Chapter 78: 78

Arya sat on a chair looking over the near motionless body of Vell. Vell had always been on the pale side, especially once she'd learned Yin from Yang, but now her skin had a deathly pallor to it. On top of that it was dry and seemed like it might crack and collapse at any moment. If it weren't for the fact that the priests said that she was still alive it would be almost impossible to believe.
The worst part was that no one knew what was going on. Vell's condition was similar to that of someone who had ingested Basilisk venom, yet when they attempted to detoxify her, or applied the antidote it hadn't improved her condition in the slightest. It had been over a week and every day more and more of her body hardened and dried out.
Arya heard the door to the room open and turned to see Marian walk in. She didn't say anything at first as she looked longingly at Vell's body, before closing her eyes and looking at Arya. "You should go get some rest, Vell wouldn't want to see you in your current condition."
Marian spoke of the horrid eyebags and gaunt face that Arya was currently sporting, and while she knew that Vell would be upset with her when she awoke, she still hadn't been able to sleep properly, and had been skipping meals due to worry. Knowing that Marian was right Arya conceded the seat and made her way out of the room into an adjacent room.
She fell onto the soft bed tired, but unable to sleep. It was currently dark outside, but she had no idea of what time it was, or even how long she'd been by Vell's side. There was a swirl of emotions that continuously ran through her body, frustration, anger, concern, anxiety, all manner of thoughts and feelings she couldn't control.
This was the first time in Arya's life that she had worried about the welfare of someone besides herself and her clan. Vell was a unique existence to her, and while the beginning of their relationship had been rocky and tumultuous at best, they were now very close. Her biggest regret right now was that she had never actually voiced her feelings out to Vell.
Sure, they had practically confirmed their feelings when they had both agreed to stay with each other, but Arya had never once actually voiced her thoughts beyond that day, fearful that Vell might disappear. Yet now that such a situation had appeared, she wished she had just done it, then there wouldn't be any regrets, even if it did cause Vell to avoid her.
Arya stared at the ceiling unable to sleep as her thoughts kept her up before she was suddenly startled by a soft voice that seemed to come from right next to her.
"Do you wish to know how to save our princess?"

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Arya quickly turned towards the voice, revealing the source to be a women in tight black clothing with only her eyes exposed hanging from the ceiling from a silvery white thread. In addition Arya could make out four spider-like appendages that were grabbing the thread and controlling the strange woman's position. "Who are you?" Arya was suspicious, but the hope that she could save Vell made her talk.
The spider-woman chuckled as she lowered all the way to the floor. "My name is unimportant. Know that I serve the Lord of the Forest of Darkness, Demonweb." Saying that she produced a small scroll. "If you promise to bring his daughter to him in less than three years time, I can tell you how to save her."
Arya was conflicted. The scroll before her was a contract scroll, a rare and powerful item that would kill a person should they fail to fulfill their end of whatever bargain was struck. It was usually only used by demons, spies or for those that were generally untrustworthy, such as criminals.
Signing it would give her a way to save Vell, but it also meant that she needed to ensure that Vell got to the central area of the Forest of Darkness, in under three years time. The Forest of Darkness wasn't just somewhere that anyone could enter and getting to the central area was an even harder task.
Arya only debated it for a short while before placing her hand on the contract and channeling mana into it. Even if she failed to fulfill her end of the bargain, the only person that would suffer would be her, a small price to pay for the salvation of Vell. There was a brief fluctuation of mana that branded both Arya and the spider woman.
The spider woman smiled as the fluctuation died down and she seemed pleased with herself. "Wonderful, a successful contract. I hope you'll remember to fulfill your end of the deal, I'd hate to see the princess saddened by your untimely demise." She then laughed as she began to climb her thread and slowly disappear into the shadows of the ceiling. "As for my end, the only way to save her is to wait, she's not in any danger at all after all, she is simply going through growing pains, as all those of the Voras do."
Arya felt cheated as the woman vanished leaving only the echo of her laugh behind. At least she knew that Vell wasn't in any sort of danger, but there was now another looming deadline she was going to have to meet, one that would decide whether or not she would be alive in three years time.
Sighing as she accepted the fact that she'd been tricked for nothing more than reassurance, Arya went back to the room where Vell lay and informed Marian about the strange spider woman and the information she'd been given, omitting the fact that she needed to take Vell to the central area of the Forest of Darkness within three years as she didn't want to worry her.
It wasn't until the next day when Reine took over for Marian did anyone notice that there were web-like cracks running along all of Vell's body, along with the fact that there was no more motion to indicate that she was still breathing. There was minor panic as they thought that they had been completely bamboozled by the spider woman before the sound of a shell cracking resounded throughout the room along with a portion of Vell's arm breaking apart to reveal another arm that seemed to be struggling to extract itself.

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