Anu planned to blame Duncan if her plan didn’t work out. He'd inspired her.

Duncan loved to tell stories about the history of magic, and magic circuits. His favourite myth was about an emperor, who watched the spiders in the royal gardens, gaining inspiration for his magical circuits.

The spider in the story was a mana-weaver. Mana weavers spun large collective nests, and their silk conducted mana. Their silk was used in the manufacture of rather expensive magical artefacts.

If Anu was going to look after a beast, she’d rather have a useful one.

There was a nest nearby, a couple of miles out of town, somewhere up the side of the mountain, near the mine entrance. Anu had been to the nest before. Aged 10, her and a few of the other kids stuck in the mining community had dared each other to explore the nest. They didn’t see any spiders, returning home safely and rather disappointed.

Mana weavers were generally docile creatures, and would hide from humans. You could take leftover silk without angering the hive, although damaging the web, or touching the trapped prey, would get a very angry response.

The spiders were about half the height of an adult, and, for Anu, a little less terrifying this time around. She had walked carefully into the nest. It was easy to find, as large overlapping webs extending out of the mouth of a cave tended to stand out.

From her backpack she had unfurled a large magic circuit, carefully laying out the parchment on the ground, taking care not to rip it. The circuit was one large circle, drawn in conductive ink, with lines stretching across it, and out to smaller circles across the page.

Her plan was relatively straight forward. Wait for a drone to walk into the circle, try and form a contract. Mana weavers operated as a hive, and Anu figured that individually, a solitary weaver might be easier to contract with.

That and they wouldn’t attack her until then. Probably.

Anu waited by the circuit.

The drones had vanished inside the cave as she had approached. After a coupe of minutes, three drones appeared, and slowly explored the cave entrance. Anu gripped her fists, waiting for one of the drones to approach the circle. They didn’t. The drones would meander close to the circuit and scuttle away as soon as they touched the conductive ink.

Anu waited by the circuit.

The three drones had vanished. Four larger drones, with thicker legs and smaller abdomens, had come to explore. Ignoring the circle, they surrounded Anu. After a tense minute, and one of the spider’s legs getting a little too close to her face, the spiders turned back towards the cave.

One of the soldier drones walked across the circuit, without touching the large circle. Anu weighed over her options but with only a second to spare, she pushed on with her plan. Placing her hands on the circuit, she pushed her mana into it.

She felt some resistance, and then a shock which threw her onto her back. Pulling herself upright, she remembered to panic. Quickly looking around, she found no sign of the drones. The circuit was burned, the ink shattered.

Anu carefully rolled the parchment back up, and took another from her satchel.

Placing the replacement circuit on the floor, Anu waited by the circuit.

One drone appeared. Black, like the other drones, but with golden lines around the joints. This spider carefully walked up to the circuit. Taking its time, it spent five minutes slowly walking around the circuit, behind Anu, and around the other side. Finishing, the spider walked to one side, and took a seat on the ground.

Anu could feel that the spider was looking at her.

“Hello?”

The spider stood up, and walked into the centre of the contract.

Anu tried again. In a rush, she leaned over, and pushed mana into the circuit. It felt different. Before, she felt the contract begin to activate, but then cancel out. This time she couldn’t even get it to start.

She didn’t notice that the spider was now directly in front of her. Looking up, she jumped back, disconnecting herself. The spider continued walking, and after turning around, sat down exactly in the spot that Anu had occupied.

Anu asked herself, “What the ...”, and, dusting herself off, she carefully walked over to the spider. Without turning her back to the spider, she walked around the edge of the circuit, slowly. Coming to a stop, she looked back at the Spider, now watching her.

The spider waited by the circuit.

Lowering its forelegs, it placed then onto the circuit, where Anu’s hands had laid. Anu watched as the circuit shimmered, the surface of the ink oscillating as mana was pushed through the circuit. The spider stopped, and withdrew its legs. Turning its head to look at Anu, staring back in disbelief.

Anu had chastised herself for trying to speak to the spider, and now, it seems, it was offering her a contract instead.

Taking a deep breath, she walked into the centre of the circuit, and took a seat.

She watched the spider slowly move its legs into position, hovering just above the circuit. Anu assumed she wasn’t the only one having second thoughts. Before Anu could doubt more, the spider had activated the circuit, she could feel the mana around her getting stronger, and a pressure pushing down on her body.

For a moment she saw eight red strands reaching out from the spider and into her body. She felt an overwhelming pain, then a burning sensation as the foreign mana pushed its way around her body.

She passed out after a good few minutes of thrashing and screaming.

Anu woke up, bolted upright, and fell over immediately.

Opening her eyes again, she saw a makeshift hammock spun from spider silk swinging above her head. Looking to one side, she saw the spider from before, looking over her. Pushing herself upright, she stood up, and made a seat out of the hammock.

“Um, Hello?”

The spider waved its forelegs

“Did you form a contract with me?”

The spider waved its forelegs up and down.

“Is that a yes?”

The spider repeated the wave.

“Uhh... are you going to harm me?”

The spider crossed and uncrossed its front two legs

“Is that a no?”

The spider waved its forelegs up and down.

“So that’s”, Anu flapped her arms, “for yes”, crossed her arms “for no”.

The spider excitedly waved its forelegs.

After a round of questions, Sarah found the spider, as yet unnamed was quite happy to follow her home, and onto the academy too. She’d tried asking more than yes or no questions, and the spider was quite happy to answer. Unfortunately, the more excited the answer, the stronger the headache Anu got.

“Why did you contract me?”

The four legs waved manically in front of Anu, and she felt a sharp pain in her skull.

“Owww aaarrhgh. Stop stop. Can we stick to Yes and No for now”

The spider paused, then slowly waved a yes.

“For now, you’ll follow me, and you’re not going to attack anyone?”

A yes.

“Can I go home now? Can you come now?”

Yes.

“Perfect. Let me grab my things and then we can go back into Town. Wait. Town.”

Anu remembered that it might not the best idea to take a spider, just over half her size, back to town.

“Wait. I need to put a marker on you, so people know you’re my contra..”, “so they know you’re tame”, Anu corrected herself.

Taking a wide, flat blue ribbon, she tied it gently around the spider’s abdomen, where it met the thorax, tying off the ends into a large bow.

“There”

‘Problem solved’, thought Anu, ‘a spider wearing a bow *must* be tame’. As Anu reassured herself the plan was still working, she was dismayed to watch the spider slowly fidget with the bow. The spider adjusted it for a few moments before tearing it off in frustration.

The spider scratched itself, trying to relieve itself of what seemed to be an itch.

“Uh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would scratch, I just thought a bow would let...”

Anu stopped talking, realising the spider wasn’t listening, it was weaving. A very similar wide, flat ribbon was taking shape from under its spinnerets. No quicker than Anu had realised what it was doing, the spider had finished weaving a new ribbon and tied it around itself in a bow, using its extra legs to hold it in place to hold it taught.

Five minutes later, Anu had a new white silken headband around her forehead, tied around the back, also in a bow. Anu wondered if this was the spider marking her, after it rejected her marking it. She wasn’t going to tear up the headband though. It was soft and comfortable.

It didn't matter. As far as Anu was concerned, the plan was an overwhelming success. She carefully packed up the circuit, double checked her possessions, and began to walk home, with her new friend in tow.