Author's Note/Sum: A fantastical tale about Juri Han… Again!

"Seona my dear, I've returned."

"So early in the day? Something must be wrong," came the reply from the tall, dark-haired noblewoman. She stepped through various elegantly-designed rooms and gazed at her husband with worry in her pale violet eyes. "Usik, did the council find some-"

Usik, a shorter man with kind hazel eyes and straight dark hair like his wife, crossed the distance between each other and reached for Seona's body to pull her into a comforting embrace. The day was young, the people were safe and content for the moment and the villa hadn't burnt to the ground since Usik last saw it. Though there was a shadow looming over the fantastical city of Soulsca, for the moment the man didn't want to bother his family. They had come so far, earned so many accolades and built up their own future here in this very city- there was no need to put a damper on all of that now with the inconvenient truth.

"It's fine," Usik lied. He put on a forced smile and reached for a lock of Seona's straight hair to edge it back into place. At this time it would be better to feed her a half-truth, and he did just that. "There's been a few problems, most notably a marauder of sorts that has been giving the other cities some trouble. Dangerous? Yes, with his affinity for dark magicks, but there have been others before him, and I assure you that the council and I will do what we can to nip this threat before he rises in power."

"What is this marauder's name?"

"He calls himself 'Bison'. He is a dark, greedy man with delusions of power, but rest assured my dear, he will be taken care of."

The noblewoman gazed at her husband for the longest time as if she knew in her heart that he was lying, that he was worried, but ultimately she had no proof. She shook her head and pressed herself against the man's body to reciprocate his embrace.

"If you say so, husband."

"I do say so," Usik replied in a confident, optimistic tone of voice. He lightly jostled his wife and pulled her away so he could look around her form at their homestead. "I see that our home is still standing, yes?"

"Must you say that every time you return? Yes, yes, I am capable of keeping this home standing, Usik, thank you." Against Seona's best efforts she couldn't help but to smile and turn away from her husband like a coy suitor. "Lessons are finished for the day, but more importantly, the commissions are finished. Would you like to see the silk?"

"I would love to see what you've made, indeed!" Usik made a move to follow his wife, but he stopped in mid-stride. "Wait… Actually, there's someone I'd like to see first."

A brief but uncomfortable silence settled between Seona and Usik, and it was all the former's doing.

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"She should be in the garden, at least, she was there last time I checked."

"Well, I hope she hasn't gotten into any trouble during my absence," Usik replied, half-joking, half-sincere.

Everyone in Soulsca regarded Seona as one of the most beautiful women to walk the earth with very few others coming close to her level. An excellent seamstress, Seona had secured her position in the city through hard work and diligence. She was happy with Usik and never strayed from his side. Yet there was a strange, alien coldness to the woman that radiated from her form at all times, even when she was in her husband's embrace. She hardly smiled, rarely laughed and, when it came to children, she wasn't as nurturing as a mother should be. The woman knew love and could bestow it upon others at her will, yet it was in such strange ways.

The woman stared at her husband for a moment longer before gesturing for him to follow.

"Come, I'll show you."

Usik, true to his position as a competent councilman and a stalwart man of the house, paid no mind to the coolness in his wife's voice and followed along after her. They stepped out into a pristine, traditional Soulsca garden with wooden walkways helping them along the perimeter and even over an idyllic stream. Between several hibiscus flower plots and nestled under a covered seating area was a young girl with the same straight raven-colored hair as Seona dressed in a set of practical training clothes. Her back turned to the two adults, she either didn't notice them or didn't care to look up from what she was doing, being all hunched-over and whatnot.

"Child, your father would like to see you."

"If I can hear you behind me, you gotta be able to see me," came the curt response. "Go away. I'm busy."

"Young lady-"

Usik silenced his wife by nudging her aside and moving closer to the young girl. Unlike other times where he smiled, this time in the presence of this little girl his smile was genuine and filled with mirth. He crouched down and tried to peek over the nine-year old's shoulder.

"What's making you so busy? It can't be homework. Did you find something interesting while attending your lessons, Juri?"

The girl, Juri, turned to look at Usik and showed him her dark violet eyes that were just brimming with curiosity and wonder. She glanced over at Seona and wrinkled her nose before smiling at Usik.

"Mhm! I found a spider! Look father, look!"

