"Lady Arachne? Lady Arachne?!" said a young woman's voice, sounding very clearly afraid.
Of course, she would be afraid, she was entering the monster's den after all. Or rather my humble abode. Over the years I made sure to make this place as comfortable and welcoming as possible. But with the lack of more civilized materials, this place had a bit of a wild look. The only person visiting this place did not mind, she even seemed to enjoy it here. This, left me confused for a while, why would anyone want to sacrifice the comfort of modern housing? But eventually, I understood that Saphho just liked my big game fur rugs on the floor. She even wrote a poem about it, something about an Amazonian mother helping her partner while they were choking. With Sappho's advancing age she must have disliked cold floor and the fur from a big game would keep her warm. And that is how I figured out that she liked it and made a "carpet" for her.
"What is it?" I asked, not out of curiosity, but just to make sure that my theory was confirmed.
Sappho was old. Very old for this time period. For the last few years, she had to use a walking stick, to assist her movement and her visits have become fewer and shorter. Usually, she would go and visit me on her own, but during her last five visits, I noticed that she was accompanied by someone. Someone who was helping her move, but never came closer. Either they were afraid or were ordered not to come, it never came up in our conversations. And since no angry mob with torches was coming my way I let it be. It must have been this young woman who was speaking since no one else would know about a way to my dwelling.
"Its-Its master Sappho! She is..."
"Did she pass away?" I asked, voice cold and emotionless.
I felt my heart squeeze in my chest, my breath hitched, but this was no time to panic. There was no reason for it, no enemy attacking, I checked my surroundings the moment I registered the younger woman's presence and there was no one else beside her. Right now focusing on things at hand was the most important. The young woman herself did not seem to be armed and thus could be concluded that she came purely because of information about Sappho.
"No! But I think she will soon... I-I think she wants to see you, but-but she can't move much anymore,"
Over the years and decades, the span of her lifetime, Sappho became an irreplaceable asset to me. Someone who could be unconditionally trusted, which she proved again and again, as there were no soldiers or would-be heroes knocking on my doors, trying to slay the monster. Someone who could provide external retrospection, not objective as she certainly could not be objective about my person, but was let to know me enough to be able to point out my character flaws, as she usually did in her poems. And now the time was running out for her. A long time ago I would consider this such a waste of human resources and my investments. But now. Now I knew that my investments in Sappho would be paying their dividends for many more years. As long as I lived. The past me would have been confused, but that is to be expected since they did not have my current view on the flow of time and until Visha they never had anyone so close.
I have been preparing for this occasion for some time now. I had an illusion spell ready, that would make my spider parts invisible, would not require much mana and was easily castable within milliseconds even without computation orb. In other words, I have mastered computational magic illusions like no one else in my current life or even the previous one.
Avoiding humanity has been my primary goal for the past several centuries, ever since I became half spider half woman. That is why seeing the ancient Greek city in all its beauty shocked me. And the number of humans was overwhelming. Getting to Sappho's housing could not be done without the help of the young woman who was my guide, to avoid all the pedestrian traffic and not bumping into anyone which would dispel my illusion. After a few brief minutes, which felt like hours, we arrived at Sappho's house.
It was a nice mid-size villa, which meant that Sappho must have earned a lot of money. This type of villa was something I once planned to own. Before I was changed against my will, by a self-proclaimed goddess who I suspected to be one of Being X's lackeys. If she or one of her kind ever came to bother me again I would have no mercy.
There in her bed lays Sappho. An old lady, with gray hair and wrinkles. She clearly looked tired just because of breathing, yet she smiled once she saw me. What little of HR manager remained in me was smug because Sappho would make a very loyal employee, the military commander of my second life was overjoyed for such a brilliant comrade, Sappho was. I was glad that I met her. Sappho is neither my employee nor my subordinate, we are equal business partners. And that is why the current situation is so unfortunate. Finding a replacement for her might be outright impossible, though statistically speaking it would be only improbable, given the presumed timescales. Alas, I was here not to contemplate about past and future, but to conduct a business. Probably for one the last time.
"Good day to you, Sappho," I greeted her.
"Good day indeed, where were you hiding those legs?!"
"The human legs are an illusion spell I crafted over the years. Though they are just that, an illusion,"
"Too bad," Sappho looked disappointed.
I was also disappointed. While I managed to adapt to being a spider centaur quite easily, the fact that I was not able to integrate into human society and conduct business with them, was irritating and highly unproductive. What a waste.
We conversed like we did most of the time during our meetings. Although Sappho was quickly tired and thus the bulk of the talking fell on me. I would question the benefit of this meeting, seeing how tiresome it was for her, but to my own shame I lost track of time and before long it was already evening. Well, my sense of time has been truly skewed, ever since I because of this half-spider thing. Damn you Athena pretender. Maybe I should find her and deal with her? But where would I even start? And this also assumes that the pretender is still alive. It has been several hundreds of years, since then and she never came to finish the business. So assuming that she either forgot about me or already died would not be unreasonable. I could think about that pretender later when I was not in such an important meeting.
"You should have this," Sappho said, pointing towards the purple Ampechone, I made for her all those years ago.
"It is yours, I've made it for you," I couldn't have her returning the incentive and apology gift, that was bad practice for conducting a trade.
