Dala had been called over from the room she'd been staying at to the family room for a very important reason. Or at least that's what she had been telling herself as she made her way there. When she was called down by a maid, she had been in the middle of one of her research sessions. The maid was half terrified when she saw the hundreds of pages tacked onto the walls with nails and the mountains of books the teenager had been sifting through. However, when she entered the family room, she was somewhat surprised when it was just Lewis and Simone wasn't in sight. 

"Did one of the kids stick their heads in a watermelon again?" Dala asked, "I bet it was Shaya this time."

Then Lewis actually explained what was going on. He explained the proposal, the wedding, and the desperate need to get Simone relaxing and away from everybody for an entire week. For a moment Dala was extremely excited, then she realized the difficult task before her. Getting Simone away from the kids was like taking bees from their honey. Or a bear from its cave. Or the sun from the god damned sky! Her kids were who Simone was! She was connected to them and never liked to be away from any of them. Even when she was away, she usually at least had Lewis by her side. Not to mention the new babies who she wouldn't dare leave…

"You do realize what you're asking from me is probably impossible, right?" Dala asked with a raised eyebrow, "Fine. I'll do it. But you'd better be quick about this. I can keep her busy for seven days, maximum. Got it?"

After working things out with Lewis, she got her own bags packed for a week away at the Sulwal Spa. Lewis had already gotten things arranged with the spa place, including their rooms and some of the activities. All Dala had to do was make sure Simone actually got there and stayed there for an entire week. An entire week. She wondered for a moment if calling the moon down from the heavens would be less of a challenge. Soon she was all packed and rushed over to where Simone was with her arms crossed and a little smirk on her face. 

"Alright that's it! You are going with me to the Sulwal Spa!" She declared, "You need to relax and take a moment from all this stress! Everything is already arranged. Now get packing. And I won't take no for an answer!"

She knew that the first thing Simone would do is protest. All her excuses were clear. She would claim the kids need her, that she wasn't stressed, that she wasn't prepared. All these excuses Dala quickly shoved aside. 

"When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?" She asked, "And besides, Lewis and Roma plus all the other servants you've got in this house can help out. Besides, just imagine how much better you'll feel once you've got one of those delux spa… thingies. You know where they use….soap and stuff."  

Dala had never been to a spa and had no idea what it was they actually did there. Once the kids were out of Simone's hands, taken by Lewis or Roma, Dala pulled Simone to her feet and began pushing her to her room. 

"Everything's already arranged." She declared while giving her best friend a gentle but firm nudge, "Now get packing. Pack for seven days and seven nights." 

Simone was on the floor with Glyn. He was looking up at her from the blanket and she was hunched over tickling him. “You are so long! You are going to be such a tall boy,” Simone spoke to him as he giggled towards her and kicked her feet. He kicked his feet and Simone smiled towards him. Her own eyes stared back at her and her heart fluttered. It was a labor of love that Lewis had gone over every detail of how he wanted Glyn to look. It was well worth it when Simone saw him and was instantly in love but Lewis had known that the mother would have loved that child regardless. Like Everett this was a second chance baby.

A baby that came after devastating news.

“Hey you two troublemakers what are you doing?” Both twins had pulled themselves up and were standing by a chair looking at her. “Come on now… Don’t be like that!” They giggled at her and gave each other a knowing look as they tried to let go and go to her. Both of them fell and Simone inhaled her breath. They weren’t ready. Not yet.

They quickly recovered as they crawled over to her and sat by her and Glyn. Glyn squealed at them and They squealed back at them. “I wish I could understand you guys. Your daddy says he can.” She kissed all of them and Janus crawled into her lap and squealed up at her. “Yes, yes Mama’s boy.” She took her finger and traced his jawline which he found hysterical.

The deep belly laughs were everything to her too. “I love you guys so much.” That was about the time when Dala came in. “Hello, Dala.” The babies squealed up at her. She looked tired but happy but when Dala started to yell she started on the defensive. “They need me Dala I can’t just go.” But she had been ready for that.

