The gate opened silently, revealing a road leading into a dark valley. I could see vague outlines of houses and a large building there, but it was hard to see, exactly as between us and it there was a forest, quite unlike one I had seen before. The trees and shrubbery were glowing in a myriad of colours. Here and there I saw fleeting signs of the movements of some animals.

‘Welcome to the realm of Shadow,’ Ereshkigal said and made a flourishy bow.

‘Not what I expected,’ Lilyth said in genuine awe.

I looked at her and saw that the shadow “tattoos” on her skin were also shining in a faint blue light.

‘This place is genuinely making you radiant, jellybean,’ I joked to her.

‘Wuh?’ she said and finally noticed the glowing of her body. ‘At least I won’t need to use artificial lighting to read at night.’

‘Will make sex easier too,’ I added which caused everyone but Lilyth to burst out laughing.

Though seeing her obvious discomfort we stopped almost immediately.

Oh. Right.

‘Sorry, Lilyth,’ I said, feeling like a monster. ‘I forgot.’

‘Don’t worry,’ she waved my apology away. ‘Life goes on, eh? Can’t expect you to walk on eggshells all the time. I just need some time.’

It took us maybe two hours to reach the settlement, but it was probably the most spectacular walk of my life so we hardly noticed the passage of time, as the magical light show that was the forest was truly breathtaking. I was fairly certain it was Ere’s doing, but from time to time some animal would come out of the forest and approach us. Some of them, like a black-furred feline creature with a tail similar to the one Lilyth had in her kitsune form, even let us pet it. It was so fluffy and pleasant to touch. There were three short green-glowing stripes under each of its eyes, and three more running the length of its back.

‘That’s a nesumi,’ Ereshkigal explained. ‘Cuddly little creatures.’

The creature took an immediate liking to Ren and ended up climbing onto her shoulder and just staying there.

‘Apparently, you’ve got a new owner, Rennie,’ Lilyth laughed.

‘Seems so,’ Ren smiled as she nuzzled her head against the furry creature which chirped happily. ‘Can I keep it?’

Ereshkigal shrugged.

‘Can’t see why not.’

‘Yay,’ Ren hooted and the nesumi chirped along.

‘I’ll send it over to you once you wake up. Talk with Nyx about the pet safety thing.’

‘Why not you, if I may ask?’

‘You have a better link with her. Well… that and its black fur is going to drive her nuts with those white suits of hers.’

That caused Lilyth to burst out laughing.

‘Now that's an evil genius thing if I ever heard one.’

Ereshkigal let out an overexaggerated maniacal laugh which had us all bending over from laughter.

The small town we reached had architecture similar to Akh'ret's Mercy with buildings built out of red bricks. The big highlight was again the strands of multi-coloured lights hanging everywhere, making me think we never left the forest.

‘Wow…’ I gasped.

‘Welcome to Zevhr,’ Ereshkigal said.

The rest of the visit was spent on her giving us a tour around the town. We saw the most important things there and met some of the people. Shadowlings, while grey or purple-skinned, wore all sorts of colourful clothes. We also met one person none of us, and by that I mean our original trio expected to meet - none other than Teliar Zi Lind, the former administrator of Akh'ret's Mercy. Before we entered her clinic, she was a local doctor, Ere warned us not to bring up the events at the hospital. Not only was the dungeon still undisturbed on this Dwynveia, but Zi Lind died there and as part of the deal with Ereshkigal- did not remember the final days. Like Lilyth's memories of the battle against Kojiro, she just vaguely knew what happened but without specifics.

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The room we entered was sparse and sterile. A bookshelf with medical manuals, some anatomical pictures hanging on the walls, a cot, a privacy screen, two chairs and a desk. Behind it sat a figure I wouldn’t recognize if it wasn't for Ereshkigal's warning as Teliar Zi Lind didn't quite look like she did in her portrait. Her hair, rather than being short and brown, was blonde and reaching to her back. Then again, she could have dyed it here, and it growing longer was perfectly natural. She wore glasses over her emerald eyes and was dressed in black pants, a blue sweater and a white coat.

‘Hey, Telly,’ the goddess waved towards her.

