Chapter 81: Into The Domain
Fin stared. The girl who stumbled towards him, relief clear on her face, wasn’t the spider-assassin he remembered. Pale skin, yes. Dark hair, yes. But the eyes were normal, large and dark, holding only two pupils. The extra limbs were gone. The chitinous armor replaced by simple dark clothing that looked vaguely familiar.
She looked... human. Disturbingly so.
"What the hell?" he asked, the words escaping before his cold logic could process fully.
She stopped a few feet away, tilting her head, a flicker of confusion in her now-human eyes. "My Lord? Is something wrong?"
"You," he stated flatly, gesturing vaguely at her. "You look... different."
She glanced down at herself, running a hand over her arm. "Oh. Yes. The domain... it changed when you claimed it." She looked around the altered throne room – the softer lines, the warmer light, the tapestries. "It reflects the owner now. Your influence."
"My influence?" he repeated skeptically. "This place looks like Meg’s bedroom threw up everywhere."
Arachne blinked. "Meg? Is that... someone important to you? Her preference seems quite strong. It overwrote most of the Queen’s design. And," she hesitated, looking down at her own hands again, "it seems your mana signature is doing the same to me."
"My mana?"
"Human mana," she clarified. "It’s dominant in this domain now. Your domain. The Queen’s spider essence... it’s being suppressed. Overwritten." She seemed almost puzzled by it herself. "I didn’t think it worked that way."
"Neither did I," he admitted dryly. ’Human mana overriding ancient spider Queen magic? Makes no sense.’ He filed it away under ’Things That Shouldn’t Work But Apparently Do’.