Arachne

 

- Masiabi -

 

Took me long enough.
Finding the traces, identifying the smell, and not losing the track again.
I sent so many of my familiars to make sure it would succeed and ultimately it paid off.

I finally found them.
The same men who killed my little sister's parents and burned her home.
I have to admit that I don't really care about the fate of some random humans.
However, the point is, they made my precious little sister cry.
They injured and traumatized her.
So they will die a very gruesome death.
It's as simple as that.

Yet it was troubling that they split up.
While those camping in the wilderness were no problem to fetch, some traces led deeper into human territory, ultimately into a medium-sized settlement.
The issue is that I am not allowed to venture close to human settlements.
Talisa put down that rule, saying things like our spider form is too big and would gather unwanted attention.
And while we don't have any issues dealing with even bigger troops of humans, we might still be in trouble if they concentrate everything they have on us.
After all, they don't even hesitate to use something as dangerous and uncontrollable as fire.
In the worst case, we'd have to change locations after all the effort to settle in and secure our position.
This means I had to find a way to bring them to me.

Fortunately, I was not alone in this.
Convincing Kyroki was not a problem, as soon as she heard that she might get a specimen for her poisons.
And Akasia is as much into Nerysi as I am.
Just a shallow summarization of what they did to her was enough to create a look on her face I've just seen two times in my life.
One was when Eritu's first familiars got killed by humans and she couldn't stop crying.
The other was when humans invaded our territory and burned down great parts of our home.

Nerysi might not know, but if Akasia’s motivated, she can be the most cruel of us.
Kyroki just wants her results and I have rules I follow while hunting.
Akasia in this state wants to inflict pain and despair.
And so it was she who pointed out that we should also capture those they met up with.
As she explained, this isn't just a hunt, but also retribution.
For this reason, we're working on taking out their whole group.
So nobody will survive this.

Only Talisa and Eritu were left out.
Eritu might escalate and attack the whole settlement when something goes wrong and a familiar dies.
And Talisa could feel obliged to turn this into another lesson for Nerysi.
But this is exactly what this isn't!
I only wish to punish those who hurt my little sister, nothing else.

 

While my smallest brood had no problems tracking these humans down by their scent, following them all the way back to a town, there is now the problem of how to get them out of there.
It seems like they found shelter in a building close to the southern wall which makes getting hold of them all the more difficult.

Fortunately, we have Kyroki for that.
She devised an effective sleeping poison, which will make sure everyone there won't wake up.
And since many of her familiars are quite tiny, they don't even have issues with sneaking in there.

Now the biggest problem is figuring out how to enter the town and transport the captured humans out of there, as this requires much bigger familiars.

 

This is Akasia's part.
She makes her familiars in the north randomly shoot acid from a distance.
This causes the humans, as predictable as they are, to deploy troops and more guards to this side.
At least it posed enough of a distraction that no one bothered with what happens in the run-down part on the other side of the town.
As soon as there is no one to guard or even witness what happens, my familiars start.
They enter the building, capture the identified individuals with basic webs, and bring them out.
Like this it was no problem to drag the sacs back out, over the wall.

This ended satisfactorily, even if it was a problem that the humans had split up.
It was such a hassle to have them hunted down.
And far more to bring them here after they got captured.
After all, I'm not done yet.

 

But before I do anything else there is another party to inform.
One who will be heavily involved in what is to happen.
And so we head to the room where Nerysi’s brood is located.
The problem is that due to Nerysi's lacking education, they are rather wild, which makes it difficult to put them to use.
They mostly stay to themselves and become instantly hostile to everything that isn't Nerysi but dares to enter their den.
On the other side, I believe they are very smart.
They’re able to quickly catch on to any of Nerysi's confused and panicked orders and show signs of self-sufficiency, independently organizing their group for the sake of their mother.
They're extremely loyal to Nerysi, despite her disposition.
However, today we will make them participate in our ploy.

 

"Hiss"

 

The moment we enter, all of them turn toward us and demonstrate that they don't want us here.
Yet we have to tell them something.

 

"Would you please listen to us?" (A)

 

"Hiss"

 

And Nerysi asks why she has to spend more time with them.
They seriously need interaction.

 

"Okay, I know you don't like me, but please listen for a moment." (M)

 

While they don't seem to welcome us, they still stay where they are.
That's good enough.

 

"You see, there were these humans... Oh, you don't know what humans are yet, right? But you should be able to discern their scent from the food you had, right?" (A)

 

Akasia speaks calm and gently, like the big sister she is.
Yet the familiars don't seem keen on listening.
They might associate us with their mother being troubled whenever we do the training.
Then Kyroki steps forward.
Which is unusual for her who prefers looking from the sidelines.

