Lace

Tch... Hahahaa. Marvellous! So the spider knows something of fathomless beings, and still it hopes to stand against one, a god...

Where do you hide this boundless strength you claim, spider? I’ve watched your struggle towards us. Yours was a painful, broken trek. One needs grace to stand before the divine.

Hornet

Then best you keep watching, child. I’ve found those who claim themselves a god can rarely match the title.

Hornet

And experience tells me, even gods can fall.

Delicious! I like you already!

But what a bore it would be to cut you down now, when you’re so achingly close to our grand Citadel...

Climb higher, little spider. I want to savour your struggle just a little longer!

Hornet

Your threats are worthless, child. If you are my foe, stay your voice and raise your blade.

I can save you, little spider. All the trouble you’d face above. All the suffering. It’s so simple.

I’ll just skewer you here and now, pluck that flickering life right out of you.

How sad. A little spider has fallen from its cage. So lost. So weak. Poor little morsel.

Hah... aha ha ha ha ha!

Congratulations, spider. Finally, I felt your sting, and you’ve bared the truth of my pathetic empty shell.

Hornet

You always had the scent, child. You are no bug. Yours is a life born entirely from thread.

Life? You’re too generous! This weak, wasting existence. This was not life, just a husk shaped to act as a child.

Hornet

Yours was life, pale one. Do not confuse your unique creation with its absence. I have seen others make the same mistake.

Platitudes, spider? From you? Don’t be gross.

Head on. Climb up, up and away. You’ve earned your audience with the divine.

Face the holy mother who would fashion so cruel and crude a daughter as me.

Hornet

Here you lie, monarch. Sunk so deep, yet still you cling to life.

Hornet

Would you let your lands be choked black... to protect just her?

Letting you live was my rebellion, spider. I’ve denied my mother your silken strength. I’ve won.

She can thrash, and waste, and know her pathetic, broken child caused the mortal wound.

Rejoice! And let it all come down.

Hornet

I will not. I have already stood the sentinel for one dying land. That role... I will never play again.

Hornet

While I live, and possess the strength to resist, this kingdom, and the bugs within it, shall not fall.

Hahahhaa! Spider. Spider. What a marvellous specimen you are! You fight and fight, heedless as the world crumbles around you.

Pharloom and her bugs will be crushed to dust, and still you’ll be vainly swinging your blade.

Hornet

...There may still be a way to prevent that fate. I will claim the hidden power, the bloom that repels the dark.

Hornet

Those snails share some fault in the snare, and their callous use of the void. They shall help me now to seek its counter.

Hornet

I will return, child, when I bear the strength to dive below, and cut this land finally free of your mother’s grasp.

Who are you hoping you’ll find down there, spider? An ailing child and a Silk starved beast?

If so, I’m afraid we may sorely disappoint. What waits below is me no longer.

What’s this? The little spider climbs so high, here to stand aquiver at our startling Citadel.

Hornet

Pale child, you return only to mock? Neither you nor your land have proven my match. This sleeping Citadel shall be no different.

Spider, dear. Why must you remain so distressingly... optimistic? The power that waits above, you cannot conceive, her who would snuff that hope with barely a glance.

Hornet

Fool child. You still think me blind to the form of your liege? Having come this far?

Hornet

This land’s grandeur, the devotion of its bugs, and the curse that befalls them. The signs are clear.

Hornet

Your kingdom is in the thrall of a creature beyond bug, one of that higher caste.

Hornet

Whatever its desire for my Silk and my shell, it shall find I’m quite attached to both.

Delicious! I like you already!

After all... it’s you that she wants... is it not?

Spider dear, what a delight to have you visit! It is oh so lonely here at the bottom of the world.

Hornet

I cannot share your mirth, child. Your small rebellion above now causes this kingdom’s collapse.

Hornet

Child, I hold the means to descend. Let us meet one final time, and quell this black ruin of our making.

Hornet

The parasite writhing within my shell has a violent aversion to the void.

Hornet

Despite the protection granted by the Everbloom, even now I can feel those wretched roots preventing my descent.

Hornet

If I’m to dive, and cut this land from its black thread curse, I must first find means to extract the intruder within.

Hornet

Even if only your shadow remains, to release your mother’s grip my blade would see it slain.

Then why hold, even this moment? Surely terror hasn’t suddenly claimed your hardened heart?

Take the final plunge, spider. Join us in my drowning palace, and let oblivion swallow us all.

Hornet

Oblivion may take you, child. My own life, I shall not sacrifice.

Hornet

I have survived the fury of your land. I have borne its barbs and its blades, and I have seen wonder behind its dangers.

Hornet

But always, child, I remain a daughter of Hallownest. And the void below all things, that darkness I will fear no longer...

What’s this? The spider arrives at last, here to stand acquiver at our startling Citadel.

Hornet

Pale child, you return only to mock? Your lands have yet to prove my match. This sleeping Citadel shall be no different.

Spider, dear. Why must you remain so distressingly... optimistic? The power that waits above, you cannot conceive, her who would snuff that hope with barely a glance.

Hornet

Fool child. You still think me blind to the form of your liege? Having come this far?

Hornet

This land’s grandeur, the devotion of its bugs, and the curse that befalls them. The signs are clear.

Hornet

Your kingdom is in the thrall of a creature beyond bug, one of that higher caste.

Hornet

Whatever its desire for my Silk and my shell, it shall find I’m quite attached to both.

Hornet

If I’m to dive, and cut this land from its black thread curse, I must first find means to extract the intruder within.

Let fate’s bindings choke you away!

Bring ruin...

Welcome, Spider. Welcome!

Bring chaos...

Feel pain, so pure!

Feel freedom false!

See me, your daughter...

See me, your knight...

I will not fade! I will not take!

A child, too broken...

See me cut! See me serve!

Why her... Mother...