Friends in strange places
Spoiler: show
The great sigil embellished door groaned in protest as it danced on its hinges, slowly giving way to a great hall. A set of wary eyes flitted across the room, taking in every detail they could find.
No strange effigies, no voids, no mist, no ridiculously oversized weapons, no giant spiders... Araena shuddered at the memories of the past few weeks... Well, she could not actually be certain they were weeks as time still felt strange in this place. That spider... She shivered again at the memories. It was ironic that being an aranaei herself, her greatest phobia just so happened to be spiders. Her mother would have an endless source of scornful comments to tease her with if she ever found out.
The aranaei traipsed into the vast room cautiously, her gaze drifted around her again. The room was opulent, that much was certain, a polished mother of pearl floor stretched off into the distance, the surface impossibly flat and smooth given the material it had been crafted from. Along the towering walls, all a golden yellow and inscribed with an intricate, seemingly embroidered pattern, a row of tables hewn and polished from bright citrine coral had seemingly been placed at precise, symmetrical intervals and appeared to accentuate the oval shaped portraiture which occupied the spaces on the wall just above.
The portraits, Araena had never seen anything quite like them in her entire life. They appeared alive, or at least the repetition of many past events, the effigies now made complete sense, a young maiden, human, fought mamonme of varying types. Her golden twin tails of hair streamed around her, adorned by two fans of coral, each jutting from the point at which her hair had been tied. She wore a dress the hue of a calm ocean and decorated with coral, in fact, her flouncy skirts seemed to transition, impossibly, from skirt to coral at the hem. Such sewing and craftsmanship seemed unlikely, even by mamonme standards, there had to be magic involved.
The perplexed aranaei could not understand why the human was fighting, as far as she knew, her sisters rarely caused trouble for people of her age, so unless the Principal God had ordained it compulsory to send children to fight her kind, she could not grasp the reasoning behind the battles. It appeared that her opponents had felt the same at the time, their countenances displaying surprise and shock in each image, clearly none of them had expected this young girl to stand before them in this way.
In other scenes, the gist shifted from her life of battles to her family and school life. She seemed happy. Araena however, noticed that the further the portraits ran, the more her ears seemed to gain a suspicious point like her own. After what seemed to be a gap in the portraiture, a horrifying scene greeted her eight eyes. The young girl, dragged screaming and kicking from her family by a group of guards, resplendant in snow white armor with an image of a golden lantern emblazoned on their breastplates. The town's folk appeared to be jeering her fate while her family stared in stunned silence. A lump took hold in her throat as the beautiful aranaei gazed in horror at the unfolding tragedy before her.
After being beaten with whips, staves and other weapons, the young girl had been dumped in the wilderness, battered and broken.
In the next scene a group of mamonme women surrounded her, their faces a picture of concern. A familiar image greeted Araena, as the girl, her hands propping herself off the stony ground, kneeled pathetically, her face soaked in tears. Odd sigils inscribed on the wall were followed by a large point.
"And that, is the story of my betrayal, Eiraiha is wicked isn't she?"
A voice, saturated with a mixture of boredom and something else, emanated from behind the Aranaei who whirled on her feet, almost tangling her legs in the process. Her eyes took in a being seated before her on a throne of silk and coral, a mamonme species she had never seen before. She resembled the girl from before, though older, appearing to be as old as herself. Her honey hued hair was still present, though now it gave way to fiery coral about halfway along its length. Her ears were that of a typical mamonme, pointed and triangular, while her eyes had taken on the hue of coral itself. A flowing robe, open over her chest and sleek, toned midriff, swathed her feminine form. Apart from the ears and coral, she seemed almost human... Almost, her legs gave way to coral at about mid thigh, resembling a pair of strange boots and ending in two sharp points for feet.
A curious Araena gathered her thoughts and put them into a question, a question aimed at the being before her.
"Who are you... What are you? I have never seen your kind before."
