Lilith came to in a featureless void, standing on some unseen surface. She had just gone to sleep with her wife, Kali, so she assumed she was dreaming, but it didn’t feel like a dream, it felt…real. Mae? Eve? Nuwa? She called out to her Parallels, alternate personalities that had become more like other people that she shared senses and memories with.

They are not here, little one. A voice boomed, a calm blue washing over the void in front of Lilith. It is just us.

Lilith frowned. “Kali?” She questioned. “Why are you pretending to be the Elder Gods again? We can just…talk.”

Bursts of amused pink filled the space. She is asleep. Another voice said. And, though she might think otherwise, she never truly impersonated us. We simply made her believe she did. Ask her when she wakes; things are not as they seem, and she knows.

“She knows? And she didn’t say anything?”

She has yet to receive full confirmation, and did not wish to worry you. Yet another voice intoned. But that is not important; we have come to you, our kin, to warn you.

“Warn me of what?” Lilith asked cautiously.

The world moves, the first voice boomed, a turbulent black with flashes of white suddenly enveloping the space, and you are our piece. The equilibrium will be soon broken, and you must prepare.

“What equilibrium? When?”

Uncertain. The second voices said. We believe we are the first players to move, but we cannot be sure. Should we be correct, the balance will be broken when you choose. Should we be incorrect…you may have as short as decades or as long as millennia. Do not let it come to that; should the first move not be yours, your victory becomes less certain.

“So…there are other Elder Gods interacting with other people? And they’ll be put at odds with me?” Lilith asked.

There are two other groups, and they will likely be antagonistic. The third voice intoned. They wish to win our game, as do we.

We have seeded your circle of influence with all the tools you will need to succeed. The first voice boomed. And we believe you are capable.

“What am I succeeding at? Do I even have a choice, if you can manipulate Administrators?” Lilith asked frustratedly.

Survival. The second voice said. The board has been set, our manipulations finished. Even if that were not the case, you always have a choice. As our piece, you are our kin, and we cannot manipulate you. What fun is a game in which the outcome is known?

If you so choose, you are free to ignore us entirely, or to work against us. The third voice intoned. We care not. We make no demands of you, no requirements. Our only advice is that you grow strong enough to trample over all that comes your way. Farewell, little one.

And, before Lilith could speak again, the dream ended, and she bolted upright in her bed. Kali was snoozing peacefully next to her, and Eve was cuddled up next to her, also fast asleep.

Lilith? Everything alright? Nuwa asked. You look unnerved.

Lilith sighed mentally. I suppose. And you’re up…why? It’s five in the morning.

I don’t need sleep like you do, and I wanted to do a few more raids. Nuwa said defensively. She inhabited the body of the core of the dungeon they were in, and had, with Mae’s help, integrated several computer components into herself, allowing her to effectively use a computer without needing hands or eyes or anything, and she more often than not spent most of her time there instead of paying attention to the dungeon proper.

You will be getting your three hours, right? Lilith said reproachfully. You still get mentally tired, and none of us like the spillover that can have.

I will! Nuwa replied quickly. I’ve learned my lesson, promise. But, seriously, you good? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wake up like that.

Lilith shared the memories of the dream with her, and the was a period of silence. Oh. Nuwa finally said. Well, I can confirm that Kali was asleep the whole time. Yeah, let’s get everyone up.

Nuwa sent out a mental nudge of sorts, and Mae and Eve roused. “What’s going on?” Eve moaned. “I was having a good sleep there.”

Lilith shared her memories with the two, and Eve’s gaze hardened. “Kali, wake up.” She said, gently shaking their wife. “It’s important.”

Kali groaned slightly as she woke. “Huh?” She asked. “Why are you two awake?”

“Kali…I’m afraid I have bad news.” Lilith said. “We should give you a moment to wake up before we talk, this isn’t something we can afford to talk about while you’re half-asleep.”

Kali quickly got up, hopping off of the bed and moving towards the kitchen. “Did Nuwa notice something? Did war break out? I know things have been tense down there lately, but I thought we’d have a month or two before things started in earnest.”

“Nothing like that.” Lilith replied, following her wife into the kitchen. “But it’s almost certainly worse.”

Kali turned back to Lilith, giving her the briefest of frowns. “Worse? Did Levi somehow start rampaging? No one should be near him, and I’ve got alarms set up for if he moves too far away from his lair.”

Lilith sighed. “Nuwa has some coffee ready, especially potent stuff.” She said. “Drink up and we’ll discuss.”

Kali entered the kitchen, grabbing the mug that Nuwa had used the dungeon to create and downing it in one gulp. She shuddered briefly as the coffee kicked in, bypassing her natural resistances as a succubus thanks to some eldritch help, then sat down at the island. “Alright. Spill it.”

“I…had a visit from the Elder Gods just now.” Lilith said. “At first I thought it was you again, but they said that, apparently, you were actually never involved in my first conversation with them, they just gave you a false memory of doing it.”

Lilith braced for some sort of objection, but Kali just sighed. “I was afraid of that.” She said.

