The tap room at the Riverside Inn was busy that night. Most of the townsfolk who had participated in the day's adventure had come, eager to relax and share their stories. Tales of a swarm of spiders the size of horses flowing over the walls of an ancient ruin filled the audience with awe and dread. Those who sustained injuries showed them off like badges of honour. Prād sat in his usual spot by the hearth, quietly attempting a healing meditation, however, with all the commotion, he was unable properly focus. His body felt weak and uncoordinated from the lingering venom. Snips of conversation entered his ears: "... and then, the bastard stabbed me from behind!" "I was about to kill the spider then you jumped in front of my spear!"
Sanjaya was nowhere to be found.
"All right, listen up!" Boomed Jack Slate, waiting a moment for the room to quiet down. "We're going to have a meeting in the training ground tomorrow at noon to discuss how to proceed. You will also be able to volunteer for the next mission." With that, he turned and left into the chilly night.
8 days to the eclipse...
It was raining again. The early morning sun had yet to penetrate the gloomy clouds. Sleet swirled against the shuttered window of Sanjaya's cosy room, forming a layer of slush on the windowsill. Inside, behind his desk, sat Sanjaya, pen in one hand, the other stroking his short brown beard in thought. The warm glow of an oil lamp illuminated the writing in his notebook and cast dancing shadows on the rest of the room.
"You say that the spiders usually go to sleep in winter, they barely move and that they can go for months without food. When we were at the temple, we were ambushed by one of the 'spider masters' along with a pack of hunting spiders. We know them as ettercaps. We also saw them bring giant spiders from their webs to attack us, but they didn't chase us. Do you know how much control these 'spider masters' actually have over the spiders?"
Elhandriel stood on a pillow on the next to the lamp, her tiny form casting an oversized shadow on the wall. "I'm really not sure," she replied posing with her shadow. "I don't think they can make the spiders go against their nature, but also, hunting spiders normally hunt alone." She suddenly turned to one side and stuck one of the stalks of her wings straight out, clutching her chest. "Alas! My shadow self has been run through! Oh cruel fate!" Sanjaya glanced up at the wall and smiled. The pixie's shadow appeared to have been stabbed, with the wing stalk acting as a blade. At least she was in good spirits.
"Do you have any idea how we might lure the ettercaps out of their nest? We can easily handle them without the other spiders."
"I don't know," replied the pixie, "maybe they will come out when they're hungry....."
Sanjaya glanced at his notebook. "You mentioned a dryad when we first rescued you. Do you think it will help?"
"Firstly," replied Elhandriel indignantly, "the dryad is a 'she' not an 'it' and her name is Karya. If you call her an 'it', she will probably steal your mind and make you do chores for the rest of your life. She might help, but she doesn't like the way that the humans have cut down trees to make their houses. She says that you take from the forest and give nothing back."
Sanjaya knew that the townsfolk mostly avoided the forest due to the abnormally large spiders, but he supposed that there had been at least some hunting and logging along the edges. "Well, now we can give something back. Maybe if we can help to rid the forest of the ettercaps, we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement."
"Now," Sanjaya opened a new page in his notebook, "what can you tell me about Dryads?"
---------------
Despite his injuries, Prād delivered breakfast at the usual time, painfully making his way up the stairs to Sanjaya's room. He had gone through years of conditioning and body tempering. Some of the monks in his order could tear bark off trees with a swipe from their bare fingers. Some of the masters could break stone with their foreheads. While he was not at that level, his body was certainly tougher than most. Breathe in.... Feel the pain. Release the pain. Breathe out....
By mid-morning, the sleet had been reduced to a light drizzle. Sanjaya made his way towards the barracks. Lost in thought, he barely paid any attention to his surroundings covered in morning frost.
"I'd like to enlist the aid of a dryad." Sanjaya sat in the captain's office, the small stack of papers which were the results of his previous days' work had been shifted to one side of the desk as the spider situation had taken precedence. "The pixie that we previously rescued indicated that there is a dryad in the forest and that the ettercaps had webbed up her grove, restricting her movement. According to my research, dryads have a fair amount of influence over animals and even weak willed people. If we can come to some form of agreement, she could prove to be a valuable ally. Perhaps she could break some of the influence that the ettercaps have over the spiders."
Jack drummed his fingers on his desk. "I'm not against it, but how do we find her?"
"I believe I can handle that," replied Sanjaya with a smile. "Pixies are a shy folk, but they do owe me a favor. If I have your permission to negotiate with the dryad, I think we may be able to forge a pact against a common enemy."
"All right, but be careful and don't take too long. The next iron shipment is due to leave soon and some soldiers with it. While I can delay for a bit, the wagon must leave within the next week. The meeting's going to start soon. Will you be joining?"
