They finally arrived, it was a cenote. When the ceiling of the cave had fallen some trees went sideways or even vertical, growing into natural bridges down to the pit itself.

But the worrying part was the webs, too thick to be from any spiders Harlan knew of, covering the entire area around it. Deer and wolves stuck to it, some still struggling. Then Harlan saw what he was supposed to be dealing with, a spider 10 feet from front to back, crawled up the pit, bit the struggling animals and then wrapped them in webs before carrying them back down into its home.

Harlan tried to think of what it even was. It was covered in thick chitinous plates, hair stuck out from between them. If he didn’t see it moving he might have thought it was a giant rock..

It wasn’t in any books he read.

“Breken, what is that? Can I even kill it?”

“Can you? Of course not, I’m going to kill it, you’re just support.”

Harlan had never seen Breken use anything but a training sword; what he pulled out here was a blade like many others in shape, but it had dull red veins running along its edge. Breken noticed his gaze.

“Low grade fire steel, naturally formed, cheaper mana than enchantments. Better for someone like me who is a soldier first and mage second. I’ll probably replace it with one of those soul enchanted blades soon.”

“Why not have me soul enchant it?”

“I’ll hold you to that. But enough. Here is the plan, you start burning the webs around the edges. Bolder spiders have highly flammable webs since they are naturally in such damp environments that it’s not a problem. When it comes out I will start fighting it, if you see it web me shoot fire at it so it chases you. They are heavy and slow ambush predators, using either webs or its own natural camouflage to get prey. If it’s set up a nest then it’s probably laid eggs already. The hair on its legs let it feel vibrations, they have poor eyesight otherwise. I’m going to try and burn them until it can barely see me. This is an endurance fight. Understood?”

“Yes.”

Harlan did as asked, shooting fire from his fingertips instead of fireballs so he could save mana.

The webs stunk as they burned, eventually as the flames went over the edge and into the cenote itself he heard a scream followed by popping sounds, the eggs were bursting. And the spider was very upset at this.

It crept up the opening in the ground with some of its remaining eggs webbed to its back.

Breken stomped his feet and yelled, drawing its attention.

Instead of rushing towards Breken it rapidly stomped its feet, sending tremors and shards of rock at Breken, who deflected and dodged as needed.

Then he moved at a shocking speed at the beast, once in range he started just barely clipping the edges of its hairs, the fire spread and burned a few hairs around it. The plan worked flawlessly, Breken avoided the webs that it did try and shoot and was getting ready to start finishing it off after 10 minutes.

Then something came from the woods. A second spider, smaller by half at least, its plates were thin and looked closer to bark than stone.

“Harlan! Deal with that one, bark spider. Ambusher, weak physically. Probably the male whose eggs the bolder spider has.” Harlan took a second to process this, he knew of sexual dimophism, but this was fairly extreme to him.

It was weaker but faster than the female, Harlan rushed and struck it as hard as he could between its legs, middle of the chest seemed best.

It flew with a sickening crack and scream, one of its legs nearly tore off by being clipped with the heavy handed punch.

It would’ve screamed longer but Harlan used a shrinking dome of flame around it, hoping to just singe off all its hair, but Breken wasn’t joking when he said it was physically weak. Harlan heard it crackle and then pop as the dome of fire closed on it, leaving just a charred husk. Harlan decided to try and help Breken as well with a splash of sticky fire on the boulder spider’s back. He made the cloying flames thinner so they would soak under its plates, it screamed so loud Harlan’s eardrums burst and he fell over. Breken barely got him out of the way of its mandibles.

He brought Harlan to the treeline and then went back to finish it off. After either 5 minutes or an hour, Harlan couldn’t tell, Breken was back.

“Can you stand? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, and yes…”

“You should’ve listened to the plan, those things only scream like that when you finish off all of its eggs, they would’ve burst had it done that earlier, that’s why I didn’t burn the rest off its back. But good fight with the bark spider. Let’s get you back to the camp.”

Harlan felt calmer the moment he saw the camp, their little safe zone.

He decided to speak with the darkness when he got back.

“Lost child, you come once more, and you are better, your soul is stormy, but not the gale it once was, I am happy for that. And he is right, it was a good fight.”

“How much do you see?”

“I see what all my children see, even if they are connected by bond and not pact. Like those who you now call family.”

“What IS the pact? You mentioned someone called Aine as well, she has some pact with werewolves?”

“I cannot speak of what your pact is, the pact asks this of me. And Aine is the Goddess of the Moon. her pact granted power to humans, her children are what you call werewolves.”

“Wait… I thought the gods left?”

“I think it best to not speak overly of them, they are dead but their followers still roam these lands. The gods of men are gone, the true gods remain. Aine of the moon, Aard of this world, and us lesser gods, born of their mana.”

“What is your name then?”

“I forgo a name. You may call me the mother in the darkness, as your forbearers did. But did you come here to ask these questions?”

“Ah… sorry, no I didn’t.”

“Worry not my child, your curiosity is not to draw my ire. Let us speak of you, your life. I have seen but not felt like you.”

Harlan told her everything, from his dreams when he first slept to how he felt about his most recent fight. She was overjoyed and saddened as he spoke.

“Your path is painful, though far too common.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“I said before, there is never a path of no harm. The same is true for a path of no pain. Keep those who you love close, harm them not. Grow into a better man, causing no undue harm as best you can. You are not meant for lonesome living, so find those whose light lengthens your shadows. Does that sound right to you?

“I think it does… I should go, there must be other people who want to talk with you.”

“While we have spoke I have spoke to many others, most your kin. I stretch across this world, into even the parts which your kind no not of.”

Harlan hesitated.

“Are my parents, the people who gave birth to me… are they alive?”

“I do not answer questions such as that. There is much that could be solved if I did, but much pain that would be brought if I answered as well. I am always here to speak with you, to guide you down your path, but I do not wish to control others overtly. Your kin wouldn’t take your path, nor should you take theirs without reason.”

“Thank you… I think I should sleep now, how long has it been?”

“It has been 2 days of your time. Sleep well my child, welcome joys into your heart, yet harden it to those who would pull you from your chosen path.”

Harlan woke up, but this time there wasn’t a crater, the campsite was still there, far away from him.

Wisps of shadow smoke rose from the ground and were washed away in the wind.

He could smell that Breken was cooking breakfast.

“I hope you had a good talk with her.”

“I did, I told her a lot, and she gave me advice.”

“I think another week before we head back, but before that… I need to talk with you about what you are going to tell people when we get back.”

“Oh?”

“You can’t tell people that I was nice, I have a reputation as a hardass to keep up. I helped Ava when she was upset about you, she has helped keep up my face as well. I got you out here by saying it was a survival camp and to get you practical experience. People… People look down on those with unwell minds, you wouldn’t be allowed in the army as you were before, and you would be blacklisted from trying again. Even if you were put back together, they will think you are broken.”

“Oh…”

“Don’t worry about it, they are assholes anyway. Now, eat. We have work to do, you should be moving, breathing fresh air. I am still going to teach you actual survival skills.”

Nothing else happened, no band of orcs came over the hill, no more giant spiders, not even a rotten vegetable when he didn’t expect it. He felt better, like he was ok. He didn’t even jump when a strange bird landed on a rock near him and loudly squawked.

And so a week passed, and they loaded up their camp, tearing down the home in the hillside so as to not leave a scar on nature there beyond what Harlan already did.

Harlan started carving again, this time instead of animals and monsters, he carved his family, his friends, any superstitious good luck charms he knew from Reet and Ky.

He felt real relief working the wood.