Time did not exist. There was only the Pulse.
It was a low, rhythmic thrum that vibrated through the amniotic fluid, a song of gold and shadow that felt like a mother's heartbeat, yet infinitely more ancient. I was not a girl, nor a beast—I was a collection of instincts floating in a sea of potential.
The only thing I knew in this dark world that surrounded me was my mother's voice. A soft soothing voice that called out to me urging that I leave the dark void around me.
However somthing was holding me back. I knew it wasn't time yet the energies around had not finished there job. The gestation was not complete.
Floating in this endless void I found that I could do nothing, feel nothing, alone and trapped with only my thoughts and raw unfiltered instinct I waited. What I was waiting for eluded me however I knew the time to leave had not come yet.
Months, years, decades, centuries, what felt like an eternity flew buy in what felt like a matter of seconds until.
A loud heart stopping vibration rippled through the void around me the space around me wobbled and groaned but stood firm soon the sound of unfamiliar voices replaced the once lovingly and warm whispers of mother.
"Found it! Quickly destroy it i want no mishaps!" the voice was rough and sharp cutting through the air with a sense of authority as thundering vibrations inched ever closer a new emotion begun to stir within.
Something in my long years of waiting I had never felt before..
Fear.
It ripped through my incomplete form like a merciless tide echoing out from within refusing to be riened in no matter how hard I tried to clamp this feeling down.
Then there came cold. The void went silent the air turned stagnant.
The golden warmth of the upper realms vanished, replaced by a thin, starving atmosphere. I felt my form flickering. My limbs felt heavy, "wrong." The divinity, the very milk of life that was supposed to knit my bones into a goddess was gone.
In its place, a dark, viscous hunger began to fill the gaps. My body felt hollow, empty, a shell of what it once was. Quickly this hunger began to consume me. The fluids that once surrounded my form receded into my body as the hunger desperate and suddenly starved of energy quickly began absorbing the nearest source it could find.
Cracks echoed through the void as I felt arachnid form twitch and convulse. Limbs realigned parts of my hard exo skeleton sunk into my body, eyes quickly rearranging themselves.
Pain gripped my soul as I felt every muscle tear every fiber reshape itself into something else. It felt as if my mind would collapse in the very next moment.
I remember the silence of the grotto. I remember the muffled screams of the mother spider who guarded me—a distant relative whose life force was snuffed out like a candle. I felt her death. It tasted like copper and failure.
However with the pain assaulting every inch of my being i had no time to care about such things even as the Void around me shifted and I felt my world begun to move, None of it mattered. I simply wished for it to stop. Everything. I wanted my mother. I wanted the warm gentle embrace of my home returned to me.
Why me? Why did I have to suffer through this? What had I done to deserve such punishment?
My mind spiraled into madness the last dregs of sanity being slowly eroded by the soul tearing pain ripping through me.
Kill.. yes.. yes I'll kill all those responsible.. I'll kill them.. feed on there blood feast on there bones.. I'll watch as the life slowly escapes there eyes.. I'll make them suffer..
Yes, yes, yes suffer as I have..
And then, I felt Her. A becon in the dark world around me.
Through the thick, runic shell, a drop of something divine yet mortal seeped in. It wasn't the warm energy that seeped into my very existence at the start, but it felt like a lifeline, a line cast into the dark abyss to pull me out.
"Wake up," the blood whispered. "The time has come to awaken" Hearing those words something inside me finally snapped.
My eyes snapped open. I had four, but they saw as one.
The world was a strange mixture of translucent grey and a milky white until my Chitinous limbs found purchase. I didn't think; I moved. The shell, once my entire universe, was now a cage. I drove my primary claws into the ceiling of my world and tore.
CRACK.
Light. It was blinding, agonizing, and beautiful. It tasted like ozone and expensive incense that was drowned out by the heavy smell of copper and iron.
I pushed myself upward, my six limbs unfolding with the hydraulic hiss of a predator. I felt the air hit my skin—porcelain-soft and sensitive. My secondary eyes began to twitch. The world wasn't just shapes; it was a mess of glowing strings.
Thousands of silver threads connected everyone in the room. I saw the thick, black thread of "Death" hovering over the armored men. I saw the shimmering, oily threads of "Greed" attached to the boy with the loud voice.
And then I saw the Source.
A girl stood before me. She was pale, still, and smelled of the blood that had summoned me. To everyone else, she was a "Jade Doll." To me, she was the center of my existence.
A strange feeling washed over me as my eyes locked onto hers. This wasn't my mother. It couldn't be. Master? Somthing from inside called out demanding it bow my head in submission to allow this girl before me to control my fate. However that didn't seem correct either.
I reached out. My hand was black, sharp, and lethal, but when it touched her palm, I felt a spark of pure, unadulterated Recognition.
No she wasn't my mother, nor some figure I was forced to obey. This being before me was my universe the center of my web.
"Mnn... cute," she said.
The word was vibrationally flat, but the soul behind it was a bonfire that seemed to seer away the pain that had been tormenting my existence even in this moment.
A series of loud clicks vibrationated out from my throat—a language I didn't know I knew. Mine. Protector. Weaver.
Foreign emotion swam beneath my calm eyes as I gazed at the very tether of my new world the only thing that seemed to drive away this darkness clinging to my mind.
Then, the air changed. A heavy, suffocating pressure lunged toward us. A large two legged creature reached for my Source.
My vision turned red as the voices from beforereturnedwith vengeance.
'Threat my universein danger.. Kill.. Devour.. he must bleed.. he must suffer..'
I didn't see a "Father"; I saw a threat to my world, to the only reason I saw left to live. A threat to my mate.
I let my killing intent flare. It was a gift from my mother, a "Soul-Venom" that was honed through the suffering of my form. I watched the large man's thread turn grey. I wanted to sever it. I wanted to see if his blood tasted as sweet as hers.
But then, she touched me again. A soft scratch behind my head and the darkness receded the dangerous thoughts swirling within calmed and the world became clear once more.
The rage dissolved into a purr. The threads of the world settled. I didn't care about the God Realms or the "Righteous" men in gold. I looked at the girl with the ruby eyes and made a silent vow in the language of the Void.
I will weave a world where you never have to bleed again.