Makira had expected many things when she’d woken up that day: she’d expected her sisters to start an impromptu fight club, for Grandmother to suddenly rediscover the ability to feel emotions like most other living beings, for a human army to attack, for the gods to decide to off themselves, for Death himself to appear and offer her immortality or, more simply, for the spiderlings to learn new and interesting ways to accidentally kill each other.
What she hadn’t expected was to be the epicenter of a snowball fight.
In the middle of summer.
“Where in Airm did they get all this snow?” screeched one of the [Carers] before being pelted right into her mouth by one of the children.
“How should I know?” asked Makira back, dodging another snowball with the elegance of a dancer.
“Makira, I swear, if this is your fault somehow I will rip your legs off one by one and have Aru reattach them after stitching them pink!” shouted a third [Carer].
“Again, not my fault! Mum’s the one who work with winter and snow, not me. If it was me they’d be throwing rocks, not snowballs,” shouted back Makira with a smile on her face as she stuck her tongue out at one of the spiderlings who’d just missed her.
“The fuck did you just say?” came back from the first.
And at that Makira snatched a snowball coming at her from the air and threw it back into her mouth: “Don’t use such foul language near the children. Wash your mouth with that!”
And that was that.
In the end, the spiderlings finished their ammunition (“Or they are keeping it hidden for a final assault for when we swoop in,” said Pochi with a small smile) and the [Carers] managed to come into the clearing to administer the rightful scoldings.
In the end though they didn’t manage to find out how the snow had been brought in the first place.
Or rather, one of them did. That one being Makira, who already had a pretty good idea about who was the perpetrator: “Now, Isse, I am not angry. That was actually quite fun.”
Isse looked up at the older arachne with raised eyebrows: “Then what’s the matter?”
Makira leaned in, actually whispering: “I guess it’s a Skill of yours that allowed this. Which is fine. Next time, though, invite me to be on your side. It’ll be much more fun. I’ll also call Pochi, our [Strategist].”
She smiled evilly, joined a moment later by the spiderling, while Siidi cackled madly in her mind.
Then they began their day.
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“Issekina, tell me, where did you get that little… effigy?” asked Grandmother.
Isse had just arrived to the elder’s clearing, only to freeze in place and deeply desire to start running away, possibly to the other side of the forest, as if she’d just committed some atrocious crime.
Instead she made herself small and, meekly, answered: “I - I received it in a dream. From a kind man and girl wearing fox masks.”
The morning when she’d woken up with the strange man’s present in her hand, she had attached it to her spider half with some silk, away from prying eyes and always with her. If there was something she dearly missed of her life on earth, it was furniture. Even a simple trunk with her name on it would’ve been better than what she had right now. Or rather, what she didn’t have.
Grandmother nodded: “Good to know. It is a cute fox. Now come here. Today I believe you will manage to change my soul.”
Isse, though, didn’t move. Because she was still scared, and because Siidi had suggested something quite scary: Did she know?
The little spiderling decided to ask just that: “Did you know he -”
She didn’t even manage to finish the question: “I felt him intrude upon your dreams. But he was bound by the Silken Dream Deal, so I chose not to interfere.”
Grandmother decided not to tell the little girl that she’d actually forgotten that deal existed and had been about to go on a rampage to kill the [Dreamer]. And make it stick. Thank Death the Button Man had, somehow, intervened.
“He was kinder than most [Dreamers] I was ever told about.”
“What do you mean?”
Grandmother sighed, then nodded and, with a gesture of her hand, the usual white tea table appeared in front of her. She motioned Isse to come close and sit down, then began telling her tale.
“Once upon a time, during the Era of Hunts, when we had just been created, we waged war upon all that lived on this world. During the Greatest Hunt, for that was how the humans and other species called it, we chanced upon an enemy that could keep up with us: [Dreamers].
“The greatest of their ilk could enter our minds while we slept without triggering our wards, they could find our locations and reveal our plans. And, if they were so inclined, they could trap our minds in endless prisons built upon the Dream itself, make us scatter in endlessly changing labyrinths from which we could never escape, or even outright kill us.
