Either she slept for only a few minutes, or she was under for an entire day, because when she opened her eyes again the first thing Isse noticed was that the sun was shining from the same angle as before.

  The second thing she noticed was how refreshed she felt, as if she’d slept the entire night under a blanket enchanted to always be chilly in just the right way. She stretched, being very careful not to jostle her little – or rather, not so little anymore – eggs. A smile crested her lips as she gently put her hand on one of them, caressing the smooth surface with all the care of someone handling a precious book that could crumble into dust at a moment’s disattention. She opened her eyes further, allowing herself to see the Mana all around her, watching the endless, meaningless, threads slowly disappear as she concentrated on the ones she cared about: the threads that bound her to those eggs, to the souls they contained.

  Her smile only grew at that sight, the momentary joy managing to overwhelm even the slight headache that came from using this aspect of her magic. Oh, if only Grandmother had still been alive, how much more could she have learned to do? How many Spells, how many tricks, how much more power? But she wasn’t, and Isse was alone now, knowing the basics of a school of magic that was despised by the rest of the world and, therefore, had been forbidden, forgotten, if not even Forgotten entirely. She’d tried to teach herself more, she’d tried to apply what she’d been taught, hoping that she could be like a character from the books she’d read while trapped in that hospital bed and recreate an entire branch of magic alone like they had.

  Those stories hadn’t come even close to explaining the true complexity of that endeavor: after all, magic was that which allowed a person to change the very nature of the world and, apparently, the world was very much happy to stay the way it was.

  With a sigh she stopped her gentle caressing, finally rising from the ground and noticing just how hungry she felt.

  Welp, one more clue for the mystery of how long I slept.

  G’mornin’, slurred Siidi’s voice from the back of her mind.

  Good morning sleepyhead.

  Says the sleepiest of them all.

  She chuckled, stretching again as she tried to remember what had happened yesterday.

  She’d gone out, exploring the castle in search of food, and had found the kitchen. Inside she’d met a rather grumpy goblin – Archie, right, his name was Archie – who’d been eating some ungodly sandwich made from bread and broccoli. They’d talked a bit, he’d told her he was an [Architect] – Archie the [Architect], pftt! – and that the castle apparently liked to change, as if it was some horrible knockoff of an Escher painting.

  He’d accompanied her back to her room, chatting with her all the while as if she wasn’t the strangest thing he’d seen all his life, as if she was… normal. Not a monster, not a kid who’d lost everything, not the last of her species: just two strangers who’d hit it off well and were spending time together knowing full well that they may never speak again when they went their own way.

  She… she hadn’t realized how much she needed this until now.

  Then they’d reached her room, she’d opened her door and… everything started blurring together after that: she thought she could remember some kind of big green snake slithering through her window, getting dangerously close to her eggs, how she’d thrown a [Fireball] at it in an attempt to protect her children, and how the creature had, after only a moment of panic, shrugged the attack off. And after that she couldn’t piece anything else together other than a general sensation of anger, followed by a memory of agony and, afterwards, by sleep.

  Siidi, do you remember what happened yesterday before we fell asleep?

  Her soul half, unexpectedly, didn’t immediately speak, and not because she was uncertain of the answer, no, her Skill, [Perceive Emotion], was telling her that she was hesitant.

  When she answered that last part was confirmed: I do, and if you don’t then it’s better it stays that way. You weren’t at your best, Isse. You still aren’t.

  Siidi, please, what happened? I need to know, if only to make sure it won’t happen again.

  Her soul half hesitated again, then seemed to come to a decision: You were about to do something that would’ve made Makira furious.

  That, more than anything, made her stop right in her tracks, her mind screeching to a halt like a train that's had its emergency brake pulled by a too-curious child. If Siidi had been there with her physically she would’ve turned her head towards her slowly, eyes wide in horror mixed with curiosity. Why?

  Because angering Makira was nearly impossible: she’d never seen the ‘Smiling Arachne’ as anything other than cheerful, always filled with a boundless energy that she used to take care of them, be that by herding them together when they had to move someplace in the forest, or by climbing after the more rebellious children who liked to hide away in the trees, or even just by tucking them in at night, one by one, wishing them sweet dreams and leaving with a gentle caress on the head.

  She was the kindest person Isse had ever met. The idea of making her furious…

  …

  Well, there had been two times actually.

