"So you see, the common hermit spider may be milked for its venom, and once catalyzed properly with a certain fungal spore of Belladonna, can swiftly turn into a poison capable of killing a man, in the right concentration." Professor Elgo Mervani, their teacher of toxins and other hidden chemistry, went through the motions, lecturing them on a certain type of poison that was commonplace throughout Idalos.
Zemos took feverish notes in Xanthean, trying his hardest to maintain some semblance of legibility to his writing. Nevertheless, it was all he could do not to peek over the shoulder of Sophia. He tried to maintain his independence during these situations, but didn't know common well enough to not look at her notes, which she courteously, out of toy affection for him, wrote out in Xanthean script and language.
She was very useful, and Zemos was happy to have such a friend in class when all the others scorned him.
"Stain's commonplace to use is for hunters, who for most would have a difficult making a killing shot with just one arrow. So they lace their arrows with the poison, hoping that it will pass through the blood stream of the creature and of course end its life."
Sophia lifted her hand and asked a question, "Professor, does that not spoil the meat? Or are they after its hide to be using poison?"
Mervani sneered at her, but then he sneered at all of their questions. The professor didn't seem to enjoy his students very much. "That actually brings me to the subject of shelf-life. Every poison has an effective date at which point past processing that it's useable as a poison. If not used, it will either need refinement or the leavings of it can be used as a thickening agent for more fresh poisons. At any rate, by the time the meat reaches your table, it will be quite harmless, if any of the blood remains on the carcass."
Carcass! Carcass! Will he show us father? Let us see!
Zemos shook his head with a suppressed smile. This was not an anatomy class, but a toxins one. If he expected anything next, it was for the finished product to be presented to them. This was why the following portion of Elgo Mervani's lecture caught him by surprise.
"Here, we'll have our assistant professor hand out the specimens we need you to milk. Milking insects and arachnids and serpents for their venom is an essential skill to any toxicologist. Lest you think you'll only be out picking flowers. Venom is the most potent of killers in nature, although there are herbs and mixes of herbs and venoms that can put even the deadliest snake to shame..."
Zemos's eyes went wide as the assistant professor went around, placing jars full of something skittering within. His green eyes glowed as they beheld the many legs, the fangs, the eyes, the fur of the hermit spider. When at last it was placed before he and Sophia, he nearly shrieked. The Egg inside of him recoiled at the idea of handling such a creature.
No! Father! It loves us not! Spare us the Eight-legged menace!
A sudden pang of deadly pain shot through Zemos's spinal column then, and he nearly collapsed against his desk, gasping in pain and nearly losing his voice in a breathless shriek.
He lay writhing on the desk a few moments, overcome with the pain until Sophia roused him with a touch. He looked up, his green eyes pleading, "You must handle the spider! It is not for us!"
Elgo, who overheard and must have understood a part of this exchange, lifted a brow and shook his head. "Sophia, Zemos will be the one to milk that spider or I will not give you any further assignments."
Zemos's inner voice wanted to release a torrent of invective toward the professor then, but he held his tongue. The Egg would not be silenced, however.
Cruel teacher! His hands bloodied with the stain of loneliness. He is hatred incarnated!
The threat of expulsion from the Institute of Sciences hanging on the air, it seemed Zemos had little chance but to handle the spider. Sophia looked almost as blanched by the prospect as Zemos was of touching that furry, eight-legged monster. He stared pleading at Mervani, then to Sophia, but neither of them had any sympathy. Sophia might have, but she was far too concerned about her educational prospects to see this as anything more than a trifling ordeal for Zemos.
He pulled himself together then, and decided to do it, for his friend!
Nooooo Father, it will kill uss...
But Zemos ignored it, as well as the lance of pain that seared through him, as the egg tried to exert some control over its host. Zemos shook it off, and stood himself by the jar, with the terrible hermit spider inside. He lowered his face to look at it, eye to eye, taking note of its every feature. It had a pair of long, ill-proportioned fangs dripping with venom. He could see the venom nearly bursting from the juicy thing. It made Zemos shiver.
"Zee, think of it as a harmless mouse, a furry little mouse with some twigs stuck to it. Some... moving furry twigs." Sophia tried to help, but stood by, holding the phial that would take the creature's venom.
Zemos shook his head. No, he didn't think he had it in himself to lie so thoroughly to himself. But perhaps, perhaps drawing on some hidden mental vigor, a spark of strength that pervaded from the time before his time began, in the White Void below...
Yes, he thought he could handle this. Freedom braced him against most of the bad in the world, blessed sweet freedom. He could do this.
He stood up straight and nodded to Sophia. She gingerly reached over and untwisted the lid on the jar. Once it was off, Zemos kept his eyes open, as he fixed them on the spider. As he moved his hand inside, the spider wheeled about to face the intruding appendage.
It watches father! It watches with eyes so red and dark! Watches for its mother, awaiting an order...
Mother, watching, it was irrelevant. This was simply a creature, not an agent of something greater. Not that Zemos knew of, anyway. He reached into the jar with his hand, allowing the spider to crawl onto his skin. There, it did.
"Careful not to press it down on your wrist. Its venom is quite deadly, and immobilizing a spider will ensure its release..." Mervani's words of warning did little but stir his terror, but he maintained a calm as the spider slowly felt its way around the exposed skin of his arm.
Sophia stared, wide-eyed as the spider crawled slowly up Zemos' arm, perhaps wondering if he'd gone catatonic with fear. Thankfully the egg had stopped lancing him with pain, perhaps fearful that its host would die if it interfered any further. This emboldened Zemos, and he grabbed the spider by the thorax, between its legs with his thumb and forefinger.
This done, he brought it around to where Sophia waited with the vial. There, they held the spider's fangs up to the glass container. The creature wriggled its legs, and seemed to spit and hiss at Zemos, or maybe it was his imagination or just the writhings of the egg inside his head.
"Now class, push against the back of its cephalothorax, as I said, it will activate its aggression and defensive instinct and release the venom from its fangs. Hold it up to the phial. You only need a few droplets before the spider will be spent, then return it to its jar."
Those 'few droplets' might as well have been a pond filling drop by drop for how long it seemed to drag the moments on. When Sophia tapped Zemos on the shoulder, he kept his eyes fixed on the spider as he pivoted, and dropped the spent arachnid back in its jar. Before it could do anything, jump, spit, hop or crawl, the cover was back on the jar and twisted shut. Zemos set it on the table and sighed deeply. He almost felt faint.
The rest of the class was a relative blur
When at last the lectures ended for the day before Zemos could leave Professor Mervani called him over to his station. He beckoned the Sevir, and spoke with a cocked eyebrow. Something about the man set him ill at ease.. He was well-preserved enough, but something about him was... off. "You were barely adequate today, Zemos. I take it you have a fear of arachnids?"
Zemos nodded his head fervently. He didn't respond in common, as Mervani found his atrocious language skills offensive, and had said as much before.
"I can help with that." Mervani said, his face placid and calm. "I will require you to do extra credits today, meet me after Academy hours, in the Institute of Arcana. I will give permission for you to enter."
The Institute of Arcana... Like the place, the blessed man Wellyn studied at? Nevertheless, Zemos was intrigued enough by the idea of losing his fear of spiders, that he was inclined to join him. Not to mention curious as to what lay within the Institute of Arcana...