Roma and Lewis had been ready for that. “But, Lewis I can’t.”

Lewis came in and handed Glyn to Roma and he took the twins in his arms, “But you can. Now I love you. My beautiful, beautiful wife and mother to my children but youuuu… YOUUU need a break.” He kissed her soundly and Simone blinked a bit. “Have fun, please. Don’t worry about us. Dala take care of her for us.”

“You all are working against me.” Even the babies giggled up at her mischievously. “Okay. Okay. Fine, but they get some more kisses before I go.” She gave them all several before Dala started to pull her away. “But Dala!”

Finally, she gave in and Simone sighed a bit as she readied herself for this spa week. “A week… Without my babies. How am I going to survive,” there was a chuckle as she packed herself up and met Dala for the trip. She looked a bit better now that she had gotten around for it.

Once the portal opened they walked into the royal throne room of Sulwal. The tree city was fully visible from the open balcony. Llywellyn was sitting in his chair with a huge grin on the face. “How many of you knew about this?”

“Oh, I was the one who picked the spa.” Lewis was standing at the portal and Llywellyn nodded at him. “I got this handled don’t you worry. I have security all around the spa no one is hurting Simone.” Lewis nodded and closed the portal so Simone would stop thinking about it. “My name is Llywellyn Miss Dala. Lewis told me you are Simone’s best friend so consider yourself a friend of Sulwal as well. I can take you to the spa now.”

“You are going to babysit us?”

“I know you. You would sneak off into the alleyway and gate home at a moment’s notice… So yes, I’m babysitting you until you get to the spa.” Simone did the largest eye roll. “I’ve known Simone since we were five. We found each other by accident when my people arrested her, Lewis, and Rhenakos.”

Just as expected, Simone was resisting going out to the spa, even treating it like it was some sort of punishment. After finally getting Simone packed, which Dala watched her do in case she tried anything funny, they walked through a beautiful portal into a massive throne room. Dala's jaw almost dropped but she tried to hold onto some dignity and pretend that she had seen all sort of throne rooms. She eyed Llywellyn cautiously, unaware that he was a friend of the family until he mentioned Lewis. If Lewis trusted this guy, then Dala would have to trust him too. 

"I guess if Lewis trusts you then this place should be decently guarded." She said before giving Llywellyn the stink eye, "But don't get any ideas! I know where you live." 

After hearing how he knew Simone since they were five then accidentally arrested their group, Dala strangely felt less cautious around him. Anybody that could handle Rhenakos without killing him was probably a good person. Dala didn't mind too much that they were being babysat. Normally she would have found it deeply insulting but she knew it was more for Simone than herself. It was also a bit of a relief, as the teenager knew that Simone had a thousand tricks up her sleeve to try to get back to her kids. She would climb out the window, sneak into an alleyway, try to use magic, put pillows under the bedsheets, and a thousand other tricks that Dala hadn't even thought of yet. 

"Well its nice to meet you….Lly-….L-lywe…. You know what? I'm just gonna call you Lly. Thanks for letting us stay!" She said before turning to Simone with a big smile, "Well we've got to get to this relaxing thing. And probably get unpacked. Then do one of those…. bath thingies." 

When it came to fancy spa treatments, Dala was out of her element. She'd never been to a spa before and the fanciest thing she'd ever had was a warm bath with a simple bar of unscented soap. Dala grabbed Simone's free hand as a way to keep a hold of her but also as a way to give her comfort. The teenager wanted Simone to know that she would be there in her trying times of being away from her kids for a week.

"So how do you feel about staying at Sulwal? He mentioned you were caught here but didn't mention if you ever got to see the place fully." Dala said. 

“It’s okay Simone calls me Lly all the time. I guess since Lewis said you are her best friend I can permit it. Even if it sounds dumb,” he rolled his eyes making fun of Simone who snorted at him.

