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It was the fires that he remembered most vividly. The hellish blue flames that licked at his heels as he ran through the first, trying his hardest to escape the hatred and fury of their source. The two demons, their azure blue eyes glowing in the dark haunted had haunted his every dream every since that day.

Yet, he was spared. Pulled out in time, and hidden away for the day to take his revenge…

And that day was now.

“My king,” a voice said as a man stepped out of the shadows, kneeling in front of the throne. “The runes are in place, and the circle is made. All that is needed now is your power.” A scepter was presented, and the king grasped the hilt firmly. It was a tarnished silver, with emerald and sapphire gems on either end.

“My revenge…” The blue flames burned in his heart and in his mind as mana flooded the room. It took shapes, forming around the scepter, activating the trigger for the spell. “I will have my revenge, Terrowins…”

—

It was on the shores of Bennin that Lewis awoke, coughing and sputtering up water as he rolled over to see the clouded skies above him. The air felt heavy with magic; something had gone horribly wrong. There was already a crowd gathering, but the two bodies that had appeared seemed to go unnoticed. Instead, their focus was on the gaping hole in the lake were a great island once was. Water was already rushing to fill the void, but not quite fast enough.

“-mone…” Lewis called out weakly, still trying to catch his breath as he sat up. “Simone!?” He could see her body a mere few feet away, and he scrambled over to her side. He knew she was still alive, their resonant hearts beating in sync once more as he woke her up There were much bigger problems.

“Our home…our children. Simone, they’re gone.” Waves of different emotions crashed around in his heart. But one swelled high above the rest. One that he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Pure fury.

It was all happening so quickly, but Lewis forced everything down. Simone’s ring…he could feel it. The children were alive. It meant they had but one task ahead of them. Rescue their kids, and kill whoever did this.

Simone hated the feeling of being doused in water. It was something they had been working on very, very hard to get her over. So when she woke up she was coughing the water out of her lungs. She was disoriented.

“Our… Our babies,” she was clinging to Lewis now. The biggest concern was over their newborn. He was so small. The rage was fueling them both but they could do little about the situation right now.

“Simone! Lewis!” Lord Capell ran over. “What in the devils happened?”

“We don’t know… They are gone…” Simone looked out over the water with her eyes tearing up. “And we’re going to find out who did this and where they are.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” He had always been friendly with them as he helped Lewis get Simone up.

The mother thought about it, “We are afraid… You can’t help us much. Leave this to us for now.” She opened a portal for them once they were ready. They tore into Angela’s temple.

“ANGELA. ANGELA. ANGELA,” Simone was screaming as she tore through the temple opening up every door. She was sending herself into a panic attack. She fell to her knees in a sob for what they had lost. “Xeik…”

Angela was in her study with Xeik when the shouting started, “Xeik… Simone and Lewis are ripping apart the temple in a fury. Find out why.”

It took very little time for Xeik to find Simone and Lewis. It took even less time for him to determine that something had gone very, very wrong. Immediately, Xeik called for blankets and something warm, to which Lewis ignored and jumped at his friend, pulling him near by his shirt.

“I don’t need comfort. I need answers,” Lewis snapped. There was rage behind his words.

“You can’t do anything in your current state,” Xeik replied calmly. “So sit down before I make you.” It wasn’t an idle threat.

“Just you fu-” Lewis was cut off by a sudden gut punch, which sent Lewis to his knees.

“It’s about your kids,” the healer stated. “I get it. I really do. But you are in no shape to do anything about it. When was the last time you seriously went after someone? Been in a serious fight?” He looked to Simone with scolding eyes. “And you…I know you well, Simone. You work. You play. And you leave little time for rest…” The edge in his voice faded for a moment. “So please…sit down and talk to me, and rest.”

“Damn you and your rest,” Lewis managed to say, though he didn’t make an effort to ignore the blanket and warm broth that came moments later.

“Now. Start from the beginning…”


Lewis took a deep breath. “One moment, Simone and I are on the island…I was tending to the vineyard, and Simone was walking through the gardens. The next…we were waking up on the Benin shore, and the island was gone.”

“Gone?” Xeik questioned. He held up his hand, and opened a small portal. “I…that can’t be right…” He left for a moment to get Angela. He needed a second opinion…islands didn’t just disappear on a whim.

Simone had a blanket and she was trying to eat the broth. Xeik knew them both well enough. He was right that they were out of their league right now. “We can’t just leave them…” He said he understood.

