I raised my new elven torso upright as I was still slowly recovering from the shock of finding out what I’d turned into. I reckoned I would need some more time to get fully accustomed to this, but the feeling that I had at least half of my old body back was just… indescribable.

I could talk, smile, laugh. They were things that were so mundane for elves, and I’d never valued them as much as I did now, but, now that I had a friend in Cellestra, I had a use for them.

What would my parents say when they saw me? To what degree had their memories been altered? I might have to take up Elysa’s offer to speak to her in one of her temples. Speaking of temples, what would the priests, or even others, say when they saw me?

Could I have a relatively normal life?

I took a lock of my hair and ran my fingers through it while thinking about things.

My upper body was exactly how it had been before I died. It wouldn’t set me apart from any other elf. What was below that, though…

I had no issue controlling everything that I had before. My legs still moved the way I had gotten used to. I used them to move towards the corpse of Ingo, which still lay nearby. I then lowered my spider head to the ground and bent my torso over him to start searching for valuables.

He had seemed to possess much of the wealth of the bandits. Since it hadn’t originally belonged to him, I intended to sell whatever he had to more… honest folk. While I was searching his pockets with my hands, I removed his bloodied chest plate with my pedipalps.

It felt… liberating to have actual hands again. They could perform much more delicate tasks than my other limbs. Writing, holding on to smaller objects, and such were all but impossible with spider limbs.

I found a hefty purse full of coins in one of his pockets. It must have been quite hellish to walk with that stabbing in the leg all the time. In his other pocket, I found another dagger. It had a short sheath, and the fact that it was in his pocket combined with that made me think it wasn’t meant for combat. I removed the sheath to see my eyes reflected back from a golden surface.

This certainly wasn’t meant for combat.

I laid the items I’d looted from the bandit behind my torso, on my spider head. I then summoned several threads to bind them to my body when I noticed something was off about those as well. I could feel when I cast the spell that the threads were much flimsier than before. They were nowhere near as strong as what I was used to. They did the trick, but this wasn’t normal.

I took a moment to look at my skills and available enhancements, only to see that nothing had actually changed there.

Elysa, what happened to me? I feel so weak…

To Kealyna,

When I gave you my blessing in order to combat this curse that was placed upon you, there was a significant problem when I tried to add your elven body half to it. The curse had no problem allowing me to add strength to you while you were a spider, however, this evolution seems to be an issue for it. I had to compensate for this by evening out the power levels in your body…

I stared at the blue square before me, not knowing what I should feel. I was more than grateful to have been given, at least partially, my old body, so I felt like complaining about this would be petty. However…

Is there any chance I can get that strength back?

Your blessing allows you to grow stronger by spending evolution points to increase skills. Your chosen final evolution helps with this through Devour (Evolving).

That didn’t seem to be the answer I was looking for. Rather, it seemed like a general answer that happened to answer something close to my original question.

I had grown used to the power that I had possessed. Even if I hadn’t had it for long, to have it suddenly stripped away from me… I was less than happy with it. It made me… yearn for it again.

I decided to look at the bright side. I could cast two spells at once, and I had a body that would be more than useful in my search. I tried to shrug the weakness off as a necessary sacrifice, and started moving back toward the road. I did quick checks to see if the other bandits carried anything of value but didn’t find anything of interest.

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As I moved through the forest, the fact that my upper half was still completely nude returned to my attention. I decided to cover myself up with the only thing I had available to me at the moment; silk. I summoned many threads and wrapped them around my breasts while holding back my long hair. After I was finished, I let it flow freely again.

I continued inspecting my body while walking. My snow-white hair reached all the way to my waist, which was longer than I usually had it, but I couldn’t complain. When I looked at my waist, I noticed that it was very well covered by the long hairs on the top of my… other head. When I pushed them aside however, I could feel my face grow red.

Everything was still there…

It was completely obscured from outside, and while I wasn’t one to think about things like these too much, I couldn’t help but feel at least a little bit awkward about it.

I moved the hairs back, covering up everything below my belly button, before continuing my train of thoughts.

It was then I realized I’d gotten hungry again. It wasn’t quite as bad as my previous evolution, but it still felt as if I hadn’t eaten anything in a day, which was likely true, thinking about it.

I couldn’t be bothered to hunt for food, though. I wanted to see Cellestra and make sure she was safe and sound. What would she say when she saw me?

I reached the road after ten minutes of wandering and wondering. The log that had been used to block the road had been moved to the side and, save for the blood on the ground, there were no signs of the battle that had taken place here; the bodies had all disappeared. I wasn’t sure where they’d gone, but I couldn’t be bothered by it, either.

The tracks led forward, indicating they had continued their journey as planned. I hoped the elf would be smart enough to stick with them for a while, knowing that I would have a much easier time finding her like this. In my opinion, it would have been unwise for her to go back home, in case there were any bandits still around, and I doubted the guards would be willing to escort her all the way back.

I had half expected them to search for me, but it didn’t seem that was the case. That, or they just hadn’t found me.

I picked up the pace and followed the tracks for about half an hour. At that point, I’d reached the edge of the forest. What lay beyond was a large valley with a village on the far side, in the distance. The road ran all the way down through the valley and up the other side, to the village, winding back and forth a few times where the incline would have been too steep for carts or wagons. Thanks to my amazing eyesight, I could make out three covered wagons stopped beside the road maybe a few hundred yards from the village.

My eyesight was a blessing. I would have never spotted that without it. I had to cover quite a lot of distance yet. It was quite a few miles, for sure. I couldn’t make out the details, but I was confident those were the same three wagons we had rescued.

I followed the road as quickly as my legs could carry me. I intended to get there as fast as possible. I wanted to see Cellestra. I wanted to see her more than anything in the world right now.

I felt a drop of water hit my spider head near one of my eyes and I turned my elven face to the sky. There were no clouds in sight. It was then I realized that I’d shed a tear. Why was I crying?

I had no idea why, or what was going on, but I shed multiple tears as I skittered towards the village. I simply let the tears flow as they wished, knowing they had probably plenty of reasons to do so.

The road was completely empty, which, for me, was a relief. I had no interest in finding out what anyone would say or do if they saw me. Now that I could talk, I wanted to believe I wouldn’t be attacked on sight, but that was no guarantee. The fact that I had lost a significant portion of my strength was a concern for my safety, too.

My eyesight was truly enviable. I felt like I had walked for hours when I finally started nearing the wagons. When I did, I saw the same guards that were with us yesterday sitting next to the wagons. When they saw me approach, they instantly jumped up, with their weapons at the ready.

They didn’t hold them up for long. I approached them slowly. I knew that they had learned that I was an ally, but as far as I could see, they simply reacted that way out of pure and utter confusion. Their eyes were fixated on my elven torso, which confirmed exactly that.

I also towered over them even more than I previously had. I guessed that didn’t really help, either. I did wave at them, which seemed to put them more at ease.

The rattling their armor caused with their sudden movements, in turn, elicited movement from inside the closest wagon. I turned my head to see Cellestra peek out from behind the canvas after she’d moved it aside with her hands. She stared me down for a good ten seconds, confusion plastered on her face.

“Kealyna?”