The being nodded to herself, but did not show much of a change in expression. She leaned forward, her expression calm.
"I, am Corelle, you can call my kind Sorceress I suppose."
A Sorceress? The aranaei had never heard of this kind of being before, maybe it was a new breed or mutation? Now possessing a name to put to the mamonme before her, Araena felt much more confident about her own situation. Meeting Corelle's coralline gaze, the spider woman's expression turned from confusion to one displaying her strong-willed personality, which this whole event had so far robbed her of.
"What is this place and what do you want with me?!”
Corelle's bored expression betrayed her for a second as hurt flashed across her eyes, but this was rapidly replaced with stubborn defiance as she shifted in her coralline throne.
“You were.. dejected, I feel these emotions and am drawn to those who display them. As for this place-”
The sorceress waved her coral encrusted hand about her indifferently.
“You can call it my labyrinth.. My world, dare I say my prison?”
The queenly woman chuckled ruefully at that.
“Imprisoned by my own thoughts and deeds, funny isn't it?”
The spidery mamonme regarded her with somewhat sympathetic eyes.
'This woman must have been through a lot.'
The thoughts drifted across her mind as clouds on a calm summer's day drifting across an azure sky. Finally feeling the silence becoming unbearable, the aranaei looked the sorceress in the eyes.
“Who.. who did this to you?”
Corelle drew herself slowly from her opulent seat. With determined and sensual steps she minced across the floor toward the now pitying aranaei.
“Eiraiha herself! I, I trusted her, she is supposed to be the Principal God, a bastion of justice, she promised me so much.. They were all lies though.”
Araena cooed gently in consolatory tones as she listened to the mamonme before her, it was odd though, the Principal God, she'd heard a great deal about Her. She'd established the city of Crystal Plinth, a city where mamonme who followed Her tenets could settle. She'd even been lucky enough to see the goddess when she had passed through the area, the Principal Goddess certainly didn't strike her as the lying type. She turned her eyes to Corelle.
“Are you sure of this Corelle?”
“It was her.”
Such certainty, and yet the spider mamonme pressed on.
“I don't know...”
“She lied to me, she caused all of this.”
“But how? Gods and goddesses don't have demon energy like our own, only the Demon Lord could have-”
“It was her! Only she would have done this to me! She is a liar!”
The aranaei breathed deeply, this woman was so bullish! She was like a minotauride insisting that she had only been attempting to swat a fly with her giant axe. The spider woman shivered at that memory, how was she to know the muscle-head had had designs on that male? Finally she cleared her throat.
“Okay, so would you mind telling me why you are so adamant that it was Her?”
The sorceress nodded to herself before pointing to a giant portrait the aranaei had missed when entering the grand hall. Again and again a single scene repeated, every detail crystal clear. A blonde woman dressed as one might imagine a goddess to dress, smiling and speaking to a young girl with twin tails of hair as if the finest spun gold. The aranaei's eight eyes lidded in suspicion, where had she seen that face before? It was one that was always in the tabloids which arrived from the Demon Kingdoms. Always partnered with tales of trickery and deception- The spider mamonme's eyes sprang open in realisation.
“That wasn't the Principal Goddess Corelle! You've been had!”
“No, I will not hear it, it was-”
The spider mamonme had had enough and grabbed Corelle firmly by the shoulders, shaking her with her chitinous hands.
“That was Lokaeli Corelle! She's a powerful serebim, one of Seretique vi Alloriel's daughters! She has a record as long as her hair for her deception!”
The coralline woman blinked in stupefaction, she looked at the living picture, then at the aranaei and then back at the picture.
“No, it can't be, but I thought, this can't be the truth, you just want to-”
The svelte aranaei sighed and reached into a pocket of her somewhat tattered outfit. She pulled out a small soft cover booklet she had placed in her pocket before this debacle had occurred and held it, open to the front page under Corelle's nose.
“Look - Corelle. I dare you to tell me you haven't seen this woman before.”
