Arachne

 

Last night, I was exhausted from my first lesson with Talisa so I went to bed shortly after eating.
However, thoughts of my most recent gift and my meeting with Akasia the next day kept running through my mind.
Even though I was tired, the anxiety wouldn’t let me sleep for some time.

At least this circumstance let these legs of mine stay inside so that waking up was more pleasant.
And after all, this is a really nice bed!

Once again I find a new batch of clothes next to the door.
Am I getting a new set every day?
How much is Talisa into this?

It's a light tender gown that was dyed a bright blue.
It feels a bit different than the others, but it’s not worse and I cannot really put my finger on it.

There lies a note on a piece of parchment next to it, but I cannot read it.
Never learned how.

It's already astonishing that they even have paper here.
Not so much that Talisa can write, I mean, she looks mature and well-educated.
And they said the male needs to be around three hundred years old to enable giving birth to them.
That means her mother should have had enough time to become knowledgeable enough to teach them.

Wait a moment!
Three hundred years?
This isn't a normal timespan.
And this is just an indicator.
How old can an Arachne become?
Will I still be around in a thousand years?

No, no, no.
It's better to ignore this for now.
Otherwise, stuff like the progression of time will only drive you mad.
Still, a thousand years.

 

"Nerysi! Are you ready to go? Akasia is waiting and she seemed to be very eager!" (T)

 

I really wish that she would use my real name.
All of theirs have something exotic to them.
Fitting for spiders, but disturbing.
And this "Nerysi" she came up with sounds awfully close to those.
Which was surely the plan behind it.

Pushing this new identity a bit more on me with a respective name.
Nonetheless, I am not really able to talk back to Talisa and this name is apparently now commonly acknowledged by all of them.
So it is hard to say something.
And she anyways ignores my remarks and keeps on calling me so.

 

"Yes, I am!" (N)

"Fine, I'm coming in then!" (T)

 

She enters and smiles when she sees me using the new dress.
This is apparently important to her.

 

"Did you read my message?" (T)

"Uhm, no. I... I cannot read!" (N)

 

I feel slightly flustered about admitting this, but there's no way around it in the long run.

 

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hadn’t considered that. I didn't mean to pick on you. My apologies!" (T)

 

She seems even more troubled than me about this revelation.

 

"However, we should do something about this. I will make a schedule next to your weaving sessions and we will teach you in mother's library." (T)

"You have a library here?" (N)

"Naturally! Mother was very fond of books and assembled them here. It's not surprising that Masiabi didn't think to show you. She's not really into books. Or any kind of learning in the first place." (T)

 

Truth be told; Masiabi looks more like an outdoor person than a bookworm.

 

"I need a bit for the preparations so tomorrow we can get started with teaching you how to read. But for now do you want to know the contents of the message?" (T)

 

I nod in response.

 

"It wasn't anything important. I just wanted to inform you that the clothes you’re wearing now I made with your silk. You left enough material behind for that." (T)

 

That strikes me and I look down at the gown.
The different feeling might have been that more thick strands were used since I'd lost control of producing them.
But that something like this was made with something out of my body is causing a difficult mood of strange pride and uneasiness.

 

"I need to say that your quality is good to use for clothing. There are often differences between individuals. For example Masiabi's is often too crude to weave something fine." (T)

 

Getting praised for the spider silk coming out of me doesn't make it any easier to make up my mind.

 

"Shall we get going then? I will just bring you there. You don't need to worry. Akasia is very calm and well-behaved." (T)

 

So you will leave me to fend for myself again??
This time with the acid monster?
The worst is what her contribution to what happened to me was.
She literally doused me in acid!
That's just cruel!

Passing those completely white floors is eerie as always.
And I simply can't overcome the panic I experience when we encounter spiders.
Even more, the giant ones are scaring me to the bones.
They are sometimes bigger than me and I can just think of how they will decapitate me.
They leave when we come close, but this squirming at the borders is frightening in its own way.

I realize that my ability to detect them is not normal.
Before, I blamed my paranoia on it, but if I have to be honest with myself I feel them around me.
This shouldn't surprise me anymore, yet being more aware of them than I was before is not making it easier to cope with my fear, and it is something else to add to me not being human.

In the end, we reach another of those web doors.
I start to be able to distinguish the patterns in the walls.
My weaving lesson might be helping too.

Talisa lets me open the door.
Like always, the wall pulls itself apart, yet when I look behind me she is gone.

This isn't funny!
At least come in with me!
Traitor!

