The bloodied girl scurried backwards on all fours, and the towering domme followed.

"What did you think this was going to be?" Drachne asked with a sneer, kicking a spray of gravel forward. It scattered across the alley, grit and stone colliding with the diminutive girl, sending her curling into the fetal position. The question was valid, and it was something Rose herself had wondered repeatedly in the last few moments. She uncurled and tried to rise to her feet, only to feel the stiff rubber of the giant woman's boot collide with her back, sending her sprawling once more down the alley.

"Is this what you had hoped for?" The smaller girl let out a soft, choked sob, the sound of which was absorbed by the dirt beneath her. "Because you got it. You got me in the flesh."

"I... I ju-" A sharp squeak of pain truncated her words, and Rose's face was against the ground. A small pool of blood grew from her nose while the taller woman watched her with scorn.

"You hound me for months, begging to meet in person. 'Oh Drachne, I arranged these flowers for you!' 'Oh Drachne, please notice me, I've written you a poem!' 'Drachne, please, I'll do anything for you!'" The smaller girl whimpered, hearing her words thrown down at her like barbs, as painful as the spray of debris. "And now that I'm here, giving you my full, undivided attention, you're... what? Intimidated?" A soft smirk spread across the taller woman's lips. "Or maybe you don't recognize me all the way down there?"

"N... no..." Rose rolled onto her back, scooting away once more out of instinct. Sharp, jagged stone tore against her back, but fear clouded her mind to the point that she didn't notice the gash. "No I... I recognize you, of course..."

Placing her left hand on her hip, Drachne stopped her advance for the moment, regarding the little thing at her feet in the same way she might look down at a curious beetle. "Well, what is it, then? Didn't you know what I do to weak things like yourself?"

"I thought..." Her throat closed up, choking off the end of the sentence: ...that I was special. Instead, she laid there, mouth agape, staring up into the face of the woman who would end her life. Squeezing her eyes shut, Rose cleared her throat with a sharp, ragged cough. "Please... please, I... I can serve, I can obey, I can..."

"Oh my god." Drachne rolled her eyes and pulled a slender object from her jacket pocket. A short wooden stake - no, Rose realized, a toothpick. The domme wedged it between two teeth idly, considering the woman at her feet. "I know what you can do, okay? You're a middle-class, middle-aged nobody with mediocre talents and a penchant for inflating her own importance. I get that. That's all... out in the open, you know?" Drachne snorted out a laugh. "What I want to know is: what do you matter? With me being me, what could you possibly have been thinking?"

"I'm a person! I exist, a-and I matter, and I love you!" Rose crawled to her knees, and then, not facing an immediate rebuke from the giant woman before her, crawled towards the boots in front of her, placing her tongue upon the hard rubber. She gave a few licks before looking upwards for approval.

Drachne, for her part, couldn't even be bothered to scoff. "So nothing, then. You had no plan, you had nothing to offer me." She began to squat down, her massive form descending towards Rose with horrifying speed, sending the little one cowering in her shadow by the mere implication of coming down with her full weight. The domme regarded the toothpick between her fingers. "Nothing except your life."

Rose's eyes suddenly shot open wide. "W-wait! I do have something, s-something that... Y-you'll be pleased, you'll see!" The tiny thing stood up underneath the withering gaze of her superior - no small feat - and clasped her hands behind her back. "I can find more for you!"

"...'More'...?"

"M-more sacrifices, of course!" Rose had never once prided herself on creativity, improvisation or resourcefulness, but now she would need all three in spades. "Think about it! There are probably dozens of - h-hundreds of tiny people out there, people who shrank for others who discarded them, or ran away from their owners, or just plain got lost!" Drachne's gaze had refocused somewhat on the tiny woman, as if she was actually considering the words rather than just contemplating how long she would delay the tiny thing's execution. This embolded Rose, and she continued with gusto: "I'll find them for you! I'll be your huntress, your rat-catcher, your girl-in-the-walls! I can sniff out their hiding spots, encourage them to come out in the open, and then when they do..." Rose smiled wide, holding one arm out and clapping the other into it forcefully, "WHAM!"