A dark haired woman greeted the sorceress's eyes, she sported a large pair of horns, a pair of leathery mauve wings, and was dressed in an outfit which left nothing to the imagination. For all intents and purposes this woman had nothing to do with the goddess who had done this to her, except... The face which smiled back at her though deviously this time, was the same one the goddess had worn the day she had become a magical girl.
The sorceress's grip on her bauble slipped as she crashed to the floor. Landing on her exquisite rump she stared up at Araena in bewilderment.
“It.. it wasn't Her.”
The aranaei put a hand gently on Corelle's shoulder.
“I've stayed here, alone, for all these years. I blamed and hated the Principal God for all of this time and it was misdirected, I - I've been such a fool!”
The aranaei's grip tightened on the woman's delicate shoulder as her free hand sought the sorceress's unoccupied hand. Slowly she helped the coralline woman to her pointed feet.
“Listen to me Corelle, anyone can be tricked by a devious mind and a silver tongue, what is important is what you do now.”
The sorceress turned a hesitant coralline gaze on the spider mamonme.
“You told me before why you were drawn to me, but not why I am here. I really need to get home.”
A spark of fear flashed across the coral clad mamonme's features.
'She's going to leave, my first friend who understands me is going to leave!'
The thoughts raced through the sorceress's mind, a harpy chasing a potential mate. She gazed at the aranaei for a few seconds.
“Why go so soon... forgive me, but you didn't tell me your name...?
“Araena.”
The arachnid mamonme added helpfully.
“Araena-”
Corelle tried working the name over her tongue and liked it.
“-I mean, you just got here. I thought perhaps we could talk some more and-”
The aranaei sighed and fixed the sorceress with a pointed expression.
“Look Corelle it was nice meeting you, and I look forward to seeing you again soon, but I need to wash! I've been through hell for what must have been a week and-”
“You can bathe here look, look!”
The sorceress's pointed coralline feet clicked across the floor as she bustled across the room to a hidden exit. Peering through the door Araena noted a spacious luxuriant bathroom made of what looked like polished marble picked out with tastefully carved coral.
“I don't know, I wouldn't feel comfortable just using the bathroom of someone I just met. I think I should go home and-”
“I-I can move the bauble close to your home then, you won't have to walk all the way back and can spend more time here!”
The aranaei was about to refuse when Corelle interrupted again.
“Oh, oh! Look at this!”
The sorceress clapped her hands together and pulled the now bemused spider girl to the other end of the hall. Before her stood a large, empty, coral encrusted portrait.
“So I saw that you were depressed before I first invited you in, and I think I have the perfect solution!”
Eight tired eyes focused on the sorceress and portrait. The face of the canvas came to life and she quickly recognised the same beach area she had been in before. A tired looking man sat on the shore staring out at the ocean. Perspective shifted allowing her to see every angle of his face, hair and clothing clad body.
“He's dreamy~”
The aranaei's eyes had misted over slightly, Corelle looked at her eagerly.
“I know! I found him feeling very disillusioned about something, so I caught him. He isn't quite my type though, but I would be willing to give him to you as, as a gift if you will stay with me!”
Araena snapped out of her trance at that. She glared at the sorceress in resentment. At the same time thoughts flashed through her mind.
'She thinks I can't get a man, Me? Why is she so desperate?'
The aranaei then noticed a new portrait had appeared on the wall next to the point signifying the end of Corelle's time as a magical girl. It was focused on her own face, and as it swirled in perspective, appearing to focus in and then retreat slightly, she noticed honeyhaps and yellow roses blossoming around the frame... So she wanted to be friends? First however, she would need to learn some self control.
“Corelle, you can't just give a human to me! You don't have the right to do that, even if you have the power to! I also wish to be returned to my home at once. You will also return him to his home immediately. If you fail to do this I will hate you forever, am I clear with you?!
