Gray Hawk's marketplace sprawled across the island's central district, a maze of vendor stalls and stone buildings decorated with the traditional spider-web architecture. The smell of webfruit pastries mixed with the crisp, thin air that came from living thousands of feet in the sky.

  

  

  The marketplace was crowded, which meant Sadya was having her worst day.

  "Fresh webfruit! Fresh webfruit!" A vendor called out.

  Sadya was trying to buy bread without incident. She was failing.

  "Little Sadya!" Mrs. Takken, the baker, beamed at her from behind a counter laden with loaves. "I heard you're training with the Webguards now! Your mother must be so proud."

  

  

  Sadya "I'm not little, I am 22, thank you very much."

  Mrs. Takken "Well excuse men, someone a big girl."

  "She cried for three hours when she found out. I think she's terrified I'll die." Sadya counted out coins.

  

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  Mrs. Takken's smile froze. "Oh. Well. I'm sure she's just."

  "She said I have 'weird sticky powers that won't save me from a real threat.' That's a direct quote."

  "Sadya!" Someone yanked her backward. Weaver. Again. "Stop talking."

  "She asked about my mother!"

  "Learn to lie!"

  "I don't know how!" Sadya pulled away, bumping into someone. She turned, and immediately regretted it.

  Plemeton stood there. He was buying shuriken from the weapons vendor.

  

  

  "Oh no," Sadya whispered.

  "What?" Plemeton looked at her.

  "Nothing. I'm fine. This is fine." Her hands were making gum unconsciously, pink strands forming between her nervous fingers. she turned into a worm.

  She screamed inside..... OH GOSH HES SO SEXY! I FEEL SO SMALL AND VULNERABLE.

  She tuned into a small cotton candy ball.

  

  

  "You're doing the thing where you lie badly," Weaver observed.

  "I'M TRYING!"

  Plemeton raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay?"

  "No. You're really attractive and it makes my brain stop working." The words came out before she could stop them.

  The marketplace went silent.

  Plemeton blinked. "...Thank you?"

  "THIS IS THE WORST." Sadya created a gum tendril and yanked herself up to a nearby rooftop, swinging away like a spider on a web.

  Plemeton "Sadya?"

  He looked aroudn and she was gone.

  Behind her, she heard Weaver apologizing profusely while the entire marketplace erupted in gossip "Sorry but do you have walnuts and cashews, but the celestrial ones, I need to get stronger so I can work up the ranks to be Madam spiders perosnal body guard."

  

  

  She'd never survive this.