[The name of a popular bar in Ish’din, which is tradition for

The Human-Demon Peace Party to visit at least once per conference.

It is named after Ish’din itself, which was once called the City of the Eternal Sun.]

Despite it now being night, Ish’din was brightly lit and the streets were still full of people. If you ignored the sky, you’d think it was the middle of the day. But the dark night sky loomed above, signaling the end of another day. The city was also very large, it seemed just as big as the City of Towers, if not bigger. Dead ahead of the gate, up a large staircase was the royal palace. It was a massive, imposing building, even from a distance as great as we were at. Large pillars adorned the front of the building, seemingly holding up the mountain that curved outwards above the palace. Nadred would explain later that the palace was originally a temple, until it was converted into the Palace of Demons. The conversion was estimated to have happened roughly one hundred years before the Grand War began; though records of such details were lost over time.

My desire to run around and explore the city was only held down by my immense desire to lay down and rest my legs after the long journey up here. It seemed most of the party shared that same desire, as the Lord whose group was escorted by the Ishen Clan decided to lead the way to our lodgings. I would learn that night her name was Ibiryn Shen’anum, and the Lord with the Incol’s name was Uin Kats’anum.

Our lodgings ended up being at the base of the staircase that the palace stood at the top of, which meant it was a good hour long trek just to get over there. Looking up the staircase from the base made it and the palace seem even larger and grander than what we could see from the city entrance. Our lodgings were egregiously fancy, each group was separated into their own rooms. So the human Lords and their fellows each got their own executive suite, that they were all able to fit in, each in their own bed. Each Clan also had their own room, which while there were still a lot of us, there were far more humans than half-demons.

After we checked in and dropped our stuff off, Lord -Lady?- Shen’anum stood atop a small pedestal and cheered, “Alright, let’s party! The bar is this way!” She cheerfully led the way through the streets of Ish’din, confidently navigating us in a circle before Lord Kats’anum stopped her and asked “What are we doing? Eternal Sun is right next to the hotel, isn’t it?”

“Of course!” She said, “I just figured you lot hadn’t walked enough yet.” That yielded some loud groans from all parties involved. Oroske explained that this, too, is part of tradition.

We went into the bar, which sure enough, was just down and across the street. While in the Human Realm, you had to be over twenty years old to consume any sort of alcohol, the Demon Realm had no such rule, or so Oroske told me. I was however, limited in the amount I could take in, to a single, not very strong drink. “Save the big drinks for when you’re a bit older,” Ranfa told Fyr, Jarou, and I, “As you are now, you wouldn’t be able to handle much more than this. And if you did, you’d hate yourself in the morning. I ended up only taking a sip of Oroske’s drink, since I was probably gonna get the same thing, but passed up any more. I didn’t understand how anyone could enjoy something that tasted as awful as that. Instead, I just had sweet, fruity drinks with no alcohol.

We were there for pretty much the entire night, leaving once the sun was already on its way into the sky. Some people drank until they passed out, a handful of people returned to the hotel early, but most people just got a little buzzed and chatted the night away.

Personally, I ended up roaming a bunch of different tables and chatting with people, even breaking away from Oroske at some point. Most of the time I just listened to what they had to say, and asked questions to keep the conversation going.

At first though, I was just sitting with my Clan, and asked Nadred about the name of the pub. “Ah, that’s a bit of interesting history there.” He started with a hiccup, having already finished his first mug of ale of the night. “When Ish’din first became a city, it was known for always being lit up, even at night. The culture you see here, where the city is constantly ‘awake,’ people always moving around, working, and living, is as old as the city itself. Regardless of the time of day, the city always looks like it’s the middle of the day. That even goes for the underground sections too. The development of magic techniques being used for the sake of lighting was greatly pushed by the people of the city, and the local government to boot. As such, it was given the moniker, ‘City of the Eternal Sun.’” He finished his lecture just in time for his drink to be refilled. “So, since this building has always been a bar, they decided to name it ‘the Eternal Sun,’ to call back to the city’s old nickname.” Kared finished for him.

Eventually Oroske and I would move tables and listen into conversations at various places. We talked with the Ishen and the Incol, separated as well as joined. We mostly discussed the journey to Ish’din and those more in the know about recent world events talked about those for a good while.

