The three infant warrior-peers stared at the strange creature before them. Though newborn infants, their ancestral memories declared her an enemy and a source of adequate food if processed properly. However, she acted the Queen. Memory from their mother’s last moments said she had killed the old queen, and now she ate from the queen’s body. These were the actions of a rival queen.

But something else confused them even more than the disparity of a prey acting as a rival queen. They could not sense their queen-peer at all, but the strange fake queen creature before them felt somehow acceptable. The three warrior-peers conferred one with the other via their telepathic peer-link. Unlike verbal language, complete sets of ideas and emotions transferred in an instant.

Though newborn, they came to a conclusion. Their queen-peer was not. She had perished as their mother-queen had perished. Further, this pseudo-rival-queen creature seemed to indeed possess the quality of a true-queen. They would test it and see if it was able. Thus they initiated the ritual of bonding as per their ancestral memories, that which would bind them to their queen-peer, or to a conquering rival-queen.

Warrior-peers only ever made one free will decision in their lives, and that at the beginning of their lives. They chose whether to serve the new queen or not. If they rejected the queen, whether peer or rival, they would attack and attempt to kill. Even if the rejected one managed to defeat them, which rarely happened with a peer and always happened with a rival, it did not matter. This was their choice to make and could not be denied them.

The ritual of binding awakened a peer-queen. All newborn queens were blind and chained. They could not perceive the world as all of their kind were meant to see. They could not communicate with the warrior-peers nor any of their kind. They could not command nor rule as a queen must.

The “ritual of bonding” used the mystic energies of mind and magic newborn warrior-peers accumulated while dormant in their mother-queen’s body to open the pathways in the mind of the queen. This allowed her to establish her mental link with her peers, binding their minds to her own. She would then convey her commands to her peers, and all of her children, through this link. Ever after, the queen’s brood would be mere extensions of her own self, her rule over her brood absolute. That was why when a queen died, the entire brood collapsed and destroyed itself.

For rival queens, new pathways could be opened, or old ones strengthened.

However, unbound warrior -peers would never abide a weak-minded queen Whenever the initial link between peers and queen-candidate initiated, the candidate had to possess a greater will than the combined will of the peers. If she did not, they would reject her even if found to otherwise be acceptable.

All this the peers knew by instinct. Moriah knew nothing.

Moriah stared at the three spiders, not sure what to do. She had set the lesion knife down to eat and fear held her motionless, her hands refusing to move toward the discarded weapon. Something inside her skull began itching. She wanted to scratch, but her hands and arms simply refused to move. Her injured arm and shoulder started throbbing. The itching intensified, partially overcoming her immobility, and she managed to raise her good, goo slimed hand, to rub her head. The three infant spiders did not move.

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The peers grew more confused. The fake-rival-queen’s mind differed from what ought to be. The pathways lay in strange patterns, far different from where their ancestral memories placed them. While deviations happened, these pathways were weird beyond anything ever encountered.

This pathway should be here. It was not. No, a completely different pathway lay there where it ought not.

That pathway should not be in such a place, but they recognized its flavor. Though it should be over there, still they recognized it as something to be opened.

! Such a pathway as that one no queen had ever possessed. Should it be opened? Should it be kept closed? Should it be given a maturity delay? They did not know. They were confused. They were unsure.

And still more mysteries assaulted the warrior-peers. Things right. Things wrong. Things weird and new and confusing. It was all so strange and new. They hesitated, unsure what to do. They sought refuge in their ancestral memories. New had been encountered before. If something was new and unknown, never before encountered, test it. Allow it to exist and determine through that queen’s life if it should be allowed or disallowed. The three warrior-peers made their decision in unity. They would test the new. They would open all of the pathways of this fake-rival-queen.

And so the three tiny creatures each with their uniquely powerful minds acted.

Moriah’s eyes bugged out and she gasped as the itching intensified by immeasurable degrees. She staggered, her arm slipping into gut juices. No longer caring about the spiders or her injured shoulder, Moriah dropped to her knees and threw her head back, befouled fingers clawing the sides of her head. Tears of salt and blood flowed from her eyes. Bloody snot flowed from her nostrils. Blood and fluid flowed from her ears and spewed from her mouth. She screamed and gurgled and coughed more blood.

Her world darkened, spiders and glowing spore fading from sight and mind. Only the flashing visions of her dream, of her family and the memory of her promise to live allowed her to struggle against the agony. Scorching pain. Blazing fire and freezing cold. Flames and ice and jagged sandpaper roaring against every nerve and fiber of mind and body. Through it all, she clung with all her tiny might to her promise. To her familial oath to live and become a great warrior-knight, even if that silly title was one of her own childish whimsy.

She held onto that promise-oath with all her little might, and fought the darkness to the end, never once relenting.

The warrior-peers shuddered, exhaustion and determination of purpose wracking the tiny bodies and powerful minds. That pathway had not been there a moment ago. Nor had that one. Additional pathways appeared even as both the old and new, unknown ones opened. The peers had made a decision - open all of the fake-rival-queen’s pathways. They forcefully opened the new ones, but it was becoming difficult. It was ever so strange. When they opened certain pathways, it revealed still more pathways. Layer upon layer, it seemed to never end. It seemed as if their task would never end.

The horrifying strange queen-candidate squealed and wailed and thrashed, clothed in a glowing aura of many colors. The fake-rival-queen creature frothed at the mouth in an undignified display of agony. The minds of the little peers loomed over the creature’s strange mind-scape, enormous and determined. Memories of their ancestors mixed with the strange creature’s own unique past. They all began to lose the ability to reason, yet the little spiders persevered. They clung desperately to their decision, no longer able to think enough to overturn it. They would complete it to the end and see if this false-one was truly suitable. Was she a queen? Was she not a queen? They would know the answer to this mystery.

Finally the last pathway opened, but a moment later the biggest pathway yet revealed itself. The peers exhausted beyond all memory had made a decision. They would complete that task. Nothing would deny them. Nothing would deny them!

They struggled and strove with all their queen-mother empowered might to force this enormous pathway open. It opened. The soul that looked back at them lay immense before them, something that was greater than any queen in their ancient memories. Overwhelmed, all three warrior-peers submitted to the will of their beloved queen. All at once a great force slammed into the three tiny warrior-peers, stunning them unconscious as Moriah’s mind adjusted to protect herself.