The sorceress appeared to have been slapped in the face as she first gawped at Araena before tears began to gather at the corners of her coral hued eyes. Her hands clenched on her robe straining as if she wanted to pull it down to the shiny floor.
“B - b - but I - I don't want to be alone anymore!”
The sorceress began to sob like a scolded child causing the aranaei to enfold her in an embrace using her arms as well as two pairs of her smooth shapely legs to hold her. She murmured soothingly in the mamonme's ear.
“There, there Corelle~ I never said I was going to stop being friends with you. Look at you, you are an adult like me and yet you are crying like a child, you need to control yourself a little better~”
The mamonme calmed a little before whispering in the aranaei's ear.
“It's just, I – I've been here so long and I'm lonely.”
Araena finally got her thoughts in order. This girl seemed to be almost like a child, a big child of course, but still a child. Even with her adult body and brain she would need some guidance.
“Listen to me, I will speak to my landlady, she's a zenko from Zipangu, so she'll be understanding. You can move this place right?”
The sorceress nodded quietly.
“Good, move into my room then. You can come and go as you please as long as you don't cause any trouble for everyone else.”
“R – really?” Corelle whispered quietly.
Araena nodded and within seconds the man in the picture disappeared from the shoreline. The arachnid mamonme then looked at the sorceress and a minute later the same door opened before her.
“I – I'm not confident about letting other people see me yet, I'll follow you discreetly.”
With that the aranaei found herself back on the same street, the sun warm on her shoulders. Glancing at the shadows it appeared to have not been more than an hour that she had been away, yet it felt like weeks or even years. Looking back she noted a vague human shaped distortion in the air, and as she began the long walk home she found that the deformation followed her every step.
The landlady, Mirai was very interested in Araena's story that day. After finally speaking to the Sorceress herself, she was allowed to board at the aranaei's home in exchange for the right to study the functioning of the perception bauble. Araena would go on to meet the human she had seen during her time in the strange pocket plane, and eventually marry him. The two of them would eventually help the sorceress to replace those things she despised in her bauble with only happiness... But that is a tale for another day.
No strange effigies, no voids, no mist, no ridiculously oversized weapons, no giant spiders... Araena shuddered at the memories of the past few weeks... Well, she could not actually be certain they were weeks as time still felt strange in this place. That spider... She shivered again at the memories. It was ironic that being an aranaei herself, her greatest phobia just so happened to be spiders. Her mother would have an endless source of scornful comments to tease her with if she ever found out.
The aranaei traipsed into the vast room cautiously, her gaze drifted around her again. The room was opulent, that much was certain, a polished mother of pearl floor stretched off into the distance, the surface impossibly flat and smooth given the material it had been crafted from. Along the towering walls, all a golden yellow and inscribed with an intricate, seemingly embroidered pattern, a row of tables hewn and polished from bright citrine coral had seemingly been placed at precise, symmetrical intervals and appeared to accentuate the oval shaped portraiture which occupied the spaces on the wall just above.
The portraits, Araena had never seen anything quite like them in her entire life. They appeared alive, or at least the repetition of many past events, the effigies now made complete sense, a young maiden, human, fought mamonme of varying types. Her golden twin tails of hair streamed around her, adorned by two fans of coral, each jutting from the point at which her hair had been tied. She wore a dress the hue of a calm ocean and decorated with coral, in fact, her flouncy skirts seemed to transition, impossibly, from skirt to coral at the hem. Such sewing and craftsmanship seemed unlikely, even by mamonme standards, there had to be magic involved.
The perplexed aranaei could not understand why the human was fighting, as far as she knew, her sisters rarely caused trouble for people of her age, so unless the Principal God had ordained it compulsory to send children to fight her kind, she could not grasp the reasoning behind the battles. It appeared that her opponents had felt the same at the time, their countenances displaying surprise and shock in each image, clearly none of them had expected this young girl to stand before them in this way.
