Audience

Alice took a deep, slightly quivering breath, her eyes firmly glued on the gigantic Queen and the ‘apparatus’ she had just used to form what she was sure was an actual speech.

After all, the girl was pretty certain that the gentle violin bow-like motions of the spider’s frontal limb on the thin and taut metallic silk thread had produced some very real words.

The range of sounds that came out of the wire possessed all the characteristics of a talked language; that she was aware of at least.

The sounds had both a flow, with different speeds for each ‘word’ and pauses between them; an intonation, with many utterances rising and falling in pitch; and finally a loudness, with separate sounds having a different amount of ‘energy’ in them.

On top of the more technical characteristics of the unknown speech, Alice also focused on the small clues that could be inferred from the way it had occurred.

The Queen is able to actually talk. Which probably means a couple of things: firstly, she must have met something that had taught her the language, not because she wouldn’t be able to form one herself but because she wouldn’t actually need one if she had to simply talk to other spiders. I have seen the way Eleanor and Skitter, and now the other two females, communicate, and it’s definitely not through serenades.

Secondly and maybe more importantly, by the way she instantly started ‘talking’ to me in that tongue, without even trying to communicate in another way, it must mean that it’s a language talked by humans! She must have somehow met and talked with a human! Thusly, I need to learn the language, not only to actually talk to her about a way out, but also for the hopeful future when I’ll be out of these damn caves and into an actually civilized society.

With that reason in mind, Alice managed to stifle the instincts telling her to get the heck away from the gigantic otherworldly predator in front of her and, instead, dropped on the ground the bedroll and few objects she still had on her back.

Ignoring the many unblinking orbs staring at her from all directions, she stretched her joints and jumped a bit on the spot.

If she gets angry I run she told herself before taking a single step forward, her luminescence starting to flare on her skin.

“Hello! I’m Alice” she shouted, the four spiders behind her starting at the loud noise. She briefly pointed at herself with her hand before continuing to talk in a slow and deliberate manner “Until I understand your name I’ll call you Queen” she said, now pointing at her “I really hope you realize that I don’t understand what you are saying at the moment” she finally stated, now shaking her head.

Then, before the giant spider could do more than twitch, Alice quickly turned towards Skitter and started signing to him, still talking to the air.

“I don’t understand what your mom is saying okay?” she once again shook her head while pointing at the previously vibrating wire and, at the same time, using the crayfish prosthesis to push away from her a random piece of crystalline metal that had fallen down from Eleanor still-glittering back.

As the three large females bristled at his side, the smaller male silently clicked a few times before moving forward, ignoring the almost inaudible hiss from Eleanor as he started madly clicking and moving its frontal limbs while staring at the silent matriarch.

As soon as Skitter stilled anew, the queen’s pedipalps crashed one against the other with the noise of a car crash, her anterior leg leaving the cord and moving towards the staring human.

Seeing the spiked pillar of death come hurtling towards her, Alice instantly launched herself to the side, crashing painfully on the ground with her shoulder, rolling, and immediately scrambling up on her feet, her well of power already spouting a wave of warmth straight towards the surrenal glands.

She prepared to dash into the metal forest as soon as the huge limb crashed on the ground in a shower of sparks.

Which it didn’t.

Only after blinking a couple of times did she realize that the spiked leg had stopped a good ten meters away from her, still pointing in the position she had been standing on.

She stared back at the matriarch just in time to see the metal exoskeleton of the huge arachnid break out in a shivering ripple of small platinum waves, that, from her head, coursed throughout her opaque carapace. A deep, tittering sound shook the body of the creature before emerging from the nightmarish maw of the monster and into the clearing.

The obvious laughter went on for a good minute as Alice’s breathing once again steadied, her power slowly dissipating in her body.

As soon as the loud, grating noise ended, the behemoth once again slowly pointed her spike towards the girl and then moved it back on the perpetually warping wire, slowly moving along its length as it produced a single, slightly distorted word.

“A-lice”.

She then angled her second hind leg until it pointed towards her own body, the quivering wire producing yet another word.

“Maath”.

“Well, nice to meet you Maath. Try not to eat me okay?” she said with a slightly neurotic chuckle before slowly unrolling her futon and sitting down on it.

The laughter that had quaked her ruined body finally abated and the Queen of the Spear Spiders looked below once more, observing the rest of her audience, still standing in the clearing.

“At the very least it is a quite humorous being” she said, addressing her daughters and the tiny male. “And a feisty one at that. Not unnatural given its small size and evident lack of physical protections; you need to be reactive when you are a tiny grub in a world of giants. Those, however, are just my thoughts” she stated, stopping her speech as if waiting for an answer from her silent audience. Receiving none, she went on.

“What I do wish to know, however, is what happened to the cluster I had sent to retrieve this ‘Alice creature’.” she was now staring straight into Chillushrith’s eight eyes “I was informed less than a mealtime ago that only a quarter of the swarm had returned, and none of them without injury” she clicked at her still silent daughter “I was worried I had just lost one of my Elder Thinkers! That would have been an unacceptable waste.” she declared in a hiss, her tone now turning softer. “It’s good to see you alive Chillushrith. I trust those wounds are healing?” the matriarch finally asked.

