Don't forget to listen to the songs!
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Chapter 2: V (DITA REDRUM)
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"Medusa," Arachne greeted her guest dispassionately.
"Sister," the younger Witch replied with a feigned cheer.
"What brings you here, my dear sibling?" Arachne asked with a fake smile of her own. Two could play the 'let's pretend we love each other' sister bit. Arachne found it annoying but wasn't about to show that in front of Medusa.
Fourteen years had passed since Death's and Asura's demise, since she could sleep easy at night without imagining a scythe around her neck. Arachne had established Arachnophobia as one of the major powers in the continent. Though her influence was wide-spread, she had no lack of enemies and those who would wish to take Arachnophobia's control from her. She also had alliances to maintain, at least until she could afford to take them out. Feigning loyalty to a person in which they once shared goals was not a hard task at all.
Besides, she already had a plan in place if she was brought to the brink of defeat. It was an unorthodox, but less risky than 'successfully negotiate with an insane and paranoid being to take down Death'. Giriko and Mosquito would follow her without question. The only potential issue was the younger member of her family that was proving to be quite rebellious recently.
Oh well; she supposed that's how teenagers acted. He should quiet down in a few years. Arachne didn't really want to squash that rebellious spark; that would be hypocritical of her and everything she once stood for in her early life.
"Oh, is it such a weird thing for me to want to visit my older sister? We are family after all. Crona sends their greetings."
There it was, Medusa pushing her buttons. Arachne's nibbling was a point of contention between the two Witches. Medusa shared Arachne's manipulative streak, but used it for all the wrong reasons.
"Let us not involve our children in this."
"Our children? Crona is my own flesh and blood. Can you say the same, dear sister?"
Arachne grimaced but did not respond, sans hiding her expression behind her fan.
"Anyways, I'm not here for a social visit."
"Colour me surprised. I always had you for the emotional type." Actually, Arachne always had Medusa for the backstabbing snake type but you shouldn't say that out loud to a family member. There were appearances to keep after all.
The younger Witch responded with a smile of her own. "Emotional? I'm not the one picking up strays now, am I?"
"Let's cut the niceties." Arachne cut her off, all humour gone from her tone. "What are you here for?"
Medusa didn't seem to mind, seeing as her smug grin never left her face. "There's been some trouble south of the border."
The older Witch raised an eyebrow. Trouble at Mexico was business as usual. The area housed the last remnant of that blasted Academy after all. "Mind being more specific, sister?"
"Very well. There's rumours of them having a certain Book."
At this, Arachne's frame tensed.
"And they are planning to use the information inside it for something big, something that 'will change the course of history'. Or at least, that's what a little bird told me."
"And you are telling me this, why?"
"Why, my dear sister, I thought we were in this together. Not to mention the rumours floating around, that Arachnophobia can't stop a measly group of humans…"
It was a power play, Arachne realised. Medusa was challenging her authority and her power.
Arachnophobia was allied with numerous smaller bands of Witches, who followed because either the Witches Council hadn't gotten to them yet, or because they feared Arachne enough to submit but not enough to integrate. These groups employed their own unique structures -Arachne distinctly remembered one group made excessive use of pre-Kishin as enforcers- and were all pining for a chance to take a swipe at the behemoth that was Arachnophobia. Medusa herself had a small group of her own, yet she was always holed up in one of her labs doing… Arachne didn't want to use her imagination in this case. The old Witch hoped she'd grown out of that phase. Still though, to bring such rumours up… Did Medusa have a plan? Was she the one spreading them in the first place?
Arachne clutched her fan a little tighter. The nerve!
Ah, no matter. Arachne had plans of her own, last thing she wanted was to postpone them because her younger sister decided to be a pain. After all, the Academy wasn't that hard of a target; sad really, when you considered they were the only organised resistance. Just further proof that had the Kishin survived, the spread of the Madness would be inevitable.
"I will see to it." She gave Medusa her most pretentious of smiles, both knowing that it was a fake. "It was lovely to see you, sister. Goodbye."
Medusa responded with her own fake smile, and Arachne knew that Medusa did that only to rile her up. The younger Witch gave a mocking bow and started walking away from the room. "Goodbye. Hopefully we'll see each other soon."
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In another part of the Castle, where the living quarters of Arachne and others close to her were, a young teen was sitting on a dining table, papers and books set all around him. He was well-dressed, wearing a pristine white shirt with dress trousers held in place by brown suspenders.
Giriko walked in with a plate full of sausages. He gave the boy a look and walked over to him. "Oi, kid. Watcha working on?"
"Math," the boy responded, not looking up from his work.
"Oohh." Giriko hissed. "You're on your own buddy. I lost it when they started introducing letters."