"So, if I understand you correctly..." As she spoke, Drachne twirled the toothpick in her fingertips, looking at a small bit of gristle on the tip. "You're offering to catch me strays, is that it?"

"Exactly!" Rose cried up, elated. The taller woman's voice had grown softer, and she knew she could carry out the role she'd promised. "They'll be lambs to your slaughter!"

"That's... cute," Drachne said, the softest sigh escaping with the second syllable. "But, well... there's someone you should meet." The fingers of her free hand slipped into her boot, fishing around against her sole, and a moment later withdrew a small object, pale and thin like a sickly mouse. A long, greasy trail of brown hair dangled at the figure's end, and it took Rose a moment to realize it was another woman she was looking at.

"Rose, meet Sarah. Sarah: Rose." Drachne laid the figure down on the ground, and it slowly began to writhe under its own power, pulling itself up as if every movement screamed in agony. One blue-green eye peered out beside the clump of hair falling in front of its face, and beneath that eye was the most crooked smirk Rose had ever seen.

"Wh... what the f..." Rose's voice trailed off, the breath leaving her as the pallid figure pulled itself to a standing position at Drachne's feet.

"See, Sarah here was much like you once. She had a bit of a crush, and thought that by virtue of that crush alone, she was worthy of my time and attention." The thing Drachne referred to as Sarah barely moved, as if she'd locked her joints in place, staring forward at Rose, or past her, or into her. "So I gave it to her, and now she happily lives on as my little footpet. Isn't that right, Sarah?"

At once, the figure came to life, turning to face Drachne, looking up at her with a broad grin as she nodded. The giantess chuckled, patting her little head with a finger. "The poor thing would speak, but I removed her tongue years ago. She was barely putting it to use under my foot, so why have it at all?"

Rose was at a loss. The stories she'd read, the testimonials - hell, even the videos she'd seen - nothing had prepared her for something like this. It was all she could do to keep her legs underneath her, and her bodily fluids on the inside.

"And that, my little Tybalt, leaves the problem of you." Drachne chuckled, a low sound that echoed gently in the abandoned alley. "Y'see, I have no need for spare tinies. Bitches like you throw themselves at my feet every time I snap." As if to illustrate her point, she raised her hand, clicking her fingers together, and Sarah fell at her toes, scraping her flesh against the gravel below. "So no, I don't think I'll take you up on your offer."

The tiny woman didn't need to hear another word. She whirled on her heel, breaking into a full sprint - and managed three full strides before being knocked flat on her face, the wind knocked out of her with one powerful WHUMPH!

"Poor, stupid little thing," Drachne said, chuckling again, and this time brought the end of the toothpick down, pressing it against the back of Rose's neck. "Beg me for mercy."

"M-mercy, mercy please." Rose's body was rigid with fear, and it was only on Drachne's order that she could speak at all. "I'll go, I'll never bother you again, all you have to do is let me li-" Something caught in Rose's throat, and she tried to cough it up to no avail. Again, she tried to cough; but as her head lifted away from the ground, she realized with a growing horror what had happened.

Drachne lifted the little thing up to her face, dangling by a bloody sliver of wood through her throat. The tiny woman's arms weakly grasped the end of the toothpick, as if needing to feel it to understand. "Poor thing," she repeated in a gentle whisper, the edges of her lips curled up in a smile. Rose's eyes were wide with horror, and her lips moved in a silent plea for mercy. "This has been utterly forgettable. You were a waste of my time."

She scooped up her boot-toy, dropping it back into its home, then stood and scanned the entrance to the alley. No gawkers this time, which was convenient. Drachne glanced down again at the thing at the end of her toothpick, now barely twitching. She flicked it, toothpick and all, into a small pile of rubbish against the wall, and casually brought her sole down against the little thing. A soft burst of wet meat squidged out beneath her boot, and the woman dragged her sole once, twice against the gravel before exiting the alley.

