The quiet got interrupted by loud banging on the front door.

“General? Are you there?” A voice shouted.

Valtheril didn’t reply. He simply stood up after shoving his chair away from the table and made his way over to the hallway.

 

He re-entered the dining room, dragging a human in chains across the floor behind him. The General held a silver-colored tag in his hand and observed the writing on it.

Valtheril tossed him to the ground with enough force so he landed on his bum. It seemed to hurt him, although he acted tough, like the other guy in the warehouse.

The human wore simple leather armor, it wasn’t too different from the archers in Allina’s squad. He had a scabbard bound to his belt that looked sized for a greatsword, except the weapon was missing; the guards had likely disarmed him upon capture.

His hands were chained behind his back and another set of chains was wrapped around his frame, disabling him entirely.

“Well then, Luke... I assume you know why you’re here,” Valtheril spoke ominously.

The human tried to stand up, but Valtheril kicked his legs from under him, causing him to crash to the ground on his back.

I winced in pain at the sight.

“I suggest you speak up,” The General continued.

“You’re not getting a word from me!” He said.

“I was hoping you’d say that...” Valtheril’s smirked. “Elania?”

“Yes?” I asked.

“Are you hungry?”

Oh.

I saw what he was getting at.

“Not really, but I think I can make some space for one person.” I put my front two legs forward so they were in front of my human torso and raised my fangs, ready to strike.

Luke’s face shot white at the sight of me. His stomach wasn’t strong enough to get through it unscathed, either; he vomited over his clothes.

Yikes.

I was not going to eat him anymore. Not that I planned to in the first place...

“One of your people in green instructed me to do it! I don’t know anything else, his face was covered! Please don’t kill me.”

“Notice anything off?” Valtheril continued. “His ears, perhaps?”

“His right ear was missing part of it. Don’t eat me, please,” He begged again.

“Did he offer anything?” The interrogation continued.

“He offered me gold...” The human spoke weakly, his face still in shock.

“How much?”

“Ten whole pieces.”

That was a lot for him, I guessed. It was also easily earned. All he had to do was write a few words.

Valtheril tossed the tag he was holding to the Lore keeper at the table who nimbly caught it.

“Your adventurer’s license is hereby terminated and your money will be confiscated. You’ll await final judgment in custody. If you cooperate, you may just live.”

Valtheril walked into the hallway and returned with two of his elite guards.

“Take him to the cells,” He commanded.

The guards dragged the chained being out of the room and closed the doors behind him. Valtheril reseated himself at the head of the table.

I waited in anticipation for what he would say.

“That’s two confessions with the same information. A missing part of the right ear,” He said while looking at Pylanor.

“Master Lorin?” Pylanor spoke with some form of disbelief.

Valtheril nodded. “As far as I know he’s been hostile to Elania ever since…well, before she set foot in the village. It seems he has at least some motive for wanting her gone.”

“But why?” Pylanor asked. “She’s been nothing but helpful. I heard she was a large part of the village not suffering any casualties in that last battle.”

“That’s what I intend to find out,” Valtheril concluded. “Would you say there’s enough evidence to make an arrest? You’ve seen this confession firsthand. I hope you believe me when I say that that bastard that stabbed Elania confessed the same.”

Valtheril shook his head. “He’s not even worthy of that name.”

Come to think of it, I never did learn his name. I looked at Valtheril, hoping he would spill the beans.

“Max Goodwill,” He said after he saw me observing.

Yeah…

I could see what he meant…

“Told you.”

“I’d say there is,” Pylanor answered the earlier question. “He’s the only treemender with a specific injury like that. It makes me wonder why he didn’t hide his ears properly. Was he just sloppy?”

“That’s one of my concerns as well. He doesn’t strike me as stupid,” Valtheril said in response. “I’ll have him arrested and see what he has to say for himself.”

I truly hoped his arrest would at least make my new life somewhat less hectic. All this sitting around doing nothing was a dent in my power gain, after all!

“Does that mean we’re free to go anywhere again?” Velariah asked.

“After the arrest is made, you’re free to do as you please,” Valtheril replied.

He stood up from his chair again. “Master Pylanor, you coming with?”

The treemender stood up as well and nodded. “Just a sec. Elania?” He said my name as he raised a hand.

Oh, right.

I stood in front of him and he laid his hand on my forehead before sending his magic through me. It flowed through my entire body before converging on his hand again.

“As I expected, perfectly healthy. You’re nothing short of a miracle, Elania.”

I chuckled at his words. I didn’t know how to reply to that. The fact that I even appeared in this world was a miracle in itself.

I wondered if he knew just how accurate that sentence was.

The Lore keeper stood up as well and handed the documents to Valtheril who, while still standing, crossed out the adventurer’s name on the guild form and scribbled down his signature next to it.

“I’d like you to dig up any other papers with his signature and handwriting, Kantasia. Anything that can be used to examine this man’s value will likely be used in his trial.”

