Chapter 8: Spider’s Thread
SOMEONE steps on a single acorn.
Who in the world is behind you?
Someone steps on a second acorn.
Who in the world is beside you?
Someone steps on a third acorn.
Who in the world is holding your hand? ♪
Lady Megan sings as she descends the tower’s staircase. She sings in a voice that sounds like two crystal-clear icicles rubbing against each other. The tinkling noise of wind passing through an icy cave, with the grinding crack of hardening ice fills the empty stairway.
She has no memory of the mother who gave birth to her. Singing and dancing were taught to her by her second mother—the mother who had raised her.
“Adorable Megan, you are the greatest treasure in this world.”
Her stepmother was the only person in the world who had showered Megan with love. She died seven years ago. And all she left behind was an empty hole. Whatever Megan tried, she could never fill the hole.
No, no! Nobody is here.
I’m alone. For-ever alone.
All alone in the darkness…♪
Descending from the last step of the long, long staircase, Lady Megan opens the door. A sapphire skull sparkles on her finger that is whiter than the billowy clouds outside. It shimmers under the light, shining through the opening in the door, briefly casting a tiny rainbow.
“I have just returned, Father.”
“Ooh, Megan! My precious pearl.”
Lord Designs Siegfried is waiting for her in the throne room. In this room with ceilings so high that it could easily encompass a hundred-year-old oak tree, whose walls span so large from side to side that it could fit twenty horses and a flock of sheep, no one is around but a father who is possessed by his ambitions and his cursed daughter. It was the father himself who put the curse on his daughter. To satiate his endless thirst for the throne, he sold his daughter’s soul to the Devil of the Abyss.
“Rejoice! The time has finally come!” Lord Designs shouts, his fists clenched dramatically, his eyes shining. His ecstatic voice echoes inside the massive, empty room. “We’ve found her at long last. She’s been found!”
“My congratulations, Father.” Lady Megan takes the hems of her blue skirt in her hands, bends down, and respectfully curtsies. Softly and quietly, she moves to take position next to her father. Silver light flashes in the center of the room.
“Oooh, she’s here…”
Before their very eyes, dots of light form into lines and unfurl outward, growing in size as they link together to draw the shape of a spider’s web. Suspicious letters have been skillfully woven in the middle of the stretched threads.
It’s a magic circle.
CLICK-CLACK! CLICK-CLACK! Mechanical sounds reverberate through the room. A gigantic spider crawls out of the magic circle strung in the air. Its eight legs are like thick logs, and its torso exceeds the size of a black bear. Shimmering rainbow, the spider looks as if it has been pieced together with fragments of colorful gems.
A girl bound in thread dangles from the one leg the spider holds up high. The girl has red hair, green eyes, and freckles scattered about her nose and cheeks. With her mouth covered and tight threads restraining her from her neck down, she shakes with rage. Lord Designs visibly frowns and twists his prized beard.
“Oi, Witch, don’t you think you went a tad overboard tying her up?”
“I wanted to avoid doing anything too horrible if possible, you see.” The voice comes from a silver-haired girl, who has elegantly draped herself across the spider’s back. She alights onto the floor like a waterfall spilling into a pool of water. “This princess struggles and fights back so much that I was forced to increase the amount of thread every time… Aww, don’t glare at me so much. I will let her loose right now.”
SNAP! The witch snaps her fingers. CLACK! With a dry noise, the leg holding Princess lowers her to the ground. At the same time, the spider’s thread softly releases, floating into the air as it fades, before vanishing completely. All that remains on the princess is the thread woven around her mouth as a gag.
“How’s that?”
“Isn’t there still some left? Gagging a noble princess is inexcusable! Can you get any more vulgar?!”
“Oh dear, my bad.” The witch shrugs her obsidian shoulders, her dark skin contrasting with her gleaming silver hair. “However, I believe you are better off not removing this last piece.”
“I haven’t authorized you to lecture me. You only need to obey your orders.”
Witch knits her silver eyebrows together and snaps her fingers once more. Threads of the woven cloth gently fall apart and melt into mist.
“Oh, Princess Lala Lilia! How I have eagerly awaited this day!” Lord Designs beams with his whole face, running over to her with his arms spread wide. Without a moment’s delay, Witch raises her right hand.
SCREECH!
The rainbow spider vehemently snaps its jaws shut, then reopens them and hunches forward with its legs raised overhead. Clearly, it displays unabashed hostility and ferociousness. Even Lord Designs stops, his face twitching.
“Sorry to impose, but please pay the remaining bounty.”
The sound of annoyed, dry lips smacking together echoes throughout the throne room. Lord Siegfried removes a pouch from his belt and tosses it over. Witch Inez Mou gracefully tilts her hand forward. But that’s all she needs to do, for a thread shoots from her fingertips, catches the pouch swiftly, and retracts to bring it into her smooth hand. Metal jangles inside. Gold coins are tightly packed inside the pouch. Witch prudently inspects their quality and number. A few minutes later, she nods and stuffs the pouch inside her dress.
“Thank you for your business. I hope you purchase my services again.” The pouch disappears into her dress without causing the thin cloth clinging tightly to her skin to sag or loosen. Where exactly did the pouch go?
“Now then, come to me, Princess!”
Princess fearfully looks over her shoulder at the witch. “No, don’t give me to him.”
“Sorry, Princess. This is my job.”
The spider heartlessly steps back. Lord Designs walks over to where Princess is left alone and forcefully snatches up her wrist.
“We’ll begin preparing for the wedding ceremony at once.”
“No! Let go! Let go of me!”
“Let’s send an official notice across all the land!”
“I’m saying I don’t want to!”
Struggling doesn’t have much effect when you’re a little girl no older than seven. There’s no hope of winning against an adult man’s strength.
Watching Princess be dragged away, Witch Inez Mou mutters, “A happy marriage to you.”
Lady Megan silently steps forward in her father’s place. She comes out of the shadows into the downpour of light. Though the father leaves the throne room in ecstasy, the eyes of his daughter observing him are penetratingly cold. She walks to stand beside the witch, her skirts swishing.
“Take appropriate measures to ensure that thing does not enter this place. You will comply with this request, yes? On another note…” Blue light flickers. Lady Megan’s white hand deposits a pouch into Witch Inez Mou’s hand. “That mirror came in handy. Thank you.”
Just like she had earlier, the witch opens the pouch to inspect the contents. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, amber, and jade—the finest gems in the world are packed inside.
“Thank you for your business,” she replies. Then, when Lady Megan turns on her heel to leave, Witch Inez Mou calls out to her back, “With all due respect, my lady…” Lady Megan pauses and looks over her shoulder. “The Mirror of the Departed is a dangerous toy for humans. Be especially careful in how you handle it.”
Delicate flowery lips tightly curl upwards to form a crescent moon. It is a magnificent smile, one a master artisan would carve into a sculpted face through gentle, careful scrapes.
“There is no need to warn me, for I am already cursed.”
Lady Megan walks away then. She moves as if she is gliding along ice. The witch watches her until the hem of her blue dress disappears past the gilded doors. Afterward, Witch sighs and pets her spider’s back. Her shoulders droop, and a crease forms in her brow.
“You’ll meet a painful demise if you get carried away, Princess…”
Lady Megan’s faint singing dies away in the distance.
Someone steps on a single acorn.
Who in the world is behind you? ♪