At first there were egg sacs in the dozens, however their numbers dwindled down to just a handful as Alice weeded out the infertile sacs by consuming them. Eventually Alicia started thinking that all of them were duds, yet Alice didn’t lose hope at all even if it was only one left. And now that one was hatching.

‘I guess that’s one of the shortcomings of Parthenogenesis… You can basically make as many eggs as you want but there’s no guarantee they will yield a result. Wait how long has it been exactly… just over a month…? Isn’t that way too fast even for spiders?’

>Note. Theory based on observation available.

‘Oh? Go on.’

>Abundant Resource theory. Probability 87.12%

>Due to the high presence of mercurial thaumaturgic energy in the atmosphere many organisms have evolved to utilize it, along with Oxygen.

>Abundance of energy and resources caused the following evolutionary traits.

>Dominant precociality in offspring.

>Increased body mass resulting in gigantism.

>Rapid, thorough Metabolism.

>Higher energy levels.

>Heightened competitiveness resulting in elevated levels of aggression.

>Improved fertility and virility.

>Accelerated growth.

>Limited utilization of thaumaturgic energy.

>Postulation. Traits are likely to be under-expressed or suppressed in regions with low energy density. Insufficient data.

‘Accelerated growth… that’s what’s happening hm… you know that theory explains a lot of things like why the hell are the bugs so damn enormous and why everyone is bent on killing everything else in existence… Is this what you do all day? Writing up a thesis?’

Dryssia, who had changed into her new attire as her old dress was too tight for comfort according to Alicia, was waiting outside the burrow’s entrance peering into the dark depths. Her new dress was made for her dimensions thus it didn’t need to stretch much, to Alicia’s relief. Again fundamentally the design of it hadn’t changed only it’s size, with added embroidery and decorations. As for Llynbel, she decided to move into the Elves’ village to try and restore their past relationship.

• “Is Alice in there?”

With her dress and hands stained with dirt from tending to the flower:

• “Ah! Ma…- Alicia… other master is doing something down there. I wonder what it is?”

Stopping herself from calling Alicia ‘master’ in front of her the Dryad replied.

• “Yeah, I’m about to go check it out right now. How are the bees doing?”
• “Everything is fine. Uhm… They wanted a few Toddypops but those grow near the mountains and…”
• “And…?”
• “There’s a Giant viper cave along the way.”
• “That’s a problem… but I think I could just go around it… What am I looking for?”
• “Toddypops? Small flowers with yellow pistils and honey colored petals with reddish orange pointy patterns on them. And they have a very unique smell that you can’t miss! Oh and they like to grow in pairs.”
• “I’ll get to it afterwards. Anything else?”
• “A hug?”

‘What? Does she want to be praised or something? Well she’s been doing her work very well, if so, then if it is once every so often then why not…’

• “Sure-”

At the first sign of acceptance Dryssia leapt onto Alicia and clutched onto her tight and started rubbing her face against her, due to their height difference - Alicia being shorter in her elven form - she had to lean back to maintain balance.

‘Ah… she wanted to hug me, not the other way around. Well this is fine… but… I would like some more oxygen please…’

• “Okay I think that’s enough for now”

In the middle of the dimly lit ‘basement’ of the oak, Alice was completely still, looking at the single egg sac that was left.

• “Hey. You said it was hatching?”
• “Look…”

Subtle movements within the silken blankets were the only indication of life, bulging and swelling in certain areas.

• “There’s something I want to try, can I?”
• “…? Go?”

‘I mean I know candling works on chicken eggs but there shouldn’t be a reason not to work on spider eggs…’

⟨ Fireball ⟩

In a flash of light a blazing ball of fire spawned illuminating the dark chamber. Moving it behind the egg sac hoping to catch a silhouette, nothing could be seen through the thick blankets of webbing. Soon, perhaps responding either to the heat or the light, through the layers of silk something began to protrude out, intermittently stopping and starting, as if someone was digging out. White slender limbs pierced out briefly before retreating back in. Shortly afterwards two black teeth tore through threads and the sheet.

