Within the mixture of forest greens, dark shadows, and obscured moonlight, a dozen pairs of yellow eyes moved intently. Searching for breaks in the parameter while lingering and swaying. They stopped and gathered when their search ended. Pulling away from the congregation of shadows stood the matriarch, diminished in stature. She pulled the veil over her face while cloaked by a dark dress. Beneath the thin cloth, her eyes glowed dimly as she instructed the others, who were still hiding, to scatter in various directions.

She approached a concrete wall and scaled it with ease. Looking over Leoris, she settled her piercing gaze on the steeples of a courtyard housing an ornate building with large opened doors. She effortlessly and silently dropped down, making her way into the church with blue chrism lamps lit on the sides. The lights flickered and gave way to darkness as she passed. Statues lined the hall wearing alternating visages of grim foreboding and forgiving smiles. Some bearing weapons while others bearing gifts such as baskets, food, books, and basinets.

Diapson sat in contemplation before the largest effigy in the larger chamber. In the center was a statue of an armored woman with hair flowing beneath a winged helm. She wielded fire in one hand and a great sword in the other. He was muttering prayers to it with thick hairless eyebrows sagging over his sunken in eyes.

The Spider’s shadow encircled the room, closing in around him. It fluttered as if it was a living extension of her body. Diapson noticed the dark closing in on him. “Oh Oldest, save me!” He cried out. “Everlith, protect me, your loyal son!” He stumbled back against the statue, gazing upon her figure in terror. Appendages expanded from her body and blended with the shadows. In Diapson’s eyes it looked like the shadows formed wings that were turning into vibrant, brilliant colors that suddenly illuminated the room

The Spider’s eyes glared intensely at him beneath her flowing veil as she moved on to him. “Dutiful worm of the Oldest. This one comes to take your confession.” Her hand moved to caress his cheek. He was flushed with sweat and fear. “This one knows worm what fear is in your heart. You must confess to this one as the worm would to his Oldest.”

His jowls trembled. “I’m…. I’m sorry. Please have mercy. I have taken anything and everything I have wanted from this town in your name. But…but it was to live as an example of the luxury of life that the Oldest promise.”

The spider dug her fingers into his cheek, drawing blood as she squeezed. “Does the worm want to be forgiven? Confess!” She hissed loudly.

Diapson cried, “Please forgive me. I had taken advantage of their trust! I have robbed them of their innocence! I have defiled their virtue! Please give me a chance to be forgiven!”

Her form wrapped around him, smiling with her fractured teeth beneath the veil. “This one does not grant the worm absolution. This one will make the worm work for forgiveness.” Tendrils ran into his flesh, creeping through his body underneath his thick neck and scalp. He screamed, but nothing came out. Several priests and women ran into the cathedral proper and immediately turned to flee. Tentacles ensnared them from the shadows.

Moments later, she emerged with the clergy in tow. Her fallen waited on her, patiently kneeling down as she approached. “This one will try the men for surrogation. The women won’t recall this one.” Her children took the offerings and hastily exited the scene, keeping to the dark. The Spider looked back at Diapson, who appeared lifelessly stoic as he shuffled forward. “Come, worm, you are bait for the next fly.”

In her comfortable hole in the archives, Amise had just tossed a pitcher of wine to the floor, which clanged as it bounced around the stone floor. When she turned around, she noticed Diapson standing in the doorway. She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m shocked you still know your way down here. It has been a long time since you’ve graced my door honorable Diapson.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

A sinister, toothy smile formed on his face as he lurched forth with drool falling from his chin. A moan escaped his lips as he uttered, “I’ve come for you.”

She returned his smile coyly, twirling one of the frazzled curls of her hair. “It has been especially long since the last time you’ve made one of those visits to my room. I thought we were all business now, especially with the scum invading our beautiful town. But you are right, it is a good time to become familiar with each other again.”

“Do you wish to have your beauty restored by this one? So that you do not have to resort to this desperate depravity, you lowly roach?” The Spider whispered ominously with contempt into her ear from all directions. Amise spun around, looking intensely at the shadows in the room.

“I am beautiful! Whoever questions that need to show themselves, right Diapson? I’m still pretty!” She screeched, panicking. Spinning her chair desperately in search of the voice. Until she saw Diapson clearly before her. Her high-pitched call turned into a desperate gasp as she looked at him. A toothy maw, stretching down his body and appearing to devour him from the outside in, split his chin to his belly.

“This is what your beauty now deserves, roach. Don’t you want to be as you were? Without these ugly things.” The Spider stared down at her from above, gripping the ceiling of the chamber. The darkness seemed to emit from her falling down into the room.

Amise, with tears flowing, responded loudly, “Yes! You are right! Please! I don’t deserve this. I didn’t deserve this. All this work. I deserved beautiful things! The town owes me more than just rank and title! It owes me life! Give it to me!”

The Spider’s shadows blanketed her in a mass where Amise’s cries couldn’t escape. An inky void overflowed from the chamber, flooding the room and streaming into the archives' passages. The matriarch stepped out of the archives and pulled on an ethereal thread. Speaking to herself, “The next one, a beetle. Needs no further torture from this one. The flavor of the next meal bittersweet. Familiar. As if devouring self.”

In another part of town, Vilsin had retired some time ago into his chambers deep in the halls of the lodge. Empty bottles of wine, some spilled over, sat on his table as he had slumped down in his chair covered by fine furs. The chrism lamp dimmed to keep the room scarcely illuminated. He stared at a photograph of himself some years ago, with a smiling woman and a young man standing with pride between them.

He stirred with delayed reaction as he could hear something hard striking the stone down the hall towards his closed door. As it came closer, he stared at the wood frame. He cowered to the ground when a cacophony of tapping fell upon his frame. He stumbled and slurred, “Who is it at this hour!?”

An enamoring feminine voice rang out through the door, “Master Vilsin, I’m sorry for this late intrusion but I had to see you!”

He looked around suspiciously before cautiously approaching the entrance to his room. Peeping through the crack, he could make out a slim figure dressed all in black, with her face covered in a veil. He nudged his door as it creaked just wide enough for her to slip in, shutting it behind her.

She flung her arms around her. “Oh Master Vilsin, it terrified me. So much has happened today.” He pulled back from her, blinking with glazed eyes. They grew wide as he recognized the woman from the photograph.

He stammered, “Marnia?!? How? This must be a dream.” He attempted to push her away but couldn’t muster the strength in the thrall of his heart’s desires.

She shook her head as she fell into his chest again. “I’m here Vilsin. I won’t leave you again.”

Struck with disbelief, Vilsin said, “You and Allsin, both of you.” She tightened herself around him, interrupting him. His body wilted with her warmth. “I’ve been so lost without you both.”

She whispered into his ear, “Don’t worry, my love. We will be a family again. We can bring our son back too. Tell me you would do anything for that.”

He wept while completely giving in to her saying, “Yes, anything.” All Vilsin could feel was the comfortable numb entrancing him. He was oblivious to the tendrils that were twisting around his entire body, boring their way under his flesh.

Upon leaving the lodge the Spider made an effort to depart from Leoris. Threads of her web were tugging on her. Her movement was sluggish, and she was forced to look towards the dock. A dome of blue light swirled in the night visible only to her. “This one shouldn’t go. But must. For the web to be spun to completion without tearing.”