“A second floor, like, a level on top of what we have right now?” Cellestra asked, scratching the back of her head while looking at the top of the existing ‘nest’. Her eyes then followed the silken lines that were used to connect them to the trees. “Don’t you think the integrity will suffer too much? How would you even get to the second level?”

“We’ll have to make new lines, I know, but I think I’d just have the others go at it and see what they can come up with. Gives them something to do while I work on these walls. They are eager to show their ability, so why not let them?”

Elle seemed to love the idea and jumped to give me a hug. Faerith seemed to be energized and started sprinting around the place before skittering on top of the roof.

“Eager for sure,” Cellestra replied.

“And I figured this would be a great opportunity for them to show me their problem-solving skills. Sure, I can tell them exactly what to do, but what good will that do? I want them to be able to act independently and see what solutions they come up with. If anything, I think having them build a second floor would be a great way to hone their skills, especially when it comes to working together.”

“Those are some valid points. You make it sound like you really thought this through beforehand.” She suddenly looked at me with a straight face, a hint of wonder across it. “Did you?”

“Nope,” I replied with a grin whilst shaking my head. “Literally just came up with it now, but hey, I guess having two minds helps?”

She giggled as Shayla, Myria, and Amarys skittered up to my front, waiting expectantly for me to say something. However, I just shrugged.

“You can go for it whenever you feel like it. Amarys, you can take charge if you want or need to. Let’s see what you can build, shall we?”

Amarys nodded and led the others up onto the roof, where they walked in circles. As far as I could tell, they were watching closely and measuring, another example of their intelligence. Just the sight of it assured me that they could do this.

If, for some reason, their threads did not prove to be adequate enough, there would be no loss here. What they would build was an extension of an existing structure and even if it failed utterly, we wouldn’t suffer damage.

Well, not in the usual sense, at least. Perhaps the spiderlings would suffer damage in the form of a morale penalty, or doubt in their ability, but if it came to that I’d help them get over it.

In the meantime, I started my own work by bridging the tree stumps together with some main lines of threads, the bones of what would be a proper and sturdy web. This process alone took longer than I’d expected, and it turned out we were lucky we’d started working on this early as it took another two hours before the first part was finished.

It had cost me quite a bit of energy, and an immense amount of silk to create one wall, but the result was there. A strong web that didn’t budge, no matter how much force I applied, now separated the nest from the outside world, well, at least on this side. There were still six more to go…

During my work on said wall, the spiders hadn’t sat idly. They’d looked closely at the lines going to the trees and had started their work by replicating those.

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t possess my ability to manipulate them with wind magic, and thus were forced to skitter into the trees, connecting threads, and walk back and forth over and over again until the fundamentals had been done.

The one good thing was that there were five of them, so they still managed to get quite a lot done. When I was finished, I took in their work.

They were nowhere near finished, but they did have a strong foundation set up. Now, all it would take would be massive amounts of silk to wrap around their base and we’d have a dome on top of what we already had.

I’d let them finish another day and would likely wait for rain before I’d even start thinking about removing part of our ceiling to make way to the second floor.

I chuckled when I realized that I was hoping for rain soon.

“It’s looking good so far,” I commented as they all came down, realizing I had finished and was now looking at their work. “We’ll continue tomorrow. It’s starting to get dark and I’m quite tired after all that.”

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I petted Elle, who, unsurprisingly, had found the room to hug me again.

“Great job. I assume there were no issues. Amarys?”

She shook her pedipalps, and seemed quite happy, that was, as far as I could read a spider’s expression.

“They looked like they had fun,” Cellestra added. “I completely lost track of time watching them. Here’s the sign by the way. Will you place it on the wall?”

“I should have gotten a hammer and nail from my dad, but I suppose some silk will do the trick as well.”

I covered the back of the sign with as much as I could and then pressed it against the wood, right next to the door. I found it stayed in place without issues, and took a few steps back to watch it from a distance before chuckling a few times and shaking my head.

“It’s quite outdated by now,” I said when I looked at Cellestra’s puzzled expression.

“Would you like me to make another?” She asked earnestly. “I’d need another piece of wood, though.”

“I feel like it would be fair to have them included. They are part of our little family, after all. As for wood, I’ll get that fixed real quick.”

Without hesitation, I took my halberd to one of the tree stumps and carefully cut off another plaque. Cellestra said she needed it to dry before she could work on it properly, so I figured I might as well do it now so she could hopefully continue with it tomorrow.

After cutting it off, and cleaning the rough edges, I took it with us as we headed inside, seeking shelter for the night.

“A strange day,” I commented as I relaxed on the webs. “But also a relaxing one, in a way.”

“I hope things remain quiet for a while,” Cellestra said as she unpacked a couple of things from her backpack. Her clothes were moved to the dresser once again, and the orb was left next to me to illuminate the nest. After finishing up, she stroked Faerith’s head – the poor spider had already gone to sleep at the edge of the room – before placing herself next to my torso, inviting me to hug her.

“Couldn’t agree more, but we know our fates won’t allow things to stay this way forever.”

“True as that may be, one can always hope.” I kissed her hair before taking her in for the hug she was looking for, my legs assisting in the effort. I then let out a deep sigh, both in relaxation and in worry about what was yet to come. “Think we should check with Elysa again sometime soon to see if she was able to find out anything else?”

“If you’re ready to take the ritual again, I don’t see a reason to not do it,” She replied softly.

“It’s been a few days. I think I’ll be fine, but maybe it’s a good idea to have a talk with Soranir first to see if he has any pressing questions for the goddess regarding the matter.”

“Doesn’t he visit the shrine quite regularly? Wouldn’t the fires burn for him if she wanted to talk to him?”

“That’s… a good question actually.”

My eyes, which had started to slowly close, were suddenly wide open again, thinking about this subject. Soranir could at any point attempt to establish communication with the goddess, even if there were no fires. He’d just have to hope she’d accept his audience.

“Maybe he already has,” I continued. “I am confident he’s thought about this at least once. Don’t think it can hurt to check with him.”

“Maybe he’s just too busy. That does appear to be a thing, and you certainly didn’t take away any of that weight.”

“I really didn’t, did I?” I closed my eyes and kissed her hair again. “I suppose you’re right, but let’s not worry about it now. We’ll look into things tomorrow. For now, I think it would be best if we went to sleep.”

“That sounds lovely.” She placed her hands on mine and relaxed against me, letting out a soft moan of satisfaction. “Good night, Kea.”

“Good night, Cel.”