Normally spiders were tiny, ordinary creatures that posed no threat whatsoever, but the eight-legged bug before Juri's form was cut from a different cloth. Nearly the size of a young kitten and covered with bristles was an ebony spider with a menacing set of fangs and cold, pronounced beady-black eyes. Juri turned back to the spider and pulled out a large grasshopper only to drop it in front of the spider as if this thing was her pet and she was taking care of it. Usik, once he recollected himself from the sight of the spider, noticed that the grasshopper that was now being devoured had been alive at the time, only without its back legs with which to escape.

The thought that his young daughter Juri was cruel and cunning enough to pull the legs off a grasshopper, just like a spider, was more entertaining to Usik than it was disconcerting. He knew that his wife was beside herself in terror in the distance, and he also knew that he too should have been frightened and concerned for his daughter. The ebony spider that Juri treated like a pet wasn't some ordinary creature, and that wasn't because of the size. These 'wretched abominations' originated from an expansive cave complex miles away from Soulsca. Few were the size of the one Juri had; most of them were nearly twice the size of a full-grown man and capable of taking down cattle with a single well-placed pounce.

And to say nothing about the spider's venom…

"Poor girl was lost, so I picked her up and brought her home. She loves grasshoppers," Juri explained. "Maybe I can find a toad here in the garden. Maybe she'll like that."

"You… You picked this thing up with your hands? It could be poisonous, Juri."

"Nuh-uh. She didn't bite me at all. She knows I love all spiders. And they're not poisonous at all!" Juri chirped. "Poisonous means that they'll kill you if you eat them. They're just venomous, father."

Just venomous, she said.

"She's uh… She's quite the cute little thing," Usik mumbled, unsure of what to say.

"Cute? No no no! She's too tough-lookin' to be cute! Tough girls are awesome, not cute- I named her Jorōgumo!"

The spider carried on with devouring that poor grasshopper; oblivious or uncaring of the conversation surrounding it. To Juri's credit she didn't reach over and pet the creature as if it was a common housepet, but she did look over at it with a sickly sweet smile and give it food. Like that marauder Bison had an affinity for dark magicks, it seemed that Usik's daughter Juri had some kind of connection to spiders. It was just a hunch, though the way the spider let loose a few dangerous squeaks and clicks when Usik got too close instead of Juri only helped to support his theory. Seona, being a mother, would want nothing to do with Juri's interest in spiders, but Usik was more forgiving, more understanding. If Juri found delight in those grotesque creatures, then so be it.

Usik lowered himself down to Juri's ear and began to whisper.

"You know we can't keep her, right? Whether or not she's dangerous to you, she's a spider, and you know how much your mother hates spiders."

"I can keep her a secret if you will," Juri offered. "I'll just pretend to let her loose so mother is none the wiser."

"That won't go well. She's more clever than you think."

Juri opened her mouth to retort, yet she couldn't find the words to convince her father. Defeated, she slumped her shoulders and sighed.

"But I really want to keep her!"

"I bet you do, Juri. I bet you do." Sensing his daughter's mood souring, Usik wrapped his arms around her form and pulled her into a gentle embrace. "Don't look so down. You'll find other spiders- maybe you'll find a garden spider too. Those are harmless."

"Harmless and boring," Juri scoffed as she took the embrace in stride. She eventually huffed and wrapped her little arms around her father. "Fiiiiiine, I'll let her go."

"Maybe you'll see this one around the city again, or maybe you'll see it years from now. These kinds live for a long, long time, and I hope you will too."

The little girl in Usik's arms raised her brows in confusion at what her father said, but in his embrace she couldn't say much else in reply. She lingered there for a moment longer before squirming away from him and, as a surprise to both her mother and father, Juri set her hands down beside the dangerous ebony spider and waited for it to waddle onto them. Like a messenger about to release a dove, Juri stood up, passed her mother and wandered out of the garden only to open her hands upon a nearby tree to let her spider free. After all, her parents never said that the spider couldn't be near their home; just not on the property!

Seona slid up beside her husband with a skeptical look in her eye.

"You shouldn't encourage her to seek out more of those wretched things."

"No, I shouldn't, yet she has an uncanny affinity for them, it seems," Usik replied in a hushed tone. "I think she respects the creatures far too much to overstep any boundaries. It seemed like she and that spider had some unspoken trust between each other, which is why she wasn't bitten."

"More intelligent abominations? Usik, I implore you, no good will come from her fascination with spiders."

"I disagree. She could become a renowned entomologist. Besides- and I mean no ill will from this- I believe she got her fascination from you, Seona."

"Me?" Seona replied as if insulted.

