Kate and Apollyon had found a nice comfy rock to sit on and watch the blue glowing moss on the cavern ceiling. It almost looked like stars glittering across the night sky.

  The two demons had travelled into the Deep Abyss, just as they had pnned for at least some part of their vacation. The st settlement before their descent through the dark caverns had provided them with some snacks and drinks each, a tradition down here to make sure that every traveller could properly enjoy their time and that any crumbs and spills would be suitable food for the local fauna.

  “This is nice.”

  Apollyon nodded. “It is.”

  “Almost like looking at the night sky, just really calming.”

  “I assume this does not lessen your desire to create your grotto?”

  “If anything, it’s reaffirming it. This is incredible and creating something like it, just with the stars I know, will be amazing.”

  “Yes, it will be. Should we gather some more pebbles before we return to the library?”

  “Sure, good idea. There are actually a few things I would like to do on the day before we return.”

  “I am curious, what have you pnned?”

  “You told me about what happened to create the Cocytus basin. I want to go to the monument you talked about.”

  “I will take you there. Do you wish to go anywhere else?”

  “Yes, but I don’t know the pce. I want you to take me to a pce I haven’t seen yet that you think I would find neat.”

  “A fascinating request. I have several ideas.”

  “Good. Now, I have one question, looking at the blue moss here. You know the red trees in Kur, right?”

  “The blood forest, yes.”

  “Why is it called that? Our blood is bck. I haven’t seen any Hell native creatures with red blood.”

  Apollyon turned to look at Kate with a dumbfounded expression on her face. “I… have no clue.”

  “Wait, really?”

  “Yes, I do not know why that forest is called the blood forest besides it looking like blood spilling from the ground if you view the mountains as shards cutting into it. That name predates our contact with the border world and any red-blooded creatures. I honestly do not know why that association was made in the first pce.”

  Kate couldn’t help but chuckle. “Never thought I would see you this stumped. Well, I might go check the ancient texts and see if there is any mention of how the name came to be or at least how old it actually is. I can imagine some etymological funny business going on there as well, it being named after something unreted to blood that became twisted over the aeons because of simir sounds of letters, like how humans often call you Abaddon.”

  “Hm… that is pusible. I am curious now too and will aid in your research once we return.”

  “Speaking of being curious, there is supposed to be some really strange stuff down here, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So far, we have seen awesome moss. It is amazing moss, to be sure, but I would like to see one of the really weird things before our trip ends.”

  “I am certain we will find something soon enough.”

  Soon enough turned out to be about half a cycle ter. Kate felt something following her as she and Apollyon descended further into the caves. There was nothing she could see when she turned around, but she could feel a presence.

  “Polly?”

  “Yes?”

  “There is something here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Something is following us. I can feel it. Come out! I know you are there, whatever you are!”

  The response was an inquisitive mreow from between Kate’s hooves. Looking down, two glowing blue cat eyes looked back. The cat was invisible while sitting still but once it started rubbing against the Nightmare’s legs, its fur shimmered like dust in a sunbeam.

  Kate stood very still not to disturb the cat showing love to the two demons. “Is that a void panther? Like the stealth cats down here, right?”

  “Yes, it is. This is the second one I have seen in my life.” Apollyon knelt down and held out her hand. The cat rubbed against it. While the name certainly implied a rger cat, void panthers were a smaller variety of Hell cat. “It is so cute.”

  Kate sat down on a rock. “It is! Do they ever come to the surface?”

  “Often, but we rarely see them. They are invisible after all.”

  “Fair enough. Hey little one, you are welcome in my home, you know.”

  The void panther tilted her head to the side. It seemed to consider visiting the surface if there was food.

  “Of course there will be food. I just need to know you’re there.”

  That was good enough of a bribe. It also wanted to keep following the two demons and see where they were going in the Deep Abyss.

  “Yes, you can come with us. Also, can I pet you?”

