Done already? Goldie sent, slightly disappointed.

Well, I would really like to try this other idea of mine, Adon sent. I hope it might help you and Samson even more than these little nudges about Mana Manipulation. Are you ready for it?

Absolutely, Goldie replied immediately.

Adon sounded energized by whatever idea he was interested in trying, and Goldie was happy to try whatever would help keep him in a better mood. She already felt a lot better after playing the silly Mana spark-racing game for the last half hour. It was frivolous but very relaxing.

She watched as Adon turned to address Samson. Goldie was particularly curious to see how Samson was doing as Adon faced him. In the moments before Adon spoke, she saw that the movements of the spark of Mana around Samson’s body were much smoother than they had been before.

Whatever Adon had said to him, it had worked.

Hey, Samson, Goldie and I are going to do something to try and get you guys to the next level, do you feel like joining in? Adon sent.

He still sounds shy, Goldie thought. Even though he is talking to his brother from another life.

Sure, Adon, Samson replied. He immediately—and very smoothly, in Goldie’s view—stopped circulating Mana around his body and pulled it back inside himself. What did you have in mind?

Um, if you two can just sit tight for a minute, I’m going to try to send you something through Telepathy, Adon transmitted.

We will be waiting patiently, Goldie sent, trying to be reassuring.

The two spiders opened their minds to whatever Adon was going to send them, and they waited. For a couple of minutes, they simply stood there. Goldie avoided allowing words to cohere in her mind. She did not want to become impatient or break Adon’s focus with any wandering thoughts. From the stillness of his body, she guessed that he was doing something difficult in terms of mental horsepower.

As she was waiting, it hit her.

A strange experience that enveloped her as if she was suddenly surrounded by—something—or transported somewhere. It was hard for her to comprehend exactly what was happening, but whatever this was, it stimulated all her senses.

What is this, Adon? Goldie asked, fascinated.

What mama said, Samson agreed.

Adon did not answer. It seemed to be taking all the butterfly’s focus to keep doing what he was doing.

The butterfly had opened a telepathic channel to both of them at once for the next stage of his instruction, and he had transmitted something—was still transmitting something. But what he had sent them was not a stream of his thoughts and ideas—or at least it was not a stream of verbalized thoughts and ideas. It wasn’t even images or sounds, or at least not images and sounds alone.

Adon could never have explained everything he knew about Mana Manipulation in words to Goldie and Samson.

Yet Adon had spent virtually the whole of his time alive mastering magic. Even Rosslyn had been impressed by his level of mastery in such a brief life.

So, what he sent them was something different from an explanation. Something different and distinctly better.

It wasn’t a lecture, a visual, a feeling, a sound—it was all of the above at once.

Adon was transmitting whole memories from his mind into theirs. That was the only way Goldie could make sense of it.

He seemed to have a perfect recall of everything that had happened to him as he was learning magic, and he made use of it here.

Goldie stopped trying to split her attention between Adon and the experience he had sent them. Clearly he wasn’t going to answer them right now—perhaps could not answer them.

She focused fully on the vision Adon was transmitting, and her vision of the present world and moment faded into the background. This was the memory of the first time he had formed his Mana ball attack. She felt the way his body interacted with his Mana, the muscles that tensed and released as the power gathered from within his core, and the degree of concentration he achieved in his mandibles before the Mana took physical shape, almost uncontrollably, preparing to burst out of his body in an explosion.

Goldie even felt the background details—the surface Adon was perched on, the air touching his body—but her attention focused irresistibly in the same place where his had been focused. On the action of Mana Manipulation.

She sensed how easily it could have gone out of control, how much pressure it placed on his body that first time, and how he ultimately released the blast almost as much to avoid accidental self-destruction as to test out a powerful new ability.

She saw the destruction the Mana ball caused to the plants around him and felt the pleasant shock at its power from Adon’s perspective.

Perhaps most importantly, Goldie felt that she understood how her own body could produce the same feat.

