High Elve of Red Hallow

CHAPTER 8: Aracnia

"Yes, my queen?" Aracnia rattled.

An hourglass-shaped feminine Westerian with black hair and eyes approached from an overhang above Queen Seseh Diddymous.

Above because she was gliding down by a thread so thin you'd have to squint to see it. She wore a dark shade of lipstick. Her feet touched the floor and she moved disjointedly forward into the light.

"Aracnia, the Spiderling," the thrall spoke, her calculating eyes roaming over to her. "Come, I have a singular quest for you."

Aracnia didn't know what was behind those cold eyes, only that it was Seseh speaking to her. It sounded like Seseh with a sore throat. She thought nothing of it.

Her back began to split as a sound compared to the breaking open of a melon. The sounds of cracking and popping like that of someone breaking bones sprang from Aracnia's vertebrae.

The spine split, clacking apart. Each section spread outward and reached the length of her shapely, beautiful biped legs. A round abdomen sprung out where her tailbone should have been. The spider-frame carried her Westerian body like a doll stuffed with hay. She towered beautifully over Seseh. Her feminine form hovered inches above the surface.

"You will bow before me, Aracnia. Do not show off, mistress of the Night. Ruler of webs."

Pain radiated up her legs as she closed up her true spider-like form. She was in agony, having to push every piece of herself back into her skin-tight package. She was like a bag of loose bones. Agonizing, burning, scratching pain radiated as her body bent in front of Seseh, kneeling before the queen impostor.

It wasn't Seseh's anger, yet it was Vanice. She flared as hot as the fires of Abbadoth. For even though she knew the inner workings of a Spiderling and their limits, she didn't care. She only loved what she could manipulate. Pain was another tactic Vanice used in order to manipulate someone to bend the knee.

Aracnia gasped, pain still shooting throughout.

'My pain doesn't matter.' Aracnia thought. 'I would lose a limb for my queen if I had to. It was her that took us in after the witch chased us from the North. It was her that gave us a second home after the witch killed my people and it is Seseh who now keeps my--'

"Impressive," the queen spoke smug and overtly sarcastic. "How long can you hold?" She didn't care for an answer. Seeing someone down before her in pain was entertaining on a personal level.

The Spiderling tilted her dainty chin, still on her Westerian-like appendages begging internally to emerge.

"They said it couldn't be done," Vanice spoke, moving her Thrall's lips. "They said I couldn't bend a Spiderling's will to my graces. Bring one to their knees. But I knew."

The queen's smile could be described as everything but welcoming. It was the very model of a villain's sneer. Yet, no smile villenous or otherwise could hide her dread stare behind 'blue eyes'.

Aracnia gasped. Not out of pain but shock. Seseh had bright, beautiful blue eyes more hypnotic than she had ever seen before. They stood out against the darkness with passionate allure. Aracnia swore she remembered the Queen having deep Westerian brown eyes.

She had seen eyes as blue as forget-me-nots only one other time. The Nymph who took the North from her people. This couldn't be Seseh. Aracnia was sure of it. Even the voice threw her off now that she concentrated.

"Remember what I hold over you."

"I remember. I'll obey you, my Queen." She would allow this to play out. She had to. "You have my loyalty- now till death. What quest does thou have for me?" 'Cruel slaver' she added in thought.