The tower was identical to all the other towers on the wall with a metal banded door on the road level and two others leading onto the top of the wall. The only difference was that one window on the top level had a long tapestry of white cloth that hung halfway down the tower.

  Taramo, Gerolf, and the guards were at the end of the street looking at it through the vision of one of the butterfly constructs. It was resting on the rooftop and was looking at the window which had curtains of the same pale make.

  "So are we going to say hello?" Taramo was sitting balanced on a half-broken stool that he'd glued together and was scratching Spot, who was entirely unconcerned with the exasperated arguments between Gerolf and the guards. They were speaking their common which Taramo had some understanding of, but they were speaking and whispering so he wasn't trying to listen. Even so he got some words.

  "-not a guarantee they'd be an enemy-"

  "-can we take the risk? We know what they are capable-"

  "-if we prejudge how are we any better-"

  Taramo let them go on but decided to intervene when they'd started to shout.

  "I don't know what you're arguing about but unless we want to get the attention of whoever is in the tower we should be quieter."

  The guards let Gerolf speak first

  "What we know is that whoever is there has access to a lot of silk, since they use it so liberally. That means that they are or are working with arachne." Both Gerolf and the guards seemed to think that was sufficient to explain their argument.

  "I don't follow." The guards looked at Taramo as if he had just stated he did not, in fact, agree that two and two made four. Gerolf had an epiphany about then.

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  "Ahh. I didn't know that lady Aria had sheltered you so much since you were here. The arachne were the people who took over the city and used it as a fortress of their empire. They were fond of taking slaves and most people have history that is unfriendly with them. They are as likely to be enslaved as the slavers but my guards don't want to take a risk with someone who stayed behind or settled after the city was abandoned. They are long lived and most live in their own enclaves or a continent away where they still dominate."

  "So this is someone powerful. Then why don't we just go back and come with more people if you think we can't handle them?"

  "They'll probably know we came and if we left they could go to any hiding place in the city. Now that we know they are here it would be foolish to lose track of them, even if they could be allies."

  "Well," Taramo activated his personal defense wards, "we will be finding out quite soon if they're friendly"

  The projected image was now much closer to the tower, inside, with a coil of silk that had lashed out and entangled the butterfly and yanked it into gloved hands. A pale skinned person with an unadorned silk tunic and a mottled brown spider's body below the navel was turning the mana-creation in her hands. She had two main eyes, two secondary eyes, and four small dots that might be, all were a uniform black.

  Taramo didn't have his butterfly self destruct because that would immediately start hostilities, but he was considering setting up two way communication through them when the arachne interfaced with his butterfly, and she could see them.

  "This is the web-mother's work. I can feel it. Why is she not there with you? Did she send you?" She seemed befuddled, then looked at Spot, who was looking through the butterfly to the arachne.

  "You have him? But he only serves the Mother? She's alive!? You must have stolen him! The mother can't act without him. He NEEDS to go back." And she crushed the butterfly, making the image that was projected wink out.

  "That's not good. We have to go." Gerolf and the guards were now in agreement and they quickly left the room and building. Taramo followed, not certain what to think since they didn't seem innately hostile, but they would do anything for their 'web mother' which meant stealing Spot, who was not willing to rest in Taramo's wand.

  "Fine, but if she steals you I'm not bothering to get you back." Spot huffed, knowing that to be a lie.