"I'll have a little use for it," she said with a bitter smile.
"It was a gift from me to you, I can't take it back," it was understandable, that she could not use it in death. Humans do not have use for material items after they die. But it was made of very rare material and could be sold for a huge amount of money, which then could be used for various purposes. Maybe a donation to a local school, sponsor some of her students or have a statue of herself made for everyone to immortalize oneself.
"Then I'm giving it to you as a gift," a slightly amused smile appeared on her face.
"Why?" I could not understand. Did she not like it, after all? Then why would she keep it for so many years?
"Because I'm selfish. I don't want you to ever forget me," she looked tired but absolutely serious and determined.
Ah, so that was her game all along! I absolutely could not refuse this request of hers, because... I had to reassure her somehow. The scarf was clearly important to her and she wanted it to pass to someone who could take care of it for years to come. And who better than me, I was the one who made it after all. And this way it would be easier to remember Sappho if I had one of her items.
"Oh, how shrewd of you!" I said as I wrapped the scarf around my shoulders, "But I could never forget you, Sappho. Never will."
"You are making me blush, like a maiden," she croaked.
"Yes, very wrinkly maiden, one might even call her an old lady," I joked.
Sappho laughed at that slightly. It seemed to to tire her out after a bit, she was very old after all. During the moments of silence that followed, she started looking more and more distressed, as if she was debating herself on some deep philosophical topic.
"I love you Arachne. I loved you for a very long time," the poet said sounding almost sad.
"I know," to my shame, I realized this only a while ago. With her age, she became less and less subtle with her intention in her poems. Alas, the prolonged isolation from humanity dulled my social skills.
"You, know?" she sounded surprised.
"Yes,"
"Then why didn't you say anything!" she sounded hurt and angry.
"It was only after I realized that I never changed, while you aged. When I realized that I would live for hundreds of hundreds of years, while your life would come and pass like a season. I never said anything, because I too, was being selfish and irrational," rejecting or accepting her, would change our relationship dynamic, which would result in a disagreement, once the fact about my longevity came into the picture, which would lead to the breaking of our agreement. And that would be unacceptable. A silence followed. I could see her thinking, overcoming the initial anger and grasping the dawning realization.
"Well, I guess, I can't complain since my muse looks always so beautiful. Will you fulfill at least one wish of mine, before I depart for Elysium?" Sappho asked.
"Yes,"
"Please, step on me!" she proclaimed shamelessly.
"It could kill you!"
"It would be worth it! I'm a dead woman anyway!"
"You are just an old woman, not dead! You numbskull!"
"Please! I don't want to leave this world with unfulfilled desires!"
"Fine! If this sends you straight to Tartarus it is not my fault!"
The task at hand, or rather a leg, was hard to execute precisely and gently enough as not to kill the old woman. I still did not understand why Sappho had such desires, but at this time it was a moot point. I could not believe I agreed to this stupidity and laid one of my forward legs as gently as possible on Sappho's leg, there it should not impede her breathing at least.
"What a bliss!" her voice cracked.
"Are you satisfied, now?" I wanted to retrieve my leg because I was imbalanced and the danger of hurting her was increasing with every passing second.
"Yes, yes," she said and took my leg into her hand, gently caressing it.
With no way to escape her clutches, I at least managed to position my leg next to Sappho and finally put some weight on it. Sappho was still stroking it. After a bit of silence, Sappho told me about one of her students. She found a muse in person with a similar condition to mine, hers name Medusa, living on the mainland northeast of Lesbos.
"I'm truly selfish, aren't I? Not telling you about Medusa sooner," Sappho looked guilty and tired.
"Humans are selfish creatures, ruled by their emotions. And there is nothing wrong with that," after all, I was selfish myself.
"Thank you," she said and in silence continued caressing my leg, ever so slower.
Until, finally she fell asleep, her breathing shallow, her pulse weak. I decided to wait and see if she woke up. Such morbid entertainment, this was. Should Sappho wake up I would be there to continue our conversation. Should she not... I would at least have a piece of mind, a conclusion if you will.
Some time after midnight I had my conclusion. Sappho passed away in her sleep, unbothered by the world and with a slight smile on her lips. She must have had a nice dream. I felt like crying, but what was there to cry about? It was illogical, irrational, emotional and so human. I no longer was a human, but rather a monster that humans feared. Except for Sappho, she was someone special and so I told her, how I truly felt about her.
Collecting a few things she left for me I decided to depart. Most of the city inhabitants would be asleep and thus I would have an easier way out. Looking at Sappho's form one last time I was thankful for her courage and determination in meeting me.
"Until we meet again," I finally said.
Unlike everyone else, I knew that there were no heavens or hells. There was only an endless cycle of reincarnation, thanks to the bastard calling himself god, that damned Being X. So while statistically improbable, in theory, it was not completely impossible to meet with the soul that once was Sappho sometime in the future, should I live long enough life. Of course, there is likely a multiverse, given that my second life was on an alternative Earth with magic, but that was because of Being X's direct meddling. So I did not lie.
"With Sappho dead, how are we going to observe our lady?
"You girl! You will present yourself as a company to our lady!"
"But lord,"
"No buts! Now go!"
"Maybe we should give our lady some time to grieve, won't you agree?"
"Yes, High Weaver!"