The women waited outside of the kitchen as Netta and Calliope spoke alone. With the door to the cozy room shut, Calliope turned to look at the younger Witch.

Netta tried to pretend that she was interested in finding something in the fridge to eat. She took the brief silence to look in the packed space of the fridge, trying to decide what she should say.

She was saved from finding a way to say what something first when Calliope slammed the fridge door, forcing her to back away from it. Glancing to the right, she found the Witch standing there, her face a grim mask.

"Do you mind to tell me what this one is?"

Netta felt her mouth open. Before she could think of what she was going to say, Ash answered from the opposite side of the room, his face twisted in an insincere smile. "Funny question - I haven't quite got that one decided myself."

Netta closed her eyes, then tried to find some aspect of calm to work from.

Finally, she answered, "Ashwood is an Incubi, remember? We spoke about this-"

Calliope interrupted, saying, "-and you said that It had died from the exertion of cutting the Kinslayer's Curse at its feet." She shook her head disapprovingly. "I only hope that you haven't... copulated with It more than what was necessary." The way that Calliope said "copulate" made it sound to Netta as though the term referred to something foul and ethically corrupt.

For a moment, the way that she said it made Netta think, shamefully, of how her guts felt as though they were twisting in need at the thought of such actions.

Ash spoke up, Its voice a bored drawl. "That depends on what you would want to call neccesary." When Netta turned to look at Ash, she saw the Monster chuckle, rubbing Its thumb along the rightmost bulb of Its nose. "Seeing as how she's my Witch now, I believe that all of this is our personal business." In spite of the supposed good cheer of Its voice, there was a quiet warning to it.

It chilled Netta to hear it, and she had to look away from that flat, bright quality that Its purple eyes had taken on.

Calliope asked Netta what the Monster had said, and before Netta could decide what was best left out, she shared what It said.

When Calliope spoke, her voice rose in annoyance.

"Listen here, creature, you need to be aware of the fact that we - none of us - will abide your attitude once everything is back to normal -" she paused, and Netta saw the way that the older woman's eyes darted over to her before she added, "relatively speaking."

Netta spoke then, thoroughly tired of the both of them. "Can't we worry about this later, possibly? Not that I'm not excited to discuss the future of my intimate life with the either of you, but I think we have other things to worry about."

Calliope blinked, then sighed. "About that - we need to talk about something else as well."

Uh-oh. "What's it about?"

"I've been doing some research - through some of the secret channels. It turns out that we're not the only ones experiencing some... bizarre phenomena."

Ash spoke then, Its voice a sharp cut. "If by "strange phenomena", you mean Witches acting nuts, then I suppose that can be construed as some sort of phenomenon."

Calliope spoke to Netta, saying. "Dear, I don't know how to say this - there've been a string of murders - well, unfortunate accidents that seem to be more than a little bit unfortunate."

Netta stared for a moment at Calliope, staring at her for so long that it seemed as though her face lost its detail. She more felt herself say it than was aware of saying, "What do you mean? To Humans?"

Calliope shook her head. "No, not Humans."

Netta swallowed, then found her gaze drawn as though irresistibly to Ash's face. Looking at the Monster, she saw how It looked cold, almost emotionless.

She turned away, looking back at Calliope.

The older Witch said, "Someone - a few someones - is hunting Witches down." She sighed, running a hand over her face tiredly, knocking her glasses partially off of her face before she could right them.

"There've been found - on the bodies - this symbol etched on them that seems to suggest that the murders are ritualistic."

Netta leaned back against the counter, fearing that she might fall down. "Why?" There were no specifics in her mind, none that she could grab onto.

Calliope let out a hiss of breath from between her teeth and shook her head. "Why do these things ever happen? Old fairy tale nonsense - fear of this winter. Of the death of magic."

Ash spoke up, the sound of Its voice startling Netta, who found that she must have almost forgotten that the Monster was there. "Which fairy tale we talking about here? Cinderella? Beauty and the Beast?" It sounded angry, sarcastic.

Calliope said, "Found on all of the bodies - it's an ouroboros made of horn. Antler. Carved into their flesh to mark them - as sacrifices to the Traitor King." She made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat, crossed her arms over her chest.

At the sound of that name, Netta found that she could not suppress a maddened bark of laughter. "The Traitor King? You mean the Bogeyman? Lucifer himself?"

Calliope looked up at Netta, a sober, wary look on her face. "Some have likened that one to those figures from human mythology. The different here is that we have a cult - a subdivision of Witches - on our hands that seem to believe that they can have Lucifer at their will."

Ash spoke up again, appearing next to Netta to clap a hand on her shoulder.

"Good luck with that. I know you megalomaniacs think that you can control everything, just because we're at your beck and call, but that sounds to me like you're all getting in for a lot more than you asked."

Netta shivered, for some reason remembering, unerringly, laying beneath Ashwood, their naked flesh pressing together in a mad waltz.

Netta shook her head viciously to dissipate the thought, and said, "Witches are hunting their own?"

"Who else could find our kind? This must be some kind of a - a Doomsday cult that thinks that they can control the coming of Ragnarok. Why else would they want to bring the King back, except to attempt to bring about the end of the world?"

