The Great Spider had ascended to the Ring after her pact with the dwarven hero, but she was finding herself tiring of the emptiness of it all. She could hardly bear to look at the gaping void that formed most of this universe, and though the Ring was beautiful, it offered nothing new to her. No, she preferred to gaze upon the thriving world below, neglecting her mission. Sabt Golgo was... lonely. The sensation was new to her, and upsetting.
It was not the gods she yearned for, Sabt Golgo had decided. She would not be able to bring herself to trust them, not even the young and naive ones. No, any escape from her solitude would have to be found from among mortals. The Spider considered her options. The others were obsessed with the dwarves, which meant she could hardly go unnoticed, and had hardened their hearts against gods. And she certainly didn't want to interfere with the dwarven hero's mission. There was something deep in the sea... but they were still unknown to her. That left the humans. They had spread far and wide, living primitive, short, tumultuous lives. They would be perfect.
Slowly, cautiously, the Spider detached herself from the Ring once more and begun her descent. She headed for the great Southern continents, where the humans had grown to great numbers. Small villages and agricultural communities dotted the landscape, usually following the rivers - she wasted no time, landing directly on top of a bustling small town. Before the humans could even scream, they all disappeared in a flash of false-light.
Making sure the humans were unharmed, Sabt Golgo continued, moving across the land. When she was finished, a dozen more villages had followed its fate, now utterly empty of their inhabitants.
---
Saelon of the Fire Stone Tribe opened his eyes, and saw light.
For a few moments - what seemed like eternity - his mind continued insisting that he was still talking to his brother on the village outskirts, where the sun was just setting against the horizon, the air was warm, and a gentle breeze was flowing in from the west. He could still smell the dirt and the cows and hear Malel's excited voice, babbling on about the Daughters, as usual. He hadn't really been listening - the animals needed to be looked after, especially with the fighting, which seemed to be getting closer every day.
'Light...' he mouthed, clearing his thoughts. He was most certainly not home. As his eyes got used to the light, he could see he was standing on a path of ceramic tiles, leading through an ornamental arch into a wide, lush square. It took a few moments longer for him to realize everything - from the tiles to the arch, to the strange, fragile flowers in the garden, were made of light, brighter in places to create an impression of shadows and shapes. It was somehow solid beneath his feet. He breathed in the cold air, and looked up - at the vast, black void. There was nothing but the blackness, overwhelming, pressing down on him. He quickly averted his gaze, feeling nauseous. The night sky was nothing like that from the village, brightened by the.... by the Ring.
The Ring. He was on the Ring. The swathe of light had been a part of his life since he'd been a babe in arms. They had marked the passage of time by its waning and waxing and told tales of its vast, monstrous Spider when huddled around the fire.
How can this be? was his first thought, soon replaced by; What if the Spider is here? I don't want to die!
Glancing around frantically, Saelon's gaze found a break in the walls. The floor with its ceramic tiles ended in nothing a few feet after, only their radiance keeping away the void. Though, in this case, there was something in the void, great and beautiful, which the Spider's Ring cradled. Saelon could not help but to take a step closer.
He was looking at the world - the world - from high, high up. All its greens and blues, softened by banks of clouds, a glittering jewel in the blackness. He'd never thought he'd see its lands like this, and could see little he recognized, but it was the world. He knew it in his heart. It was more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen before. Time seemed to roll right past him - he could see the gentle movement of clouds and the gradual shifting and glittering of the Ring as it spun around the planet. There was no sound except a soft hum of air that seemed to emanate from the Ring itself. It was easy to forget all the hardships of his life, all the ugliness and evil he had seen, this perfect image bringing with it an amazing sense of calm and serenity, washing away everything...
His reverie was broken by a scream, then another. Human voices. He spun around, taking a running step towards nowhere in particular. More screams, clearly of pain, coming closer and from more and more sources. His gaze swept across the void and the surface of the Ring wildly, moving quickly backwards even if it meant going towards the edge. A primordial terror was taking over his movements - but then his mind went blank, as he saw the Spider.
Enormous, larger than mountains, it crawled across the city, moving with spindly legs that seemed to go on forever and forever. It was only outlines and light, the void visible through its body, but Saelon knew it could still end him in a heartbeat. The world, he decided, he would have to jump for it. He turned, and the Spider's gaze fell upon him.
He screamed, too, as his fleshly body was burned away, melting before his eyes. He screamed until he had no mouth to scream with, screamed until he was nothing more than a shimmering lake on the tiles. His senses gone, merciful pseudo-existence took him, ending his world.
He returned to the living after an instant and an eternity. The world returned, but his senses were strange, muddled, like in a dream. He saw the floor and rose rapidly without even thinking about it. A moment later he realized that where his body had been was now streaming, crystal-like water, like running quicksilver. He felt the need to scream again and his features returned just in time. He closed his eyes to let out a cry of both relief and terror, and opened them to find himself back in his own, safe body. The quicksilver still flickered in places, but he willed it gone, and to his surprise, it obeyed. A new feeling of control spread over him, dulling his fear, and he looked back at the sky to see if the monstrous Spider was still there - but the empty void had replaced it again. He breathed a sigh of relief.
'Saelon?' a familiar voice asked, though to his new senses it had a brighter, heavenly quality. He turned to see Malel, his brother, walking through the arch, followed by many others. Some he recognized, some he didn't.
'Brother?' Saelon replied, dumbfounded. He felt ashamed - he'd forgotten Malel's existence, for a while. 'How did you get here?'
'The same way you did, I wager,' Malel said, his tone casual. As Saelon watched, he melted, in a ripple of air, only to reform at his side. 'Anyway, we've been looking for you for hours. I was afraid you'd stayed behind. That would've been just my luck.'
'Wh... what? Hours? Malel, what by the gods is going on? What's happened to us?' he asked, feeling like shaking the idiot. He knew Malel had trouble taking anything seriously, but this was just ridiculous.
I can answer that question, Saelon, something... 'said', inside his head. He turned, knowing instinctively where the voice had come from.
Standing before them against the blackness of the void was a young woman of a slight build, clad in a flowing dress of false-light, constantly moving and shifting. She had impossibly pale skin and white hair. Her eyes were red. He'd heard of some tribes with children like this - it was considered a mark of evil. Her bearing was stiff, awkward, like she didn't know how humans were supposed to move. Saelon could not turn away.
'Who... who are you?'
I am... I am... the one that brought you here. I am Sabt Golgo. I am... I am the Spider.
---
Sabt Golgo kidnaps a dozen villages worth of humans and transports them up to the Spider's Ring.
Mighty Act: Sabt Golgo creates a breathable atmosphere and gravity on the Spider's Ring. Parts of the Ring are modified to resemble a vast city of light for her new pets to live in, complete with gardens and architecture drawn from their memories and imaginations.
Mighty Act: Sabt Golgo turns the humans into her Mirrorborn, shapeshifters that draw their forms from the minds of others. Their true forms are like puddles of shimmering, crystallized water, though they remember and use their original human forms.
Sabt Golgo attempts to get to know the humans better and let them teach her how humans work. And yes, as... thoroughly... as possible.