I looked down at my elven upper body again. I still had a hard time believing this was actually real. What was this evolution called again?

I chuckled as I took notice of the number of evolution points. I had so many saved up, and now it turned out that I had nothing to spend them on.

Well, there were the spiderling options, but there was no way I was going to take them. Nope, nope, nope.

“What’s so funny?” Cellestra asked.

“Oh, I was just checking my possible enhancements, but there’s nothing to gain, and I have a bunch of evolution points that I just can’t seem to use at the moment.”

“Now that you can talk, do you mind explaining how everything about your blessing works?”

“So,” I said, trying to think where I should start. “According to Elysa’s most recent message, when I was sucked into the portal that was supposed to take me to my parents, a curse was placed on me. Elysa used what little time she had to try to counter it with a blessing. This blessing tracks certain… activities of mine. For example, when I kill something, it shows me some kind of blue, transparent square that floats in front of me.”

I made gestures with my hands to indicate the size of the square. “In this square, a message shows up with a certain amount of ‘experience’ the creature gives. Once I gather sufficient experience, I go up a level. Then, when I hit level ten, I am able to evolve into something else. I am at my final evolution right now, so as far as I know it doesn’t work that way anymore, but you get what I mean.”

“Throughout the time I got reincarnated as a spider, I had to choose between options when evolving. Most were quite different from one another in that one focused on magic, and another focused on defense, and so on. In addition to the levels, I had to acquire certain achievements for specific evolutions. You know about those.”

“What an odd way to get blessed…” Cellestra let out.

“I have no idea what the exact reason behind something like this is.” I paused for a few seconds before I added some more information. “Then there are these enhancements that I can buy. Some of them are spells, some of them increase my strength passively. I sort of ‘buy’ them with something called evolution points. These are, or well, were earned whenever I got a level, and I get them from certain achievements. I should add that now that I have this one skill called devour, I can also get them from eating creatures I kill.”

“That has to be crazy convenient. You can learn a new spell just like that. I wish I could do that.”

“It is convenient, that’s for sure. I’m more than a bit curious myself about this new skill, but I’ll see how it works soon enough. I need to eat, after all.”

I paused for a second as I realized something else. “I’m afraid I can no longer teach you the version of the fireball that I once knew. Sorry about that. I know you were looking forward to that.”

“It’s fine,” Cellestra said. “No spell could be more valuable than this.” She pointed to my elven torso. “Right?” She asked. “I mean...”

I nodded which made her stop there. She was right again. This new body was worth so much more than raw power.

“But let’s put away the serious talk. For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve barely talked about anything else,” Cellestra continued.

I had to look at her face to see if she was talking out of annoyance, but I couldn’t detect that emotion on her face.

“I suppose that’s true. I haven’t talked about much else, though. Like, ever.”

“That bad, eh?”

I nodded. “I can try, but I can’t promise that you won’t find it annoying.”

“It’ll be fine,” The elf assured me. “Surely we can find some things to talk about. There’s a long way to go before we’re home.”

“Home,” I mused with a deep sigh, looking at the road stretched out before me. “I wish I could stay. It’s a peaceful place.”

“You’re always welcome,” Cellestra replied.

“Thanks…”

I took a deep breath. A certain question had been on my mind for more than a while. I was tired of breaking my head just thinking about it, so I finally decided to talk about what I had in mind.

“About your curse,” I started. “Let’s say Elysa doesn’t have an answer. I still have this ability that can offer me new spells. For all I know I can somehow get a spell that removes curses. Do you think there’s some merit in traveling with me?”

“You afraid you’ll get lonely?” Cellestra asked. I could see in her eyes that it was an honest question, with no malicious intent behind it.

I nodded in honesty.

“I… I don’t actually know.” Cellestra stared at the ground in front of her feet. “I’ve never thought about traveling. I wouldn’t be able to stay in any settlement if I were to do it.”

“It’s fine. You don’t have to answer me now. I just wanted you to know that I’d be okay with it. I’ve wanted to ask you for a while seeing as I never thought I’d get a body like this. I imagined someone that could speak for me would be desirable. I’d, of course, offer you anything I could do for you in return, such as learning my spells, but I guess the companionship has a value all its own.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Cellestra spoke softly. “It’s become all too clear to me in the short duration that I’ve known you. I never knew having a friend would be quite like this.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“I’ll think about it. I don’t like the prospect of going through the same loneliness again.” Cellestra said. “If you want, I’ll stick around until at least your visit to Edhil. I’m very curious about what Elysa has to say.”

“As am I.”

Silence fell as we continued our journey. The road was still devoid of any travelers or the like, which, undoubtedly, made things easier. I didn’t want to have to explain about what I was, about who I was, to anyone else. I had more than enough to think about as it was.

I stared down at the massive spider head below my waist and the legs that sprouted out from under it at the sides, slightly behind where my elven part was. I turned my elven head to observe the shifting colors on my abdomen. The motion was unnecessary — I could see them perfectly well with my rearmost spider eyes. Maybe I just did that so that Cellestra would comment on it.

“Any idea what those colors are?” Cellestra asked, referring to the swirlings mists visible through the transparent snowflake.

“I have no idea,” I replied. “Maybe… mana?”

The elf shrugged. “I didn’t know mana had a color, but then again, I have no explanation for it.”

“Apparently it’s part of this, and my previous species. It does mention it in the name.”

“And what is that name?” Cellestra asked with a small smile.

“Iridescent Queen Arachne.”

“Heh,” She chuckled. “You’re iridescent alright, and apparently royalty, too.”

“Please don’t ever make me feel like royalty,” I said. “It just… feels wrong.”

“That’s alright. I do miss the rainbow, but I guess white does look good on you.”

“Because of my hair?” I said with a smile.

“It is fitting, don’t you think?” The brunette smiled back.

“It is.”

I ran a hand over my spider head’s hair again, earning a giggle from the elf.

“I can’t believe Elysa made me this fluffy. I mean, look at this.” I was still smiling as I held up a lock of the long hair that grew on top of my spider head.

“Can I touch it?” Cellestra asked as she extended an arm, but waited for my response.

“I mean, you’ve touched it before, right? Go ahead.”

The elf ran her hand through my hair, sending all kinds of joy through my lower head. It felt so much better when someone else did it…

“At least you won’t be getting cold in winter,” Cellestra said, giggling.

“Hmm, you may be on to something there,” I replied. “You think Elysa did it because of that?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe she just likes fluffy spiders.”

“I still can’t believe you took me in like that. You even used some kind of healing ointment when my legs were shot off. Talk about liking spiders.”

“Hey!” The elf pouted. “I couldn’t just leave you there like that now, could I? Besides, spider venom is extremely useful for medicine… if you know how to use it.”

I shook my elven head as I smiled at Cellestra’s reaction. I wondered what  Elysa would think about all this.