As Hazō stood at the entrance of Sanctuary, the Arachnid capital, he wished the whole thing had been made of seals so he could burn a perfect image of it into his memory.
The city was a vast three-dimensional web suspended across a bottomless abyss. Silver strands of every size (some as narrow as Hazō's arm and others wide enough to admit a caravan) reached up and down from the walls, drawing complex patterns as they met and intertwined. Cocoon-like houses, each a different shape, sprawled between the threads or hung from them. And at the city's heart, at the conjunction of hundreds of threads, lay a shimmering rainbow sphere the size of a clan compound, dotted with entrances at every angle.
Looking around, Hazō couldn't see a single surface that wasn't being used for travel. Sanctuary had no concept of walls or roofs, and arachnids would shift from the top to the underside of a thread in order to keep going without getting in each other's way, or lower themselves to a different level on a thread of their own. Far beneath Hazō, a platform the size of a training field hung by a single extremely thick thread, a pack of small Arachnids using it to practice ninjutsu without risking collateral damage.
"Come, come," Kumouōkā said, presumably mistaking his silence for hesitation. "Mighty adamantine threads do not collapse from weight of tiny mammals. Are we Hornet Clan, to embarrass ourselves with crude nests?"
Hazō nodded without listening. He'd been annoyed at first to hear that Kumokōgō had been called back to the city instead of meeting them near the border as planned, but now he thanked the ancestors, the Will of Fire, the Sage of Six Paths, and anybody else willing to take credit. When this mission was over, the Human Path was going to witness an architectural revolution.
"You find us at bad time," Kumouōkā said reluctantly. "The weaverkin competition comes soon, so Sanctuary ugliest is."
"It's
what?" Hazō choked out in disbelief.
There was a pause as Kumouōkā tried to figure out what was so hard to understand about its statement.
"Ah, mammals must have no weaverkin," she said. "So sorry for you. How do you live?"
When Kumouōkā realised no response was forthcoming, she carried on chirpily. "I wanted to be weaverkin, but was born mite. It happens. Anyway, every eight cycles, the weaverkin compete. Mother judges which new dwellings are finest. Gives them she to those who lived in worst, then casts those into the great depth, and all cheer. Competition soon, Sanctuary will be better than ever.
"Hope no evacuation, so that do not cancel," she added less chirpily. "Now walk. Mother waits, but mammal only four legs, so slow. Really, how do you live?"
Canabisu gave Hazō a smug look. The other dogs were too busy psyching themselves up to walk over a gaping abyss to take the opportunity.
It only took them a couple of minutes before they drew level with the first dwelling, a mound made of walls of tiny panels seemingly hanging unsupported in the air, their shapes interlocking like puzzle pieces that didn't quite touch each other. Only after a close look could Hazō see the superfine strands of silk linking them together.
"Skilled but derivative," Kumouōkā commented casually. "To make pastiche of High Weaver Kumori's work, only apprentice. If I weaverkin, I make twice as good. Four times. Well-made, so will not drop this competition, but maybe third, fourth."
"Is this for real?" Canabisu asked. "People put this much effort into building a
house?"
"Nest is clan; nest is holy," Kumouōkā said in a how-do-you-not-get-this voice. "Almost as much as oath. You no give to nest, why be?
"Come, come. Mammal face changes many ways. Want to see how changes when you palace inside see. Inside is four times as great as outside. Eight times. Only High Weaverkin renovate."
The team walked on, accompanied by disturbing chittering noises as arachnids above, below, and on parallel strands paused in their daily routines to watch a strange and unfamiliar species being escorted the way one escorted fellow sapient beings.
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The size of the Orbularium, the Arachnid palace, made a lot more sense when Hazō beheld its most important inhabitant. Cannai could vaguely fit within Hazō's mind as "a dog but large", at least before the Alpha's body was eclipsed by his force of personality. Kumokōgō, if she was literally Kumowasha's mother, must have been of a species where the female was much greater than the male (insofar as such concepts applied to the artificially-created summons). There was no arachnophobe on the Human Path who would not faint cold at the sight of their reflection in her many kickball-sized eyes. Hazō himself, not an arachnophobe at all, could suddenly empathise with them like never before.
It didn't help that the large oval chamber was filled with other arachnids, who might have been Kumokōgō's court, officials pausing in their duties to gawk, an elite guard ready to fill him with venom at the slightest perceived offence, or just about anything else. The chittering was giving him goosebumps. The dogs, who had never met an arachnid before, were faring worse, and their concentration was on standing bold and definitely not cowering. Canabisu seemed happy to let Hazō lead the negotiations this time.
"Silence, children," Kumokōgō hissed. "Visitors from afar, news comes before you. I am Kumokōgō, mother and guardian, ruler and slayer. I grant hospitality, I receive wisdom of seal-maker."
"I am Hazō of the Gōketsu Clan, Dog Summoner from the Human Path," Hazō introduced himself. He bowed deeply—even if the gesture itself was meaningless to an arachnid, the fact that he was
making a gesture would surely be recognised by a monarch. "With me are Canabisu, Canault, Cangue, and Cantelabra, emissaries of the Dog Clan of the distant east."
"A rare gift, to meet a youngest child of the Great Maker and hunters of legend," Kumokōgō said, raising herself slightly to reveal a blood-red hourglass marking on her lower abdomen. "Let us exchange many tales, once Eaters driven from this land. But wisdom cuts before thread frays. We shall speak wisdom.
"By ancient oath, Hazō of the Gōketsu, we learn no sealcraft. You are a maker of seals, true it is?"
"That's correct," Hazō said. "I'm not the greatest sealmaster on the Human Path, or even in my village, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. But if you show me the seal, I should be able to make a copy and take it back so I can study it together with the others. I think that's our best chance to figure out what's wrong with it and find a solution."
