by Eric Vall
“Got it, master,” the dark-haired woman said as she tightened her grip on her sword, and the fairy nodded.
Then Penelope shone her light at the furry beasts, and many of the small spiders scattered, but the ones covering the large beast’s shattered abdomen began to crowd together tighter and tighter.
Aleia swung her sling over her head for what I hoped was the last time, and the large, jagged rock she’d selected slammed through the spider’s new armor and revealed its glowing organs again. The tiny spiders scattered away until all that was left was the hole in the beast’s body and Nicola’s sword.
“Get it, Nicola!” I screamed over the sounds of the huge spider moaning and the creaking of its legs unfurling. My senses were on highest alert, and I even thought I could hear the tiny spiders creeping around the floor of the tunnel.
“Die!” the brunette screamed as she raised her sword over her head with both hands and brought it down directly into the gap in the spider’s armor.
The dark-haired woman’s sword got lodged in the creature’s belly for a moment, and she grunted as she tried to wiggle it out. Finally, she yanked the huge blade out, and the spider’s faintly glowing heart was lodged on the tip of the weapon.
The beast’s body fell to the ground and exploded into goo with a loud shrieking noise, and Aleia and Penelope jumped back from the spray, but Nicola appeared frozen in place as she stared at the beating organ on the end of her sword. The yellow liquid splashed onto her feet and ankles, and she yelped as the venom burned her skin.
“Nicola!” I called out to the brunette. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” the dark-haired woman growled as she stared at the organ on the tip of her blade, and for the second time, she swung her sword like a bat. She flung the heart against the wall of the passage, where it made a loud splattering noise and then slid down to the ground.
When the glow finally went out in the beast’s heart, the tiny spiders all began to run. They rushed in one motion up the tunnel’s walls and disappeared into cracks, and the three women were finally alone.
The silence rang in my nonexistent ears as the women all stared at one another for a moment, and then they all instinctively began to run away from where they’d fought. I would have liked for them to have gone back toward the tunnel’s entrance, but they headed the other direction and went deeper into the passage.
“Wait, turn around,” I said. “You’re going the wrong way!”
“Aren’t we still exploring, my lord?” Aleia panted as she skidded to a halt, and there was actually a twinkle in the fairy’s eyes as she looked at the other women, who quickly stopped next to her.
“Can I talk for a minute about how fucking fierce you are?” I asked the priestesses. “I mean, those were some huge spiders, and you just totally took them down.”
“Oh, master,” Aleia demurred. “They were no bigger than that bear, or that cougar, or… you understand what I mean.”
“But there’s something particularly creepy about enormous underground spiders, and you kicked ass,” I told them women. “And I’m really glad you feel brave enough to keep going. But now I’m going to need you to get out of here.”
“I didn’t get through that spider fight just to leave the tunnel!” Penelope gasped. “We earned our right to go further into this cellar.”
“But I hope there aren’t more,” Nicola said with a shudder.
“Those things were truly disturbing.” The naiad looked at Nicola and Aleia with huge eyes. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. But even if there are more, we’ve already handled them, so I’m not worried.”
“You did handle them well,” I admitted. “Fine, just a bit more exploration. I would like to know what’s at the end of this passage. Are animals like that common, though? The way they glowed was something else.”
“Don’t you know about all creatures, Jack?” Nicola asked with a furrowed brow. “Even giant spiders?”
“Of course,” I lied. “What I really meant was, how often have you run into things like that before?”
“Okay…” the brunette mused. “Well, I for one, have never seen anything like that. Maybe I just haven’t spent enough time in these… rustic settings, but that was hundreds of times bigger than any spider I’ve ever seen before.”
“Me too,” Penelope chimed in. “There were bugs in the city, but nothing like that.”
“What about you, Aleia?” I asked the fairy.