“In the beginning, [Dreamers] were our true enemies. Until we learned their arts. Then we fought back, and the Greatest Hunt drenched in blood even the Land of Dreams. That was the only place where we found enemies that could actually keep up with us. You must know, dear, that at the time the Greatest Game didn’t exist. There were no sides and factions among the [Dreamers], just one great unified front of people who wished to escape reality and would die to allow others this grace.
“They sent Nightmares both dark and bloody against us, crafted unimaginable weapons out of the endless possibilities of the dreams, sent us to the Dream of Roses to never escape again. And we did the same.
“In the end, their ranks were depleted to the point where nearly none were left. But so were we. So it was that one of them proposed the Silken Dream Deal. And we accepted. A way to protect both sides from each other.”
She finished her tale, sighing.
“Those were grand times, little one. But times I wish will never return.”
Isse remained silent for a while, thinking, trying to imagine what she’d just been told.
I was there, you know? When the [Dreamers] attacked. I saw my sisters fall asleep and never wake up again. That was the first time we felt fear, said Siiidi.
They shivered.
“Now, Issekina, it is time for you to reshape my soul.”
And at that, storytime was over.
Even if she didn’t want it to be: “But what’s the Greatest Game? And the Dream of Roses? Please!!!”
Grandmother stared down at her: “Another time. We must not lose time.”
Isse deflated and Siidi shouted a most interesting expletive about cow twats and horse dung being united. They both sighed.
And started.
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This time, when Isse traced her chosen white thread back to Grandmother, she didn’t pass out. Instead she did as Siidi suggested and used one of the Skills she’d gotten the day before: [Comprehend Soul: Minor].
She looked at Grandmother’s soul.
And saw snow.
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Isse and Siidi opened their eyes and saw a sky filled with gray clouds.
That was the first hint that they weren’t in the clearing anymore, together with another fact: the webs covered the sky from sight. Which meant nothing, because someone could’ve just moved them to another one, but then again, Siidi was on the ground beside her.
Also, they were spider-feet-deep in snow, and they were pretty sure it was still their world’s equivalent of summer when they’d started working on Grandmother’s soul, so either they’d gone in a coma for a very long time, or they weren’t in the real world anymore.
“I rather believe you’re right on the last part,” said Siidi.
She was back in her adult form, no longer the little child playing with the memory of a frog, which saddened her more than she thought it would. She had really liked that side of her, and the memory of that night spent playing and then meeting the [Dreamer] still brought a smile to her face.
She blinked, one of those heavy blinks you notice, where the world actually goes dark for an instant, and now Siidi was back to being a child.
“Yeah, this form isn’t so bad, I agree with you,” she smiled slightly.
And was caught completely by surprise when Isse hugged her as hard as she could.
“You look so much cuter!” she squealed in joy.
Siidi laughed: “How could I ever have desired to kill you, little one,” she hugged her back, petting the hair on her head affectionately.
They stayed like that for a while, uncaring of the fact that they were probably inside Grandmother’s soul, the monster who’d caused them so much pain and, at the same time, fixed them, made them understand how wrong they had been.
One of the worst monsters the world could ever think about, the dark thing parents told their misbehaving children would come to take them.
And the savior of her race, the teacher who wanted her students to know everything she knew, that one day they may surpass her.
There were too many sides to that seemingly emotionless and uncaring person.
The moment was broken when a gust of cold wind struck them with the force of a whip, making them realize they were severely underdressed for the weather.
“Fuck it’s freezing,” shouted Isse as she hugged herself. She was wearing only the dress Aru had made for her, which covered lots of skin but definitely wasn’t that thick.
As for Siidi, she snapped her fingers… and nothing happened. She began rattling off a series of expletives sotto voce (or at least Isse thought they were that, she couldn’t hear them well) as she began spinning herself some spidersilk gloves. She decided to copy her.
When they’d managed to mostly cover themselves, the cold kept at bay for now, they looked around.
“So, got any idea about what we’re supposed to do?”
“I have not a single clue!”
