Isa would seem thoughtful when Deva talked about what she wanted to do to the Cloaked One, thinking about something in particular.
"I suppose that you're right, if she's the type to give up on her kindness the moment that it's used against her, then it wasn't all that real to begin with. Though it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Though... from what I've seen in the worlds I've watched, deterrent tactics don't work all that well. Really, no matter how terrible you make the punishment, there are always people that are willing to take that level of risk. Plus, most people don't do evil under the impression that they're going to get caught. So really, no matter how terrible you make the punishment, if people think that the punishment won't apply to them, then they'll go ahead and do it anyway. Generally, working to rehabilitate the person committing the crime has a better chance at succeeding than punishing them for the sake of deterring others..." The ice mage might not have known much about her own story or her own world, and she might not have had much experience of her own to draw on, but she knew what she had seen. She had watched many, many stories with Serp, seeing how they unfolded, and generally punishing people just for the sake of punishing them, or for the sake of trying to keep others from committing the same crime, didn't work out all that well.
"Ask your Tome, I suppose. I'm sure that there have been some sort of punishments for those that have attempted things like this in the past, but it seems like it's still happening even now." She'd shrug, taking a spot to sit away from the fire, not really needing too much warmth, and also not liking to be so close to something that could quickly start melting any of her ice.
"Nah, the idea of all this, the thought of what you're doing doesn't scare me, because I can understand it, and understand that sometimes the situation calls for it. Nor does it dissuade me from thinking that you're a hero. Whether you're a hero or not isn't really something that YOU get to decide. A hero is what you are in the eyes of others. To Robyn, to Mulj and Limone, to Cheshire and those humans you saved from Mortema, and to the entire pirate crew we just saw, you're a hero. To others you might be a villain, but to me you're a hero. You don't need to act a certain way, think a certain way, or fight fair or even do exclusively good things to be a hero. The real thing that determines whether or not you're a hero is everyone around you, how they see you. I've seen 'heroes' willing to do way worse than what I've seen from you. Villain is the same way. I'm sure there are many that see the Cloaked One as a hero, but in my eyes she is a villain. She is both, just as you are both. Because in the eyes of some you're a mighty hero, and in the eyes of others you're a destructive villain." Isa would think aloud, giving Deva some insight as to why she still continually saw the angel as a hero. Not because she considered her to be infallible, or constantly doing good, but because in her own eyes and in the eyes of others, Deva was a hero. To her, those terms really were just words that described how others saw you, and in Isa's experience so far, more people saw the angel as a hero than those that saw her as a villain.
"You don't FEEL that powerful. If it weren't for the things that I already know about you, I'd say that I could easily handle you in a battle." Though despite Deva's power, the ice mage would actually keep her eyes trained on Deva, not losing focus all that much. The angel did go out of focus a little bit in Isa's eyes, but it seemed that the ice mage, or more accurately the ice spirit, had something that allowed her to remain focused on Deva far better than any normal person might. But the angel did still snap back into focus, her form becoming a little more clear as Isa would blink a few times to try and help refocus her own vision as well.
"BAH! If I am to be the villain, I deserve TOP BILLING! No simple BARON shall stand before ME! FEEL THE ICY COLDNESS OF- Errr... FROST?! Dang... Nope, don't know if I got the whole 'villain' thing in me if I can't even commit to shouting the word 'death'." She would joke, laughing a bit at the idea of being a sidekick villain with someone else. Then she would go silent as Deva described her coming face to face with the greatest evil that she had ever encountered. Her eyes would grow wide at the thought of something so powerful that would require that much strength to try and destroy it, and not only that, but all of that power still not being enough. She hadn't looked too far into Deva's past, only seeing what she could when the Cloaked One attacked her, and only knowing a little from the things that DEva had told her.
"Yes, any story that we've completely repaired would require an incredible amount of energy to even destabilize, let alone completely break down. Unfortunately, it seems that the Cloaked One is either leaving the 'futa-princess' tales alone, or has already absorbed them anyway. Besides, we were JUST in a lewd tale... The lesbian pirate orgy crew facing mind controlling and lewd villain after villain? I guarantee that if we stayed around for longer, they'd have found some kind of incredibly perverted guardian or something protecting that ancient pirate's treasure. There aren't as many erotic tales as regular ones, I've found. I did once help STOP a wielder from turning regular stories into lewd perverted ones. Not because my wielder had any problem with stories becoming more kinky, but more because she was destabilizing the fabric of other stories to do it. Shame really, if she had succeeded, about 90% of stories would be far more lewd than they are now. Maybe if there was a way to do so naturally without harming any stories... But that's not something I'd be quite happy researching when there are still things to protect." The Tome would think aloud as well, recalling a few things that had happened in the past, while also giving Deva even more of an idea of what a Tome could properly do to a story if given the power.