  Once, the time she tried to forget the most, during that night, when she’d seen the woman she considered her mother become a thing of nightmares. But that… it was understandable, explainable even: she was defending them, trying to keep them safe by any means necessary.

  The only other time had been… when she’d tried to use the Skills that allowed her to change other people’s emotions. Makira had not liked it and she’d made sure that Isse understood the gravity of her actions, but even then, she’d been merely angry.

  What could she have possibly done that would’ve made her furious?

  Just… please, if you ever feel like you’re starting to lose control, talk to me. I’m not exactly a paragon of calm, but two heads working together is usually better than one.

  There was a sense of playfulness in that last line and the young arachne had the distinct impression of a smile from it. With a sigh, she nodded.

  Alright, I’ll do that.

  Promise?

  Promise.

  Pinky promise?

  Fuck off Siidi.

  Her soul half giggled.

  Then she stepped towards the window, remembering something Archie had told her: only the internal layout of the castle changed. With her ability to climb up walls she could easily move around the building without getting lost. Now, the only problem was that the kitchen didn’t have a window to comfortably use in her venture for food and snacks, so she’d probably have to either find and scare a servant – she imagined a castle would have some, even though she hadn’t seen any yesterday – into telling her the way, or go exploring.

  Of the two options the former was the most appealing.

  With a sigh she placed the palms of her hands on the pristine glass of her window, her eyes straying back towards her yet unborn progeny, a smile tugging at her lips at the sight. Then she pushed, opening up her way towards the world outside.

  Many things caught her eyes and other senses the moment she stepped on the balcony. First and foremost among them was the cloudy sky, an expanse in different tonalities of gray and white covering the blue beyond from, she liked to imagine, one end of the horizon to the other. Then, after that, her eyes landed on the walls that surrounded the city, blocking said horizon. She admired the decorations that had been painstakingly painted on them, from scenes of workers building, she imagined, the very city she was in, to more lighthearted moments of joy in the form of people dancing to the tune of a [Bard].

  Why had they done this? Why spend so much time and resources for something so… useless. And, she imagined, overlooked, especially after one had spent years living in this city? It didn’t make sense to her, nor to Siidi either for that matter.

  Her thoughts were then stopped anew when she noticed another thing, one that warmed her heart immensely: it was snowing. Softly, slowly, flakes of white wondrousness were falling from the sky, painting the city’s roofs in white. She imagined how much more beautiful the sight would be when the sun would manage to shine upon them, reflected a thousand times over and turning everything even white, brighter still, turning the city into a vision from Larnos itself.

  The next thing that registered in her mind was, surprisingly, how mild the weather was: it was chilly, sure, but not to the point of her needing a coat – not that she had one. Albert had bought her one a while back, but it had been left behind in the workshop during her… exciting escape – more like a mild memory of autumn’s last days.

  Which made her realize another thing: the garden underneath her, the one that was hidden in the very center of this palace, wasn’t covered in snow. In fact, the trees were as green as could be, the lush leaves moving to an invisible, gentle, breeze, seemingly stuck in eternal spring. From the groove also came an unexpected sound: laughter. Childish laughter and screeching. There were kids under there.

  She wanted to explore it, if only because she was curious about what a bunch of children were doing in the royal palace, but mostly, because the trees made her feel at home. Sure, they were a lot less colorful than the one from her beloved forest, but… they were there, unlike her old home, which had been turned into ashes.

  Her spidery feet were already on the railing when she noticed one last thing: there, right by the window, sitting on the stone (or marble, or whatever it was), were five little… statuettes? Did that word apply when the things were made from leaves and bark? She decided that it did.

  Curious, she stepped closer, letting her eyes roam over the strange little display.

  It took her only a moment to realize that the statuettes were made in the form of arachne, the little spider halves made out of darker bark that seemed, at a glance, to even recreate the fuzziness of actual fur, thin twigs sprouting out of the abdomens to recreate paws. Their bodies, too, were made out of bark, although this one was lighter in color, as if trying to replicate skin. Long arms emerged from the distinctly feminine human halves, going as far as ending with hands with visible fingers. Whoever had made these must’ve been a master [Crafter] with how detailed everything was. The final detail was the hair, made out of dark green pine needles that were somehow bound together to recreate a long, ‘silky’, mane.

  Had the artist behind these made five little statues of her?

  No, upon further inspection she saw that the faces were all subtly different from one another: one had a more rounded nose, another’s lips were more defined, while another had bigger and more noticeable eyes than the others. All of them had a resemblance to her, but at the same time none looked exactly like her.

