Sausage did not know how this had happened.

     When he had gone to sleep, he had been on one side of the bed, and FWhip had been on the other side. So how were they now cuddling?

     Sausage had woken up slowly to find himself curled up around FWhip, and FWhip hugging him back. Needless to say, he did not know what to do. Moving could wake FWhip up (not that he really wanted to move).

    How had this happened? As far as he knew, people did not move in their sleep. People slept when they were sleeping.

    Looking down at the sleeping goblin, Sausage noticed that FWhip's eyes were open, although he looked as if he had only just woken up. 

   "Morning." FWhip said sleepily, apparently not at all worried about their current laying position. Sausage was blushing again. He seemed to be doing that a lot recently.

    "Hi." Sausage replied. FWhip didn't seem to have a problem with the cuddling, and he was grinning at the furnace that was currently Sausage's face.

   Leaning his head a against Sausage's chest, FWhip seemed entirely happy to go back to sleep, and Sausage would have, too, if it weren't for the meeting.

   Also the fact that there was some sort of demon around, apparently, and that they weren't home. "We should probably get up now," Sausage said. "There's that meeting."

    FWhip didn't even bother getting up, he just rolled off the bed, pulling Sausage with him. FWhip laughed as Sausage shrieked from the sudden drop, and they both got off the wooden floor, laughing. 

    Sausage still wasn't entirely sure that this was all real. He couldn't be dating FWhip, and they couldn't be sleeping in the same bed and cuddling. It had to be a dream.

    The fact that his head hurt from hitting the floor disproved the dream theory, though. Leaving the room, Sausage and FWhip walked into the main room, where Gem had healed FWhip the night before. The others were there already, and they walked outside into the foggy sunshine that was common in the swamps of the Evermoore.

    As they headed for the nether portal, they passed by the edge of the swamp, and ghostly tendrils of fog reached out to twine around their feet, hissing eerily. Sausage jumped as he felt the cold air, and everyone else scrambled back as well. Shelby just rolled her eyes, pulled out her wand, and said a spell that made the fog race back into the safety of the trees.

    "Don't mind that, that's just the fog. It's full of haunted souls, but I'm working on it. It won't exist much longer." Shelby said easily, as if a creepy death fog was nothing. 

    The meeting was set for late afternoon, since it would take several hours for some of the empires, namely Sanctuary, Eversea, and the Evermoore, to reach Treaty Point, even through the nether.

    It might be faster if they could fly through the nether, but only Sausage and Shelby could fly (Sausage with his wings, Shelby with her broom), so they were stuck walking.

    "Someone really ought to install a tram system in here or something," FWhip grumbled. "Certainly would make things much faster."

    Shelby replied as she batted a hand to wave off a cluster of ash, "Isn't that your job? You already have a tram system in the regular world, why not make one for the nether?"

    FWhip shook his head. "It's too hot in the nether for goblins. I can deal with it because of a magic amulet I have, but anyone else would overheat to death."

    "Wait, what?" Sausage said, suddenly alarmed. "What would happen if you lost that amulet?"

     "It's fine, I'm not going to lose it anytime soon, "FWhip said. "Look, see? It's fine."

     FWhip pulled a necklace out of his shirt, revealing an onyx circle with golden wings hammered into each side. The wings were lined with fiery red and orange that made it look like it was on fire. 

    It looked oddly familiar to Sausage, although he was certain had never seen it before in his life.

    "That looks so cool," the human FWhip said. "It looks like the wings bits are on fire! How did you make that?"

    The two FWhips launched into an eager conversation about engineering and metalmaking while everyone else watched in amusement or made small talk of their own. Sausage was still concerned about the fact that FWhip's life was currently dependent of a small piece of enchanted metal, and he resolved to get another one just in case anything ever happened to the first.

    Walking through the nether was very tiring, especially with the heat, although it didn't bother Sausage as much. The jungle was a pretty hot place, although the air was more humid there. 

    The group stopped for two breaks, one to rest and one for eating a quick lunch. The clock Sausage had showed they were right on time as they approached the Treaty Point portal.

    Emerging into the late afternoon sunshine, they walked through the small courtyard into the main meeting room, the same open-air room the last meeting had been hosted in.

    This time, nobody stood on the podium, although a few people were still missing. Sausage noticed Mayor Lizzie slip in, along with Lady Katherine of House Blossom, but they were still missing Scott of Chromia and whoever he had taken with him.

    Eventually, after waiting for around 20 minutes, Scott burst in with the fishy Jimmy right behind him, and another man with violet hair.

   "Sorry we're late, guys-" The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the scream of almost all of the past emperors as they caught sight of the new man. The only one not screaming in fear was the past Joey, who shrieked, "DADDY!" as soon as he saw the man.

    Sausage realized suddenly that the man fit the description of the demon the past emperors had told them about, the one related to Elf Scott.

    Xornoth.