Lilith opened the book and began to read. The second she did, Judy saw her eyes glaze over as she entered some sort of trance.

  “How are you doing, Lilith?” Tunem asked. There was a long pause, and when it became clear Lilith wasn’t going to answer, Tunem’s eyes hardened. “We’re aborting this test.” He said, slamming his fist against his chair. A series of glowing lines spiraled out from his chair and towards Lilith, but, in response, a series of lines spread out from the book, down Lilith’s arms, and into the circle.

  They weren’t like the glowing lines that filled the circle before. Instead they sucked in the light, a sort of bubble of darkness growing around them as they moved and intercepted Tunem’s lines. There was a brilliant flash of light and then Tunem’s lines were overwhelmed, the book’s lines rapidly beginning to take over more and more of the circle.

  Along the shore the cloud waves break,

  The twin suns sink behind the lake,

  The shadows lengthen

  In Carcosa.

  Another one of the council members, the angel who had given Lilith instructions, began to chant. A soft white light began to fill the room, and the progress of the lines’ conversion was slowed…until the white suddenly shifted to darkness with streaks of light resembling lightning bolts running through it, speeding the conversion of the lines even more.

  Do not interrupt. We welcome another into our circle.

  Strange is the night where black stars rise,

  And strange moons circle through the skies,

  But stranger still is

  Lost Carcosa.

  The woman quickly ceased her chant, and the darkness it had created faded. Two other Council members stood up, one unleashing a barrage of uncountable magical bullets towards Lilith while the other began to chant a spell.

  The bullets were stopped in their tracks as the lines, which had finished corrupting the circle, sprung up and intercepted, swallowing the bullets whole before wrapping themselves around Lilith, writhing and lashing out against any stray shot.

  Space seemed to distort as the other Council member finished his chant, and several of the lines that were intercepting bullets were cut off, teleported out of sight. Seconds later, they oozed down from the ceiling and in through the walls and door, having grown in number.

  I believe we instructed you to stop. We do not wish to interfere with our new sibling’s playthings, but we will if we must.

  “You, sir, should unmask.”

  “Indeed?”

  “Indeed it’s time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.”

  “I wear no mask.”

  “No mask? No mask!”

  Vithi shared a hug with Judy, uttering words of assurance which were more for herself than for Judy. Alex, however, was focused on Tunem, who was focusing incredibly hard if the beads of sweat running down his temple were any indication.

  As one, all the seated Council members stood and began to channel nauseatingly thick waves of magic into one of their fellows, an elvish woman who was reciting a banishment spell.

  While amusing, it won’t work. Sleep now and pray our new sibling will be lenient.

  And then the magical energy they were pooling went haywire, and, one by one, the Council members collapsed back into their chairs, unconscious.

  Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

  Where flap the tatters of the King,

  Must die unheard in

  Dim Carcosa

  Judy, Alex, and Vithi huddled together in terror, watching as Lilith robotically flipped the pages of the book. All sound save for the book’s pages was gone, and the lights had faded to the point where they could barely see, further stimulating the group’s anxieties.

  Fear not, young ones. Should you not interfere, we will not harm you. We wish to be on good terms with our new sibling and harming you would ruin that.

  Notuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponusnotuponus

  Song of my soul, my voice is dead,

  Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

  Shall dry and die in

  Lost Carcosa

  Lilith snapped back into focus, feeling…refreshed and full of energy, like she’d just had a good night’s sleep. She dismissed the notifications, as she already knew full well what they contained.

  And then she stopped, looking at her surroundings; the room was in complete disarray, with the Council members passed out on the floor. She quickly whirled to face the circle where Alex, Judy, and Vithi were, and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that they were safe.

  The inhabitants of the circle didn’t seem to share that relief, however. All of them save for Judy shied away from Lilith’s gaze, fear visible in their eyes.

  “Is that…still you in there?” Judy squeaked.

  “Yeah, it’s still me. What happened?” Lilith asked.

  “Um…before we get into that, do you feel any different? Any new urges or impulses or anything?”

  Lilith shrugged. “I feel perfectly normal. I got a bunch of new abilities and stuff, but other than that I feel fine. Of course, I guess if I was insidiously insane instead of crazy insane, I’d say the same thing so…watch me carefully, I suppose. Not sure what more I can say, though, so…yeah.”