  She heard Siidi gasp in the back of her mind, followed by what might’ve been a glass-shatteringly shrill ‘EEEEEEEEEE’ had it been uttered in the real world.

  As it was, it only managed to make her wince slightly while, with her mind’s eye, she saw her soul half’s feet tippy-tap on the stone floor of the highest tower of their Mind Castle.

  Then she screamed: Those are our children!

  For the second time in not even five minutes Isse’s mind ground to a halt as she registered those words.

  As she understood them.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Internalized them.

  At which point she, too, began to scream in joy and jump in place.

  “Miss Nivera, someone is screaming!”

  Nivera the Alraune, [Carer] for most of the children in the City of Occultism and good friend of the local king, had been playing a game of hide n’ seek with a small group of kids. She was, of course, the Seeker, seeing as her body was quite hard to hide, what with it being stuck in place. Of course that meant nothing, not with the Skills that allowed her to turn all that was verdant in this world into an extension of herself, which was how she was playing.

  That is, until a little girl’s small voice interrupted her.

  She looked down with a large smile that she had spent months perfecting back when… when she’d become what she was today. She was quite proud of this smile: it showed just the right amount of teeth, hiding the fact that they were sharp enough to make most predators in the jungles of Eva feel inadequate. Her full light green lips fit her bright viridian eyes perfectly, somehow complementing the paleness of her ‘skin’ made out of birch bark, the black lines twisted and turned into some sort of primitive makeup. All in all, she was not as beautiful and motherly as her actual body, not in this form built out of the garden she called home, but it was good enough, and the children loved it.

  “Did something happen? Did anyone get hurt?” if a child had actually managed to hurt themselves then she’d probably have to reward them: she could feel everything in her garden, so either they had somehow managed to sneak out – impossible – or they’d found a way to confound her senses – not as impossible actually. We are talking about children after all and they have the sometimes bad tendency to do surprising things.

  “I don’t think so,” said the child, shaking her head hastily, her long hair whipping around her in a delightful way that made Nivera coo and want to hug her. She even had a Skill to make it better: [False Self: Soft Skin].

  Still, the fact that one of her children had heard someone scream wasn’t good in the slightest.

  With a sigh she lowered her hand, patting the young girl’s head kindly: “Thank you for making me notice, Filia. Go, I’ll take care of it.”

  The girl nodded energetically and ran away towards, she thought, her friends. Another sigh left her lips, this one with a hint of sadness to it: she was nearly six now, she’d be leaving her side soon to go to school.

  School. The word still didn’t quite fit in her mind for some reason. She knew it was a good thing: kids would go to school and there they’d learn to write and count and do all sorts of things that would help them in the future. Even her makers, Nav and Sera, had talked about these schools back when they’d still been with her, before their body had become more plant than corpse. And yet… they were taking her kids away from her! Sure, they weren’t hers hers, but still… she didn’t want them to go, didn’t want them to grow up and leave and be made to do things that would keep them from her.

  She’d long since come to accept that things had to be this way, of course, something that had even given her a Level in her [Carer] Class, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

  Although the previous generation of kids she’d looked after still came to visit her every so often, some of them even with kids of their own!

  Oh, they truly grew up so fast.

  Shaking her head, she centered herself: right, the screaming.

  “[I See You],” she whispered under her breath, both with her true body, tucked away safely in a corner of the garden that wasn’t supposed to be a corner – she didn’t question how that was meant to work, Archie said it would give her a headache – and with her [False Self];

  The world opened up around her: no longer was her sight reduced to the mere few meters around her, no, now she was distinctly aware of all that was happening in her garden. She could see Norman and his friends playing tag in the Afternoon Clearing while Filia finally reached her friends and they went back to building a grand mansion with the wooden building blocks she created for them. She saw where her little hiders were, well, hiding, giggling quietly to themselves – they were some actual good spots too! Maybe she could get away with surrendering in a few minutes.

  She saw Chrysalis – such a cute name! – climbing one of the trees nearby. She saw –

  Wait a moment!

  “Chrysalis! What did I say about climbing trees?” she appeared beside the girl, her body forming out of the trees and leaves nearby. She ‘eeped’ cutely, one of her hands losing its grip, although the other was still holding fast to a branch so she didn’t fall. Not that she could’ve ever hurt herself, Nivera would’ve caught her in an instant.

