Simone was in a straight panic now as she put Lewis on her back, “I’ll be home shortly… Please take care of the other kids.” There was panic in her voice as she opened a portal. Lewis had barely gotten home to them before collapsing. It was a potent poison.

Carrying him into Elysia she was immediately met with Raine who must have sensed her. “LET ME HELP YOU!” The phoenix helped her carry Lewis to Angela who was trying to get a table ready.

“Set him here,” Angela helped lay him down before stripping off his shirt. “What kind of poison?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t with him. He was on a job,” Simone was almost in tears and her heart was hurting. “Please, you have to help him.”

“Resonance, Simone resonance might help him… It will take me time to make a tonic but you might be able to get it faster. Your resonance needs to be stronger. It’s only half as strong as it can be because he connected to you but not the other way around. You’ll have to go into his mind… It will be dangerous just like it was for him.” Angela had Simone’s face in her hands.

“Do it. I’ll do anything, please… Let me save my husband,” Simone was trying to calm down.

“Alright,” Angela pushed a bed next to Lewis and had Simone lay down. Putting their hands together Angela was hesitant. “Please, be safe.”

“I’ll be fine. It might just be rough.” The next thing she knew she was being plunged into the darkness of his mind.

It was completely dark as Simone fell. In stark contrast to the warmth that Angela’s realm provided, this place was cold and felt isolating. It felt like an eternity as she fell, but finally her feet found a solid ground. Off in the distance was a small, lit area with a silver haired boy, no older than four or five, huddled against a wall. There was snow falling around him, but he wasn’t dressed for it. There was a dead look in his eyes, and despite the chill, he didn’t shiver.

From behind Simone, there was a voice that sounded like Lewis. “Why are you here?” he asked as a younger Lewis walked past her. “You don’t belong here.” He glanced back. “But knowing you, you aren’t going to leave.” The boy sighed, and pointed to his much younger self. “Did you know about him? That boy over there? He was the typical noble bastard. An unwanted child born of an affair. The nobleman was terrified that he would be found out, so he had our mother killed. The assassin…for whatever reason, left us alive.”

“I watched her die, you know. She choked on her own blood. There were tears in her eyes, but…you know…when you’re so young, you don’t know how to process it. I merely watched her die. I didn’t know better. I couldn’t.” He sighed. “It wasn’t normal. I wasn’t normal. When the authorities came, they threw me into Hoja’s streets to fend for myself. Only, I didn’t care. I survived on my own for awhile, but for the most part, it was a lifeless world. Nothing mattered to me.”

The ‘guide’ Lewis scoffed. “This isn’t anything like your world, full of horrors and death. There isn’t some magic key to fix anything. No evil sins to defeat…” The boy shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you the first damn thing about what you’re even here for.” He turned to Simone. “You know… we regard Xeik as something less than us…but you know, he saved me. I hate to admit it, but when he showed up….he was my world. He gave me a reason to live…”

Simone watched the scene unfold before her and she had heard the story lots before. Noblemen in her father’s circle and how much he loathed men like that. “No, you never told me.” Her eyes looked around looking for where the voice was coming from. “But you are right about me not leaving. I have a job to do.”

Finally, when she found him Simone turned to him. Her hand was on her hip as she tilted her head. “I’m not looking to fix you Lewis but you are going to die if I can’t connect with you. You are you just as I am me.” There a disgruntled sigh from her. “This is hard not being able to pull from you.” How emotional she was in this new form… She had never realized it until now.

“From what I can tell Xeik is a good-natured boy but his vision doesn’t see the world in shades of gray. It sees them in black and white. We are different than he is. It doesn’t make him below us but it does make him different. I will never tell you how to feel though.”

Simone didn’t attempt to touch him but her eyes were full of worry, “Let me experience the full you. It might help me connect with you fully to help the resonance. You appear to know who I am which is a good thing for me.”

The guide Lewis shrugged. “I’m just here to lead you to where you want to go.” He pointed to the younger boy in the snow. “First thing’s first, though…is you have to deal with that.” Lewis thought for a moment. “If you had seven sins to deal with, then we can assume that I have the same. If we needed to give him a name….then this is Sloth. The one who refuses to act.> He led Simone over to Sloth.