"Now, when I gave that example, I was more talking from the perspective of the average person... I figured that you've probably seen things from as many perspectives as possible. The people I choose tend to be very good at things like that. My third, well she used to tell me that there was never a single story where we went, as every animal lived its own story, with excitement and fears and struggle at almost every turn... She never liked the idea of placing more importance on any one person or idea over another." It would grow a bit silent after that, and Deva would feel a bit of sadness coming from the Tome as it thought about its third wielder again, apparently the subject alone tended to make the book sad. But it would shake that off quickly, refocusing on Deva as that bit of sadness faded. "Sorry about that. I suppose I still haven't gotten over that one. Ahem... Anyway. I don't need my first wielder restored. She was amazing, but she purposely gave her life to put a definitive end to the Tome War. Besides, she lives on in my memories, and in the actions that I take to try and honor her memory. Honestly, she probably wouldn't want to come back anyway. She once told me the only regret she'd have when she passed was that I'd be left alone. I always have my memories, and really I still have every conversation I've ever had between myself and her. Sometimes I do go back and read through our entire time together, but otherwise it's fine. Her story has ended, all she asked for from me was to go out and live however I saw fit. And I decided to spend my time protecting these Stories from any sort of threats." It would explain, happy to talk about anything really, even subjects that sometimes made it a bit sad. "Ah, of course. Do not worry, I outfitted your bed with quite a few pillows and fluffy comfort. I have some experience with that kind of thing."
"Regardless of where he was... the little one is safe. He tells me that you were forced to face Tabitha, yes? According to him, she put up quite a fight against you, as is to be expected of one as powerful as her. I liked Tabitha from what little I knew of her at least. She was kind enough to allow me to lay a few eggs in her, more curious as to what kinds of spiders that would produce. I'm sure her little ones are running about in here somewhere..." Neith seemed to quite enjoy talking about her family, as even when she had some reasons to be upset, thinking about the little spiders that had come from Tabitha seemed to brighten up her expression a little bit. The Cloaked One's influence not only made her less violent and more sophisticated, but it also made her more loving and maternal to her children. Sure, before she had still cared for them and wanted to protect them, but she rarely felt this much love and joy with her spiderlings. That also did make her more eager to breed with other humans though, so in a way the Cloaked One had enhanced a few parts of her animal nature.
"My children have excellent ears, and can tell me all sorts of things really..." At that, the little spiderling that had been with Deva would look at her, and then sort of look a little nervous, apparently it had decided NOT to tell Neith some of the things it heard. As Neith would believe the lie that Deva had no intention of doing this to hurt the Cloaked One. The spiderling had somehow heard her say that was her intention, but for one reason or another didn't tell Neith about that.
"I had expected that Valerie had been 'recruited'. They are lucky that I don't find a way to slowly poison every last one of them in their sleep for that... She is my friend, one of my closest friends at that..." For a brief moment the spider woman would suddenly look feral, angry, as though she legitimately would try to kill the traitors at the thought of them taking one of her friends from her. But then she would take a deep breath, calming down and sighing.
"My apologies... intense anger brings back a little bit of what I once was... Mistress planned to work on that soon, wanting to help me completely overcome my more base personality." The spider queen would explain, seeming to still have at least a little bit of trouble moving past her animalistic nature.
"To be fair... She likely won't believe anything you say BECAUSE she thinks that you killed me. Had that not been the case, she'd have at least taken your words into consideration." Neith shrugged, still a bit upset at the idea of having to sit there and do nothing, wanting desperately to help her Mistress' plans come to fruition, and at the same time wanting to warn her about the potential traitors in her midst. Having to sit there and have faith in someone that was essentially an enemy of her Mistress was the most difficult thing about it all.
"Honestly... I WISH that you were correct. The angel... Bah... Narcissus... The self absorbed fop is ranked 8 among all of us." She would say, willingly giving up the angel's name considering that she knew he was a traitor. Though her expression would grow much more grim at the thought of the next thing that Deva had guessed.