‘Hi there, Ere,’ the elf replied with a smile. ‘Who’s this?’

‘Just some friends I’m showing around. A bit earlier, they signed up to join us here eventually.’

‘Oh, that’s splendid!’ Teliar clapped and approached us. ‘Swearing myself to Ere was the best decision of my life… well… death really, but what does it matter?’

She then noticed Aki’s artificial hand.

‘Oh my, dearie, what happened there?’

Given what Ereshkigal told us earlier we weren't quite sure how to respond.

‘A… dungeon… mishap,’ Aki stammered out eventually.

‘Ah, okay,’ Teliar went red-faced. ‘Sorry, that was insensitive of me to ask someone I just met about something so traumatic. It was just professional curiosity.’

She bowed.

‘Once again, I am sorry for prying,’ she repeated.

‘It- It’s fine,’ my wife responded. ‘I’m Aki, by the way.’

‘Oh, a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.’

Teliar had nice things to say about all of us. She complimented my hair and crown of horns, Savri’s eye colour, how cute Ren looked, which was further enhanced by the nesumi she was currently carrying, and Lilyth's shadow markings.

All in all, I never expected someone dead for five hundred years to be quite this chipper.

It quickly became quite clear that the purpose behind the meeting with Teliar was to show us what kind of duties we could expect, which was helping Ereshkigal administer the realm of Shadow since the part devoted to Death was her main concern and we wouldn't be of much use there due to us being mortals. Still, we would be joining quite an exclusive club as before our five only twelve other people swore themselves to Ereshkigal.

‘They are all spread across the Shadow realm,’ the goddess explained. ‘I cannot promise you will always be together, but given your unique arrangement I will have a system in place for you to meet as frequently as possible. Probably at least several evenings a week, but well… stuff happens.’

That seemed more than fair.

‘I have not yet decided what your duties will be. I hope you still have long and fruitful lives in front of you, so your skill sets will grow. I have some ideas as far as Lilyth, Ren and Savri go, but I am curious where you will go next.’

‘Probably an early grave,’ Lilyth said mirthlessly.

‘Let’s hope it doesn't come to that, hon,’ I elbowed her in the side. ‘I plan to stick around for a long time so I am keeping you with me until the end.’

‘There is no inherent reason any of you can't live forever, or at least for centuries,’ Ereshkigal shrugged. ‘The more magic imbued you are, the slower your ageing process is. How old do you think Zekuthran is?’

That is an excellent question. Fucker looks thirty.

‘A couple of centuries?’ Lilyth wagered.

‘No,’ Savri shook her head. ‘He and Eury founded the legions. That was… about two thousand years ago? And he wasn’t young then either.

Our collective jaws dropped.

‘That fucker is over two thousand years old?’ Lilyth exclaimed in disbelief.

‘Closer to three,’ Ereshkigal said. ‘That’s waaay past the demon life expectancy, which is already crazy long.’

‘Why did my mom die at thirty then?’ Aki asked. ‘She was his daughter.’

‘Unfortunately, his magical blood seems to have skipped a generation. Believe me, kiddo - most demonborns aren’t indistinguishable from full-blooded demons.’

Another good point.

‘Oh… so I got lucky and my mom didn't?’ Aki was absolutely dejected by the realisation.

‘Unfortunately,’ Ereshkigal said.

‘Genetics are a lottery,’ Lilyth sighed as she wrapped her hands around Aki.

‘Yup,’ Savri agreed with a sombre look on her face.

Teliar looked like she wanted to ask something, but thought better of it.

‘I think that's enough for the day,’ Ereshkigal said. ‘I’ll send you all back now. We’ll continue our tour later. Lilyth, you should be able to wake up now.’

She pointed at Aki with her chin and my wife nodded.

‘You’ll probably be very weak for a while yet, so take it easy. Ren, Caei if you still insist on going… good luck, and remember - there is no shame in retreat.’

We all nodded, Ereshkigal snapped her fingers and I found myself awake with sobbing Aki next to me. I hugged her tightly. Lilyth soon entered, supported by Savri on one side, and Ren on another. She looked terribly pale, even by her standards, and was sweating profusely. Our friends helped her to the bed and sat with us there, as we comforted Aki.