"How do I bear more driders?"

{pardon my confusion} asked Teysa, {but i thought... well, i thought you were, well, uh, like me. i always heard that the driders turned humanoids into more driders?}

Rik'eel nodded. {that is so. the Mother who Spins granted us three paths to ascension: first, some of us came from the City. priestesses blessed by Her touch are transformed. second, some of us are Graced, as you were, by a matron.}

Teysa noted the indefinite "a" there. Very interesting. Something to ask about later.

Rik'eel continued. {however, there is a third path. a rare few of us are born fertile. do you see?} She pointed at Teysa's stomach. At first, the former paladin wasn't sure what she was looking at, but squinting she noticed a pale diamond pattern mottling her grey flesh. {you bear the mark. your womb can bring forth life-- not just the spiderlings you bore us in the cave, but a true drider, a sister to us all.} Her smile was tight and wan. {i will not tell you i am not jealous. i prayed that i would be found worthy to bear such an offspring. we are not many, and there are those who hunt us in these caves. it is a sacred duty to preserve our race.}

Teysa traced the diamond pattern lightly with her fingertips. A child. They're asking me to have a child. She remembered birthing the spiderlings-- remembered the agony, the joy, the completeness she had felt. And this new child would not be one of the bright, curious, but ultimately limited spiderlings-- she would be a drider, a sentient creature capable of living her own life and having a real relationship with her mother. Do I want this? Teysa had fought so hard and suffered so much to free herself from an endless cycle of breeding. Would she step back into it so easily?

{what must i do, to bear such a child?}

{speak to the matron,} Rik'eel said. {she will send you to another warren. it is a great shame to breed within your warren. the Mother Who Spins commanded that we spread our web across the world below the world, each connecting to each.}

She made a curious gesture of obeisance with her hands, crossing them over each other at the wrists and splaying out her fingers. {will you visit the matron? i know she is eager to see you.}