The Breaking (Chapter I)

A nebula caught in the act of becoming. At its core, radiant lines burst outward like legs of light, the source of the name — a cosmic spider spinning something vast and violet into existence. Purple and magenta churn through clouds of deep blue and black, the texture of the aluminum beneath giving the gas clouds a raw, almost organic quality, as if this is not a painting of space but a piece of it. Scattered stars dot the darkness around it, indifferent witnesses to a birth measured in millenni