Understanding

Alice kept clutching the dark-shrouded orb even as she was carried off by Skitter and the rest of his siblings. Her body had finally given out, the strain it had accumulated over the last days too much for it to keep functioning, even when taking into account her magically improved metabolism and all the hormones she had forcefully flowed in her system, she was barely holding onto her consciousness as the spiders carefully wrapped her in a loose blanket of silk and started slowly and awkwardly, dragging her on the ground as the rest of the group surrounded her for protection.

They shouldn’t have wasted their time; with the collapse of the shadowy net of compulsion held by the horrid creature she had killed, the remaining Jumping Spiders elected to turn tail and run, the fleeing creatures pursued by the large, heavily injured metallic spider that had appeared in the expansive cave after literally cutting through meters of stone to carve itself a path.

In the meanwhile, she and her ‘bodyguards’ were headed towards the remains of the nest, probably to recover from the fight.

She could still hear the sound of many legs and wings moving closer behind them.

The tired girl glanced behind just in time to see the first scavengers launch themselves on the casualties of the battle, their mandibles, fangs, palps and other generalized mouthparts tearing in the torn and bloodied corpses as the feast finally commenced for the opportunistic hunters.

After a few seconds, Alice diverted her attention from the grisly feast and small skirmishes of the carrion-eaters to instead look more closely at the trophy of her fight.

The fist-sized sphere was perfectly smooth in her hand, its hard exterior seemingly still dimming her own light as she held it. The core was of the darkest color she had ever seen— or could imagine, its form almost two-dimensional when she looked at it.

Alice could feel the intense power contained within; a power that would have been used on her if the monster hadn’t been so intent in finishing off the spiders.

The young woman shivered as she was carried through the passage she had been brought out of less than ten minutes before.

The spiders headed left, moving through many winding passages until they finally entered a familiar chamber, the one she had been stashed in after her first, and unpleasant, encounter with Skitter.

There, the spider in question clicked a few times at her carriers which instantly stopped and started removing the makeshift stretcher. In the meanwhile, every other spider settled all around the chamber, some forming small nests out of silk while others simply dropped low on the ground in a resting position; each and every one of them, however, didn’t take its eyes away from her for even a second, looking at her as if entranced.

Soon, the sharp sounds of cut stone echoed from the passage they had just been in as the larger specimen of Spear Spiders entered the chamber and moved straight towards her, dripping dark blood from its many injuries.

Slowly and carefully, the arachnid walked around her prone shape until it was facing her front, its large form almost hunched as it too stared at her. She blearily looked back, her vision growing blurrier as time went on while the stone she was laying on started feeling extremely comfortable.

It clicked a few times, receiving hisses in reply from the smaller Skitter, until, finally, it extended one of its sharpened, metallic sickles and cautiously cut through the remains of her bundle, completely exposing her shining body and the core she held within her hands.

As the two spiders started once more clicking between them, Alice decided enough was enough and simply let herself be carried away in the simple, silent and relaxing world of which Morpheus was king.

You have reached Level 15 in the Biomancer Class.

You have bled and received wounds over and over again, it didn’t stop you. You have learned the skill Lesser Regeneration. Your body now knows how to repair itself more quickly and efficiently.

The Common Class level cap has been reached. Impress The Whispering Mother to improve her boons.

Where were you while I was fighting for my life? Why do you only talk to me while I sleep? And now I have to impress you? After all I did? I killed something that shouldn’t even exist! I’m tired of this trading. I give blood and you offer things that will help me shed blood for longer. Do you feel pleasure? Do you like to see me suffer? Why am I here? Why can’t I just go home?

Alice sobbed the last thought-words as she vacantly stared at the humming phrase that had once again appeared in her mental dark room, each glyph brimming with barely contained power, distorting the void around them.

She sat there, her mind brimming with uncertainty and fear, her thoughts on what would happen next, on her future trials and sufferings. She wondered if she had made the right answer, if picking The Sleeping One and its promise of rest and oblivion wouldn’t have been the best choice.

As that thought was formed, something stirred in the darkness and in her mind at the same time.

