Anna's Parlor.

The cold fresh air of above was replaced with the warmth of Anna's domain within the span of seconds for Jeb. But if he felt anything from the sudden change he didn't let it bother him as he moved about the labyrinthian tunnels in search of Anna and Morty, and hope his friend wasn't too traumatized by what happened.

Finding Anna was rather easy it turned out. Not hard to find her when she made it a point when he came to draw him to her. Even now he could feel an influence upon him that guided him to where she was. Being aware of what she could do, the guiding influence that held him briefly the first time was nothing more than a mental direction sign now.

That didn't mean he let down his guard however. His mind was already becoming foreign to himself, he didn't need someone else switching his wiring even more, Jeb thought as he continued down the tunnels and halls that seemed to branch and continue on deeper no matter where he looked or turned to. He still wasn't sure just how much of it was real and how much of it was illusions meant to throw off invaders. Given the giant trapdoor spider he just saw, he was leaning more towards them being real.

Which would make assaulting this place from the outside like fighting on the Ho Chi Min trail on steroids. Plus giant spiders. Plus magic. Yeah, he did not envy anyone else trying to come knocking to take out Anna. Then again, he wasn't sure how his meeting with her about Morty will turn out.

He already had enough on his plate without throwing in yet another threat to deal with and it had been kinda nice not having to worry about the kobolds getting snatched by spiders while they were out hunting. But life hadn't been quite so kind to him lately and so he prepared himself for a violent confrontation.

It wasn't much longer before his "guide" led him to one of the possibly countless parlors/dining areas where Anna sat, as much as a arachne could at least, at a table filled with various offerings of bloody meats and fruits upon gilded plating. She glanced at him with a sultry smile and gestured to the table of food.

"Come, My Lord. Come and join me."

"Unfortunately, I have another dinner I have to get to. But perhaps another time?" Jeb excused.

"Of course. To what do I owe the pleasure then? Do you require more teachings in Illusion? Or is it perhaps something more... personal?~" She cooed at him as she ate a bit of bloody meat more seductively than she had any right to.

"It's uh, personal." Jeb said while trying not to gaze at the way Anna moved more proactively as he said that.

"Is that so? How then may I assist you in that regard, My Lord?~" She cooed some more as she slid smoothly from sitting to standing and sauntered seductively over to him.

"Well. It uhm, has to do with someone you captured." Jeb said quickly in an effort to get this mess over with as soon as possible.

Anna smiled and dipped her head in a bow.

"Of course, My Lord. Rest assured that his training will begin soon. You have nothing to fret. He'll be a most dutiful slave when I have finished with him."

"Well. I kinda want him back." Jeb said as his body tensed.

"But he is not ready, My Lord. Especially not so soon. It will be months of harsh conditioning before he would be anything more than a menial fit for manual labor." Anna explained as if she were talking to a child.

"That's not what I'm asking. I'm saying I want him back."

"And I said he is not ready. A proper slave, even a decent one, will require at least several months to break in sufficiently. Even considering a month would be out of the question as the harsh methods needed would be too much for most human slaves and he does not have the constitution to survive such experiences." Anna continued.

"You're not getting it. I don't want him as a slave. I want him back as is." Jeb said a bit more firmly.

Anna frowned in confusion.

"But, My Lord. You allowed me to capture him. While I dare not assume your designs for him, by allowing me to take him I believe was approval of his enslavement."

"I... know. But that isn't the point. As I said, I don't want him as a slave. So return him."

Anna, who seemed so welcoming to Jeb before, seemed to appear angered, even insulted, at what he said.

"My Lord. He is mine. By allowing me to capture him and not stopping it, it was YOU that endorsed my action! You CANNOT allow such a thing to occur in the first place only to then lay claim-"

Before Anna could continue her tirade however, she found herself silenced by a thorned claw that clasped around her throat with equal parts unyielding strength and deadly precision as each claw tip was but a slight twitch or even a deep breath away from cutting her throat open. She gasped and clamped her delicate hands around Jeb's transformed arm as she stared into his burning balefire eyes that pierced her very soul as he growled at her.

"You wretched spider! You DARE make demands of me?! Your continued existence is a mercy given by me and for that you should be on bended fuckin' knee thankin' whatever god you want for such a pleasure!"

The balefire flames that Jeb gifted Anna to illuminate her home flickered and writhed like wild animals in search of prey to feast upon. The gilded décor tarnished and the stone around them began to crack and turned an ashen gray as Anna felt a dark divinity being brought to bare upon her. She could do nothing more than gasp and make silent pleas as the demi-god before her went from a human to an eldritch monster. The flesh on his face peeled and flaked off as bone shifted and cracked as his skull elongated and darkened antlers sprouted from his head like a crown.

