Our journey back was uneventful. A few worries popped up in my mind as I skittered back with Cellestra and the unconscious slave on my back. The worst of them was probably the fact that we would reveal the location of Cellestra’s house. Though, I guessed there was no way he would know the way to it, since he was unconscious.

Seriously, he was still knocked out by the time we almost reached the elf’s home. Would he be alright?

“Are you worried?” Cellestra asked.

How did she manage to read my mind? Were my eyes easy to read or something?

Communication was still nigh impossible, but I’d have access to the drawn letters soon. For now, I nodded slowly with my pedipalps.

“We’ll be okay,” Cellestra said. “I have something that can wipe his mind, in case that was one of your worries.”

That would help some, for sure.

I felt him stirring when we were about five minutes out from Cellestra’s home. Talk about timing. By the time I entered the clearing, he seemed to be wide awake and struggling. Cellestra tried to calm him down, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.

“Easy,” She cooed to him in the human language. “She won’t hurt you. Don’t worry.”

He didn’t reply, but I felt him shiver. I really started to pity him.

I lowered myself to the ground in the middle of the clearing to allow Cellestra to step off. I then used my rear legs to tear away the silken restraints that bound him to my abdomen, Cellestra then helped him off and helped him sit in the grass.

“Her name is Kealyna. She won’t hurt a fly unless they hurt her first.”

The elf walked up to me and put her hand on my head, petting me. It felt just as good as I imagined, these soft hairs amplified the sensations.

All the human could do was open his mouth and gape at us.

“We have some questions that we’d like to see answered with regards to those bandits and their plans. Would you be willing to help?”

He continued staring at me, but nodded wildly.

“Easy,” Cellestra said again. “You’re a slave, right?”

The human nodded, slower this time. He seemed to finally be calming down.

“In that case, we’re here to help. You see, Kealyna picked up some information a few days ago about some sort of group of elves passing through. Some talk about an attack on them, possibly for expensive goods.”

“I’ll...” The human started before pausing for a moment. “I’ll tell you what I know. You said you wanted to help? Why?”

“Kealyna here wanted to help. It was her idea.”

“Wait… how…?”

It finally seemed to dawn on him. Despite Cellestra mentioning that I was the one who picked up the information, he just asked now.

Cellestra chuckled and reached into her small leather pack. She pulled out a stack of folded papers and started laying them out in the grass. The human looked at them with confusion until I walked up to them and started pointing at them, one by one, and very slowly, so he would get the idea.

“Hello.”

“She says hello,” Cellestra explained for me. The human language used different symbols than the elven one, so Cellestra had to convey to him what I was spelling.

“She…What?”

“Long story,” I spelled out.

“Long story,” Cellestra repeated in words what I had spelled.

“She can t-t-talk?” He asked, stuttering. It didn’t seem to be out of fear, rather, it looked like he was just baffled.

“Well, not really,” Cellestra spoke. “This is the best I could do to help her speak. It works, to a certain degree. Anyways, on to the point. Kealyna wanted to see what was going on between you and the elves. We weren’t expecting them to have a slave with them. Please tell us everything you know...”

The human sighed, but remained mostly calm.

“From what I know…” The human started. “Ingo is planning to attack a convoy of elves passing through the area. He plans to steal the goods and take the elves prisoner to sell off as slaves. He’s gathered the help of several smaller bandit groups. He…”

He paused and looked down at the grass before him. “He planned to use us as fodder.”
I heaved a mental sigh. As if my hatred towards bandits and their ilk wasn’t enough yet, this slave only added more fuel to the fire. I’d heard this Ingo name before. He seemed to be the bandit leader. Using slaves in order to exhaust the enemy was a common tactic that I’d run into multiple times in my old life. We’d always tried to avoid killing slaves whom were compelled by their collars to mindlessly kill, but sometimes there was no avoiding it.

It was possibly the most disgusting thing that I could think of.

“And when are they passing through?” Cellestra asked.

“I can’t confirm that...” He said. “I believe tomorrow or the day after. They seem to have departed earlier than anticipated.”

Crap. That meant we had no time to gather more information.

“And do you know where?” Cellestra asked the most important question.

“I… I don’t quite know where, but I know the forest road they will pass through. I’m sorry.”

“That will have to do then.”

“Kealyna?” Cellestra said, holding up the key to the collar.

I nodded with my pedipalps as I knew what she meant. The elf, in response, sat down next to the human and used the key to unlock the lock, and removed the collar from him.

“Why?” He asked again.

“As I said before, Kealyna has her reasons. We’ll set you and the others free, if you help us out. At least, I assume that’s what you’re thinking, right?” The elf turned to me as she asked the question.

I nodded again.

“It does mean, however, that you’ll be our captive until then.”

“You’ll help us? Truly?” The former slave asked, full of disbelief, as he ran his fingers over where the collar had left a print in his skin.

Cellestra nodded again. “I guess you could say that Kealyna is a very… knightly spider.”

“I-I,” The human stuttered again. “I don’t understand, but thank you… I’ll gladly help you if it means my freedom.”

I was relieved that this one human at least wasn’t so bad as the others. Then again, freedom was a valuable thing. I didn’t want to imagine what would happen to the elven slaves, especially the female ones. We… they were usually considered highly valuable because of their natural beauty.

“Any idea at what time the convoy is expected to pass through?” Cellestra continued the questioning.

“I don’t know. I would guess some time during the day. Traveling at night is a bad idea, wouldn’t you say?”

Cellestra nodded, then sighed. “I guess that means we’re going to have to head out early tomorrow. Very early.”

I would have to agree with her there. We would have to get there early to hopefully arrive before the attack was planned, then foil it. We’d have to get to bed earlier than usual, and head out while it was still dark. Though, I guess my eyes should detect any danger, even in the darkness of the night.

I would most likely be avoided anyway.

I nodded in response to Cellestra’s statement. I then pointed at the human and moved one of my pedipalps in a ‘follow me’ motion.

“What does that mean?” The human asked.

“I think she wants you to follow her. I’d do as she says.”

Thank you Cellestra.

The human did as I wished and followed me to Cellestra’s house. When he was close enough, I pointed with a limb to the grass in front of the wall, next to the door. The former slave turned his head to Cellestra who had a sly smile on her face. I had the feeling she knew what I was getting at.

“Sit,” She simply said.

“Uhhh?” He replied, but sat down.

When he did, I summoned threads and used them to bind his arms and torso to the wall. He was surprised and struggled at first, but soon relaxed with a sigh. It appeared he understood the idea that we couldn’t simply let him run loose.

I then returned to Cellestra and the pieces of paper. Cellestra grinned, but managed to suppress it well enough that the human couldn’t see or hear it.

“Thanks,” I spelled. “Seems Ingo guy is piece of trash.”

“Yeah,” Cellestra replied softly. “I guess there really is no redeeming bandits. Their leaders especially tend to be quite vicious. It seems to be the only way to keep them together. That, and women, and coin.”

“Is sad. Will be happy to get rid of him.”

“Just don’t be too reckless. We don’t know their exact strength. Then again, they don’t know yours either. If most of them are anything like the ones we encountered before, the battle will be over before it starts.”

“Would be nice. Hopefully save slaves. Will need you to talk to them.”

“Yeah, I get it. I’m fine with that. I’m assuming you want to teach me that multi-barrier of yours before tomorrow, right?”

I nodded with my front two limbs. “Yes. But first am hungry. Going to get some fish I guess. Will practice magic after.”

“You do that. You’re a big girl, after all,” She let out with a grin.

I liked to see her so carefree, even after the things we had just talked about. It warmed my heart and helped me feel that everything would be well in the end.