"Unfortunately... If the one that attacked me is the leader... Then the leader of the traitors is Rank 1. The strongest out of all of us. If I hadn't prepared my poison, she would've obliterated me in seconds. And unfortunately, I don't actually know her name. All I can tell you about Rank 1 is that she... She has found some way to... what's the word... copy? Emulate? Imitate? Something of the sort... Err... She has powers incredibly similar to what Mistress can do, and I don't know how. She doesn't have a Tome, and she certainly doesn't have the ability to copy powers just from seeing them. That's even before I get into the kinds of things that her armor can do. It's sleek and metallic, but parts of it glow sometimes and can do many different incredible things. That's what worries me the most really... If she is leading the traitors, then they have a legitimate chance of succeeding." Neith would answer, sounding legitimately worried about the chances of them succeeding against the Cloaked One, especially if they found an opportune moment to strike like they were likely planning on doing.
"I refuse to give you information on anyone unless I'm sure they are a traitor though... As I said, I do still want Mistress to succeed, and if a non-traitor captures you then Mistress will likely find out about the rebellion anyway, and have a proper weapon against it." She would say, still firmly on her Mistress' side. If Deva wanted information on any of the others, she'd need to either find some way to prove they were traitors, or ask someone else that might know these kinds of things, or just force the spider queen to answer her about them.
"Healing energy? Hmmmm... I'll have to see about that. I'll send them to go work in our infirmary for a bit once they properly grow a little. See if they can do anything down there to help any of the poor ones that have gotten hurt." That was just another example of her Mistress' positive example on her, as before she had been changed her nest would have nothing set up to care for injured spiders, she would just keep them and hope that their injuries healed naturally. Now though, she had spiders dedicated to the healing processes, working to help keep other spiders comfortable while their injuries healed up, and hopefully helping them heal even faster.
"Hmmmm... If you aren't planning on taking it and making Mistress' vision WORSE than what currently is, then perhaps you are right. While Mistress succeeding may be the ideal outcome for me... You succeeding seems better than the success of those traitors. If I know a few of them well enough, they do indeed plan to take her power for their own and rule over... well... literally everything. Knowing now that they do not believe in Mistress' vision... I would assume they'd be greedy enough to use her Tome to completely destroy all the stories that she has sealed within it, as they would get more power from doing so. So yes... by necessity we are allies. The enemy of my enemy I suppose... You are the far lesser of two evils." Neith would agree, seeming to calm down a little once that agreement was worked out.
Though she would raise an eyebrow in suspicion as Deva brought forward the idea of using her as a summon, one that would have to obey her commands.
"Here's the thing... Wouldn't you ALSO be able to use that summon against my regular allies? As much as I think that there needs to be failsafes involved in case the traitors can get to either of us, this seems as though you'd be able to use me against Mistress in some kind of indirect ways, rather than just against the traitors." That also fit into what she already knew about the angel. She had been told by others that Deva was exceedingly clever, and this seemed just like the kind of trick that she'd be able to pull off. Then again, it was that or leave herself at risk for the traitors to use her against her Mistress far more directly, which just left her once again in a position where she would have to choose between two things that she didn't necessarily like.
"Hmph... I can't believe that I'm in a situation where I'd even need to think about this offer... Tell me, would the summoning recharge after a time? Or would it be a one time use kind of thing?" She at least wanted to know a little more of the details about what she was agreeing to, rather than blindly agreeing or even refusing when there was more information that she could gain. Her more impulsive side might have wanted to deny the offer entirely, but at least now she was willing to hear things out and learn more about the things that she wanted to know.
Neith would actually smirk a little when Deva recalled the memory of the Frost Goddess, that same fleshy, slimy ovipositor sliding out of its sheathe beneath the spider woman, pulsing a bit as she recalled the particularly arousing memory of the Frost Goddess serving her.
"Natural evolution... If I can get a chance, I can properly enslave almost anyone... I have to if I want to lay my eggs and breed... Mmmmmmm... Oh the Goddess was, well, divine of course... But you were so properly tight as well... Even with these broodslaves in here, I have so many eggs just waiting for a proper womb to mature in..." Her mind would wander for just a bit before she shook her head and refocused on the angel before her, that thick, long ovipositor still throbbing at the memories. It seemed that thinking about those kinds of things did help to awaken some more instinctive, primal parts of the spider. Parts that were at least kept from doing anything violent, but definitely still there to encourage her to breed and fill up as many broodslaves as possible.
"It's funny really... getting new broodslaves used to be so difficult. Before Mistress, I never even considered something as simple as making them actively enjoy being bred... but now broodslaves are much easier to come by, to the point where I can be a bit picky about which ones I want... You are a prime example of one that I'd still want to take... but the average woman in town isn't nearly as enticing to me anymore..."
