as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

The spider witch waited until the crowd dispersed, dawdling around the bone pits in search of stones. She might as well get started as she waited for the area the clear. Thothaga wanted to speak with the Collector- Algol, alone. Especially since he wasn't popular with the Bonebound. If they saw her conversing with him, they may not let her back in. Fools. She thought bitterly. To think they own Canis, bah! They have no right. No one does.

It must have been her lucky day, because among the bones, she sensed the presence of a strong stone. In life the gembound must have been at its full potential. Thothaga snatched it up and scurried back towards the West Wall.

When all was quiet, she approached.

"Collector, Collector, come out. I must speak with you." She called out. Thothaga groomed her fangs while she waited. She was lot bigger since she last spoke with him, having grown at least a foot or two taller since then, rivaling the height of a small horse.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Master: 1

Ahh... Her again.

The Collector watched as the spider made her way around Canis, furred feet tapping here and there. She'd grown, he observed idly. Larger, perhaps stronger; more powerful, too? Does she know there's others like her? I think not, but she will find out soon enough, the tragic fool. Along with the rest of them, doing his bidding, blind. It'd have been funny, if it weren't not.

He waited, fully expecting her to call for him, though he lurked unseen. And when she did, he wearily put on the grin--she couldn't see it, no, but he was sure they could hear it--and let false enthusiasm sweep through his demeanor and his voice.

The Collector stepped from behind a stone, arms sweeping out as if to greet an old friend. "Ahhh, Thothaga. The Spider, the Spinner, the Weaver; you look well. I hear you've met old Merchant at last. I trust you've kept my warning in mind..? Aiding him only to test him, yes?"

@Thothaga

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

A dark, horned silhouette slipped into her vision almost ethereally, as if straight out the Merchant's illusion. She regarded him for a moment, taking note of the eerie similarity the fake Algol had with the real one. Honestly, it was bit off putting.

Thothaga puffed up at his welcoming words. She had no idea if they were genuine, but she desperately wanted them to be. "Ah, yes," She answered. Thothaga didn't know what she was testing him for-- motive? "And myself as well." She also confessed. "T'was somewhat dangerous, but rather fascinating!" It was no secret she'd been using the Merchant's trials to grow, even if it was in a way she did not expect.

The Maiden's eyes sparkled as she dipped into a more playful tone. "You know, he called you a doddering troublemaker, seeking playthings." She teased, cocking her body to one side. I wonder what he'll think of that. "Hah, doddering.. well, you if hadn't popped out of that stone, I'd hardly know you were ancient, if that is any consolation."


"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

The Collector listened, sombrely.

He and the Merchant had goals that overlapped just a little--but more often than not, their methods clashed. The Collector was subtle. He was sophisticated. -At least, in his own mind. He would set up grand, relatively harmless schemes, working over centuries--and then that damned antlered bastard would turn up and hamfistedly throw all of his... participants into a Pit of Death, or something, and ruin everything.

"Mm," he said, consideringly--if "mm" can be considered enough of a word to "say"--and drummed the claws of one hand against his closed cloak. "I would not concern myself with his words too deeply, if I were you. He is ancient, and dangerous, and so far beyond any of us that his opinions of us are never likely to be flattering, or even interesting... Ask him, some day--Spinner of Dreams--ask him what he thinks of you. Of you, and of all your kind." The answer to that was likely to prove rather unflattering, the Collector thought.

Honestly, he was a little down. With the Merchant's presence, there was little that he, himself, could do and feel confident that he'd have any effect on anything whatsoever. Controlled chaos was one thing; utterly ordered destruction in neatly-filed lines of madness was something else altogether.

If nothing else, one had to admire the way the Merchant made total chaos into something resembling a well-oiled machine; his abilities at practical paradox were impressive.

"Now... To what do I owe the honor?"

@Thothaga

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

That was not quite the reaction she was expecting, but...

Spinner of Dreams? She thought. I quite like that. "Of course,." She said at his digression. Thothaga shuffled her fangs, now on to the real reason she came. "I wanted.. to thank you." She said. "Your wisdom helped me see through the Merchant's illusions, and in doing so.. saved my life, helped me grow... you were right." The spider witch found the words hard to spit up, not because she detested Algol, in fact her feelings were quite opposite. She was not used to showing gratitude, especially to those she admired. "I have learned much about myself..." She trailed off, recalling the last illusion she saw in the cave, the one that hurt. Is it because I truly desired it?

