The basement looked and smelled about as Ethel expected. The utter darkness of night...trails of ordinary cobwebs, scents of mothballs and the elderly, rotting wood and occasional localized blots of dampness...

“Is this place right next to the rec room?” said Ethel.

“It’s close enough,” said Nyx. “The geography of Nightfall Castle is approximate. It’s not literally a mortal zone, it’s a demon zone trying to act like one.”

Ethel scanned the miniature city of boxes and cases before them, all dark-grey against black. Suddenly her mind was screaming that thanks to what Nyx had said, the creaking wooden planks below would go unstable. “I see,” she said.

“Sorry that there’s no light in here,” said Nyx. “I guess demons don’t really need lamps, in the spaces where guests aren’t expected. Don’t worry, I can hardly see either.”

“Noted...”

Nyx handed Ethel a matchbox, a fresh one Agi had brought from Darkworld District that smelled faintly of soot. They told her to be slow and careful with it. She struck a fire to life. It functioned just like an ordinary Earth match, and was just as little help.

They crossed over boxes, an old bedframe and an overturned chair, sealed trunks, a spilled crate of books, until they’d reached the other end of the basement.

“Well, here they are,” said Nyx. “Some ogre’s soul gem is in that cage there, and there’s the cardboard box with Darling in it, but this little thing”—they picked up and jiggled a decorated case big enough to hold a few pieces of jewelry—“this is where the tags are.”

Ethel proceeded to ignore the tags—the whole reason Nyx had brought her here—entirely.

“Why’d you put all these things way over here?”

“Because there wasn’t any other free space,” said Nyx. “Plus, when I’m here alone, I just get over there via shadow. It’s quick enough.”

“I get it now. But it looks so...lonely here, this far from the doorway.”

“Eh, Darling doesn’t mind.”

“I do not mind,” said a voice from inside a box.

It startled Ethel, but she held tight to the match. Bending over it by the light of the fire, she saw, distinctly, arms and arms and torso parts, all surrounding Darling’s head as if trying to immerse her. Her wood-ring “eye” poked out, surrounded by the cobwebbed tufts of hair.

“Wow...it’s not even like her head’s been in there that long,” said Nyx. “The spiders work fast...”

“...Oh, so that’s why you never take her out of here.”

“Look,” Nyx said, shutting their eyes, “I thought getting over my phobias would be easy, but it’s a constant, possibly lifelong struggle. It’s not just one-and-done, y’know? It’s more like every time I have to face spiders, or roaches, or whatever the crawling shit is this time, I have to summon up the old way of dealing with it, or summon up a new way, and it’s just a pain, and it feels like it never gets better.”

Ethel was oddly relieved to hear this. It reassured her that she wasn’t the only person who talked about minor details at unwanted, unprompted length.

“I accept my fate, Lord Nyx,” said Darling, her voice as agreeable as any Siri’s.

“The ethics of this are dubious, but I guess that counts as consent,” said Ethel. “—More to the point, can we please, please...take her?”

Nyx’s eyebrows twitched. “You mean take her along to Farander? Why?”

“Why wouldn’t we? She shows all the signs of being a hyper-advanced automaton, or at least being at the level of, say, Rosey from The Jetsons. She bailed you out of the trap room when the Überlord Ta-Gelkiyr situation was going on, and when it comes to a versus match between you and her, technically she’s still undefeated.”

Nyx remembered this and wilted.

“You’ve borrowed her soul threads for yourself and seen how useful they can be. That proves not only that she’s a good resource, but also that she has untapped power that you simply refuse to touch.”

“You can touch that power,” said Nyx.

“And I plan to.”

“Lord Nyx,” Darling piped up, “you need not fear any traitorousness from me. My spider servants have long since informed me that Harbinger has received your payment, and that no further action is required.”

Nyx said, “That’s nice. I stopped worrying about that long ago, though. I have other possible-traitor-related shit on my mind now.”

Meanwhile, ideas stormed through Ethel’s head: Darling could be not just a glorified maid, but an exceptional sparring partner, a surgical hand (at least three pairs of them), a scout and acrobat, and—in her most untapped wellspring of all—a straightforward resource for information on the twelve hells.

It was the last of these that most excited Ethel. Nyx and Dodd were nothing but forthcoming about the underworld, but inexperienced both, and Nyx was...not always the best with words. Agi had a broader perspective and a pact that required him not to lie to Nyx’s dear companion, but there was no rule against silence, provided he wasn’t lying by omission.

Darling, though...while she certainly lacked experience, having gone straight from the factory to Agi’s possession, Ethel wondered if she’d had certain bits of history programmed in. She was an all-purpose caretaker, after all, and didn’t “all-purpose” suggest her need to know a little something about all demons? Ethel lacked an underworld encyclopedia—she wasn’t even sure if such a thing existed—but she wondered if Darling might not be one herself.

That could sate Ethel’s appetite for the underworld, in some small way. When she was hearing about Nyx’s mindbending trips to Darkworld and Purity Belt an hour or two earlier, she’d felt herself chomping at the bit to travel back in time and take Nyx’s place. The viciousness and endlessness of demon existence were things she didn’t care for at all—but the sheer weirdness was...yes...straight out of a science fiction novel.

Many scientists would jump at the chance to see in four dimensions, even if their perspective on three would never be the same. And Ethel felt that.

“She can come with us to Farander,” said Nyx, “but I can’t promise you she can come into the dungeon.”

“I know that part,” said Ethel. Two adventurers who’d “just stumbled upon” a little piece of demon tech equipment—that wasn’t a big deal. But two adventurers with some Weird Science automatic lady would scream suspicion.

Darling’s disembodied head said, “Hooray!”