"Mhmm. You wove a marvelous dress two years ago, one like so many others that Juri never took an interest to until you remarked that you used spider's silk."

The raven-haired woman placed her head into her hands out of embarrassment.

"And to think she and I finally found some common ground after all these years… Oh, woe is me!"

Usik chuckled and went to grasp his wife by the shoulders and pull her into his side.

"I know that things must be hard for you with her, and I'm willing to bet that things will get even harder as she ages, but so long as she keeps attending her lessons and training under those disciplined monks, I assure you that Juri will blossom into a fine young woman."

Seona kept quiet at that. She wasn't an ignorant woman, but neither was she an optimistic sort either. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in her own daughter; it was that she didn't believe that the future she would be heading towards would be safe enough for her. After all, with that dastard marauder Bison on the loose…

"Hey, come here," Usik cooed to his wife. With Juri oblivious to their parents, the man offered Seona a chaste kiss on the cheek and continued with, "Everything will be fine. Don't worry about a thing."

As much as the two adults wanted to believe that things would be fine and that all problems and threats would be driven away, there was no outrunning the inevitable. Usik himself believed that there was a target on his head, and so he spent his time wisely with his family over the years. He went to his daughter's martial arts tournaments, attended his wife's art shows and lectures and did all that he could as a valuable member of Soulsca's council. After Juri's 15th birthday he received a slew of good news about that marauder Bison, all of which told about his retreat from the nearby lands. It seemed that after pillaging plenty of other villages and gathering up diabolical forces, the man had had his fill of bloodshed for the moment which meant that Soulsca would breathe easier.

Alas, when a man like Bison wanted to burn bridges to keep the righteous from following him, he went the extra mile.

It was during the beginning of the dusk hour when a band of bandits, rogue mages and other ne'er do wells came rampaging into Soulsca. Flinging hellfire and brimstone, these men under Bison's banner lit the city aflame and sent the people scurrying for safety only to be cut down in the streets. Guards and righteous mercenaries fought valiantly to defend what few souls they could, but the marauders were very well-equipped and well organized and thus the noble few never even stood a chance. With screams cutting through the night and flames blocking many main escape routes, the entire city was subject to mass confusion and terror.

The Han family took what they could and tried to escape amongst other noble families and councilmen, but they were discovered and suffered a grave fate. Potent black powder concoctions were tossed into the evacuating mass to tear limb from limb with deafening explosions. Usik and Seona were blown away without a second thought while their daughter, Juri, was knocked off her feet and into unconsciousness for a short period of time. She awoke a few minutes later, face-down in the bloody dirt and surrounded by the dead and dying. Through the haze of smog, embers and pain she could see her parents' still bodies and knew from the second her heart sank that they were gone.

With explosions going off all around her and the threat of all-consuming hellfire approaching her from all sides, the young woman soon realized that the only thing she could do was keep moving. Wearing nothing but the clothes on her back Juri limped through destroyed streets and ducked out of sight of anybody, citizen or bandit. Her psyche was hanging on by mere threads while her legs moved independently- she wasn't thinking clearly, but neither could she see clearly either. It was when blood trickled over the left side of her lips that she realized that she had lost her left eye in the chaos.

After staggering about for what seemed like the longest hour of her life Juri managed to make it out of the burning city of Soulsca only to find herself at a dead-end. The city was surrounded by thick forests with only a few safe roads connecting it to other settlements miles away. The north, east and west exits out of Soulsca had the most security and the best roads, not to mention plenty of signs and travelers who could help a frightened young woman get to safety. Juri, however, found herself at Soulsca's south side where not only there were no roads but no safe escape routes. Nearly a hundred meters below a hanging overlook was a dark and dismal forest that Juri was forbidden from entering, and yet as she turned back to find another way, she realized that there were no other options.

A trio of bandits had followed the young woman, and with their weapons bloodied and brought up to bear, there was no hope in reasoning with them or getting past them.

"Whozat? Looks like some dirty orphan."

"Damn right she's an orphan now. I personally blew this brat's parents to bits," cackled a disgusting brute of a man. "Cornered like a rat. Which one of you two wants to finish her off?"

Juri whipped her head to and fro as she looked for other means of escape, yet as the brutish bandit said before, she was cornered. The only option she had was to fall off the cliff behind her and hope that the fall didn't kill her. She glanced over the drop and shuddered when she realized that she couldn't see the bottom through the darkness, nor could she see anything very well with the recent loss of her eye!

"I don't wanna die," Juri hissed to herself, completely oblivious to a lanky bandit notching an arrow to his bow. "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die…"

THUMPF!

