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Taylor woke with a start, her heart in her throat.
The bugs around her were unaffected by anything unusual and, when she sent a small cloud of flies through the air above her house, they hit nothing. There was nothing there.
Yet that could not be true. She sensed something on the roof of her house, settling down into a crouch, even if her bugs could not. Whatever it was, it was huge, only a bit smaller than the house itself; its strange and unfamiliar mind was hungry, as if on the verge of starving to death; and it was staring at her through the roof as if all the wood and other materials were invisible. Taylor could sense its mind, huge and cold and alien and ancient beyond belief. And quiet, too. Its mind reminded Taylor of silence like she had never heard before, true silence uninterrupted by wind or birds or the sea.
Taylor shivered under its gaze.
“So,” a great voice hissed, deep as the black between the stars, “the whispers of the web were true. There is a human that dares command my progeny. Tell me, Spider-Lord, what will you do with your great power?”
“I’m a girl, not a lord, and I didn’t mean to command spiders,” Taylor whispered, hoping that she was imagining it or that it would accept her answer and leave her alone.
It seemed to hear her.
“It is only proper,” it seemed to muse, though still in those hissing tones, “that a human commanding the descendants of Ungoliant should be a woman. Ever have they been ruled by their mothers in fear and in awe. Tell me, Lady of Spiders, what are your plans? Are they worthy of your armies?”
“I want to be a hero,” Taylor offered.
That did not please the vast thing, if the furious hiss was anything to go by.
“Hero? Heroes killed my spawn. Heroes are the enemy of spider-kind. Heroes are prey, to be wrapped in web and consumed!”
Taylor stared at the ceiling with wide eyes and a pounding heart. What was this thing? She had been wondering from the start, but now it was more urgent. It was some sort of spider-creature, probably, and not a benevolent one, if the eaten heroes were any indication.
“Why do you want to be a hero, young one?” it asked, sounding a little less angry now. “There can be no reason worth such treachery.”
Well, maybe if Taylor explained herself it would be less mad. If not, Taylor could always pretend to see things the spider’s way and then return to her plans when it left.
“I want to make things better,” Taylor explained. “For myself and everyone around me. I needed help once, and no one came to help. I want to be the person I wished would be there for me.”
“Then you do not want to be a hero at all,” the creature hissed happily, shifting around on legs the length of two school busses. “You do not want to defend your world, but change it. You wish to force it to adhere to your vision. You wish to rule.”
Taylor frowned. She didn’t have an argument against the spider-thing on the roof. Not because it was correct, but because it was such a strange argument Taylor had never thought of anything similar. To say being a hero meant defending the world was a very narrow definition. Taylor wasn’t powerful enough to defend the world. But she did want to defend people against those like Emma and her minions, both in smaller situations and in gang activities. That should be enough to call what she wanted to be a hero.
But the spider did have a point. Heroes did not typically try to change the world. The Protectorate was apolitical, which her mother had said was a political choice in and of itself. Heroes fought the gangs and other criminals and supervillains, not the fabric of the system that was sucking Brockton Bay dry just as much as the gangs were. And, though the heroes were supposed to be making the world a better place by taking down those they did fight, nothing ever seemed to change. The city didn’t get better. Winslow never became safe. Nothing changed.
Heroes did not seem to be agents of change.
“I hadn’t considered it like that,” Taylor admitted. “Do you have any advice?”
Hopefully asking the spider-creature for help would flatter it enough that it wouldn’t do anything too terrible to her.
“Oh, my young Lady! Long I ruled my children and longer have I watched the kingdoms of mortal kind,” the great thing hissed fondly, sticking a huge leg through the ceiling and waving it at her. “What you must do is simple: claim territory and enforce your laws. All you need is a loyal army. There are likely lords of the city you can dethrone without too much trouble. That seems common, in large cities.”
There were no feudal lords, but there were gang lords, which weren’t too different, except that gang lords tended to have much less legitimacy, which should only help the task the spider-creature had set her. But while Taylor might – might – be able to take down a gang or install herself at the top of one, she knew without a doubt that she wouldn’t be able to hold onto such a position. Not without a much stronger power, and not without any leadership or gang experience. But when she pointed it out to the spider-creature, its response was the opposite of helpful.
“You are young, are you not? Even by the reckoning of your kind?” it asked.
“Yes,” Taylor confirmed.
“Then you have time enough to grow mightier and to learn to rule,” it pointed out. “And I find myself curious to see what you will do. I will remain with you to advise you.”
Well, at least its presence was no longer as terrifying as it had been, though that wasn’t saying much. It hadn’t really been aggressive at all, despite its size and apparent age. Still, though, Taylor was glad she wasn’t going back to school in the morning, as her peers would be, since she doubted she could get back to sleep any time soon with the gargantuan spider lurking above her.
“By the way, what are you? I don’t think I’ve seen or sensed anything like you,” Taylor tried.
“I am Ungoliant, mortal queen,” the spider said, seeming to grow vaster, stretching through eons. “I came from the Silence of the Void and entered the Song of this World uninvited. In my image, all spiders are formed, for they are my progeny. I may have starved to death, but be sure that I am still mighty beyond any mortal.”
Taylor just gaped at the ancient alien ghost spider in shock.