"It is well," Kumokōgō allowed. "Of one obstacle let us speak."
"The Dragon Clan?" Hazō asked.
"Of one obstacle first," Kumokōgō said. "By ancient oath, only she who leads the Arachnid Clan may lay eyes on the Great Seal. So has it been for a thousand years. So must it be for a thousand more."
Hazō frowned. "Can
you make a copy? No, wait, that's no good. A non-sealmaster copying a seal is a terrible idea."
"To meddle with the seal without knowledge fills me with terror also," Kumokōgō agreed. "The Great Maker commanded the clans to no seals make. If he feared, what of us?"
"Then can you make an exception?" Hazō asked. "I know it's a lot to ask, but it sounds like you're in an existential crisis here."
"Not 'we'," Kumokōgō corrected. "All."
"What do you mean?"
"The Dragons are not like other clans. The Dragons served the Great Maker. In other Paths they fought, with the Maker they soared between, until for oathbreaking Seventh Path was made their prison. But from eating, the Eaters regain stolen strength. Before the Maker crafted his seal, they devoured the Archaeopteryx Clan and regained wings. They devoured the Ankylosaurus Clan and regained scales. When they consume the power in the other clans vested and prismatic the skies become, they shall surely regain the art of parting the veil. Then the Great Maker's home shall be the first target of vengeance."
Hazō had been right all along. The Eaters
were terrifying eldritch abominations. The Eaters
were an existential threat, not only to distant clans in a distant world, but to everyone and everything without exception. And if all that stood between the Human Path and the end of all things was how much they needed to eat before they were back to full strength… this was no longer a matter just for Hidden Leaf.
Hazō's mind began to spin. Leaf's summoner dominance would work against it. Without a way to independently confirm the information, the other villages were unlikely to contribute some of their most valuable ninja to cooperate with an implausible-sounding Leaf project. What would suffice as a show of good faith? Donations of resources? Clan secrets? Would Asuma even go for something like that?
The wheels spun faster. Didn't Akatsuki have a summoner? But depending on how things played out in Rock… yes, there was a chance that Hazō had badly stabbed himself in the foot by sending Hidan against Leaf's greatest enemy. Belief in a pre-existing Leaf-Akatsuki alliance out to get Leaf's rivals would be a great reason to dismiss Akatsuki's testimony supporting the project.
Then again, Akatsuki were Akatsuki. Could they
force—
"He who hesitates is preparing a lie," Kumokōgō said meaningfully. "To be of one mind, both must speak theirs."
"Sorry," Hazō said. "I was thinking about how to handle this on the Human Path. But you're right. We need to sort out this oath business. Can you really not make an exception?"
There was an explosion of chittering. Suddenly, faster than his kinetic vision, Kumokōgō's huge eyes were nearly touching his own.
"You who are heir of the Great Maker, who stand here by contract, power of oaths mock? Oaths not words woven into the walls of Cathedral that Was. Oaths not whispers imparted by priestess to initiate. Oaths bind soul to body. Oaths make world. To mock oaths is to seek unmaking of world. Such must be only slain."
"I'm sorry!" Hazō exclaimed as the arachnids around him began to stir. "I misspoke. I don't intend to challenge the significance of oaths at all."
"Your apology accepted is," Kumokōgō said, scuttling back. "There is no second."
Hazō took a few moments to calm down.
"Still, if I can't look at the seal, then we're at an impasse," he said. "And it's your people who are in danger as long as that impasse continues."
"This is truth," Kumokōgō said. "But perhaps is one way."
"What is it?"
"Special right of ruler is. For noble deed, Mother may make consort ruler-in-spirit, grant authority if there is to be done. Is right not meant for use such as this, but maybe not violate oath. No, I say does not violate oath."
"All right," Hazō said, calling on the Iron Nerve not to sag in relief. "Let's do that, then."
"This is good," Kumokōgō said. "Hazō of the Gōketsu, do you swear loyalty to this one, Kumokōgō of the Arachnid Clan, to serve need and give body and mind, and to bring power to empty places?"
"Wait," Hazō said. "I can't just swear loyalty to another clan. I'm already loyal to Hidden Leaf, and the Alpha of the Dog Clan would have something to say as well. Even if it's to save the world, I have to at least get their permission."
"Is not oath to clan," Kumokōgō corrected. "Is oath from male to female only. For arachnid, is great honour. To save world, demand smaller than speck of dust."
Great. So instead of being asked to betray Leaf, he was just being asked to marry a giant spider. What kind of life did Hazō lead where these were the choices he had to consider?
"Is great honour," Kumokōgō repeated. "Rules must accept. Do not be at one with other females. Do not lie to Great Mother. Do not renovate Orbularium without permission."
"I have to at least speak to my current partner," Hazō said, "and there are people from whom I should seek advice before making this decision."
"Acceptance you already made," Kumokōgō said. "To turn back is dishonour. Dishonour to ruler is death. But… will make concession. Exists crime that breaks consort bond. When seal is remade, you commit this crime, I punish with exile. No oath broken is. Until then, you and I are bonded pair."
"…And you say the alternative is death?" Not that Hazō couldn't just return to the Human Path, but presumably he would then be barred from Arachnid Clan lands, and he wasn't sure what would happen to the dogs either.
"Yes."
"Fine," Hazō said wearily. "For the specific purpose of working together to defeat the Eaters, I will be your consort."
"It is done," Kumokōgō said. "Now come, let us consummate our bonding."
"Wait, what?"
Kumokōgō effortlessly picked up Hazō with her front legs, her grip strong as steel. "Is not consort without consummation. Fear not, I will seek to be gentle."
"Don't worry," Kumouōkā called after him as he was carried away into another chamber. "The strong ones survive seven times out of ten!"
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