(Thread takes place before they kill the fey lord the first time)

Lewis had been gone a full day for a job. How much could that one day prove to change? Their relationship was steady and they weren’t screaming at each other like they used to. There was effort being made to make sure miscommunications didn’t happen but still they each had their quirks. Lewis wasn’t going to change overnight. He was still reeling from Simone and there was the fact she was eventually no longer going to exist. This fact was invisible to the Simone in front of him. She had no idea she was going to die.

The job for Lewis hadn’t been overly long but it was exhausting causing him to use the stairwell once more instead of gating into the common room of their living space. The moment he opened the door he would be met with the smell of death. Corpse stink filled the air much like it had the first time he encountered Simone.

Blood was splashed over the room. There were varying degrees of old blood to new blood signifying that it had happened throughout the day. The room was trashed. Doors were flung open. Weapons, poisons, clothes were strung about as if someone was in a panic.

Crying came from the rooms upstairs. His room was turned upside down. Blood thickly coated the bedsheets with a pungent odor of old blood. In the corner was a hysterical Simone who was trying to cry. No tears were coming out but she was hyperventilating all the same.

Once the door opened her eyes snapped to and she got up smashing into everything she had hysterically opened up. She was cutting herself, her dress, and moreover, she was still bleeding. She ran from one end of the room to the other corner to get away from Lewis. Her eyes were scared. “WHO ARE YOU?! Where am I?!”

It was a struggle to get up the stairs. By the time he managed to get to the top, he was exhausted, and it took a minute before he opened the door. He wasn’t quite ready to show that kind of weakness in front of Simone just yet. Something was off, though. The smell. He could smell death coming from the room. Without hesitating more, he burst into the foyer of the tower, his eyes wide.

Something had happened here. But this was Lord Raith’s realm, which meant it was impossible for anyone to have simply broken in. It was either a follower or Raith, or Raith himself. Lewis drew his daggers, and prowled carefully into the room. He would fight, even if it meant going against a God. Simone was just that important.

Lewis started to check Simone’s room, but crying was coming from his room. A trap? Possibly. He carefully moved up the stairs, and pushed the door open. All that met him, though, was a panicked Simone. She was cut to pieces, though it seemed mostly self inflicted at this point, and she was screaming bloody murder. At once, he rushed over to her, ignoring the things she had tossed at him. Immediately her eyes widened as Lewis approached, and without warning she leapt for the window, and jumped.

“Damnit!” Lewis didn’t even think, and followed her out of the window. As always, he was prepared for assassinations, which meant he had a rope dart on hand. The application, in this instance, was ironic as he threw it in an arc, wrapping it around Simone. It was a struggle, but she was close enough that it was easy to grab her.

Gate! Nothing. What little mana he had was exhausted from the job. “Fuck…” Lewis had but a moment to think of something, otherwise the two of them would splat on the ground. At once, surprisingly, the Goddess of Life and Love came to mind. Why it was her, and not Lord Raith was a mystery.

“ANGELA! HELP!” Would she arrive in time? Was she even allowed in here? Lord Raith very well may kill him for even asking.

Panic, there was only one thing that was written across her face. “DON’T TOUCH ME!” She took whatever she could to stop his advance as she threw objects at him. Simone rushed for the window almost immediately. She had zero hesitation in looking at Lewis and then outside before tossing herself over the edge. Her instinct was almost painful to watch because these survival tactics were ingrained in her. Lewis knew that.

When he called out for Life and Love there was a light sound in his mind. “I hear you. I hear you. Calm down Young Lewis… These things take a little time. I can’t just poof into another God’s realm. Give me a few moments.”

A few moments. She was calm too. Simone was screaming and half of her was trying to fight against Lewis’s grip on her. Finally, a shrub grew and caught both of them. “There. I got you.”

“Let me go,” Simone struggled against him as soon as the falling stopped. “I don’t know you.” She started to slap him and kick him with what little strength she had left.

The fact that Simone was fighting him that she had been reset. That was a problem within itself, but for the time being her resistance was aggravating at best. He could easily restore her memories, but at this point he had no idea how she would react, or how long she had been alive since her last death. That was just a bad combination. He pulled out a vial of something, and forced it down Simone’s mouth with scary ease. It didn’t take but a moment for her to immediately pass out in his arms.

“Lady Angela…” Lewis looked around. Her magic was here, but she wasn’t. “Someone attacked Simone. Or…at least, I think someone did.” But now that Simone was taken care of, Lewis was replaying the scene in his mind. No forced entry. Gating into Raith’s realm was nearly impossible without his approval. And Lewis’ tower had charms and protection spells, none of which seemed to have been set off.

“No…” Lewis closed his eyes. All of the damage had been caused by someone panicking. Simone. “She died…without being killed.” A long distance spell? No. That would have been impossible in a God’s realm. “Lady Ang-” When Lewis opened his eyes, there was a shimmering portal in front of him with a red string leading back to his finger.

“Fine…” He picked up Simone, and walked into the portal and into Elysium, where Lady Angela awaited him.

Simone was trying to fight the vial but she was weak compared to Lewis. She easily passed out in his arms. “Hmm…” Once more Angela’s voice came to his mind. “I just checked something…” Her voice was a tad alarmed.

Once he was in Elysia she beckoned him to follow her, “Such a troubling girl.” There was a bed made in the infirmary and Angela instructed she be put down. “Here change her into this.” She handed him a nightgown. “You’ve seen her naked so I’m not gonna go on and on about her modesty.” She rolled her eyes a little.

