I put the many others bustling about in the warehouse around me out of my mind and watched Eris as she soothed the children's fears. She was acting like a big sister or mother to them. It's a good look on her. That errant thought sent a trill of panic through me. Where the hell did that thought come from?
While I worked through my miniature existential crisis, Eris managed to assure the children that I wasn't going to hurt them and that they were safe. They finally removed their heads from her chest and blinked at me. I managed a weak smile and a half-wave, which, from the looks I received, I doubted did me any favors.
"So, care to enlighten me on what's going on?"
Eris looked from me back to the kids. "It's okay, you can show him," she told the little children.
I didn't know what they meant to show me, but I gave them my full attention. Slowly, a haze appeared around the children's eyes, like heat from a hot summer day. Distorting and twisting around and around. When the shimmering air in front of them stopped, their eyes had changed.
Where once they had both been brown and very nondescript, now a slew of colors filled them. They were not the eyes of humans. The boy's eyes were a deep black with a purple shine around his iris.
The girl's eyes were yellow around the entirety with two pinpricks of black for the iris. They were both larger than a normal humans, but not quite as big around as Eris's.
Are they entomancers like her?
When I asked this question, Eris told me no, they weren't. She had a sad look on her face as she confirmed that she was still alone. However, it went away when she next spoke, answering my question.
"They may not be entomancers, but they are still Hive. They are arachne."
"Arachne…like spiders?" I asked, trying and failing to keep the fear from rising in my voice.
"Yes! They are arachne spiderlings, the youngest of the brood."
She started speaking to them, but not in any language I was familiar with. It used mostly clicks of the tongue and the lower muscles in the throat. It was bizarre, and to top it off, my interface couldn't even translate it, leaving me feeling like I was being left out of the conversation, though I didn't necessarily mind.
Keep the freaky spider kids away from me. I'd gotten used to Eris, and while my once-phobia of insects and spiders had been significantly mitigated, I was still terrified of the creepy things. Even if they looked mostly human, hearing the word spider sent angst and fear through me. I'll happily face Liam again or a horde of crater snakes, but keep the tiny crawling, flying, biting, and stinging bastards far away.
Eris could feel the fear that was still present in me, and she frowned at me, but her eyes were sparkling. She had some idea cooking in her head and wiggled her fingers, letting a few drops of magic slip out.
I sighed, knowing exactly where this was going.
Spiders came crawling through the wooden walls and seeming out of nowhere from the dirt floor, skittering over one another to reach their mistress. The children's eyes lit up at the sight of all the things crawling towards them, like a long-lost pet finally returning home. They picked them up with small squeals of delight and let them crawl up and down. Under the command of Hive magic, I knew the spiders were no threat, but I still froze when they climbed over me.
Eris would get her feelings hurt if I freaked out about them, so for her, I stayed still and let the bugs skirt over my hands. I'd seen her use her magic enough times before, but I still hated the feeling of their many legs skittering over my skin. Eventually, my fear subsided, and I came not to mind the bugs so much, though I heaved a sigh of relief when they finally departed from me, back to their hidden nests.
The sight of the spiders had done its job, and the children were in excellent spirits as they played with Eris. She kept talking to them in their strange language, and I left them to it.
I stood up from the ground and went to check on the progress of the rest of the freed slaves. In the few minutes I'd left them to their own devices, they hadn't wasted a single second. Most of them were garbed in much nicer clothes than the soiled rags they'd been wearing. Nothing too fancy, but sturdy clothing meant for traveling.
Most of the elves and rabbitmen wore makeshift shawls to hide their unique traits. As long as anyone didn't get too close, people wouldn't be able to tell them apart from humans.
The dwarves were a little more difficult to disguise, but they'd belted short swords and daggers to themselves in an attempt to dissuade anyone from attempting to recapture them. Each and every one of the once slaves had small packs filled with all manner of pilfered goods, and the chest of gold on the floor was now empty.
They were as ready as they could be. It wouldn't be easy to get them out of Central and the East Kingdoms, but with the gold we had, I didn't think there wasn't anyone we couldn't bribe to secure safe passage.
"Everyone ready?"
A slew of affirmations rang through the storehouse. Right, time to burn down this bitch!
I picked up two of the jury-rigged torches and lit them with one of the sconces that hung along the walls. Both pieces of timber wood went up quickly, even without an accelerant. The flames crackled