But then she would legitimately refocus herself so she could consider the new offer that was being put forward. She would smile widely at the offer that the angel was making, seeming even more excited now that Deva had brought up what she would give in return.
"Why would I ever laugh at you for something like that? Besides, technically I already knew you were a natural slave. Valerie's powers don't work on people if they're not naturally submissive in the first place, remember?" While Neith knew that wasn't actually true, she figured that she would keep up Valerie's favorite little trick, especially considering that she knew the angel had already greatly enjoyed the Amazoness. And as Deva more and more explained what she wanted from Neith, the spider queen's smile would grow wider and wider, nodding a bit as she listened to the offer to her, chuckling inwardly. The only thing that saddened her was knowing that the angel wasn't going to be her own personal princess, as she had tried that and come close, but she knew where Deva would truly belong once given enough time.
The moment that Deva looked at the ground embarrassed, Neith would suddenly rush in with incredible speed, to the point where Deva would barely notice her until she felt the first bite at her shoulder. As before, the special venom on Neith's fangs kept the bite from feeling the slightest bit painful, in fact it would feel more pleasurable than anything. Then Deva would feel a familiar venom start to course through her system, Neith deciding that this was the best way to deliver her answer.
"I accept." She would say confidently, licking her lips a bit now that she had gotten the first bite. Deva would feel that familiar paralyzing venom coursing through her veins, that same venom that would give Neith complete control over her body if given enough time.
"First I had to make sure that you aren't going anywhere... Don't want you missing out on all the fun after all. See, here's the thing, I'm not going to TRY and enslave you... I WILL enslave you this time. You see, this time you are in the very center of MY web. Not some web built in an ice cave far from home, not some temporary dwelling to complete Mistress' work, not this is MY web. And I think it's time for my family to get far better acquainted with you..." As she spoke, hundreds of spiders across the cave would start shooting web at Deva's arms and legs, working to slow her down and ensnare her if she tried to run, just making sure that Neith's paralyzing poison had enough time to flow through Deva's system.
"So I suggest you get comfortable, because I think it's high time that I alleviate my boredom..." The spider would start walking around Deva, poking her clothing to test if it was an illusion or if it was real clothing. If it was real, she'd quickly pull it off, if it was an illusion she'd call over a few purple colored spiders, courtesy of Tabitha actually. They'd quickly craw up Deva's leg and bite her in seemingly random spots, but they were carefully chosen, and once their venom started to flow, Deva would feel her clothing illusion start to blink out, the venom actually dismissing it for her. Either way, the angel would be left completely naked before the Spider Queen.
"You see... here's the funny thing about the ranking system... We fight in a plane of Mistress' choosing. It's the fairest way to test our skills of course. But I can guarantee that I could handle far more enemies if I was in my nest. Valerie even once sparred with me in here, and she stood almost no chance. That's the other reason I'm hiding out here... it's my best chance of winning if I'm found... But enough about that, we're here about you... Or more specifically, we're here to properly enslave you, to ensnare your mind and fill you with my warm venom..." Another group of spiders would crawl down from the ceiling, these ones striped black and white like a zebra, and they'd crawl over Deva, biting her gently every so often, leaving no wounds. Thankfully a trait that every spider inherited from Neith was the pain dulling fangs, meaning that every bite felt more pleasurable and warm rather than painful. Once the black and white spiders bit Deva, she'd feel an odd dizziness for a few moments, before the world seemed to fade out a little bit around her, and all she'd be able to see was Neith and all the spiders around her. It was like she was floating in space, no more cave around her, nothing but her, the spiders, and their Queen. Looking at Neith, meanwhile, would cause Deva to suddenly feel warm and safe, relaxed and happy, even slightly aroused... Though that would last for a few moments, as her eyes would be naturally drawn to that
beautiful... gorgeous... wonderful... exquisite... divine... marvelous... perfect ovipositor that
her Queen had, promising her nothing but pure ecstasy. That throbbing, fleshy organ that she was already familiar with, promising to fill her up with happiness and wonder all over again.
"Oooohh... And we're just getting started, slave... This is going to be fun..." Something about Neith's voice seemed... different. It sounded beautiful, like a wonderful song, more beautiful than even the sirens could sing... That might have something to do with the different spiders that were approaching her every so often and biting her, but that didn't matter. What did matter was how absolutely divine that voice sounded, like a perfect melody just flowing into her ears...
"How are you feeling so far... Mmmmmmm... I do always love seeing the effects as my venom progresses..."