When Netta said nothing, Calliope continued. "And we're involved in all of this, unexpectedly. Xi must have been involved in these insane Witches' conspiracy, certainly. Maybe they're promising that the next step following the Traitor King's destruction will be a rebirth of Old Magic, of the rejuvenated power of Monsters. Maybe even thinking that they can try that coup over humanity once more, like in the bad old days."

Netta closed her eyes and rocked back against the counter, surprised by the continued, light weight of Ash's hand on her shoulder. She glanced over to the Monster, taking in the wry upturn of the false man's lips, then looked back at Calliope's serious expression.

Slowly, she asked, "How does any of this have a thing to do with me?"

Calliope answered in a biting voice. "Young woman, you are duty bound to the fates of not just your Coven members, but your own kind as well. Now that you are in possession of a Familiar, you should consider yourself as being in war time now. If someone is seeking to kill us, I believe that they have heavily entrenched our Coven into their business." She smiled a soft, sad smile. "It is our duty to stop their horribly misguided bloodshed before they kill many more of us. For what they did to poor Xi's mind."

Calliope stared into Netta's eyes, her eyes magnified to large, overly soft blue from behind the lenses of her glasses. "Proof that we're involved in this must be in this is the fact that you had a nightmare that drew you here. It is the magic in our blood that calls, draws on all of us, like a siren's call -"

Ash interrupted, snorting in disgust before It said, "Or a noose."

Calliope's mouth fell open softly, desperation clear on her face as she likely saw Netta's reaction to the Monster. "My dear, you cannot run from your family. Fate draws us all together as much as our magic does." She sighed, hesitating, then continued. "I know your time with us was not the happiest, but you cannot let old wounds stop you from being where you belong. Now is your time - alongside your Sisters. There is something in this house that pulls us here, of that I am certain."

Netta looked down blindly and tried to find something solid to hold onto in her mind. All that she could find was that she wanted to help these women, felt as compelled as she was to them as she was frightened of them.

Netta was well aware of how minute the details of mediating with the dead were. Felt yet more aware of it, even as she was struck, for the first time, seeing Calliope from the perspective of an outsider.

Short, plump and with a mismatch of clothes that looked as though she had thrown everything on in a pitch black room and had hoped for the best, Calliope was every bit as unreasonable as she looked the very part of.

Nevertheless, the Witch's talent, aside from her abilities, was what she called her "bedside manner".

Once the embarrassment of her entrance had gone, Calliope called for everything that she would need, while having the demeanor of a concerned auntie towards the other Witches.

Once everything was ready, Calliope shook her head and arms out. Sighing, she said, "I need to speak with the person closest to the deceased."

Ophelia stepped forward and allowed the woman to take her dark hands in her paperwhite own.

"Can you imagine as much as you can of her persona? Her smell, her voice, her tics - just immerse your mind in as much of her as you can, until I tell you to stop."

Ophelia looked bothered, as though she were about to say something. Seeming to think better of it, she slammed her eyes shut, her face becoming a stone edifice once more.

Everyone in the room, save for the two whose hands were co-joined, shifted restlessly, nervously.

When Wu leaned in an began to whisper to Morgan, Calliope turned her head and gave a steady glare to the two. Wu slowly inched away from her Sister.

They remained like that for an untold amount of time.

Finally, in the ocean of still time, Calliope called out, "Back! Bring your mind back - I have your sister in my mind now."

Ophelia snapped er eyes opened and snatched her hands back.

Taking a step backwards, the teenager rubbed at her hands compulsively, as though she had plunged her hands into a spider's nest.

If Calliope noticed the movements, she did not show that she cared.

"I need help. Dears," she addressed the whole room, turning to look at the ones that were not in her immediate eye sight. "I need all of you to help me as much as you can. Draw on your Familiar's powers and channel it all through me. With luck, I can make do with everything in this room right now."

"What if you can't?" Miss Kienna asked.

Calliope frowned deeply underneath her thick glasses. "I was hoping for a bit more belief in my abilities - but if it's not enough, then we'll need to draw on more power from somewhere, certainly. We'll discuss that at a later time, if and when it comes up."

Everyone got into a circle and joined hands. It felt uncomfortable to Netta to be joining hands with these women, it felt a little primary school.

Without thinking about it, as she took the proferred hand of Miss Kienna in her own, she turned around and looked at Ash, who gave her a sarcastic salute.

For some reason, that gave her strength to keep in the circle.

Calliope chanted, and at first all they did was listen.

After some time, a few began to chant along in time with Calliope, as though they were reciting from memory.

Soon, others did the same, until the space of the room was filled with the sound of the chanting until even Netta felt compelled to join in, her voice joining theirs in a perfect complement.

This continued for a minute longer, until Calliope stopped, and everyone else stopped as well.

It was as though the words to the chant left Netta's mind, as though they had been pulled out, like a tooth.

"What is the matter," Miss Kienna ordered.

Calliope clenched her eyes shut and writhed violently. "I - I need more power - there's something blocking your young one's voice from calling out to me. I need - there's not enough power here to channel."