Yes Mother, possibly in a single molt thanks to the creature’s powers. Chillushrith briefly acknowledged before starting her report.

The satellite nest had been overrun by a large swarm of Vault Crawlers under the control of some kind of shadowy creature that had probably surfaced from one the deeper caves of the Soundless. When we arrived, the entire nest had already been slaughtered and the twolegs was fighting for its life.

Chillushrith kept recounting the events down to their smallest detail, explaining matter-of-factly the way each group had attacked and why, until, finally, the armored Thinker seemed to reach the point that really mattered to her.

I wasn’t prepared for such an attack and lost valuable time stuck in the narrow passages leading to the nest. On top of that, I was pinned down by the swarm when I managed to make contact. she stated, hesitating for a second and sparing a glance at the positively vibrating male beside her, If it hadn’t been for the little one, my mistake would have costed the objective and its powers. It was my failure.

Chillushrith finally admitted, her speech ending in an enraged, shuddering hiss that made the glowing creature beside her flinch and scoot away.

Maath pensively cleaned her fangs before talking once more.

“I understand, my daughter.” She slowly admitted “While the attack has been an unfortunate unpredictability, you have still made mistakes. As have I”. The large, shining spider, who had slowly started to sag under the words of her queen, suddenly stirred, instantly joined by her three other kindred as they started disagreeing with the last statement.

“Silence! I, myself, have committed a grave mistake when I ordered Chillushrith to bring back the Alice at any cost. Had the enemies been stronger or if our new ally hadn’t been able to kill the shadow ruler, I would have lost one of my true daughters.” She repressed a pained hiss as she adjusted her position on her soft throne before continuing. “Even if the Alice doesn’t manage to cure me, I will still be in its debt. Moreover, even if the power were to heal my wounds, this body wouldn’t last as long as it would have before.” she admitted.

“When, and not if, I die, the control of the Nest will be left to the best of my Thinkers, and, between them, one will become Ruler, consuming me and obtaining my powers.” Her words were met with a wall of astonished silence, the three Thinkers in front of her completely still as they processed the information. Maath went on before they could voice their protests.

“Until then, I will not allow even one of you to die for mere dreams. From now on, your survival and growth will be your first and foremost priority. Each one of you will have to reach peaks of excellence never before seen. You will Deserve the role of Queen, not simply inherit its waning power. I created an entire kingdom. You will make it prosper. Such is my Will”. Maath finally proclaimed.

“Now leave and tell your sisters. I wish to talk with the creature and the little one… Don’t think I forgot about you.” she said, the tiny male now starting to tremble in evident excitement as the three Thinkers started exiting the clearing. Eisor was first, leaving without a word, sure of her orders, she was soon followed by a very concentrated Ricee mumbling about male improvements, and, finally, after a long, silent staring contest with her queen, left Chillushrith, her large abdomen crushing the few crystal that had survived her previous passing.

Maath stared in amusement at the unwarranted destruction before finally focusing back her attention on the remaining spider.

“While generally lesser beings” she stated “males have always been an incredibly important part of our colony, its legs and webs if you will, sustaining it and allowing its progress. You, Little one, have managed to prove that they can also be more than mere instruments for our advancement, that your sex is capable of being more than simple drones.” Maath stopped for an instant, looking at the smaller spider literally vibrating in place.

“Thusly, it’s with certainty that I hereby declare you the first of my Sons. You will receive the same treatment as one of my Daughters and will be bound by their same duties. You will receive a name when I will find a proper one. Until then, you are to attend my conversation with the Alice, after you rest, that is obvious”.

Yes, Birther! her newfound Son clicked, its body quivering in excitement.

“You may call me Mother from now on. Now go and rest.” She told him, watching with a clicking chuckle as it sped through the crystals, a tittering shriek echoing in the metal forest soon after.

Her frontal leg went back on the wire, brushing it as she expertly controlled its shape and composition with her power.

The creation of silkspeech had been a long process that had taken years of trials and changes, but she had always felt a strange connection to the true language and obtaining a way to actually speak it had been a pleasant endeavor. It was for that same reason that she had created that mimicry of clicks, signs and hisses that was her species’ language. She wondered why the creature now sitting in front of her didn’t know it. Did it belong to a different species from his? She did notice a number of differences between their external appearance after all. She couldn’t wait to ask it directly.

Maath stored away the thought for a later time and prepared herself for a long process of learning.

Following the same method utilized by the Alice, she quickly obtained her attention and then pointed at the Nest in its entirety, using her leg to move from one side to the other of the expansive bubble in the stone visible from the clearing.

“Nest” she vibrated on the wire in the language she had learnt so many molts before.

She was soon echoed by the glowing creature who pronounced it back a few times until it was perfect.

After that, it was the creature’s turn, translating the word back into its language, allowing her to replicate it on the cord until she had perfected it.

A focused calm fell in the clearing as the two completely different beings talked, listened and learnt from one another in a rush against time and fate.

*****

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