Mira raised her eyebrows as Veda entered the cramped tent room, and her breath caught as a sizzling fruity perfume surrounded her. Veda’s silken dress flowed behind her like a waterfall, the sleeves draping like curtains hiding her arms. What began as red at her shoulders filled with glittering silver by her waist, sparkling like a sunset sprinkling stars below. Her night-black hair hung halfway down her back, tied in curling patterns with red spiraling streaks like wine.

The elegant swagger with which Veda slithered, her high air and graceful manner, put Mira in mind of that self-proclaimed “queen” Anne Koizumi, except Veda made that squirt look as ragged as—well, her sister Enna, who cared about grace even less than Mira.

Veda’s skin was a little lighter than Mira’s, as the guard outside had said, but the difference was so subtle Mira was surprised the guard could tell. Veda’s tail flowed into the room like a never-ending stream of swirling bands black as oil and white as starlight, crossed with streaking lines like blood. Mira could quickly tell Veda’s tail was bigger than hers. Unlike the soft tread her butler made, Veda’s slithering vibrated through the ground as if to say she owned the land.

Mira found herself put off by Veda. She, a lamia who spent her days making herself unnoticed, faced with a lamia who presented herself as the center of attention. Mira felt the impression that Veda’s air exemplified ownership—that she held the rights to everything.

“You must be the lamia with no surname.” Veda smiled as she sat across from Mira, her lips so crimson she looked like she’d kissed blood. Somehow her lips paled against the striking red of her eyes, like a bloody sun compared to Mira’s sunny yellow. Mira could hear a bit of her own land’s tongue in Veda’s accent, but her words rolled out in a lighter way. Of course, she traveled the world. No doubt she picked up bits of accent from everywhere.

“I must admit, I was rather fascinated when I was informed.” Veda leaned forward, chin to her hands showing obsidian fingernails, a hint of red in their dark blue. “I would love to learn more about you, Miss Mira.”

Despite herself, Mira found Veda’s smile put her at ease. She wasn’t an expert on communication or countenance, but that smile seemed to dispel all the high air she moved with, as if placing them on equal standing.

Mira planted her hands on the table, the fuzzy tablecloth muffling the dramatic smack she’d wanted, and she leaned forward.

“I seek the location of the spider monster with hypnotic venom, the one rumored to have begat countless more monsters.”

Veda raised her eyebrows.

“Not quite what I meant. I see you’re quick and to the point, though. So you want to meet Maestra.”

“Maestra?” Now Mira had a name to the spider.

“She, like you, seems to have only the one name.” Veda leaned forward. “How is that, by the way? Did you reject your parents?”

“I never had parents to reject.”

“No parents?” Veda frowned. “You were an orphan, then. Sorry to hear. Do you remember your parents, both lamias or one human?”

“I don’t remember a thing about them,” Mira said. “As far as I’m concerned I had none.”

“Where did you grow up?”

“The jungle.”

“Which village, I mean?”

“No village.” Mira planted a finger on the table. “Just the jungle.”

Veda smiled.

“You lived in the wild jungle all your life? How many years?”

“I don’t count the years,” Mira said.

“And you never had anyone to raise you?”

“No one!” Mira glared at Veda. She had no use for history, and thinking about it brought fragments of thoughts and feelings she wanted to ignore. She wasn’t there to discuss herself. “I don’t care for this questioning. I only want to know where I can find—Maestra.”

“Of course, Miss Mira.” Veda nodded. “I do hope you understand that I want to make sure you’re trustworthy.” She opened her mouth but Mira spoke first.

“Then ask me why I want to meet this spider, instead of asking questions neither of us have any use for.”

Veda raised her eyebrows. She removed her smile, which seemed to cast her to a lofty distance looking down on Mira.

“Very well. Why do you wish to meet with Maestra?”

“I want to use her hypnotic venom in my arrows. Using my eyes is fine to capture people, but if they’re quick enough they can get away.” She smiled, eyes narrow. “An arrow to put fear in them before I only nick their arm with hypnotic venom would add a new element to the hunt.”

“You practice the bow, then?” Veda asked. “That is how you survived in the jungle, I imagine.”

“I’ve been using bows and arrows as long as I remember.”

“Perhaps a bow raised you, then,” said Veda. She leaned back and steepled her fingers together. “You do realize you just asked me to aid you in kidnapping, no?”

Mira tilted her head and scoffed.

“I may not live in the villages, but I know the law surrounding human encounters in the jungle.”

“Enlighten me,” Veda said. She lifted a palm. “No jest; my family is from this jungle, but I was raised elsewhere. Does the law not forbid shooting humans with arrows?”

