Most visible was the compact red-gold clockwork device attached to 
the left side of its face that could produce a language understood 
only by other Librarians. And she knew that under its cloak was a 
red-gold chassis attached to its sides and back from which it could 
unfold up to four mechanical limbs. 


"I'd like to enter the Archives," she said. "Please." 

The Docent grunted in its own language through its red-gold larynx, 
and held out its hand. It examined her Library Card, and then 
unfolded one of its mechanical arms from under its cloak. 


This arm terminated in a stone knife. A knife to open Ways. 


The Docent shuffled off the side, and began cutting a complex 


pattern into the air. 


L.S. left it to finish opening the Way. This could take some time, 
depending on where you meant to go. Especially opening Ways for 
patrons — those seemed to take significantly longer. Probably 
metaphysical reasons. 


L.S. went to find the couple companions waiting for her in another 
wing of the Library. She left her cap off. Now, she was just Alison 
Chao. 


This small circle of friends did know her real name — and they even 
knew who her father was, big-name Foundation researcher Doctor 
Charles Gears. They did not know she was L.S. or the Black Queen, 
though. That would be going a touch far. 


She found Rain, Septima, and Dega in the West Liko Wing, arguing. 
These three represented part of one of Alison's several inner circles; 
Zakuro and the others were off the grid somewhere in Lattaka. 


Those who remained... 


Iris "Rain" Joseph, rainbow-skinned color changer, black human 
woman and fragment of another universe's One Deity, a hedge 
mage of fair usefulness. 


Septima Varan the High Enchantress, an ana-human of unknown 
origin and a high opinion of her reality-altering skills that was not 
entirely unwarranted, despite the entirely self-bestowed title inspired 
by her equally self-involved brother. 


Dega Tee, a reptilian woman who insisted on referring to herself as 
‘lizardfolk' after playing too much Dungeons & Dragons, but still a 
competent fighter. Or, ugh. Capital F-Fighter, probably. 


They were arguing about SCP-239. 


"The Witch Child is not a child," Septima was saying, waving that 
oversized staff of hers around dangerously. "The Witch Child is the 
Woman with Stars in Her Eyes. She who made the People, She who 
made the Land and Corn and Squash." 


"She's from freaking Iceland," Rain said irritably. "She's as white as 
white can get." 


"Only the cultural imperialism of the Europeans could turn her 
white!" Septima nearly knocked Dega about the head with another 
wave of her staff. Dega jumped out of the way, flicking her tail for 
balance. "A disgrace and a lie. Also, truth, but only truth for now. 
She is not what we see with our eyes." 


"| thought the Star-Eyed Child was the woman with stars in her 
eyes," Dega said. "The one they call Es-Cee-Pee One-Three-Four?" 


"Don't be so literal!" Septima turned to face Dega, and noticed 
Alison watching. "How long have you been standing there?" she 
demanded. 


"Only a couple hours," Alison said. "| see you're all ready to go?" 
"Damn right we're ready to go," Rain said. 


They headed for the Way into the Archives. Sixteen hours left to go. 


Two Months Ago 


Joanna Cross: "Do you believe in God?" 
Kendra Campbell: "What?" 


Joanna Cross: "You know. God. Yahweh. Big Man in 
the Sky. Fate Personified. General ultimate distant father 
figure. Or, hey, any of the other variations, I'm not here to 
be picky." 


Kendra Campbell: "| think that's a bit too much of a 
personal question." 


Joanna Cross: "Most of you don't believe in God, I'm 
sure. Scientists are mostly atheists. Just speaking 
statistically. | think the Foundation's a bit different, 
though. You still don't believe in, like, God God. But God 


has many different faces. Here's another personal 
question for you. Do you believe there is a Plan?" 


Kendra Campbell: "What kind of plan?" 


Joanna Cross: "A Plan. A right and true way that things 
should be." 


Kendra Campbell: "I'm not sure what you mean." 


Joanna Cross: "It goes back to the Garden, Doctor. 
Adam and Eve, standing naked in the dark. Innocents. 
Knowing nothing. Until the Serpent came along." 


Kendra Campbell: "Yeah, | was raised religious. | seem 
to recall the Serpent was the villain." 


Joanna Cross: "Why, though?" 


Kendra Campbell: "Eating the fruit of knowledge of 
good and evil. Going against what God said. All that 
crap." 


Joanna Cross: "Knowledge of good and evil. Why's that 
supposed a bad thing?" 


Kendra Campbell: "You tell me." 


Joanna Cross: "Eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge 
of good and evil was gaining the power to know, to 
discern right from wrong. The power to understand how 
the world works. Which humans can't understand. Eating 
the fruit was sin because humans aren't meant to discern 
for themselves how the world works. Because they aren't 
meant to change things. Only God is meant to do that. 
People trying to change things, or trying to see what 
should be right or wrong, that is just... sin. Deviating 
from the perfect Plan. Right?" 


Kendra Campbell: "Right. | guess. | wasn't the best 
student in Sunday School." 


