Joan hummed as she walked through the halls of the keep. Now all she had to do was wait. Odd, it didn’t feel as bad this time. Maybe it was because she didn’t have that sense of dread washing over her that she so often had. Well, it was kind of there, but at least now she kind of knew what she was doing and where she was going.

Kind of.

Either way, they were going to have fun. Celebrate. It had been a long time since she’d been to Hearth. She vaguely remembered going there when she was the Hero, albeit not for long. Maybe she’d get lucky and be able to meet a mermaid. That’d be pretty cool. Unless she had to fight and destroy some great underwater demon before it rose from the depths to create tidal waves that would destroy all settlements for miles inland and--

She shoved those thoughts aside and lightly slapped her cheeks. Nope. No. Not going to focus on that. This was a chance to relax. All they had to do now was find Chase and break the spell over everyone’s memories. Then do whatever plan she had in mind to save everyone, once she could think about it without her head hurting. Once she fully understood what it WAS that was stopping her memories from working. Ugh.

Joan couldn’t help feeling more annoyed the longer she thought about it. As if she didn’t already feel like she was more than one person. Now she was all of those past lives, as well as Joan herself and now a Joan who kind of had a better idea of what was going on but could only exist in the Realm of the Gods or her mind tore itself apart when she came back and-- AGH! She tried to bury those thoughts. The last thing she needed was to reduce the short time she had to find Chase even further by antagonizing her situation.

She made a mental note to yell at whoever was responsible for this if she ever got the chance. How was she supposed to solve this disaster and save everyone if she wasn’t allowed to THINK about how to save everyone? This entire thing was just unfair.

Oh well, she just had to--

Her thoughts were disrupted by a sudden feeling of being watched. Her eyes narrowed and she glanced around. Of course. “Any messages for me?” she asked. “No? Okay then. I’m working on it. I really wish you’d stop doing this, though. I’m working on it. If you want me to save you, you just need to be patient. Or tell me where you are so I can come. Well? Yessss? Nooooo?”

After a few moments the feeling faded and she rolled her eyes. She wondered if whoever was doing that even could tell her where they were. Probably not. Hopefully they weren’t in pain, because it was going to take a while.

Joan just wished they could bother her in a less unsettling way. It was creepy being watched when you couldn’t do anything about it. Though, speaking of creepy things, she supposed she should get her spider gauntlet back. She made a quick turn down one of the halls before stopping outside Zorn’s room. She barely resisted the urge to listen outside it. A part of her wanted to so she could be sure she wasn’t interrupting anything, but she suspected that part was mostly being fed by her desire to be nosy. She reached out and lightly knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Zorn asked.

“Me,” Joan said. “Got a second?”

“Yeah, hold on,” Zorn said. After a moment the door swung open and Joan shrieked, jumping back.

“What is that doing on you?!” Joan yelled while pointing at his shoulder.

“What, him? He’s cool,” Zorn said.

Joan stared, her eye twitching slightly. Resting on the dwarf’s shoulder was the ghostnid. She couldn’t be sure, but she was pretty sure it was the exact same one which had bitten her when they were at the shop. “He is NOT cool. He-- gah!” She darted back when the spider disappeared suddenly, only to reappear on the ground after a few moments, darting towards her.

“Hey, stop! Get back here!” Zorn said. The spider, to her surprise, went still before, very slowly, moving back towards him.

Joan’s eyes narrowed on him and then she caught sight of what was on his arm, her spider gauntlet. She gave a soft sigh. “You’ve been talking to him, then?”

“He’s no giant spider lich, but he’s pretty cool. I’ve been calling him Zapper,” Zorn said.

“Zorn and Zapper,” Joan said, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes. “How long have you been wearing that?”

“Eh, I’ve been fiddling with it since you got back,” Zorn said. “You want it back?”

Joan gave a soft sigh and shook her head. “If you’re having fun with it, it’s fine.” She couldn’t help feeling guilty about it. So few magical items seemed to work with him, was it really fair to take back one of the few that did?

“I don’t know if fun is the right word,” Zorn said. “I just never knew spiders had so much to say. I’m going to see if I can find something that does that without the whole like… biting my hand thing.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty annoying,” Joan said. “The other functions are nice, though. Find out anything else about it?”

