You. You would fight them? Goldie seemed to have trouble with the very thought. She stumbled over the words in her mind. Almost as soon as she had the thought, she was shaking her head. Too dangerous.

I’m tougher than you think, Adon sent back. I’ve fought some pretty dangerous—

No, first friend. Do not risk your life for this. I will happily teach my silk knowledge. For you, a gift. Please do not risk a fight.

Adon felt he was being underestimated, but he was also touched by his new friend’s concern. He decided not to argue the point for now, and suppressed his thoughts on the matter at least enough so that he didn’t accidentally vocalize them via Telepathy.

Well, I will gladly accept your teaching, wise spider. Adon put his front feet together in front of him like he was praying, then bowed his head like a figure in some martial arts movie.

Goldie laughed in her head again. More of a giggle this time. Where did you copy that from? Pose feels familiar.

Adon hesitated slightly, then broached what he suspected would be a difficult subject. Do you remember another life? he sent. Before this one?

As he’d expected, the spider’s body language shifted with the change of topic. She stiffened, slumped slightly, then nodded slowly. Bits and pieces. Her thoughts were quiet, a whisper. Shadow things. Can’t remember more. Names. Own face. Loved ones. All gone…

Damn it! Adon wanted to bury his face in the dirt. Goldie’s being so nice to me, and I upset her again. What’s wrong with me?!

Do not be troubled, friend. Her voice in his head managed to sound on the verge of tears, though of course, spiders could not cry. She must have been a vertebrate in her last life. I asked question. You only tried answer. I will take care next time. Bright side. I still remember language. Otherwise, conversation impossible! More memory of past life would only be sad. Remember everyone I miss. Painful. Better to forget.

I really like you, Goldie, Adon sent. You have an amazing attitude. It’s exactly how I want to be in this life. Making the best of things.

How else is there to be? Goldie replied. There was another option? No one told me.

They shared another silent laugh at that.

Despite the joke, Adon thought she was genuinely quite inspiring. He realized he would never be able to complain about anything in her presence, with all his advantages, without feeling very silly. He could communicate with others, he had many memories to give him a sort of wisdom advantage, and one day he would even be able to fly. He had the advantage in not being socially isolated in the present, possessing knowledge of the past, and having unimaginable prospects for the future. Yet how poor his attitude looked in comparison with hers!

Adon decided not to dwell too much on it. There was only so much thinking he could do without transmitting it through the mental link, and if he considered how ungrateful he had sometimes been any more deeply, it would certainly become a surface thought and leak out.

So, how should we do this lesson, then? he asked.

Show me your silk, she replied. I will give suggestions.

Adon shot out a quick burst of silk and looked up at the spider for her approval.

Goldie was looking down at him with a quizzical tilt to her head. Well, that was quick. Hm. Personal question. Is that what your silk always looks like?

He felt weirdly self-conscious all of a sudden. He managed to stop himself from asking if he’d done it too quickly. If she thought he had, she would say so.

Not always, he replied. I sometimes see it come out thicker or thinner.

Is that thread sticky? she thought.

Isn’t it always?

No, of course not! Goldie’s tone was faintly indignant. How would I walk around? If all threads sticky, impossible without tearing web.

Oh. Right. Actually, I knew that. It had been trivia knowledge in one of his old lives, but unfortunately, Adon only remembered highlights from most of his previous lives unless he made great effort. Even then, much minutiae like this would escape him. Only his immediate past life presented itself in near crystal clarity.

On the other hand, Adon’s threads were always sticky, because all he’d ever needed to use them for was trapping and binding things. For a moment, he had ignored who he was talking to. Goldie actually lived on a web, after all.

To make a web… Goldie went into a detailed explanation. More detailed than Adon had really been prepared for. She even spun silk to give visual demonstrations of how to weave and overlay silk in a web construction. Her lecture included how to make grid-like patterns, explained proper proportions of sticky to nonstick threads, gave insights on shape and structure, and offered many more details besides.

It was dizzying, and not just because the prolonged conversation began to give Adon a headache like he’d experienced with the ants before. If Goldie could talk, she could be a professor of web construction.

If Adon hadn’t possessed the Skill Impeccable Memory, he’d have been completely lost five minutes in. Even as it was, he repeatedly had to ask for breaks to digest information and let his brain rest. Definitely need more investment in Intelligence and Will, he thought while he was disconnected from Telepathy.

When he checked his Status during one of his later breaks, he found he was also running low on Mana. He estimated that Goldie had used up three-quarters of what he’d had at the beginning of the conversation with just her lecture.

Damn. For someone who’s been nonverbal for so long, she sure can be wordy. That was true even accounting for the occasional dropped words in her sentences, though the longer she spoke, the better that was.

Adon explained his mental fatigue and declining Mana, and Goldie nodded as if unsurprised.

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All resources have limits, she thought sagely. Let me teach you one more lesson. Most valuable secret. How to touch the sticky threads without sticking.

Wow, Adon transmitted. That sounds incredibly valuable!

Other spiders will be afraid of you if they see you can do it, Goldie agreed. Essential technique for web construction. Touching sticky threads while pulling web together is necessity. Otherwise, never make anything bigger than you already have.

You really believe in me, huh? Adon couldn’t help but think.

Honestly, not sure, Goldie thought. Caterpillar spinning web seems like difficult task to me. But… want to believe in you. Who else here to believe in? Make dreams come true, Adon!

There’s always your mate, Adon replied. He’s there all the time, right?

True, I do have him, she agreed.

Ah! That gives me an idea. I finally figured out how I can pay you back for all this help.

You don’t have to do that… but what did you have in mind?

