The gargantuan spider's legs drew inward.
Those enormous, many-jointed limbs folded against its body, bending with a slow, sinister fluidity that made their former shape seem suddenly uncertain.
The abdomen contracted, its majestic breadth collapsing toward the centre of the radiance, while the silken cradle loosened around a weight that was swiftly diminishing.
The transformation produced no loud cry.
A low, continuous hum disturbed the chamber, accompanied by the soft whisper of webbing sliding against itself.
Through the blinding light, the creature's outline contorted, its angular extremities disappearing into a compact mass that grew smaller with every passing moment.
The woman dared to open her eyes a fraction.
What had occupied most of the ceiling now hung at the centre of the web as a narrow, luminous shape. It compressed further, drawing itself into a small, intensely radiant core before slowly lengthening again.
A head emerged from the brilliance.