“Not yet,” Zorn said. “You?”

“Only the webbing thing,” Joan said with a shrug. “It kind of crumbles pretty fast. I guess it’s pretty useful for climbing down something, though.”

“What?” Zorn asked.

“You just need to use your magic to-- oh, right. I guess you can’t… sorry,” Joan said sheepishly. “It can just release webbing if you focus on it and touch the back of it to something. It’s not that big a deal. I tried seeing if I could get the web to shoot out or something, but it doesn’t really work like that. It does make it so you don’t stick to webs, though. That’s pretty cool.”

Zorn just gave a sigh. “Yeah. I’ll see about getting something that does the stuff I can actually use. I already have something that makes me not stick to webs.”

“So, do you know why that thing, err, Zapper keeps chasing me?” Joan asked, quickly trying to change the subject away from his lack of ability to use magic.

“Apparently you shine to him,” Zorn said.

“I shine?” Joan asked.

“Yeah, like a beacon,” Zorn said. “I don’t know what that means. I don’t think he does, either. But it’s why he keeps trying to be near you. Says it makes him feel safe.”

Joan glanced down at the spider that was staring at her before giving a shudder. “Yeah, don’t tell him I said this, but he’s likely not safe with me. I’d rather squash him.”

Zorn rolled his eyes. “Please don’t. He’s really nice once you get to know him. Here, try it.” He held out his hand, the spider now resting in his palm.

“I uhhh, I’d rather not,” Joan said.

“Come on,” Zorn said. “You can’t really be scared of a little spider, can you? Didn’t you say you were training with a big spider lich?”

“That was different,” Joan said. “He gave me space. I just… I…”

“Here,” Zorn said before moving the spider up onto his shoulder. He then reached down and, with a grunt, took the gauntlet off his arm. He then held it out. “Hang out with him for a little bit. After that, give him back if you don’t want him.”

Joan slowly nodded, slowly taking the gauntlet and putting it on her arm. She cringed when once again the head bit down on her hand. Whoever designed this thing needed to get kicked in the shins. Even if it didn’t hurt that much it shouldn’t have to hurt at all. “Fine. Just for a little bit. Come on, Zapper. I guess we’re going to bond now.”

“Ohhhhh, shiny one,” Zapper said, his voice excited and oddly childish. Oddly, he sounded almost like a younger, even more excited Qakog. It was kind of creepy. “I can come with you now?”

Of all the ways for the little blue spider to speak, that was not the way she expected. Slowly she reached out a hand. “Yes. Just don’t bite me.”

“You do not desire a gift?” Zapper asked before crawling onto her hand. She shivered, but at least he didn’t try and bite. His little legs felt odd.

Joan shook her head. “No, I do not desire to be bit. Zorn, why does he think biting is a gift?”

“I don’t know,” Zorn said with a shrug. “Dervish did say that a ghostnid’s venom had the ability to restore a person’s magical abilities. I haven’t tested it, though.”

“I won’t be either,” Joan said with a shudder. The last thing she wanted was to make herself sick with random spider venom. Ugh, though if it was useful and could save her life, wouldn’t she have to consider it at some time? Was it okay for her to not use every tool at her disposal? Actually, she was going to make an exception for this one. She didn’t want to find out there were any long term effects to such things. “So, Zapper, let’s go for a walk. Maybe we can check on Hardwin, see if he’s in another foul mood.”

“The hot one?” Zapper asked.

Joan’s eyes went wide and her head whipped around to stare at the spider. No. She was NOT going to carry around a spider that had a crush on her friend. That was just weird. After a moment she blinked and then gave a soft sigh. “You mean like, physically hot, right?”

“What else could I mean?” Zapper asked.

“Nothing,” Joan said. She then shook the gauntlet a little bit. She knew whatever magic it was using to translate things so she could understand them probably wasn’t intentionally making word choices like that, but it didn’t help it from being annoying. Knowing her luck it was all controlled by some god of double meaning. Probably Goat. It seemed like a Goat thing to do.

MelodyAvant

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