  The girl had the decency to smile sheepishly as she put her wayward hand in place: “Do not anger the squirrels,” she answered self assuredly in that childish voice that made Nivera’s days brighter.

  She opened her mouth to contest that… then closed it, narrowing her eyes: “You cheeky little squirrel.”

  That caused the girl to giggle while Nivera shook her head and took her in her arms: “You’ll be the death of your mate Chrysalis, I’m certain of it.”

  “Mate? Blegh! I don’t want no mate! When I grow up I’ll go to Eva and climb the Tiurna Mountains, like that [Mountaineer] from the stories the King tells us! I won’t be able to do that with a whiny little boy with me!”

  Nivera broke out into laughter at that and, had this false body of hers been able to, she would’ve probably shed a tear. Instead she limited herself to laughing, and then laughing even harder when she saw the little girl’s pout.

  “Oh, Chrysalis, please never change.”

  Then she added: “But do stop climbing trees when I’m not around please. At least if you fall I can be there to catch you, and you remember how angry your mama was the last time you came back home all bumped and cut up. Can you promise me you’ll ask me to look after you when next you want to climb a tree?”

  “But you’re always looking!”

  “Not always, Chrysalis. Not when I play hide n’ seek, otherwise it’s not fair for the other kids.”

  “Aww.”

  “Please, can you promise me you’ll call me next time? Pleaseeeeeeeeee!” She did her best impression of puppy dog eyes at the girl, which made her giggle and nod.

  “Ok ok!”

  “Good. Now go play with the others, there’s something I have to do!”

  “Alright ‘ta Nivera!”

  And she was off. That little promise would keep her careful for a few days, maybe even a couple of weeks. Then she’d forget about it and they’d have to do this whole dance again.

  She chuckled, shaking her head in resignation. Had anyone told her, decades ago – or was it nearly a century now? Time had been strange back in the jungles – that instead of eating these children for nutrients she would be taking care of them… well, actually, the way she had been before her friend had changed her, she would’ve probably just smiled wrongly and then eaten the messenger.

  Hmm, but maybe this figure of speech was to be used in reference to after the change. Yes, yes, that made more sense!

  Proud of herself – while still scanning her garden – she continued on that line of thought: had anyone told her this, she would’ve been confused, maybe even scared. A while after that, she would’ve found the thought adorable. Now? Well, she would’ve told the person that they’d forgotten to tell her how absolutely chaotic children were… but still she wouldn’t have changed anything.

  Finally, she was certain that none of the kids had hurt themselves. She’d also come to the conclusion that maybe she should stop playing hide n’ seek fairly with the kids: there were way too many chances of things going sideways while she wasn’t overlooking the children, especially when the other nannies and carers were on their off days and couldn’t help her.

  The most logical conclusion to come to with these findings was that Filia had just thought she’d heard someone scream, but then again, she was a quite intelligent child, so maybe…

  That was when she remembered: there was someone whose room had been placed to overlook her garden. Someone for whom she had left a little present after the way her encounter had ended yesterday: their new guest.

  The arachne.

  She smiled then: she’d woken up, seen her little gift and, well, the excitement had gotten the best of her.

  With but a thought she created another [False Self], dividing her mind in half, her thoughts becoming simpler in the process to make things easier.

  With a delighted smile she sent her new self towards the window, her body turning more and more serpentine as she ascended, losing its humanoid aspects such as her femininity, then her clothes, and finally her hair (nothing in regards to her legs: she’d never had any and found them strange to begin with). The only part of her that didn’t transform was her face.

  Finally, she reached the window that she was certain led to their new guest’s room… and actually she’d gotten the wrong one. How silly of her!

  A few seconds later she got the right one and, sure enough, there was the arachne, still somewhat dancing in place as she admired the little figurines she’d made of the children she’d seen through her Skill.

  “Well, I see you liked my little gift,” she giggled at her own joke. The statues were small after all, so the gift was little!

  The girl jumped in place and, at the same time, turned around, a shout of surprise escaping her lips.

  “Well, I see you liked my little gift!” said a voice from behind her, followed a moment later by a girly giggle.

  Isse jumped in place and turned around, hand rising to launch a Spell if worse came to worst.

  She found herself looking at a serpentine figure with a rather human face that was smiling brightly at her. An arm emerged from the strange thing, waving merrily at her, little fingers that seemed quite skeletal wiggling with the motion.

