Intermission 8 Page 21

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“With that one failed attack, all of the gains we’d made in membership were erased, and then some.”

“The head priests were furious.”

“The Goddess was furious. We couldn’t keep up with her demands for sacrifices. She wanted two or three a week by that point.”

“And when she had to go without, she would punish her followers.”

“It was looking bad for our temple, to say the least.”

“So I told Indira we should leave.”

“Gods are strongest in their temples, so if we bailed, we might still be okay. We could start over somewhere else.”

“Or at the very least we could try to find a different arachnomancer sect to join.”

“But she told me everything was going to be fine.”

“She said the Goddess of Spiders was with us, and that as long as we had faith, everything would turn out for the best.”

“Even after everything I knew she’d done, after everything the two of us had done together…”

“It was the first time I actually felt like she was purposely manipulating me.”

“And it still worked.”

“Stupid.”

“So stupid.”