She had better places to be.

"Miss Hart, please, have a seat." Catherine couldn't will herself to be more relaxed, but she did what she could to give the appearance of nonchalance. "How has your day been?"

"Fine, Catherine." Zoe was young, nearly ten years Catherine's junior, but she had the confident demeanor of someone much more experienced. She sat down across from her boss. "Let's do the review. I want to know what I got."

"Well," Catherine stalled, clearing her throat and looking down at a loose collection of papers in front of her, arranging them in some non-existent order. "Overall, administration is pleased with your performance, but there are... we have some notes."

"So I'm doing well."

"Well," the older woman repeated, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. "Yes, however-"

"So what's my raise?"

"Zoe, you will listen to me!" Catherine's voice was a harsh whisper, and she was pleased to see it gave the other woman pause. Zoe glanced away, brushing a strand of platinum blonde hair back into her pixie cut. "You're certainly an effective earner, but there are problems with your relationship to your direct superiors. You have a problem with authority."

"No I don't." Zoe's cool blue eyes locked with Catherine's. "I just know it when I see it, and I know it when I don't."

The nerve of this girl! "Tell me, Zoe, do you see a future for yourself with this company if you continue to antagonize those above you?"

"Catherine..." Zoe let out a sigh, slouching back in her chair somewhat. "if you're asking if I'm worried about you, I'm not. You've gotten to where you've gotten, and that's fine, good for you. But I'm going to get there in a year, and then I'm going to keep on climbing. I don't have a problem with authority, I just have a problem with you."

For a moment, neither woman said anything. Zoe continued to stare down her reviewer, whose insides were knotted up so tight, she was struggling to keep her composure. When she spoke again, it was with a careful, metered tone. "This report says you are to be given a raise, yes. And to be considered for promotion, certainly." The knotting feeling continued to grow, but Catherine swallowed it down and put on a spiteful grin. "However, I have certain discretionary actions I'm able to take. Unfortunately for you, I'll be terminating your employment, effective immediately."

"Wh... what?" Zoe sat forward with enough momentum to carry her to her feet, stepping forward and leaning over the desk between them. "You can't do that!"

"I can, you spoiled little child, and I have." Catherine's vision was blurring now, and she scooted back in her chair, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. She screwed her eyes shut, concentrating on her words. "Get your shit and get out of this building."

"You have to be fucking kidding me. After everything I've done, after - whoa..." The sudden change in the younger woman's tone raised the hairs on the back of Catherine's neck. "Whoa, hey, what the hell? Are you doing some kind of trick?"

"N... no trick, Z... Zoe..." Catherine tried to stand, but her feet didn't reach the floor when she expected, and she ended up tumbling face-first out of her chair, landing on the carpet below with a soft thud! She heard Zoe let out a soft peal of laughter, but her head was spinning too much to concentrate. Foreign sensations, each more worrying than the last, flooded her being. Objects seemed to be lifting and expanding away from her, yet at the same time the floor became more and more detailed. She pushed herself up onto all fours only to realize she was completely nude! Her clothes lay in a pile behind her, now as expansive as everything else in the room.

"Ho. Lee. Shit." Zoe's voice pierced through the fog of Catherine's mind, and she looked up towards the source. The young blonde had walked around the desk, now standing in front of the chair Catherine had been in only a moment ago. She was unimaginably large, and wearing the most infuriating shit-eating smirk Catherine had seen in her life. "Cathy... this is a great new look for you, I gotta say."

"What... how did you... what even...?" The tiny woman reeled backwards, scuttling away from the towering woman, who let out another soft chuckle.

"I didn't do anything, Cathy. The universe just sort of... saw fit to give each of us what we deserve." She looked backwards at her former boss' chair. "Mind if I have a seat? You're not going to need this anymore." Grinning, she sat down, placing her arms on the rests and sighing. "Yeah... this feels right."

"Q-quit being a bitch and help me! I've - I've shrunk, for God's sake!"