“They…said that you knew something was wrong but didn’t want to worry me when you weren’t fully sure of it.” Lilith prompted. “What happened on your end?”

Kali hopped off of her stool and began pacing back and forth. “Tell me about your conversation first.” She instructed. “I want to see how much of it can be corroborated with what I know or suspect.”

“Right. So…after they said they weren’t you, they said they had come to warn me, and that I was their ‘kin’, whatever that means. They said that some equilibrium will soon be broken, and that they’re the first ones to make a move, but they’re not totally sure. If they’re right, they’re banking on me breaking whatever equilibrium this is, but if they’re not, they say it’ll be anywhere from decades to millennia.”

Kali’s face soured as Lilith spoke, but she didn’t say anything, so Lilith continued. “This is some sort of…game to them, and I’m their chosen piece, apparently. There are two other groups, and presumably two other pieces, and they assume they will be antagonistic. Apparently, they’ve “seeded my circle of influence” with everything I need to “succeed”, and succeeding is just…survival.

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“They said that they won’t be manipulating things anymore and can’t manipulate me, and explicitly said there are no rules we have to follow; we can even try and work against them if they want. They said that their only advice was to “grow strong enough to trample over all that comes your way”, and then left, and that’s basically the whole thing. I’ll create a memory replay of it later so you can analyze the exact wording, but that’s the important bits.”

Kali sighed again. “Then it’s basically what I was afraid of.” She said. “It all started a year or two ago when I was talking with Connie, and she brought some very alarming facts to light. For one, I had completely and utterly forgotten that Mai had tried to mess with the eldritch before, and stopped because it was too dangerous. Yet, despite that, my first thought when making you a Perfect Chimera was to introduce you to the eldritch.

“That was already worrying, but Jerry is apparently of the opinion that something is manipulating reality in some way; for his system to break in a way that he usually would catch, and then for it to break and give the single most talented soul any of us have ever seen Worship, and for her to then solve not one but two problems he had been struggling with…he doesn’t think it was a coincidence.”

Understanding dawned on Lilith’s face. “They…seeded my circle of influence.” She said slowly. “Do you think that’s what they were referring to?”

“That’s part of it, I’m sure.” Kali replied, pulling up a window and beginning to type out a message. “I think we’ll find more odd occurrences if we go looking for them. And the equilibrium they were talking about is almost certainly the equilibrium between the three major factions of Administrators. And if that breaks…life as we know it is over, one way or the other.”

She finished her message and dismissed the window. “I’ve sent an urgent request to Jerry and Amy.” She said. “They should be here momentarily.”

And, sure enough, not even ten seconds later, Jerry materialized. The tall vampire rushed over to Kali, giving her a concerned look. “Kali, what’s wrong?! Is Levi acting up?!”

“We know what’s manipulating things.” Kali said bluntly.

Jerry’s eyes widened. “You do!?” He asked excitedly. “What!?”

“The Elder Gods.” Lilith said. “They came to me in a dream.”

Jerry whirled around, dashing over to Lilith. “Tell me exactly what happened.” He said, reaching up to grab her shoulders before thinking better of it. “Don’t leave a single thing out.”

“I’ll work on making a replay of the memory.” Lilith said. “Amy’s coming too, so we should probably wait for her.”

“Of course, of course.”  Jerry said, running a hand through his hair nervously. “I assume this isn’t good news, then.”

“There are very few ways it could be worse.” Kali said sourly. “But, apparently –”

She was cut off by Amy materializing in the kitchen. Much like Jerry, the slime girl immediately rushed over to Kali, grabbing her and inspecting her carefully. “Kali?!” She said worriedly. “What’s going on?! Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine.” Kali said placatingly. “But we need to have an important talk. I wanted you and Jerry here because Jerry’s the kind of guy who would know about this stuff and you’re the faction head, but we’re probably going to need to bring it to the rest of the faction.”

The memory is done, mistress. Mae said, creating a small disc out of the body she and Lilith shared.

Eve snatched the disc and walked over to the island. “Nuwa’s sealing the room, so we don’t need to worry about people overhearing us.” She informed them, absentmindedly growing her legs so she could reach the island. She placed the disc down, then continued speaking. “This is the memory exactly as it happened to Lilith.” She said.

“Mae’s making copies for Jerry and Amy under the assumption that you’ll want to watch this again later, but we’re going to run through it here too. It’s pretty short, only a couple of minutes, so don’t interrupt; we can play it again if you want to revisit something, but we should go through it in full first.” She pressed a button on top of the disc, and the room changed, becoming the featureless void of the dream Lilith had been in.

As the memory played, Lilith paid careful attention to the faces of the three Administrators. They, as people who ruled universes, were the ones most likely to be directly impacted by this, and she was curious what they thought of it. And, as expected, they each reacted differently; Kali frowned the whole way through, Amy watched with an impassive stare, and Jerry’s face flickered between fascination and horror the whole time.

The memory ended, and a palpable silence filled the room. There was a moment of tension, and then Kali spoke up. “I hadn’t told Lilith about any of our concerns.” She said. “And if she says it wasn’t just a dream, I trust her completely.”