Somehow, after hopping a couple other tables and groups, I found myself separated from Oroske, and sitting with none other than the three Lords. Or I guess two Lords and one Lady, I still wasn’t sure about the distinction there. Myr was also there, as well as a couple people from the Ishen and some of the humans I hadn’t really met. My attention almost entirely went to the Lords, however.

I had pieced together that their last names all had a common meaning, as they all ended with ‘anum,’ but I could only really guess its meaning. So, I asked them about it. “‘Anum’ is the short, suffix-form of ‘nanum,’ which means child.” Lord Kats’anum explained, “And the first part of the name is a number.” He taught me how to count to ten in Alten; eru, yun, ten, shen, riel, katse, senna, onne, lehon, and finally verr.

“So that would make you the… sixth child? Did I get that right?” I asked.

“Yep,” he said, “I’m just a year and a half older than Raen.”

“Wow, how much younger is Lord Onne’anum? And did I say that right?”

“It’s just Onn’anum, and she’s two years younger than Raen. And Miss Shen’anum here is five years older than me. Between us, we have our brother Lord Reil’anum who is four years older than me.”

After they answered my questions, I sat back as the Lords talked with themselves and the others at the table. Topics varied greatly, from various individuals' pasts, current events, and the conference.

Eventually I’d get up and move to another table again, bouncing around place to place listening in on various conversations but not really engaging in any myself.

None stood out, until around sunrise, when miraculously our Clan was all at a single table again. Nadred had passed out a couple hours before, and was using Kared’s lap as a pillow. Suddenly the door opened, and new people came in for the first time in several hours. A familiar, gruff looking Demon walked in while yawning and stretching. After seeing us, he came straight for us, and I recognized him as Kai from the guardhouse earlier.

“Well, well. I was wondering if you all would still be here.” Even though I was expecting it, the difference between his appearance and voice still surprised me.

“Good evening Kai,” Oroske greeted sleepily, “Or I guess good morning, at this point, huh?”

Kai laughed heartily while his fellow guards went up to the bar to order drinks, “How are things Oroske? It’s good to see you again.”

“Good to see you, too, Kai. Things are well, I've been keeping busy with my new apprentice.” He gestured to me before continuing. “I was surprised to see you working as a regular old guard.”

“Hah, yeah. You piss off the wrong person one too many times and you get a leash put on you. I think I’m more surprised you managed to get Kared into the city through legitimate means.”

“Yeah, we couldn’t have done it without Danfis’s help, that’s for sure. He wrote a good letter of introduction for her.”

“Man, the power and influence that man holds is terrifying sometimes.”

“There are other ways into the city?” I asked as he sat down, gesturing to the barkeep for a couple drinks.

“Naturally. What’s classified as the ‘city of Ish’din’ extends far, far beyond just the buildings here in this little valley. I’m sure you saw the buildings nestled into the mountainside on your way up, yes? Well, there’s several layers of that same thing. Some reports say they go down lower than the base of the mountain. With the right knowledge, tools, and connections, it is entirely possible to get into Ish’din without ever going into Sanctis.”

“It’s true,” Kared piped up, “Though you’d have trouble getting out into the main city if you did that. The Underground, as it’s called, only has a few entrances from this part of town. And most of them are very well-guarded.”

“Indeed.” Kai started reminiscing about how he had met Oroske and Kared once while he was patrolling the upper levels of the Underground, some fifteen years ago. They skirted details about what the two were doing down there, but apparently Kai ended up working with them a lot during that time. They also dodged my questions about the kind of stuff that’s down there, and just kept it at “you probably don’t wanna go down there anytime soon.” Though saying that only made my curiosity worse.

Beyond that, they kept their conversation pretty brief, as we had to go get some sleep soon, and Kai had his duties as a guard.

Shortly after Kai and his fellow guards left, we departed for our hotel room. I was grateful, as during their conversation I started practically falling asleep at the table. Jarou had even fallen asleep shortly after they arrived. Kared had to carry Nadred up on her back, something she seemed fairly used to doing. Anyone who was still at the pub when we left either came out with us, or shortly after.

As soon as I got into our room, I fell onto the bed and fell asleep, not bothering to take off my cloak or get under the sheets.