The Lore keeper nodded and made her way to the exit. Valtheril and Pylanor joined her after nodding to me and my companions.

I sighed deeply after they left the room.

“That was… messy,” Velariah mentioned.

“No kidding,” I replied as I looked into her eyes, then to the floor where there was still some yucky vomit from the human.

“Could you even eat a human?” Seralyn asked. “I mean, physically…?”

What was that kind of question?

Actually, could I?

“Uhhh, I don’t think so?” I replied with a puzzled face.

I looked down to my pedipalps and fangs below them.

“I still have to figure out how spiders eat, not that I’m in a hurry to do so. I don’t exactly have a mouth down here.”

“Maybe later, who knows?” Seralyn chuckled.

“Oh please no…” I begged. “I swear, I feel like all these awkward suggestions might actually come true one day. You know what my inherity said…”

“It would certainly cut down on your time eating,” Draco smiled.

Oh, no. Not him too.

“Where is Minia, anyway?” Seralyn asked while she looked at where the crate stood previously.

Velariah walked to the door that led upstairs and opened it. “Elly?” She asked. “Could you come down here for a sec?”

“Coming,” Elly answered from upstairs.

She noticed the small puddle of yuck pretty quickly after entering the room. “Oh,” She let out before entering the kitchen.

“Where did you leave the crate with that spider?” Velariah asked as Elly re-entered the room with a dishtowel.

“I left it in your room. I figured it would be a better place than here.”

No. No, it was not.

“Probably is,” Velariah said. “I doubt guests will appreciate a frigging spider looking at them.”

Hello? What about me?

Seralyn chuckled. It wasn’t hard to guess she was laughing at me.

Something about being a half-spider and whatnot.

I was truly going to paralyze her someday.

“We’re going to do some training,” Velariah said.

“What? Now?” I asked. “Didn’t you want me to create a game or something?”

“We’ll look at that later. This is going to take priority.” She then turned to our other companions. “Will you guys be okay for the time being? Just ask Elly if you need anything.”

Draco nodded. “I don’t think it will be a problem.”

A sound came from the stairs and I saw Gray appear from the still-open door. He looked around for one second before running up to me, circling around two of my legs, and then ran up to Nira and jumped on her lap.

Nira did something I could not have seen coming. She plucked out one of her own large feathers and used it to play with the pup.

“From the looks of it, I think we’ll be fine,” Seralyn smiled at the harpy’s affection for Gray.

I decided to give Gray some attention too before going to the bathroom. I couldn’t have him forget about me, after all.

When we entered the bathroom, I noticed a few things were different. In the corner to the back left stood a chest that I didn’t recognize. I saw the crate that housed Minia next to it, with the jar of grasshoppers next to that.

How long would those grasshoppers live, anyway?

The dumbbells and weight plates were placed in front of the chest.

I wondered what was inside.

“That’s for my clothes,” Velariah mentioned as she closed and locked the door. “I had Elly bring it down while you were out.”

“I never noticed it before.”

“That’s because you were too busy with me.”

Velariah appeared before me and put her hands behind my head to bring me down to her height. A kiss on the lips followed and I felt my legs weaken as my heartbeat rose.

“Ugh, this armor makes this so much worse,” Velariah said as she started taking off her new armor, starting with the shoulder plates.

“Let’s take it off first. We’ll put it with the helmets later,” She continued.

“Fair point. It’s not exactly the most comfortable thing to wear all day.”

We took off our equipment, one piece at a time, and placed it against the wall where the pillows previously lay. I observed her taking off her new chest plate. It seemed this one was far easier to take off, due to its design with straps at the side, than the leather chest with chainmail she’d been previously wearing.

“Hmmm, I much prefer you this way,” She said seductively when she finished. She took me in for another kiss.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the same way,” I said with a smile before taking her in for a deep kiss of my own.

“El, if you want to do this instead of training, I don’t mind but we got to be quiet,” She joked, I think?

I shook my head. “We should really work on training,” I then took her in for yet another kiss while I held her back with my lower pair of arms and pedipalps.

“Shame,” She said softly, after I broke away for the final time.

I simply smiled.

She walked over to the chest and took the weight plates off the dumbbells and replaced them with slightly bigger ones.

“Let’s get you started with five pounds, shall we?”

Five pounds sounded extremely light, compared to what I lifted earlier. Thing is, I had no idea about exercise. I knew it was better to not go for as heavy as possible from the get-go but that was about all I knew.

I nodded and she handed me the dumbbells to my upper hands.

“Ten repetitions of fully stretching the arms forward and slowly raising the weights to your shoulders. Let’s see you do it.”

I did as I was told and started the exercise. Velariah corrected my form where needed.

This wasn’t so bad.

I thought.

After I finished the ten repetitions, I started to feel my muscles. I wasn’t expecting it, from only five pounds. The elf then instructed me to do do the same with my other set of arms, allowing my first set to rest for a few minutes. I then had to go through everything a second time which had me gritting my teeth as I finished.