"You serve not because of some poorly disguised attempt at wooin' my favor but because you may prove useful to me! So don't think for a second that you can go after those few that I show actual favor to or I swear by every bein' there is that I will turn this place into a conflagration that would make the sun look like a campfire!" Jeb growled before dropping Anna to the ground.

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He stared down at her, only barely realizing that he now towered over her by several feet easily and had actually picked her up when he went for her throat. He cracked his neck and began to take deep breaths in an effort to calm himself and he found himself shrinking down to his normal height. But it was little comfort to Anna as she continued to gasp and choke, but even then she made an effort to prostrate herself before Jeb and tried her best to choke out apologies and promises and oaths and whatever she thought would stay his judgement upon her.

"I'll release him! I'll release them all if that is your wish My Lord!" She promised.

"Just him." Jeb stated commandingly.

The question was in her eyes, though she dared not speak it after what just happened. The truth was Jeb didn't actually care. With Morty there was that inkling. That shadow or phantom feeling of empathy or sympathy or whatever it's called. But when it came to thoughts of others? It just wasn't there. The idea of her enslaving people, of him coming down and finding the withered husks of people and even children, didn't bother him in the slightest. He genuinely couldn't find it in himself to care for the people she had slaving away in the depths of her realm no matter how hard he tried.

It disgusted him. Or it should. The thought was there. He KNEW that he should be repulsed, horrified, anything. But yet he couldn't catch that feeling anymore. Hell, it took far more effort than he wanted to admit to anyone, even himself, in order to just come and get Morty back. There was no telling how he would feel towards him in a year, or a month, or even a week.

There was no telling how he would feel towards anyone soon, Jeb thought bitterly. He cared for Ruby and the kobolds, and Clive, and his father and Sammy obviously. But how long before even that goes away? Before cold indifference claims that warmth he still felt? Before the lives and deaths of those around him become nothing to him?

Even that should disgust him. Fortunately, he could feel a slight welling of disgust from those thoughts. But he so very much wished for it to be a tsunami. Anything more than this echo of something that was once there.

"Just him." Jeb repeated. Not bothering to answer Anna's unspoken question.

She merely nodded.

"Of course, My Lord. My brood is retrieving him now."

It was a tense, and awkward, few minutes as Jeb and Anna both waited for her spiders to retrieve Morty and deliver him to Jeb. But the mood was too ruined for anything like idle chitchat. So that left Jeb standing over a still prostrate Anna as they both waited far too many minutes later when a passageway was filled with spiders that deposited a writhing cocoon.

Jeb marched over as the spiders cowered and retreated from his presence. He could hear Morty fighting and cursing from within the thick silken prison. He thought about maybe having Anna drop him off somewhere so that he wouldn't think he had anything to do with this. But like his father said to him. A man owns up to his mistakes and takes the consequences.

So that's what Jeb did. With a slash of a claw he freed Morty. Who promptly nailed Jeb right in the jaw.

"FUCK AWAY FROM ME YOU EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS!!!"

Guess he isn't as traumatized as he figured, Jeb thought as Morty scrambled as best he could from the cocoon remains as he looked around debating to either fight or flee. Then Morty's fear-laced eyes landed on Jeb.

"JEB!"

Morty wrapped Jeb in a hug before he even knew what was happening.

"Oh thank God and the Holy Mother and every Saint there is!"

Morty looked up and saw Anna and his eyes went wide once again as he smacked Jeb in the arm to get his attention.

"Jeb! There's a spider lady!"

"I know." Jeb said as he got up and helped Morty stand as well.

"Where's your gun?!" Morty asked as he made several glances towards Jeb.

"Back at the lodge."

"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU BRING IT WITH YOU?!" Morty yelled.

"Because I didn't need it." Jeb stated plainly, albeit cryptically for Morty.

"What do you mean you didn't need it?" Morty asked as he looked around for a weapon and saw the other spiders from the tunnel they had just came from.

"Because you're free to go. I'm gettin' you outta here." Jeb explained and started to lead Morty away as he stammered while pointing to Anna and the giant spiders.

"B-b-but-"

"Don't worry about them. They're not a threat anymore." Jeb said while casting a baleful glare at Anna, who merely shrunk in on herself.

The second they were in the halls and out of sight of Anna and the spiders however, Morty grabbed Jeb and pulled him along as they flew down the labyrinth of halls and tunnels.

"Morty?!"

"Quiet! Where's the exit?!" Morty hissed as his eyes darted frantically as his breathing turned ragged.

"I'm not entirely sure to be honest." Jeb said as they came to an intersection.

"What do you mean you're not sure?! How did you get in here then?!"

"That's... complicated."

"Well uncomplicate it! We have to get outta here before spiderlady comes after us!" Morty said as he dragged Jeb along.

