"That seems like a pretty reasonable liberty to take." 

The voice belongs to a stranger, tall, pale, androgynous leaning masculine.

"Would you like the long story, or the short one?"

"Can I have both?"

"Certainly. The short story is that I'm here to ask for your advance consent to be raped by demons."

"...Not gonna lie, you're going to have to sell me on that one."

"I would imagine so, yes."

He smiles wryly.

"The long story is that Hell has had a very recent regime change, and the new Queen forbids all demons from dealing unfairly or coercively with mortals. Most of us are adjusting well enough, but there are a few who can only feed on what we call 'true' rape—meaning sex where the victim is given no opportunity to refuse. Starvation won't kill a demon, but it can make us very uncomfortable. The Queen's solution was to have her diviners seek out mortals who might be willing to agree in advance and then forget their agreement, and then send representatives such as myself to make the request. I'm also authorized to offer a few rewards, but I hope you'll consider the question on its own merits first before turning your attention to those."

"...I'm not...categorically unwilling...but if I don't tell my girlfriend you're on the up and up, she will find a way to be more inconvenient than starvation." 

"It's possible to bring a friend—or girlfriend—into your negotiations alongside you, if they're dreaming at the same time and you vouch for their willingness to either have their memory modified or be geased to avoid letting you know about your agreement. The requirement that you not know your consent was sought and granted is very strict. You can also choose to experience all your encounters as dreams, which might worry your loved ones less."

"I'm sure it would at least take her longer to catch on, but it's still not a risk I'd unilaterally sign you up for. I can't swear she'd agree to either the memory-wipe or the geas, but I assume you can retract your offer if she doesn't."

"In your judgment, would she spread rumours of the invitation that might circulate back to another participant someday?"

"She would not." Ha. As if. 

"Would you like to make arrangements that she join you here immediately, or only once negotiations are farther along? I should mention that bringing in a second participant has a cost, and although you remain completely free to end negotiations and resume your regularly scheduled dreams at any time, if you do make an agreement that cost will be reflected in your balance sheet and will affect which agreements are valid and which rewards you can afford."

"I'm not sure I understand the benefit of waiting?"

"The benefit to me of waiting is that I don't spend the resources speculatively only to find out that once you've looked through your options you choose not to make an agreement after all. The benefits to you are less. If you'd rather bring her in immediately, I will."

"No, that's fair, let's make sure it's worth your resources first."

"Would you like me to summarize the parameters of the agreement out loud, or would you rather go over a paper copy?"

"Paper copy, please."

He hands her a clipboard that wasn't there a moment ago.

She skims the document.

"...So can I get some more detail on the part where Hell exists and is under new management?"

"What would you like to know?"

"Well I would kind of like to know what happens when people die."

"Ah! Yes, that's understandable. The truth is that by and large we don't know," he says. "It's possible for a mortal to become a demon, or to give their soul to Hell, and in either case they stay bound to Hell indefinitely. For mortals who have done neither... it's possible to resurrect them, but prohibitively expensive without advance preparation. Anyone who was dead for only a few minutes doesn't remember what it was like, and we don't have anyone who was dead for longer than that around to ask."

Hoo boy. 

Aurelia is going to become a terrifying diabolist and then the both of them are going to be demons. Hopefully this is less of a disaster than when Aurelia got really into curses. 

"Advance preparation as in before the person dies? And what does prohibitively expensive mean."

"Before the person dies, yes - essentially the necessary thing is to have someone present who is alert and ready to catch their soul and put it back before it goes wherever souls go when no one catches them," he says. "Prohibitively expensive means that it's out of budget for the Queen's researchers even though the Queen would quite like to find out more about the usual fate of souls."

Well, RIP to the Queen's researchers but Lavinia's girlfriend is different. ...Although it'll still probably take more than a human lifetime to figure out, because it seems like the kind of thing where research would involve killing people, and Lavinia isn't going to let her kill anyone who it isn't really definitely for sure a good idea to kill. 

"How often do regime changes in Hell happen?"