Day 54


    ''That''s enough! Don''t even move!'' Damien roared into the minds of his minions.


    ''Stop! No! Stand down!'' Damien furiously threw his entire telepathic weight onto the defiant lizard, and it paused, ever so briefly with each magic-infused command. However each time Rex was forced to halt, it didn''t hold him down as firmly, or as long. Each time Damien''s authority grew weaker. The beaten spider crawled as fast as he could, with his right side dragging on the ground behind his grasping and pulling legs. Rex stomped slowly, but steadily after the pathetically broken spider, furiously shrugging off Damien''s frantic demands.


    ''Wait...'' he pondered, ''Another power?'' He looked at the energy radiating from his bloodthirsty reptile, and it was almost entirely blue. He had devoured far too much raw mana from the sapphire shards scattered around the room, and as Damien checked, Ajax, the spiderlings, the ants, the beetles, and every other creature that had consumed the shards held some of the foreign blue mana within them.


    ''Don''t just stand there! Stop him!''


    ''Fuck.'' Damien cried, ''Not her too!''


    ''Please Shae. Please stop.'' He begged.


    ''St-op?''


    ''What?!'' Damien shouted, disbelief taking hold of him.


    ''Stop it?'' And once more a now quivering, timid mind reached Damien.


    ''Yes, please. Stop it.''


    ''Yes, stop it.'' The mind no longer quivered, instead it was soft, happy, and... loving?


    ''No! What are you doing?'' Damien shouted.


    ''I stop it. I end it.''


    Christ. Damien groaned to himself. He was so shocked that she had answered him, he had forgotten that she was less than two weeks old, and a spider communicating for the first time. He was so used to his thoughts carrying a magical, binding weight that carried out his will, and not his words. He didn''t even have to give "voice" to his thoughts. He could effortlessly direct them, but using words in his mind felt more natural. It was obvious this spider wanted to please him, unlike that ungrateful beast Rex, he just needed the right words. He would deal with the reality that his spider could talk later.


    ''Stop hurting the lizard.''


    ''Lizard?'' she asked, unable to process the thought of a name.


    ''Yes! I stop!'' she cried out her comprehension and stood happily at attention.


    ''Back away.'' Damien ordered, still not trusting the delightful creature who he could not control.


    ''Yes!'' She answered, as she scurried all the way to the doorway of the room. But she stopped and looked up expectantly.


    ''....''


    ''Good girl...'' Damien sighed.


    ''Yes!'' She cried delightfully, and scurried back to her nest near Damien''s core.