Chapter Text
The fetid swamps of Blighttown reverberated with the sounds of combat as several of its resident ogres tried, and failed, to slay one lone knight. Despite the stacked odds Hecate was grinning wildly, brushed her copper hair out of her eyes, and readjusted her grip on her catalyst and rapier.
“Are you lot even gonna try? I haven’t even broken a sweat yet.”
The nearest ogre bellowed and threw a boulder at her, but she was already on the move. Hecate slid under the rock and wove magic over her sword causing it to glow blue. Leaping back to her feet Hecate lashed out rapidly before the Ogre could retaliate, felling it in a few blows. Hecate immediately sidestepped as a second Ogre came barreling towards her with its own rock and hopped back to dodge a third ones boulder.
“Ooooo, clever, my turn!”
Twirling her catalyst she sent a barrage of soul arrows to obliterate the third ogre but was forced back once more as the second continued its attempt to run her over. Hecate licked her lips and closed the distance between her and the ogre but got swatted away when it swung its boulder at her. Growling Hecate dug her boot into the mud, held for a fraction of a second, and leapt forward again while the ogre was recovering from its swing. The ogre quickly fell under her assault finally giving the knight room to breath.
With her foes finally defeated Hecate stuck her rapier in her belt and took a swig of estus, feeling the bruises and cuts knit themselves back together. With a huff the knight glanced up at the hill in front of her and began to ascend it.
The only reason she had even come down to this accursed place was because she had no other leads, yet she had come to regret every second of it between the reeking mud, biting flies, and other horrors that lurked in the murk. The lone knoll was the only landmark she could see, and just assumed it would provide a good vantage point to find whatever it was she was looking for.
With a huff Hecate began climbing, using the trees for leverage when she could. The further she climbed the more Hecate began to notice that the ground and trees where slowly getting choked by webbing.
“Giant spiders for giant flies, not even gonna pretend to be surprised at that.” She half laughed to no one in particular. As she kept going.
Hecate’s ascent was cut short as a patch of ground fell out beneath her before she had a chance to react. She hit the ground hard some 15 feet below. If it weren’t for the bed of soft silk the fall wound have hurt a lot more. Looking around it became clear that the hill was honeycombed with a network of tunnels. Hecate grumbled as she pulled herself up and tried to see if she could climb out.
After exhausting that possibility the Knight drew her rapier and continued forward, slowly. It was an agonizingly slow process but was necessary to avoid getting ambushed by whatever lurked in these warrens.
The tunnels kept going, twisting, turning, going up, going down, and just generally being a headache to navigate. After what felt like hours Hecate turned a corner and found herself staring at a massive chamber absolutely covered in webbing.
Glancing inside Hecate took note that it seemed that the chamber was a nexus for the system, as multiple other tunnels branched off from it. A large set of stairs led upward at the far side of the room. She crept into the chamber slowly, moving towards the nearest tunnel entrance.
A loud clacking sound echoed through the chamber and as expected, a giant spider skittered out from the staircase. Unlike other spiders however, this one was on fire, had a mouth instead of giant fangs, and a naked lady riding on its back. The latter leaving Hecate extremely flustered.
Upon seeing her, the spider hissed and skittered forwards, before drifting around Hecate and lashing out at her from behind. The force of the blow sent her flying and Hecate dug her nails into the ground, skidding to a halt. She barely had time to react as the spider hacked up several globs of lava in an attempt to cage her in. taking the opportunity Hecate sprinted at them, drew her sword and leapt, landing on the spiders face and using it as a springboard to slash at the woman on its back. In an instant the woman managed to shift slightly and catch Hecate’s blade in her free hand, while retaliating with her own sword. Moving more on instinct than anything else Hecate thrust her armored gauntlet out, catching the blade on it, the impact sending sparks flying.
It was in that instant that Hecate realized two things. First, the woman wasn’t riding the spider, she was fused to it from the waist down, and second, she was gorgeous as hell. Hecate tried her best to wink flirtatiously. The woman just scowled at her.
The spider shifted beneath them, and a blast of heat knocked Hecate off and with luck she landed on the ground. Hecate fumbled looking for her blade, only to realize that it was still in the spider ladies grasp. Hecate’s mouth twisted into a wide smile as she cracked her knuckles.
“haha, now this is a real fight!”
The Spider lady seemed taken aback at her words, and in the blink of an eye Hecate found herself slammed against a wall, with the woman’s had around her neck, and a blade pressed against her.
“And just where did you learn to speak our language mortal.” She seemed more annoyed than anything.
“you mean Astoran? Have you spoken to another human before, most of us know at least some-“ the woman leaned in closer, Hecate could feel her breath on her cheek. She smelled like cinnamon.
“No, Izalin. Our tongue has been lost to the outside for centuries at least. So tell me-“ She tightened her grip on Hecate’s throat “How a human like you learned it.”
Hecate tried her best to shrug “your guess is as good as mine. Buuuuuuuuuuut maybe if I didn’t have a sword point at me we could figure it out? Perhaps, over some tea?” She attempted to push the barbed blade away from her. The spider woman held fast; her face unreadable.
“Perhaps…” she pulled her sword away and let Hecate drop to the floor. Hecate promptly retrieved her sword and stuck it in her belt. “Allow me to apologize for my rash actions earlier. I may have grown a bit to used hostility from visitors.” She placed a hand over her chest a half-bowed.
“Eh, no worries. I’m just glad we where able to sort things out.”
An awkward silence settled over the two of them.
“So, what even leads one as fair as you down to a shithole like this?” the question caught Hecate off guard completely and left her flabbergasted.
“Oh, uh, you see, I-I-I tried to-no, I was looking-looking for, actually. What was I looking for again. I think-I think I came down here because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-“
“You really came down here just because.” For the first time the spider woman seemed genuinely surprised.
“Well, I mean. I guess? It was better than sitting around doing nothing.” Hecate’s mind and heart where still racing at being called pretty by a pretty lady. Spider notwithstanding. “why are you down here?”
“To prevent fools and desecrators from entering Izalith.” That caused several things to click into place, most of them related to the spider. Hecate, suddenly had a really dumb idea.
“You need any help with that?” Hecate blurted out without thinking. And she regretted it immediately, what reason did this woman have to request that? The nerve, the cheek, the audacity, required for Hecate to even suggest such a thing was a level or arrogance that could easily get her-
“While it is true that I am more than capable of blocking the path, it does get dreadfully lonely down here. So you’re more than welcome to stay. My names Quelaag.” She held out her hand.
And for the second time today Hecate was rendered speechless by this woman and took her hand immediately. Quelaag smiled and Hecate almost combusted from the sight.