As a Dark Elf, Della was like all the others: the only one she worshipped was their mother, the Spider Goddess.
Any Dark Elf who rejected or betrayed that faith would be killed by her people, and Della was no exception. So, as a loyal believer, she was willing to do anything for her goddess and obey any command—except one to kill the goddess herself.
That left Little Spider furious, but she could not punish Della. Annan would notice the injuries. She could only remain a spider in the Glass Bottle, fed and toyed with like a pet.
Such humiliation took her back to the ancient days before she had become a goddess...
If that had been all, the Spider Queen could have endured it. She could have quietly gathered faith through the Year of Turmoil, while the Gods had yet to fully descend. But whenever Annan appeared, Little Spider's feelings welled up without end. She could not stand that dependence, that affection.
She hadn't even known spiders could have feelings!
Silly Cat, meanwhile, cursed Annan inwardly. Two Gods were hiding right beside him, and he hadn't noticed... Yet he called her Silly Cat? He was the silly one! Silly, silly human!
"Why don't you do it yourself?" she asked. "How hard is it to starve yourself to death?"
"Laniel, do it..." The spider in the Glass Bottle only repeated those words.
Silly Cat knew Lolth hadn't come to cause her trouble, so she stopped standing on tiptoe with her fur bristling. Even so, her fluffy coat still made her look like a ball of white fuzz.
Prompted by some feline instinct, she suddenly asked, "Are you afraid of that old human Lady?"
"...Kill me."
The spider paused for the briefest instant.
"I won't!"
Silly Cat didn't notice, but she