“What” said Trina

“Have” as she brought down a bundle of paper

“I” on Sui’s head

“Told” in time with her words

“You”

“About”

“These”

“Jokes”

Sui shrugged “You didn’t ask, and Aife knows about Ito”

“What the hell is an Ito” asked Trina

“My soulbound pet spider I suppose. Though… not sure how much of a pet she really is. She’s very smart” said Sui

Ito jumped off of Trina’s shoulder and onto the table before she nodded proudly and bowed. “See, she can certainly tell what we are saying, though she also insists I’m crazy and just like talking to myself”

Trina and Aife shared a look before Aife said “But you are both of those things”

Sui nodded “True, but my pet spider shouldn’t know that. She insists I’m just projecting but look. Look at that”

Trina might not have been able to see but Aife could. Ito was carefully cleaning her legs, by lightly massaging the furry parts of them to knock away dirt. When Aife turned her attention on Ito, she raised her head and looked at Aife as if to say ‘who me? Surely not’

“Ok, I see your point” said Aife.

“Right…” said Trina as she tried calming herself down with deep breaths “Why do you have a soulbound spider, and what does that mean?”

Sui shrugged “Does it matter”

Trina looked at Aife. Aife looked back at Trina. Trina looked at Aife with narrowed eyes. Aife pretended to ignore Trina. Trina spoke “Hit her please”

“No thanks, if you really want to do it yourself. I don’t advocate for violence” said Aife

“Aife, I love you, but that is just blatantly false. You spent your school years beating up bullies for fun, and when they all stopped because they were scared of you, instead of leaving them be, you forced them to be your sparring partners on rotation so you weren’t bored at lunchtime” said Trina

Aife nodded “Good times”

Trina nodded as well “Now please, hit the idiot in the room”

Aife grinned, stretching out her long arm and poked Trina on the cheek. Trina glared back. “What?” said Aife “Sui has more mental stats then you. Even ignoring that, you’ve known her nearly as long as I have what did you expect her to say”

Trina sighed “Ok… fine, sorry. It’s early and I’m still waking up”

Trina then proceeded to get up, walk to the sink, realise the water wasn’t working and sat back down. “Ok never mind. Now Sui, can you please explain some of the details about Ito”

Sui shrugged “Like?”

Trina narrowed her eyes “Let’s start with what she actually is then”

“Ito is a miniscule Soulweaver spider” said Sui

“Ok, is the miniscule part important” asked Trina “It doesn’t exactly look small”

Sui shrugged “That’s what the system called her”

“Right… so what does it do?” asked Trina

Sui was about to answer, but paused when Ito glared at her. Ito then proceeded to point to everyone in turn and then herself. ‘I’m a girl not an it, thanks’

“I don’t follow” said Trina

“She’s complaining you keep calling her an it” said Sui

“How can you even understand… her?” asked Trina

Sui shrugged “Dunno” Ito also shrugged ‘Me neither’

“Right… so back to my question, what does she do” asked Trina

Ito stomped her feet down and gestured with crossed legs. ‘You still aren’t giving me much credit’

“Ok what now” said Trina

“She seems to be annoyed you just think of her as a pet, or an extension of me” said Sui “Not sure, little iffy on the translation”

Trina took in a deep breath. “Ok, Sui, can you please explain to me Ito’s powers”

Sui nodded, “So, she’s got two. Ito care to demonstrate the first?”

Ito nodded and walked over to Sui who held her arm out. Ito tapped Sui twice and summoned her subdermal webs. Sui lit up in a mess of crisscrossing webs covering her whole body. The white threads almost seemed to glow. Ito stepped onto the nearest bunch and sunk into Sui’s skin and positioned herself on one of the lines.