“This apathy was broken by two people…” Lewis knelt down and looked into Sloth’s dead eyes. “First, it was Terrance. He came with a proposition. He taught me to steal. Well…more commanded me to. When I failed, he beat me. Then, came Xeik. He stood up for me, and talked Terrance down. Turns out, I was a good thief. Terrance was just a shit teacher.” He smirked. “Long story short…it was Xeik who broke that apathy.”

He stood up, and turned to Simone. “So…you want to connect? You want to experience me? How is that supposed to work?” He looked to Sloth. “Maybe…touch him? Would that do it? To feel what he feels?” He looked over. “With the resonance…it might work.”

Simone took a deep breath and nodded, “Well, might as well get started. No point in complaining about it.” She started to walk with the guide Lewis and bent down with him. It made her sad to see a child like this.

She stood up with Lewis and looked him in the eyes, “I don’t know. The goddess doesn’t explain anything. She just sends us in as always. If I know you and I do know you… I’ll figure it out. I just have to learn all of you, not just the current you. Like you did me.”

No time like the present.

Simone got back down and she scooped up the little Lewis in her arms. She held him close as their children liked. “Hey Lewis~” She sat down on the ground and just held him. She was quiet and she closed her eyes. Focusing on her heartbeat she projected it the best she could towards him. Whatever he did she could take. She had to. "I hate seeing you like this. It doesn't surprise me but I hate it…" Her voice was so sad.

The resonance brand on Simone’s back tingled for a moment, and at once she started to feel what he was feeling. That cold, dark alone feeling that she once knew from so long ago. The isolation of not being able to feel, or understand anything around him, or why he was even allowed to exist. The apathy mixed with contempt for his own existence. This was what Lewis had felt for years, knowing that his life was meant to be forfeit from the start. He wasn’t wanted, wasn’t needed…

It was an overwhelming feeling, one that if left unchecked could swallow you whole. A spiral that, once started, would end only in self depreciation and worse. Sure, he was alive, but he wasn’t living. He was merely a husk. It was Terrance who took advantage of that, and through that vile man, he had met Xeik…

For Simone, it was a familiar reprieve from the isolation. A small glimmer of something. For Lewis, it was something to cling to. A reason. And so, he did. He learned from Xeik, idolized him for whatever reason. It was what pulled him from that empty life, and into something more.

The world around them brightened, and when Simone opened her eyes, she found herself in Hoja Mesto. The streets were busy with trade as always. But, while this may have appeared as Hoja, there was something strange. The people around them were fading in and out, as if barely there. And, of course, there was the guide behind her.

“Well…you did something,” Lewis said as he crossed his arms. “But where are we now? This is Hoja, but…that doesn’t explain much…” He looked down the alleyway. “There’s the tavern where the thieves guild was…and there are doors here that look…well…” He pointed. There was a door on the street that looked like the one to his room in the Observatory. There were others like it.

“Maybe they lead to different times and memories…” He looked to Simone. “Take a pick, I guess?”

She found herself in an unfamiliar place. She had never been to Hoja Mesto before and she took a breath. “Maybe it's because I want you and need you. The kids do too but I obviously can’t speak for them right now.” There was a deep breath and she took steps in stride. “We might as well for the first door and work our way from there… There’s no point in skipping over doors.”

Looking to the Observatory door she shook her head, “That one will be last.” She didn’t know what she would find… but she would start with the closest.

It did make her freeze though as her hand touched the door. “This door… Is really familiar…” She looked back to Lewis. “Stay close. Okay?” She would need to protect him as he did her. At least that’s what she hoped.

Opening it up she found herself in a familiar castle. A familiar place. “Home sweet… home.” It was Auclair castle. “Awesome.” Picking up her skirts she moved quickly into the space trying to make heads or tails of what this was. “Hello?” Was it a bad thing to make her presence known?

Guess she would find out.

The guide Lewis looked around. “Weird…didn’t expect this.” The area was familiar to him, but at the same time, he wasn’t entirely sure why they were here. Simone making her presence known made no difference, but as she explored she found a strange room. In it were seven versions of Lewis, all the same age. Each of them was looking into a mirror, and reflected back was one of each of the seven deadly sins that he faced of Simone.

The guide took one look, and shook his head. His eyes were wide with something close to fear. “No. I’m leaving. This is…” he looked to Simone. “This was your fault…” He exited the room, slamming the door behind him. It made a clicking sound, and it was clear that Simone was not allowed to leave.