"Now, I appreciate all the feedback, Cathy, and I'm definitely going to take it under consideration. However, don't you think we should talk about your performance?" Zoe arched an eyebrow and placed a finger on her lips. "How do you think you're going to do? Ballpark."

"...Zoe, please, I'm sorry for what I said, but-"

"Ah-ah-ah. That's not an answer to the question I asked. That's not going to help you out at all. Tell me, in your own words, how you think I'd rate your performance right now, say on a scale from one to ten." Clasping her hands in her lap, Zoe leaned back in her chair, looking down her nose at the tiny thing on the floor.

If there was a positive to this whole situation, it was that the blurred vision and knotted feeling inside her had all but cleared up - only, they had been replaced by a gnawing sense of dread, a sense that was made worse every time she looked into those cold, smiling blue eyes. "A... a three, Zoe."

"A three?" The giant girl clicked her tongue and shook her head. "That's not good, Cathy. Not good at all. I think you're going to have to work extra hard to earn some good will around here, hmm?" She leaned forward, reaching down and casually scooping the little thing into her cupped palm. Catherine squealed in fright, her little limbs kicking this way and punching that, and producing the most delightful tickling sensation against Zoe's hand.

"Put me down! Stop it, let me go right now you horrid little cunt! I'll tell everyone about this, I'll gemmmmmmmm-mmmmmm!!" Catherine continued to screech even as Zoe slid her hand beneath her suit jacket, through the sleeve of her shirt, and pressed the little thing up against the flesh of her armpit. Her arm then came down, sealing her newest toy in a damp, warm pocket of flesh.

This can't be happening. This cannot be happening. I cannot be here, this has to be a dream, this has to be a mistake, someone made a mistake and I'm not really here. Clawing at the slick, pliable flesh, she succeeded only in giving her captress tingles of pleasure, as well as running her oxygen out that much quicker.

"Y'know, I'm not seeing anything about that authority thing you were mentioning here." Zoe's voice boomed around Catherine, vibrating the tiny woman to her core. "'Highest performance', 'top earner'. 'Fast-tracked for promotion'... oh, what's this? Here it is, 'Catherine Green has repeatedly raised concerns over Ms. Hart's demeanor, however it is the general consensus that this does not impact her performance.'" A self-satisfied giggle thundered around Catherine like a death knell. "So... one person has a problem with me, and that person is now licking sweat out of my armpit?"

I'm not licking anything, you smug brat! Catherine fumed, though she was keenly aware that the taste of sweat had still permeated her lips, and was presently crawling across her tongue. Her struggles had weakened, and she was concentrating more now on breathing, refusing to let herself acknowledge the looming possibility of smothering to death underneath this horrible girl's arm.

As if reading her thought, Zoe's voice returned. "That was a command, by the way. I want to feel that little tongue of yours, or you can forget ever seeing the light of day again." The flesh around her squeezed, pushing out what air she'd had in her lungs, and the little woman immediately stuck out her tongue, dragging it across the moist skin in long, quick streaks.

"Ahaha! That tickles!" Zoe burst out into a fit of laughter, the convulsions of her arm mercifully allowing small wafts of fresh air in, keeping Catherine from blacking out. She began to lick harder, exploiting the correlation between subservience and life-giving air, though she refused to let herself consider the implications. "Oh my gosh, stop, stop!"

Two points of pressure squeezed into either side of Catherine, and she squeaked out a protest before realizing it was Zoe's fingers, dragging her back out of the fleshy hell she'd spent the past minute within. When she emerged into the light again, she was staring up into Zoe's massive visage, only a short distance away.

"You kinda got into it there, didn't you? Got a bit of a freaky streak, Cathy?" Zoe taunted, prodding her bare belly with the blunt end of a pen. "I bet you pay for it, don't you?"