An arrow meant for Juri's heart fell short and plunged deep into the ground by her left foot, completely missing her. However, it was enough to startle the young woman, enough for her to stumble back over the edge of the cliff. Her foot searched for purchase only to fall through the unseen void, and soon the rest of Juri's body had to follow. With a shrill yelp of terror the young woman disappeared over the side of the cliff and fell down to the dark forest below. The three bandits followed her and looked over the side of the cliff to investigate, yet other than a sickening thud and the rustling of tree leaves below, there was no sign of the woman. Pleased, the trio wrote her off and returned to the burning carcass of Soulsca…

"It is a shame, isn't it? Though the people there weren't the friendliest or the most sympathetic, my heart bleeds for them regardless. So many souls massacred at the coming of nightfall, and so many more still washed away in a sea of fire. This man, this Bison… He is a creature of unparalleled cruelty to unleash this torment on them. Ah, it is no matter."

Silence.

"Yes yes, I assure you all that he has nothing to gain by coming here. We will wait for his marauders to leave that city, then we will take what is left over. The dead and dying will prove useful to us… Let us not let their bodies go to waste."

Again, more silence… That was until a few soft clicks echoed through the dank air.

"And what, pray tell, is so interesting about this one survivor? Hmm… Oh, oh I see. Yes, out of all the souls there, this one has indeed earned a spot in my memory… Wounded, injured… Yes, and a soul filled with rage and vengeance masked by fear… Mhmm, perhaps this one could be useful."

"..."

"Bring her to me."

Juri didn't remember much after the fall. She may have bawled and screamed, or she may have sat aside in a moment of quiet grief. Her mind may have been filled with naught but thoughts of revenge, or nothing at all. The young woman might have even gotten up shortly after and moved about in a daze, or she chose to remain in a crumpled heap. Whatever it was that she did, nothing would come to her until she eventually awoke from unconsciousness. Whimpering and flinching like a wolf caught in a bear trap Juri opened her one good eye and hoped that all she would see were the leaves of the dark woods before the cold majesty of the full moon in the night sky.

And yet there was no moon to greet her; only the dank, smooth stone of a cavern's ceiling.

"Where the hell… Where am I?" Juri groaned as she went to stand. She looked around the area in search of some kind of marker to guide herself with, yet all she could see was darkness. "My body hurts but… I'm still able to stand?"

After a few minutes Juri's eye would acquaint itself with the darkness enough for her to see, which in turn allowed her to look over her body. She had been participating in a martial arts tournament at the time Bison's bandits arrived in Soulsca, so she had no opportunities to change into something more comfortable. The explosion from however long ago had torn at her top while leaving her baggy training trousers intact. With her left eye destroyed, Juri expected there to be some kind of gruesome reminder along with plenty of blood left over in the socket, yet when she reached up to get a feel for it, her hand came away clean. The same could be said for her limbs which, after falling from a great height and thus should have been broken in multiple places, were completely unscathed save for a few colorful bruises and scrapes.

Clearly, the only logical explanation for her well being was that someone or something used healing magic on her. The evidence was there in her body, be it the refreshed energy in her tendons or the feeling of fresh breath in her lungs. Though Juri wouldn't notice it in the darkness, a puncture wound that looked more like a bitemark on her back between her shoulder blades would silently close up without her noticing at all.

"I should still be in the woods. Somebody must have dragged me here… Wherever here is."

Sparing the grief of losing not only her parents but the city she was born in not too long ago, Juri picked herself up and began to wander. She followed the rays of light shimmering down from cracks in the rocky ceiling and tried to find her way out by going higher, yet each elevated path she took was either a dead-end, blocked off or too intensive to climb and/or squeeze through. At first, Juri remained rather calm about her situation, and to do so was admirable for her, but as time dwindled by and her options grew slim she began to panic. The howling echoes and alien scuttling all around her only served to further her paranoia until the young woman eventually reached her breaking point.

A loud crash and an abysmal screech would stop that from happening. A large ebony spider, larger than a fully-grown grizzly bear, had dropped down from some unforeseen hiding spot in the ceiling and sprawled itself out before Juri. Eight dark eyes focused in on the young woman as the spider's massive mandibles twiddled about in what seemed to be fiendish delight. One bite from such a creature would be enough to lob Juri's head clean off if given the chance, but Juri wasn't willing to give any chances. With a bloodcurdling scream Juri recoiled and snapped back to run back to whence she came and then some; traveling deeper and deeper into the cavern in an attempt to escape the monstrosity chasing her.

