Wait! Simone! That’s her, that’s the-

The connection between them vanished, and Lewis’ eyes widened with fear. “No. Not again…”

Lewis passed all of the children off to Xeik, who immediately took them home from Benin, and Lewis made a portal directly into Simone’s office in Elisora. Simone was laying there, and Lewis ran over to her. The teacup was laying next to her, spilled over. Xeik portaled in, and rushed to Lewis’ side.

The ex-assassin pulled Simone into his arms, checking her pulse at her neck. Still alive, and a healthy rate. “Simone!? Wake up, Simone!” He couldn’t get a response out of her. “Xeik!? What’s wrong!?”

“I don’t know, I-” Xeik put his hand to her wrist to check her pulse, in case Lewis had missed something

Simone’s body shimmered for a second, as if something was happening. Then, at once, Lewis and Xeik both collapsed. There was laughter from the other room, and then everything went dark.

—

When Lewis awoke, he was in a darkness that felt cold and isolating. Beside him, he could feel Xeik’s presence, but couldn’t see his friend.

“Where the hell are we?” Lewis tried to ask. His voice seemed not to carry. “The fuck is this!?”

Simone reacted a little too late before she had already drunk the poison. The guild was supposed to be a safe place for her and her family. However, a snake had slithered into their midst.

“My dearest Lewis, I plan on killing both you and Simone unless you can beat my game.” An imagine of Saphielle appeared. I love you. I want to show you how much I love you by killing the woman in the way. It wasn’t hard to find out about you two and how your love works… If that’s how it works that means you can love me too. I’ll just bring you back and brand you myself. We can resonant together.”

There she held out her arms to him. “We can take all of the kids. I can be their new mom. I love the stories of the Dusk Assassin but I had no idea you were such an ideal father and husband. It just made me want you more… but I will give you a chance to save Simone and yourself.”

She held up five fingers, “You will enter five different timelines of Simone’s life. You will have to fix each one. How you fix it will depend entirely on the situation and not even I know what it will be. If you can do it… You’ll get her back. You’ve brought a friend so I’ll allow him to stay.” Xeik appeared next to him.

“I love you Lewis Dusk. I always have.”

–

The area became a part of the Virens forest. Not far from where they stood was a small shack, almost as bad as Hazel’s. There was humming as a young Simone was outside in a plain dress. She was smacking a rug with a makeshift broom. Dust was flying off.

“My name is Lewis Terrowin,” Lewis replied. “I’ll beat your little game, and when I get out of here, I’ll fucking-” And suddenly, nothing.

—

The sun was shining, and for a moment Lewis wanted to roll over and snuggle Simone. That was all he wanted, but when he rolled over, there was nothing but grass and air. He groaned, and sat up, shielding his eyes from the harsh sunlight. Xeik was to his side, waking up as well.

“Where…” He groaned. Things were still a bit foggy. As his brain caught up, he stood up, and looked around. “Five challenges…five timelines? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” “Where even are we?” Things looked…familiar.

Xeik glanced at the sun, and then around. “ANGELA! CAN YOU HEAR ME!?” His voice called out. It echoed for a moment, but there wasn’t a response. “I wonder if she can get us out. Or at least tell us what’s happening.” He looked back down. “Oh…wait. This is…Virens? Why would we be here?”

Lewis’ eyes widened as he heard humming, and he looked around. There was a small shack, and his heart jumped as he noticed Simone. “S…Simone? Why is she?”

“Alternate timeline…” Xeik mused as he looked at her. “She’s so young. Does that mean the curse was never broken?”

“Simone!?” Lewis called out. “Are you okay?” He started to walk towards her.

Simone was immediately startled. “H-how do you know who I am?! DID YOU COME TO TAKE ME YOURSELF?!” She readied the broom and started to beat Lewis with it because he was in her way to the cottage. “WELL, YOU CAN’T HAVE ME! BACK BEAST, BACK!” Once she got a clear shot she ran into the shack and locked it.

“You have to leave! I don’t know you! If we’ve met I’m sorry but I don’t remember you either! I’m death itself so GO AWAY!” Her voice sounded said but it was clear from the way she was running around and closing the windows that this was a fairly regular occurrence.

“DON’T MAKE ME SUMMON LLYWELLYN!” She opened the window a bit and peaked out at him. Once she saw that Lewis was still there she made a face, "I'm really bad for you so go away!"

Out of all of the reactions, getting smacked with a broom wasn’t even on the list of things Lewis thought was possible. Despite the situation, Xeik couldn’t help but find it almost amusing, but when he had no response from Angela, he was too disappointed in her lack of reach to have a proper reaction.

“Wait, you’re cursed?” Lewis asked. “No…that makes sense. If…” He paused. “That means…” He sighed as she locked the doors and windows, and shook his head. “Llywellyn too? So he’s protecting you.” That was somewhat reassuring. He walked up to her door, and knocked.