At the end of it all, my arms felt sore.

“I truly hope you were not expecting me to use these arms on you tonight…” I said as I started lifting the weights with my lower set of arms.

“You’ll be fine… I think?” She seemed to say that with a hint of tease in her voice.

I waited a few minutes after my first repetition and repeated it.

Velariah increased the difficulty considerably by hugging and running her fingers over my skin under my shirt.

The moment I finished the tenth repetition, I put the dumbbells down and used my pedipalps to lift the elf from under her shoulders. I brought her to the wall and used my front two sets of legs to hold her in place while I kissed her like mad.

“El, this is such a bad idea…”

“I know, I know.” I kissed her one last time and released her. She landed before me and stared into my eyes.

“I wouldn’t mind continuing that another time, though,” She smiled.

I had to restrain myself or I’d take this far further. I was glad I could still control myself…for now.

“Let’s get to your next part of training,” She said softly, obviously still recovering from the assault of my mouth.

“More training? Vel, my arms are already sore. Any more and I won’t be able to do it again tomorrow.”

“I mean… other training,” Velariah called behind her as she walked over to her chest.

“What other training could you possi-”

Oh no.

OH NO.

She walked over to the crate with the spider and gestured for me to join her.

I did not want this.

I did not want any of this.

But I knew I would have to get over my fear of spiders. I mean… I was practically one myself. It was such a stupid, ironic, occurrence.

I reluctantly walked over to her and saw her remove the glass panel from the crate. I gritted my teeth as I observed her lower her hands into the crate.

How did people have the strength to do that… Truly?

I lowered myself to the ground behind the kneeling elf and waited with fear in my heart for what was to come.

She turned around with Minia on her palms. The spider’s attention was instantly fixed on me. All of its large eyes seemed to peer directly into my very soul.

“We got to get you over that fear of yours,” Velariah spoke. “There’s no reason to be afraid of spiders, you can take that from me. Hell, I’m sleeping with one.”

I wanted to speak but couldn’t. My eyes stared back at the jumping spider in her hands. I prayed it wouldn’t do as its name suggested.

It moved its pedipalps and rubbed them together, something that made me jump back previously. However, I didn’t move away this time.

 

“I think she likes you, El,” Velariah smiled.

I moved one of my pedipalps up and made a waving gesture.

Surprisingly, the spider in Velariah’s hands mimicked my movements.

“Well, this is just weird…” I said softly.

Velariah grinned with a broad smile.

“What was that part of your inherity called again? Arachnid Communication or something right? Think you can communicate with it?”

I sighed. “I have no idea…”

I took a deep breath before I spoke. “Yo, Minia. How about you jump in Velariah’s hair?” I asked nonchalantly.

The spider then turned around and promptly jumped in her hair.

“What the fuck?” I let out.

“Oi, El. I don’t mind spiders, but I’d prefer to keep them out of my hair!”

She carefully moved her fingers through her hair, fished the spider out, and set it down in front of her on the floor.

“Could you try something else?” Velariah asked as the spider turned to look at me again.

“Uhh, I don’t know?” I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath once more. “Minia, play dead.”

…

Nothing happened. The spider simply stood there, looking at me.

“Maybe she didn’t understand that?” Velariah suggested.

“I have no clue, Vel.”

I focused once more.

“Run around,” I commanded.

Still, nothing happened.

“Think that was a coincidence?” I asked.

“I doubt it. Did you do something differently the first time?”

I shrugged. “I literally have no clue…”

Velariah then took one of my hands.

“Let’s continue working on that fear of yours, shall we?”

“How do you intend to—” Fear suddenly coursed through me. “Nononononono,” I let out very quickly as I saw what she was doing.

Velariah was forcing my hand towards the jumping spider. I tried to resist, but her strength was simply greater than mine. Before I could stop her with my stronger limbs she had one of my fingers touch the spider’s head.

After that, she let go and I quickly retracted my arm.

“Vel!” I let out.

“That wasn’t so bad now, was it?” She asked softly.

“I…I…” I stuttered.

She was right. The spider hadn’t even reacted to my touch. Even if it was going to do anything, it would be meaningless. Even if it did strike me, I was immune to venom. Even if it left somewhat of a wound behind, I would heal within minutes.

I sighed.

I hated that she was right.

“See?” Velariah spoke again. She then moved a hand of her own to Minia and ran a finger over the spider’s head; she somehow petted it.

What was worse, I could see Minia enjoy it.

What the fuck?

How did I know that the spider was enjoying the touch?

I started freaking out before I realized that must have been part of my inherity.

I couldn’t believe what I did next. I voluntarily moved a hand to the spider and ran it over its body, from its head to abdomen.

I could feel Minia enjoying it.

For some reason, it made me feel happy.

How could this be?

I hated spiders… right…?

Right…?