Chp.4: A little more information

Haku hadn't been able to get much useful information regarding the supposed prophecy; unfortunately Arethar had been practically adamant on that front... but he had discovered many things about the arachnes.

To begin with, he had managed to locate where they were located. According to Arethar's explanations, the arachnes lived in numerous cities and villages located within the underground caverns; almost all of them were between one and two kilometers deep, in caverns fifty to one hundred kilometers wide and several hundred meters high. Rhaegal had told him that some caves were indeed like this, indeed beyond a certain depth they became the norm, so Haku had no problem believing that this was true. After all, such caves would have provided a village of arachnes with everything necessary to survive: if they were able to support gigantic beasts such as the odontotyrannus, then surely they would have no problem supporting the arachnes. According to Arethar these villages and cities were connected to each other by tunnels dug into the rock; the arachnes normally preferred to simply widen the already present tunnels dug by the water, thus creating passages that could be crossed by boats, but sometimes they dug tunnels directly from scratch using powerful acids that they obtained from a particular species of mushrooms. These acids were also exploited to build their cities: in the absence of a solid and easily accessible raw material such as wood (the stems of the mushrooms unfortunately deteriorated quickly, so they were not suitable for use as pillars or walls), the arachnes they had learned to use this and other corrosive substances to cut and smooth large stones which would then be used to build houses and buildings (the arachnes in fact had great physical strength, probably due to their half-spider nature); over time they had refined this technique and had therefore been able to create very complex architectural structures which (at least according to Arethar) had nothing to envy to those of the other newcomers. To illuminate their cities the arachnes used to create large gardens where bioluminescent mushrooms grew, while inside their houses instead they used lamps powered by a particularly flammable thick and black liquid similar to tar which could sometimes be found underground in the form of huge wells that they could supply this special oil for hundreds if not thousands of years. To support themselves, they cultivated edible mushrooms and raised numerous animal species that lived underground, from which they also obtained skins for their clothes and other raw materials. However, some species were unsuitable for breeding, even if they could provide very useful products, so the arachnes used to leave them in the wild and hunt them periodically; an example were the giant ants (called by Arethar 'ethiophians', meaning 'gold-digging ants' in the Arachne language) from which Rhaegal and the others had obtained the substance necessary to produce the cure against the blood death. The arachnes in turn tended to rob the ants, both to take possession of the substances and special waxes they produced, and to steal the precious metals that they dug and with which they decorated their anthill to make it more striking; these thefts occurred a few months apart, and luck (or fate) had wanted this event to occur just as Rhaegal and the others were there to rob them in turn. This was what had allowed the arachnes to discover the existence of Haku and his family: the person who had seen them in fact, a certain Thylum, had immediately recognized the dragons and had run to warn all the population; his message had not taken long to reach the upper echelons of their society, who had questioned him and from the description they had discovered that those he had seen were dragons who accompanied themselves with newcomers, just as the ancient scriptures had predicted, and therefore they could only be those whose arrival had been prophesied.

When Haku had asked Arethar to explain the political system of the arachnes, he had discovered that they were not very united: each city was practically a separate state, and was governed by various lords who rarely met. Due to the fact that the access routes between one cave and another were limited, contacts and commerce were also very few and the arachnes tended to have a very isolationist lifestyle. However, each city recognized that it was subject to one in particular: Tigu-chtu-tal, the City of Noble Bones, their 'capital' (although that was a technically incorrect definition) and also their holiest site. According to Arethar no city of the arachnes could be compared to it, because it stood in the place that the last true lord of the world had given them to live, and according to him, 'it was not erected only by mortal hands but by the very essence of a supreme being'. Apparently everything in that city was extraordinary: the palaces were immense and more solid than any mountain, the waters were fresh and gave greater energy, the fields were more flourishing than ever and all the arachnes who lived there enjoyed perfect health and possessed a high strength level. According to Arethar this was due to the fact that the supreme being on which the city stood permeated everything in that place, from the land to the waters, giving his power to those who respected him. Haku was quite sure that this situation was due to the greater amount of mana underground (apparently this city was located over two and a half kilometers deep), but it was possible that he was wrong and that the truth was even more extraordinary than he imagined. According to Arethar, Tigu-chtu-tal was the center of the worship of the arachnes towards the lords of the world, since it was the place closest to their magnificence, and therefore was governed by a supreme priest, flanked by high priests (like him) and by numerous minor priests. The city was also the certainty of the most powerful armed forces of the arachnes people as there were the strongest warriors, who swore to protect the name and will of the lords of the world at any cost. Apparently, everyone in town was a bit of a fanatic (at least from Haku's point of view); however, the other arachnes too did not seem to be outdone, since according to Arethar all the arachnes went on a pilgrimage to Tigu-chtu-tal at least once in their life to pay homage to the lords of the world, and the lords of the various cities did it at least once a year. According to Arethar, after the news of the dragons' return had spread, many pilgrims had begun to arrive in the city and the lords of the other cities were quickly gathering there to welcome their masters in the most appropriate way; the supreme priest apparently when he heard of the arrival of those he had long awaited had almost had a heart attack with happiness and would have rushed to the surface himself to meet the mythical dragons if the high priests hadn't detained him and reminded him that he couldn't leave the city ​​in danger out of the blue, given that his wasn't only a religious but also a political office, and therefore he had decided to keep Arethar in his place, however anxiously waiting for the lords of the world to come down to visit them. Which probably would have happened very soon, since the ancient scriptures were right in Tigu-chtu-tal, and therefore if Haku wanted to know more he would have had to visit it, that's why all the arachnes were gathering there.

