On either side of the entrance were two trapdoors. each of which was propped open by a bulbous, hairy body about the size of a large dog. Eight black eyes in each black hole, and a bevy of spindly legs poised like hands ready to draw in unsuspecting prey. Their mouth parts clacked in agitation when Sunwhisper projected his status screen through his eyes, its pale blue light casting them in tenebrous relief.

"Hello,” he said.

The mouthparts clacked, and out of that clacking came two voices, or rather the imitation of voices, with ersatz phrases formed from chitinous clicks and the vibrations of scraping hairs.

"It speaks with us…"

"A greeting, meat greeting, meet meat, greeting…"

The sound that followed could only be generously described as being laughter.

"Sacred beasts," Sunwhisper tilted his head, but did not bow deeply enough to expose his neck or back, "am I to presume you are my guards?"

"Guards, he says…"

"Yes, yes, we guard the meat. But we cannot eat it, no, we cannot."

"Such a waste, such a waste, unless it wants to run."

"Yes, yes, the door, the door is open."

"It should go out, why doesn’t it, why doesn’t it go out and be free?"

"Yes, yes, be free little meat, meat that greets."

They chittered again, having thoroughly amused themselves.

"Ah, I see. So I am safe from you as long as I don’t try to run. And are you also the ones I must ask for any amenities?"

"It asks…it asks…"

"Call out, and see what answers. Meat answers, sweet meats. Let them come."

(I like these guys. They seem to have things figured out. Got good heads on their shoulders.)

{They have no shoulders, as far as I can ascertain.}

(It was a figure of speech.)

{Of course, I was joking as well.}

(You were? Good for you. Keep it up, you’ll get better at it.)

Sunwhisper disabled his status screen, and called out. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

It was only about thirty seconds before the door clicked open. A man in initiates robes held a candle, the light was not much stronger than the status screen had been, but it was more offensive to the guardians, who swiftly hid themselves behind their respective trap doors.

"What is it?" The man asked.

"My name is Sunwa Jin," Sunwhisper said, "and Hago told me I could ask for anything I wanted."

The man gave no indication of agreement or disagreement, though it was hard to read his face in the half light. "What do you need?"

"A candle, and some bedding. I may be here for some time. Also, a meal, if you can spare it."

"Fine," the man said, "there’s probably something left over from the mess. But don’t talk to the spiders, alright. I don’t like hearing them."

So Hago had been true to his word as far as the promise of amenities. That was something, though he had not mentioned the spiders. Sunwhisper found the relationship of cultivators to sacred beasts to be a fascinating one. In Fringe Village, aside from the raven, who had been essentially relegated to the role of living battery, sacred beasts seemed to be seen as something to be harvested just as the Soma fruit was harvested. A natural resource, but not a respected one. Makoto had apparently had a close relationship with a fox, but Sunwhisper had never actually seen any sign of it other than the border guardians initial violent reaction to being presented with its fur.

In Silk Flower Town, things were different. The beasts here were not wild, and they were not hunted. They held compacts with cultivators, or they were soul bonded, something that wasn’t spoken of in Fringe at all as far as Sunwhisper could recall.

It meant that Karasu was quite safe on her own, because anyone who saw her automatically assumed that she belonged to a four-star cultivator, as that was apparently when the bond took place. There was hardly anyone in Silk Flower willing to risk offending a pure artist who had attained that level of advancement.

"Do you have a soul bond?" Sunwhisper asked the creepers in their dens, "Or a contract with the Azai?"

"Soul bond…us?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Who would dream of it?"

"They would be nightmares…"

The laughter again.

"Then why do you serve the Azai?"

"They feeeeed us."

"Feed…feed…"

"They have a beast man, and the beast man makes a deal…"

"We live, we eat, we serve…"

"A beast man? A cultivator who specialized in handling sacred beasts?" While Sunwhisper hadn’t been aware there was such a role, he wasn’t surprised, given present circumstances.

