Bryce

“Is it going to be a problem arriving so late?” I asked Thea as we walked through the streets of Hel. It was already well into the night by the time we arrived at Lilith’s place, and that was hours ago.

“We’ll be fine.” Thea slipped past a slow-moving couple, and I did my best to follow, but had to apologize as I bumped into one of them. “Hades is a few hours behind, so if anything, we might end up being early.”

“Early for what?” I dodged by another group of demons and nearly lost Thea going around a corner. It had been a while since the last time I had to move through streets that were this crowded. I was starting to get worried about how bad Hades was going to be, since Thea had mentioned it was a lot more popular than Hel at night.

“Hades is a bit of a nocturnal city, especially the part we’re going to.” Thea explained as she pulled me to the entrance of an alley where we would be able to talk without dealing with the foot traffic. “Most shops won’t even be open until it gets really late, and while Chorus’s temple doesn’t exactly ‘close’, it’s a bit of a faux pas to show up before midnight. It’s kind of like going to the after-party before the party, y’know?”

“Sure, that makes sense.” Thea didn’t seem at all convinced by my response, so I continued. “I’ll have you know, I was quite the party animal when I was an undergrad. Rare was the night that I didn’t take home a sorority girl or two.”

“Let me guess, you were the designated driver?” Thea smirked, but it didn’t last long before she continued. “Actually, that brings up a good point. How uh… monogamous are we?”

“What do you mean?” Her question had been fairly straightforward, but it caught me by surprise, so I wasn’t exactly sure how else to respond.

“Well, I don’t exactly know how elf relationships work, a fact that was made abundantly clear back on Drassun when Dezra brought up marriage.” Thea crossed her arms while she explained. “And while you seemed to enjoy yourself at Sora’s place back on New Eden, that was before we were officially dating. Since then, we haven’t really had a reason to talk about boundaries outside the bedroom or what our relationship actually means in that regard.”

“That’s a very good point, and we should definitely talk about that, but is this really the place for it?” I indicated towards the dark alleyway we were standing in. “That feels like the sort of conversation to have in a more private setting.”

“Under any other circumstance, I’d totally agree with you. It’s just that we’re going to Chorus’s temple, and things can move pretty quickly there, so it’s better if we have some hard limits in place while we’re still sober.”

“Are you planning on drinking tonight?” I furrowed my brows. “We still need to meet with Chorus, and we’ll probably want to get up pretty early tomorrow morning to deal with Vurdex before Lilith arrives.”

“Babe, have you ever been to one of Chorus’s temples? I’m pretty sure he has some on the mortal plane.”

“I follow Tes, so I’ve never really had a reason to visit any temple.” Most mortals followed one god or another. It was the best way to guarantee an afterlife where you wouldn't be miserable. But what that actually meant depended on the person, as well as the god.

Some gods demanded their followers spread throughout the network and gather more to their cause, while others didn’t really seem to care. Tes definitely fell into the latter category. Of course, with her being the goddess of magic and knowledge, that essentially made every library and academy one of her temples.

“You totally would follow Tes.” Thea smiled smugly at me before casually adding. “You know, I met her once.”

“I refuse to even be surprised anymore.” I exhaled as I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess, you played a prank on her? Stole her glasses or something?”

“No, why would a goddess need glasses?” Thea gave me a look, and I had to admit she had a point. “What I actually did was nearly shit myself. All Tes came to do was talk with dad, but gods below, she was scary powerful. Aris was the only one of us who could stand to be in the same room as her for any amount of time, and all he did was serve tea before rushing back to hide in the kitchen.”

“I thought Kai was… actually, never mind, we’re getting off topic.” I tried my best to steer us away from the tangent. “Monogamy, right? We can set some hard limits for now, but I’d like to have a more detailed discussion when we’re in private.”

“Sure, that works.” Thea seemed to think for a moment before continuing. “I’m a one person kind of girl, as far as relationships go. So no adding anybody long term, but I don’t mind if we’re both involved and it’s just for the night, or maybe a few nights if we like them a lot.”

“I, uh, get attached too easily for those kind of casual encounters,” I admitted, blushing slightly. “I’m fine with our relationship being monogamous if you’re not open to polyamory, but if that’s the case, then we should probably keep sex to just you and me.”

“Is polyamory normal for elves? If it’s a big thing culturally, then I don’t want to step on any toes.”

“Thea, we aren't in an elven relationship. Hells we’re not even in a mortal one.” I took a step forward and pulled her into a tight hug. “We’re in an ‘us’ relationship. So, what’s normal or expected is what we decide. Nothing more and nothing less.”

“Okay, fine. I won’t worry about stepping on toes, but now I’m curious.” She separated from the hug in order to return to the conversation. “Is polyamory the expected thing for elves?”

“I wouldn’t say that it’s expected so much as it’s not unexpected…” I trailed off, trying to think of a way to explain the idea without getting bogged down in the details. “Elven relationships are both extremely formal, while also being incredibly relaxed. I’d say maybe a third end up being monogamous, but I might be underestimating the actual number. It’s not exactly something I’ve thought to keep track of.”

“But you’re okay with it, right?” Thea was fidgeting, and I couldn’t help but smile at her.