They chuckled. So part of the lesson was to understand what they were meant to be doing. Yes, they. Not just Isse. Because Siidi, too, was now an integral part of her. And two was always better than one. Well, except for taxes.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
But arachne didn’t pay taxes, so even that didn’t really matter.
“So, where should we go?” asked Isse, looking around the great snow covered plain they were in. There was nothing in sight.
Siidi put a finger in her mouth and lifted it in the air. After a moment, she pointed: “That way!”
Only for the wind to blow another way altogether.
“Did you just point it out at random?”
Siidi scoffed: “You’ll never know!”
They chuckled, beginning the slow hike through the snow.
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They didn’t know for sure when it had happened, but at some point they found themselves in a forest.
For a while, they had wandered around the plains, trying to walk straight and failing miserably, more than once moving in circles. It wasn’t that the wind was strong or the visibility low, no, it was… they didn’t know. But something didn’t want them to be here and was seemingly trying… not really hard, to not make them reach whatever it was they were looking for.
One could only begin to imagine how frustrating it is to look for something when you don’t even know what it looks like.
Still, they walked and, at some point, both their minds wandered off, losing themselves in thoughts that possibly weren’t their own. Or maybe they were just old thoughts that had been their own in a past life, coming back to them in this place that was between reality and dream, life and death. A beautiful paradox. And they couldn’t even appreciate it all. How… bittersweet.
Too young, their minds too pliable, incapable of taking in the whole of a soul even when it was open to them, its defenses lowered to basically nothing, supported by a Skill that existed for this sole purpose.
They were observing Grandmother’s most intimate possession, she herself laid bare to be seen and judged. And all they could do was not comprehend.
The elder knew this and it saddened her. Still, she thought, there was time. Maybe years, or maybe tomorrow they would all be killed. She didn’t know: her web reached only as far as the farthest tree in the forest.
That, too, saddened her. She could still remember the web built by the elder of her time, centuries ago, when she was still a spiderling who hadn’t yet even been asked to answer the Question that all arachne were called to hear at some point in their life. She remembered how it spanned the entire continent of Irevia, threads so thin they weren’t actually there, capable of capturing anything and anyone wherever they were, killing, strangling or abducting. Her Elder could destroy entire cities with a single whisper down a string and bring the continent into chaos with but a few tugs.
And still, she had been killed, both by her caution, for she wanted to accrue more power to destroy the world in one fell swoop, and the axe that hunter used to carve her entire body in two.
She had seen her Elder die. And she’d run.
That night, she’d answered the Question, and found herself lacking.
But that didn’t matter. Not now. What mattered were the spiderling and her much, much, much, older sister, who apparently was keen on reliving her youth.
That did bring a smile to her face.
Meanwhile, Isse and Siidi walked through the forest. The trees were all great oaks that reached quite high into the sky, but not, as they had expected, so high that they couldn’t see the fronds. They were… normal, as far as they could tell.
“Well, bummer,” said Siidi, handing her other soul-half a small spidersilk coat, “You won the bet.”
Isse hummed in approval as she felt the warmth envelop her. Of the two, she was the one who was better at weaving fine details, while Siidi could make pretty much anything at speed.
We complement each other, she thought with a smile as she began to embroider little snowflakes into her new coat. Maybe she’d even manage to keep it in her mind once they left.
“So, what are we gonna bet on next?” asked Siidi. They had decided to pass the time by betting on anything that came to mind and seeing who would be right. The bet Isse had just won had been the first of, probably, many.
“I don’t know. Hmm… how about this: I bet that soon we will see wolves,” she proposed, not looking up from her embroidery.
Siidi scoffed: “That’s too basic. Now that we’re sure this is a normal forest, there surely will be some kind of wildlife. It would be an easy win.”
“Yeah, but one I’d rather not win. Ok, how about this: I bet we will find a cabin in the woods with something strange in it. How does that sound?”
Siidi thought about it for a moment, then nodded and offered her her hand: “I’m in. And I’m betting it’ll be something like a castle made out of ice and snow.”
