I thought I was alone. Silly me. As soon as I stretch out my perception, I notice the abundance of life outside the glass dome. Specifically, five spiders are hiding and waiting for their god to give them a command. I imagine they watched the entire drama that unfolded. I'm unsure if they heard any of it or understood what was happening. Hell. I'm not even sure I know what's happening.

The spiders track me as I make my way to the lake. When I reach the halfway point, I stop and wait. The spiders stop, too. Do I wait for them to blow their cover or expose them now? We all sit in anticipation, waiting for each other to budge. It's a pointless game that I'm feeling too stubborn to lose- that is until my patience wears out. I could have won if I wanted to, and that's all that really matters.

"Hello, spiders," I say into the empty night. No response. "Fine. Keep hiding. We can talk while we walk if that works better." Freaking stubborn spiders. I reach the lake before they drop their hiding pretenses.

The first spider to show herself is the thickly armored spider with shields and shoulder pauldrons bulking up her thick figure. How one manages to walk in a suit of shields is beyond me. There’s not even a hint of mana like my bone armor requires. Standing just behind the shield maiden is the bladed spider. Though she is not as densely equipped as the shield spider, she's still a tall, lithe spider. Bladed arms held closely to her side appear to be extra twitchy.

My body tenses. Is spider blades aware of a danger that I'm not noticing? I stretch my senses in the darkness, looking for the answer. Mellow hues of green and yellow energy are abundant. Mixed in with the forest and hiding critters are pockets of death clinging to the temporary graves of the demons that have been absorbed and banished.

The rich energy of mana is content with being. Earth mana isn't warring with life for more dominance. Nor is death hungering to claim power. Darkness is still enjoying its time away from light. Water and air are in perfect harmony; if fire were present, it would have a spot to thrive. The peacefulness of the energy stands contrary to all my experiences, especially with death and fire mana, which has always greedily consumed power.

So why, if it's peaceful now, are the spiders weary? I focus on the two soldier spiders in front of me while I continue to search our surroundings with my split focus. Other than a faint condensed mass of light, a sliver of life hiding in the distance, and my energy trying to meld with our surroundings, there is no threat here.

Oh. The threat is me.

Three more spiders appear from the dark — one with elegant long legs and a stretched torso, another with facial features similar to Cru that shimmer with yellow mana, and the final one that looks like a perfect mix of the other four spiders. Instead of hellos, I'm greeted with hisses. I almost hiss back. Aren't we past the hissing stage? Are they past the hissing stage? I inspect the spiders closer. They still haven't been awakened.

I cycle my mind mana and stretch out tethers connecting us all. With the mind link established, I greet the spiders once more.

Heretic is sent from the goblin-looking spider.

Spider scourge is thought-whispered by the regal spider. In front of me, Blades makes some blade-sharpening motions, and Shields readies her shields. It's already occurred to me that the spiders want to fight me. Which is frustrating. Also frustrating is that I don't know any of their names. Do they have names? Tested. Punished. Proved, says Regals.

I feel these spiders are going a bit rogue from Cru's instructions. Which has me questioning their faith. Can you disobey your god and still claim to be a worshiper?

We keep our faith pure, says the goblin spider. I don't want to be tested or proven. Other than friendship, I don't want anything from Cru's religion.

You are not worthy of our god. That's right. Our thoughts are still connected.

That's not how friendship works, I respond with a little more bite in my thoughts. I want to say more but am stumped on the frameworks of friendships. Regardless, I solidify the thought that friends don't have to be proven worthy to be friends.

Friends are beneath gods. The words push my frustration higher than I want my emotions to go. It's funny and painful how the spiders are off the mark of their god, first with Nette and now with Cru. I'm now careful with my thoughts, only projecting back with responses and not my thoughts.

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You're wrong. However, I don't have the words to explain why. So, maybe my frustrations are a little higher than I thought. More surprising is my lack of desire to suppress the emotion. Maybe it's tiredness getting to me. So what's the test? Do you all kill me? Do I have to fight all of you?

The five enlightened spiders attack. Shields leads the charge, running directly at me. Careful to not outpace her guardian, Blades is circling toward my back. Up in the trees is the gangly spider spinning and shooting webs. Life mana is being channeled by the regal and goblin spiders. The goblin spider directs her mana to the sword and shield fighters while I can feel life probes spiking my tiredness.

