Spirit Speaker

I squelched wetly into my rooms at the palace. My clothes were soaked, and I'd left a long trail of droplets from the front door to my room on the far side of the third floor. 

The head maid was going to give me a tongue-lashing. 

I undressed, ran a hot bath in the tub, and soaked for an hour. 

I dried myself, dressed again, and fell to my knees at my bedside. I closed my eyes.

"Uh…I don't know how to do this." I said, into the air, feeling my ears heat up with embarrassment. "But, um, I need to know what the Seeker found."

And peals of laughter echoed throughout my bedroom. 

I looked up and saw the Weaver on my bed, crying with laughter. 

"Wow, you're bad at this." She said, wiping a tear from her eye. 

"It's the first time I've ever prayed!" I protested. "It would be strange if I got it right first time."

She struggled to compose herself, a giggle escaping every couple of seconds. 

"Okay, okay I'm sorry. Try again. I'll be serious this time."

"I don't want to." I said, feeling like a child. I looked away from the smiling goddess.

"Aw, Lukas, don't be like that. Try again, I'll be good."

I cracked an eye open to see her kneeling on my bed, her dark dress gathered around her. She was watching me, the light in her golden eyes dancing with laughter . She covered her smile, and raised her other hand, placatingly. "I'll be good, I promise."

"Okay…" I said cautiously. I shifted position. And then shifted again. "I don't know what to do with my hands." I said, eventually. 

"Here, let me help." She got off my bed and knelt beside me. She put my hands together, fingers interlaced. 

"Now, you close your eyes, and you think about me. Think about what I mean to you, just like you're speaking to a spirit. Just focus, and concentrate on everything you know about me, call on me, say something like "Oh Mighty Weaver," or "Great glorious one who owns my soul" and your message will reach me."

I raised my eyebrows. "I'm not calling you that."

She laughed. "No, no I suppose you wouldn't, would you?"

She took her hands off mine.

"It's that simple?" 

She nodded. "Oh yes, it's that simple. You don't need to brute force it like you do everything else."

I looked at her suspiciously but did as she said. I bowed my head and thought of her. I remembered her punching me in the stomach, I remembered arguing with her. I remembered collapsing at her feet at the temple. 

I remembered lying on the altar, I remembered staring up at the white spider, her symbol, while she healed my wounds. 

I remembered her eyes, golden and infinitely deep. I remembered her weave, endless. Stretching to the past, and going on forever into the future. 

And instinctively, I called on her, by her name. 

I felt her hand on my shoulder, and in my ear, I heard her whisper.

"See?" Her voice was subdued. "It's easy."

I opened my eyes to turn to her, but she covered them with her hand. 

"No, no, don't look at me right now, Lukas." She said. "Now, once you've called on me, you tell me what you need from me, and then when you're done, you wait, for just a few moments, and you open your eyes."

Her hand was firm on my shoulder, keeping me on my knees. 

"Now, what do you need?"

"I need to know what the Seeker found out."

I waited for a few seconds, and then opened my eyes, but couldn't see, her hand was still covering them. 

But I felt her other arm wrap around me, and I felt her rest her head on my back. 

"So your worshippers don't talk to you? They talk at you?" I asked. 

"Yes."

"That's unfair."

She didn't respond.

"And they call you Weaver?"

"Or White Spider."

"And you do what they want?"

I felt her nod her head.

"It must be lonely," I murmured. "I promise not to talk at you," and I called her by her name. "I promise to talk to you."

"Don't…Lukas…Don't make a promise you can't keep."

I reached up, took her hand from my eyes, and turned around to see her weeping. 

And this time, I took her in my arms, and she buried her face into my neck. 

"And I promise to always call on you by your name. And when we are alone, I'll do the same."

She tightened her grip on me. 

"And I promise to always do what you ask of me, even if I complain and argue against it the whole time."

I felt her laugh. 

"And above all else," and I said her name again. "I promise to be your friend."

I felt her lips turn to a smile against my neck, and she pulled back, her cheeks streaked with golden tears, her eyes puffy, and her nose red. 

But she was smiling. 

"You're presumptuous, Lukas, promising to befriend a goddess."

I raised my hand and brushed an errant tear from her face. 

"I'm not befriending a goddess," I replied softly. "I'm befriending you." And I said her name again. 

She held my hand against her cheek and closed her eyes. 

"It's been millennia since I've had a friend." She said, letting go of my hand, removing it gently from her cheek, and clasping it back onto my other hand, interlacing the fingers, the position my hands were in when I started praying. 

"Close your eyes, Lukas." She said.

I did as she asked, and the last thing I saw, was that strange, crooked half-smile. 

"Now, open them."

She was gone. And in her place was an envelope. With my name written on it, in terrible, spidery handwriting. 

I opened the envelope, still on my knees, and looked inside. 

A note, and something else. 

I removed the note, and turned the envelope over in my hands. A small, golden spider amulet fell into my palm. 

Lukas,

It was getting too gooey for me.

To answer your question. The Seeker questioned the man, but he had had his soul burned from him, there was nothing to talk to. 

There was nothing to be learned from him. The good news is that he roused my brother's curiosity, and he's considering joining us. 

As to the other thing…

This amulet is proof of our promise. 

Wear it always, to remember me. 

She had started writing Weaver and then crossed it out, and then she tried White Spider and crossed that one out too. 

She ended with your friend.