And it was indeed chasing her- the way the bear of a spider scuttled after the young woman was the stuff of nightmares. No insect, no matter how big or how small, should have been able to move so quickly over obstacles and keep up with a young woman running for her life. To make matters worse, more ebony spiders would dart out from adjoining tunnels to nip and lunge at Juri. There was no time to think; she just had to keep running. Eventually Juri would reach a tiny, slimy hole of a tunnel that wasn't housing a spider, one that couldn't possibly fit one of those large, lumbering monstrosities. Seeing no other safe haven, Juri flung herself into the hole and shouted as she slid down slime and other unmentionables into a dark, dank abyss.

Tumbling to and fro, Juri's slide into madness incarnate finally came to a screeching halt as she was deposited onto a large, smooth slab of stone in a bruised and battered heap. For a moment Juri would writhe and whimper in pain before she noticed that she wasn't safe. As a matter of fact, she had come out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. Tens upon hundreds of those ebony spiders, the very same ones that had chased her not too long ago, had her surrounded on all sides, all in varying shapes and sizes yet still possessing the same hungry, predatory tendencies. She could see the shimmer of their eyes and the gleaming sharpness of their fangs in the darkness and figured that this was her demise.

But death never came. Instead, the spiders stayed where they were and stared at her form even as others poured into the massive area of this expansive cavern. Confused, terrified and fighting off the beginnings of insanity, Juri was caught off guard by one powerful voice.

"Forgive us for hounding you, young one. When you began to stir, I told the children to leave you be, then, when you were up and about, to lead you down to me. I wanted to know if you still had the will to live, after all," the voice said. "There's nothing like the fear of death to spur one on. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Who… Where are you? What are you?" Juri's head whipped around as she tried to find the source of the voice. There was a mystical echo to the voice, and within it came a whirlwind of many different tones and accents, though Juri could tell that they were all feminine. To make matters even stranger, the voice came from the confines of her own mind as if whoever commanded said voice was a powerful magician, or something very ancient. "What do you want with me?"

"Too many questions, and you're not in any position to receive the answers."

The raven-haired girl didn't like that response and let the voice know that with her constant, fearful vigilance. The idle scuttles and clicking of the spider swarm around her didn't help to calm her down in the slightest.

"I said that I wanted to know if you still had the will to live, and you showed that with your coming here. If I wanted you dead, child, you would have been bisected already," the voice growled in an annoyed tone. "The life you have within your breast is a gift from me now, and I can easily rip it away."

"Please, at least tell me… who are you?"

"I am Larosha, the Ebony Queen."

At those words a giant abomination of a black spider descended from the ceiling and landed right in front of Juri. Nevermind the large bear of a spider that had chased Juri prior; this colossus of a spider was the size of a temple, and it was revered just as much, if not more, by the surrounding spiders. Ancient, alien markings ran up the spider's carapace while eight spindly legs helped to support the main body of the beast. Her abdomen was as swollen and as round as the moon and her fangs were sopping wet with indescribable liquids. And of course, all eyes were upon Juri; a fact that made the girl shudder.

For a moment all was silent, at least until Larosha's mandibles chittered about as she… cackled.

"Well, don't you look like a miserable miscreant. Your clothes are torn, your body battered and your left eye ravaged. And yet here you are, indecent before me. You haven't even tried to run."

"There's nowhere to run," Juri retorted with a hint of indignance in her tone.

"True. That is true."

Larosha's minions soon began to dissipate from the area, whether to attend to their broods, their tunnels, or their queen's unspoken demands. Still others remained to keep a watchful eye on Juri, though such spider guards were small and non-threatening. In hindsight, Juri thought the choice of guards was an insult to her. But she, in her current state at that moment, deserved no better. Indeed she, a scared little girl who had just lost everything including her left eye, was fortunate to still be breathing.

"Hmm! So there is a fire in you, just as I had hoped. One of my caretakers filled your body with strong anodyne, enough to rouse you and keep you going-"

Juri crumpled to the ground.

"-until the adrenaline… Oh. Well, this is to be expected," Larosha muttered. "You are rather weak at the moment. Well, most humans are."

"Don't call me weak."

The giant spider brought her head close to Juri's prone form.

"Do not mumble into my stone floor. You have pride. Show me."

"Don't call me weak!" Juri barked as she propped herself up with her arms. She picked herself up enough to lie on her side. "And don't patronize me! You have no idea… no idea what I've just been through!"

