CHAPTER 113

They had taken up residence in the office and the study next to it. Tink slept on one of the couches next to the window, her slumbering form watched over by Kisa and a statue of Anubis. Cecilia hovered in the office proper--they brought Death inside to bring the banshee down where they could keep an eye on her.

Beth sat in the only chair, her gaze constantly flicking to the large plastic tub they had dragged down from Yuki's room for the slime girl. It had been used to store paint, and now acted as a container to keep the slime together. On her trip down the stairs to warn everyone, she had left a considerable amount of mass behind her and was apparently unable to reincorporate it.

They had let Death question her. The slime claimed that she had been busy brainstorming ideas for mediation when she heard a bizarre clicking sound from the bedroom. It had been followed by a flash of light, and she had watched as Cecilia's body floated by the tub and then through the wall. Death pronounced the slime's innocence with a degree of finality that brooked no argument.

He also declared that he had decided to name her Opal.

"Why Opal?" Lily had asked.

"Because she is precious to me and she changes color," he answered. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have no way to heat my tea and must find a suitable cold brew."

He returned moments later to reveal the sleeping form of Carmina in one of his teacups. The fairy was moved to a small plate and now sat on the desk like a morbid snack. Beth had covered her up with a washrag. The house was colder than ever, causing her to wear a sweater and wrap herself in a blanket.

Opal was motionless in her tub. After her talk with Death, she had settled into her new home and flattened out, apparently exhausted. Her surface had turned a dark purple, highlighting her color-shifting abilities.

Beth's stomach growled. She had eaten a sandwich earlier, but it wasn't enough. The food in the fridge wasn't going to stay cold much longer and without a means to cook it, it was eventually going to go bad. Death had somehow coaxed the last of the water out of the pipes for his tea, which meant Beth was left drinking milk to stay hydrated.

She hated milk.

"These ideas are good." Lily broke the silence, her hands on a small stack of papers. It was a bulleted list of Opal's ideas, and the white fibers were stained in different shades of blue. Beth had given it to her after reading it herself. "Mellow jello over there has some solid predictions."

"Her name is Opal. And yes, she does. But I don't know how we're supposed to combat some of them." She could see the list in her mind. The horsemen wanted to raise havoc and have their full-blown Apocalypse. There wasn't a middle ground for something like that.

"I'm a personal fan of the rotating block." Lily pulled one of the sheets out. "Each incarnation gets to run around for four months, then swaps out. If Famine takes the harvesting season, you all are fucked."

"Don't you mean we?"

Lily smirked. "Nah, I'll still have plenty to eat."

"You're being bitchy." Beth opened up her desk drawer and pulled out a candy bar. She threw it at Lily, who swatted it out of the air with her tail. "It's all that dick you suck."

"In all seriousness" --Lily picked up the candy bar and stuffed it into her cleavage-- "she thought of what the horsemen would want. None of it is good. Anything we can remotely counter-offer isn't going to be enough to satisfy them. If even one of them gets to stay on Earth, everything goes to shit."

"So what do you suggest?"

Lily tilted her head forward. "We shouldn't be prepared for mediation. We should be ready to make war, instead."

"How are we supposed to fight three horsemen and an angel?"

The succubus leaned back in thought. "You should see what the Grimoire says. It's caused us enough trouble, maybe we should be the ones who dish it out for a change."

Beth frowned, but Lily was right. Even if the others hadn't been put to sleep, there wasn't anything they could do to battle the intruders out front. She had debated using it to find a counterspell to wake the others up, but Lily had cautioned her against it. Without knowing what kind of sorcery had put them under, any spell cast could have serious repercussions.

She stuck her hand in Tick Tock's mouth. The mimic was stored under the desk, and she felt around in the extra-dimensional space for a few seconds before her hand touched the spine of the book.

"What do you think I should even look up?" Beth asked.

"Angels. If you can get rid of Big Brother, maybe the horsemen will be unsummoned."

Beth ran her fingers along the edge of the Grimoire and focused hard on spells related to angels. Her fingertips tingled and, when she opened the book, silver letters appeared on the paper within.

"Well?" Lily asked.

Beth frowned. Instead of a spell, she found herself reading what looked like a diary entry.

"On the subject of angels," she read. "I have found considerable difficulty in my research. Such beings are rare to interact with and are protected by a divine aura. They are immune to all known forms of spellcraft, which leaves expulsion by force (ala exorcism) or Words of Creation. I have been unable to learn the correct sequence of these words to dismiss an angel."

"Great. Even the great Grimoire can't help us now." Lily toyed with the pendant she wore around her neck. Beth had seen her wearing it more than once, it seemed to be the one mainstay of the succubus' many outfits.