“I couldn’t pronounce your name either. It took an hour in the library to learn how to do it,” Simone rolled her eyes. She had been five but it had been important.

“I’m just kidding Dala. It doesn’t bother me,” he chuckled as he escorted them out and into the tree city. Most of the buildings were up in the tall trees. “The spa has its own inn if you will. You two will be staying in my suite there. That just means you’ll have to share a bed in which case I’ve been told is the best because Simone will try to fly out. I’ve been told I can drench your wings and make sure you can’t fly away.”

“Oh yeah who told you that…”

“Lewis.”

“Cruel the both of you.”

Simone hadn’t even noticed she was holding Dala’s hand but once she did she gave it a quick squeeze. “Ooh, I’ve been to Sulwal twice but I haven’t seen the city in its entirety since I was…” She frowned a bit.

“When my mother died. Simone was here for the funeral.”

Did Lewis tell Dala who Llywellyn was to her? “That was when Lly’s father broke off the agreement. Llywellyn was one of two boys who I was going to pick to marry. Though as you can tell we are more like good friends than romances.”

“Not to say that I didn’t try. Simone was a firecracker of mischievousness.”

“…You tricked me into skinny dippy so you could go in too.”

“…Can’t blame a guy for trying? Why are you still so mad about that?”

There was an eye roll from Simone as they got to the large building that was very clearly a spa. “Here we are, ladies. I’m going to turn you over to Herald here because my city doesn’t stop just because my childhood friend is in town. Please take care of them.”

The man bowed to Llywellyn, “Yes, my king.” Simone and Dala were shown to a room made for a king, literally. They started to unpack and Simone threw herself on the bed.

“This is going to be so hard Dala. I’ve never been away from the babies before… This must be what it was like for Lewis. I was so worried I was going to lose him but… He must have been so heartbroken not to know when he was going to come home… Here I am complaining about a week when he was forced to be away for three months. I’m a terrible wife,” she laughed a bit.

Dala had a feeling they would be sharing a bed since Simone would try to fly out. The windows would probably be locked too which would be fine but some good fresh air would do her some good. The teenager listened as Lly and Simone began talking about Sulwal. Her mother had died, which made Dala frown since she heard very little talk from Simone about her mother. Then they began to tell about Llywellyn and their past of mischief together. Dala raised her eyebrow at the skinny dipping part as if to say, why have you never told me this story? The city surrounding them was gorgeous and Dala was biting down on her tongue to prevent herself from asking Llywellyn a thousand questions. If there was one major weakness Dala had in this entire plan, it was the fact that there was a king and a library of information all waiting with piles of valuable information. Shaking her head, she remembered to focus on Simone. This was all for her. There was plenty of time later to worry about kingdom stuff and plans for the future. Fortunately, they made it to the beautiful spa building. They were handed over to a herald, which almost made Dala give out a sigh of relief. Now she could focus on getting Simone to relax. 

They made it to their massive room and Dala's jaw finally dropped. She had never seen such a huge room in all her life. This wasn't a tavern room, it was practically a house! They had their own private bathroom, a mini kitchen, a balcony, and a bed that looked like it could hold an elephant. The ceiling had a massive chandelier decorated with thousands of crystals while the floor was covered in a fine carpet woven with hundreds of colorful threads. The teenager began looking around the tavern room, trying to see every inch and corner of the place. It was massive. Then she heard Simone began talking and zipped over to her, flopping next to her on the giant bed. 

"Hey, don't you dare say you're a terrible wife." Dala scolded, "Look…sometimes we don't see what the other side has to deal with. I mean Lewis is going to have to deal with the kids and take up your job not to mention the- the ordering of the servants. You both have hard jobs and you both are perfectly capable of handling it!"

She then sat up and looked over Simone. 

"Now you have some talking to do." Dala declared, "You've got a hotty king on call and you never mentioned him before. I want all the details. Don't you dare leave a single thing out!"