"P... pay...?" Catherine wheezed, still gasping in air. "Zoe... Zoe, please, I need hel-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Later. Right now, we're still trying to boost your review score, remember? I'd say that performance definitely got you up to a solid four, but that's still no good, right?" Zoe reached out with the hand holding Catherine, and slowly started to tilt it to the side. The older woman let out a squeak of fright, scrambling to keep ahold of the somewhat-squishy flesh, but as it continued its inexorable ascent to a vertical position, she lost her footing and tumbled head-over-heels into the air, landing hard on her back. Zoe placed her elbows on the desk, one on either side of Catherine, and cradled her head in her hands.

"I'll tell you what I want, Cathy, and then you'll give it to me, okay?" She spoke with the same level of confidence that had always grated on Catherine before, but now it was positively bone-chilling.

"And... and then you'll help me?"

"One step at a time." Zoe sat upright, moving her arms to her sides. "I want to see you on your knees, hands clasped together, head bowed. I want to hear you apologize for everything you said to me today, and to accept me as your superior. Then I want you to beg me for death."

The silence that followed felt like an eternity to the tiny woman. She thought for sure she hadn't heard Zoe correctly, that somehow she was misunderstanding a word - had she spoken in French briefly? But looking up into those cold blue eyes, Catherine knew there had been no mistake.

"No, no..." The tiny woman rose to her feet, backing away. "No, this is... you can't do this, Zoe, you just - you just can't, this isn't fair, this isn't right, please! Please Zoe, you have to see me as a person, right? You have to... y-you can't just..." Her pleas faded away as the self-satisfied smirk grew with every word.

"Y'see, Cathy, here's the difference between me and you:" Zoe picked up a paperclip off the desk, straightening it in her slender fingers as she spoke. "When I want something, I get it. It doesn't matter how hard it is, or how messy it gets. I set a goal for myself, and I accomplish it." She reached out and scooted Catherine closer. One end of the paperclip, now straightened, pressed against the tiny woman's calf as Zoe manipulated her legs into a certain position, easily overcoming Catherine's feeble attempts at resistance. "If I want you kneeling, for example... you'll kneel."

A sudden shock shot through the little woman's legs as the paperclip lanced through one calf, then the other. She felt a bone snap, pushed aside by the unyielding metal, and she screamed out in agony. Zoe worked quickly, her fingers carefully keeping Catherine from moving too far out of position as she curled the paperclip around her legs, looping it across her thighs, then her waist, before angling the last length of it wire directly up her chest. The solid beam of metal sat between her breasts, extending just far enough that Catherine had to look up into Zoe's face to keep it from jabbing into her throat.

Catherine's mind reeled, her eyes rolling back in her head as she let out the most horrifying howl she'd ever heard herself produce. Zoe had pinched each of her wrists, holding them out at her sides, keeping her from clawing at herself as she struggled to grasp what had just happened.

"Shhh, calm down. Calm down. Stop struggling, you're only making yourself tired." Zoe cooed, the gentleness in her voice a stark contrast to the horror of Catherine's reality. Every time she considered calming down, a small twitch would spark the daggers of pain lancing up from her legs again. The scene was somehow as humiliating as it was agonizing, being held there as powerless as an infant while her opportunistic serpent of an employee gently chided her over her outburst.

In her mind, Catherine envisioned someone coming through the door to her office and seeing what was taking place. She imagined they would scoop her up, whisking her off to safety as Zoe was apprehended by the authorities, locked away forever for her selfish, sadistic cruelty. The picture was clear as day, every detail accounted for, as someone approached her door, and-

Her door.

The door she had made a sign for just this morning.

A sign which read, "MEETINGS ALL DAY. DO NOT INTERRUPT IF THIS DOOR IS CLOSED."

Catherine looked up into Zoe's eyes, and she knew the younger woman could see the moment the fight left her. Her head tilted forward ever so slightly, and her smile brightened that much more.

"That's a good girl~" Zoe said in a sing-song voice as she gently released Catherine's arms, stroking the tiny woman's long brown hair with a finger. There was no point in resisting her. She had won, utterly and completely, and Catherine was helpless but to give her everything she wanted. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a blur of movement, and it wasn't until Zoe explicitly lifted the object into the tortured thing's field of vision that she understood what came next.

