“Creeeeeaaak.” Stale air reached Kair’s nostrils.
The imposing double door began to open, the sound of creaking echoing throughout the castle.
Slowly, Kair’s field of vision lowered.
The spider-owl gently placed him on the ground with a precision worthy of a surgeon.
“Go…
Go meet the Weaver.” Half uncertain, with her eyes shifting through various shades of madness, the Elite that had carried Kair all this way pointed one of her legs toward the passage.
Kair spared a glance for each of the Elites.
He made a motion to speak, thought about questioning them, but the gazes of the other two Elites were even more insane.
What frightened him the most was the spider-seahorse.
It seemed unable to contain itself and snorted several times along the way.
Kair hoped it was from happiness…
Hopefully, whatever this Weaver wants, she isn’t crazier than these three.
Slowly, a young man who was not particularly tall, with bare feet and completely filthy clothes, walked across the cold floor of the castle.
How can this place be so cold when it’s literally suspended above a sea of magma?
His footsteps seemed to echo as his eyes adjusted to the dim light of the place.
Several braziers with nearly extinguished embers were scattered throughout strategic points of the hall.
Many stood near the imposing and massive pillars that supported a ceiling so high it could not be seen.
A cold sense of fear passed through Kair, and he looked behind him.
Only to see one of the strangest scenes he could possibly witness.
The three Elites had pressed themselves against the edges of the entrance and begun peeking inside, watching an exhausted young man enter the lair of a monster!
If Kair did not remember those twelve spider legs so well, they would have looked like curious animals, except for their abnormal size.
Hell, they really are crazy!
Insane!
Not long after, Kair’s eyes adapted to the low light, and he could see the surroundings more clearly.
Countless figures were depicted around the pillars.
Some were wolves.
Others, eagles.
Deer, elephants, whales, mammoths…
Countless forms had been carved into the obsidian stone pillars.
Even the legendary dragons and phoenixes.
When the light leaking through the door behind Kair could barely illuminate the place anymore, he noticed another, larger source of light.
Something resembling a faint beam of light cascading directly from the top of the hall.
It was almost as if the light were liquid, and Kair realized it was coming from a crack in the ceiling.
Something like three irregular cuts that resembled the trail of a claw.
Looking at his hands again, Kair realized that his gauntlet was still with him, though badly damaged and crushed.
“At least I’m not a wolf without claws…” He half-whispered and let out a quiet groan.
Almost as if it were a sign.
The sound of vibrating strings reached Kair’s ears.
A slow and melancholic rhythm.
Something he had heard before when passing by certain restaurants and near theaters.
A violin?
Is the Weaver playing?
Finally, Kair had approached close enough.
A violin as dark as night, with strings the same color as the spider webs supporting the castle, came into his field of vision.
Thin fingers were covered by something resembling long, lace-trimmed gloves, as dark as the violin itself, yet still shining as brightly as the chitin of the Elite creatures.
Her experienced fingers moved with grace, and in one hand, she held a bow the same color as the webs.
Kair’s eyes slowly traveled across the creature, and the more the light illuminated her, the more he believed he was looking at a hallucination.
The light revealed a woman not much taller than Kair.
She wore something resembling the same lace made of black chitin, covering much of her legs, waist, and chest.
Yet it still left much of her flawless gray skin exposed.
A cascade of long, straight hair, black enough to seem to merge with the shadows, floated on its own behind her.
Her slender chin rested against the violin, and her black lips rested calmly.
But that was where the normal things ended.
The Weaver’s face ended with her eyes.
Six eyes.
Three pairs of a red so vivid and vile that Kair took two steps backward.
As if this had finally broken the Weaver’s concentration, the violin stopped.
Her eyes.
All of them turned toward Kair.
His body froze.
A coldness so deep and distinct that it reminded him of the only existence that could possibly rival that fear.
The Empress herself, ruler of the Asteria Empire.
The Weaver set the violin aside in the darkness.
Kair could not tell where she had thrown it, nor was he in any condition to pay attention anyway.
His body trembled involuntarily, and he heard the sound of something resembling heels striking the floor.
“Click-click-click.” In his vision, the Weaver’s long legs became visible, and a subtle yet cold touch reached his chin.
Forcing Kair’s gaze upward.
His eyes met those of the woman before him.
“Never bow your head, Kair.
It doesn’t matter whether you stand before queens, kings, or even emperors.
Dragons and phoenixes bow before nothing.” Sweet, honeyed, and absurdly seductive, her voice seemed to force the world itself to project it.
Dragons and phoenixes?
Not bow?
I don’t even have the lineage of a rat!
How could I compare myself to myths?!
“And it is precisely because you possess nothing that you become even more special than phoenixes and dragons, Kair.” Both of her cold hands held Kair’s face as panic passed through the mind of the young man without a lineage.
My mind!
Can she read my mind?!
Her apathetic black lips revealed a faint smile so seductive that it could bring men and women to their knees in the streets.
All six of her eyes were half-closed in pure satisfaction.
But they soon became serious again.
“Our time is running out…
I would like you to stay longer, but you have much to do, and dawn is approaching.” Finally, the Weaver’s tone seemed more serious.
Her hands released Kair’s face.
“Kair…
I have waited for thousands of years.
Please, don’t go insane.” Almost like a tearful plea, the Weaver took a few steps backward.
And a terrible omen fell upon Kair’s very soul.
From beneath the long black hair covering her back, six pairs of legs emerged, their refined chitin covered in ancient letters.
Without bothering to question her, they surged toward Kair’s chest, and the world turned into pure darkness.
The Weaver began moving her legs as if she were writing inside Kair’s chest, yet not a single drop of blood was spilled.
Only a crystalline blue light with shades of purple illuminated the hall.
Two of her eyes quickly shifted toward the entrance.
Before she could even open her mouth, a wolf as white as ivory, with a silver crescent moon on its forehead, entered the hall.
The Weaver revealed a curious expression, but without even a word, she had already understood.
The young man truly was more compatible with wolves.
That would only make things easier.
With her human hands, she moved her fingers as if pulling something, and a faint glow of the same color characteristic of her webs began to move.
Forming a flow from the wolf’s chest to the Weaver’s fingers.
With her six legs and her hands, she began writing ancient words inside Kair’s very soul.
“Just…
Don’t go insane.
Kair…
Kair Aethersoul.”