Sanjaya thought for a moment. While it was a bit before noon, the sun dipped behind the mountains fairly early and he certainly didn't want to be left with limited time, or worse, still be in the forest when darkness fell. "You can count me in for the mission, but as far as organising and commanding people goes, you are clearly more suited to the task so I don't think my presence is necessary. I'll prepare some gifts and head into the forest tomorrow morning. If it's ok with you, perhaps we can assault the temple the next day...."
"Very well, I want to give the volunteers some basic training tomorrow anyway." With that, the captain stood up and headed towards the training ground with Sanjaya in tow.
Back at the Riverside inn, Sanjaya was engaging Tercia in conversation. "I spoke with captain Slate and I'm going to go into the Catspider forest tomorrow to try to make an alliance with a dryad. I was hoping that you could help me to prepare some gifts"
The buxom innkeeper's wife somehow managed to look bewildered and excited at the same time. "That sounds great, but what is a dryad, and what kind of gifts do they like? And how did you find out about this dryad? Are they dangerous? Who is going with you? Surely you're not thinking about going in alone. I heard there's spiders the size of horses there. Maybe we need to rename the forest to the 'horse spider forest', but that doesn't quite sound the same...."
Sanjaya held up his hand with a laugh. "One question at a time. A dryad is a sort of tree or forest fey. To my understanding, they have a deep connection with both the plants and the animals of their forest. They have a form like a young woman, though I've heard that they do not age, their life is connected to the forest itself, or sometimes to a specific tree. I'm hoping that she can help to influence the spiders so that we can kill the ettercaps. What kind of gifts do you think she'd like?"
"Hmmm...." Tercia frowned in thought. "All women like pretty things. Maybe get her a hairpin or a dress. I mean, what does she even wear? She does have clothes right? Also we should give her some fresh bread and preserves and maybe some cheese and butter. I bet she's never had those things, being stuck in the forest her whole life. Maybe a pillow? Does she sleep in a bed? And what about soap?"
"You are indeed the perfect person for the task." Sanjaya thought about his dwindling supply of money and fished some silver out of his belt pouch. "I can give you ten Talens to put together something nice. Just avoid anything to do with dead animals: meat, leather etcetera. I am not sure if that would be appreciated and better to err on the side of caution"
"Of course", nodded Tercia enthusiastically. "I'll get right to it. The bread should be fresh though so I'll pack the final things in the morning. This is very exciting. I've never prepared a gift for a dryad before and to think the whole town could be helped if she likes it. I should also go visit Betty, I'm sure she'll have some good ideas too. Her embroidery is really good."
"Thank you, I'll leave it to you then. I really had no idea what to give." With that out of the way, Sanjaya returned to his room to study his spells. He had been too preoccupied lately to focus on his magic.
Later that evening, Sanjaya heard a familiar knock. He was busy going through the details of a spell that would allow him to understand the intention of foreign language. He closed his spell book and tucked it away before going to answer the door. While he had no reason to distrust Prād, the best way of keeping his magic a secret was to tell nobody. He was a bit apprehensive about Elhandriel knowing, but considering that the pixie was already a secret, and had a unique perspective on magic anyway, she was probably safe - besides, it was not like he could hide it from her.
Opening the door, Sanjaya took a tray laden with a bowl of vegetable stew, a few thick slices of bread and a knob of butter from the young monk. "Thank you."
"May I come in?"
"Sure." Sanjaya had long since tuned his ward so that Prād wouldn't trigger it.
Prād came in and sat down near the wrought iron chimney next to the pillow that Elhandriel used as a bed. "I'd like to come with you to the dryad tomorrow. I heard Tercia talking about it," said Prād, adding a tiny bit of cheese and honey to the silver coin that the pixie used as a plate.
"Me too," said Elhandriel. She tore a chunk of bread from one of the slices and reached over Sanjaya's bowl to dip it in the stew before stuffing it in her mouth.
Sanjaya looked at the two of them. Prād was clearly injured and Sanjaya was not sure that he should be walking at all, let alone venturing into the forest. Elhandriel, on the other hand, could easily be carried and would likely prove useful in the negotiations with the dryad, however, she was also far from recovered, and moving around too much would undoubtedly open up her scabs.
"I'd like to take you both with me but are you sure you should be travelling?"
"It's just pain," responded Prād lightly. My wound is dressed with bloodroot and I spent most of the day in a healing meditation. Maybe the dryad will be able to give us some herbs to make anti venom and some other poultices"
"I want to see Karya, she might be able to help and you're so big, you can just carry me."
'Healing meditation', another thing that Sanjaya would need to ask the monk about when he had time.
"Ok, we'll leave straight after breakfast tomorrow."
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In a dark cell, the ragged, emaciated form a woman hung manacled to the wall. Around her, carved into the bleak stone was an arcane sigil. The manacles themselves were adorned with runes and seemed exceedingly clean in comparison to the rest of the room. From outside the cell, footsteps sounded. The woman raised her slumped head, bloodshot eyes stared through black, unkempt hair. "Please," she half-whispered, her voice too hoarse to speak properly, "I can give you immortality...."