  Judy sighed. “Good enough for now, I suppose. Well, what happened is that the moment you opened the book you stopped responding to us, and the Council tried to activate the circle, but something stopped them. The thing said something about welcoming a new sibling and not wanting to interfere with the new sibling’s playthings, and it put the Council to sleep. The three of us have been here for about an hour after that, just…watching you read.”

  Lilith frowned. “That’s just…great. Let’s get the Council woken up, and we’ll figure out what to do from there, alright?”

  The other three seemed to be in agreement, so they got to work waking up the Council, in hopes that they would know what to do. Once everyone was awake, the angel who had originally given Lilith instructions began to speak. “We’re going to have Kali, our information specialist, subject you to a deep mental search. Until we’re convinced that you’re safe, you’re to stay in here, understand?”

  Lilith nodded. “That sounds fair. Can the others leave?”

  “No.” The woman replied. “As they were conscious while we weren’t, we can’t be sure they haven’t been compromised in some way. They’re going to get searched as well after your search is finished. Kali, do you need anything to perform this search?”

  The succubus Lilith had taken note of earlier began to speak. “Nope!” She chirped. “Just some time.” She walked over to Lilith, smiling brightly. “My name’s Kali, I’m a succubus and chief of intelligence for the Protectorate.”

  Lilith’s heart sped up as Kali approached. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why, either; Kali didn’t look particularly alluring or threatening or anything. She had long black hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants. Aside from the bat wings and spade tail, she looked like your average girl-next-door, nothing special.

  Seeing Lilith’s expression, she winked. “The reputation of succubi on Earth is greatly overblown. We’re not in go mode all the time, you know. You’ve got as much of the succubus Domain unlocked as me, so if we were, you’d have known by now. Anyway, you ready?”

  Lilith blushed, looking away. “Yeah, but um…for what it’s worth, I just got an ability that makes ‘weak-minded’ people go insane upon reading my mind.” Lilith informed. “I can turn it off for you if you want, but I figured I’d let you know and give you the option first in case you want to examine me with it on.”

  Kali laughed. “No problem there, I’m not head of intelligence for nothing. I’ll back out if I feel it’s too much but go ahead and leave it on for now.”

  Lilith nodded. “Ready when you are, then.”

  Kali nodded, stepping up close to Lilith and putting a finger on her forehead. “Ooh, you really weren’t kidding, that’s some nasty stuff. Don’t worry, I’m perfectly fine, this is just gonna take a bit, feel free to talk with everyone else while I look through this.” She removed her finger, sitting down on the floor next to Lilith.

  Noticing Lilith’s confused expression, she gave her a wink. “What, expecting more? Well, if you’re a good girl, I wouldn’t be opposed to giving you a kiss later.”

  Lilith blushed even more. “No, I, um…just thought you would stay in contact the entire time, so I was surprised, that’s all.”

  Kali laughed. “I’m just messing with you. Offer’s open, though. Anyway, I’m going to have to focus on this, so don’t expect me to do any more talking until I’m done.”

  As she fell silent, Tunem stepped up. “I’m going to do some identification spells and see if I can find anything malicious.” He said, then began to chant a spell. After he finished chanting, he withdrew and began to talk with the other Council members, presumably reporting his findings to them.

  About ten minutes after that, Kali seemed to come out of her trance, walking over to the Council and reporting her findings. While she did, Judy approached Lilith, giving her a hug. “How are you holding up?” She asked.

  “I’m fine.” Lilith replied. “How about you, though? Are you sure you should be trusting me, though? I mean, I feel fine, but that’s just taking my word for it.”

  Judy shrugged. “They’ve finished their analysis and haven’t immediately come to get rid of you or stopped me from talking to you. As far as I’m concerned, that means you’re safe enough for the time being.”

  The two chatted a little more before Tunem cleared his throat, interrupting them. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that, as far as we can tell, Lilith is clean. The bad news is that we’re going to be putting all four of you under house arrest. We won’t let you leave this demiplane until we can be absolutely sure Lilith isn’t going to start causing trouble once she leaves.”