Simone smiled at Dala and knew that look on her face, “How about one of these days I make Llywellyn answer all of your questions as revenge? I like the royal library it has a lot of poetry and that is relaxing to me.” Lly gave her a questioning look and shrugged.

“I am incapable of telling Simone no.”

“Bullshit,” Simone glared at him.

“Do not hold the festival against me.”

“You promised.”

“And I delivered just not… how you wanted.”

That was all there was to it as they were now relaxing in the room. “Sometimes it is a blessing and a curse to be so tied to each other. Right now he has the resonance turned off so I’m not focusing on the kids at all. I’m not used to it.” She smiled at Dala and finally sat up when she heard.

“Okayy!” She put up her hands. “You got me. When I was five we had hundreds of boys come to the kingdom to become Mr. Auclair. Llywellyn was one of them. Do you remember Felix? Felix hated Lly because Lly was literally always there. Probably because he knew Felix was a pervert. He was like my best friend and brother but Llywellyn was completely in love with me.” She snorted a bit. “When Llywellyn’s mother died his father said I was a human and I was going to die too. This was before the curse but when the curse happened Llywellyn started to sneak into my bed and just make sure I was okay. As much as he can come off as an ass he is actually rather soft. Lewis apparently likes him now.”

She gave Dala a smile, “But what all do you want to know about him? The skinny dipping fiasco? He pushed me into a mud puddle when he sneaked me out of the castle. It was Lly who took me to the ocean the very first time. As the crowned princess and future queen, I wasn’t allowed out and about by myself so I didn’t get to see much of anything. Lly scaled the castle and he taught me how to climb. We did this often. Sneaking out and getting into trouble. He even took me to festivals but I had to wear a disguise.”

Mone loved Lly as a friend and it showed on her face, “When I got cursed and Auclair burned to the ground. Llywellyn apparently went in himself to find me. He knew about the curse and he didn’t stop until they made him. He was the third prince. Nowhere near the ability to have the crown. Apparently, he started a coup and overthrew his father so he could use the army to find me. Obviously, he never did.”

"I remember the bastard. I don't think I ever met him in person but I remember you talking about him." Dala said. 

She listened to Simone's stories about Lly and could see how deep their friendship was. It wasn't a romantic love but a love of a friend, something Dala understood despite never going skinny dipping in mud. The two had been close and Llywelyn probably understood the past version of Simone more than almost anybody else, with the exception of Lewis. Dala was glad to hear that despite all the garbage that had been thrown at her best friend, there was at least one person from her past that was still alive and who really cared for her. 

"Hey, its good to know you've got a friend looking out for you." Dala said with a smile, "And hey, just think when you get back, you'll be all rest up and relaxed for the kiddos. They won't have to worry about mommy passing out from exhaustion anytime soon." 

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. A pretty looking maid dressed in black and white entered with a small golden bell on a platter. The maid bowed her head towards them and held up the bell. 

"Honored guests, this is a bell you can use to summon any of the servants if you need something." The maid explained. 

"Simone. You sure this isn't just another palace?" She asked

Dala awkwardly took the bell and set it on one of the tables. Then the maid handed them both little menus for the spa treatments. The menu was long and everything listed would already be paid for. They could have whatever they want and Dala had no idea where to start. She made a little panicked noise before bringing the menu over to Simone to decipher what it meant. 

"What does it mean by packages?" She asked, "This one says coconut bliss. Are we going to get a big box of coconuts or something? I don't think we need that many. And this one says Gentleman Package. I really don't want them to stick a man in a box…" 

“He was the one you pepper-sprayed and kicked in the nuts actually. Before we got the kids.” It was so long ago now.

Mone giggled a bit, “Yeah the kids will love to play with me without me falling asleep and Lewis having to take over.”

Once she saw how amused Dala was at the bell Simone laughed. “That has to be Llywellyn’s doing. He’s spoiling us. I bet he is going to throw a feast for us.”

