Chapter 60. Silken trust

"What would you like to know about my silk?" Voras turned my question around.

"A few things really. One. What grade is it? Two. How much it sells for. Three. How much you can produce. And four. Can you make all of us some proper clothes?" I asked rattling off my questions with a finger for each one.

Voras smirked as I finished. "You definitely are taking this part of your job seriously."

She then used her back legs to bring a thread of her silk forward and began to bundle it up until it was the size of her hand. Once done she broke the thread close to her spinneret and handed it to me.

I accepted and pulled it into my inventory.

Resistant Arachnid silk (C+)

Oh. She has the highest quality item out of everyone.

Sell: 5 Farm Points.

But not forth as much as a bottle of Zeldi's milk. Could be a quantity thing?

"Before you ask, I can make roughly one hundred of those every day but that is only if I spend all my silk making them and I am fed well." Voras smirked. "But know that I do like to spin my silk for fun and especially to build a new nest."

"So I can't have all of it is what you're trying to say?" I clarified after seeing dollar signs in my eyes.

"Exactly." Voras then pointed towards my new pants. "Those took the equivalent of roughly four of the silk bundles I gave you so if you are wanting clothes." She shrugged letting me do the maths.

"And a Centaur dress would be more?" I asked.

"A lot more." Voras smirked.

"That's fair." I said doing a quick few calculations in my head.

Voras just hummed in her hammock as she watched me. Her hands not idle as she started to make what looked like a shirt with the other measurements of mine she had.

"And your food?"

"Meat. I would prefer it to be alive so that I can liquify whatever creature you present to me but I can make do with just the meat." Her eyes found me as she showed off her fangs. "You have the trespassing reward active but I'm not blind to the creatures that are sculking around the edges. Would there be a problem with a few of them going missing?"

"Only if they are useful to me." I replied matching her predatory smile. "I may be kind to my livestock but that doesn't extend to everyone. I won't stop you but do try to leave the Lamia people and those that look like traders. We need the traders and the Lamia have a deal with me I'm waiting for them to honor."

There was a gleam in her eye as she got her permission and I suddenly realized something. "If you happen to catch any kobolds, can you see about getting any information out of them before you kill them. Anything you can really but don't mention it to Zeldi at all."

"I'm guessing there's a reason you want to hide something from your Livestock?" There was a bit of an accusation in her tone.

Something I should probably have taken into account but maybe having her opinion on the matter would be good? She was neutral but cared about Livestocks treatment so she could be someone I could actually talk to about this.

"Promise you will hear out the full story before you make judgement?"

Her weaving stopped. "Now you have my full attention. Maybe the name Mister lier is correct?"

"If I deserve it then sure but just hear me out first." I said leaning against the tree opposite her and making sure Zeldi wasn't close. I could see her on the front porch looking in our direction but too far away to be able to hear.

"Go on." Voras prompted.

"You are the fourth Livestock on this farm right now." I admitted getting a surprised humph from Voras. "The two you have met are my partners as I'm sure Zeldi has mentioned the other is Tilty. She is as the overseer says 'dirty' in some way."

"I have never experienced the one who talks to a Deed owner ever to be hostile towards another Livestock." Voras hummed.

"Yeah it gets worse. Tilty is responsible for Zeldi being kidnapped from her home village and through a twist of fate, instead of being sold to her Zeldi took ownership of this Deed temporarily."

"A Livestock tried to kidnap another?" Voras asked and I could tell the moment she went from actively listening to ready to kill. She however did well to control herself but even her legs looked like they were ready to pounce.

"Yes." The answer was short and simple but Voras hissed.

I continued in the hopes she wouldn't try and murder Tilty straight away. "Tilty then hired someone by the name of Maletary to basically make Zeldi's life miserable so that she'd sell herself to her. That is the leader of the kobolds and to the best of my knowledge she has been sabotaging Zeldi in the background while pretending to be her friend."

Voras was silent for a while just digesting everything I'd said. It wasn't till she resumed weaving the T-shirt that I let myself take a breath. Evidently I wanted her to say I'd done the right thing, just to prove to myself I wasn't being a huge ass.

"So you haven't told her. Why not?" Voras finally said. Her scar was easily visible as she moved her hands.

"I have no proof." I said simply. "To her Maletary is a friend and one of the only people that has ever been nice to her over the last four years. Coming out and saying that she has been using her without anything to back it up would be unwise."

"And forcing this Tilty to explain herself?" Voras asked.

"It's a gamble as to if Zeldi would actually believe her." I answered with a sigh. "The problem is I can't get any proof as that would require the kobolds to do something and with trespassing up that's just not going to happen. Dropping it is also out of the question."

"Ah. I see." Voras commented then went silent again. The only sound between us was of her weaving.

I tried to stay still and not let how much the silence was bothering me. A task I somewhat succeeded in but not fully.

"I won't say you did anything bad and I would probably agree that was the best course of action."

I let out a breath.

"But." Voras dragged out. "Keeping Zeldi in the dark will only make it harder to explain to her later. When this Maletary does finally reveal herself and Zeldi wants to continue to be her friend how are you going to react?"

"Honestly? Haven't gotten that far yet." I admitted. "I first found out when a kobold was trying to steal Zeldi's milk and trespassing dealt with that pretty quickly after that Tilty was a bigger problem."

Voras finished the shirt and offered it to me. It held the same light blue as the pants.

"And she hasn't made any other attempts to steal anything?"

"If she has it hasn't succeeded." I replied now a little concerned I hadn't done more to look. In my defense I had other things to focus on and without the kobolds ability to enter the land they weren't a threat.

"I would like to meet this Tilty. Then I can get a correct understanding of the situation. As if everything you say is correct then the simplest solution is to kill this Maletary before she can reveal herself and thus use the fake friendship with Zeldi to drive a wedge between you two." Voras gave her decree like it was obvious.

"That's not bloodthirsty at all." I remarked sarcastically.

Voras stood back on her spider legs and gave me an eye roll. "Those that abuse Livestock deserve death. Our only purpose in this world was to provide our products to make it better. I have no sympathy for those that choose to abuse us for their own gain."

She then looked me up and down. "Your relationship with Zeldi should be the perfect example of how Deed owners should act. Treat us right and we can give more in return."

"A symbiotic relationship." I muttered.

"Quite right." Voras said as if I'd asked a question.

As she walked past me her scar caught my eye.

"Then do you mind if I ask how you got that scar? And why it's not healing like all the other wounds we get on the land?" I asked only for her to stop and turn around so quickly I didn't have time to react.

"I got this from my last Deed owner." She hissed as a little bit of venom dripped down her lip. "A Deed owner can harm their own Livestock in a very specific way. Should I see you doing it..."

"I'll be strung up outside my land." I interrupted. "Trust me I have no intention of doing that at all. Hell between you and your webs, Tarakona and her frost, and Zeldi with her back hooves I don't even think I'd get that chance if I wanted to."

I followed this up with a laugh and came up to join her. "If your only intention is to protect other Livestock then I beg you. Please let me help. You don't need to do it alone."

Voras continued to walk with me as her eyes tried to bore a hole through any part of my body she could until she gave up with a hiss. "You are way to nice."