“Yes. I’m okay with it.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure, but is this all the boundary stuff you wanted to talk about? I can’t imagine you were worried about me walking into chorus’s temple and finding another girlfriend.”

“No, I wasn’t worried about that.” Thea thought for a moment before landing on her next question. “What about public stuff?”

“Public stuff? Like PDA?”

“Well, yeah, PDA… and other things.”

“Other things?” I realized what she meant immediately after I asked, and I felt heat rising in my cheeks. “Um, PDA is fine, but let’s keep ‘other things’ to the bedroom.”

“Oh, thank the gods.” Thea let out a breath as she seemed to finally relax. “I was so worried that we were going to end this conversation with me being the boring one.”

“Now hold on, I am not the boring one.” I took a step towards Thea, but stopped when I caught the glimmer of gold in her eyes. “I’m also not so easily manipulated. If you’re looking to rile me up just so you can get laid, then you’re going to have to try harder.” I turned to leave and felt smug for all four steps that I managed to take before realizing that I had no idea which way we had been walking.

“Princess, you don’t know where we were going, do you?” Thea asked from behind me. I could hear the grin growing in her voice. “I can show you how to get to Hades, if you make it worth my time.”

“Oh? What’s that going to cost me?” I asked, as Thea approached to run her hand down my arm.

“A kiss now, and a lot more later.” Thea was grinning in a way that put her fangs on full display, and it would’ve been menacing if not for the gold dancing in her eyes. I leaned down to accept her offer, but was stopped just short.

“Fuck off you two,” a grizzled voice came from somewhere deeper in the alleyway. “Some folks are trying to sleep here, and there ain’t nobody who wants to see that shit. Go find yourselves someplace private if you’re going to start sucking face.”

“Sorry, we were just leaving!” I called back towards the disembodied voice as I held back laughter.

“Hey! I’m not sorry, fuck you for interrupting us!” Thea held out her middle finger towards the dark alley before joining me in a fit of laughter. “Come on, we’re not far now.”

I followed her down a few more streets until we took a sudden left and found ourselves in a wide open area with a number of enormous sandstone arches arranged in the distance.

“Welcome to the gates of Hel!” Thea announced with her arms spread wide. “A central hub for the central plane. It’s the only place in all the hells where you can gate to any other of the lower planes. Even Tartarus, if you have a good enough reason to be there, or if you bribe the right people.”

“How do you know which one goes where?” There were eight thirty-meter tall gates, each radiating a massive amount of magic, but there was no obvious way to distinguish between them.

“They’re set up in the order the planes were created.” Thea pointed to each gate as she listed them off. “That one is Avernus, then Acheron, Hades is the one we’re going to… then there’s Feasjura, Dis, Niflheim, Ne’ara, and finally the one without a really long line leading up to it is Tartarus.”

“Line?” Sure enough, there was a massive line leading from each of the gates that seemed to loop back on itself dozens of times. “How did I miss that?”

“You were probably just distracted by the super-powerful magical artifacts, which is so incredibly out of character for you.” Thea tried to poke me in the ribs, but I saw it coming and barely managed to catch her finger.

“None of that!” I released Thea, and she pouted at me. “Now, where does the line to Hades start? And do you have any idea how long it’s going to take for us to get to the front?”

“The one for Hades starts just over there, and I have no idea… maybe an hour? It usually moves pretty quickly.”

“So much for being early.” I started walking in the direction Thea was pointing, which was disappointingly close to where we were standing, because we were still remarkably far from the gates.

“Abandon all hope, those who wish to be on time,” Thea joked, and I couldn’t help but smile. “But seriously, it shouldn’t be too bad. Like I said, the line moves quickly, and we were already going to be a little early for Chorus’s temple.”

~~~~

Thea’s estimate turned out to be spot on. The line moved quickly, and we were at the front of it in under an hour. The gates felt monstrous as we stood near them, and it was more than a little intimidating.

“Just make sure you exhale right before walking through,” Thea warned. “For some reason, holding your breath is a guaranteed way to make yourself sick on the other side.”

I exhaled as we stepped through the shimmering barrier together and felt a sharp acceleration. Stars appeared and disappeared around us as we passed by them at an alarming rate. Eventually, they became nothing more than blurred lines as our speed seemed to increase. Then all at once, everything just stopped.

“Come on babe, we need to get out of the way for the other people coming through.” Thea gently pulled on my arm and I followed, a little stunned by the experience.

“That was amazing,” I commented, and noticed my breath coming out in white wisps. “Gods below, it’s freezing.”

“That’s mostly an aftereffect from the gate,” Thea explained as we stopped a fair distance from where people were exiting. “Don’t get me wrong, Hades is a lot cooler than Hel, but you’ll warm up in a second. Actually, here, let me help.” She pulled me into a tight hug, and I immediately felt the warmth radiating from her intensify.

“Hmm… Thanks Thea.” I pulled her in as close as I could and basked in the smell of burning cherry wood. “How far are we from the temple?”

“It’s a bit of a walk, but not too far… maybe fifteen or twenty minutes?”

“Alright, let’s get going then.” I reluctantly broke the embrace. “Honestly, I’m exhausted and would love to be in bed soon. This trip has already been far more exciting than I was expecting, and we’ve barely even started.”