Joanna Cross: "You should know the story better. If 
only because you want to understand your enemy. Or 
yourselves." 


Kendra Campbell: "Fine. Why do you identify with the 
bad guy, then?" 


Joanna Cross: "Because the Serpent's only the bad guy 
if there really is a perfect Plan. If there really is a 
perfectly correct way things should be." 


Kendra Campbell: "Okay." 


Joanna Cross: "But if there is no Plan... if there is no 
correct way things should be... and if what you think is 
the Plan is wrong... Then what?" 


Kendra Campbell: "Okay. What's your point?" 


Joanna Cross: "The Foundation does believe in God. 
Your God is Normalcy. Normalcy, the perfect, arbitrary 
Plan from which there can be no deviation. Trying to 
change Normalcy is the worst sin of all. The cardinal sin 
against which your organization stands with all its might. 
A stalwart bulwark against change." 


Kendra Campbell: "| think it's plausible that you might 
be over-thinking this philosophy stuff.” 


Joanna Cross: "If you think we're off point, feel free to 
redirect us. I'm being pretty cooperative, aren't |?" 


Kendra Campbell: "That's one way of putting it. Okay. 
Look, | do have a question. About your sister." 


Joanna Cross' demeanor changes. She is startled. 
Joanna Cross: "My sister..." 


Kendra Campbell: "Did you come here to recruit her? 
Kidnap her? Hurt her? Anything like that." 


Joanna Cross: "Hurt her? Gods, and you complained 
about personal questions." 


Kendra Campbell: "| mean, bit of an odd coincidence, 
being that she's stationed here on MTF Tau-9 and all. | 
don't believe for a second that you didn't know." She 
hesitates. "She's my friend. You can't blame me for 
asking." 


Joanna Cross: "| knew she was here." 


Kendra Campbell: "So did you come here to recruit 
her?" 


Joanna Cross: "| love my sister, but | didn't come here 
to recruit her." 


Kendra Campbell: "| find it really hard to believe that 
this was a coincidence." 


Joanna Cross: "It wasn't. This is how the Foundation 
works. They think you have a vulnerability, they try to 
scrape it raw to see if it'll scab. If it doesn't, you're written 
off. They'd be willing to lose my sister in a heartbeat. 
That's why she was assigned to your "Bookworms." A 
honeypot to attract flies. To attract me." 


Kendra Campbell: "So..." 


Joanna Cross: "I'm not here because of her. She's here 
because of me." 


Kendra Campbell: "But that's not why you came here." 
Joanna Cross: "No." 

Kendra Campbell: "Then why did you come here?" 
Joanna Cross: "What do you think?" 


Kendra Campbell: "You're asking me?" 


Joanna Cross: "I just did, didn't 1?" 


Kendra Campbell: "| gotta admit, this is one of the parts 
where | agree with that shitty list of questions. | think you 
came here for SCP-239." 


Joanna Cross: "That's an interesting theory.” 
Kendra Campbell: "So you're not gonna tell me." 
Joanna Cross: "Gotta preserve a little bit of that 


mystery, right?" 


Back at her lab station, hours later, Campbell examined the 
transcription of the interview log. Cross had actually given quite a bit 
of information, really. Well.. Maybe. Quite a bit of information 
compared to all the other interviews, at least. 


For whatever reason, no one had objected to the content of the 
interview, or approached her with an amnestic pill. Or, at least not 
that she remembered. Ugh. Still, she now knew far more than she'd 
expected to know. 


Why, though? What was in this for Cross? What was her game? 


Either way, she was approved for another interview tomorrow 
morning, no problem at all. So— 


Campbell heard footsteps, and turned, suddenly afraid of once again 
seeing Dr. Bright. She was relieved for a moment to see Rita Butler. 
And then she stopped being relieved. 


"Hi," Rita said, cautiously. "Kendra, I... | Know | shouldn't be asking, 
but... | know you... you know." 


"Interviewed your sister," Campbell said. 


"Yeah." Rita fidgeted. "| know | technically have the clearance, but 
normally | wouldn't ask because, you know, conflict of interest..." 


"It's cool," Campbell said. "Don't worry. | don't mind." 


Rita gave an awkward half-smile. "Did she say anything about me?" 


For some reason, Campbell froze for a second in hesitation, 
remembering how Cross had gotten when that subject came up. 
"Yeah." 


Rita stood there, waiting expectantly, with that concerned look on 
her face... 


"She said she loves you," Campbell said. "And. Other... stuff. She 
talked a lot about philosophy. Good and evil crap. | never heard her 
talk so much, because, well, the other interviews, she just kept 
repeating that same damn line..." Campbell cleared her throat. 
"Rita, I'm sorry. | can't imagine how this must feel for you." 


"Is she..." Rita swallowed. Goddamn, that woman wore her 
emotions on her sleeve. "Did she say, | mean..." She paused a 
moment. "I guess I'm asking if the rumors are true? If she came here 
to... to recruit me." 


