Intermission 8 Page 23
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“You could tell when the Goddess was angry based on how heavy the air was in the temple.”
“So when it suddenly got lighter all at once, I went to find out what had happened.”
“The other acolytes said Indi’d done it herself, without telling anybody else.”
“She died to save the temple.”
“She chose to be with the Goddess of Spiders.”
“Instead of with me.”
“You know something funny?”
“The big, bad arachnomancers banned smoking inside their temples.”
“We always had to wander off into the tunnels when we got a craving.”
“After over a hundred years of summoning spider monsters and letting them roam free inside, the interiors are covered in dusty cobwebs all the way up the ceiling.”
“And that place had HIGH ceilings.”
“The point being…”
“…if the Goddess wanted to take something from me, then I was going to take something from her.”
It’s always interesting to see what rules are expected by the people who don’t follow rules. Turns out, selecting for people willing to defy extremely powerful authority is also selecting for people who won’t do what you say just because you say it.
There’s a similar theory for cancer development in large animals (like whales). A cancerous tumor can only grow so large before it needs proper blood vessels to keep the blood flowing to get oxygen and nutrients. Unfortunately for the tumor, it’s basically defined by not cooperating to build emergent structures like blood vessels. Even if it did build a working blood vessel, the cancer has cancer.
Soo, what Lara did, killing all the acolytes within the Temple.
Does that also count as sacrifice for the Goddess of Spiders?
Did Lara just become super premium member?
Would be pretty funny if Lara bond dungeon is sneaking into the Temple and we prepare for fight against a literall Goddess, and instead she goes “Lara, my favorite!!!! How are you?”
Not sure if the goddess of spiders would be happy about that. It’s like feeding a tiger’s handlers to it, then leaving. Yes, it got a meal (maybe, if burning to death even counts as sacrifice), but it might associate you with the subsequent lack of meals due to the only remaining handler ditching.
Maybe this is why Lara still can use her arachnomancer powers.
The Goddess of Spiders wants blood sacrifices, I don’t think burning the temple and everyone in it counts for her. But maybe power, once given, needs an act of power by the patron to take it back? If we run into an Emperor-associated ally, maybe they’ll be able to use Emperor-powers for a while after they ally with us.
The lesson to take from here is: DON’T (even threaten to) leave Lara. She’ll burn down the mansion without a second thought. Especially since Ricki reminds her so much of Indi.
I’d also say, Lara seems a perfect candidate to evolve into a PyroCigaMancer.
OHHHH… no smoking in the temple because you gotta light something up and Lara decided to light the webs and temple on fire. If you are gonna break the rules; might as well do it BIG.