In other scenes, the gist shifted from her life of battles to her family and school life. She seemed happy. Araena however, noticed that the further the portraits ran, the more her ears seemed to gain a suspicious point like her own. After what seemed to be a gap in the portraiture, a horrifying scene greeted her eight eyes. The young girl, dragged screaming and kicking from her family by a group of guards, resplendant in snow white armor with an image of a golden lantern emblazoned on their breastplates. The town's folk appeared to be jeering her fate while her family stared in stunned silence. A lump took hold in her throat as the beautiful aranaei gazed in horror at the unfolding tragedy before her.
After being beaten with whips, staves and other weapons, the young girl had been dumped in the wilderness, battered and broken.
In the next scene a group of mamonme women surrounded her, their faces a picture of concern. A familiar image greeted Araena, as the girl, her hands propping herself off the stony ground, kneeled pathetically, her face soaked in tears. Odd sigils inscribed on the wall were followed by a large point.
"And that, is the story of my betrayal, Eiraiha is wicked isn't she?"
A voice, saturated with a mixture of boredom and something else, emanated from behind the Aranaei who whirled on her feet, almost tangling her legs in the process. Her eyes took in a being seated before her on a throne of silk and coral, a mamonme species she had never seen before. She resembled the girl from before, though older, appearing to be as old as herself. Her honey hued hair was still present, though now it gave way to fiery coral about halfway along its length. Her ears were that of a typical mamonme, pointed and triangular, while her eyes had taken on the hue of coral itself. A flowing robe, open over her chest and sleek, toned midriff, swathed her feminine form. Apart from the ears and coral, she seemed almost human... Almost, her legs gave way to coral at about mid thigh, resembling a pair of strange boots and ending in two sharp points for feet.
A curious Araena gathered her thoughts and put them into a question, a question aimed at the being before her.
"Who are you... What are you? I have never seen your kind before."
The being nodded to herself, but did not show much of a change in expression. She leaned forward, her expression calm.
"I, am Corelle, you can call my kind Sorceress I suppose."
A Sorceress? The aranaei had never heard of this kind of being before, maybe it was a new breed or mutation? Now possessing a name to put to the mamonme before her, Araena felt much more confident about her own situation. Meeting Corelle's coralline gaze, the spider woman's expression turned from confusion to one displaying her strong-willed personality, which this whole event had so far robbed her of.
"What is this place and what do you want with me?!”
Corelle's bored expression betrayed her for a second as hurt flashed across her eyes, but this was rapidly replaced with stubborn defiance as she shifted in her coralline throne.
“You were.. dejected, I feel these emotions and am drawn to those who display them. As for this place-”
The sorceress waved her coral encrusted hand about her indifferently.
“You can call it my labyrinth.. My world, dare I say my prison?”
The queenly woman chuckled ruefully at that.
“Imprisoned by my own thoughts and deeds, funny isn't it?”
The spidery mamonme regarded her with somewhat sympathetic eyes.
'This woman must have been through a lot.'
The thoughts drifted across her mind as clouds on a calm summer's day drifting across an azure sky. Finally feeling the silence becoming unbearable, the aranaei looked the sorceress in the eyes.
“Who.. who did this to you?”
Corelle drew herself slowly from her opulent seat. With determined and sensual steps she minced across the floor toward the now pitying aranaei.
“Eiraiha herself! I, I trusted her, she is supposed to be the Principal God, a bastion of justice, she promised me so much.. They were all lies though.”
Araena cooed gently in consolatory tones as she listened to the mamonme before her, it was odd though, the Principal God, she'd heard a great deal about Her. She'd established the city of Crystal Plinth, a city where mamonme who followed Her tenets could settle. She'd even been lucky enough to see the goddess when she had passed through the area, the Principal Goddess certainly didn't strike her as the lying type. She turned her eyes to Corelle.
“Are you sure of this Corelle?”
“It was her.”
Such certainty, and yet the spider mamonme pressed on.
