The plush hedgehogs had accompanied the three demons to dinner.

  Kate had opted to do the same with her new friends as she did with every other person she invited to this Greek restaurant: get the two to four people sharing ptters. That way everyone got a bit of everything.

  “I see why Eisheth took her sisters and her friend here, this is great.” Phea eagerly dug into another fork full of gyros and tzatziki.

  “Told you so. There’s a lot of good food invented over the centuries.”

  “I am sure there is even more to explore then. It seems like humanity has thrived, even if it feels like divine and infernal influence has waned quite a bit.”

  Kate nodded. “After the destruction of Atntis and the second war, both sides withdrew from this world. Some remained to serve as liaisons and guides, but only when approached by humans first. There was the rare intervention to make sure small civilisations weren’t wiped out by natural disasters but that was it. Until the third war, humanity slowly became independent.”

  “What happened during the third war then?”

  “God took control over the heavens with the help of the high courts. I don’t know how much you were told about the heavens, but I spent the st year reading up on the history between the worlds.”

  “I know pretty much nothing about the heavens, it was never my field of work and Lilith didn’t talk much about it. But please, give us some context for that war.”

  “Back then the heavens were split into a number of domains, each led by a different faction of angels. One alliance of those factions was called the elders, they held the most power and were the original allies of the demons. The other faction was made up of the high courts, each led by an archangel, original seven in number. When the elders begun squabbling among themselves, God united the courts behind one goal: to take the heavens and the border world for themselves. One heaven under one ruler… ‘under your rule, now, until the moment you die’. That was their oath to God. A strange phrase until I stumbled upon the rumours, never proven, that he managed to anchor his soul not just to the heavens like all angels, the way they gained their immortality, but to this throne room. Just like angels can only be killed in the heavens, God could only be killed in his throne room. Unlucky for him that he got betrayed right there. Anyway, the courts under his leadership conquered the heavens with ease but allowed the elders to continue existing if they accepted the superiority of the courts. Eventually, God turned his attention to the border world. That began a cold war of propaganda and many attempts at countering it. When the inquisitorium got wind of God’s pn to use a prophet, a messiah, to unite a group of worshippers, Athena got to that person first. All this was limited to small region in the border world at the time as those methods were unproven at best and rge-scale machinations would have ignited that war too early for God’s pns. The person of choice for him and inquisitorium was a guy humans today call Jesus. He spent a while wandering the desert talking to demons. Convinced that he would uphold his end of the bargain, Death let him go and act on his own. While he spread our values quite well, he also made a bargain with the angels. He betrayed us and ascended to become an angel himself when he was at the verge of death. All the people we made him convince to follow our teaching instead were convinced to follow God. Newly angelic Jesus struck down Death in combat and thus began the third war. After it ended, both sides signed the Treaty of Celestis, a paper that forbids direct interference with humanity and grants humans certain protections. Most demons still believe that humanity will slowly move away from God’s influence, but so far that has proven untrue. It has only spread.”

  Phea and Saliria exchanged meaningful gnces. “I suppose that’s not entire unexpected. Still, it’s… disappointing and almost maddening. All those marvels we saw today and at its core humanity is still the same, isn’t it?”

  “It is, at least from what I have been told. There is one good thing that has remained the same though: humanity’s desire for good food.”

  The Shadow chuckled. “Yes, I don’t think that will ever go away. And it seems they are succeeding in that endeavour.”

  “Succeeding to such a degree that we started adapting some of it with our ingredients. Polly told me that without the input of someone young, someone new, demons tend to stagnate in contentment. That’s why someone as young as me is head librarian and Azazel is High Inquisitor. You two will bring in fresh ideas again too.”

  “I hope we can at least be somewhat useful and repay our debt to Lilith. I feel like those millennia would have been worse if we didn’t know that eternity awaited us outside. Still, I miss people and things from back then…”

  “Why don’t you tell me about them?”

  Phea smiled. “There weren’t many people I called my friends, and I was never close to my father, but the people I held close were the best humans I ever knew. My sister Falia and I were inseparable, at least when she was in the city. She became a courier guard, protecting the messengers who travelled to the outer vilges. She was always eager to protect people and see more of the world. On the other end, there was Kyrea, archivist at the temple of Here. She was such a shut-in.” She chuckled. “We didn’t have much written down compared to what I have seen of your library now, but she was always studying the newest tablets, didn’t matter what was on them.”

  “I have good news then. Azazel didn’t get back to me yet about your sister and the others on the list, but Kyrea is alive. She is working at the pandemonium as an archivist.”

  “Really?!”

  “Yes. I’m sure she’d be overjoyed to see you again.”

  “I need to go to her the moment we get back to the library.”

  Saliria scoffed. “You aren’t going alone. She is my friend too.”

  “Obviously. It’s amazing that at least someone is still here after all these years. Maybe she knows what happened to Falia as well.”

  Kate nodded. “I am sure she does. What about you, Saliria? Anyone you want to see again?”

  The devil took a moment. “Kyrea and Falia, of course. Maybe my family… fuck, I was even more of a loner than Phea was.”

  Phea shook her head. “We had each other and the few people close to us. It doesn’t matter how many ‘friends’ you have when they don’t really care about you. The friend we had actually cared.”

  “I suppose you’re right. And hey, we are making new friends now too.”

  “Long overdue friends, yes.”

  It was te at night when the three finished dinner and desserts. Just as pnned, they didn’t just stop at the library but headed through the door to Hell and to the pandemonium to see if Kyrea was there today.

  Archivist Kyrea was a gorgon who kept her snakes neatly tied into a ponytail. Her snakes perked up when Kate opened the door to the document storage that was the archivist’s little kingdom.

  She turned around and completely ignored Kate, instead she dashed towards the other two demons who had entered her domain as well, tears welling up in her eyes.

  “How…?”

  Phea shrugged. “Lilith wasn’t the only one caught in the needle. It’s good to see you… so good.”

  “I thought you were both dead.” She pulled both demons into a tight hug.

  “We thought the same about you.” Saliria sighed.

  “Thankfully we were all wrong. There is so much I need to tell you about.”

  “And we want to hear it all.”

  Kate spoke up before the three could dive into reminiscing. “If it’s okay, I’ll leave you to it.”

  “Of course.”

  “Alright then. Oh, right. Before I go, Kyrea, I need to talk to you ter. Lilith hasn’t forgotten what you told her and we actually read the tablet now.”

  The gorgon nodded. “I’ll come by the library.”

  “Have you told anyone else about all that?”

  “I never did. I saw what happened to Lilith was scared that I could cause others to be harmed too.”

  “I hate to say ‘good’… but… good. There is much to discuss but we have time, no need to rush to come by. I was told by Jolene that we won’t figure anything else out before the hour of the stranger anyway.”

  “You met Jolene?”

  “A few times, yea.”

  “Fuck, I’m so jealous.”

  “I can tell her to come meet you if you want.”

  “PLEASE!”

  Phea couldn’t help but ugh. “Maybe a group appointment then? I would love to talk to her as well. Her entire existence was my field study after all”

  Kate nodded. “I’ll tell her but I can’t promise anything.”