When one became ageless, time started to mean less and less. It was one of those things that started to slowly slip away, until the concept of it was hard to grasp. It had been a full month before Lewis and Simone realized that they had not heard from Angela, nor Xeik. Normally, Xeik was on Koskaan at least once a week, and Angela was always finding excuse after excuse to study the effects of various drugs, potions, and other what-nots on a night phoenix.

The two found themselves curious at the lack of, admittedly, unwanted attention. For a few days, the two basked in the idea that maybe, just maybe, the Goddess of Life and Love was finally finished tormenting them. Yet, there was something gnawing away at their curiosity. Just what was she up to? Where was Xeik? What was happening? The discussions that Simone and Lewis held were vast, intricate, and at times even dangerous. Yet, in the end, they finally settled upon a decision of what to do.

And so, with one month and one week having passed with no contact from Elysia, the two bravely stepped forward into the portal between their realms, and found themselves standing in Xeik’s office.

A rather bored Mia was sitting there, listfully flipping pages of a book as Myrri cooed from her lap. When she noticed Lewis and Simone, her eyes lit up, as if she had been waiting for something; anything to alleviate her boredom. She tugged at Simone, practically pulling her and Lewis towards a room that neither of them had been in before.

When the door opened, they were met with a rather insane sight. The room was filled with desks of paper and books, scattered all about. There were boxes of what looked like half eaten meals scattered across one table in the back. From the back of the room, the two could hear hurried, excited chatter between what they assumed were the Goddess and Xeik. Lewis cleared his throat, and there was a pause between the chatter.

Xeik’s head popped up from a desk, and papers went everywhere. A book fell off, and hit the floor hard. “Oh…it’s just Lewis.” His hair was an absolute rat’s nest of a mess, and there were dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept in days. Despite this, there was an air of excitement buzzing around him. “Guys…you have to see this!”

Simone was very curious about what was going on. Their life became mundane without the Goddess and Xeik which made problems. They were getting bored… The unwanted attention they were used to getting was suddenly gone. Xeik and Angela were like their constant companions.

“Daddy is busy,” Myrri spoke up with a frown. “Lots of busy.”

Angela snapped upright just like Xeik and her books went everywhere. Her hair was in a messy bun of red and her eyes were just as tired as Xeik’s. “And Simone,” Angela said it with excitement. “Yes! You must see what WE found!”

Simone tilted her head, “Is this like when you found Everett?”

“No, Everett was for you. This is for the world,” the goddess was like a giddy little girl as she ran over to a board and pointed at their notes. “We brought a few home with us. Xeik open the enclosure.”

Xeik did some magic and there was a window to a wildlife sanctuary in the room. “They are a type of lemur.” Angela pointed to one that was hanging off a branch.

“They look weird…”

“That’s the extra skin… They glide Simone! GLIDE! I was trying to find information on them but there isn’t any. Xeik accidentally found a nest of them when we went on our expedition…” She tried to think.

“It was a month ago…” Simone answered.

“Has it really been a month?” She looked at Xeik. “Did you know?”

At Angela’s behest, he opened a window into the wildlife sanctuary that they had created for the newly discovered species. The new type of lemur was quite the odd looking creature. To most who would have seen it, they wouldn’t have noticed much different from a regular critter in a rainforest. But to Xeik and Angela….

“Indeginous to the western part of the Laeto, and only really active during the night. They’re incredible creatures, Lewis.” Xeik opened up a book and started scribbling down some notes before setting it back down. It looks like a lemur, but it’s actually a colugo.” His excitement was met with blank stares from both of the Terrowins, and a bored yawn from Mia. “Simone…it can glide! It has a fully functional, fur covered membrane that lets it catch air and glide between trees when it hunts! They’re vaguely social with each other, living in small groups…it’s really quite fascinating!”

“Okay,” Lewis replied as he glanced between the excited Xeik, and the hyperactive Angela. “So…why is this important?”

“They glide.”

Lewis sighed, and shook his head. “You mean to tell me that in the last month, you’ve been…researching a rodent?”

Xeik thought for a moment. “A month…”

Both Simone and Lewis nodded. It seemed like Angela was struggling with that too.

“Could have sworn that was just a week ago when I-”

There were a flurry of hand signs from Mia, fast enough that even Lewis and Simone had issues keeping up. Xeik gave a concerned look, and then a sheepish smile. “Oh…right…it was. I guess it has been a month.” He glanced at the window into the wildlife sanctuary. “But guys… they’re so cool. They can GLIDE.”

“Yes, forgive me. It is a colugo.” Angela waved her hand. “I’m just tired.”

“Xeik…” Simone looked at him. “And I’m a shape-shifting bird that can fly and set a building on fire with fire that doesn’t extinguish easily. There are only six of my kind that we care about. Now–”

“Are you jealous?” Angela looked at Simone.

“N-NO!” Simone blushed and looked at them. “We were just worried about what you were doing.”

“Besides this glides…” Angela put emphasis on the word.

“Lewis could only glide for the first month of being a night phoenix. What’s your point?” Simone folded her arms. “Xeik, when was the last time you played with Myrri?”

It was almost disheartening that the Terrowin family wasn’t quite sharing in their enthusiasm, but that didn’t seem to deter Xeik too much. He opened another book, and scribbled down some notes. “I don’t think you understand…mammals like this can’t gli-”

That was when Simome dropped her bomb. The moment Myrri’s name came up, Xeik looked between Mia, and the boy in her arms, who seemed like he was enamoured with the larger room.

