Capricorn 14. A woman restoring an ancient textile.
Shizar Arami is an alchemist who specializes in the restoration of ancient tapestries. Her work is of an incomparable perfection in all its detail. Few have seen how she accomplishes her magic, but I, having taken much time to gain her confidence, have seen her at work, and her methods are highly unique.
It is in fact not she that performs the work, but a group of spiders with whom she has formed a deep psychic affinity. She feeds them various herbs and magically altered insects to obtain the colors she so desires, and then directs her spiders to repair, with their silk, the places of damage which time has has wrought on these fine works of art. Her spiders love her, and that love, combined with her guidance has brought many a tapestry back to life so that it seems as if it had just been freshly cut from its loom.
I realize that what I here reveal will be taken by many as no more than a pretty fantasy, but I tell you I have seen it with my own eyes.
When I returned to Peth after a long sojourn to far places the people wondered where I had obtained my new brocade gown, whose pattern, they noticed, was exactly like the old one. It is true, what the wise have said, “often a deep secret, even when revealed, stays secret to those who have not the imagination to believe.”