Arakhne of the Floating Mountain (#OpenNovellaContest2020)

The Palace in the Sky

"You are difficult to find, even for us."

Soledad eyed Arakhne the seamstress up and down, and Arakhne looked away. Making eye contact with a being that radiated light from every pore of her dark skin was impossible. Not that Arakhne wanted to look, anyway. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"What reason do you have for interrupting my tea, hm? It better be good," Arakhne replied, staring at the vaulted ceiling of her palace's great hall as her voice grew louder and echoed through the chamber. "You lot leave me alone for millennia and expect me to simply drop what I'm doing to make you three some dresses on a whim? Don't you know I have other customers?"

Nostrils flaring, Soledad lunged toward Arakhne. She only advanced a step forward before an arm the color of dusk blocked her.

"What my sister is trying to say," Luna replied, eyes narrowing at Soledad as she gently pushed her back to where she had stood, "is that this is quite an urgent event, and you are the only one with the necessary skills to make these dresses. There is no one else in the Three Realms who can mold celestial materials into clothing, after all."

Arakhne paused, pursing her lips.

"You come highly recommended!" the third sister, Estelle, added.

Rolling her eyes, Soledad knocked Estelle in the back of her curly head with her palm. "Do not be a suck-up. Plus, it does not seem that this woman has any other customers if she has time for idleness in the form of tea."

"I am not a suck-up! We are all royalty, remember? This is no way for future queens to behave, by insulting someone whose help we seek while in her own palace!"

Luna opened her mouth. Before she could respond, Arakhne cut her off.

"Enough! I have had it with your noise! Why should I help an ungrateful group of brats like you?"

"Who are you calling brats?! Do we look like children to you?! We are the same age!" Soledad shouted as she broke free from Luna's grasp before her sister could stop her. "I will become Queen of Heaven in a few days, do not forget that!"

Before Soledad could reach Arakhne, the dressmaker swiped her hand through the air before her, as if slicing an apple with a sword. A gale of wind sent Soledad flying into the stained glass window across the hall, smashing it and sending the glowing woman tumbling through it. Soledad shrieked as she latched onto the windowpane where the jagged glass would cut a mortal's fingers. Hers remained unscathed.

"I don't care who you are, or which realms you represent!" Arakhne roared. "I don't care if God your father comes to me and smites me down from the sky for my crimes!"

Luna looked on, the color drained from her face as she stood frozen in place. Estelle glided across the multicolored marble floor to where Soledad floated back in through the shattered window, eyes glowing red. Gaze darting between Luna, Soledad, and Arakhne, Estelle planted herself before Soledad, clamping her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Stay there, or I will enchant you."

"When I count to three, I want the three of you out of my sight!"

"Wait!" Luna begged, "Please, my lady, you are our only hope! I apologize for my sister's candor. But what can we do to make you more amenable to the idea of making our coronation dresses?"

Bristling, Arakhne opened her mouth, then closed it. She turned away from the three, her face reddening.

But when Arakhne turned back around, her face had regained its original color. She glared at the three sisters, a vulture eyeing its prey.