A small, blue stapler.

"No, no Zoe, no, wait-" Catherine's pleas were ragged and raw, but she voiced them just the same. The younger woman was already squeezing her arms together, getting the palms against one another just right. "Wait wait wait, Zoe listen to me, listen!" The cold metal of the stapler pressed against her forearms, and she could feel the bite of the stapler queued up.

"Zoe please I'll give you everything you want! I'll give in to you! I submit! You win, for fuck's sake, PLEASE!"

For once, the younger woman paused, taking Catherine's words under consideration. "Oh yeah?" She eventually prompted, cocking an eyebrow. "Tell me about it."

"You- you're better than me," Catherine let out in a sigh, her body relaxing - though not too much, as the hard prod of the paperclip at her throat reminded her. "You're bigger, and smarter, and just better than me in every way, Zoe. You have everything and I have nothing. You're a Goddess, and I'm an insect beneath you."

As she spoke, she watched Zoe's entire demeanor change. The young woman went from amused and curious, to full-blown self-righteous. She straightened in the chair, raising her head another several inches, and her chest swelled out slightly, making her seem overall more imposing. In any other context, Catherine would have found the attitude nothing less than grating, but now she could only hope it was enough to spare her whatever grisly fate Zoe had imagined.

"That's... very good, little one." Zoe chuckled and gently adjusted the paperclip closer to her toy's throat. "And now...?"

Was there a way around giving Zoe everything she wanted? If there was, Catherine's mind was too pain-addled to think of it. "Please, please kill me, Zoe."

KA-CHUNK!

The shock of her arms being crushed together so swiftly brought her jerking forward, and in the next moment she found the metal rod lodged in her throat. Blood trickled down the length of the paperclip, covering her chest and pooling out around her knees. Lifting her arms into view, Catherine gave one long look at her mangled limbs, mashed together and held there by another twisted piece of metal.

"I've gotta say, Cathy," Zoe taunted, using a finger to gently knock Catherine onto her side, chuckling as the little form twitched like a bug. "I don't see much of a future for you here at this company. I'm gonna have to give you a poor review, and recommend you for termination." She gathered up a pair of kleenex from the box on Catherine's desk and scooped the little thing up, her limbs still spasming. Zoe winked, balled the kleenex in her fist, and let it tumble into the trash.

A long, low note, like the thrumming of a mountain, woke Sarah from her slumber with a gasp. She was not where she had fallen asleep, that much was obvious, but she had a hard time wrapping her mind around her surroundings. A vague figure seemed to loom above her, one that only became more difficult to comprehend as it came into focus.

"Hello, little insect." The tone was calm, but the words were laced with a certain kind of dread Sarah could feel in her stomach. She tried to move, but let out a scream as points of pain across her body protested that movement. The giant voice above her chuckled. "Still a bit groggy, I see? Take your time, become aware of your surroundings. I have all the time in eternity."

The tiny one let out a few weak, incoherent syllables, staring out across the dark brown plain upon which she laid. Deep grooves ran across its surface, and she realized she must be laying on some sort of workbench. Another twitch provoked a spasm of agony in her legs, and she cautiously curled her body forwards, inch by inch, just enough that she could look down and see that her legs were bound together by barbed wire. She had been curled such that her ankles touched her thighs, and by the way it felt, her wrists were bound together by the same.

"Wh... what the fuck..." she whimpered softly, staring at the points of red all across her flesh, blood oozing lazily from the wounds. It took every ounce of focus to keep from thrashing around in a panic, instead craning her neck up to look at the source of the teasing, venomous voice above her.

The woman above her wore a black lace dress over her dark blue skin, hands folded politely in front of her as she and Sarah studied one another. Lifting her gaze higher, she found herself staring into two large, solid-black eyes above a pair of dark purple lips pulled into a thin smirk.

