Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

«Although giving information to humans helped us as well as them, we rarely did it for free — in return for our secrets, we demanded some of your own. Our human allies used the information we provided to make a name for themselves and further their careers, and in return they taught us some of your magic and helped us adapt it for our own use. Armed with our very own system of structured magic, the aranea grew in strength and versatility, solidifying their hold over this region and making the web that lived beneath Cyoria the most prestigious of aranean webs. The resulting prosperity caused their numbers to swell, and they sent a never-ending stream of colonists and breakaway webs to the surrounding region, where they proceeded to evict or subjugate every lesser aranean web they encountered. But although these aranea left Cyoria in search of their own destiny, no place had the prestige or opportunities that Cyoria offered, and thus viewed their mother web with envy and resentment. Soon, a number of these breakaways banded together and, armed with the experience of fighting the lesser webs for territory, drove the original web out of their homeland. It would not be the last time Cyoria changed hands. The conquerors were soon evicted by another group of invaders, and this group was evicted by another, and then they were evicted by us. We are the fifth web to hold this place and while our position is secure at the moment, any sort of weakness could cause the neighboring webs to get… restless.»

«Huh,» Zorian said. «So if you were, hypothetically speaking, absolutely decimated by someone and had your numbers severely reduced?»

«Our neighbors would launch a few probing raids at the very least,» the matriarch said. «But anyway, my point is that humans and aranea are not, nor have they ever been enemies. Well, barring some… isolated incidents. On both sides. In fact, it has been my explicit policy to encourage closer links between this web and humans living in Cyoria. I hope the day will come when aranea will be able to walk the street above in open daylight, just like any other citizen.»

«And I suppose you hope the humans will defend you from outside threats, like any other citizens,» Grunt said. «Like, say, from those rival ‘webs’ that want to take your territory?»

«I confess that possibility does factor rather heavily into my thinking,» the matriarch admitted. «The city authorities would be a lot less inclined to stand by and watch if we had an established, formal relationship with them.»

«So is this your recruiting pitch?» asked Taiven. «Are you trying to turn us into your agents?»

«More contacts is always good,» the matriarch said. «But no, I’m not trying to recruit you. I just sensed you were worried about Zorian’s association with us and wanted to assuage your fears somewhat. Anyway, Fang of Victory is coming back with the bauble so we’ll have to cut this short here. Talk to Zorian if you ever want to chat with us again.»

Sure enough, the matriarch honor guard soon returned with the watch. Zorian half-expected her to return with the watch gripped in her fangs, but it actually came back carrying some kind of leather harness full of pouches across its body, one of which held the watch. For a moment Zorian wondered how they made that, what with them lacking hands and all, but then realized he was being a bit foolish. The matriarch had already said they traded with humans for a lot of things — this must be one of them.

They quickly said good bye to the aranea and were on their way back to their employer, prize in hand.

«I don’t know what to think,» Taiven said when they put some distance between themselves and the aranea. «They seemed nice enough, but it’s a bit disquieting to find out we have an entire colony of these things living beneath the city, pulling their strings over gods know how many people.»

«Yeah,» agreed Mumble quietly. Zorian could definitely see why Taiven called him the way she did — he tended to talk really softly, making his speech very hard to understand sometimes. «Did you know Cyoria is kind of famous for its spider silk? The merchants who sell it are really cagy about where they get it in such quantities and have declared their source a trade secret. Most people think they have managed to create a spider species that can be farmed effectively and have a giant farm hidden somewhere, but I think it’s pretty obvious now where they get it…»