"It was a favor for a friend," Arachne said dismissively, and she glanced up from the bank of computers she was furiously typing into. "I owed a favor and putting them in that night was paying it off. I wasn't pleased that they decided to entrance the audience with Regs in the club that night, which is why you won't ever be seeing them here on Mix nights again. But the upside with their skill was that it affected everyone so no one took advantage of the humans being too distracted by the siren's song. Could you imagine if the Crypti patrons lost their inhibitions but retained enough will to feed? It would have been a disaster!"
"There was still a death that night," I reminded her softly, respectfully.
"Yes. Yes, of course, Tempest, you're so right. I'm sorry if I seem callous to your plight, it's not that at all. I'm so sorry if the use of their abilities without warning had anything to do with your loss of... your dinner companion."
"My loss of control, you mean to say," I said bitterly.
Arachne was an odd Crypti when it came to the subject of Integration; Crypti blending with humans. She believed that it was necessary for continued survival, and that our relationships could be more symbiotic than parasitic, but at her core she was still what she was; an old world Goddess who saw the humans as either dinner at worst or a beloved family pet at best.
"As you like," the old spider said gently, and I saw her briefly in her alternate form, like a shadow image superimposed over the human shell she was currently projecting, a large spider forever weaving her webs, as she'd been cursed to do by Athena eons before. She turned back to the bank of computer monitors in front of her, each surveying something different; security footage, social networking sites, wikis on something or other, a YouTube tutorial on a new type of yarn for knitting, google maps... "If there isn't anything else, Tempest?"
"Who was the favor for?" I asked as I stepped to the door of her office, readying to leave. "If you don't mind my asking, my lady?"