First clacked her mandibles. She seemed amused. It was harder to interpret her than it was Second, maybe because she was even less human, but our similarities were strong enough for me to “see” her.

// hello, my daughter // she said. // hello, hello. it is so good to finally meet you in flesh, and not only in shadow. //

“Why didn’t you show me what you really looked like before this?” I asked.

// you were not ready. you asked if the pollen changed you. your sister would not answer you, as none answered her. I will answer you. yes. yes, it changes you; it opens channels in your thoughts, removes the barriers that would see us as alien and unknowable, that would keep us, your family, out. it shows you the similarities, when you would otherwise be stymied by the differences. //

“I don’t like … The way I’m thinking about the Earth, about my friends, I don’t like it.” They could hear me, I knew they could hear me, but that seemed less important than making First understand my confusion. “Why is this happening?”

// the pollen prepares you for what must happen. you have seen what came before. you understand why this must be. for us to remain as we are, to remain aware of the world, we must feed. we do not do it from malice, or out of cruelty. we wish only to endure. but our existence is repulsive to so many. we do what we do to survive. //

“What is the—oh my God I don’t believe I’m saying this—what is the giant spider saying to you?” asked Graham.

“She’s telling me the pollen they use to communicate has been rewiring my brain to make this all seem less alien to me,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at him. He was still Graham, still beloved and perfect, but he no longer looked like a member of the same species. I could love him. I could fight to the death to keep him exactly as he was, neither bled nor converted. We would never be the same again. “She’s my mother.”

“Of course,” said Toni, throwing up her hands. “Of course the giant spider is your mother, of course. This is some Stephen King bullshit. If a creepy clown shows up, I’m out.”

“Out what? The nearest airlock?” Mandy shook her head. “I don’t like any of this, but I like breathing.”

“How is she … Oh.” Graham straightened. “The seeds. She’s the one who made your seed.”

// I like your boy // said First. // you have chosen well, among the options given to you. he will fight for you. //

“He has been fighting for me,” I said, turning back to her. “Is there really no other way?”

// there was one. none of them chose it. //

“What?”

First stroked my hair with her hooked claws, and waved her mandibles, and told me how humanity could have saved themselves.