"No, no I suppose I don't," Larosha replied. She knew nearly everything that had happened, but Juri didn't know that. "Though I wonder if it has anything to do with those ruins to the north."

"Those 'ruins' are what's left of my home, the city I was born in! Terrible, terrible people came into the city with fire and steel and tore it down to the ground!" Sitting up, Juri put her face into the palms of her hands as tears threatened to spill. "All those people… my friends and family… m-murdered. I'm all that's left. Just a one-eyed, bloody mess."

Larosha allowed Juri to sit there in her pathetic stupor for some time. Though the girl heaved and shuddered, she did not cry. The giant spider looming nearby was impressed by that, and for good reason. She had no use for a sobbing, miserable little wretch. Once Juri had her fill Larosha filled the void with her sinister voice once again.

"And how does that make you feel, hmm?"

"Angry!" Juri lashed out. "We had guards, mercenaries and other capable people, and yet the whole city fell! Those… bastards took everything from me!"

"Such is the norm for bandits and raiders, especially those under the employ of Bison."

"Bison? I thought that- The marauder left! We were supposed to be safe!"

"Safe? Your kind, safe? Oh please," Larosha chuckled. "Barring that, the marauder had been dogged by your city's illustrious council for quite some time. It represented the last, brightest bastion of justice in these lands, and a man like Bison couldn't risk leaving it intact. Had the people of Soulsca focused more on killing the man instead of trying to bring him in to stand trial, perhaps the city would still be standing."

"I want him dead."

The spider tilted its head.

"Do you want Bison dead, or do you want justice?"

"I don't want justice! I want him dead and buried in a shallow grave!" Juri roared.

"Then you want revenge. Revenge for the pain he and his minions have inflicted upon you. That's a laudable goal, girl."

If the giant spider was capable of showing outward emotion, Juri would have seen a conniving grin before her sight. But she didn't need to see such a thing to be able to sense the spider's dark desires.

"You wanted to know what I want?"

The young woman hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"You are undoubtedly a bright young woman, so you should have already guessed that I didn't choose to save you out of the goodness of my heart, and that you aren't here for the two of us to have a pleasant conversation. You owe me a debt for my intervention, and for the sanctuary I offer you." Larosha watched as Juri glanced around at her sanctuary, that being a series of nondescript dark caves and rocks, before glaring up at her. "Yes, compared to your lofty abodes and verdant landscapes this sanctuary seems to be a barren hellhole, but what you fail to understand is that there is food, water and shelter here. You may take one of the ancient, dilapidated stone huts here in my sanctuary for your own," Larosha said as she slid a long leg over to a series of pathetic-looking ancient abodes built into the cave wall, "and with a bit of human ingenuity you might even make it your home, considering that yours is no more. My children will not harass you; they may even come to your aid if need be."

"And if I refuse?" Juri asked. "Will you kill me right here and now?"

"You won't refuse," Larosha cooed back. "As I said before, you are a bright young woman. But if you do want to refuse, neither I nor my children will fall upon you. You have proven yourself sympathetic to our kind as a child, and such respect isn't easily lost on us. You will be free to leave, but you will find the world to be far more dangerous than you could have ever imagined. You will not survive as you are now."

Another bout of uncomfortable silence settled between the two before Larosha continued.

"I offer you an opportunity to exact revenge upon the men who massacred your hometown, and the man responsible for orchestrating it all." Juri's one good eye widened in awe at the proposition. "If you accept, you will become my agent in this world and be taught how to survive in it. Your mind, body and soul will be rigorously trained and honed to great capabilities. There is a great power within you, Juri, and it shall be unlocked in due time… only if you pledge your life to me."

Had Juri stumbled upon Larosha a day ago with her family, hometown and left eye alive, intact and untouched respectively, she would have shot down the offer without a second thought. But she had no family anymore, no shelter or friends to take her in and with the loss of her eye she felt so weak that she considered it embarrassing to still be standing. It was crazy to listen to this spider queen's words and even crazier still to consider giving her life to her cause, but Juri would have been insane to deny the opportunity. She had nothing to her name anymore, and while this giant spider was offering her a new life with plenty of strings attached, it was far better than leaving only to be set upon by wolves or bandits in her state.

At least, that was the logical way to look at the whole situation. But Juri was a passionate woman who couldn't ignore the fiery, stabbing fury bubbling up inside her. Logic, after a day like the one she survived through, had no place in this decision.

"I'll do it."