‘You have two options. One: you die. If that’s your choice I will make sure that you go relatively painlessly and never return. Do you understand?’

I nodded. I felt a sudden burst of love for her. She was the only person who mattered to me because she was the only one who offered a way out.

‘The other option is that you become my husband. They will wed us, and I will be your wife.’

I didn’t need time to think it over. I held her hand and kissed her ring finger. Nora blushed.

‘Are you sure this is what you want?’

I wanted it more than anything. I came to understand that this was why I had come on this trip. To be nullified, to be made nothing. To be even less than dead. That’s the highest reward. That’s why we all come.

Nora’s smile turned brilliant.

‘I will take off the wedding dress now,’ she said, then picked up a sharp stone from the ground. I understood why she had been cutting herself. She was just rehearsing for this one particular moment.

She pierced the sharp end of the stone into her flesh between her legs, then carved it along the fresh scab, opening it again, right up to her neck. When the cut was wide enough, she grabbed the edges and tore them apart. I heard the skin tear; she didn’t need to be gentle because it was of no use to her anymore. The real Nora crept out of her old shell, accepting her final, true form that she’d been hiding even from herself. That was the first time I really met my beautiful wife and learned her true name: Kth’far Ark’the’k, the niece of a Nameless Lord.

She spilled over the floor, her old shell collapsing on the ground like a worn-out coat. My wife crawled towards me on legs that kept popping up from underneath her new skin; fresh eyes opened up all over her body. She grew bigger with each step, filling up the space around her until she could grow no more. I tried to scream, but I could manage only a painful whisper.

My wife grabbed me by my limbs like a piece of meat; she was already gigantic by then, her skin wet and hot. She tore off my clothes. From the depths of darkness horrible things dragged themselves out to witness our wedding night. They sang distorted, toneless songs to accompany it. I recognized some of them from the bus; they were singing the local hits.