"I'm surprised you didn't give up when you had to use double digits," a shorter individual with a very pronounced nose interrupted the man. Mosquito crossed his arms in irritation when he saw the plate Giriko was carrying with him.
"Oi, you looking for a beating old man?!"
"The arrogance! A young thug such as you cannot compare to my form from 100 years ago-!"
"While this conversation is lovely," the teen interrupted the two in a dry tone, "would you mind taking it somewhere else? I'm trying to focus."
Giriko let out a low whistle. "Ah hell, you're acting more like big sis by the day-"
Giriko's remark was cut short by a poke by Mosquito. "But of course, young master. We would not want to disrupt your studies now, would we?" The short man grumbled the last part, aimed at the blonde.
"What are you two fighting about now?" A regal female voice came from the entrance of the study.
The boy looked up from his work, while Giriko and Mosquito stood at attention.
"Milady!"
"Boss!"
"Mother."
"At ease," she said with some humour in her voice. "So, Giriko and Mosquito, why are you two trying to kill each other this time?"
"Milady! If I may, Giriko here was distracting the young master from his studies. I attempted to politely silence him, but the brute only insisted in causing a mess-"
"Oi, that's a big fat lie if I ever heard any! I was just having a conversation with the kid when you had to come in and be a smartass-!"
The two continued their squabbling, causing Arachne to look away in resignation. Meanwhile, the boy had returned to his homework, scribbling over a particularly tricky Calculus problem.
Arachne opened her fan and hid her expression behind it. She looked over at the boy.
"Thanasi?"
The boy ignored the call, too preoccupied by his work
"Thanasi?" Arachne repeated.
No response.
Arachne sighed. "Kid?"
This time, the boy responded by turning his head around. "Mother? You called me?"
"Many times."
"Oh." The boy looked away. "Uh, I didn't realise."
Arachne sighed again. "No matter." She had to get used to this idiosyncrasy some time anyways.
She had tried to give the child a proper name. She had spent quite some time trying to come up with an appropriate one. The problem was her child didn't respond to it, or any other name in general. The only names he did respond to weren't even names; only ways to refer to children. Giriko had accidentally came about that discovery, when he realised the boy responded every time he said 'Kid' or any variation thereof.
"Since these two," she pointed at the pair who were now resigned to giving death glares at each other, "give conflicting testimonies, would you mind sharing what happened?"
"Ah, no problem." The teen put his pencil down. "The whole thing started when Giriko asked me what I was doing-"
"Ha! Told ya I was innocent!"
"No you didn't, you bothered the young master-!"
"Silence, the both of you," Arachne shut them off.
"Yes, Lady Arachne!" the pair immediately said.
The teen gave them a sideways glance but continued. "But then Mosquito challenged him."
"Ha!"
"Giriko, what did I say?"
"Ah, sorry," the man said, with the biggest grin on his face.
"And then Giriko took it a step further-"
The grin was transferred from Giriko to Mosquito, this time accompanied by a smug expression.
"But both are to blame, though they didn't bother me much."
"I see." She turned to the two men. "Both of you, get out. I'll call you soon."
As soon as the two men left the room, the witch turned to the boy.
"You haven't finished?"
"I wanted to make sure my answers are correct."
Indeed, scribbled along the pages were instances of proof for each derivative, sometimes repeated for the same one. Fortunately there was no need to create any diagrams or charts of the sort, as Kid spent too much time on them and they always turned out… idiosyncratic, for lack of a better term.
"That's adequate," Arachne said with a small smile on her face. While not a prodigy, her child was no slouch when it came to their lessons. "After that, we will move on to integrals. Plus, we will expand on the uses of the Area Under Curve, for example, their application in biological models..."
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Soon after that, Arachne was in one of her study rooms, report in hand. Giriko and Mosquito stood next to her, with rapt attention. The Witch was reading a report by the Arachnophobia dispatch by the border and her frown deepened by the minute.
"Was it Medusa?" Giriko asked out of the blue, breaking the silence.
"Is it that obvious?" Arachne responded, not taking her eyes of the report.
"Yeah, you're always a sourpuss after meeting her," Giriko said ignoring the glare both Arachne and Mosquito sent him. "What? I'm only saying the truth."
"I do not mean to insult your family milady, but your sister's manners are lacking," the manservant added after much consideration.
"Medusa is young, naïve and overconfident. Her arrogance will be her demise," Arachne stated, leaving the report on her desk. "Still, to come for me, she must be scared or at least worried."
"Trouble, milady?"
"It's from the Academy, as always." The Witch tapped at the report. "My sister believes they have across a certain… source of knowledge that will allow them to turn the tables on the current state of the conflict."