“I don’t think any of us were worried that it was just a dream.” Jerry said, shaking his head in wonder. “Of all people, I think Lilith is the most qualified to tell Dreams from dreams.”

Lilith frowned at the emphasis Jerry put on the first “Dreams”. “By Dream, I assume you mean something different than a normal dream?”

Jerry nodded. “Yes. The Elder Gods are heavily associated with sleep and dreams, sometimes being referred to as “Dreamers”. You are the single most attuned with the eldritch of anyone I have ever heard of, and if you say it’s not a simple dream, I’m inclined to agree.”

“As am I.” Amy said. “And this is…worrying. Very worrying.”

Jerry’s face went from that of a scholar to that of a traumatized war veteran as he stared ahead. “War looms.” He said darkly. “And we need to prepare. Amy, can I trust you to look into any odd happenings with the rest of the Administrators in the faction?”

“I will, and I even have one, I think.” Amy replied. “Are you familiar with Tess?”

“She’s one of your Higher Beings, right?” Jerry asked. “Fortune’s daughter and Appointed, if I recall correctly.”

“Yes.” Amy said. “A decade or so ago I was taking another look at the Rewards Crystal that granted her her Class, and I came to the realization that Fortune’s Blessing wouldn’t have worked on it. Or, at least, it wouldn’t work to give her a Class with that much Worship invested in it.”

“Fascinating.” Jerry breathed. “But she’s no different from an ordinary Higher Being, right?”

“I thought so, but I’m not quite so sure anymore.” Amy admitted. “I’m going to look very carefully through Monster Breeder, I suspect there might be something to it that I was unable to notice before.”

“Right.” Jerry said with a nod. “On my end, I’m going to kick things into another gear with the swarm. I’m not taking chances anymore, not when we’re effectively guaranteed to be seeing another inter-faction war soon.”

He paused, then turned to Kali. “Kali, I have a plane I have yet to do much with.” He said. “I want you to take it, make Lilith a Sub-Administrator, and I’ll teach her how to make a system Amelia’s way. Lilith is clearly the key to all of this in some fashion, and I want to see what a plane made by her would do. I’ll even front all of the Worship needed for making her a Sub-Administrator, the creation of the system, seeding the plane with life, and fast-forwarding it to a useable time period.”

“But…” Kali said hesitantly, “I…I don’t want to lose her to another set of planes.” She said. “If she becomes a Sub-Administrator…”

“I don’t want to leave either.” Lilith said firmly.

“Sub-Administrators don’t have to become full Administrators.” Amy said gently. “Jerry wouldn’t suggest this if it meant tearing you two apart.”

“Actually…there’s a real possibility that she might be able to work as a full Administrator and do everything jointly with you.” Jerry said thoughtfully. “She already so different from normal Higher Beings and Administrators that I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to hear that. I’m not saying we should immediately make her an Administrator or anything, but after she becomes a Sub-Administrator I’ll look into the possibility.”

“Really?!” Kali asked excitedly. “If that’s the case…well, it would almost be too good to be true!”

“Many things with Lilith are.” Jerry said, tapping at the air in front of him. “But I’m going to head back and get the plane transfer ready. In the meantime, here’s the Worship needed to make her a Sub-Administrator. Just to be safe, I’m giving you four times the normal amount, but I don’t think you’ll need it.”

He gave Kali a stern look. “And to be explicit, I will not be accepting any returns for this.” He said. “I know you, and I want you to know that this is not a gift, this is an investment in my survival. I want our side to be as overwhelmingly strong as possible for the upcoming conflict, and I am genuinely of the opinion that this is the best way to go about it.”

“But –”

“No buts!” Jerry said sharply. “I will not lose more to this war, and I cannot afford you saving Worship because you think you’re in debt to me. This is a transaction; yes, you gain from it, but that is a side-effect; this is primarily an investment for the safety of me, my planes, and the multiverse as a whole. I refuse to let any of the other factions claim hegemony, the consequences would be disastrous. If I could do this on my own, I would, but I cannot, and so this is what we have to do.”

“Don’t argue with him on this, Kali.” Amy sighed. “You know how he gets about the war; he isn’t going to take no for an answer. And, for the record, I think he’s making the right call here; I might invest in this myself, and I suspect some others might too. This will serve as a test run for Jerry’s new systems he’s been raving about, and if it works, then it will go a long way towards our safety.

“We all have a vested interest in making this go as well as possible, so if I find that you’ve sent Worship to others to ‘pay them back’ at any point in the future, I will make sure you receive double the amount in return, from my own pocket. This is not the time to worry about debt, this is the time to worry about using our Worship in the most efficient way possible.”

“Fine.” Kali said. “I won’t pay anyone back. But in the future, when I’m more established, I’m going to be generous whenever possible, and help people like I’ve been helped.”

Amy’s lips curled into a smile. “Good.” She said. “That’s what we’re built on, after all. Now…I’m going home; there’s much work to be done.”

She disappeared, and Jerry followed shortly after. When they were gone, Kali sighed. “Go lay down on the bed.” She instructed. “We’re going to get this done.”