 

"Let me Akasia." (K)

 

Kyroki steps in front of her with clear determination.

 

"You know. Those creatures did awful things to Nerysi. She still isn't over it. They killed those dear to her, drove her out her home, hunted her... hurt her!" (K)

 

"Scrchhhh"

 

The last part she spoke as if she would enjoy it.
She knew that this would make the biggest impact on Nerysi's brood.
They are devoted to her like one would expect it and their life is Nerysi's for all they care.
The mere idea that someone might dare to even offend, not to mention harm, their mother is unthinkable.
Yet it happened and clear agitation is the result.

 

"But don't worry, we found them. Yet as it would be selfish to kill them ourselves we would like to include you." (K)

"For this, we play a nice little game of hunting! They run and you chase behind. Totally simple!" (M)

"But it is important that none of them get away. You need to catch them all! How you kill them is your decision." (A)

 

They become silent.
It's clear that they show understanding, proving their high intelligence.
Then the biggest of them separate from the crowd.
That doesn't mean much, as they are fairly young and the tallest one only reaches to my hip.

Yet they are many and should be able to do this.

Those who left the group line up in front of us and then lower themselves to the ground.
There are many meanings for this gesture, but in this context it means compliance.
As I thought, they perfectly understand.
Even for familiars, they are very smart.

With this, it should be no problem to have them kill these humans.
While I would love to do this myself, this is very good training for them.
They were always holed up here and don't really have experience with the outside world or sustaining themselves.
Together with Nerysi's inability to sustain herself, this is a serious issue.

So while it is not as satisfying as hunting those who harmed my cute little sister down myself, this is for her sake so I can step back.
For the rest, Eritu is explaining everything to them, while we return to our "guests".
Everything apparently works out.
Nonetheless, I am feeling kinda bothered.

 

"Grmph." (M)

"Is something wrong, sister?" (A)

"You know, I am fine with having her familiars doing the deed. They have the same right as we do. But some of them killed her parents." (M)

"And? What does it change?" (K)

"You haven't seen her. She looked... wounded in a way. It hurt even to see her that way. It was more than bodily harm. Deeper. If we leave this to her familiars, they might merely kill them. I don't feel like I'd be satisfied with just this. I want them to writhe in agony!" (M)

"So you want special treatment for one of them? That should be possible." (K)

"I don't know who did it." (M)

"Leave this to me." (K)

 

I guess I can.
Kyroki knows about such things.
And about pain.
She knows very much about pain.

We go to the room where we left our guests.
By now they should wake up, so we can introduce ourselves to them.
However, at the junction to the outer nest, we are suddenly blocked off by Talisa.

 

"Did you really believe you could keep your little excursions away from me? What were you up to? Akasia?" (T)

 

Well, taking Talisa's information network into mind, denying everything won't help much.

 

"We brought some humans here to feed them to the familiars." (A)

"Then why all this effort to hide it? Masiabi?" (T)

 

I hate it when she does that.
Calling us out so that we are forced to speak and drag the others with us.

 

"It wasn't much. We just sent our familiars behind them." (M)

"You all sent considerable numbers out together, just to get those humans. Tell me why!" (T)

"They are the ones who hurt Nerysi! I want them dead!" (M)

"Can you explain this in more detail?" (T)

"The men who made her run into our forest. Bandits who killed her family." (M)

"So all this effort was to get them?" (T)

"Isn't it right? Even if she wasn't an Arachne at that time, the fact remains that they did something unforgivable to our sister. We can't let this pass." (A)

 

We are family in the end and who hurts one of us hurts us all.

 

"I see your point. Well, at least this might pose a good lesson for Nerysi to fight human opponents." (T)

"NO!!!" (M)

"What?" (T)

"I won't allow you to turn this into a lesson! You haven't seen her when she was confronted with what they did! I never want to see her like that again. And whoever causes such a thing will suffer! This is something personal!" (M)

"Masiabi. I understand that you're upset, but to take such a chance from her to grow would be a waste." (T)

"Actually, we all already agreed to do it like this. Kyroki is also partaking. We don't even intend to tell Nerysi. This confrontation will only cause pain to her." (A)

"Sigh! I can't go against the group vote but know that I disagree." (T)

"If it helps, we'll at least use this chance to train Nerysi's familiars." (M)

"A hunt. I see." (T)

"Do you want to accompany us? We're working out the final touches." (A)

"I think so. After all, someone has to keep an eye on you." (T)

"Great! Then let's greet our guests." (A)