Marcella was bumped and jostled in the cobble stone streets of the market. Creatures with sharp horns and fiery flames and glittering spines all over their bodies were bargaining with shop keepers over the price of things like powdered giant's bone and griffon feathers. She even noticed a stall filled with practically naked people, chained together and being appraised by shifty demons.

"This place is terrible."

"Sounds like the words of an uprealmer to me."

"This is all because your people were condemned to live in the underworld?"

"A grudge grows deep roots after millennia. You took the sun away from us, how else are we supposed to feel about you?"

"You keep saying 'you' like I did it personally."

Clutch turned around and hovered in Marcella's line of sight. His expression looked hurt, and maybe even sad.

"I . . . I'm sorry. I hope I didn't offend you."

"What did you say?" Clutch's sharp teeth clenched together as he spoke.

"I said I'm sorry. I can't imagine what life would be like without the sun."

Clutch blinked and crossed his arms but didn't say anything.

"If you're right. If my grandmother is a . . . a god, then once we free her I can talk to her for you."

"About what?"

"Giving back the sun."

Clutch slipped back into silence. He looked like he was about to say something, but he didn't. He thought some more and finally said, "there's nothing she can do," then turned to keep moving towards the black cliffs of the palace.

"It's still worth a shot don't you think? I mean, if you get her out of here she's going to be so grateful. You're helping me find her, you don't have to but you're helping. I bet she'll be very pleased."

Clutch laughed. "Of course I have to, you made me promise."

"So?"

"So, when a demon swears an oath he either follows through, or he ceases to exist."

"Oh . . . I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Stop being so nice!" Clutch pounded against his head with his fist.

"Right, sorry."

The demon snorted and darted away a little faster than before.

"What kind of security are we looking at with this place anyway?" She asked and Clutch shrugged.

"I've never been there. What kind of business would a hellfairy have at The Palace."

"I don't know, you could be some kind of prince for all I know."

Clutch just laughed and continued on.

Climbing to the palace made Marcella's legs hurt, but she refused to let on. They came closer and closer to the gleaming black palace and Marcella noted the stained glass depictions of battles and torture that lined the spires.

"We still haven't even bumped into a single guard or anything. Is that normal for a palace?"

"I already told you I don't know!"

"Okay, okay, calm down."

The outer walls of the palace felt like smooth glass and glistened like a night sky full of glittering galaxies. Marcella wondered at the odd building material and noticed her hellfairy guide cross his arms in her peripheral.

"What?"

"Are you here to do a job or what?"

"Sorry I just . . . never saw anything like this before."

"What ever, let's do this thing."

"How do we get in?"

Clutch pointed behind Marcella and she noticed the small grated hole, out of which flowed a constant stream of water.

"What's that?" Marcella asked, not wanting an answer.

"I believe uprealmers would call it a 'sewer.'"

"No! There's no way."

"Are you telling me you died and came all this way and now you're not going to follow through? You're just going to let me fade away?"

"What? You'd fade away?"

"That whole oath thing?"

"Wait, that applies even if you don't fulfill your promise to me because I stopped you?"

"You now see why it's hard to make a demon promise you anything."

"It wasn't that difficult to persuade you."

"You had me by the wings! What else was I supposed to do?"

"So for you to survive, I need to follow you into a stinky demon sewer?"

"In a nutshell, yes. Or you could relinquish me."

"What do you mean, relinquish you?"

"You just tell me you relinquish me of my duties, and I'd no longer need to help you."

"Why didn't you tell me? I relinquish you, you're relinquished, of course!"

"What? Why?"

"I would never want to keep you in a situation where your existence might come to an end, not if I could avoid it. You don't owe me anything, not after what my people did to yours. If you really don't want to help me, you shouldn't be forced to under penalty of death."

"Oh . . . well thanks."

"Now . . . if I go through this sewer, I'll get into the palace? I don't like it, but here goes nothing!" Marcella shook her arms and legs as she mustered her courage. "Oh man, this is so dumb!"

With a bit of a struggle, Marcella squeezed through the bars in the grate, while keeping one hand stationed over her nose at all times. She turned back to Clutch, who hovered on the other side of the bars.

"You coming?"

"You . . . relinquished me, remember?"

"Yeah, I just thought you'd maybe help me anyway, you know, cause we're friends."

Clutch laughed and Marcella couldn't tell if it was a positive or negative thing.

"So long uprealmer, watch out for any sewer beasts that might be crawling around in there." The little demon twisted in the air and disappeared. Marcella was left alone in the smelly dark tunnel.

"Sewer beasts?" She whispered to herself and turned to look down the frightening path ahead of her. She imagined she heard screams and groans, but shook it off and slowly moved forward, keeping one hand on the wall and the other on her nose. She heard a grunt and a squeal, which made her regret her decision to go on alone.

"--cella! Dang--"

Marcella spun around and noticed a pale, translucent vision of Grelchin as an old man.

"Can't sustain..." He flickered and started to fade.

"Grelchin! Stay with me, I'm scared!"

"Lilly--...--angerous! Watch--" The vision blinked and disappeared, leaving Marcella even more frightened than before. She heard a gurgling sound come from down a low tunnel to her left.

"Clutch?" She whispered, "Grelchin?"

There we're splashes and the sound of some sort of beast rushing toward Marcella. She covered her face with her arms and curled into a ball, to frightened to do anything else.