“I don't know...”
“She lied to me, she caused all of this.”
“But how? Gods and goddesses don't have demon energy like our own, only the Demon Lord could have-”
“It was her! Only she would have done this to me! She is a liar!”
The aranaei breathed deeply, this woman was so bullish! She was like a minotauride insisting that she had only been attempting to swat a fly with her giant axe. The spider woman shivered at that memory, how was she to know the muscle-head had had designs on that male? Finally she cleared her throat.
“Okay, so would you mind telling me why you are so adamant that it was Her?”
The sorceress nodded to herself before pointing to a giant portrait the aranaei had missed when entering the grand hall. Again and again a single scene repeated, every detail crystal clear. A blonde woman dressed as one might imagine a goddess to dress, smiling and speaking to a young girl with twin tails of hair as if the finest spun gold. The aranaei's eight eyes lidded in suspicion, where had she seen that face before? It was one that was always in the tabloids which arrived from the Demon Kingdoms. Always partnered with tales of trickery and deception- The spider mamonme's eyes sprang open in realisation.
“That wasn't the Principal Goddess Corelle! You've been had!”
“No, I will not hear it, it was-”
The spider mamonme had had enough and grabbed Corelle firmly by the shoulders, shaking her with her chitinous hands.
“That was Lokaeli Corelle! She's a powerful serebim, one of Seretique vi Alloriel's daughters! She has a record as long as her hair for her deception!”
The coralline woman blinked in stupefaction, she looked at the living picture, then at the aranaei and then back at the picture.
“No, it can't be, but I thought, this can't be the truth, you just want to-”
The svelte aranaei sighed and reached into a pocket of her somewhat tattered outfit. She pulled out a small soft cover booklet she had placed in her pocket before this debacle had occurred and held it, open to the front page under Corelle's nose.
“Look - Corelle. I dare you to tell me you haven't seen this woman before.”
A dark haired woman greeted the sorceress's eyes, she sported a large pair of horns, a pair of leathery mauve wings, and was dressed in an outfit which left nothing to the imagination. For all intents and purposes this woman had nothing to do with the goddess who had done this to her, except... The face which smiled back at her though deviously this time, was the same one the goddess had worn the day she had become a magical girl.
The sorceress's grip on her bauble slipped as she crashed to the floor. Landing on her exquisite rump she stared up at Araena in bewilderment.
“It.. it wasn't Her.”
The aranaei put a hand gently on Corelle's shoulder.
“I've stayed here, alone, for all these years. I blamed and hated the Principal God for all of this time and it was misdirected, I - I've been such a fool!”
The aranaei's grip tightened on the woman's delicate shoulder as her free hand sought the sorceress's unoccupied hand. Slowly she helped the coralline woman to her pointed feet.
“Listen to me Corelle, anyone can be tricked by a devious mind and a silver tongue, what is important is what you do now.”
The sorceress turned a hesitant coralline gaze on the spider mamonme.
“You told me before why you were drawn to me, but not why I am here. I really need to get home.”
A spark of fear flashed across the coral clad mamonme's features.
'She's going to leave, my first friend who understands me is going to leave!'
The thoughts raced through the sorceress's mind, a harpy chasing a potential mate. She gazed at the aranaei for a few seconds.
“Why go so soon... forgive me, but you didn't tell me your name...?
“Araena.”
The arachnid mamonme added helpfully.
“Araena-”
Corelle tried working the name over her tongue and liked it.
“-I mean, you just got here. I thought perhaps we could talk some more and-”
The aranaei sighed and fixed the sorceress with a pointed expression.
“Look Corelle it was nice meeting you, and I look forward to seeing you again soon, but I need to wash! I've been through hell for what must have been a week and-”
“You can bathe here look, look!”
The sorceress's pointed coralline feet clicked across the floor as she bustled across the room to a hidden exit. Peering through the door Araena noted a spacious luxuriant bathroom made of what looked like polished marble picked out with tastefully carved coral.