It was almost like Xeik didn’t believe them. What came next was Angela inspecting what Xeik had just inspected a while ago. “Nope… That’s a missing island. A lot of power went into that. Have you two been making any enemies lately?”

“Lewis smacked the wood boy by mistake last week with a ladder. He trimmed the flowers in one of the gardens too low. I told Camille she was grounded for arguing with me again. And Cantrell is guilty of grumping about.” Simone was making the obvious point that if this was an enemy it was an old one.

“Xeik, start looking into the mana signature. Simone. Lewis. Rest. Then come see me for equipment. You can’t very well go empty-handed. Might I suggest that you visit old haunts and see if someone knows something?”

Simone’s eyes lit up, “We could go see if Jasper knows anything.”

"First, rest your bodies. You'll need it for what comes next. It will take me a bit to procure some equipment for you anyways."

Lewis stood up immediately, setting aside his half eaten broth. “No. Damn sitting around, I-”

Xeik shot him a glare from the other side of the room. “Sit. Down.”

Stubborn as always, Lewis gave Xeik a look, and then vanished through a portal, leaving Simone to merely smirk in response. It was the closest thing to a smile she had come to, but it quickly faded.

Lewis was gone for almost thirty minutes. During that time, Simone stayed quiet, but it was obvious that something was wrong with Jasper. When he came back, he had a solemn look on his face. “Jasper…is dead. But…he had something on him. An apology…” He threw the note down. “Whoever it is used him to get to us. And then silenced him.”

“Well if it makes you feel any better,” Xeik said as he picked up the letter and read it over, “I have some good news. It’s unlikely that he was the only one that was visited. The magic signature is something I’ve never seen before, but it does have a peculiar hint of phoenix magic. But not just any kind…”

“Night phoenix,” Lewis and Simone said immediately as they both jumped up.

“Just…go prepare yourselves, at least?” Xeik half begged. “I know you both aren’t in top shape…but you can at least borrow some spare equipment…”

“Spare equipment is for the birds,” Angela said as she came in. “I’ll have real equipment for you in the hour. In the meantime, Xeik… Make sure Simone is even capable of doing this.”

“Angela, I’m fine.” Simone began to argue but Angela put her hand up.

“You have a newborn. We need to make sure your body is healing correctly. I’m not going to stop you. I just need Xeik to look you over. This involves Lewis too after all. You are each other’s greatest strength and weakness. Don’t you forget about that.”

Simone pouted lightly before Angela directed her to sit where Xeik could look her over. “Give her some of my special tonic for healing mothers. It should help heal her the rest of the way. Normally, I like to just like these things take their course but obviously I can’t help you right now but in these few ways.”

Within the hour Simone was dressed for action as she did a few stretches. She ached in ways she never thought she would. “I’m not as limber as I used to be.” It was a mild complaint all things considered. She would just take a moment to slip back into it all. She wondered how dull their senses were.

She began to strap weapons to her thanks to Angela’s ready. “Ready Lewis?” Simone’s eyes were pure azure as she focused on her husband. “This could be a hell of a ride.”

Lewis took the time that he had and started warming up. He knew that the temple had a training facility, but he couldn’t be bothered to find it. Instead, he ran back and forth in the halls, which earned a scolding from one of the acolytes. He didn’t seem to care, though, and found other things to do. Pushups, sit ups, and other exercises were done in quick succession, but Lewis found himself winded and sore at the end of what he considered a ‘light’ warmup.

It was obvious he had become far too complacent. Still, when Simone met his eyes as she finished up her own preparations, he started to strap daggers and vials across his body like he had in the old days. He snapped his fingers as a catalyst, and his shadow danced around him, flickering.. “I’m…as ready as I’m ever going to be…” His azure eyes flared brightly as he looked at his wife.

“Good…now, I would come with you, but-”

“There’s nothing you can do,” Lewis said firmly. “You have your own issues…and we can’t come begging you for help on this. Besides…you’ve already given us everything we need.” He opened a portal. “We’ll leave you to it…”

As the portal closed behind Lewis and Simone, Xeik let out a worried sigh. “I saw Lewis practicing with his throwing skill using table knives…he missed every single shot. And Simone? I doubt she could light a candle in her state…” He couldn’t help but smirk. “I’d sure hate to be on the receiving end of whatever they’ll pull out of their asses this time, though…”