Spider Woman

   
"Oh gods! Ewwwww!"

"What is it, dear Sister?"

Hannah swiped at her hair and long, filmy blue dress feverishly, goosebumps raising through every pore of of her skin. "I walked into a spider web!"

Lilyana snickered, watching the younger woman fidget, looking around her, back and forth, feeling the spider on her, but not seeing the way the orb weaver slipped back behind her neck each time Hannah got close to spying her.

"Sister, be still." Lilyana scooped up the large yellow and black spider, turning her gently in her hand as Hannah stood still as a rock, her eyes flying open when she saw Lilyana allow her to crawl up the lavender sleeve of her gown, placing her back in the tree from whence she came.

"Oh, my gods." Hannah shivered. "I can't stand those things!"

"Why?" Lilyana watched in fascination, the spider beginning her web anew, attaching a lead line to a thick branch, then easing her way down to attach the other end to the earth before scrambling up and doing the same until she had two taut lines equally spaced. "She is quite beautiful."

"Quite icky if you ask me."

Liyana smirked. "Come, Sister, come closer, she won't bite."

Tell that to the spider, Hannah thought, inching over so that Lilyana could put her arm about her shoulder comfortingly, drawing her close so she could see the spider weaving an enormous web before her, at least half a foot across. This only proved her Elder Sister, her mentor, mad, playing with large, dangerous spiders.

"The only danger here is ignorance, child." Lilyana smiled over at her. "You know the real reason why many fear these creatures?"

"Because they're creepy and sticky and yuck?" Despite her tone of disgust, Hannah had become just as transfixed as Lilyana, watching the perfection of each step of the long, spindly legs, carefully touching only the non-sticky portions of the web.

"Because they are the Masters of the Web, Mistresses of the Weave." Lilyana looked up reverently at the spider. "You are a novice, but you should know we call every spell a web, yes?"

"Uh-huh," Hannah nodded, mesmerized by the intricate pattern the spider wove.

"There is good reason." Lilyana held out her hand, thin tendrils of silver energy snaking out from her fingertips. "The Old Ones venerated the spider for teaching them how to weave the Fey, for teaching them how to control and manage the reckless strands as well. They could never match the spider's own weaving, though, could never truly duplicate the intricacies of their bonds, yet still they did not fear them, but worshiped their skills and their beauty."

"Then how did people learn to fear them if they were so venerated?" Hannah barely flinched when the spider stretched her leg out to tickle her forearm briefly before going back to her task. Instead, she sensed a gentleness in the creature, a curiousness not unlike her own, no animosity at all.

"The non-gifted learned of this veneration, of the fact that even a Wizard of the highest Echelon could not match a spider's weave, and began to fear that spiders were the agents of the Nameless One, sent to bind their souls in the night. If a Wizard could not protect them, then they would protect themselves by exterminating all they saw within their homes."

"But there are many webs all over the Temples, Elder," Hannah frowned. "We are forbidden to harm any within."

"Because we know their webs capture more than the insects that invade in the summer," Lilyana replied, allowing the spider to crawl up her hand and into her hair, legs pulling at the strands gently. "They also capture the errant Fey, the Scatterers, those that race to rend and tear any weaving in their path."

"But not a spider's?" Hannah winced the same time Lilyana did, the spider yanking a strand of auburn hair from her head and rushing back to the web, weaving it into the center portion delicately.

"No, the spider's webs are too tight, too strong." Lilyana pointed to the lead lines. "See how these lead strands touch the earth? She is tapping into the Mother's own Fey to strengthen her web."

Hannah looked around to her Sister, eyes wide with shock. "But that's insane! Nothing can draw straight from Her Well, it's forbidden! Dangerous even for-"

"Spiders have been Weaving for far longer than we humans have been in existence, dear Sister." Lilyana took a strand of Hannah's golden hair and yanked, offering it to the spider and watching as she took it and weaved into the same spot as her own. "You are now a Sister of the Web - when she is to pass on, she will choose one of her children to maintain the Weave. You are now forever connected to the Mother Fey - although you cannot access it directly yourself, through this connection you will be privy to Her strength. You are also ever connected to me, so when I pass on, my power will be passed to you."

Hannah's eyes welled up with pride. Receiving this honor was more than she had ever expected in her short tenure, let alone the trouble she had been to her Elder given her stubbornness.

"It was no accident walking into that web as you did," Lilyana smiled. "Yet I have no idea why the Mother would choose a runt like you."

Hannah chuckled. "What better way to teach an Elder humbleness than to pair her with a runt that detests spiders?"

Lilyana's eyes narrowed, looking at Hannah with a new found respect. "From the Mother's tongue to yours, it seems. Now, come, we simply must work on that conjuring web before you let another griffin loose on the chicken coop!"









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