"Welcome to my parlor," the giant woman said, spreading her arms in a sweeping motion. "Do you like it?" The surrounding environment was difficult for Sarah to make out, seeming like it was miles away at some places, but that hardly concerned her - she glanced down again at her legs, then up to her captress.

"P... please, my legs..."

"Ah, that~" The giant being placed her index finger delicately on the barbs, sliding it harmlessly across Sarah's thighs. "Quite excruciating, no? I produced that silk myself, I have to say I'm quite pleased with it."

"...silk?" Sarah muttered, looking down again. With this context, as well as time to adjust, she could see her mistake. It wasn't wire, but a dark grey material, thick and corded. "I don't... Please, just let me go home..."

The giant woman grinned ear to ear. "But we haven't even been introduced! My name is Drachne, and I am the Queen of this realm. All who reside within are my subjects... or my prey." Her tongue snaked out, wetting her lips. "And you, little thing, are an insect who thought she could command my children."

"Wh... n-no, no I-"

"Don't lie to me." Drachne's tone at once became cold. "I will not argue with an insect, is that understood?" Using one finger, she rolled Sarah onto her back where the weight of her body pressed harshly against the barbed silk restraints. The tiny girl whimpered in pain, her small body writhing uncomfortably as she struggled to find a resting position that didn't cause her pain. Seeing this, the demoness pressed down, gentle yet firm, on her chest.

"Ple-please, please please g-god it hurts it hurts please stop pleasepleasepleaseplease!" The tiny thing's tone became frantic as she writhed under Drachne's fingertip, each movement tearing through her flesh that much more. She could feel the barbs scraping against the bones of her wrist, tearing gouges in her thighs, all of it fresh and white hot and each lance sending another wave of agony across her nerves.

"This is the extent of your command. This is what good your control, and your power, does you in the realm of someone with true authority."

"I'M SORRY! PLEASE FORGIVE ME, PLEASE!" It was a pathetic sight, to be sure. With barely any effort, Drachne had reduced the little thing beneath her to such a horrid, desperate state. Sarah knew what this was about - she had certainly styled herself as some sort of Queen of Spiders in her time as a sorceress. But nothing she had learned had warned her about whose domain she may have been encroaching upon.

"Forgiveness?" Drachne let out a soft chuckle, but her finger lifted away. Sarah whimpered as she flopped onto her side, the pain of the barbed webs against her flesh subsiding to a dull throb. "No, dear. You will not find forgiveness here. But if you're lucky, you just mind find purpose."

"Please, I didn't know, okay? I didn't know, I - I apologize for overstepping my place. I only commanded spiders to rule other humans, and - and in celebration of their traits! I love spiders, you have to understand, I... please, Queen Drachne, please take me into your court, let me serve you in atonement, please."

The demoness tilted her head, regarding the wingless insect's plea for mercy. "It's not relevant that you didn't know I exist. The fact remains that you commanded my little ones against their will." She rolled Sarah onto her back again, eliciting another sharp squeak of pain, but this time delicately laid the edge of her fingernail against the girl's throat. "But don't worry. You will make it up to my babies a thousandfold."

"What are yo-" Before she could finish, Drachne slid her fingernail, long and purple like her lips, from Sarah's left shoulder to her sternum. Blood sprung from the gash, leaking across her skin, but Sarah bit her lip hard. She had to show she was ready to atone, and perhaps in that way, she would earn the demoness' pardon.

Drachne, for her part, worked silently, moving her fingernail across Sarah's body to her other shoulder, and carving a sister gash down to her sternum, meeting the end of the first. She then angled her finger slightly, and dragged a third cut straight down Sarah's abdomen, cleaving open her belly.