“I don't know, I wouldn't feel comfortable just using the bathroom of someone I just met. I think I should go home and-”
“I-I can move the bauble close to your home then, you won't have to walk all the way back and can spend more time here!”
The aranaei was about to refuse when Corelle interrupted again.
“Oh, oh! Look at this!”
The sorceress clapped her hands together and pulled the now bemused spider girl to the other end of the hall. Before her stood a large, empty, coral encrusted portrait.
“So I saw that you were depressed before I first invited you in, and I think I have the perfect solution!”
Eight tired eyes focused on the sorceress and portrait. The face of the canvas came to life and she quickly recognised the same beach area she had been in before. A tired looking man sat on the shore staring out at the ocean. Perspective shifted allowing her to see every angle of his face, hair and clothing clad body.
“He's dreamy~”
The aranaei's eyes had misted over slightly, Corelle looked at her eagerly.
“I know! I found him feeling very disillusioned about something, so I caught him. He isn't quite my type though, but I would be willing to give him to you as, as a gift if you will stay with me!”
Araena snapped out of her trance at that. She glared at the sorceress in resentment. At the same time thoughts flashed through her mind.
'She thinks I can't get a man, Me? Why is she so desperate?'
The aranaei then noticed a new portrait had appeared on the wall next to the point signifying the end of Corelle's time as a magical girl. It was focused on her own face, and as it swirled in perspective, appearing to focus in and then retreat slightly, she noticed honeyhaps and yellow roses blossoming around the frame... So she wanted to be friends? First however, she would need to learn some self control.
“Corelle, you can't just give a human to me! You don't have the right to do that, even if you have the power to! I also wish to be returned to my home at once. You will also return him to his home immediately. If you fail to do this I will hate you forever, am I clear with you?!
The sorceress appeared to have been slapped in the face as she first gawped at Araena before tears began to gather at the corners of her coral hued eyes. Her hands clenched on her robe straining as if she wanted to pull it down to the shiny floor.
“B - b - but I - I don't want to be alone anymore!”
The sorceress began to sob like a scolded child causing the aranaei to enfold her in an embrace using her arms as well as two pairs of her smooth shapely legs to hold her. She murmured soothingly in the mamonme's ear.
“There, there Corelle~ I never said I was going to stop being friends with you. Look at you, you are an adult like me and yet you are crying like a child, you need to control yourself a little better~”
The mamonme calmed a little before whispering in the aranaei's ear.
“It's just, I – I've been here so long and I'm lonely.”
Araena finally got her thoughts in order. This girl seemed to be almost like a child, a big child of course, but still a child. Even with her adult body and brain she would need some guidance.
“Listen to me, I will speak to my landlady, she's a zenko from Zipangu, so she'll be understanding. You can move this place right?”
The sorceress nodded quietly.
“Good, move into my room then. You can come and go as you please as long as you don't cause any trouble for everyone else.”
“R – really?” Corelle whispered quietly.
Araena nodded and within seconds the man in the picture disappeared from the shoreline. The arachnid mamonme then looked at the sorceress and a minute later the same door opened before her.
“I – I'm not confident about letting other people see me yet, I'll follow you discreetly.”
With that the aranaei found herself back on the same street, the sun warm on her shoulders. Glancing at the shadows it appeared to have not been more than an hour that she had been away, yet it felt like weeks or even years. Looking back she noted a vague human shaped distortion in the air, and as she began the long walk home she found that the deformation followed her every step.
The landlady, Mirai was very interested in Araena's story that day. After finally speaking to the Sorceress herself, she was allowed to board at the aranaei's home in exchange for the right to study the functioning of the perception bauble. Araena would go on to meet the human she had seen during her time in the strange pocket plane, and eventually marry him. The two of them would eventually help the sorceress to replace those things she despised in her bauble with only happiness... But that is a tale for another day.