Simone looked over the menu and tilted her head. “Well… Why not start with a hot stone massage? That sounds fun. I’ve never done any of this but I think we should stay away from anything for the men.” She chuckled. “They got… all kinds of massages so I guess let's start there. They gave us these robes to change into.”

She wasn’t shy about undressing in front of Dala after all they were both women and Simone wasn’t really shy about getting naked anyway. The magic tattoo on her shoulder had started to creep with swirls like vines and leaves. It was easy to tell where the original mark had been and what had been added over the years.

"Oh right!" Dala exclaimed, "I forgot all about him." 

She had beaten up so many people in her lifetime and it had been five years ago. If Dala had to remember all the people she'd kicked in the nuts she'd have a list a mile long. SImone suggested the hot stone massage which sounded frankly scary to the teenager since it sounded like those old torture devices she'd read up on in her kingdom studies. However, if Simone trusted it and said it would be fun, then Dala would trust it too. The robes they were given were very pretty and looked expensive. Dala' robe was a pretty pink and seemed to be made of satin. 

She saw Simone quickly undressing but Dala didn't mind that much. Simone was her friend and they were both women. However the magical tattoo on her shoulder had caught her interest. It was covering the majority of Simone's back and seemed to be glowing a bright shade of blue that reminded Dala of the twins. It didn't take a genius to understand that was some sort of magical tattoo that probably had something to do with Simone and Lewis' love magic. Dala called it love magic because she always forgot what the proper word for it was. 

"Nice tattoo." Dala commented, "I don't think I've ever seen it before. Did it just appear after that love magic with Lewis happened or did a magical tattoo artist give it to you?" 

She was partially joking, partially not. For a moment Dala hesitated undressing herself. She trusted Simone and didn't think there would be a problem. But her own back…well it was never something she liked showing off. However, the spa would probably require a dressing down, so she tore off her shirt and began undressing properly. Her back and stomach were covered in scars from the past. Most were faded but some were recent. The scars that would draw most attention were the letters on her back. They were old and faded but seeable. Inutilis. 

Dala quickly wrapped herself in the pretty pink robe and looked over to Simone with a smile. 

"Shall we get started? I wanna know what this fancy hot stone massage is all about." Dala said, looking genuinely excited. 

Simone was hesitant on talking about it as Dala looked over her back. “This tattoo is what is keeping me alive,” she turned lightly to Dala. “Lewis has one too. It keeps us linked. Lewis can’t die unless I do and I am very hard to kill. It’s grown a lot over the past few years… We’ve… Gone through a lot. The more connected we are the more it grows until eventually, it will cover our whole back. Only then will we be entirely connected. Lewis branded me with it when my body was remade. It is what keeps my soul connected to this body. I’m told it hurt a lot when Lady Angela put Lewis’s on. It was like fire as it burned into his flesh but he says it was worth everything to have me back.”

Simone looked over at her own robe and snorted a bit. “It’s my favorite color.” It was a lavender silk robe and she slid it over herself easily as she put her long black hair up. “They are probably going to massage our mana veins too. It feels so good. I have to get it done a lot by Xeik when he does my checkups. It tickles Lewis sometimes though.”

She and Dala put on some comfortable slipped and rang the bell. Once they came up Simone was requested to take off her wedding band. Simone was nervous but she took it off and set it on the dresser. “Well… It won’t hurt I suppose. This place is heavily guarded.” What she didn’t know was this was elaborately set up by Xeik so he could steal her ring.

They were led down to a massage area where two very hot elf men were and Simone looked at Dala. “Are you looking for a husband? Maybe they are single.” She chuckled a bit as she laid down on the table on her belly. They pulled down her robe so they could start the massage. “I feel like Llywellyn really pulled out the stops… or maybe he didn’t and he has no clue and he’s fuming jealous right now.” There was a snort of laughter from her. "Speaking of jealousy I bet Lewis will be too."