"Yes, yes, beast man, man beast…"

"Gives us orders…"

"Gives us meat…"

"But you are not soul bonded, it is a relationship of convenience." The door clicked open again before the spiders had an opportunity to respond, and Sunwhisper sensed them retreating back behind their trapdoors.

The Azai initiate did not fully enter the cell, but he had brought blankets, candles, and a bowl of soup, which he set just within the threshold.

"You shouldn’t talk to them," he said. "They will try to trick you into breaking the rules, and then they will eat you."

"I appreciate the warning." Sunwhisper said, collecting what he had been brought and taking the items back to the center of the room. "But what are the rules, exactly?"

"Just don’t leave without permission," the initiate said, "and don’t antagonize them, or they will be free to attack you."

"That should be easy to remember, thank you."

One of the candles was already lit, a fat and lightly scented variety that he set beside him on the floor where he sat on the blankets. The spiders did not care for the candlelight, it seemed, as they remained behind their trapdoors, so he took a few minutes to enjoy the soup. It was warm, rich onion broth, and there were bits of pork floating in the water that he picked out and tossed in front of the trapdoors.

The spiders evidently smelled the offering, as a few of their long legs poked out from under their doors and fumbled about until they had scraped all the pork into their respective holes.

Sunwhisper covered the candle with his hand so that only the barest of orange glows escaped from between his fingers.

"I was thinking," he said, listening for them as they peeked back out into the open, "as long as you are comfortable making deals with the Azai, you should be comfortable making a deal with me as well."

"You have nothing…"

"You are meat, meat man…"

"Is all you care about eating?" Sunwhisper asked.

"Hunger…the hunger…"

"Life is eating, stupid human, life is hunger, there is nothing, nothing else."

"What does it feel like, if you do not eat for a long time? Do you hate it, do you starve?"

"Hate it, hate it, yes, we must eat. The beast man feeds…"

"What if I told you I understood your hunger? That I was more like you than you than I am like the Azai?"

"Like us?"

"He is a fool, we should be allowed to eat fools…"

"Stupid human…stupid bag of meat."

"Is it only humans that you are bound to keep in this cell?"

"Prisoners are all human. They do not keep beasts with beasts…"

"What if I told you that I am more like a spider than a human?"

The laughter was their only response.

{Would you mind coming out?}

(Sure, that doesn’t seem like it could go wrong in any way.)

{I feel the same.}

(That was sarcasm, Sunwhisper.)

{Of course, mine was as well.}

(Sigh.)

Starscream popped open the chest compartment where he had been hiding and scuttled up onto Sunwhisper’s shoulder. He was still plugged in by his tail, but that gave him a few feet of mobility to work with, and he waved his forward arms in the direction of the spiders.

For a long moment, there was only silence.

"What…"

"What is this? What is this?"

"This is my friend," Sunwhisper said, "and he is not so different from you. He can live inside me because I am not human, I am not a bag of meat at all. I am something very different, and if you tried to eat me, you would not find me a very satisfying meal."

"You are still a prisoner…" They had begun to sound uncertain.

"I showed you this so that you would understand that I am also a kind of beast man. I make deals with sacred beasts, like this one, and I have much to offer you."

"Meat? You give us meat?

"Meat! Meat!"

The idea of extra food filled them with such excitement that they came fully out of their dens. While their bodies were dog sized, their legs were easily each a meter long, so that altogether the pair took up significant floor space.

"I can do better than give you meat," Sunwhisper said, "I can make you free."

"Free…"

"What does it think? That we are stupid?"

"They would hunt us. Kill us."

"Serve them, be fed…"

"Or die and die and die."

"I think you can be physically free," Sunwhisper smiled at them, though he imagined the reassurance was wasted on creatures as inhuman as these, "but that is not what I meant. I meant that I can make you free from hunger."

"That…that…"

"It doesn’t make sense…"

"Stupid human, stupid meat…"

"It says it has no meat, isn’t human…"

"Still stupid…stupid something…"

Sunwhisper held one hand over the candle so that there was only the faintest of orange glows from between his closed fingers, the other he held out into the darkness.

"Touch me," he said, "and I will show you."