Arakhne of the Floating Mountain (#OpenNovellaContest2020)

The Specter's Labors

After the days bled into months and Soledad read all she could, she knew that at some point, she would need to begin to work. She watched as the sun rose and set and Arakhne pushed onward, steady and diligent as the passing of the seasons and the rise and fall of the tides, seeming to be entranced and unafraid of the task she had taken on. As Arakhne sewed into the nights, Soledad watched her from afar, studying her movements and absorbing all the knowledge of her techniques that she could.

Soledad perched on the bench before the loom, slamming the leather-bound book closed and setting it aside. She took the first garment into her hands, remembering what she had read as she placed it next to the sheet of red fabric that she would use to refurbish it. Thanking the heavens for Arakhne's refusal to throw any of her plans and designs away, Soledad examined the original and then slipped the dress onto one of the mannequins that littered the already crowded room.

She took a pin cushion full of needles from the cabinet and began following the design, wrapping the cloth around the burnt dress and pinning it where appropriate. When she finished, she stepped back and examined her work with her hands on her hips, beaming. Her bliss was short-lived, however, as her face fell when she realized how misshapen the design looked, with fabric bulging out in an unflattering way, resembling a giant lumpy mass rather than a dress.

"How hideous..." Soledad muttered to herself, setting aside the drawing and pulling the cloth away from the mannequin and sending needles flying about the room, with some lodging themselves into her hands and eliciting a hiss of frustration and pain. "I must begin all over again..."

Throwing the needle-laden fabric on the floor, Soledad groaned as she took a step forward only to have a sharp pain shoot up her foot. She paused, grabbing her foot and turning it upside down so she could dig out the pin she had jammed into the middle of it. Her temperature began to rise. She needed to lie down.

Hopping and floating over to the bed on one foot, Soledad fell back and stared up at the ceiling, the frown etched into her visage like a carving in a rock face.

I will never be able to complete this... All that reading was for naught...

Sighing, Soledad rolled over onto her belly and pounded her fists into the mattress in an attempt to release her frustration. She picked up one of the many pillows that littered the bed and flung it over her shoulder.

"Sister, why do you insist on creating chaos everywhere you go?" came Luna's voice from behind her as the other woman leaned down to catch the pillow with ease.

Luna tossed the pillow back onto the bed, pretending she did not intend to let it whack Soledad upside the head. "Apologies."

Soledad buried her face in her arms. "Leave me be, I know you will simply lecture me for being irresponsible, irrational, and impulsive, and tell me that I should not make promises I cannot keep. There is no need to gloat, I am already aware."

"You behave as if I have not known you our whole lives. And yet this is the first time you have listened to anyone. I remember how difficult it was to engage you in anything you were not already passionate about, how I and others struggled to get through to you. What does Arakhne have that I lack?"

Cocking an eyebrow, Soledad looked up as Luna sat on the edge of the bed beside her. "What are you on about, sister?"

"Had this been any other situation, you would have given up long ago. I have never considered you to be such a voracious reader, and on the subject of dressmaking, no less. I can only ask, what compels this sudden desire?"

"Am I not permitted to attempt to remedy my own misdeeds?" Soledad asked, sitting up and facing her sister head-on. "It is but the correct response to causing such a colossal amount of damage."