Since I'm already here, I don't have much of a choice but to enter.
The good thing is inside here it's far brighter than at Talisa's place.
However, the decorations are strange.
This place is pink!

There are curtains on the walls despite the fact that there are no windows under the earth.
Also, the commodities are bulky with etched carvings of quite some artistic value.
And I can see a large canopy bed.

Everything I see tells me this is the room of a noble lady.
Or at least it's supposed to look like one.
Like something that shall resemble such a room, since I doubt any lady would use this amount of pink.
And behind one of the curtains, I can see a pair of feet.

 

"Miss Akasia?" (N)

 

I ask in the direction.

 

"Yes?" (A)

 

A question?

From behind the curtain, a person you could consider a lady comes into view.
She has a fine build, strangely alluring dark-blue hair, yellow-green eyes, and wears a dress in pink and yellow with many layers and frills.
Not a perfect composition and it looks like she's desperately trying to create a style.

 

"Ehm, nice to meet you? (A)

 

Another question?

 

"I heard you wanted to meet me? Do you have a special request?" (N)

"Ah, no. I mean, yes. Well, I wanted to spend some time with you, maybe talk and have a cup of tea. Before that, I would like to know how you are. Are you fine for now?" " (A)

 

She seems a little flustered and the whole attire looks more like a role a child would play.
Something like "let's play princess".
I remember her contribution to my torture and her part was one of the worst at that time.
Well, in hindsight it would have been the spiders under my skin if I would have been aware of them, but from the general feeling I'd put the acid before this.

 

"I-I am surprisingly good for now. You know, apart from the fact that my humanity was ripped away from me and dissolved in acid it seems." (N)

 

This part is quite a sore spot of mine.

 

"Oh, yeah... that. It was really not with ill intentions." (A)

 

I can understand that I might be dead now or worse if not for this development, but the way she did it feels wrong.
She hurt me and is now acting as if there's nothing to it.

 

"I begged you to stop and you just pumped in more!" (N)

 

I don't know where I found the bravery to say this.
Maybe it's the fact that she's acting so timidly or that I'm really angry about all the pain she inflicted and it all rushes back to me again.

 

"I-I had no real choice! Doing it just halfway would have been bad on its own. It's not like I liked it, but Kyroki instructed me to do so. Otherwise, the serum might've broke you if it couldn't do its work properly." (A)

"And why not just put me to sleep right at the start?" (N)

"That would have made you weaker at a crucial point and your life was already at risk. It was not really a safe thing to do. You just had a natural ability to adjust as Kyroki said. Otherwise, I wouldn't have contributed. But she said it would improve your chances and she already had claimed you." (A)

 

My memories from that time are a bit fuzzy, yet now I can have her clear this up for me.

 

"So this Kyroki hunted me down?" (N)

"She directly sprinted towards and sedated you as soon as she got sight of you. This was unnatural reckless of her since despite her strong poison she is bodily quite weak." (A)

 

So it seems for her I was a valuable specimen for her experiment and Akasia wanted for some reason to make it a success.

 

"Why was it so important to you that I survive?" (N)

"You became my sister. Isn’t that reason enough? Despite..." (A)

 

Now for the interesting part.

 

"Yes?" (N)

"You are a former human! I never had the chance to talk with one and this is the closest I can ever get! How do towns look? Can you explain why fire is so important? How do you live together? Do you have a favorite food I could try? Does my tableware look right? I tried so hard to make it good! And do you know any stories about royalty? How does dating work? Is..." (A)

 

Has somewhere a dam broken?
For the next five minutes, I am flooded with in an ocean of questions about human trivia without the chance to answer.
She appears a bit odd to me now rather than malicious.
This Kyroki instead sounds more and more like an evil experimenter to me.
But Akasia seems very tame in comparison despite her lacking common sense for humans.
However, this is nothing you can't change.
It might be good for my mind to have someone a bit more human around me to feel more normal.
That’s a soothing thought.
But to make it calming this stream of words first has to end.

 

"Ehm, Akasia could I ask you to stop?" (N)

"...do plants taste different for humans?... Did I talk too much?" (A)

"You're stating too many questions to answer them like this and you don't give me the chance to do so in the first place!" (N)

"Oh, I'm sorry! I was a little too excited, but maybe we could still try to talk?" (A)

 

This seems to be fairly important to her and like I said, there is a benefit if I can educate her a bit.
And we would maybe get along better.
And maybe I'm too forgiving to people who tortured me.
But it seems like Kyroki is the one who’s truly responsible.

 

"Fine, we can have a talk if you want!" (N)

"Really! You don't know how much that means to me!" (A)

 

I have an idea.