Haku had to admit that, as much as he tried to maintain a rational thought and not let himself be infected by the ravings of that completely insane guy, he was tempted to find out what those ancient scriptures actually were. He had tried to ask Arethar, but as usual when he spoke of that subject he had been vague, referring to them with solemn words and calling them 'the legacy of the last true lord of the world'. Haku had noticed that when Arethar referred to dragons as he and his siblings he simply called them 'lords of the world', so evidently 'true lord of the world' must have been one level higher, something even more prestigious than even a dragon. Or rather, a modern dragon... Haku was quite sure that this difference was due to the different lifestyle that the dragons of the past and present seemed to have. The fact that the Arachnes saw dragons as 'masters of the world' meant that some sort of relationship must once have existed between them, and clearly it was a master/slave relationship that also seemed to be repeated for many other unknown races; this meant that by 'true lord of the world' Arethar probably meant a dragon who didn't just live on his own, but who truly ruled over other races by exercising his power as if he were a true king. The problem was that Haku had never heard of any past relationships between the dragons and the newcomers, at least not of this kind; which meant that something or someone must have ensured that no record of it remained in the annals of newcomers. A whole piece of History had been removed and no one seemed to be aware of it except those races who were now unknown to the rest of the world and who, having been in hiding for a long time, had retained the memory of those so remote events. As in the case of the prophecy Arethar had been very vague regarding this topic, continuing to say that everything would be clear once Haku and his siblings had viewed the ancient scriptures with their own eyes, but the dragon had managed to get some clues: the arachne often spoke of this age as the 'age of rebirth' which had been interrupted by 'usurpers', who had robbed the dragons of their place as rulers of all Ramat. Haku didn't know who exactly those 'usurpers' were... but he was starting to have some suspicious about it.

In short, in one way or another, Haku had managed to get a lot of information from Arethar. However, he still wasn't sure he could trust him completely: he seriously doubted that anyone could make up so many details and memorize them (unless he was a dragon himself, and Arethar clearly wasn't), but if there was one thing he had learned throughout his life was that caution was never too much. However, some of his siblings, especially Rhaegal, seemed to have become more convinced after all those explanations and were now more inclined to go and visit the people of the arachnes, at least to finally have a real answer regarding the prophecy and their role in it. And in fact, even Haku now had a great desire to go: his curiosity had already been piqued and he wanted to discover the truth. Perhaps, he thought, he could have used an avatar and disguised it as himself to go down there without risking falling into a trap, or he could have used another similar trick. In any case, whether it turned out to be a trap or not, he would finally have some answers regarding the prophecy: in the first case it would have been clear that it was all a deception, in the second... well, in the second case very unclear scenarios would have opened up and from the uncertain path, which perhaps however would have become easier to understand once we discovered what the prophecy was really about.

However, Haku wasn't someone who liked to jump into a situation before knowing what he was getting into; if he couldn't have one hundred percent security, he wanted at least ninety percent, at most eighty-five percent, but no less. Therefore, before making any decision, he wanted to test Arethar once again with the method he had talked about the day before at his siblings, that is to introduce him to the other newcomers and see his reaction. When Arethar had told him so, he had complied immediately and had declared himself happy to be able to parley with other servants of the lords of the world; this was good, because at least it greatly averted the possibility of hostile intentions on the opposing side (if an enemy wanted to hurt them it would hardly have allowed them to call for reinforcements, much less to warn their allies: he would have invented an excuse to avoid this) . Therefore, Haku had brought Arethar to Iluvatan City the next day, intending to watch his every move and interaction. The townspeople had been a bit confused when they saw the strange spider-like being strolling next to the dragon, but Haku ignored them and headed full speed towards the Council Hall.