She was a good way down. Maybe too much, even. Her weight made the shearing very fast, so after just a moment she ended up danging on a long rope almost halfway down the side of the building. Finding foothold at a protruding brick below a shuttered window, she relieved the pressure on her self-made mountaineer harness. Unlike climbing up and down manually using claws, this descent was very fast and silent. It would take some getting used to, but with some polishing of the technique, she could see it being a great improvement of her mobility in these nightly escapades.