‘You know what, Lilyth?’ Caei said with a content expression. ‘It really sucks we can't visit Terra. The food there…’

‘We have those at home,’ Sav said, likewise positively in heaven. ‘Not the Abyss. The other world. You can come with me if I find a way there.’

‘Don’t tempt me,’ I laughed.

‘Once you have access to a real kitchen, ask either of those two to shoot me a message,’ Nyx said. ‘I’ll send you the recipe. Those were all made with Dwynveian ingredients.’

‘No wonder I didn't recognise anything in the filling,’ Lilyth mused.

We spent the dinner mostly in friendly banter. Nyx turned out to really be a breath of fresh air. Flirty, a bit mischievous, but otherwise… a really nice person. I loved Nyxie’s stories about the goings-on in the realm of Air. There was this pair of storm elementals that constantly kept pulling pranks on each other. For example, one would add sulphur to the clouds on the territory of the other, which was the equivalent of peeing on their porch. Then the other would respond by leaking the location where the first one was supposed to have fun or do some important task to sirens or fire nymphs and leaving a portal to that location open “by accident”. Nyx would be forced to handle the clean-up and occasionally invite one of the unexpected guests to take a tour of her chambers. She gave us a wink at that. I understood then why Lilyth said that Ereshkigal was nice. She probably was like this too when not doing god things.

‘What’s Irmen like?’ I asked Nyx after we finished laughing at one of her anecdotes.

‘I will leave that for you to discover, Aki,’ Nyx smiled warmly. ‘She’s your patron, so I don’t think I should be giving you a wrong impression. I’ve known Irmi for aeons so my perception of her will be very different to one you will get. Hell… this has been going on for so long that all of us gods have a semi-cordial attitude to one another. Like… I may not like The Blood, but I will still work with it on occasion if the situation calls for it.’

‘Antagonising someone whose favour you may need in a thousand years is not worth it?’ Caei asked.

‘Pretty much. Normally, I wouldn't be telling you this, but since you bunch know about the Game it won't hurt.’

‘That’s why you were on good terms with the Sun?’ Lilyth asked gloomily.

‘No. He seemed to have the same attitude towards mortals as we did. Based on what happened to you, this will now change. We’re handling this discreetly, of course. You guys are now our people, even you, Savri, and we owe you our loyalty first and foremost.’

‘Thank you,’ Lilyth replied. ‘You have no idea how much this means to me.’

‘Likewise,’ Sav added.

‘You know…’ Ren said. ‘When you appeared here… I didn’t quite expect you to be this… nice.’

‘Expected I was here to smite you?’ Nyx laughed. ‘Nothing you did warrants that. If we took to smiting mortals for every major no-no they did… there wouldn't be many of you left. Instead, we leave that stuff to Ere. You mortals always can change. Taking that away… would not be fair of us.’

‘Then what about that ship?’ Ren asked.

‘That’s one of those… exceptions. In essence, we need to maintain a certain… reputation. As you may have noticed we don't want to be worshipped. But some people don’t get the message, or just feel a need to. So… any temple or shrine they build is something that was freely and willingly made. Same with any offerings inside. It’s a huge responsibility for us, and we don't leave it unrewarded. One of those rewards is preserving those sacrifices the best we can. As such, if anyone chooses to defile those… examples need to be made, something you should understand well, Rennie.’

‘You really aren't that different from us mortals, are you?’ she asked.

‘That’s our role. If we are to guide you we must understand you.’

‘So what is your guidance, Nyx?’

‘Consider what Ereshkigal relayed to you. You can easily walk away from your old life. But you can also choose to return to it in some capacity. None of us can or will force you to abandon your family. It is a choice you have to make, and already did from what I can surmise. I really cannot tell you what to do. I will be with you no matter what, with one exception. You can probably guess what it is.

‘Reject this chance and go back to my old ways?’

‘Precisely. I don’t expect you to be perfect. But things that happened when you were making “examples”...’

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‘I understand. So if I want to meet my family again it would have to be under circumstances that won't result in me getting tied up in the family business again.’

‘E-xa-ctly,’ Nyx smiled and turned towards us. ‘For you, I have a request: if Ren figures out that way and it doesn't put you in danger you would find unacceptable, please help her.’

‘We’ll do our best,’ I answered.

‘Excellent. As for you Lilyth… Ere told you to form a connection with the land. This still applies. If you want, go find the River Goddess, as you planned to do. Investigate what she is like, and, if necessary, handle the situation appropriately. This should be a fun team-building exercise.’