“Oh, you’re right/!” Xeik ran over to the other side of the room, and immediately took Myrri. “My baby boy…I missed you!” He doted over his son for a moment, getting a giggle out of Myrri. Moments later, though, he was back on the other side of the room, holding Myrri up to the one way magic gate that showed the new species.

“Look Myrri! It’s exciting. They glide. You want to know one of the craziest theories we came up with? Hot air. It was silly to even think about it, Myrri. Can you imagine them blowing up like balloons to float away?”

Myrri giggled at the thought. “No Daddy, that’s silly!”

Simone made a face and looked at Lewis, “We’ve lost them…”

“We’re scientists… Remember Lewis you were the one who wanted me to craft Xeik into someone who wanted to live. I’ve given him a purpose.”

“Sooooo, you are telling me this is my fault?” Lewis asked.

Mia tilted her head and she started to do hand signs at Xeik before she started to cry and run off. “Way to go Xeik…” Simone made a face at her. “Xeik, you need to go spend time with your wife. When was the last time you held her hand, kissed her, or even slept with her?”

Once more the thought hit her, “Why am I giving you relationship advice?! YOU ARE LITERALLY THE MAN FOR THE JOB! Why do you suck at it?!” Simone yelled at him.

Simone sighed a bit and put her hands on her hip, "Angela… Why aren't you explaining to him?"

"Xeik needs to learn on his own how to balance work and life. My husband is used to it and my children come and go from the room. Both him and Mia need to learn how to deal with things like this. For god sakes, I told Lewis not to kill you and he still did… Then he blamed me for not telling him."

“Mia? MIA WAIT!” Xeik called, running out of the room after her.

“Well that was…rather anti-climatic,” Lewis stated with a smirk. It was true what Angela was saying about Xeik, and about Lewis. Neither of them were good at listening to advise, and instead found themselves learning better from experience and mistakes. Which was rather tragic when it came to both of their roles in life, when one thought about it hard enough.

“Wait…what about your husband?” Lewis asked. “Why hasn’t the grim God himself shown up and dragged you away?” He wasn’t trying to start a fight, but it seemed almost unbalanced between Angela and Xeik. Almost unfair. “I mean, I have little room to argue… Simone and I can’t be away from each other for more than half a day…”

This was also true. Both of them had an extreme form of separation anxiety, though most of that was manifested from their resonance and how it worked. Distance was a weird thing when your other half was quite literally your ‘other half’.

“Oh, he will come in here and pick me up and drag me away. He is just patient. After a bit, he will get tired of it and he will come and get me. Raine will flag the help flag at some point. She’s been handling things but also this is the slow season.”

Angela wrote a few more things down and she sighed, “Nemesis and I are also thousands of years old. Xeik and Mia aren’t. This is a crucial point in time for them. Most young couples don’t stay together for hundreds of years for love. They forget why they are together in the first place. They become complacent. They fall out of love. They forget the person they love grows as a person too. When you are older you rarely change. The person you love is the person you love.”

Simone tilted her head, “What about me and Lewis?” Simone was curious about her relationship now. What would happen to them?

Putting down her quill she looked up at Lewis and Simone. There was a brief smile. “You two could probably never not be in love. Everything you are is everything the other will be. The more I explore what you two are, the more I’m convinced there is something like soulmates that can last forever. It’s rare because it’s meant to be.”

“Don’t soulmates… I don’t know… Don’t they always exist?”

“No,” Angela looked out at the enclosure. “In a hundred years, those animals won’t be the same ones we see now. Not likely anyways but it could happen. Soulmates require you to work on what you have. You become a different person and suddenly the person you were tied to isn’t the person you were with anymore. Your soul mate changes as you change. So if you want to be with Lewis forever… You need to keep the spark and love alive.”

It was, perhaps, the most that either of them had heard Angela speak on the subject of love. It was quite interesting for the two to finally be on the receiving end of the advice instead of having to give it. Lewis smirked, and crossed his arms.

“I don’t think we’ll have any issues when it comes to that,” he said as he glanced at his wife. “I haven’t gone a day without learning something new in our lives. Whether it be something silly, like Teagan liking watermelons, or things like…” He waved his hands, “Whatever these flying rats are.” It seemed as though Simone shared the same sentiment about the rare and exoitc flying lemurs.

Which, in all fairness, most non-science nerds would.

“”It’s always something with the two of us. We either agree, or disagree and discuss. And it’s always fun and exciting.” Lewis glanced at the books. “Which reminds me…” he picked up one of the books that Xeik had been writing in. “Simone, help me write some absurd lemur fact in Xeik’s handwriting so he thinks he wrote it.”

“That tends to happen when you have children the way you two do. Children are unique pieces of artwork. Each one has a different personality and gives different insights to life. I’m so proud of the way you both have grown as people.”

“That warms my cold dead heart,” Simone said coolly as she helped her husband write stuff down. “It should be about how they have to mate dearest. The size of their litters.” She was giggling with Lewis.


“Are you two the ones who wrote that absurd note to Xeik three years ago?” Angela was watching them. Lewis started to laugh and Simone was starting to giggle.

“The one where… We told him that there was a rare fallen star event happening? He literally sat outside for hours…”

“He got mad at me about that…”

“Shocked he never thought about it being us… We stayed up all night and watched him and Mia get upset about it. They ended up having angry sex about it and we had to leave~”

“Yeah, I didn’t need to know about that but Xeik was upset at me,” Angela smirked. “It was kind of funny.”

“More than kind of.”