The Knightly Elven… Spider?

Cellestra sat down in the grass next to me and stared in front of her. She then took out the scroll from her pack and looked at me.

“Say, Kealyna. Why don’t you use this? I hadn’t thought of it just now, but I think I can learn the spell from you, right?”

I cursed in my mind. I hadn’t thought of it, either. That would be a great idea.

“Can try. You sure?” I spelled.

She nodded. “Yes.”

Cellestra unrolled the scroll and held it up before my eyes at the side of my head. I read the first words where it said: “Holy Bolt - Permanent spell.” I then started reading the lines below.

At least, I tried to…

The words below that were written in a language I could not comprehend in the slightest. Was this some sort of sick joke? I continued staring and confirmed that I couldn’t read any of this. Was this a language I didn’t know yet?

Elysa, what language is this scroll written in?

Except for me apparently.

Why can’t I read this?

Elysa...?

No answer. It appeared that information wasn’t stored within this blessing. I tried to come up with an explanation, and the only thing I could think of was that I either couldn’t read spell scrolls at all, because of the magic that was used to write them, or I wouldn’t be able to cast with this type of magic in the first place.

It was odd, because my goddess-given physical barrier worked differently from the one I’d used in my previous life, although I still remembered how to cast that one, too. I hadn’t actually tried casting the old version since I’d reincarnated because for a while I hadn’t had enough mana to do so. What would happen if I tried now?

I tried casting the physical barrier spell, as I knew it in my old life… but failed. For some reason, I couldn’t get the spell to finalize casting.

“Kealyna?” Cellestra asked. “The scroll is still here. Are you okay?”

“Am fine. Trying to figure out something,” I spelled.

Cellestra didn’t reply to that. She just watched while I was struggling to cast my old version of my physical barrier. I just couldn’t get it to work for some reason. I was certain I’d done everything right…

Elysa?

Silence. Once more, I didn’t get any kind of reply. I guessed I’d have to live with the fact that nothing from my old life would mean anything here, including my looks…

Sadness washed over me as I peeked at Cellestra. Her long brown hair and strange purple eyes were getting more captivating by the day. If I still had my old body, I was sure I’d have hugged her by now.

It was hard to leave behind what I once was. It was more than just spells and knowledge. There was new hope for me in this life because of two people being alive that I held close to my heart, yet the future for me seemed bleak. I was having trouble leaving things behind…

I pushed it away as I always did. I knew I would have to come to terms with everything someday, but I kept pushing it off every time I started thinking about it. I didn’t want to deal with it, I just didn’t.

I turned my attention back to the letters before me. “Cannot read scroll.”

“You can’t?” Cellestra replied with a frown. “Everyone can read spell scrolls. How can you—”

She cut herself off. “That’s just weird…” She continued softly while rolling up the scroll and putting it away. “Then again, everything regarding that blessing of yours, and even reincarnating here, as a spider, even, is weird.” She looked at me and I could see the regret in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Is fine,” I spelled. “Keep scroll for yourself. I got holy spell already. Worked well in dungeon. Killed five undead at same time.”

“That’s some relief…” Cellestra continued in her soft voice. She then sighed.

“Let’s get to work with your spells instead. I’d like to know these barriers that you’re so dead-set on teaching me. I want to get to the more interesting spells.” She smiled slightly after saying that.

It seemed she’d caught on to my idea of teaching her the barriers first. I wondered if she knew if it was because I wanted her to stay safe first and foremost. She probably did. I doubted she realized it was because she was important to me, though… in that sense…

“OK,” I answered with two simple letters.

Cellestra placed her hands on top of my head carefully, as to not accidentally poke my eyes and sent her magic into my body. The warmth that her spell brought me was, as always, comforting. I almost got lost in the feeling before I realized I still had to cast my spell. I cast my multi-barrier spell and forced Cellestra’s mana flows to follow mine as I cast it.

I saw the elf close her eyes as she focused. At the end of the spell, it took a while for her to open them and speak. “This spell is definitely very similar, but it’s also far more powerful. It takes significantly more mana to cast than the one you taught me before. Not that I have a short supply of that…”

That part of Cellestra’s curse, at the very least, was a blessing. She wouldn’t have to worry about whether she had the mana pool required for spells, or spell scrolls.

We continued our practice for an hour or so. The sky started becoming red and darkness would fall in the next hour or so. Cellestra eventually noticed it as well and spoke.

“What were your plans with regards to shelter?” She asked, still sitting in the grass.

“Not sure if worth making something right now. Hope to hit evolution tomorrow.”

“And you’re afraid you’ll grow too big for it, aren’t you?”

I nodded with my pedipalps.

“I see…” She paused for a few seconds. “The best I could do to help you is probably move those trunks to the other side of the house if you want to make something with your webs. I’d rather not have my door blocked.”

That was only fair. I imagined I could make a nice cover with my silk that could span a greater distance than her panels. I wouldn’t need the panels, either.

“If that is okay,” I spelled.

“It’s fine by me. Again, I don’t mind helping you out at all.”

Cellestra stood up. “Alright, let’s get to work. We don’t have too much time before it gets dark.”

Huh? How fast did she think she was going to move those logs? I mean, sure, they didn’t seem that heavy, but how was she going to get them into the ground so quickly? How did she get them into the ground in the first place? I saw no signs of digging near them.

Cellestra walked back to her house and I followed, filled with curiosity to see what she was about to do. She stopped once she was under the first panel and I saw her cast something. The next moment, the panel was pushed upward from the log. I could see one nail sticking out of the bottom of the panel.

That was a convenient spell. It looked somewhat similar to what I knew my gust of wind to be. I realized I hadn’t actually used the spell yet.

Cellestra then pulled the log up, out of the dirt. About three feet of its length had been below ground, and it was pointy on the bottom. She had no difficulty carrying it and moved it over to the side of her house, where I knew the head of her bed to be.

“Do you have any idea how big you will eventually grow?” She asked me as she stood about fifteen feet from her home’s wall.

I shook my pedipalps. Of course, I had no idea. I was about 11 feet now. If my previous growth would repeat twice, I would end up being about twenty feet, maybe a bit more. I couldn’t even fathom being that size. I would just tower over Cellestra and I didn’t know how to feel about that.

I imagined it would be natural for her to be scared of me, and I didn’t want her to be…

I walked up to the wall and placed my abdomen on the grass. I created a small piece of thread to mark the location and then turned, keeping my spinnerets in the same place on the ground, so that I was facing away from the wall. I then pointed my leg at the grass in front of my head. This would mark twice my size. I reckoned that should be more than enough.

“Nice one, Kealyna,” Cellestra said as she held the log upright again, with the pointy end on the ground right where I’d pointed.

“Now I’m going to need to ask you to move away a fair distance. This spell has backfired before and I’d like you to be safe from it if things go wrong.”

She had me even more curious, but I obliged, moving all the way to the edge of the clearing to see what she would do. My eyes were good enough to still see what she was doing very clearly.