‘Will do, Nyxi… Nyx.’

Was Lilyth about to call Nyx with a pet name?

‘There we go!’ the goddess beamed. ‘There is the slimy cutie I like.’

‘If we discover the spirit or whatever is benevolent are we free to leave it be?’ Caei asked.

‘Now there is a smart vampire,’ Nyx said proudly. ‘Such a course of action would be acceptable, yes. Whether you will do it, is up to you.’

The answer left me confused.

‘By didn't you just say to Ren that you wouldn't tell us how to handle a situation?’

‘Hey, I didn't say anything about “are there any rules against this?” questions, did I, sweetie? Usually, the golden rule is “if you have to ask, the answer is no”, but “Can we just leave a harmless entity and a local faith around it alone” is one of those edge cases where getting guidance is actually useful. We are not a particularly jealous bunch. Me especially.’

She gave us a wink and giggled, causing a wave of heat to spread through my body.

‘Don’t worry about Mr. Some Man,’ Nyx continued. ‘Irmi is going to handle him if you confirm his story to indeed be bullshit. She won’t hurt him, but a lesson in humility will do him some good.’

Lilyth shuddered.

‘You needed that thwack, Lilyth,’ Nyx said.

‘I know…’ she answered.

‘Good. Love hanging out with you, but unfortunately, duties call. Places to be, people to do. You two have your pendants so feel free to contact me if you need some help. Don’t worry about the hour. It’s my job to help you. Do bear in mind there are two exceptions. The answer to any question about how to handle the situation will be “Use your best judgement”, as stated before. So far, the four of you have been doing fairly well. The second is, and I suspect you wouldn't be asking that anyway, Lilyth, is any question about history and whatnot will be answered with “go find out on your own”. Other than that I am open to discussing anything and everything. And I do mean everything.’

She winked at us, again.

Is she seriously… no. Focus Aki. No dirty thoughts about the hot goddess. Focus.

‘Yup. Even that Aki,’ she laughed. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll respect your territory. But if you ever need an extra do give me a holler.’

None of us would ever consider such a thing of course. At least that's our version of the story and we are sticking to it.

Lilyth, her face blue which must have contrasted how red mine, Caei and Ren’s were, simply said.

‘I’ll keep that in mind.’

‘Good. And I see you are not just quite as straight as you claim to be, Savri.’

The medic who I’ve just noticed was slightly blushing, became red-faced with embarrassment.

‘I have no idea what you are talking about,’ she said weakly.

‘It’s okay to experiment, kiddo,’ Nyxie laughed. ‘Anyway, gotta run. Aki, take care of my slime and harpy for me. I have plans for them. Ta-ta, lovelies!’

There was another crack of lightning and Nyx disappeared.

Savri just shook her head.

‘And here I thought being in the Fourth SOC was crazy enough.’

‘I remind you that until a week ago my biggest concern in life was filling out spreadsheets,’ Lilyth said.

We were all so tired that after the meeting with Nyx, we decided to risk it and just all sleep through the night. Lilyth and I would be sleeping in one room, which pleased me immensely, while Caei, Ren and Sav would be in the other. The medic, for some mysterious reason, decided to sleep on the floor. This was weird because she could easily fit in with the other two on the bed. I wanted to ask why, but Lilyth stopped me with a shake of her head, so my sentence came out like this:

‘Why won’t… we make you a bedroll out of our cloaks?’

‘That would be nice, yes,’ Sav replied.

The medic cast the [Ward] spell on the room so she would get warned if anyone wanted to enter. That would leave me and Lilyth in a potential danger, but there was nothing we could do about it. The spell ended up on the “must-learn list” for all of us who could learn it. Ren was particularly excited about that since she never thought she would meet a mage, much less learn actual magic. If Lilyth was disappointed she would be left out if she didn't show it.

‘It’s not like there aren’t two branches of Arcana that are open to me,’ she said when I asked her about it when we were lying snuggled in bed.

‘Still, it must hurt.’

‘To some extent yes. But that's life. The older you get the more at ease you become with certain limitations of your body. And hey… it does encourage us to be a team.’

‘That it does,’ I said and nuzzled against her.

‘As for why Sav wants to sleep on the floor… she’s likely very horny after the show the four of us gave her and confused due to Nyx. And well… she still likely wants to be faithful to Paul, at least that's who I assume her boyfriend was, so she’d rather not risk it.’

Our conversion then drifted to more casual stuff and then both of us fell asleep.