Anasta made them some tea. She was, for a change, being deceptively hospitable, but Bastian was under no illusions - she was a cunning woman and would use such gestures to make him lower his guard. The tea smelled like lavender and coriander, and there was a sense of anticipation in the air. Amanda came up to Bastian to show him her arm.
It looked like there had never been an injury at all. Bastian smiled, but he was concerned. The witch was capable of many things. Was being merciful one of them?
The chairs they were sitting on were made out of wood that groaned and creaked as they shifted their positions. Somewhere, a bird was singing, which was a weird thing to hear while underground.
"You need venom for your sword." Anasta paused and sipped her tea. Her plump lips looked pouty when she drank. She had obscenely long eyelashes that did nothing whatsoever to ease Bastian's carnal confusion. "I understand that. Without a doubt, Mahogany fussed about whether it is poison or venom. He's a very fussy man for someone who acts that brave."
She smirked and took a bottle from one of the many shelves she had in her lair. It was full of something pink.
"But I can assure you that all my poisons become venomous in the right hands. I just have not convinced myself that your hands are the right ones." The witch crossed her legs in a swift motion that almost revealed her panties. If she was wearing any.
"How can I convince you?" Bastian asked. "I assume I will have to pay for Amanda's treatment as well."
Anasta looked at him with a storm-like quality in her eyes.
"You don't know what you are getting into," she said.
"I have never known anything, but I have guessed a lot of things and guess what?" Bastian stared at her, determined to convince her with his presence alone. "I was right most of the time. You can trust me with any task, I am not afraid."
"Why are you not afraid?" the witch asked.
"Because I have already died," Bastian said without batting an eye.
If the witch was impressed, she didn't show it in any way. Still, her voice got softer, her eyes less demanding.
"I have a population of spiders that I would like to grow into a healthy army," she said. "But there is just one problem. There is a beast in these tunnels that keeps on eating them. I think it came from the sea, since one of the tunnels leads up to the shoreline, but in any case the numbers have declined and this has disturbed the precious ecosystem I am trying to build."
"You want me to kill the beast?" Bastian asked. "What is the animal - or monster - like?"
"I don't know," Anasta replied. "You will just have to find out. I hope you will not have to go all the way to the ocean shore, because there are more monsters there than anywhere else on the island, and you don't have the Book of Peridot with you…if you did, it might give you an edge, since I suspect that these monsters vary when it comes to their origin."
She shifted her position again. It was only now that Bastian paid any attention to her tattoos. They didn't seem threatening, but they looked kind of cool. Hot. Forbidden.
"So, you will have to face the beast and maybe some other monsters as well with the knowledge that you cannot control a single one of them. With the Book, you would have stood a chance, but now…whatever you meet down here, you will have to kill. And it won't be easy," the witch said. Her bottom lip glimmered, it looked like her mouth was covered in liquid honey. Her mere presence caused Bastian to feel an uncomfortable yet pleasurable pressure in his groin area.
"Will you equip me with the venom?" Bastian asked.
She shook her head, her long purple hair falling down. "I will not waste a single drop of it on you unless I know that you are capable of completing this task."
"And in exchange, you give it to me once I am done and consider my debts paid. Deal," Bastian said.
"Not so fast! To pay for this costly healing I did for your wife, you will still have to spend a night in my lair," Anasta said with a sly grin. "And don't think I will go easy on you. But first things first. Pay for the poison."
"I will go now," Bastian said.
Anasta opened the door for him.
He exchanged one final glance with his wife, who seemed to be coming back to her senses.
"Wait," Amanda said and got up. She walked up to him and kissed him on the lips.
"For good luck," she said.
Bastian smiled at her and turned towards the tunnels.
He was lucky enough to avoid getting lost during the first hours of his search, but what he did lose track of was the passing of time. He found plenty of spiders that did not seem too keen on attacking him. They were very much prototypical in the sense that they were a bit smaller than tarantulas, black, and hairy in a fuzzy way - nothing fancy, just old-fashioned black spiders with their huge legs and numerous eyes.
The poor things were threatened by something? It had to be something that could attack large groups of smaller things. Perhaps a thing that was somewhat immune to the venom of the spiders. Bastian considered the possibility of there being a different species of spider eating the black ones, but that would have made his mission extra hard. He doubted that Anasta wanted to see any spiders killed.
He wandered in a circle for a while and found something that resembled a trail left by a giant snake. Having been a fan of zoology from a young age, he could easily recognize the tracks of a slithering animal.
A snake. It would make sense to have a venomous snake being immune to the spider venom.
He glanced towards a tunnel that seemed to lead towards the shore. At least based on the freshness of the air.
He turned and followed the tracks that were leading there, listening to the hissing from behind a corner that was getting louder and louder.