It was like he was showing her an instructional audiovisual memory of the skill he had developed, but instead of Goldie being an observer, she was able to interact with the memory as the being from whose perspective it was told.

Oh, this is remarkable, Adon! she exclaimed.

Like a movie, Samson added, using a word Goldie didn’t know. Or a video game!

Goldie felt slightly curious about that second comparison. This did seem game-like in a way, except that she and Samson had no apparent influence over what happened, because it was a memory. But what did the word “video” mean?

The vision faded to black suddenly.

I could not keep it going any longer, Adon sent, offering a very brief explanation. She could sense the fatigue in his voice. Need a rest now.

The butterfly fluttered down to the foot of the bed—even his wingbeats looked slightly exhausted now!—and he settled on one of the bedposts where he could relax in the sun.

Adon did not move or speak again until the servant came with their lunch.

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Then he sent a tired telepathic message thanking the man for the food—too tired, apparently, to send the message only to the servant, as Goldie had gathered Adon was doing earlier, when he and the uniformed man had discussed where Rosslyn was, and Goldie only heard the servant’s half of the conversation.

I should not let Adon use this ability to help us too much, Goldie thought. It seems very draining. If one of us ought to make leaps and bounds in magic, it should be Adon. Samson and I learning to throw his Mana ball will not make nearly the difference in a war that Adon could make if he continues to improve and learn as he has. He cannot do that if we wear him out by letting him play us his memories.

Still, the progress that she and Samson had made while Adon had been sitting still was remarkable. Although she had forbidden Samson from attempting the Mana ball indoors at the outset of their continuing their practice—it would be pretty terrible if they suddenly started destroying the palace just because they were finally learning some useful abilities—she now felt that she could form Adon’s Mana ball if she wanted to try.

And her practice of the basic exercise had improved by an order of magnitude.

Where she felt that she had previously struggled to properly maintain and maneuver a single little spark of magic moving around the surface of her body, now she juggled six easily, each moving as quickly or faster than the one she could handle before.

It was something in the basic way that Mana was supposed to move within and around the body. Something that Goldie had been slowly discovering and that Adon had grasped much more quickly and easily—perhaps something that came to him by instinct.

The spider almost felt guilty for improving so much without the commensurate effort involved. It was like she had stolen the notes of a magical genius. But she knew Adon wouldn’t feel that way, so she didn’t let it bother her at all.

Rather, she was mainly just impressed with how much Adon had learned in such a short time. She knew she had only seen a small portion of it with the beginning of Adon’s vision training.

Goldie thought that he might actually be a genius, naturally extraordinarily gifted in using this world’s Mana and magic systems.

As she ravenously tore into her lunch, Goldie considered more exercises but felt slightly handicapped by being indoors. She really wanted to try firing Adon’s Mana ball at a target. She thought she might try to make her way there after her food had disappeared.

The butterfly consumed his own, liquid lunch almost as quickly and voraciously as the spider had, which made an amusing sound: an intense slurping noise that filled the room. Adon seemed to be too tired to be self-conscious or apologetic about it, but in her own mind, Goldie quietly laughed.

With the wine and nectar consumed, the butterfly began to move again. He flapped his wings and crossed back over to where Goldie and Samson sat in the lunch platter. Adon was noticeably more energetic than he had been after the full-senses picture show he had given them earlier.

Would you guys like to go through some more memories? he asked as he landed. I think I could do that again one more time today.

How about we go outside instead? Goldie answered instantly, before Samson could say anything. I would like to practice the Mana ball attack that you showed us, but we cannot do it inside.

She was almost certain that Samson would have said “yes” to Adon’s question, and she wanted to give Adon a rest.

Samson seemed to read her tone.

Yes, I think it would be great to see if we can do it too, he quickly agreed. It looked like a powerful attack!

Um, all right, Adon replied. He suddenly extended all six of his limbs until they looked like they were made of spaghetti and reached out to Goldie and Samson.

