And all was well.

One would maybe think that the way back was awkward or filled with flirty comments or that something changed. It didn’t. At least not on the surface. After kissing another time they simply got up and left talking like they usually did, just with the knowledge that there was a bit more to their relationship.

“So, what is for dinner then?” Rave asked as she opened the door. “Because I am so hungry I could eat…something big, dunno.” “A horse?” John suggested. “No, I had horse before, I doesn’t taste that good.” Rave denied with a grimace as she kept pondering over the problem. John in the meantime got the stove running again. Or he would have. “We are out of energy.” He sighed. “Get to the generator then, John.” Rave said and nudged him away from the kitchen. “I got this.” “So you are finally doing a woman’s job?” “Comments like that will end up with me riding you until your dick breaks, you know?” Rave warned and pointed at him with a spoon. “Doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world.” He said and sat down in front of the generator. Arm inside once again. The stove jumped on and Rave went through the assortment of cans. “Nope, nuh, Nein, Iie, ingen.” She went through her vocabulary.

John had a look at that relationship window he now had access too.

Well, that was a pretty useless thing. “Alligator! I could eat an Alligator!” Rave suddenly shouted as she stirred whatever she had thrown into the pot. “That is exotic.” “Yep, had it once it was awesome.” “Where?” “Back in Japan, granddad is a chef. Well, was he is retired but still he sometimes cooks stuff like that.” John nodded, so at least her grandparents were norma- “I remember that one time he cooked a hell-kraken, good stuff.” And there his expectations went again. Why did he even try? Rave, looking like she knew exactly what he was thinking, turned to wink at him with a sly smile. John had to ask, “So, is your whole family affiliated with the Abyss or what?” “I am the fifth generation, so yes. We are like middle class in the Abyss.” Rave explained. “Yeah, about that, can you tell me more about how this whole Abyss works? Until now I only had glimpses at the whole thing.”

Rave filled some plates with the canned food, Ravioli as it turned out, and sat down on the table. “Sure, come here.” He pulled his arm from the generator and as they ate Rave explained. “The Abyss is way too complicated to completely wrap it up so what I will tell ya now is a simplification.

There are six ranks in the Abyss in which we rank fighters. F, D, C, B, A and S. Like with the rating system in school F is the worst while A is the best and S are just people who are so powerful they can’t be properly categorized. You and me would probably fall under category D right now.” That made a sense, the Wall Shadow back then had been a monster of the D category too. “That however just classifies individual power. Unless you are an S-Class person it is going to be hard to stay relevant within the Abyss without being affiliated with a group in some shape or form. My family has been employed by the Abyss Auction for about seventy years so we are relatively safe from being killed, although people may still harm us in other ways. Small groups consisting of mostly F-D make up the bulk of the Abyss, the lower class. They are scoundrels or mercenaries who accidently stepped into the Abyss. The ones who manage to get by get better at surviving and start working for the big shots thus securing their own existence. If a family then gets established in the Abyss they start to get recognition from other sources and they rise through the hierarchy, thus becoming middle class, such as my family.” John nodded, he understood this far. Rave continued

“And then we got people like Moira, whose family is so powerful that they start their own organization, ruling or protecting certain parts of the world. These organizations are a lot of small states in a sense, each having their own interests and resources, sometimes waging wars in the shadow, making alliances with other guilds and clans and so on.” Rave impaled a few ravioli on her fork and threw them into her mouth. “And then we got the top of it all, the ten most powerful organizations in the world: The Divided Gates. They are pretty much the Abyss Counterpart to the UN. Each of these organizations is the single dominant power in their respective country and represents it. There are two exceptions to that though.”

John carefully chewed before asking. “And which place does the USA got in that Divided Ten thing, somewhere at the top I suppose?” “The USA is not even on the Ten.” John was surprised, not very much so but still. “How come?” “In the Abyss, its a rule of thumb that a country with more history and legends associated with it has more power. The USA doesn’t have a very long history or a centralized organization. There are thousands of small ones each reigning over their domain but none of them have been able to prove dominant.” Rave smiled, “Although Lincoln almost did.” “Wait, Abraham Lincoln?” “The same.” Rave finished her plate and leaned back in her chair. “You would be surprised how many wars and events in history have ties to the Abyss.

Getting back at the Gates however, the ten countries that have a seat are: Germany, France, Greece, China, South Korea, Turkey, Italy and Brazil, the two exceptions I mentioned earlier are an organization called ‘Odin’s sons’ which represent the whole of Scandinavia as well as a group formerly representing the Soviet Union. They are still strong enough to hold on but aren’t affiliating themselves with modern day Russia for some reason.” That sounded complicated.

“Those are mostly European powers.” He couldn’t help but notice. “Ja, colonization took care of that.” “And yet Britain is not on that list.” Rave nodded, “They were dominant until the second World War. Japanese and Germans took out most of the British Abyss. It’s one front where the Nazis definitely won the war.” She tapped on the table. John was left in a slightly stunned state. “Are you telling me that there is a Nazi Shadow empire in Germany still?” “No, they fled to South America together with every other Nazi after the war. Even if you have supernatural powers they don't help you in a court of law, if you use them Gaia gets you after all. They have the seat of Brazil.” That wasn’t exactly calming. “So, in the Divided Gate are Soviets, Brazilian Nazis and Vikings. What the hell?”

“Yeah, they are a bunch of weird people. Very powerful weirdos with all the resources they could ever want at their disposal.” Rave took her plate to the sink and started cleaning it. John soon joined. “But they rarely interfere with day to day life. They hold each other in check and have to be constantly wary of pressure from below, people with exceptional power like you spring up from time to time after all.” Well, he didn’t know if he could pose a threat to organizations that controlled whole countries but his power at the very least was exceptional, that much he had to agree on. “If ya want to know more ya should ask dad if he knows a good book.” Rave proposed. “Chronicles of the Abyss are hard to come by, as convoluted as the whole place is, but there are some.” “Sounds like a plan.” “You can also try to explain to him what kind of relationship the two of us are in now while ya are at it.”

Oh goodness gracious no. “I don’t know if that is a good idea.” John slowly said. “It is the greatest idea.” Rave said and slapped him on the arse. “because I sure as hell am not going to keep this a secret, y’know.” She walked over to the bed as she peeled her top off. “Whaddya say, a quickie before we go home?”