“The law allows for hypnotic control, and it makes no distinction among methods.” Mira hoped Veda spoke truly of her unfamiliarity with the law. Mira herself had only the most basic understanding of it and no idea if it really did make a distinction.

Not that she considered herself bound by the laws of the villages, but she supposed she should convince Veda she did.

“What will you do once your subject has an arrow sticking in their arm?”

“They won’t. I’ll graze them with nothing worse than a prick. I could shoot a fly off an apple without harming the apple’s skin.”

“Confidence, Miss Hunter,” Veda said. “That’s good, because Maestra can be dangerous.”

“I’m certain in my ability to fight if I need to.”

Veda shut her eyes and shook her head.

“I cannot condone you hurting a hair on my old friend’s head, Miss Mira. I may guide you to her abode, but I have to be sure that you are not a danger to her, first.”

“How do you propose to do—that?” Mira’s eyes widened. When Veda opened her eyes black void filled them. Before Mira could ponder what was happening, rings of dark violet and crimson joined the black like a dying sunset pulsing across the sky and into Mira’s mind.

“How else do we test, get information from, or—as you say—capture others?”

Veda smiled, but not the smile of a friend—the smile of a hunter, the smile of one in control and ready to gleefully wield that control.

Mira stared into Veda’s eyes as the colors flooded out like a sunset dropping night over her thoughts, each new ring snipping away her control and shrouding her mind in warm darkness. One part of her mind knew what was happening and demanded retaliation, but the other had no familiarity with this side, no belief it might ever happen, and that disbelief wiped away her thoughts.

Plenty of people Mira had hypnotized, but never had a lamia dare try to hypnotize her.

She’d never experienced the feeling of her own thoughts swallowed in the grip of pulsing colors. As her thoughts trickled slower, a void grew in her mind filling with an abundance of Veda’s colors, which conducted her towards submission. If she let her mind wander, it wouldn’t come back.

All of Mira’s stubborn independence erupted and denied Veda’s hypnotic spell. She gripped back control of her mind. With a glare she forced forth her own hypnotic colors of blazing red, submerging blue, and the deep jungle green, which she so often saw reflect in the eyes of her prey, and she pushed Veda’s hypnotic gaze out.

“You’re going to lecture me about capturing humans then try to capture me yourself?” Mira asked. Veda’s smile twitched.

“I don’t believe I lectured you,” she said. “I merely asked questions. The time for questions is over, and now it is time for commands. Drop, Miss Mira.”

Mira felt a shudder through her head, as if all her thoughts flashed drop. After the outward pressure of her own hypnosis she felt the tendrils of Veda’s slide back into her mind, stronger and deeper, as if using her own hypnotic eyes opened her mind to Veda’s influence pressing into her senses and seeping through cracks. Veda’s hypnotic colors rippled over her vision, but she saw her own colors flicker through Veda’s eyes, so she continued to push.

“Oh, no, you’re the one who wanted to know more about me,” Mira said. “Let me show you what I can do. Just let your eyes grow weary and stop resisting.”

Mira saw Veda give a single nod at her command, but Veda rose above her. Mira responded by rising even higher.

“A good response, my dear. Let’s see how much I can learn about you.” Veda’s voice deepened, rich with a spice that sizzled. “Just keep looking into my eyes and let your charming host soothe you and take control.”

When Veda commanded, Mira felt her mind yearn to follow, felt Veda’s citrus perfume fog her mind. She waved it from her head and tightened her own grip.

“You’re a guest to this jungle, let me draw you deep into its depths. Let go of your past and let me be your future.”

Mira jerked back. Scales curled around and tugged the end of her tail—Veda’s tail wrapped around it. As Veda pulled her Mira felt her head drawn and thoughts tugged towards her. She pulled back and wrapped up Veda’s tail. They squeezed and pulled like a wrestling match, while they stared each other down in a mental wrestling match.

“You are quite powerful, Miss Mira,” Veda said. “I’m enjoying this little contest.”

“I have the power of the jungle,” Mira said. “Keep staring until that becomes a permanent thought in your head.”

Yet she found her gaze pulled in Veda’s sway more than she pulled Veda. Her thoughts skipped, her hypnotic rings slowed or forgotten as her heavy eyes struggled to open wide enough to hypnotize effectively. Veda’s tail curled higher along Mira’s, the tight squeeze of her velvety scales dragging Mira down like a soft, heavy blanket wrapping her up.

“You have power, yet you’re lacking in finesse,” said Veda, drawing Mira’s gaze into spirals and waving sways. Try as Mira might to pull Veda into her own sway, she followed Veda’s eyes as if on a string. “You only have practice hypnotizing lost, scared travelers, I imagine. Perhaps you might like some lessons?”