  After a moment of thought, the void panther decided that being pet was a good thing. And it indulged in the attention the two demons were giving it, allowing them both to pet it and give it chin scratches, pressing into their palms and rubbing against them to remain visible.

  “Maybe you don’t just follow us but tell us where we need to go? We are looking for something strange that demons from the surface don’t usually see.”

  The cat knew just where to take the demons.

  The void panther had enjoyed the attention for a long while before leading the two visitors further down into the Deep Abyss, down winding tunnels into a massive cave with some sort of almost natural stairs circling around the drop in the centre. There was something at the bottom, some entity, and the cat wanted the demons to go down and meet it.

  And so, they did. Nearly a hundred metres of wonky stone steps was certainly not the most fun or elegant way to descend into this deep dark unknown, but it felt just right.

  Having finally arrived at the bottom, the void panther meowed at a wall causing it to stir. Whatever was down here was big, rger than this already massive cave. Most of this being never had to move, only its extensions into many deep caves to interact with whoever or whatever came by.

  Kate reached out with her mind. The entity understood. It knew demons, they were a rare sight but a welcome one. It was telepathic, just like the young Nightmare was, and it suggested a trade. A mutually beneficial exchange of thoughts. Kate and Apollyon each would share a story from their lives with it and in return it would share knowledge about itself and a story from its life.

  Kate and Apollyon looked at each other and nodded. There was no need for words to be spoken.

  Apollyon shared her fear, her doubts, her anger as she had held Kate in her arms, the young human struggling to remain awake. The broken blessed bde in Kate’s stomach, Azazel’s denial of physical ws and reality’s structures, Nirrti’s painful sacrifice and her own perceived failure. She shared the relief and joy of watching her friend wake up again, be well again, and eventually be like her. The joy of a friend who accepts shared eternity.

  The entity understood. It appreciated the intimacy of those emotions, the value of them to Apollyon and what it meant for the demon to share them. In return, it shared that it was old, older than immortality. It had waited a long time for the demons to find it many millennia before immortality. It knew of loss, of fear, of joy, it had seen it among the then mortal demons. It had felt envy as it had never felt those emotions. It befriended a demon, her name long lost to time, and it felt loss when she died. It felt joy when they spoke, it felt fear when she was hurt. It finally had known the feelings of the demons and it was wonderful.

  Kate chose to share something different. She shared the mundane, her daily life in the library, her life at the university, learning, reading, listening to professors hold lengthy lectures, returning to the library in the afternoon and enjoy sorting books back to where they belonged. There was joy and contentment in the mundane, in the peaceful and known.

  The entity understood. It knew mundanity but it had never felt it itself. It had never felt routine. When it did not have visitors or watched the surface, it slept, it dreamt. Dreams of exceptional existence, of wonders untold, of histories unwritten, but never of the mundane, never of the boring, never of routine. The entity wanted to feel routine. The comfort of it and the elevation it brought to the exceptional.

  Just as it had given feelings of the past in return for Apollyon’s feelings for the future, it gave the exceptional in return for Kate’s mundane. It shared its own confusion, its sense of uncertainty, almost fear, as reality itself shuddered the moment the underworld tore itself away from Hell. The moment death ended. There were some who had never known death who still sought out the entity for assurance and certainty. The cats of the Abyss had huddled together in this very cavern until they were sure Hell was safe. The entity was fond of cats. It did not know where cats came from, it only knew that it liked them and they came to rub against it before anyone else ever came to visit.

  The entity considered everyone who came down here a friend. Before it would bid its new friends goodbye and hoped to see them again one day to share new memories, it asked them one more thing: to rest for a moment. It enjoyed watching friends take a moment to rex. Watching helped the entity rex too. When the two demons left, it would sleep again, dream again, and a sense of shared rexation, a knowledge that its new friends were comfortable and safe, helped it fall asleep without worry and dream of good paths.

  And so, Kate and Apollyon found a spot to sit down, eat some snacks, share some snacks with their new void panther friend, and help the entity settle down for another dream.