“Hallo, Hel, with one "l", it’s me,” Emelia said enthusiastically, to the ghastly visage in front of them. She vigorously waved her hand towards an unamused looking Hel. After a few minutes without a response, Emelia tried calling out to her again, “Hel, with one "l"! Hel! It’s me, I was with the Devil and my mom last time, but I brought my friends now, so let’s play!”

Hel finally gave a response with a flat voice in the complete darkness, “Kid. You ruined the mood I had going on.”

“Oh yeah, I got a name I can tell you now. I’m Emelia, not kid anymore,” she said disregarding Hel’s accusatory flaming eye.

“Sure, whatever kid, but who are these guys? Do I need to beat them up like the last guy,” Hel asked pointing towards Lilith and Anthony who were standing off to the side confused at the sudden development between Hel and Emelia that happened in pitch black.

“Oh, these are my friends, Anthony, Lilith, meet Hel she controls this Afterlife. Hel meet Anthony and Lilith, they got rid of the Devil and took over his Afterlife.” Emelia smiled sweetly as she casually introduced people, who usurped a god-like being with a literal Norse god.

“The Devil guy is gone huh. Saves me the trouble. Well, thanks for that, he was so annoying,” Hel said giving her acknowledgment towards the two who were still standing shocked at the sudden shift in atmosphere around Hel as the darkness faded.

“I’m Lilith the edgy guy is Anthony. Cool bones and eye,” she said offering her hand toward the ruler of Helheim.

Hearing Lilith’s nonchalant statement Hel started to inspect her closely. She brought her left eye, which was still burning bright blue, close to Lilith’s face as she continued to study her. After a minute of examination, Hel took a step back and said in a feeble voice, “You really mean it?”

Confused by the faintness of her voice, Lilith gave her affirmation, “Yeah.”

Suddenly Hel broke her expressionless face and game a smile brighter than the sun with sparkling eyes, “Let’s be besties!”

“Uhm, sure,” Lilith replied, confused at the abrupt offering from Hel.

Hel excitedly hugged Lilith, and dragged her off saying, "You're the first person whose meant it when they said they weren't off-put by my appearance."

"Really? what about Emelia," Lilith asked surprised by the convenient explanation.

"The kid doesn't count, she's a ball of happiness and good vibes. She won't feel uneasy towards anything," Hel remarked at the absurd disposition of Emelia.

"That makes sense, but how did you know that I meant it? Did it have anything to do with the weird stare down?" Lilith asked.

"Yup, as expected from my bestie, you know all about me right! My left eye, the one that lights on fire, can see the truth," Hel said rekindling the blue flame.

Hearing that Lilith stiffened and gave a shaky smile while her face went pale, "Wait your eye is a lie detector, for real?"

Anthony, who had been silently contemplating where he went wrong in his life's journey, retorted in irritation, "Wait a second there! That's where you draw the line! Magic lie detectors. Seriously! There are lie detectors and truth serums in the normal world too you know. I find the bones thing kind of unsettling but the magic eye is cool. I don't know if that says more about your character or mine but whatever at this point."

Hearing Anthony’s outburst Hel interjected, “If the eye is a turn off I can wear an eyepatch like my uncle Odin.” Bringing one of her hands up to cover her eye.

“Wait, Odin’s your uncle? I thought that he was your dad.” Lilith said, thinking about characters from a successful comic-book based movie franchise,

“No, Loki, who is Odin’s brother, is Hel, with one "l"’s father, sometimes movies make stuff up, like this story—cough cough—I mean—um that’s ridiculous.”

As Emelia pacified Anthony’s outbursts and fourth-wall breaks through head pats, Hel brought them to her home, a Scandinavian Turf house, through the frozen field of Helheim with its ancient Viking inhabitants, drinking, eating, and sleeping. Hel opened the door to her turf house to the main hall with a great fire burning behind a giant banquet table. Hel brought out a plate, fork, and knife out saying, "I made pancakes. Try 'em." Placing a stack of chocolate chip pancakes down in front of Lilith.

“Dude, chocolate chip pancakes are the best!” Lilith said grinning as she ate the pancakes. 

“I knew you’d like ‘em,”  Hel said with a smug grin as she sat down across the table.

As she tried to lull in the conversation appeared a blond young man saying, “Hey,  Hel, you’re back. Did you get rid of the intruders—, nevermind.”

“Oh, hey Baldr, let me introduce you to my new bestie. Bestie, Baldr, Baldur, bestie. I finally get to introduce my friends to someone. Who else should I introduce you too, Baldr, and uncle Odin, and um, there’s also. I don’t have enough friends do I,” said Hel, going through a mental list of her associates before despairing at how few of them there were.

“Good job Hel, with one "l". You finally made a friend and did something about your troublesome personali—” Baldr tried to congratulate Hel before she interrupted him.

“Don’t continue that sentence Baldr, or should I get the mistletoe arrow out,”  she said as a literal flame burned in her eyes. 

“Yes ma’am, but is it alright to serve a guest with, Hunger, Starvation, and Famine,” Baldr asked pointing to the plate, fork, and knife which Lilith was eating pancakes from. Hel’s eyes opened up wide as she tried to think of Lilith’s possible reactions to the names of her cutlery.

Lilith just continued to eat the delicious pancakes saying, "Sick irony, bro."

Hearing the approving reaction of Lilith, Hel jumped up and said, "I knew you'd like 'em. Let's go meet uncle Odin right now, he'll be so excited." As she grabbed Lilith by the arm.

"Bro, let me finish the pancakes," Lilith said as she was forcefully dragged away from the table.