“No. No,” Nyx repeated like a raging parent. “You can’t be serious.”

“If I weren’t, I would be in horrible convulsions right now,” said Agi, his affect perfectly calm.

After flying for a minute or so through a watercolor wash of void, he’d just released Nyx onto the floor of...another void. As well as Dodd and Ethel, who were too injury-pricked and psychologically discombobulated to have their thoughts together, or even be standing, just now.

“This is a shadow void,” said Nyx.

“Nope,” said Agi, turning away. Licking his pinky, he judged the wind. There was no wind, but clearly he felt something. “Distortion,” he noted.

“Then fly us out.”

“I had been trying for the past minute or so.”

“Jam us through the lockbox,” said Ethel, her voice strained and groggy. “At least then we’ll know we’re in Darkworld.”

“Great!” said Nyx, genuinely, with a snap of the ol’ fingers. They reached for the box, found nothing but skin. “Dammit, I threw it away for dramatic effect!”

“It’s okay,” Ethel offered. “Good to burn that bridge anyway.”

Free from the distraction of a simple solution, Nyx raged again. They actually stamped the floor of this non-shadow expanse, and what had looked at first like pure black dissembled into deep blue haze underfoot. “Then where are we, Agi!?”

His back was to them. He said, “Lost.”

Nyx balled a fist and shook it. “Then what do you think you should be doing to get us out of it?” they growled.

“This is not a mortal realm, and its rules are unknown to me.” They turned, their face solemn. “Rest assured, your majesty, I would never have brought you here of my own volition. Or even if I mistrusted my sense of direction.” Then he threw his arms wide and shut his eyes. “Abuse me if you must! I suppose humans need to vent.”

“You mean demons need to vent,” said Nyx.

“Words,” he said.

Nyx marched over, light coursing over their rattling fist, and when they reached him they drew back, launched, and followed through with a miniscule flick of Agi’s forehead. The light energy drifted off to nothing. It became one with the void. Punching Agi wouldn’t make them any less lost. And he had egged them on.

In the silence that followed, Dodd stood up. “Well, maybe,” she said cautiously, “if we all combine our intention to leave, if we think about a safe-ish place in Darkworld District...”

“Say no more,” said Agi, heels and hands snapping together.

A moment later, he took a step forward and disappeared. Anger rose in Nyx’s chest, but only a brief pang. Then he was back.

“I...I said ‘we all,’” said Dodd.

“Strength of numbers is not as good as strength of intention,” said Agi, “and let me tell you, now that everything has fallen apart around our mutual lord, I want nothing more than to return to the relative predictability of my former occupation at the Crow’s Perch. This distortion void staunched the flow of my transit before I’d begun.”

Nyx held a hand to their forehead and groaned. “You think someone’s keeping us here,” they said.

“Yes. And I also think we need to—” Agi slapped his knees and fell, sitting criss-cross. Arms and wings flopped to the sides.

“Then we do nothing.”

Ethel said, “There has to be a solution...”

“Yes, and the solution will be handed to us,” said Agi. “Honestly, that should come as a relief. It is highly likely that an intelligent being has your fate in their hands.”

Nyx said, “But not an empathetic one.”

Silence followed. Silence and a growing urge to hit Agi for real.

“...Wait, you’re saying it’s chthons,” said Nyx finally.

Agi brightened. “Yes! I assumed Ethel would be the one to catch on.”

“No, I was thinking Hue could have used some demon tech to—”

“Never mind that. Just use this time to relax and await whatever games the entities have for you this time.” Agi took a deep, harsh breath through his nostrils. He did not need to breathe, so this struck Nyx as crass, as was his intent. Dodd joined Nyx in squinting askance at him.

“Ooh, I could use some of that,” said Ethel, and she arranged herself in her own phony-yoga position.

“I don’t like all the silence,” Nyx admitted. “It...it makes me sad. I wasted so much time on that castle. All my old shit is in there. Now it’s—everywhere. Practically scattered in time and space.”

“What about what Ethel said?” said Dodd, hands clasped behind her back. “Burning bridges. The things you were most connected to, you had forsaken. You took a vow. They’ve just enforced it.”

Nyx sighed. “Okay, but they took all my non-sentimental stuff too, and—and I’m pretty sure I’m out two minions—so now I’ve gotta build all that up again!?”

“There are always more kingdoms to conquer,” said Dodd, smiling.

Nyx looked sadly at Ethel. Her eyes were closed behind those glasses, but there was a ninety-nine-point-nine percent chance she’d been listening to this whole conversation. “You think I should?” Nyx said.

“I think this whole affair would be sad if you didn’t. You started at nothing, and if you don’t claim a new kingdom fast, you will have returned to nothing.”

“Not true,” said Nyx, but their voice faltered. “I’m always learning new things about what I really want and what I could really do.”

“Well...I’m just an imp,” Dodd admitted. “That’s all I know, and that’s my only vantage point. As a homunculus with now-boundless power threshold, you really could take your place among the greatest archlords of all time. Or, for all I know, you could play guard to the mortal world and be their mutant hero. But I wouldn’t know. I’m just down here.”

The world gradiented from black to white, like sunrise with a star of hot metal.