"No," Campbell said. Shit, what was even the right answer in this 
situation? "She said she loves you, but she didn't come here to 
recruit you." 


Rita waited. 


"| think she's telling the truth. She seems to think that you were..." 
Campbell wondered if she was going too far, sharing too much. "... 
that you were assigned to the Bookworms, to MTF Tau-9, because 
Site Command knew she was your sister." 


Campbell hesitated. Rita just stood there, waiting. "Maybe Site 
Command wanted you to be able to deal with her if worst came to 
worst. Maybe they thought you would deserve to know if anything... 
had to happen." 


Christ. That was definitely the wrong thing to say. It was unfair, it 
really was, that Rita had been assigned to this damn team. 
Campbell felt ashamed of the self-pity she'd felt yesterday. No 
amount of repetitive interviews could measure up to your own sister 
being held in the prison you helped run. 


SCP-714: The Jaded Ring 


Item #: SCP-714 
Object Class: Safe 


Special Containment Procedures: SCP-714 is to be stored ina 
reinforced, high-security locker that is to be accessible only to Level 
4+ personnel, due to several incidents of misuse. 


Description: Seemingly nothing more than a green jade ring, 
SCP-714 has been shown to be able to expand and contract to 
perfectly fit the finger of anyone who touches it, though this is the 
least important of its properties. SCP-714 only changes size when 
touched by a 'new' subject. 


SCP-714 has several major effects, detailed as follows; 


1) Exhaustion, Compulsion to Rest/Sleep 

Within minutes of putting on SCP-714, wearers report feeling worn 
out - physically and mentally exhausted. Due to this, they will feel 
driven to "sit down and rest for a bit" on the nearest available 
furniture, and will likely fall asleep within the space of a few hours. If 
someone falls asleep wearing SCP-714, the only known means of 
waking them is to remove SCP-714, at which point they may be 
roused by anything that would normally wake them up. Exhaustion 
effects pass within two or three hours of removing SCP-714 if 
removed from a conscious subject; those that fall asleep wearing 
SCP-714 report feeling well-rested if SCP-714 is removed, even if 
they slept for only a few minutes. 


SCP-714 extends no ‘considerations’ towards the needs of its 
wearer during their forced sleep, though most bodily functions such 
as breathing continue. If SCP-714 is not removed and the wearer 
woken up, most will die of dehydration or starvation within a matter 
of days. SCP-714's impact (if any) on aging remains untested. 


Fucking Site Command. The hell were they thinking? Would it really 
have been so hard to transfer Rita into the goddamn Arctic Circle or 
something, a place where she'd never have to think about her 
wayward sister ever again? 


But Rita was just nodding. 
"What do you think is gonna happen to her?" Rita asked. 


"She's not to be harmed in any way, clear orders," Campbell said. 
Probably too eagerly. "They're afraid she's got some kind of 
anomalous protection. They'll probably just keep her in a humanoid 
containment cell. Figure out what to do from there." She hesitated 
again. "Not too bad, right?" 


"Yeah," Rita said. "| guess not." 


Alone again, Campbell returned to taking down information. She 
wrote and deleted several purely speculative paragraphs on the 
‘blue lily chains’. Those fucking flowers, goddamn. 


She hoped the Foundation higher-ups weren't actually logging all 
her keystrokes, or at least not reading through those logs too 
obsessively. For all that she hadn't given much credence to Cross's 
overcooked points on science and research and clearance levels, it 
was true that she was kind of worried about how her superiors would 
react to too much interest in reality bending. 


Or, hell, maybe she was overthinking this now too. She was a 
member of MTF Tau-9, after all. The Bookworms were supposed to 
be interested in magic, even if they weren't supposed to do magic. 


Or, you know, know anything useful about it at all, just in case you 
might get corrupted... 


Her computer screen seemed to flicker and swim for a moment. 
Just... dissolved into shapes and colors before resolving back into a 
computer screen like any other. A computer screen like it always 
had been. 


Great, she thought. Gonna have to catalogue this too. Or maybe 


not, maybe it's nothing. She briefly envisioned being taken off all of 
her projects due to unacceptable anomaly exposure, and left doing 
terrible interviews with captured Hand members forever. Always 
either repeating the same line or babbling on about philosophy, 
forever. 


She glanced down at the blue lily flower chains. "You better not be 
doing anything funny to me," she said. 


Just in case, she packed them away, back in the secure ceramic- 
lined containment box they'd arrived at her desk in. She found 
herself wondering what was inside, underneath the ceramic lining. 


Campbell's follow-up interview went in a fairly unproductive 
direction, for most of its length. Cross rephrased a few of her 
philosophical points and gave disappointingly little information. 
Campbell was, indeed, shit at interviews, she thought. Even though 
Cross was the one in handcuffs, she was railroading Campbell like a 
seasoned pro. 


Joanna Cross: "Do you know why we're going through 
this song and dance at all?" 


Kendra Campbell: "What?" 


Joanna Cross: "Surely you've wondered why the 
Foundation hasn't just sent in an interrogator to torture 
me."