"Kinda hard to do at the moment." Jeb muttered as Morty continued to pull him through tunnel after tunnel, intersection after intersection, and room after lavish room.

"How come?" Morty asked after stopping before what looked like yet another bedroom that was just as lavishly adorned as the dozens of others they encountered.

"I just need a minute is all." Jeb said.

"For what? For that thing and her spiders to catch up to us?!" Morty said fearfully.

"Can you just give me a minute is all?!" Jeb snapped.

"Fine! Have your damn minute then!" Morty snapped back and paced around the room they were in.

Jeb calmed himself and began to think of just outside the lodge. Odds are Morty would tell everyone what had happened. But being told by Morty and seeing it with your own eyes were two different things. At least this way they can get back to something semi-normal. At least as normal as a fantasy Thanksgiving with kobolds, halflings, and a manticore turkey could get.

"Can you hurry it up?!" Morty snapped.

"I would if you could actually give me a damn minute!"

"A minute to do what?! Stand there looking like a dipshit?!"

"You know what?! Maybe I shoulda let her keep you! Maybe I shoulda just pissed off back to the lodge and not given two shits about you! Not like the rest of them would blame me! Hell! They'd probably say good riddance! About time fate finally caught up with Mortimer Duval!" Jeb snapped back.

Morty made like he was going to say something and Jeb was mentally preparing himself to get into yet another confrontation. But Morty just bit his tongue and wandered off to a corner of the room. Leaving Jeb alone in silence so he can get focused enough to teleport them away. Though he wasn't sure how it would work, or if it even WOULD work with two people.

"Sorry." Jeb heard Morty say eventually.

"What?" He asked as he wasn't sure what he just heard.

"God it's bad enough I have to say it once do I really have to say it again?"

"Say what again?"

"Jesus. Fine. I'm sorry." Morty said a little louder.

Jeb looked at Morty a little shocked to be honest. He was sure Morty NEVER apologized!

"It's fine. After what happened I wouldn't blame you for bein' anxious to leave."

"Well, that too. But I mean sorry just in general."

"In general?"

"You know!" Morty said desperately.

"No, Morty, I don't."

Morty groaned and ran a hand over his face, which caused him to sputter and freak out as a bit of spider silk still clung to his hand. After fighting with the surprisingly strong and sticky web, Morty pressed on.

"Sorry for everything."

"When you mean everythin'-"

"Jesus! For EVERYTHING! For being a dick when I got here! For not telling you about the tunnel! For sending goblins to attack you and your home! For killing some of the lizards! For just being a shitty overall friend ok!" Morty listed off as he ranted before kicking a gilded cabinet in frustration.

"Hell, you could throw a rock and find a better friend than I've been lately. And no, don't even try to make some horseshit excuse to make me feel better. I'm a piece of shit. I haven't always been a good friend but I know these past couple of months even I was pushing it too far. So, yeah. I'm sorry. If you want me to leave I'll leave. If you wanna cut things off then so be it. I wouldn't blame you after everything. I probably would in your place."

"No." Jeb declared after a long tense minute of just watching Morty.

"No?" Morty asked with confusion.

"No. You don't get to put me through all that shit and just be let go of it! You're my friend whether you like it or not! Besides, someone has to be around to smack some sense into you now and again!" Jeb declared.

Morty sniffed and turned his back towards Jeb.

"Are you cryin'?"

"No. It's just raining is all."

"We're underground."

"Something stuck in my eye then! Just leave me be for a second!" Morty said with a wave of his hand.

So that's what Jeb did. He let Morty have his little moment in peace as Jeb just stood there and waited so he could teleport them away. After a minute, Morty turned around, walked over to Jeb, and gave him a brief hug.

"Thanks. For being my friend."

"Sure. Someone has to." Jeb said glibly.

"Ha Ha. And thanks for saving me from the spiders."

"Don't thank me." Jeb said.

"No seriously. I'm not sure-"

"And I'm serious. Don't thank me." Jeb stated with a shake of his head and a firmness in his voice that brokered no argument.

"Alright. So.... what was your plan to leave again?" Morty asked.

"Hold onto me."

"You want a kiss too or maybe a reach-around?"

"Just shut up and hold on!" Jeb snapped.

Morty muttered a curse or something and put an arm around Jeb as he prepared to teleport them away.

"This is goin' to be a bit disorientin'."

"What is?" Morty asked before the two suddenly found themselves back above ground and in the woods just outside the lodge.

Jeb turned to Morty.

"If you wouldn't-"

BLEGH!!!

Where he was promptly vomited on. Jeb sighed as he looked down at yet another pair of ruined clothes. Wonder if he could conjure more, Jeb thought hopefully as Morty continued to empty his stomach upon his friend's clothes and boots.