Isse smiled and shook the hand.
They scuttled on.
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“See, I told you, easy bet!” shouted Siidi as they ran from the pack of wolves.
“Fuck you and I didn’t want to be right. Keep running!”
The wolves had found them not even twenty minutes after they’d made the bet. Siidi had actually seen them first, stopping in her tracks and telling Isse they should start running. Fast.
And they did. But the wolves were faster and, probably, could maul them to death with ease.
Or rather, they could if they weren’t playing with their food, corralling them towards some hidden location in Grandmother’s soul.
“She takes the Snow Queen theme too far!” shouted Siidi.
“No, she doesn’t. I’ve yet to see ice sprites trying to tear the flesh from our bones. Or even a simple winter sprite!” she shouted back.
“What in Airm do you mea - oh. Cute story.”
Isse was thinking about the story written by the Danish writer about the Snow Queen. Or rather, she was thinking about the cartoon she’d watched as a child. Her parents had had all sorts of cassettes hidden around in the attic. She still remembered fondly the evenings spent watching them all one after the other while her mother tried and failed to make her go to sleep.
They ran, the wolves sometimes coming to nip at their abdomens but never really hurting them.
That was how they found it: the little cabin in the woods, built out of logs perfectly cut and fit together, polished of their bark, the spaces between them chinked with a love to attention that bordered on maniacal.
They looked at each other and ran like the devils were chasing them, slamming into the entrance door (which, luckily, was open, or they would’ve probably just face planted on it to no effect) and falling right inside on a soft, furry, rug.
The door slammed shut behind them and they heard it click closed.
When, finally, they managed to untangle themselves from the mess they’d made of themselves on the floor, they looked up, looking at Grandmother’s white form looming over them. She was smiling.
“So, does a creepy smiling arachne count as the ‘strange’ part of my bet?” asked Isse.
Siidi nodded, chuckling: “Yep, it does. We’ll settle the bet later.”
Grandmother’s smile turned amused as she heard this and, to their absolute shock, she chuckled.
“Isse, pinch me, I think I’m having a stroke.”
Isse punched Siidi in the side, causing her to hiss in pain and raise her hand to punch her back.
“Now now, spiderlings, do calm down. You have succeeded. With a little guidance, and with my defenses completely shut down, but you’ve done it: you’ve reached the core of my soul, the place where all the important things are held.”
She gestured around herself at the interior of the cabin and, for the first time, the two arachne looked at where they were. And their mouths fell open.
The inside of the cabin was a cozy paradise filled with beautiful mementos from Grandmother’s life. The one (and only) room they were in had a cozy fireplace built into the far wall. In front of it, in pride of place, sat a white table with a little white ceramic tea set. They both immediately recognized them as the ones Grandmother always used when she wanted to spend some time without teaching anything, just telling stories.
To the side was a big sofa, or maybe triclinium was the better word, that was more padding than sustaining structure. The rest of the room was filled with shelves upon shelves of trinkets and paintings and statues.
Many of these statues were made out of ice, representing various arachne laughing and playing and having fun. A few, looking much older and worn, were made out of clay and terracotta or, even, carved wood. Most of them looked happy and playful, taunting the onlooker to try and imitate some of their more acrobatic poses, while others were calmly sitting down and doing something to relax, from sculpting to weaving.
On one of the walls, hanging from the rafters, was a giant tapestry made from colored spidersilk showing an old looking arachne, probably an Elder, weaving a grand web all over what Isse guessed (and Siidi confirmed) was a continent, while also teaching smaller arachne. Among them, one, the smallest of them all, had a white streak in her fur.
Finally, exactly opposite of the tapestry, tucked in cozily between the shelves, were an ice statue and a pedestal. The statue was of a man wearing simple traveling clothes, a little pouch roped tight to his side, boots somehow visibly worn out and caked in mud even though it all just ice. He was holding a violin in his left hand, chin resting on the chinrest, bow held lightly in his right hand placed on the icy strings.
On the pedestal by his side, meanwhile, was placed… a little button.