A head with soft snow white hair poked out of the sac, a young child, a girl identical to Alice and Alicia - barring only the size and apparent physical age - with a pair of eyes lavender in color peering back at them. After struggling a little she managed to fully exit the sac after rolling over and falling face first into the ground.

• “This distinct smell… is quite pleasant… and calming… So it’s a girl! She’s quite big… for a newborn…”

>Precociality. The newborn is relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth.

• “She looks healthy… Right we need a name-”

Before she could suggest something Alice quickly cut through.

• “Anastasia…”
• “That’s fine, are you okay with that?”

Alicia's question directed at her didn't get any response.

'Quiet like your mother aren't you?'

• "There's a lot of things I want to ask about the name and I'm sure you have put in much consideration in choosing it but… isn't Anastasia a bit too… long?"

Receiving the iconic inquisitive and subtle head tilt as an answer, Alicia further added to her question.

• "I'm asking if you're fine with me calling her by a nickname."
• "Mnh…"
• "Thank you. I'm gonna go with… Anna. Hello Anna, we're… your parents?"

Alicia came stepped close, stretching her hands to try and help her up from the floor. Instantly she scrambled up on her feet with a high pitched hissing from her echoing in the chamber. Fangs exposed, frontal legs raised and a warning cry of stridulation was heard…¹Never heard a spider hiss before? Here you go. Also spiders can get so angry that they walk upside down… literally.

‘Threat posture… I should take it seriously but… her trying to appear big and scary by also raising her human hands up along with her legs… kind of cute…’

Even with her body raised and hands up she couldn't reach the same height as Alice who casually reached meter and ninety centimeters at rest. The other party in the room however didn't share her sentiment. Quietly Alice had already assumed a defensive posture clearly alerted by Anna's defensiveness. Noticing the shift in the atmosphere and correctly identifying the situation as disaster in the making Alicia tried to defuse the tension.

• “Wait! Wait! Wait! Alice, stop. You have to be patient with children.”

Flailing in front of her she managed to at least prevent Alice from lunging at her offspring.

• “Okay… let me try…”

Gingerly making her way to Anna, Alicia outstretched hands. She didn’t want to be touched by her as she kept backing up but she didn’t ‘tag’ her hands yet, not knowing what to do she only raised herself up more and more to make more distance until she was on her last two legs. Eventually unable to resist the pull of gravity in such a pose she fell back, again she faceplanted into the soil. Suppressing her urge to laugh Alicia managed to gently pull her upright, after which Anna retreated back before returning to the remains of the egg sac.

‘Is she… guarding it?’

It was then she noticed the egg sac wasn’t completely empty, where it would have been deflated flat. Possibly from the disturbance something, timidly peeked out just for a moment.

• “Another one…? Twins? Anna could you please let me check that out?”

From the lack of reply she judged that they are likely yet to develop their language skills.

‘Right… she looks like she’s what ten, twelve? But her mind is that of a newborn and is probably acting on instincts alone. It is likely she doesn’t even know what we’re saying… thankfully I got just what I need to communicate…’

• ‘Let’s try this again, from the top, hm? I’m Alicia, she’s Alice, we’re your parents… kind of… Anyway you’re Anastasia. We’re not going to hurt you so… could you please let me see what’s behind you?’

Rightfully surprised at the telepathic message, almost at the brink of panicking Anna looked all over the place, uneasy, occasionally her eyes stopped on either Alice and Alicia. After a fair while she appeared to have wrapped her mind around the situation, cautiously backing away from the egg sac enough to let Alicia take a closer look, still alarmed.

Without anything to block the view she could definitely see that there was something or someone else in the sac, indicated by its gradual rhythmic rise and fall as if it was breathing at rest. Slowly approaching closer so as not distress Anna any further than she already is, Alicia carefully pulled the torn silk aside. Inside cradled by the silky bed, a girl indistinguishable from Anna, was curled up on her side holding onto a scrap of rag. Indistinguishable save for her eye color like that of molten gold shimmering in the dark curiously gazing back at Alicia. Timidly covering herself with the sheet of webbing.

