"My name does not matter to creatures such as yourself."
"I disagree, girl. My kind have not lived so long that we do not conform to manners."
Aelin sighed. This was getting tiresome.
"My name is Ansel. What is your name then spider?"
The beast considered her. Aelin did not like the look in its eye. Eventually it replied,
"My name is not pronounceable on human tounge, girl."
Aelin rubbed her temples. She had heard that stupid phrase more often than she would have liked.
"That is if you are a human," the spider continued, "I do smell something different about you. You smell of ash."
So they knew. They knew that she wasn't fully human. But did they know she was fae?
Aelin grinned at them.
"I'm surprised that something as old as you didn't know what I was."
The spider bristled and spat at her.
"My kind has seen things that your puny mind can only dream of, girl. My kind has witnessed things that would turn your brain to mush, that would make your eyes bleed and your ears go deaf."
Aelin grinned again. Being angry made things stupid, and being stupid got thing killed. She raised her hands in mock defeat.
"I am here for business, not for petty quarreling. I already told you I am here to purchase spider silk-"
"That can be arranged," the spider interrupted.
Aelins eyes gleamed.
"But not from any old spider," she said nocholantly, "The spider I wish to purchase it from make the very finest quality. I know because I have seen it with my own eyes. It was sold to a man, about 25 in age, with brown hair and brown eyes for twenty years off his life. Do you know the spider I am talking about?"
It looked at her, and something that she couldn't quite place shone in its eight ugly eyes.
"Of course," it said in a hoarse wisper. Aelin was shocked. It sounded scared.
It signalled something with its front leg to one of the other spiders around her. The other scuttled off reluctantly.
She was just beginning to wonder whether she had made a very big mistake, when there was a rustle behind her.
A rustle that made her spin and gawk at the thing in her vision.
A spider. But not any old spider.
A spider bigger than a house.