“Welcome to my soul’s heart, little ones. You, Issekina, may touch and change anything you desire to learn. On the other hand you, Siidi, I kindly ask not to touch anything. This is the spiderling’s lesson to learn.”
That said, she crawled towards the sofa and, slowly, sat down, sighing in relief.
Leaving Isse and Siidi to wonder, again, what they were supposed to do. Or rather, leaving Isse wondering, seeing how Isse had just been told not to touch anything.
“What should I do Grandmother?”
“Experiment. Try anything that comes to mind. You cannot do any lasting damage. At most I will feel grumpy and vent on Makira.”
The last part sounded like an attempt to make a joke. It hadn’t been funny.
So it was that she found herself staring around at the things in the room and wondering.
She quickly came to a conclusion: the things here, they looked like memories, and were shaped as such, but they couldn’t be. Memories made people, that was true, but Grandmother had clearly said that this was the place where she was defined as an arachne, the part of her soul that held her principles. Changing any of these things would, probably, change the way she thought about things, how she acted in the real world.
She began to understand why soul magic was so feared and hated all over the world. Imagine what one could do if they were to use this kind of power on, say, a [King]. They could make them do anything, and they’d believe it was them making the choices all along.
She scuttled close to the one thing in this room that she recognized, somewhat, from Siidi’s trials: the button. It was a plain button, probably fallen from a shirt by the looks of it, but the moment she touched it she felt it:
“You know, little arachne, I believe that, no matter what, it is my firm belief that any problem can be solved with something as simple as pressing a button.”
“Then do it. Save my race. Press a button and save us all.”
“I’ve already done it, dear. With nothing more than a few words. Now it’s up to you. Will you work hard on creating your little button? Will you allow these cold winds to swallow you whole, or will you grow old and become some spiderling’s grandmother?”
“But… it’s so hard.”
“Never said it would be easy, little one. But it’s possible, and what more do you need to feel hope?”
Isse let go of the button and scrambled back. She’d felt an endless sadness when she’d touched that button, together with enough hope to let an army fight and win a losing battle, all condensed in those few words.
“This. This is your hope, your drive,” she spoke, only to realize she was whispering. Yet Grandmother still heard her.
“It is. Now, what will you do dear?”
Isse felt tears trickling down her eyes. Oh, but that sadness. It had such a weight to it, as if she had held her entire race on her shoulders. And maybe she had, from what she’d gathered from the clues here and the things Makira had told her.
How could someone live with something like this attached to them?
She didn’t know and she hoped dearly that she’d never find out at her own expenses.
She looked back at the button.
And made a choice.
“Siidi, come here a second,” she said, not turning to look at her, staring at the button as if it was a monster waiting for a moment of disattention to swallow her whole.
Her other soul-half skittered close.
“Give me your hand.”
She did.
And Isse bit into her index finger, her sharp fangs drawing blood. Siidi hissed in surprise, but before she could retract her soul-half placed her finger over the button and let a single drop of blood fall over it, staining it dark red. Then, without missing a beat, she did the same with her own finger, letting another drop fall.
Grandmother nodded at the action: “Tell me, child, what have you done? What was your intention?”
Isse looked up at the elder with a renewed respect, before she answered: “I gave you a taste of our happiness. If it wasn’t for you, none of this could be possible,” she gestured around at the cabin, then at herself and Siidi, who was sucking on her finger, trying to stop the bleeding, “I tried to show you that it wasn’t for nothing.”
Grandmother smiled: “Very well, Issekina. You have learned the first lesson: always use truths to bring change. You may leave. Take the rest of the day off.”
She waved her hand and the two spiderlings disappeared.
But, before the world was engulfed in white again, Isse thought she heard something more.
“Thank you.”
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That night, when she went to sleep, Isse felt the System’s voice again, as emotionless as ever.
[Conditions Met: Soul Mage -> Soul Shaper!]
[Soul Shaper Level 10!]
[Skill - Perceive Emotion Obtained!]
[Skill - Touch: Transfer Emotion Obtained!]
[Skill - Influence Emotions Obtained!]