{"id":2818,"date":"2025-10-05T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2818"},"modified":"2025-10-05T13:59:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:59:00","slug":"dire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/05\/dire\/","title":{"rendered":"Dire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: A ritual meant to protect someone ends up putting them (or someone else!) in danger.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syl covered his mouth to keep from making noise. He shivered as the click-clack of giant spider toes on laminate floors passed the cupboard he cowered in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He breathed as little as he could, through his nose. As sensitive as his own senses were, he could smell nothing besides the wood of the cupboard, the roasted parsnip soup warming on the electric stove, and the earthy smell of the dire spider. Despite the sweat of fear drenching him, he could smell nothing of himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that regard, at least, the ritual had worked. The part that didn\u2019t work was worrying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019d asked the council to send someone around to check out an odor coming from his basement. Just a few minutes later, she\u2019d showed up at his door just as he was starting his soup for lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a brief introduction, Anja had gone into the basement for only a few seconds before she crept back up into the sitting room. She pulled a spray bottle out of her bag, drew a symbol on the floor, and set the bottle on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDire spider,\u201d she\u2019d whispered. She then handed Syl a script. \u201cRead this aloud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you read it?\u201d Syl hissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHuman magic immunity \u2026 I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syl chanted the incantation, the symbol on the floor glowed, and then flowed into the bottle, which glowed. No sooner had the ritual finished than Anja grabbed the bottle and began spraying Syl and everything around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She pulled all the pans out of one of his lower cupboards, sprayed the inside of it, and told him to get in and hide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spray that seemed to work so well for a gnome like himself had no effect on her. Anja had sprayed him and his entire house before helping him hide, but that just meant her scent was magnified as the only thing that stood out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spider clacked through the kitchen again, opening and rummaging through the cupboards in a haphazard manner. If it were to open the one in which he hid \u2026 better to not think about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYoo-hoo!\u201d a voice called from somewhere else in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spider stopped moving, dead silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m here,\u201d she called, \u201ccome get me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spider scurried out of the kitchen in the direction of Anja\u2019s taunts. What was she doing? The sound of the air-conditioner kicking on caught his attention. Her human scent carried on the current, amplified a hundred-fold. It came from the opposite direction of where she\u2019d called out, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sounds of the spider racing madly about the house filled his mind with images of Anja being bitten, paralyzed, wrapped in silk, and then sucked dry. Tears ran down his face. She\u2019d given everything to protect him, even though she had no reason to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spider clacked down the hall of the floor above, heavy enough to make the floor squeak at the spot near the bathroom door that he\u2019d been meaning to fix. At the same time, he heard careful rummaging through the upper cupboards, followed by Anja\u2019s whisper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just getting a little surprise for our eight-legged friend,\u201d she said, \u201cand I turned down your soup, so the bottom doesn\u2019t scorch. Stay as quiet and still as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The human smell of her was undeniable. It was the smell of cinnamon and rose oil from her perfume, mixed with the sweat of exertion and what Syl thought might be a tinge of fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spider had gone silent and so had Anja until she called out from the dining room. \u201cWhere are you, mama? Yeah, that\u2019s right. I found your eggs in the basement. You don\u2019t have long left, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syl heard the scampering of the spider across the floor above, then down the stairs. By contrast, Anja\u2019s footfalls as she ran through the house were nearly silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver here, you stupid arachnid!\u201d Anja\u2019s voice carried an edge of annoyance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the sound of it, Anja and the spider were both in the sitting room. He heard the door to the basement open. \u201cOh yeah, that gets you worried, doesn\u2019t it? Afraid I\u2019ll go eat your eggs or something?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He heard the spider make the first noise that she\u2019d made other than the clacking of her feet. A high-pitched hiss that sounded like something from a horror movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is for you,\u201d Anja called in a sing-song voice, \u201ccome and get it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spider clacked across the sitting room floor, Anja yelled out, and Syl heard the fire extinguisher discharging. The sounds changed, with the spider thrashing about in the sitting room. The basement door slammed shut as the spider continued to rampage in the sitting room, smashing up furniture and what sounded like spinning in circles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sound finally died down. He heard the basement door open, then a few more moments of silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay now, Syl. You can come out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He emerged to find the kitchen untouched, while the sitting room was destroyed. The corpse of the dire spider lay where the sofa, now broken and thrown against the far wall, used to be. The spider\u2019s head was covered with fire retardant. Anja was panting, exhausted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid I hear you say eggs?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, there\u2019s an egg-sack down there.\u201d She pointed toward the open basement door. \u201cThat smell is the neighborhood pets that have been disappearing, all cocooned up, waiting for the eggs to hatch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syl shuddered. \u201cUgh. Do I just burn those, or\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll call a friend that runs a sanctuary to come pick them up,\u201d Anja said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a question, though,\u201d Syl said, looking at Anja like she was suspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShoot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHuman magic immunity is an old-wives tale. Why did you really<\/em> not do the incantation?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anja sighed. \u201cYou don\u2019t know much about how protective magic works, I take it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot really.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe person doing the incantation is the person it works for, no one else.\u201d Anja prodded at the dire spider corpse with her toe. \u201cWhen my friend gets here, he\u2019ll clean this up, along with the entire basement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks. I was surprised the council sent someone so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were concerned with the missing pets in the area, so I was already in the area investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou were obviously prepared for something like this, so why did you use your protection on me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a safety inspector for the council. If I can do something to make citizens safer, I will.\u201d She chuckled. \u201cI wasn\u2019t betting on dealing with a dire spider in the suburbs, though.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI bet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou, however, need to apply to the council for a new fire extinguisher. And don\u2019t put it in the cupboard this time. Lucky you haven\u2019t had a fire.\u201d She patted his shoulder. \u201cIf you need help mounting it, just let the council know when you apply, and I\u2019ll see to it personally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syl nodded. \u201cOkay.\u201d His eyebrows shot up. \u201cOh! The soup!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anja followed him into the kitchen. He turned the soup back up and stirred it, giving it a sniff. \u201cWhew, not burnt. Thank you for taking the time to turn it down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing worse than scorched soup,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSpeaking of soup, would you like to stay for lunch?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could do that,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to fill out my report and wait for my friend from the sanctuary anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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