“I have heard stories of such things,” the strawberry-blonde said. “But the tales are mostly told about dark, twisted parts of the forest that creatures like us don’t visit. I didn’t necessarily believe giant spiders were real, though. This part of the woods doesn’t seem possessed to me at all, so I’m not sure what that beast was doing around here.”
“Possessed?” Nicola asked as she scrunched up her face at Aleia. “Sister, whatever are you talking about?”
“Oh, you know, spirits of the forest, things like that.” The fairy waved the question away with her hand. “Some are good, some are bad, and so on…”
“Okayyy,” the brunette responded with a frown. “Maybe we should discuss this more later. I never heard anything about this back in Archborough Village.”
“Yeah, I need to know more about this, too,” I told Aleia.
“Either way, maybe the spiders are so big because no one came into this tunnel for so long,” Penelope suggested. “The beasts could have had time to grow, and grow, and grow…”
“Just be sure to listen for that ch-ch-ch sound on the ceiling again,” Aleia laughed as she poked Penelope in the ribs.
“Aaah!” the blue woman squealed. “Seriously, Aleia, don’t do that!”
“I can’t resist,” the fairy snickered.
“Why are you teasing me and not Nicola?” Penelope pouted. “Why don’t you mess with her for once?”
“Nicola might cut me with her sword,” the strawberry-blonde giggled.
“But I have an axe,” the naiad protested. “Why aren’t you scared of me?
“I guess you’re just too nice.” Nicola smirked. “I’ll fight anyone at any time.”
“Nicola!” Penelope laughed. “I’m not scared of you at all, even if Aleia is. Go ahead, swing that sword at me.”
“I will not,” the brunette scoffed. “So, are we going to go deeper into this tunnel?”
“Are you absolutely sure you’re okay?” I asked the priestesses. “That was really intense.”
“The venom did burn,” Penelope said as she gestured down toward her legs and feet. “But it seems better now. The bites aren’t even itching.”
“Maybe you’re blessing these dirty puddles, and they’re healing us,” Nicola laughed.
“Is that possible?” Aleia wondered.
“I was mostly joking,” Nicola said with a grin, “but Penelope does have mysterious ways.”
“I don’t think I can bless a puddle, but I suppose it could happen,” the naiad giggled. “They are technically fresh bodies of water.”
The priestesses continued up the passageway as Penelope shone the huge flashlight at the walls, but there were no more signs of life.
“Do you think those were the queen spiders?” Aleia asked. “Those little spiders were so awful, too.”
“When they started to knit that armor back together, I almost couldn’t handle it,” Nicola admitted with a shudder. “I was sooo disgusted.”
“It was bad,” Penelope agreed. “But look, there’s something different up ahead.”
As the women reached the end of the passage, the corridor finally opened up to a small, dank room with a couple wooden barrels, and faint amounts of sunlight streamed in from the small cracks in the ceiling. Light traced the outline of what appeared to be a round panel in the ceiling and cast beams through the dust in the air.
“Is this the trap door?” Aleia asked. “I’ve never noticed another passageway at the convent.”
“No, you’re definitely somewhere else
,” I said as I zoomed out on my map and examined the red devotional circles of my women. “You’re far away from any of the buildings.”
“Let me see,” Aleia said. The fairy floated up toward the ceiling where the light was coming from, and she pushed on the circular panel, but nothing happened at first.
“Can you open it?” Penelope asked. “Could a person fit through?”
“I think so,” the fairy said, and when she put her weight against the small circle in the ceiling, it finally popped open.
“That was easy,” the naiad remarked. “I wonder why it’s so light compared to the trap door in the kitchen.
“Maybe because we’re completely out in the middle of nowhere,” the strawberry-blonde said as she poked her head and shoulders out the top of the hole to look around. “The wood is slightly rotted, too. But I believe we’re at the far western edge of the convent grounds, just a couple hundred feet into the woods. We’re very far away from the buildings, so I wonder why this is way out here.”
