The festival was simple, but I had to admit that it was nice. It wasn’t as loud and as obnoxious as I feared it would be. Then again, it helped that there were only a couple dozen of us there. It wasn’t like some huge carnival with hundreds to thousands of people walking around all over the place. I also had some good company in the form of Thad who was telling me all about what life was like in Hell.

Surely enough, it was nuanced. Things were bad and there was practically no sense of privacy or freedom there, but the general quality of life seemed pretty good. The people were still more or less happy with their lives despite their situation. Those in power did the bare minimum required to keep people content with their lives so that they wouldn’t worry about rising up against the status quo. Most of those who did were seen as extremists overreacting to everything.

The only views seen as normal and healthy were those of complacency.

It was something that sounded all too familiar to me.

Then I remembered something Thad brought up earlier. “You mentioned a prince leaking something?” I asked.

“Ah. Right,” Thad replied. “Prince Zaratheus. Lucifer’s second son, and his biggest disappointment. ‘The Prince of the People,’ we called him. The only one who ever cared about us, and I mean really cared about us. Plenty who have pretended to, but he’s the only one who ever did. Unfortunately, he’s been the Prince of Isolation for the past century.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean he’s been locked away from everybody and everything. An immortal body trapped in a cell too small for him to even lie down in. No food, no entertainment, no visitation—his punishment for acting against his father is eternal isolation.”

The punishment for acting against the ruler of Hell being eternal isolation sounded ironically fitting. “A fate worse than death.”

“I’d say so. For his sake, I hope his mind broke a while ago. Can’t imagine what it’d be like staying isolated like that with a sane mind. Better to go crazy and start hallucinating. By the way, you see Enna around? Haven’t seen her for a couple of hours.”

“She went to sleep a couple of hours ago. She tried her best to stay awake, but I ordered her to get some rest.”

“Hah. That girl—she really is trying her best. The rest of us are going to have to do our best to live up to the standard she’s setting.”

“I feel like she’s going to be depressed when I force her to take a day off. Or she might refuse me for once.”

“You could always tie her down to the bed if it comes to that.”

“Not sure we’ve known each other long enough to jump into bondage like that.”

“Hah!” Thad bumped my arm with his shoulder. “You sly dog.”

“What can I say? She’s my type.”

“Well, I’ll let you know that you have nothing to worry about. We’ve seen how she looks at you and how you look at her. Nobody else is going to try anything with her.”

“Have I been that obvious?”

“Yeah.”

That was a bit embarrassing, but I had nothing to be ashamed of. “I’ll have to be more careful.”

“Don’t worry about it. Makes me feel young again seeing a couple young’uns like you two flirting around the place.”

“I keep forgetting you’re an old man. Pushing three hundred.”

“I remember back when I was a kid in my fifties. Felt like I had all the time in the world ahead of me. Now that I’m almost three hundred, I’m wondering where all that time went… can’t think of a single thing I’ve done to make this life worth it.”

The tone of the conversation went from playful banter to depressing realizations in an instant.

“But,” Thad continued, “that’s why I’m happy to help you however I can. I know it’s premature to feel this way, but I feel like I’ll have the chance to make this life worth it under you.”

It was my turn to nudge him in the arm with my own shoulder. “Next to me, not under me. None of you are under me, but I’ll be happy to stand at your sides.”

“See? Saying that sort of thing is what makes me sure I won’t regret giving you my all. And that,” he paused to stand up and stretch, “is why I’m going to go get some sleep. Still can’t believe I’m looking forward to waking up and working some more, but that’s the effect you’ve got on us.” With that, he patted me on the shoulder and started to walk back to his tent while waving over his shoulder. “Keep up the good work, Clay.”

“We’ll do our best together, Thad.”

I heard a little chuckle from him, and that was the last I heard from him as he went to his tent.

Everybody else attending the festival, myself excluded, still seemed full of energy. The trio of singers sounded even more energetic if anything, and the dancers around the fire made me feel even more tired just by watching them.

That being said, Thad might have called the celebration a festival, but it didn’t exactly feel like one. It was just a few women singing, some other demons dancing, and the remaining drinking and eating.

It needed something more.

But I was too tired to think of what I could do to improve it, not to mention that my head was still killing me.

That was when another voice spoke up from my side where Thad was, but it wasn’t Thad nor Enna.

“How dull,” Sara said. “Is this supposed to be a party?”

“You don’t have to hang around here if you’re not entertained,” I said.

“I might just leave. Walking around the ash was more entertaining than this.” I was about to tell her to leave then rather than stay around and be pointlessly negative, but she sighed and continued instead. “So, he told you about Zaratheus.”

“Right, you’re Lucy’s daughter.”

She groaned.

“That means Zara is your big brother.”

“Do not shorten his name.” She sounded even more upset about that than me shortening her own name and her father’s name.

“Like I said before, names longer than four letters are for French pastries. Even if I respect him for what he’s done, his name is still getting shortened. That being said… I think Zara is a girl’s name, so I’ll call him Zath.”

Sara narrowed her eyes at me before looking down at the ground and sighing, kicking her foot against the ash-covered soil below. “I wish he lost his mind.”

“You sound like you’re sure he hasn’t.”

“Because I know he hasn’t.”

“I thought he was supposed to be isolated?”

Sara looked away and changed the subject. “The most infuriating thing about you is that I know he would love you.” She balled her hands into fists at her sides. “You even sound like him.”

“You sound like you respect him, but you hate me despite thinking he would love me. What’s with that?”

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I hate you or anything. A human isn’t worthy of my hatred. I only hate what you make me realize.”

“And what is it that I make you realize?”

“What you make me realize is that I am wasting my breath talking to you.” Sara stood up and turned her back to me. “Enjoy your ‘festival.’”

Just like Thad, Sara walked away and left me alone again.

While I wouldn’t exactly say that our conversation went well or anything, I was glad to learn even a tiny bit more about her… even if all I learned was that she was probably more complicated than only being a girl with daddy issues.

Guess I’ll go to sleep myself then, I thought, standing up and stretching just like Thad did.

Only, I wasn’t going to be allowed that luxury.

“Come on! Dance with us! You deserve it after working all day!” the girl who just grabbed onto my left arm shouted, the volume of her voice drilling through my skull.

“It’ll be fun!” shouted the man, the girl’s previous dancing partner, who grabbed onto my right arm. “I’ll even teach you my moves if you don’t know how to dance! They didn’t call me the best street dancer in the Sixth Circle for nothing!”

Despite everything I had ever been through in my life, I never felt like I was in more danger than when I was being forcibly dragged away to dance.