“Simone…I just want to help. I need to know what happened. How did you escape Alva…the fae lord? You’re safe from him, right? He can’t get you?” If Alvaro was still alive, then that would mean he would need to protect her from him. That was an easy first task, if so.

Simone opened the window again and stuck the broom out to wave it at him, “HOW DO YOU KNOW SO MUCH?!” Those gray-blue eyes were on the defensive as she studied him. “Yes, Llywellyn told me I could stay here forever if I wanted to and he’ll always protect me.”

She tried to take the broom back but Lewis took it from her. “Rude!” She closed the window with a bang. “How can you help me? No one can help me. I can’t even help myself.” She opened the door a bit but had a second broom. “Llywellyn broke me out of a prison hundred years ago. He told me so. I die every twenty-nine years and Llywellyn comes to tell me about it. Then he leaves me be because I ask him to. No one can help me. No one can save me. So… Please leave.”

Her eyes were sad as she closed the door.

The amount of information that Lewis got was surprising. She knew so much about herself, and that was a boon in this situation. The curse was still in effect, and Llywellyn had saved her from the prison. No mention of Alvaro though, and that meant that the curse was still going strong. It was Angela who had broken the curse. All she needed was to have the curse broken.

“But I don’t have Angela…” He looked over at Xeik, who was still trying to find a way to contact Angela. “But…” He ran up to Xeik, surprising the healer. “Xeik! Can you break a powerful fae curse!?”

Xeik jumped a bit, surprised. “Y-yeah, I can…I think? What are we talking? Angela showed me a few tricks, but-”

“Xeik! You’re a fucking genius!” Lewis exclaimed. He ran back to the door, and pounded on it. “Simone! I can break your curse! I know how to do it!” That was the way out of this. That had to be.

Simone was curled up under the table trying to wait for the strange man to leave but he didn’t. He got the biggest eye roll from her as she crawled out from under the table. She got the broom and opened the door fully. Her eyes were still sad but she raised her arms.

“YOU ARE SO SKETCHY,” she started to beat Lewis with the broom. “You show up out of nowhere screaming my name, asking my name, and you are giving me PUPPY EYES. I don’t trust you!” She continued to beat on him before she saw Xeik.

“YOU BROUGHT AN ACCOMPLICE TO STEAL ME!” She went after Xeik now as she beat him. “BACK BEASTS!”

Lewis couldn’t believe how much the younger Simone was fighting back. Except, he almost could, since that was how she used to be before they saved her. He wondered though, if it would be easier to just kill her and reset her memory, but he immediately discarded the thought. Maybe when he was younger, that would have been an easy fix, but for now it wasn’t.

Xeik, on the other hand, had a reaction very unlike him. “Excuse me…what the hell ‘mone. Chill out! It’s me, Xe-..” That was when she started smacking him with the broom. “Damn it, I’m the Divine Mender, ambassador for the Goddess Angela. Can you just CALM DOWN FOR A MOMENT CAUSE MY LAZY ASS GODDESS WON’T ANSWER ME!”

“Woah,” Lewis said, a little surprised at Xeik’s outburst. “Can you…tone it down a bit, Xeik?”

“YOU’RE ONE TO TALK!” Xeik raged back. “WE JUST LANDED IN NEMESIS KNOWS WHAT KIND OF LAND, AND ALL YOU CAN FOCUS ON IS SAVING SIMONE.”

Lewis blinked. “Well…duh…” He sighed. “But you are right…she probably doesn’t even know me…which…” He stared at her for a moment. “It’s hard to explain, Simone…but I know you, because I saved you once before. I can’t…” He looked down. “My Simone is different from you. She was freed from the curse that binds you now, and she was able to grow into the person she’s always wanted to be…and…” He smiled at her. “All I want is that for you. A happy life…”

Xeik, it’s taken a bit to get through the mental fog that both Lewis and Simone have but if you want me to be lazy I can just go home and let you both figure this out alone. The voice spooked Simone and she waved the broom around like a seasoned veteran. She couldn’t place where the voice was coming from and backed up over a pot tripping herself onto the ground.

“Owie,” she laid there for a second. “So, I’m just supposed to believe some weird guy who showed up all excited to see me… When no one is excited to see me EVER.” Well, no one ever visited her so she wasn’t lying.

“Man, I think I got into those mushrooms again~” She got up and stared at the boys. “Well… Are you or are you not real.” She walked up to him and pulled up on his hair then pulled up on Xeik’s hair then she got her broom. She turned it around and started to poke Lewis with it.

“If you already have a Simone why do you want to save me so much? I don’t actually matter to you. I’m not the one you like.” She poked him some more. “I’m just a throw-away.”