"Wait, waaaAAAAA!" Sarah's composure cracked again, and she struggled desperately to get out from underneath the monstrous figure above. Drachne smiled, gently hooking her bloodied fingernail underneath Sarah's flesh, and peeling up the edges of the "Y"-shaped wound she'd drawn in skin. Without a voiced command, several arachnids scurried across the table, coming to rest at Sarah's sides. Each was equipped with two long, needle-like appendages on their fronts, and they took the strips of flesh offered by their Goddess in these legs, producing thin strands of silk and working to sew Sarah into the table by her flesh. "Oh fuck, oh god no, Drachne no, please you don't have to do this, I'll do anything! Anything, my - my Queen, please!"

"That's good," Drachne said in a low, sultry whisper. "You should be ready to die for me, little insect."

"No... please..." Sarah whimpered as the attendant spiders finished their work. She was now laid on her back, her legs tucked under her by barbed silk, upon which the full weight of her abdomen now rested. The skin of her chest had been split open, and the flesh sewn into the wood of the table beneath her, leaving her insides on full display to the demoness and her children.

Drachne's thin, purple lips curled up in a derisive sneer. "Humans are so disgusting, don't you think? Look at all this... mess inside of them." To demonstrate her point, she reached in and gently pinched a length of intestine between two fingers. Sarah let out a low note of horror as she watched the demoness lift parts of herself out of her torso, holding it aloft and studying it like it was a bit of slime she'd picked off her shoe. "How can you stand being so... wet all the time?"

Tears stung Sarah's eyes as her mouth flopped open and closed, her mind slowly cracking into shards under the baleful gaze of the demoness Drachne. The giant woman met her eyes. "Call me Goddess."

"Goddess," the word came easily to Sarah's lips - after all, what else did you call a woman holding your guts in her fingers? Drachne smirked, and the attendant spiders chittered into activity again, this time flanking Sarah's head. They began working in tandem, weaving a length of silk between one another that they wrapped around the tiny woman's head, forcing their legs into her mouth. The sharp strand dug at the corners of her lips, only getting worse as the spiders made it thicker, stronger. It easily sliced open any flesh that resisted it, carving twin gouges up the side of Sarah's face, tracing her jawbone.

The tiny woman tried to speak, to protest this treatment, but before she could think of why that was a bad idea, her tongue had been severed against the razor silk in her mouth, flopping down against the back of her throat. One of the spiders reached in and pulled it out, tucking it away out of sight.

"You're disgusting creatures. Even my children have no interest in eating you." Drachne flicked the wet flesh in her fingers away, sending Sarah's guts spooling out to the side of her. She gasped, eyes rolling back in her head as she struggled to stay lucid. She could feel blood pooling in her throat, and she weakly coughed, sending it spattering out across her lips. "However... you do keep yourselves somewhat warm, which can be a benefit."

Whatever Sarah had been expecting to see, she was proven wrong as the attendant spiders each produced a small silken pouch and began to gently tuck them away inside the cavity created in Sarah's torso. They pinched and tugged at her insides, moving them aside when inconvenient, creating a perfect little nest for the sacs.

The tiny woman garbled through her own blood, shaking her head violently and bucking wildly against her restraints. Drachne regarded the pitiful creature with a cold smirk. "Shhh, human. You're fulfilling your role to me. You're making up for each and every one of my babies who was smashed, burned, and killed in your pointless struggles. Accept your role or don't; it's out of your hands now."

Sarah screamed wildly as the attendants sealed her chest with silk, binding her more thoroughly to the table. In a matter of moments she was completely folded in on herself, her body immobilized except for her head, which continued to whip violently from side to side, her howling ragged and ceaseless. On another wordless command, the attendants pressed the host mother's head down against the table, binding it there, before wrapping another series of strands around her head, closing her jaw over the razor wire for good.

"That's a good girl~" Drachne cooed, running her finger over the little thing's silken abdomen, feeling the raised bumps of her children within. "You're being so good for your Goddess."

Sarah stared wide-eyed across the table, unable to move, when one of the attendants skittered into her field of vision, staring directly into her eyes. She couldn't even twitch. The last thing she saw were those needle-like appendages reaching out towards her face.

The last thing she felt was thousands of legs crawling everywhere across her body, but that would come much, much later.