Suddenly, a thin, long and pearlescent tendril was gently swaying where before was nothing but dark void, moved by the breeze produced by her thoughts which soon became a veritable gale of questions, wonderings and curiosity, making the tendril snap and contort but never disappear from her sight.

Alice moved closer, leaving behind the words to inspect the hair-like object invading her previously unchanged mental space.

She clearly remembered the ‘forest’ she had swam through, the place where she had first witnessed the offer of the third higher being that had taken an interest in her; there, each of the floating strands was composed of condensed information, of knowledge that had been poured into her as she touched them, filling her with thoughts so novel that even a single one would have forever changed the way she looked at things, if only she had been able to keep them and use them.

That pure comprehension was what had led her to pick the Boon of Insight. And now, in her moment of doubt, one of those tendrils had appeared anew, as if the thing offering her power so freely was now trying to appease her and convince her to keep going down the path.

For a long time, Alice Desare debated turning away, leaving behind the being toying with her and power through the unknown with her sole strength. She almost did. Curiosity won her over once again.

She extended her metaphysical hand, her fingertips gently caressing the tendril for a second before a bolt of pure insight zapped through her fingers, hand and arm, immediately reaching her mind and filling it with feelings and thoughts that weren’t her own.

Most of those thoughts were so large, so complex that she couldn’t even fathom understanding them, let alone experiencing them herself.

Others, instead, were smaller, less alien in nature; she felt the thirst for more knowledge, for a better grasp on everything that exists; the interest in everything under her sight that was new and novel; the surprise when something had suddenly appeared in her perception, a creature unclaimed by others, interesting in the way it behaved and even simply was.

Somehow, Alice could remember the joy the being had felt as it witnessed her explore, experiment and question. It had enjoyed—the closest word to represent the feeling she was experiencing—her inquisitiveness and ignorance of everything around her.

That lost girl’s mind had reminded it of itself, or at least of a form of itself that had existed an unconceivable amount of time before.

She, The Whispering Mother, would then go and offer a sliver of her powers to that dying human being, power in exchange for a personal window on her life, to observe her in her fight for survival and knowledge, rewarding her when she saw her learn and struggle for survival. Absorbing information as she did.

Hidden and yet all-encompassing in the tumultuous current of thoughts, Alice could feel a deep, almost maniacal interest in her, a profound desire of her survival, even if mixed with a complete lack of understanding of her plight.

Her hand left the tendril which soon disappeared as it had come, most of the knowledge that had pervaded her fading with it. What remained, was a bit of insight on her ‘patron’.

She doesn’t enjoy my suffering. I bet she would be happy if I kept exploring a blade of grass if it meant learning something. Pain for her is just something that happens to others, more information to process. Death is bane only because it means inability to learn more, everything else is simply more knowledge.

Her anger felt dull. What use had rage now that she knew that the thing it was aimed at would simply add it to the universe of knowledge she relished in?

Alice didn’t know.

What the girl knew, instead, was that as of now, The Whispering Mother was a tool, something she would use to survive in the damned world she was in. As I did before, I will do now. She thought, the conviction of the message making the void ripple around her.

Soon, she felt the usual pulling sensation and was soon back in her pain-ridden body.

She opened her crusty eyes; her hand, ready to scrub away the offending residue stopped abruptly as she looked at it clearly, instantly recoiling at the encrusted layer of dark ichor covering her palm, fingers and the rest of her body.

She stood up groaning as she looked at her mostly naked body, pulling off the chitinous carapace which, as it turned out, had left a painful set of bruises on her chest, some of them probably evidencing some kind of fracture of her ribs, if her pain was to be taken into account at least.

Her legs were in the worst condition as far as she could see, caked in congealed blood and sporting several gashes and holes where the Jumping Spiders had bit or stabbed her.

A set of twin holes was particularly unpleasant, the wound having closed over time but remaining quite swollen and probably reddened under the dark coat. Waves of hot, throbbing pain rushed from the punctures to encompass the entire leg every time she tried to take a step.

“Probably infected. Great. I’ll need to do something about it”.

