Free her

"We can't just leave her, Li. It's not right." Teysa's voice grew more assured as she spoke. "We didn't ask for what happened to us, and she didn't either." Aliara bit her lip in frustration. "Tey, you can't be thinking of doing this! Where would we even go?! The best we could hope for is that when they catch us, they merely kill us, instead of putting us back up on the wall."

"Coward!" bellowed Devto. "You meekly submit to their boot on your neck! How is it that you walk around free, and yet you are such sheep?"

"It's not that, Devto." This voice was smooth and laconic. Teysa spun around. Anchored against the side wall, so fully wrapped that only her head was visible, was a human woman with short blonde hair and a spray of freckles across her cheeks. She stared contemptuously at Teysa's kimono. "Look at what she's wearing. She's working with them. She's their little pet."

The half-orc bellowed with indignation. "Is this true? Do you lay with them of your own free will? Vermin! K'tirg! Such foulness I never imagined!" Her voice echoed across the chamber. Teysa could see some of the other bundles stirring. She looked back and forth between the two-- Aliara radiated fear, while Devto's expression was enraged. "If there remains any fire in your belly, cut me down. I will not beg," the half-orc spat, "not from the likes of you."

Teysa made a decision. "Ok, but we'll have to move quickly. Do you have something that can cut the webs?"
"My blade is with the rest of my equipment in the corner." The half-orc gestured with her chin. "Hurry!"

Teysa ran over to the pile of discarded clothing. Sifting through it she found a leather scabbard of primitive design, holding a pitted and well-worn shortsword. She wrenched the weapon free and ran back to Devto. Muscles on her arms stood out like cords as she sawed frantically through the webs. Slowly but surely, they were parting. She freed the woman's legs first, then her arms, before starting on the thick loops that bound her to the wall. Aliara was hopping back and forth nervously. "Hurry, hurry! I think I hear something!"

"Almost got it-- there!" With a triumphant yelp Teysa stumbled forward as the last silk strand parted. The half-orc slouched off the wall, but the paladin was below her to ease her drop. "Careful, now. You can't move too fast." She was nearly doubled over, wheezing heavily with one arm wrapped protectively around her swollen belly. "Let's get you out of here." Aliara and Teysa each hefted one of Devto's arms around their shoulders, and the three hurried for the exit. Turning over her shoulder, Teysa called out "I'll come back for the rest of you!"

"Do you know the way out of here?" Teysa asked. "I think so," responded the half-orc. "I was conscious when they brought me in. Captured in a raid! The shame I will face!" She looked queasy. "It is better than the fate that awaited me, though. Thank you, stranger. You are braver than I thought."

A peculiar terror hung over Teysa as they hobbled through the corridors. At any moment they expected to be challenged, but they did not pass a single drider. Agamor is with us.

They turned a final corner and stopped in their tracks. Ahead of them the corridor was cut off by a massive web that hung from wall to wall. It was thicker than most and looked relatively recent. The three turned-- to see two guard driders behind them. Both wore impassive expressions, but they held spears leveled at the party. Aliara let out a choked sob. Teysa only sank to her knees. No, no, we were so close, it can't be...

The guards parted and the matron strode forward. "Child. Hyou betray me. I am disssssssappointed. I chose hyou above all otherssss, and thisssss is how you repay me?" She shook her head. "Foolish. Never again." Aliara ran forward. "Please, no, please, it was my idea, mine! Don't punish Teysa, please, punish me!"

The matron looked up at Teysa. "Is thissssss true? Did thissssss one lead hyou astray?"
"I, I, I..." Teysa tried to form the words, but nothing came out. Shock had robbed her of her faculties. "I didn't..."

"Enough. Witnessssss the fate of traitorsssss." The matron grabbed Aliara's head between her hands. With a single wrenching motion, she snapped the half-elf's neck.

Teysa wasn't sure which rang louder, the sickening crack or her throaty moan. "NoooooooooOOOOOOHHHHH!" She lunged forward, tears in her eyes, Devto forgotten. She would throttle that monster, destroy her... with contemptuous ease, one of the guards swatted her aside. Teysa fell to her knees next to Aliara's corpse, cradling her dead lover and weeping. "Aaaaaauuuuggghh! Li, Li, Li, nooooo!"

In a daze, she was keenly aware of being slammed down onto the hard ground, starting at the cave ceiling. She heard the drider matron hissing, but it all seemed very faraway, like she was underwater. She was dimly aware of the ovipositor sliding into her, not gently like before, but roughly, tearing its way through her innermost sanctum and gushing forth its payload of ooze. She knew she should be fighting as the fat eggs began stretching and contorting her body, but it was so hard to care about something so minor. Aliara was dead. She would never laugh again, never throw pebbles into the color pool with Teysa, never run her hands through the paladin's short-cropped hair. Never tease Teysa for being shy or awkward, or wrestle her, or...

Unconsciousness was a mercy when it came. Teysa hoped she'd never wake up.

The matron scowled in disappointment as her guards carried the two breeding slaves back to the Place of Birthing. She had had such high hopes for the human. She had had real potential as a clutchmother-- not just a receptacle for the matron's seed, but a valued member of the warren. But loyalty was the price of such rewards, and she had proven herself false. She would live out her days hanging on the wall until her body was too worn out to bear a clutch. Then, at last, the spiderlings would feed.

GAME OVER