Gradually, the cloudiness parted from her jet-black eyes. He had her full attention again. "I want to help you." She began, perking up. "I hear you like to do favors, yes?"


"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

The Collector listened, leaning back idly against a stone wall. Half of him was tempted to say, "no." No, he didn't like "doing favors." He liked his work, and "favor" was but a word, and hardly an accurate one at that, given the situation.

"Of course," was what he actually crooned, holding both palms out. Disgusting. "Why, there is nothing I adore more than aiding those in need... the lost; the abandoned--... Oh, but I myself hardly need help, dear spider. What is it that you need?"

He really didn't want to hear it, but here they were.

@Thothaga

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

"Answers." She said plainly.

"I grow tired of being kept in the dark." Her dark eyes hungered. "There are many things I must ask you..." The spider's voice became hushed. ..But, I need the truth.. and your discretion." Thothaga paused. Her vision was poor, but still, she watched the shadows. What Astraea had told her worried her. Like how she foresaw Dragon's own meeting, she did not know who, or what could be watching. She did not know what Nemean was capable of, or any of the other "Masters". Her fangs shuffled nervously, though her tone remained serious. "What can I do to ensure that?"

She wanted to see Algol as an ally, or at the very least, a trusted informant. He was the only ancient that she knew who had been trapped in a prison for the last couple of eons, and no one bothered to free him, not even Astraea, or the Masked Merchant with all his godlike powers. Perhaps his loyalties lied somewhere else.

Thothaga was afraid of what she would uncover, but she had to know. She had to tug at his seams.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

The Collector held out both hands, again, palms upward as if to say he was completely harmless.

"Knowledge, Lady Spinner, is but another form of currency. You always, however, will have my discretion--so long as I have yours. Whatever I tell you, you must swear upon your eight-legged-little-life never to divulge the source of--you must never tell anyone that it was I who told you; not even in hint, rhyme or song. As for the cost of knowledge itself, well-... that depends very much upon your questions, don't you think? And whether or not I might have the answers."

A flick of the wrist, and his clawed hand delved into his robe. A moment later it came out with a small sheet of parchment paper, worn with age and lined with ancient script. With a slight whip of his hand, he presented this to Thothaga. "As for the first part: regardless of our conversations henceforth, discretion for discretion. Just sign here." One index finger's claw tapped at a large, bare portion of the paper, near the bottom--intended, it seemed, for Thothaga to touch.

@Thothaga

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Thothaga chittered in amusement. "That's Lady Spellweaver to you."

A flick of movement caught her attention and the spider stiffened. Algol held out something light. Where did that come from, his sleeve? She wondered if he had been hiding it there the whole time. He was waiting to do that, wasn't he? The way Algol spoke, it sounded like he wanted to make a pact, one bound in this.. floppy little thing. Words were important to her. Her spells depended on them. As a matter of fact, the art of conversation was magick within itself. "Oh, my dear Collector, I'll have you know that my word is by bond." She reassured him, then playfully jabbed. "But if this let's your horned-little-head sleep at night, then very well." Thothaga crawled forward and pressed her nearsighted eyes to it. It looked like a weird, flimsy leaf-- She looked closer-- with markings, similar to the ones seen etched in the tunnels. In her visions, they seemed to speak to those who stared at them. Quietly, Thothaga casted a spell to aid her investigation.

"Ohh," Her dark eyes lit up with interest.

For awhile, the spider witch stood there, scanning the parchment, studying the characters as if she were absorbing every last detail they spoke of. "Yesss, yesss!" She called out, reaching an understanding.

The spider lifted up her paw as if to sign it, then paused, pointing to it instead. "I can't read." She stated anticlimactically. Thothaga tilted to the side."What does it say? She asked the Collector curiously.


"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

What's up, I'm Thothaga, I'm 14, and I never learned how to fucking read.

Thothaga's magic would likely tell her that there was nothing magical about this paper. The Collector eyed her, then the parchment, and then Thothaga, again, his crimson pinprick eyes studying her for a moment.

"Why, it is a contract, dear Lady Spellweaver," he explained. "It states that anything we tell one another is to be kept in the strictest confidence; and that if one of us breaks this pact, the payment will be revoked. That is to say--the knowledge removed from our minds."

He sounded as though he were grinning.

@Thothaga