She had a few papers in her hands that she seemed to be studying. “This…” A few numbers appeared above Simone as Lewis changed her and laid her in bed. “Is her death clock. Every being in the world has one. Some like me have ours stopped because of our immortality.” Simone’s number was on seven. “That’s not years, months, or days… It’s hours. Her death clock has been sped up. I looked into it immediately when you told me she died without being attacked.”

“She’s being manipulated and in order for that to happen… Normally the person who put the curse on has to be with the person who is cursed. That’s not the case. At least at first, I didn’t think that was the case.” Angela set the paperwork down. “The fey lord has a piece of her. That he tore out of her. From that, it seems like he is manipulating the clause in the curse about how long she gets to live.”

Her eyelashes batted softly as she looked down at Simone. “So let’s take a look at what he did.” She summoned the full contract of the curse to appear before him. “Ah.” The line where she only lived until twenty-nine was crossed off. Eight hours were put in its place. “No wonder she was so freaked out. I don’t know when he revised it to be this low.”

As Lewis changed Simone into the nightgown, he tried to focus on Lady Angela’s explanation, but it was a bit hard for him to follow. In the end, he stared at the number floating above Simone, and then stared at Lady Angela. He cleared his throat, and closed his eyes. “So basically…she’s dying every eight hours because the Fae Lord just…changed her contract? Last time I checked, contacts don’t just get changed.”

Of course, Lewis had no idea how an actual magic contract worked. It was far more complicated, and something that he would probably never understand. Merely being able to read one properly took a few years and some heavy studying. The assassin crossed his arms.

“What the hell am I supposed to do about it? Can you change it back?” Of course, it wasn’t that simple either. This one, though, Lewis knew. If she couldn’t break the contract, there was no way she could amend it either. It simply wasn’t something she could risk due to the clauses stated. Or…whatever it meant.

In the end, there wasn’t much Lewis could do past try to hunt the Fae Lord down faster. Which, speaking of… “Have you managed to figure out how to hunt that bastard down?”

“Like I said… You would have to have the contractee in front of you. It’s insanely hard to change a contract and impossible if you don’t have the person in front of you. Which means he’s using the piece of her he stole to do it. Even now he’s violating her to get his way.” Angela’s eyes grew dark and she sighed a bit. There was very little she could do about this.

“What I can do… Is make it so if you aren’t near her she doesn’t wake up if something were to happen. Making the necklace I gave you a key. It will at least stabilize her but it won’t stop the deaths. I can feel his rage from here just off the contract. I know she was locked away… I think he realizes she went missing now and he can’t find her because she’s in a god’s realm. So this is his way of ousting her from hiding. Thinking that whoever has her is just going to throw her away and be done with it.”

She put her finger under her chin and watched Simone. “He’s banking on you throwing her away. Once she reappears outside the walls of the realm he’ll make a move.” Once he asked if she tracked him down she shook her head. “He has to be in the air. My suggestion? Rhenakos and going to see if Simone can’t remember something in Auclair. You’ll need his actual name to track him down. I can mask her for a little bit if she leaves but there's a time limit.”

The fact that the Fae Lord was still manipulating things, even now. That was a hard pill to swallow, and that merely pissed Lewis off. The Fae Lord was a hell of a coward, and a fool if he thought something like this would make Lewis merely toss her aside like a broken toy.

Lewis’ first thought was to use a piece of her as bait, but Lady Angela’s suggestion was far better. “Rhenakos is an idiot, but he’s a good tracker. And he can hold his own in an actual fight if it came to it…” It wasn’t a bad call, and the demon hunter owed him. “I don’t like it…but there really isn’t a better option at the moment.” He ran his hand through Simone’s hair, and sighed.

“Fine. I need a little time to prepare. If you can keep her here, for now…” It was a lot to ask the Goddess, and he wasn’t even a part of her temple. “All right. Use the necklace as the key…” He grabbed the pendant, and handed it over to her. “I’ll make my preparations. It should take…about a day or so.” Lord Raith’s missions could wait. This was more important.

Angela nodded to him and took the necklace from him. “That sounds reasonable. I can keep her here. Lewis,” her eyes flickered up to him. “You are well aware of the consequence of invoking me in Raith’s realm correct?”

Her eyes looked away, “Don’t worry so much. If you need a place to go that’s safe for her– You are more than welcome to Elysia. I’ve grown fond of the girl.” She looked at Simone and watched the soft moment that Lewis was having with Simone.

She went over to work on a few salves. “Lewis,” Angela had her back to him. “When Simone finally dies…” She bit her lip a little and sighed. “You are welcome to my fold. I’m well aware of your occupation. It doesn’t bother me. Matters of the heart shouldn’t be cause for conflict… I’m aware of…” She couldn’t say it. “If for some reason you find yourself with no place to go. You can come here. Even if Simone is not with you.”

Lewis was fully aware of the consequences that he would face for invoking Angela’s power in Lord Raith’s realm. Those were consequences he could face. What surprised him, though, was the tenderness that came from Lady Angela over the whole ordeal. An assassin like him was the antithesis of life.

Yet Life and Death are two sides of a coin. Perhaps it’s merely not that simple. It was possibly true. The reality was, though, that the Goddess had offered him a place should his tenure with Lord Raith end. It was comforting, to say the least, that he at least had a place to stay should a problem arise.

“Thanks,” Lewis said. It was hard to admit, but he was truly thankful. Lewis started to leave, and then fell to one knee, the world spinning. He hadn’t had a chance to rest yet, and even now he was pushing himself to keep moving.

“Can…can you open a gateway back…?” Lewis stood up, visibly shaking.