Chapter 609: Overthrowing the Tyrants II
I gracefully sat down with Arachne. She was here as Arachne, not as Susan, and keeping the right name for the right situation was one of the ways I was getting back into the right mindset. Her spider, Clotho the black widow, was dancing on her subtly multi-colored hair, and waved at me with one leg.
I’d been in a peacetime mentality for ages. Over a decade without needing to slip into the cold, calculating mindset, balancing healing with fighting for my life. The occasional raid helped keep the instincts alive, but it wasn’t like I was in the appropriate Sentinel Dawn mindset quite yet. Even though I knew this was coming, there was a difference between preparing for an event, and living it.
Arachne’s presence was helping accelerate that. Clotho started rapidly spinning threads on Arachne’s head, letting them float down for the vampire to manipulate. She rapidly weaved them all over the room, activating a number of privacy enchantments emphasizing the situation. I helped out by placing us in a sphere of [Mantle] in the dusk mode, with allowances for Arachne’s threads. It was simply another layer, and I cast a quick spell without mentioning it to the vampire. She saw, she knew, she smiled.
“Tea? Cookies?” She asked.
“Of course I’d love some cookies and tea!” I shifted slightly in the comfortable chair, all too aware that my outfit was great for traveling and possibly getting into trouble, and utterly inappropriate for the fancy teatime I’d found myself in.
Damn the vanity aspect from the companion bond, it got worse the more I leveled up.
Threads moved, and Arachne smoothly served both of us without lifting a finger. There were only two places at the table, and I figured I’d get us started with some of the obvious questions, the light chit-chat.
“Night’s not going to be joining us?” I asked, knowing the answer and more than a little disappointed. Arachne shook her head.
“No. In the broadest sense, the Immortal War is over and done. The great battles have ended, the devastation has occurred, the Lifebringers have attempted to bring back nature and balance, and communities are rebuilding as they can. Your work in Orthus is admirable, the town is one of the best from nothing I’ve seen this cycle.”