Finally, her attention was pulled away from her own condition when the clicking, pacing and hissing all around her became too loud to ignore.

With a sigh, Alice stared at Skitter, already intent in weaving a web on a wall while the larger spider seemed to click and hiss at it, moving around with its metallic legs sinking in the limestone.

The young woman looked around the cave, staring at the group of Spear Spiders responsible for her escape. Some of them were limping, with still-open wounds that probably caused them pain; most lacked at least a limb, most obvious of all the largest one, one of its metallic legs now a gnarled stump sometimes splattering dark blood on the floor.

She sighed again, slowly moving towards a particularly wounded spider, two wide gashes in its abdomen showing the pulsating internal organs contained within.

Everything stilled, each of the spider, even Skitter, now immobile as she extended a hand towards the arachnid, which in turn looked like a deer in headlights.

Alice didn’t shiver as her hand touched the smooth and hard exoskeleton of the creature; opening her mind to the flow of its body, she moved towards the wound, feeling it already trying to seal itself, something that would normally take a long time given the severity of the slashes.

“Hemostasis” she said, feeling the cells produce more clotting agents, ordering the body to start forming a new layer of chitin over the throbbing flesh. This time, she led them, making sure everything was alright as she spent a good amount of her energy to control the Word of Power as it worked.

When she raised her hand and moved away from the spider, a new, thin layer of chitin could be seen covering the wound, the spider instantly moving to eat from a small heap of corpses that had been piled on one side of the cave. It didn’t reach it, almost instantly stopped by the larger one, loudly clicking at it, forcing it to turn to the side and inspecting the work she had done.

As all this took place, Alice was already walking to the next spider and starting her work.

Over the course of many hours, with frequent breaks to replenish her well and fight the burgeoning headaches, the girl from Earth silently cured the monsters that had saved her.

Eventually, after all the others had been looked over, Alice found herself awkwardly standing before the huge spider, finally taking in the large creature in its entirety as it too stared at her with spherical unblinking eyes.

It was probably more than three meters in height, with thick metallic limbs ending in sharp spikes that sunk in the limestone with each step, leaving deep bores as it walked around.

It must weigh a literal ton, maybe more. She thought.

The frontal limbs, which had previously sported long, deadly-looking sickles were now identical to the other five, something that kept her wondering for a while.

Metal manipulation? Wouldn’t be surprised honestly.

The metal of the limbs progressed further, coating the thorax of the creature, with long and wide striations running the length of the large abdomen, giving it a striped appearance.

The maw of the monster was particularly imposing, with large gleaming fangs visible even under the silvery pedipalps.

As far as Alice could see the creature had some pretty heavy wounds, mostly around its underbelly and were the third left leg should have been, now only the large stump remaining.

“Want some help with that?” she asked, pointing at the injured stump and other wounds on its body, trying to have it crouch enough for her to reach it directly.

The Spear Spider didn’t move for a long time, then, with a short hiss, it lowered itself, the metallic legs pumping fluid to compensate for the movement.

She carefully placed her hand on the first wound, feeling the strangely warm silvery metal on her fingers as she concentrated on the being.

Somehow, she could feel the alloy as an actual living part of the creature, as if it really was nothing more than hard chitin. She passed through, feeling the flesh beneath, very different from the one of its smaller siblings, this one felt harder, more compact and connected as if, over time, it had taken some of the characteristics of the metal coating it.

She could still feel the wound without issue and she quickly used Hemostasis to order it closed.

Alice kept the Word of Power up for as long as possible, feeling the wound quickly drain every ounce of the remaining warmth from her well, the previously abated headache now coming back with a vengeance.

She finally raised her hand, panting hard as she saw a translucent sheen of carapace over one of the wounds.

“Gonna need more time with you” she said as she curled up on the ground clutching her legs, the knees touching her forehead.

She was just closing her eyes when a familiar spike poked her in the ribs over and over again, forcing her to once again stare at a clicking Skitter, already pointing at the huge set of webs it had formed while she was healing its swarm.

“Goddamnit Skitter” she groaned, turning around.

The poking started over.