“Maybe the ancient priestesses used it as a way to escape,” Nicola mused. “If things got bad, they could slip out through this hole.”
“Why would things be bad?” Penelope asked as she looked at the brunette with a surprised expression. “We know they worshipped Jack, so why would anyone want to escape?”
“It was just a thought,” Nicola answered and shrugged. “Anyway, we could use it, if we ever really needed to get out of here quickly.”
“I hope I can protect you enough so that you don’t need to escape, but I’m glad getting away quickly is always an option,” I told the women. “The more safety plans we have, the better.”
“It’s all interesting.” Penelope tapped a finger against her wine-red lips. “Well, I suppose we know what’s down this tunnel, but there are these barrels here. Should we see what’s in them?”
“Probably more wine,” Aleia speculated before she bent down to look at the wooden container. “I don’t think it’s anything interesting.”
“I want to open it,” the naiad said as she bounced up and down on the tips of her toes.
“Why, Penelope?” Nicola asked. “Don’t we have other things to do?”
“Because it’s fun to look at everything,” the blue woman explained. “Come on, it will only take a few seconds.”
“Fine,” the brunette sighed. “Let me see the axe.”
The dark-haired woman began to hammer away at the top rings of the barrel with the head of the axe, and when she got the lid off, Aleia flinched.
“Ewww, what is that smell?” the fairy asked as she covered her nose. “I think it’s--”
“Pickles!” Penelope chirped. “Look, it’s pickled carrots, cucumbers, and onions, and it still looks good!”
“You cannot be serious,” Nicola responded as she stared at the naiad. “I hope you are not implying--”
“Pickles last forever, silly,” Penelope giggled.
“Jack, are you going to do something about this?” Nicola asked me. “You cannot let Penelope eat this.”
“No, Penelope, don’t eat the pickles,” I laughed.
“Ohh, I bet it’s because she’s pregnant,” Aleia chimed in with a knowing look on her face. “Sometimes pregnant women like to eat strange things.”
“This isn’t strange!” the blue woman insisted. “I haven’t had a pickle in ages!”
“Get her out of here,” I told the other two priestesses, who began to push a giggling Penelope toward the door of the room.
“But couldn’t I just have a taste?” the blue woman cajoled.
“No pickles,” I snorted. “I already told you, you’re not allowed to eat or drink anything you find in abandoned barrels.”
“Fine,” the naiad laughed. “I was only joking with all of you, anyway.”
“Yeah, right,” Nicola snickered. “I saw the look in your eyes.”
“I am hungry,” Penelope admitted. “I don’t know if I would have actually eaten that, but I would have a pickle in general.”
“I’ve heard of pregnant women wanting pickles before, but I don’t know if that’s just a myth,” I told the women.
“Hmm,” the naiad said, and she looked at Nicola and Aleia, who shook their heads. “No, I don’t think I’ve heard that. I think it’s just me!”
“The smell is killing me,” the fairy complained as her nose scrunched up. “I’m actually not sure they’re still good. Can we leave this room now?”
The women turned and walked back down the corridor to the intersection. They glanced around nervously as they headed toward the split in the tunnel, but it truly appeared the spiders, both large and small, had disappeared into thin air once the priestesses had defeated them.
The women turned left to head up to the area under the kitchen. When the priestesses finally reached the next room, another faint stream of sunlight was shining from the ceiling, this time in the outline of a square.
“Hey, who closed the trap door again?” Nicola asked. “I hope we can get out…”
“I did,” Aleia confessed. “I was afraid something might crawl out of it, and it turns out I might have been right.”
“So, there’s not much down here after all,” Penelope pouted. “No diamonds, no rubies, no sapphires.”
“What we found is even better,” I chuckled.
“It is?” the naiad asked with wide eyes.
“It is, because now you have a safe space to hide underground with three separate entrances,” I explained. “I think the existence of the cellar and your ability to move through it is a bigger reward than what’s stored underground. Plus, now you have somewhere cooler to put food.”