After a moment’s hesitation—the spaghetti legs were just so weird—they latched onto the legs, and Adon took off carrying them.

The butterfly flew through the open door and along the hallway until he came to an open window, then fluttered out into the air. A moment later, the arthropods were above the garden.

I wish I had wings, Goldie thought for the first time in her life. She was not a very outdoorsy spider, and if she was out here alone, she would have been on high alert, looking for threats, but Adon’s mobility was amazing. And flying gave Goldie a strange feeling that was hard to describe.

Was it the wind blowing over their exoskeletons? Or maybe the feeling of weightlessness from being carried? Or the slight hint of tension at the possibility that Adon might drop them—even though Goldie knew well how harmless that would be…

Her mind flashed to Red. She remembered the time that she and her mate had been caught on a lizard’s tongue, then saved by a bird snatching the lizard up—only to be attached to the bird by the lizard and its tongue.

Red had saved her by chewing through the tongue until they fell away, safe. He had saved her. What her body remembered from that experience, though, was the experience of flying and then falling. A low-grade anxiety rippled through her.

The spider’s body shuddered slightly, and she clung to the spaghetti leg a bit more tightly than she had intended to.

Samson, dangling beside her, seemed to notice Goldie’s sudden discomfort immediately.

Adon, could you set us down somewhere? he asked. It would be nice to have a solid surface to rest our feet on.

Oh, of course, Adon replied instantly. A moment passed before he added, Are you two all right?

Just fine, but I agree with Samson, Goldie replied quickly.

You don’t need to downplay it, Samson sent quietly, to Goldie only.

But she gave her head a gentle shake.

Adon just spent half of the night making me feel better about your father, she sent. I am missing him again, but it will pass. It is simply something I have to live with. I do not want to bother our friend right now. I know he misses Red too.

All right, mama, Samson replied.

Adon fluttered down to a nearby bush, where Goldie and Samson could stretch their legs.

The environmentally stimulated memories began to fade, and Goldie felt her body calm down.

She pulled on a happier memory of Red to try and banish the emotions she was feeling.

She remembered the day that he approached her to mate.

Red had been so shy. He had approached her with a hunk of wrapped up prey—it might have been a cricket, but she was never sure, because it was so thoroughly covered in silk.

But he had not approached directly, not at first.

No, Red had moved from his web to a corner of the plant Goldie had affixed her web to, then hung out on a leaf for the first half day. He was waiting for some sign, she knew in retrospect, that she would be receptive to his advance.

What got him to move was when another male spider showed up and tried to proposition her. That male was much pushier, advancing to the center of her web with his offering with no hesitation. Unlike Red, the other male had clearly already partially eaten his gift before presenting it. And Red was much more generous; his present was even larger than him.

Knowing that she had a better option sitting in the leaves near her, Goldie had been considering whether to shoo the second male away or prey upon him. That was not the norm for her species, but advancing right to the middle of her web, her prime hunting spot, was also a breach of etiquette as far as she was concerned.

But she didn’t have to worry about it.

The male suddenly writhed in pain, and as he twisted his body, Goldie saw Red on his back, biting him and injecting his venom. The approach of a rival had motivated him to close in and secure his partner.

Goldie felt flattered. Normally, the smarter move for Red when facing a male of roughly equal size would be to simply move on to another web—another female—or at least to let Goldie decide between them.

Instead, Red had risked his life to put himself forward as the choice.

She took this all in for a few seconds as Red and the other male injected venom into each other. Then she realized she needed to rush in to guarantee the outcome she wanted.

By the time she made it to close range, however, the interloper male had already let go of Red. The male was crawling away, trying to escape Goldie’s web.

Despite having already been injected with venom, Red went after the other male, dragged him back, and stung him several more times—then presented him as part of Red’s mating gift to Goldie.

A warm feeling spread through the spider’s heart at the memory.

So romantic.