“I don’t,” Mira said, even as her words slurred, “I don’t need advice from you.”

She steadied her swaying eyes with a glare, building her animus like a wall to block Veda’s influence, and she pulled her gaze back, yanking Veda closer. Veda’s smile dropped as Mira’s bright red, blue, green pulsed through her eyes, and Mira gave a victorious smile.

Her smile fell to a gasp as Veda’s eyes pulsed anew with her sunset colors, closer to Mira now, more vivid, stunning, drawing her to stare deeper into Veda’s eyes. Her triumph fell away as Veda encompassed more of her world, more of her mind, hypnotic tendrils seeping through cracks in her wall and forcing them wider. They wrapped around Mira’s mind and coaxed her towards submission. Her wall of animus and independence teetered as Veda’s spell pressed deeper into her mind.

“Of course, there’s no sense in advice,” Veda said. Despite her triumphant smile her words slowed like she spoke through molasses. “A demonstration is much more useful. Keep pushing, my dear, let me see how much power you have.”

The dueling lamias leaned closer, eyes rising and falling in confused rhythms as their hypnotic colors fought for dominance in each other’s gaze. Yet Mira fell further and Veda rose higher, as Mira’s attention lapsed, forgot she was trying to resist, forgot she was trying to hypnotize Veda. Try as she did to rise higher, she slumped, and Veda loomed over her as Mira’s head fell back.

Veda’s voice dropped to a teasing, seductive lullaby, her slow rhythm drawing Mira down a deep melody as if she were an instrument to the song.

“Just follow me closely, oh, let go of your cares,
“Don’t worry, don’t think, it’s fine to just sink,
“So trust in my words, yes, trust what feels so good,
“Sleeping so deep, so deep as you drop down to the brink.”

“N-No,” Mira said, “s-stop that . . .” Her mind swirled into the rhythm, unable to shake the melody out of her head.

“You trust in my words, they’re so deep and oh so strong,
“So let go of your grip, let all those silly thoughts fade,
“Your mind sinks and sinks into warmth, fills with my song,
“Floating, yes, floating free, no thoughts heavily weighed.
“You’re safe to stay, safe to sway, now you’ll have no fear,
“Just follow me, closer, yes closer, oh, you want to fall so near.”

“N . . .nuh . . .” Mira felt her thoughts slip through her head like sand. She fought to scoop them up, but most faded a moment later. She gripped her mind tighter and pushed to assert control. “No!”

Her colors pulsed stronger through Veda’s eyes, nearly an even mix, but Mira found her vision falling under the sunset rings of Veda’s eyes, the tent gone from her vision and mind, the jungle a fading memory. Even so, Veda seemed to nod down, her song halting.

“Pushing hard . . . will wear you out, will open your mind so wide,
“And opening wider feels—good, oh so good, so drop, sink, and slide.
“Open your mind now, yes, accept my gift of rushing, streaming, gushing colors,
“And gift your mind to me in return.
“You want to give in, oh yes, you’ve such a yearn.”

Mira tried to mumble a resisting no, but it turned into an accepting yes. Veda’s voice dropped to a whisper as she and Mira leaned nose-to-nose, Veda almost completely above her.

“Oh, sink, sink, sink below.
“Oh yes, I’m all you know.”

Veda slid her arms over Mira’s shoulders, draping her long sleeves over her and wrapping Mira in her sizzling perfume. Comfort shot through Mira’s body, unfamiliar, yet the longer she stared at Veda the more her own fogged mind felt unfamiliar. Veda’s growing hold bred familiarity in the comfort she wrapped Mira in, and Mira sank into that new, yet rapidly familiar, desire to be held and crooned to.

Mira’s mouth fell open and released a stream of half-formed syllables repeating Veda’s song. Gift, sink, drop, slide—the words stopped holding meaning to her remaining conscious mind.

Her remaining conscious mind focused on pumping out hypnotic colors, to win whatever she was doing, tearing down her walls to open space to pour her colors forth.

Her remaining conscious mind failed to notice when those colors darkened to a dying sunset, and the rest of her failed to notice when those colors swallowed up her conscious mind and strung her through them like a puppet.

She only felt bliss wrapping around her mind, rippling through her body like a massaging hug.

“Now, my dear,” echoed the commands in Mira’s mind, “I must insist you follow my words if we are to get anywhere. Muffle your mind, slide down the spiral into silence, and drop.”

At the last word a ringing silenced Mira’s remaining thoughts. She fell slack in Veda’s tight hug, and she smiled as her mind floated still in the sea of Veda’s colors.