I can use Telepathy! Adon transmitted. I don’t know if you feel comfortable with me doing it, but I could be an intermediary between you.

Unfamiliar word, Goldie thought. Intermediary is?

I could talk to him and you and transmit messages back and forth, Adon explained carefully.

Goldie went silent for a long time at that. He could tell she was engaged in a struggle with herself, but Adon was surprised he couldn’t hear her thoughts. Maybe she had figured out how to suppress them as he had. Or maybe the struggle in her own mind was silent. Emotional rather than expressed in words.

When he heard her thinking again, it was, No… but I—no, I do not—yes, I should—no. She turned and looked down at Adon. I have decided. I decline. For today, at least. I think more, but I doubt I will change.

Why? The question burst out of Adon’s mind before he could restrain it, before he could consider how insensitive it might be. He was just so surprised.

Fortunately, Goldie did not seem offended by the question.

Seems strange, I know, she thought. He is my mate. He gave me his seed. I will use for my eggs very soon. Then we will have offspring together. Why should we not talk?

Adon nodded. He was really curious about her motivations.

I already made the reproduction decision. I do not regret. Happiest moment of this life, when he decided to stay after providing seed. Adon found this the most nearly alien set of thoughts he had heard from Goldie so far, but he recognized that he was still in a very human mindset. He managed to tamp down his thoughts into the nonverbal subconscious and keep silently listening.

He is good mate, I think. Males of my kind do not live long. He chooses to spend the rest of his days here. See the eggs fertilized. Maybe hatched? We do not know how long he gets. Males of my kind live short lives. I may have another year in me. Another round of egg laying, perhaps. Though I will be old lady! There was a short, shared burst of laughter at the thought. After all that, I am afraid. Never spoken to him before. Do not know if he is even verbal. Do not know what he thinks like. Do not know…

There was a pause, during which Adon thought the spider was struggling to decide how to phrase her next burst of thoughts. She seemed to give up and threw her hands up.

Do not know if I will like him. Or if he will like me. Thought of talking with him scares me! Too much to lose. Too much possibility of disappointment. Her eyes, which had been looking off into the distance, aimed down at Adon again. One talky friend is enough for now. Alright, friend?

Adon’s thoughts were complicated. His mind darted from one subject to another, fluttering over the various questions Goldie’s monologue had raised. He had simultaneously learned a general estimate of her lifespan—she didn’t have longer than another year!—he had begun to wonder about his own mortality, and he had the nagging idea in the back of his mind that she might have been unlucky in love in a past life. Perhaps many past lives. It could explain her hesitance.

But Adon could express none of this openly now. Not with the delicacy that any of these subjects required. He needed to think about them, not trample all over the ideas with the clumsiness that had characterized much of his expression in this conversation. He was just glad he didn’t seem to have verbalized any of these thoughts enough to accidentally transmit them over the telepathic link.

And what Goldie needed wasn’t more of Adon’s mental baggage to worry about. It was his unreserved support. She was clearly worried about his judgment. Otherwise she wouldn’t have spent so much time unfurling her reasons for declining his offer.

It was an odd choice to Adon. Even in his social awkwardness, he would never choose to be unable to communicate with the one he loved—if that was really the word to describe this strange spider relationship. He would never choose to be mute with respect to the partner he was producing offspring with, in any case.

Of course it’s alright, he sent. I respect your choices, my friend.

Adon tried to infuse the words with all the sincerity he could. He drew on his genuine respect and affection for Goldie.

And he thought he did a serviceable job.

The spider nodded in response. Thank you, Adon. We may discuss this again, I hope. Difficult to contemplate now.

Without further preamble, she launched into her explanation of how spiders kept from sticking to their own webs. It was surprisingly complicated and difficult for him to imagine accessing. Parts of the method Goldie used were dependent on Adaptations that Adon himself did not have yet.

There was a certain nonstick coating that she applied to her feet. Other spiders sometimes had dense hairs on their feet. Adon had neither Adaptation, though he suspected they would be cheap enough in the Evolution Store if many spiders had them.

But the other aspect of the method was something he would simply have to practice. A method of movement. A sort of careful, gentle way of touching the silk. Goldie demonstrated this with her own silk, though the display was more impressive than illuminating for Adon. What he took from it was that the silk needed a little bit of pressure to be properly sticky, apparently.

He had often overcome this himself by the simple expedient of shooting his silk at his enemies, and had never had an issue with getting it to stick to other bugs.

Sounds like something I will need to practice, he sent.

Goldie nodded and thought, Absolutely. Wise words. You may destroy many webs before you are satisfied you have mastered technique.

His head was almost splitting as those words entered his mind, and Adon realized he must be near his limits.

I think I have to stop for now, Goldie, he sent. He had already explained his Telepathy limitations to her in enough detail that she knew what he meant.

I understand. Talked until you got tired of me! She thought the words in a joking tone, fortunately. Adon didn’t have the energy left for reassurances. Not convincing ones, anyway.

He was just fortunate he didn’t have a bad migraine yet. It would be uncool if he ended up running out of juice and temporarily paralyzing himself in front of Goldie. He could endure the pain—he had already done so once—but he might die of the embarrassment.

He promised to practice some of what she had taught him, and he signed off for the afternoon. Judging by the position of the sun—now drawing low in the sky—it was almost evening. But Adon thought there was just enough time before he rested to make his first attempt at spinning a real web, rather than just a bunch of silk threads.

These attempts are all for you, Goldie, he thought. I can’t believe I made a friend already, and she believes in me enough to teach me everything she knows.

If caterpillars could cry, Adon would have shed tears of gratitude.