Arachne

 

I'm still with Akasia in her chamber.

 

"Wait! I will make us tea!" (Akasia)

 

Tea!
Real tea!
We often made some at home and to have some now would be wonderful.
I mean, I thought everything I enjoyed in the past was taken away from me.
This would be nostalgic in a bittersweet way.

She has a table like out of a picture book depicting a tea party.
Yet it is etched out of stone.
To be honest, if you look closer everything is etched stone.
She must really have a liking for working with acid.

However, she soon comes back, carrying two cups.
And those are real cups!
She must have found them in that storage room or have her familiars specifically look for them.

 

"I brought the good cups! It's a shame that they break so fast." (A)

 

Is she clumsy?

 

"I think this batch turned out well! I'm still starting, but my results get better and better! However, the others don't want to join my teatime." (A)

 

She hands me a cup, yet the scent is off.
Nonetheless, I want to try it.

 

"BWUUAAAAHH!"

 

What is this?
This tastes awful!
Not even spoiled or gone wrong in the preparation, but completely undrinkable.
What can go this wrong with tea?

 

"Is something wrong? I thought it's good. Better than last time." (A)

 

What was that last thing?
Did it burn through the cup?
I have problems getting the aftertaste away, but nothing worse happens.
At least it's not poisonous.
Is it because I'm too poisonous?
Is this the reason?
Has my sense of taste changed this much?
I need to confirm this.

 

"Was there anything wrong with the ingredients?" (N)

"No, I read it in a book! The leaves I used are a possible ingredient." (A)

"Can I have one?" (N)

"Sure, I had some leftover!" (A)

 

Leftover? Why not just give me the used ones from the pot?
She hands me one and I recognize it.
Darkleaves!

They are useable for tea and valued for giving dishes a mild, calming flavor and being good for the stomach.
I know this leaf and the scent is like I remember it.
I nibble at it and it tastes...
Normal!

Not a hint of this awfulness before.
What has gone wrong?

 

"Could have anything gone wrong with the preparation?" (N)

"No, I just dissolved them like always in the teapot!" (A)

 

I don't really know what could have gone this wrong with such an easy task.
But then I notice something.
Remember when I joked about this stuff burning through the cup?
Well, this comes to mind when I see my cup starting to leak.
It is losing its contents.
And it fizzles.

Wait!
Did she just say she "dissolved" the leaves?

...What has she done?

 

"How are you dissolving the leaves?" (N)

"Like always! I fill the pot with acid and put the leaves in!" (A)

 

Ah, yes!
That seems reasonable!

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!

 

"Akasia, how much water do you use for your 'tea'?" (N)

"Water? Is not enough in my saliva when I produce the acid?" (A)

 

Aha, so the acid is contained in the saliva of an Arachne, good to know.
Now excuse me!

 

Urbh, Urbhh!" (N)

 

I start to retch, but cannot get anything out of my stomach.

 

"What is wrong with you?" (A)

"What is wrong? You cannot let your guests drink your saliva! Especially not if it's acid!" (N)

"But it's in all our meals. I mean we use it to dissolve the flesh." (A)

 

Does that mean I continuously drank saliva with my meals?
I didn't want to know this!!

 

"Was there something wrong with my tea?" (A)

 

Oh, where to start?

 

"You don't make tea with acid! You use water!" (N)

"Water? But then the leaves would just swim and nothing happens." (A)

"That's why you boil it! Make it hot so that the fluids from the leaves enter the water and the residue is taken out after!" (A)

 

Tea!
I will introduce you to tea if it's the last thing I do!

She seems quite perplexed by my revelation about culinary common sense.
And a bit dejected.

 

"But how shall I boil water? I have no fire here." (A)

"Masiabi is already voting to turn a room into a kitchen. If we two put our voices in too it should be possible, right?" (N)

"Are you sure about this?" (A)

"If you say yes I will show you how tea works!" (N)

"YES!!!" (A)

 

Ouch!
That was loud and clear!
That was pure determination!

