"Mercy is important, too."

Teysa cleared her throat. What could she say?
"Great Matron, your offer honors me. I am pleased to be found worthy to take your tests. You say that there is no value to compassion here in the darkness. I say that you are wrong."
Hissing gasps arose from the audience. The drider matron stared impassively. Her eyes were, as ever, unreadable, pits of glossy blackness in her too-perfect face.

"I bore your children. I labored to bring them into the world. I nurtured them from my own body. I would do it again, if you needed me to," she went on, realizing to her shock that she was telling the truth. "To do that requires great compassion. Great love for the smallest among us. Is that not part of your life, too? I felt how you touched me when you filled me with your eggs. I heard how you sung to me as I lay in the birthing bed. I know you know the value of compassion. We must be hard, to survive in such a hard place, but we must not do so at the cost of justice. This woman strained to bear life for your warren. Would you deprive her children of their mother? That is not justice. That is not right. If that is what I need to be a drider, then I refuse. I will not drink from that poisoned cup."

Silence filled the chamber as her last words trailed off. Still the matron was impassive. The only sound was Aliara's hitching sobs. Finally, the great drider spoke.

"Hyou are correct. Hyou have proven hyourself wise as well as fierce. It isssss time for hyour final test. Take that one to the nursery," she said, indicating Aliara. She beckoned Teysa closer. The paladin's steps were unsteady as she crossed the sand and knelt before the gigantic drider. The matron leaned over until her face was on a level with Teysa's. She smiled, showing those needle fangs. "What must I do?" asked the paladin, panting heavily.

"Sssssssurvive." The matron's hands shot out and took hold of the woman's shoulders, yanking her close. She buried her face in Teysa's neck and sank her fangs in deeply. Teysa groaned in pain as she felt hot venom pouring into her veins. When the drider finally released her, the puncture wounds on her neck smoked. Gagging and ****, Teysa fell backwards, writhing in pain on the ground. It felt like her veins were on fire.