The first of the Lewis’ was looking into the mirror, showing when he was raped by countless Simone’s. It was the moment that the spark ignited, a seed of lust planted in the back of his mind to grow and grow. The second, was the Sloth. The exhaustion that set in, giving the seed a chance to sprout and grow. And then Green and Envy. It was those two mirrors that reflected the same thing: killing them, and the strange bloodlust that awakened. The only thing that curbed it was ravaging a willing Guide Simone, something that was the equivalent of a sexual awakening. It was the third Lewis that turned to meet Simone’s eye.

“They call it Lust,” he said as he drew the bone dagger. “It was you who showed me what it was…how good it felt…” He smiled. “Did you know…that by the fourth or fifth version of Simone that took me…I was enjoying it? It broke me…and then remade me. It altered the way I saw the world….the way I saw you. I hated you. I wanted you. I needed you…but then, killing Greed and Envy? I needed more of you…so much more….”

The other Lewis’ seemed to notice that Simone was in the room now, turning their attention to her. “Seven versions of Lust…seven of us that derived the ultimate pleasure of taking you in the most powerful way…taking your life.” He raised the dagger to her. “Do you understand how that feels? That uncontrollable desire, that need for someone? It wasn’t love…at least, not at first. It was a primal hunger for you…it was the most intense feeling we had ever felt…”

“Even now…that’s all we want…” The first one was close to her, his lips a mere fraction away from hers. “Just you. All of you…”

“That makes two of us.”

She didn’t blame the guide for leaving her. In a lot of ways the way, Lewis was now… Was her fault. There was a deep breath from her as she looked at what her sins had put him through. She felt bad but she was glad that he had carried on. She was glad that the Guide and he fell in love. She had him now and she wanted him forever. To get that she would need to do whatever she had to.

She moved slowly to look into the mirrors more before the third Lewis finally noticed her. She listened to the way he spoke to her and she could only vaguely understand why the Lust portion of her put him through what she did. It wasn’t to make him like it but to show how broken she had become.

His words were ringing in her ears as her eyes laid on the bone dagger he had. It was made from her own body. That was something only the two of them knew. “Of course, I know how to feels.” Her voice was but as whisper as she pushed herself just a bit closer to the first Lewis. “Every day, I can’t live without you and I died wanting you. Every day that I waited for you to bring me back – I wanted you more than anything else and I couldn’t have you.”

Her voice was tender but it was loud enough for the others to see it. “Because you are the only person I want. All of you just like you want all of me. Until the end of time. For eternity. You know this. Can you feel it still?”

She hoped with a push of the resonance that she could get somewhere. She just didn’t know where she would go. “You know I want only you. There's no one else I would rather have.”

The first Lewis smiled at her as she spoke. Her words of tenderness and caring were appreciated, but it wasn’t quite what they wanted. But it was fine. This was enough for the moment, but only for a moment.

“Then you would let us take you here? All of us?” All of you?” There was a hunger in his words. Simone knew what they wanted, and she was more than willing to allow it. She nodded, spreading her arms as if an invitation to a feast. That was all they needed.

At once, Lewis’ lips were on hers. The others moved in, hands caressing her exposed arms. When the first broke the kiss, he took a step back as the other Lewis’ took their sweet time helping Simone remove her dress, tossing it to the side. Underneath, she had been wearing a surprise for Lewis, one that she had forgotten about in the panic. It was a burgundy colored lace top, designed to show almost everything in a see through lace, but just barely covered her nipples. A lace sheen came down, covering her belly and matching panties, showing off her form to the hungry Lewis’ that coveted her.

“Well?” she asked. “It was for you…”

The first Lewis smirked, “It suits you well…” He pushed another kiss onto her, shoving her against the wall as he nipped at her lips. He trailed these tiny bits and kisses down her neck, taking his time to breath her scent in as he skipped over her breasts and moved to her panties, pulling them down. Two of the other Lewis’ on each side grabbed Simone’s arms, pinning them above her head. One of them pressed his lips to hers, while the other waited for his opportunity.

The one at her feet tapped her legs, getting her to spread them enough to give him access. It took little time for his tongue to find its way to her clit, dancing around it as she writhed against the other two’s restraints. Still teasing, the one on his knees starting to lightly scratch and play with her exposed legs, sending more sensational shivers throughout.

Finally, though, he needed more, and starting to eat her out in earnest. His tongue focused on her clit, first in small circles. As she squirmed and writhed with pleasure, she moaned into the other Lewis’ kisses. But this was barely just the start of it.