• “Twins it is then… So Alice, have you thought of a second name?”
• “No…”
• “Well shoot… Uhm… Yellow, gold colored eyes… Aurum…²Latin name for Gold Aureus…³Meaning Golden* aah I’m not good with names… Let’s just keep it simple… How about… Goldia.”
• “alright…”
• ‘Hello, Goldia. Do you like your name?’

After a while she weakly nodded in affirmation. Timid yet curious, huddling together with her sister.

• ‘We’re your parents, don’t worry we won’t hurt you alright?’
• “Okay Goldia it is. Quite close to each other aren’t you two? Are you cold? Let’s get you something to wear.”
• “Have… clothes…”

Spending much of her time alone in the burrow, Alice had made many clothes from the cashmere and silk. Unfortunately they were a tad too big for girls. Regardless for just the purpose of giving them something to put on, they were sufficient.

• “Alright, I’m gonna help you put this on…”

Taking a modest, layered silken blouse from Alice, Alicia slowly tried to dress up Goldia. Although frightened by the strange object - also known as a clothes - with slow and steady movements of Alicia she managed to stay still long enough for her to put it on. Putting her head through the hole seemed to be especially terrifying for her but after she had put it on she was fascinated with her attire, pulling, sniffing and tasting it.

Moving onto Anna, Alicia had great difficulty trying to put clothes on her as she was responding very defensively to it.

• “I’m doing this for you, You can’t just walk around without something on you!”

After minutes of trying to wrestle her into the clothes and several dry bites later;

• “I am so over this, come here!”

Being fed up with the fiasco, Alicia gave up and instead wrapped Anna up in silk.

• “tell… about clothes?”

Conveying what it was she was trying to do through telepathy was an easy and simple solution, however…

• “If we don’t speak around them, then they’ll never learn to speak at all. Relying only on telepathy will be harmful for their learning. It will come in helpful for them later if they start developing their language skills now.”
• “hard…”
• “I know… But this is necessary… You wanted them to be raised like a human didn’t you…? There’s always the right thing to do and then there’s the easy thing to do. People are remembered by the hardships they overcome, not the shortcuts they’ve taken in life. For now I’m going to wait until they’ve calmed down a little and try again a bit later. I wonder how they’ll grow…”

>Data retrieval complete.

>Juvenile subjects will molt approximately seven times before maturity.

‘Hold up. Gestalt swarm queen?’

>Genetic analysis report

>Subjects seem to be able to communicate in ESP⁴Extrasensory perception wavelengths to each other. Distance, limit, clarity unconfirmed. More data required.

>Subjects seem to be able to enforce their will to lesser Araneae species. Quantity, Distance, upper limit unconfirmed. More data required. It is suggested that these abilities will become more pronounced as subjects mature.

‘Erm so kind of like a hivemind?’

>Negative. Behavioural analysis results consistent with Swarm intelligence archetype 92.16%, over Hivemind archetype 44.79%.

‘Really? What’s the difference?’

>Units within the Hivemind archetype loses free will, acts as part of the central intelligence. The Queen must maintain full control of all individual units at all times. Units disconnected from the reach of the hivemind becomes feral and will act on instincts.

>Units within the Swarm intelligence archetype retains varying levels of autonomy, acts as an extension of the central intelligence. The Queen may take full control of individual units. Units disconnected from the central intelligence will continue to carry out last instructions. After completion they regain autonomy, and will act on personal characteristics.

• “I’m not sure if I fully understand the implications but I do now know they can either become monsters… or something wonderful. Let’s go for the latter shall we…? That starts with getting Anna to wear something…”

Auratic

Hello, it me. Ya miss me? Last two weeks were quite busy for me and I only managed to start comfortably work on this chapter in starting day before yesterday so... yeah. This chapter should've been out last week but pffft. Anyway since I got some time now. I'm gonna do my best to get another chapter out by Monday.

There are meanings for the names both Anastasia and Goldia. First one to decode it gets a virtual cookie.