  For a moment she remembered the strange vision from yesterday, of a creature so much like this one hovering over her eggs, and she got ready to throw a [Lightning Bolt] at it.

  But then she saw the smile, so kind and happy, and she replayed the being’s words slowly, and, as if that wasn’t enough, her Skills shouted at her that the being was feeling nothing short of joy!

  So she calmed down, lowering her hand and tilting her head sideways, allowing her curiosity to peak through as she spoke: “Who, and what, are you? I’m Issekina Silksoul, by the way, an arachne and, apparently, a guest.”

  At her words the creature squealed and ‘jumped’ in place, if moving up and down could be counted as jumping, and she nearly went for what Isse imagined was a hug, although she stopped at the last moment: “Hello! My name is Nivera and I’m so glad to meet you! Oh, this is already going so much better than yesterday! You didn’t even try to set me on fire!”

  Ok, so she hadn’t imagined that part. Honestly, she didn’t feel too guilty about it.

  “But I forgive you! No need to worry! After all, I was maybe a tad too close to the eggs and my teachers always said that I should be careful with mothers and their kids, both born and unborn, so that is absolutely on me and I don’t hold it against you that you tried to protect your eggs –”

  Wow, she really liked to talk…

  “– Oh and yes, you did ask, I’m an alraune! Yes yes, I know, alraune aren’t supposed to be sentient like me, nor are we supposed to have Levels, and yes, we are known for turning people into food after seducing them, but that’s aaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllll in the past! At least for me! I’m one hundred percent earth-itarian, which is like, vegetarian but for plants, so I, like, only feed on stuff from the ground, although Archie and the others do give me some tasty animals every now and then! Mhhhhmmmm, I want some pig now.”

  Alraune? Never heard of them.

  They’re originary of Eva, from the jungles, unsurprisingly. Supposedly they’re a kind of plant that evolved to attract prey by recreating a human form. Basically, they’re a human sized flytrap. But, as she said, they’re not sentient. They don’t think, unlike this one. I wonder how that happened? Some kind of Spell that went awry maybe?

  Interesting.

  Meanwhile the alraune, Nivera, kept on blathering on in the background, until she finally stopped: “Anyways, it’s very nice to meet you!”

  For a moment there Isse felt the sting of embarrassment as she wondered how in the world she could’ve ever thought that the woman in front of her could’ve ever been anything but kind, but then, her motherly instincts were in overdrive most of the time nowadays, so she could be excused.

  “The pleasure is all mine Nivera. So… what do you do here?”

  “Oh, I think I told you. Or did I not? Did I forget? I can be such a clutz sometimes! Anyways, yes, I’m a [Carer]. Well, not just that, naturally, my Class did all that evolution and consolidation stuff, but most of the time I’m the [Carer] for all the children that are brought here. Daycare! Yes, that’s the word! I’m the [Carer] for daycare! Oh, it even rhymes,” she giggled.

  “I’ll probably do the same for your children when they get out of their eggies! If you want, naturally,” her tone changed slightly on that last sentence, going from that bubbly voice that promised nothing but joy to a strange seriousness that seemed out of character for the Nivera she’d come to know in these short minutes.

  “I… I’ll think about it, thank you.”

  “No problem!” and there she was, back to the Nivera she knew.

  “Oh, I gotta go back to the kids now! Dividing myself like this is fun and all that but it makes keeping them in check so much harder. Will I see you this evening for dinner?”

  Dividing? What did she mean by that?

  “I… maybe?” she wasn’t sure she wanted to, so she went for the first thing that came to mind, “I don’t know where the dining room is.”

  She realized how stupid of an excuse it was the moment the words left her mouth.

  “Oh don’t worry, I can show you! Sure, you’ll have to get in from the window, but that’s why Archie made them so big in the first place! But don’t feel obligated, alright? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable… and stuff.”

  Isse felt the sudden weight that had appeared on her heart dissolve into smoke: it was still there, graying out her emotions and thoughts, but at least it wasn’t as bad.

  “I… I’ll think about it. Thank you.”

  “Sure. I’ll knock on the window when it’s time, alright?”

  Isse nodded.

  “Then have a nice day!”

  And, with that, she disappeared, her body dissolving in front of her eyes, turning into sticks and leaves, falling impossibly gracefully towards the ground. In the end, only a single leaf was left as it gently fell on top of her head, its near-absent weight feeling like a gentle caress.