After this, we chatted for a while.
The "tea" was maybe not enjoyable, but it is not hindering a proper conversation in general.
While I may not know this much about nobility, it is safely more profound than her fantasies of princes and princesses.
I mean it is a bit hilarious to imagine her waiting for a prince to save her.

Nonetheless, she has an amicable character.
There is just the general monster problem.
Still, I am able to tell her about human interaction and it appears that her knowledge already ends at the differences between males and females.

Still, she listens deeply interested in each of my words.
She looks quite mature.
Coming from her appearance she might be the same age as Talisa, but her demeanor is that of someone much younger.
I still don't know how old they are!

 

"Akasia! Could I ask how old you are?" (N)

"Oh. You don't ask a lady for her age!" (A)

 

Don't give me this attitude!

 

"Shouldn't I know something like this when I shall live here?" (N)

"Yes, you are right. Fine. I am fifty-four years old, Talisa is sixty-eight, Masiabi thirty-seven, Eritu forty-six, and Kyroki twenty-eight." (A)

 

That surprises me.
They all don't look that old

 

"You really appear much younger to me." (N)

 

"Oh, my! The human body we chose is not really bound to time in appearance. Also, our real body doesn't age the way you know. It's more just growing. We only become bigger with time." (A)

 

There is again the point of immortality.

 

"So you are saying I will never grow old and become more mature?" (N)

"Uh, well... I can't say for sure. There are individual differences. You just turned and might still adjust a bit. But if I may say so, you're looking fine. At least, you're much better off than Kyroki." (A)

 

I have this small frame of a white body right now.
A little like a fairy one could say.
It is not ugly, you could even say that it has something ethereal how I am glistening when light hits me and envelopes my frail body.
That doesn't mean I wouldn't like someday to grow a bit.
At least as tall as my mother.
That height would be enough for me.

 

"It is a bit surprising that you are so far apart in age from each other. Masiabi said that your mother would need to kill an elder male each time, so I assumed this was a special occasion." (N)

"You weren't wrong. But after doing it once our mother could use the genetic material for several uses." (A)

 

This sounds again so foreign.

 

"By the way, how old are you?" (A)

 

This is no real sore point, but I feel a little inept compared to these ages.
So I mumble quietly:

 

"Twelve." (N)

 

And this is exactly the reason why.
Her look screams "how cute!" and this makes me feel embarrassed.

 

"Twelve years! You are basically a baby! Oh my! So young!" (A)

 

You are the last one to tell me I am infantile Miss "Pretend-princess"!

 

"Is this really true? This must be so hard for you at such a young age!" (A)

 

And then she hugs me!
Is this a spider thing?
Like an instinct to take hold of something defenseless?
And to be honest, I doubt there is an appropriate age to deal with what happened to me.
And yes, it is hard!

Still, she's not evil.
And unlike certain others, she has no deadly bodily weapons out while invading my private space.
So I let her do it and she also releases me much faster than Masiabi.
And it feels more like affection and less like self-interest.

After this, it seems the visit draws to an end.
I ask Akasia to bring me back to my room.
The floor patterns are still very complicated for me and there are spiders out there.
On the way, we shortly revisit the idea of setting up a kitchen and the possibility to have real tea continues to spark her interest.
But as we had the talk already, we keep it short.

I think it’s still some time before bed if my inner clock is right.
Because of this, I would like to try practicing with the strings again.
I want to follow the safety limits as I was instructed since I know how resilient this thread is.
Also, the strings from my finger are really extremely thin.
These are the ones I will solely use, not the thicker one from this other place, that still makes my stomach churn if I think about it.
They're almost invisible so it's a wonder I can see them.
Almost unnatural, as if I have a special sense for this.
Or rather, another point of this Arachne thing.

They are so thin, that you could easily cut something off.
Running into a thread at head height might end with you getting beheaded.
And ripping it is close to impossible!
But this is a good reason why I should become familiar with it.
It's not like I can run away from my body.

So I use this weird construction to get used to the feeling of the silk coming out and how to cut it.
I repeat it with every finger at least once, but never two at the same time.
It wouldn't be in my favor to cut myself by accident because I fail to control them.
Time passes smoothly and I grow tired, so I head into my bed and sleep.