“Ok… what the hell is that and why do you look so strange now” said Trina

Sui shrugged “Not sure on the details, but Ito can spin webs into my skin which she can then travel on. She can do the same with other people to. It took her a while to put so many on me… though I’m not actually sure when that happened”

Ito popped out and rolled her front legs forward a few times before pretending to almost collapse ‘When you were sewing for hours’

“Ah, yup that’d make sense” said Sui

Trina didn’t even ask this time. She was still trying to figure out if Sui had lost what little remained of her sanity when the system came into existence or if Ito was actually that smart. “You said she had two skills. What was the second one?” Trina asked, focusing on the other question she had.

“Ah, yeah she picked up thread creation when we beat wave five. She got spider thread creation as an upgrade instead” said Sui

Trina’s jaw hit the floor, and Aife’s eyebrows shot up “She can gain abilities?”

Sui nodded

“How did you get something so powerful” said Trina. Ito glared. Trina coughed and corrected herself “Someone so useful”

Sui shrugged “I just glared at her a bunch when she showed up and I got the prompt”

“Oh? Could you get more?” asked Trina

“No of course not. The system was very clear, this is a one time thing and completely irreversible. I’m with Ito for life, either mine or hers” said Sui

Trina’s teeth smashed together “You what!”

Aife flinched and pretended to be doing… anything else

“How could you make such a completely idiotic choice. You have a small spider tied to your soul forever? What the hell were you thinking I can’t believe you’d choose something completely permanent on a whim why…

Trina continued to rant without stop. Aife had a resigned look on her face, and Sui started to look a little annoyed. Why is she so angry Ito? Ito shrugged ‘No idea’ I mean, she wanted the answers to these questions. Besides, I bet we can get stronger together so what’s the problem?

Ito shrugged again before opening her jaws a bunch of times and pointing at Trina ‘No idea, maybe she just likes the sound of her own voice’

Sui took on a thoughtful look. Hmm… that might be true… but she doesn’t talk that much does she?

Sui tried to think back to their time together in the years past… and rapidly recalled a grand number of examples. Well, never mind then. Ito you’re officially right.

Trina’s tirade continued on for another ten minutes before Aife stepped in “Enough Trina” said Aife in a very quiet voice, especially compared to Trina. But she stopped instantly and turned Aife’s way.

“Look, I’m sure we’d have both done the same thing. Well, maybe not with a spider, no offense Ito” Ito shrugged ‘none taken “But this seems like a powerful thing we should be on the lookout for”

Trina sighed “I mean… sure but, from the sounds of things this is a really big deal and I just wish Sui could think a bit more”

“Sui thinks plenty I’m sure. Or do you think her high base stats were just for show?” asked Aife

Trina grimaced. “That isn’t a valid argument”

Aife shrugged “Look Trina, we’ve always known Sui was smarter than us, now we just have more concrete proof”

Trina narrowed her eyes “Not sure I’d say that”

Aife rolled her eyes “Sui, what did you eat for breakfast yesterday”

“No idea” said Sui “Want me to think about it?”

Aife shook her head

“Sui, what is the number of uh… stitches? Stitching? The number of times you’ve crossed the threads over… wait is it just thread count?” asked Aife

“The thread count on my dress is 900, on yours it’s 400, and Trina’s is 250” said Sui with no hesitation

Aife gestured at Sui “See, she just doesn’t care about so many other things. Do you think you could remember a random fact from however long ago that nightgown is from?”

Trina sighed and sank down onto Aife’s lap “Fine fine. I’ll admit I’m wrong in this… Wait, does Ito have stats?”

Sui shrugged “Probably?”

“Can you check?” asked Trina glaring slightly

Ito’s stats?

Ito has the following stats

Strength 3

Agility 4

Constitution 4

Intelligence 11

Wisdom 10

Willpower 6

Sui frowned Those look awfully familiar. “She has the same stats I do but without charm or dexterity”

Trina sat up straighter in Aife’s lap, and Aife raised an eyebrow watching over Trina’s head. “Wait… how does that make any sense” said Aife “No offence Ito but I doubt you are as strong as Sui”

Ito nodded ‘I’m not’