D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

— Kat —

It turns out that yes, the trapped spider lady WOULD like spider meat. Kat and Lily had ended up offloading most of their stock for basically nothing. Even if they didn’t get a reward… well they knew where the crabs were they could get more if it ended up being important. Though Lily did have a suspicion that they’d get at least something. Weaver did seem to be quite happy after all.

Despite having multiple crabs worth of meat, a lot of it was already gone. Weaver was inhaling the stuff like a starving woman… which she might be. “Are you alright?” asked Kat as she watched Weaver down another large chunk of crab meat.

Weaver finished the chunk she was on while nodding. After a few moments of that she swallowed and dragged on some strings. “Sorry about this. I haven’t been able to eat any real meat in decades. I get by mostly through fungus and the occasional bug but I’m essentially a carnivore and even the little bits of food I could get wasn’t much. Not when I needed to heal,”

As Weaver got back to eating a bunch of webs were drawn in with a teapot and cups alongside some water and a large oversized placemat the teapot was placed on. Weaver pulled some more webs and another porcelain vessel came flying in. Weaver picked a few tealeaves from it and dumped them in the teapot alongside the water and then clicked her fingers. Nothing seemed to happen so Weaver clicked again, this time a bit of flame sprang to life underneath the pot.

“The tea is good quality but rather old. I haven’t had the chance to collect more. Obviously,” explained Weaver.

“Um… why do you still have it?” asked Hedera. “If it’s that old I mean…”

“I just don’t like tea,” admitted Weaver. “I put up with it for a while, just to get some vaguely acceptable taste from the stuff I needed to consume but as I already mentioned I don’t like tea so it didn’t exactly stay ‘acceptable’ for very long. Not when I had such a large supply for guests. Now I have a much diminished supply but a good excuse to use it up.”

Well… Kat wasn’t exactly one for tea but it would be fine. Hedera on the other hand looked rather interested in ancient tea. Weaver… well she was quickly finishing off the last of the crab which was rather impressive for other people at least. Being an Arachne, her large abdomen had plenty of space to digest the extra food and the weight to make it not seem so ridiculous.

By the time the tea was done, not a single spec of crab meat was left on the table. Weaver did give it a quick wipe down with a silk cloth that was promptly thrown away afterwards before handing out teacups. A quick flick did ensure that the water jug she’d brought out is all that got in her own but Kat only barely caught the motion. *I wonder what Rank Weaver’s meant to be here. I might’ve been able to track that if I was using demonic energy… so at least Rank 3, maybe 4. Is she even meant to be beatable?*

[I’m going to go with ‘yes’ because remember she’s missing half her upper body. That’s a pretty big weak point and a bunch of her legs are still healing. If you could keep at range you could probably defeat her. I expect it wouldn’t be easy, but I think it’s possible.]

“This is good tea,” said Hedera after her first sip prompting Kat to try it as well… and it was tea? Kat didn’t really know what made it ‘good’ or not.

“A bit of a surprise really,” sighed Weaver. “Would you say it was enhanced by the drying and preserving? Or good in spite of it?”

Hedera took another sip and considered the question. “It’s hard to say. Without having tasted the original fresh version I can’t be sure if it’s better or not. There are certainly notes here that wouldn’t come through from fresh tea, and I suspect the flavour is stronger but it still has quite a few undertones that I like. Perhaps that power would be missing, or maybe the undertones would be different. I’m afraid that while I like tea, I’m not expert in it.”

“Understandable,” nodded Weaver. “Now that I’ve eaten and hopefully everyone’s calmed down a bit… can you tell me what’s happened on the island in my absence? The few glimpses I get outside of my hut are very limited and I have no idea how the settlements have changed since my disappearance.”

“Sorry, we’re all rather new to the island,” said Kat. “I don’t know about Hedera, but Lily and I haven’t seen much of anything really. We just walked through the swamps a bit before ending up on the beach.”

“It’s similar for me,” added Hedera. “I’ve explored somewhat but not much and I haven’t seen any settlements.”

“Not ideal certainly… but visitors have always come to the island at a semi-regular cadence so it’s not too surprising that a new group would be needed to find me. What about the great walls? The ones that keep the ecosystems separated? Are they still up? They should be quite visible,” asked Weaver.

“I can confirm that at least,” said Kat.

Weaver nodded, “I wonder if they can be passed through more easily these days? Before you had to wait for certain events to be allowed passage. They weren’t simply open all the time… but I suppose that might have changed? I know one of the arguments against my presence was that I would constantly reinforce those walls so that more would travel along my pathways.

“A ridiculous notion,” Weaver sighed. “The amount of power it takes to even examine those monstrously powerful walls is almost beyond me. Trying to work out how to strengthen them? Not remotely possible. Especially not when I was never a huge fan of allowing so many through my halls to begin with. Alas, I was…” Weaver paused for a moment. “Convinced by a young ruler of one of the areas that it was for the good of everyone,”

“Is he still around?” asked Kat.

Weaver shook her head, “No he died many years before I was trapped. I like to believe he would’ve helped save me from such a fate… but I’m not sure about the truth of the matter,”

Kat was a little surprised that didn’t come up as a lie. *I wonder. Is it because none of this is ‘real’ or because according to the script that is what happened? Or is it just ‘not a lie’ because I know it’s a play? Like, watching a play or a movie where I was constantly picking up on the actor’s lies would be annoying. Hmm… might have to be careful. If it never activates during this sort of conversation…*

[It’s not like you’ve relied on it before… but it is something to keep in mind, I agree.]Hedera, apparently having no tact… and a better idea of what Weaver was implying asked, “Oh… you loved him didn’t you?”

Weaver flinched a bit before settling. “I suppose it doesn’t matter, admitting such things now. I… yes I think I did. It’s hard to truly say, he was the first person to ever spend time with me. Even when it was just petitioning me to be more free with my pathways. He continued to visit afterwards and I consider him one of my few friends… that at least I know. Just… I cannot know if he ever considered me for more,”

“Why put it off? Why not ask? If you were friends that is…” asked Hedera.

“Ah… even before we met he was married. It was not a happy marriage, twas arranged between both parents for the stability of their two cities. It was an alliance between the cities of Summer and Spring. I am unsure how his wife felt about things, I only met her a few times you see. As for the king? He… was not interested in her at all. Yet… I struggled to find a reason to break up their marriage. They may not love each other, or like each other much… but they did have respect and it served a purpose. It was not so tortuous that I felt justified bringing it all down.

“On top of that…” Hedera fiddled with the nearby webs a little. “I personally suspect that he might be gay,”

“NO!” hissed Hedera. “Really? I mean… it would explain the odd situation with his wife… but are you sure?”

“I cannot say,” said Weaver with a sigh and a shake of her head. “I did not often leave my abode even before I was trapped here, and as such, our get togethers were usually here. I just found that… when he did visit it was often with a guard. I took no offence at his presence… though I did take some that the king’s wandering eyes seemed to more often land on the knight instead of myself,”

“Shut up! He really did that to you?” asked Hedera.

“I am aware I’m not a traditional beauty… well I wasn’t before and I certainly am not now,” sighed Weaver.

“Nah, girl, you look… well I admit the bandages aren’t great but I think with some time to heal, you’ll be stunning!” insisted Hedera.

*Wait… when did this become a gossip session? I wanted to learn more about the politics of the time!*

[Counter point… this IS fascinating.]

*Yeah not seeing it…*