“That makes sense,” the naiad said with a nod. “You always make things seem better, my lord.”
“I’m sure we can open the door from below,” Aleia assured the other two priestesses. “It probably just pushes open.”
“First we’ll have to move those wine barrels away from the trap door, and then we can get out of here,” Nicola said. “I’m tired of being underground, and I want to go bathe and get this vile yellow liquid off me.”
“That sounds like a job for me,” Aleia said with a smile. Then the fairy walked over to the large, wooden containers blocking the entrance to the outdoors, and she began to pull on the sides of the topmost barrel. Nothing happened, though, and the strawberry-blonde frowned. “Ugh, it’s really stuck. And there’s wine all over it from when the other one got broken.”
“Do you need help, sister?” Nicola asked. “I can try to assist you.”
“I think that might be best,” Aleia replied as she continued to struggle.
The brunette stood on the opposite side of the barrel from Aleia and began to pull, and the wood started to creak against the ceiling of the cellar.
“Don’t break it,” I warned the two women. “You will be absolutely covered in wine.”
“Trying… not… to…” Aleia grunted. “Here, if we can get it past the trap door…”
“Hang on,” Nicola gasped as she flicked a strand of hair out of her face. “I hear something under there.”
“Is something caught between the barrels?” the fairy asked and froze. “What do you mean?”
“I hear a strange cracking sound,” the brunette explained. “I don’t want to destroy it.”
“Try to lift up the barrel a little as you pull,” I suggested. “You have a little more space under the trap door.”
“Good idea.” The fairy nodded, and with one more yank, the barrel was free.
“Oof,” Nicola grunted as the two women put the container down on the ground. “This is heavy.”
“You’re getting much stronger, though, sister,” Aleia told the brunette. “I can tell I’m not having to bear as much of the load.”
“Here’s the thing you were talking about,” Penelope said as she picked up something rectangular. “But I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
I zoomed in on what the naiad was holding, and I
saw with shock it looked like a solid piece of clear plastic.
“What the actual fuck?” I gasped.
Chapter 16
“Is it plastic?” I asked the women.
“Plastic?” Penelope asked as she wrinkled her nose and examined the item. “I don’t know what that is, but I’ve never seen a thing like this before. And it looks like there’s something inside, too.”
“Shine the flashlight on it, someone,” I instructed the women. “I need to look at it more carefully.”
“Okay, Jack,” the naiad responded, and she picked up the light and shone it directly on the rectangle
Now that I could see it more clearly, I could tell it was shinier than plastic. Was it some sort of sealed glass? It was about a foot square with sharp edges, and it appeared to be around two inches thick.
And the glass was clear enough I could still see the remains of a newspaper encased inside.
A small photograph of a smiling woman was still just barely visible on the yellowed paper, and the shapes of the writing were familiar. Possibly Japanese, but nothing I could read.
What the hell was going on?
“None of you can read this, right?” I asked, and the three priestesses gathered around the glass in a circle and peered at its contents.
The women all shook their heads.
“Jack… what is it?” Penelope breathed. “It must be godly. I have never seen glass that looks like this.”
“Yes, it’s godly.” What else could I say about something that even I couldn’t identify?
“Do you know what it is?” Nicola asked, and she cocked her head to the side. “It’s certainly unusual.”
“Is it a paper inside?” Aleia asked as she stroked the glass with a finger. “It doesn’t look like it comes from a book.”
“No, it’s something called a newspaper,” I explained. “It tells you… what’s happening in the world. The news.”
“There isn’t much news around here,” Penelope laughed. “But my lord, I am most fascinated.”
“It does look like it’s mostly writing on the paper, but I certainly don’t know the language” Nicola said as she placed the strange item on top of a barrel to examine it. Then her brow furrowed as she examined a photograph of a tree. “How could you even create a painting like this? It’s better than any artwork I’ve seen. It’s like… I can’t explain it.”