Even after the simultaneous demise of Death and Asura their respective forces, the Academy and the Clowns, had kept going at each other's throats for the past one and a half decades. Both forces were severely weakened after the fall of their respective leaders however. The Academy had retreated further South, going from desert to the thick jungles on the southern part of the continent, while the Clowns had splintered and being moved underground, literally so in a few cases. Though Arachnophobia itself was supposedly neutral in the current conflict, the Academy despised Arachne and everything she stood for making them enemies in the same way an elephant sees an ant as an opponent. As for the Clowns… well, despite their joint research efforts, Arachne frankly had no idea what went through their fractured psyches.
"Pah, this is barely a conflict at this point. They're a minor insurgency if anything!" Mosquito reassured her. "But surely, turn the tables? What could they possibly do at this point?"
"Hate to agree with the penguin, but he's right," Giriko added, ignoring the shorter man's death glare. "Nothing they can do at this point. They're outmatched and outmanned. What, are they gonna raise Death of something?"
"Don't underestimate people when they are desperate," Arachne stated as she picked up another stack of papers, suppressing the urge to knock on wood at Giriko's words. "That being said, it shouldn't be hard to drive the Academy further back. Giriko, gather up our troops and send an expedition. I want this to be dealt quickly. Mosquito, help him organise."
"Oi, who's gonna protect you and the little squirt?"
"Oh, Giriko, after all these years and you still think I am powerless?" Arachne gave him a small smile. "Don't worry. I've already taken necessary precautions in case of an attack. Unless they mobilise their entire forces, Baba Yaga will hold strong."
The two men hesitantly nodded and obediently left the room.
After they left, Arachne reached for her glass of aged red wine. She took a small sip before her gaze fell into the entrance.
A few seconds passed in silence.
"Come in. You know I can sense you, little one."
The door slightly opened to let the teenage boy in. He stood in attention, though his shoulders were raised defensively.
"Mother."
"Well? Anything you would like to add? I know you eavesdropped."
The boy looked away. "I'm sorry about that. It was rude."
"Don't be. Curiosity should be rewarded."
Besides, it wasn't like Arachne had any reasons for mistrusting Kid. The boy was tidy, organized and polite. If Arachne had any complaints, it would be that he tended to focus on details and often miss the bigger picture, occasionally to an obsessive degree. Still, often a word or two from her would be enough to bring the teen back into focus. She was his mother after all.
"I know it was Aunt Medusa who visited you."
Arachne smiled. 'Aunt' Medusa. Her child was formal to a fault.
"You saw my dissatisfaction."
"No, I sensed her soul." At the Witch's raised eyebrow, Kid gave her a small smile. "I get better at that by the day, though I still can't see most souls clearly enough..."
"It's good that you are making progress."
"What did Aunt Medusa talk to you about?"
"That, my dear boy, is private."
Kid tried to hide his disappointment. He should have known it wouldn't be that easy.
Time for a different tactic. "Giriko mentioned Death."
"You need not worry," Arachne immediately responding, clutching her glass just a tad tighter. "Death is gone for good."
"That's not what I'm worried about... It's quite the opposite."
"Oh?" Arachne raised an eyebrow. She supposed Kid would speak to her about that sooner or later; probably another case of being contrary for the sake of it. "What is it? You look conflicted."
"I've been thinking…" the boy hesitated, knowing his mother's opinion on the topic. "Don't you the absence of Death may have some… negative effects on the world?"
Arachne's frown turned to a scowl. "…Explain."
"Because… a lot of people compare the times when Death existed, and they say that things now are more complicated…"
"Complexity isn't inherently a bad thing."
"No it's not that. They say that now that there is no Death, many things must change and adapt to this new world and that there are problems with making the new changes."
"That is not unusual. It always takes time to adjust to change."
"But what if it's a… lethal change? What if it's like water? Everyone would die if all the water dried out."
Arachne resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She had some pretty crazy ideas when she was a teen too. "That's an interesting perspective you have, my child."
The teen was about to respond but quickly closed his mouth and was about to leave.
"There is one last thing I want to talk with you," Arachne said, causing Kid to turn back to face her. "I have received reports of your training. Physically you are doing excellent. However, I was wondering if you were considering…"
"No." The answer was final and left little room for interpretation.
Arachne conceded with a nod. "As you wish. I know you are as stubborn as I was in my youth." She sighed, and muttered the next part to herself, after Kid had left. "I miss the days when you were younger. You'd be quiet, rest on my lap, and not cause that much of a fuss."
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The name Arachne tried to give Kid is Athanasios, which means 'Immortal/Deathless' in Greek (going by Arachne's name and mythos behind it, I'm assuming she's Greek). One of the more common abbreviations of the name Athanasios is Thanasis (Thanasi when called by someone else because Greek, both modern and ancient, is grammar hell). It should be obvious why Arachne tried to name Kid that. :P
Also nibbling is a gender-neutral term for niece/nephew, you learn something new every day.
Reviews are appreciated.