I don't have a sword or any defense. Despite my anger, I can really use a nap. My thoughts drift toward tree slings I used for sleeping during a lone pilgrimage. Life was good then. I shake my head clear of the fog right as a shield edge rushes to my head. Webbing traps my left arm, tying it to a tree. I sidestep the follow-up trap, bend out of the way of the shield bash, and turn away from the backstab. More life mana surges toward me. I counter it with a surge of mind and shadow mana.

Now lined with protection, my mind is active. I pull hard with my left arm, ripping the webbing connected to a tree. I must dodge three more attacks and a spear of hardened life mana. To the spiders' credit, for only being enlightened beings, they're an able fighting unit.

Still, they are only enlightened, and much like Fury with his new body, these spiders aren't familiar with their human forms. Their attacks are clumsy and predictable. "Stop crossing your feet." I scold Shields. "Why are you yelling every time you try to stab me in the back? Less yelling, more stabbing. Aim for bigger targets. Stop trying to put me asleep. Are you even doing anything back there?"

The spiders respond well to my feedback and redouble their attacks. Only Shields implements my suggestion, which saves her from falling when I retaliate with a web whip. I'm not a whipper, and my attack is more of a lash. Shields blocks the heavy blow and manages to keep her footing. I close the gap and reach out to her with my right hand. As soon as I touch her, we are in my shadow. She is unable to move, and I'm safe from spiders.

"You are a quick learner. Come to our training grounds, and I can teach you more." I probably should be mind-projecting this, but I don't want to hear her retorts. So I quickly bind her and banish her from my realm. I exit my realm behind Blades, pulling her into my shadow less than a breath later. "See. You didn't know I was attacking because I wasn't yelling. Stop yelling."

Another bonded spider is kicked from my realm while I reach the two support spiders standing next to each other. "Your spacing and attack cadences are awful. I pulled you both into my realm so easily. Were neither of you paying attention to your two sisters? If you are in a fight, you must be on your toes and ready to adapt." Again, I don't bother with their end of the argument. More rope is used, and two more spiders are tied up.

Credit to gangles, the lengthy spider in the trees, who didn't abandon her fellow spiders. "Why are you still here? Your sisters are on the ground tied up, and you are still trying to attack me from the trees. Do you think the high ground will save you?" The high ground almost did save her. Jumping onto branches of tall trees is tricky. I almost lose my footing. Luckily, I adopted some jumping habits in one of my previous fights, giving me more surefooting.

I lower the treed spider to the ground. It only takes a moment to cluster all the spiders together and some creative flexing for me to bring all of us into my shadow. It was kind of a fun fight, if I'm being honest, and a little bit of my frustration is alleviated.

Maybe you don't like me because you think I devalue your god. I'm low rank and not worthy of his friendship. Perhaps you really think gods don't want friends. Or maybe you are too obsessed with your worship and miss the mark completely." I'm faking all of my confidence. At least here, in my realm, I can back up my words. I might not be on the same level as Cru and never will be, but here in my realm, you will see that I'm my own god. Maybe I'm feeling too confident now. It's too late. I'm too deep and must ride this wave all the way through.

Shadow blades cut through each of the spider's bindings. Before they can pick themselves off the ground, I lock them in place. Only inside my realm do I have this power. I'm jealous of the templars who can channel and wield external mana. At least I get a taste of that power here, and maybe when I bind my next mana, I can do the same. I will, after all, be a templar. Fueled by my power I continue my tirade.

Gods don't need narrow-minded worshipers. Thousands of slaves to blind devotion benefits no one. I'm out of line here. If you want to worship Cru, worship him, but that means you need to understand his needs and wants. He can have friends if he wants to have friends, even if you find them pathetic. If he wants to be your friend, you should consider it at the very least.

My thoughts are so heavy and clouded that everything else I want to say gets jumbled into more incoherent rambling. I have nothing against religion or worship. Everyone should be free to practice their beliefs. My issue is knowing both Cru and Nette for only a little, and it's easy to see that the spider worshipers are off base. They would rather follow their devotion rather than their god.

"If you're going to worship Cru, then worship Cru. But first, find out what that means and have the faith to follow through." I add more shadow pressure and some mind mana onto the subjugated spiders. My intention is not to hurt them, only to wear them out. Once I drop us out of shadow, I don't want them fighting me for round two. Whether the pressure is working, I'm not sure. I dismiss my shadow, banishing the spiders from my realm, and enter alone.