“I can handle it,” Simone reassured Lewis.

“Are you sure? They are little deviants,” Lewis gave her a smile and kissed her.

“Shut up and go work on your grapes before I work on you.” She kissed him back and smirked.

The house in Mamlak had just gotten rebuilt after the situation with Hazel and Rex. “Alright my little terrorists. Today Mommy has a very important guild meeting at the bookstore. Okay?”

Three days later Mone’s hair was out of place. Lewis had come to save her almost every day that they were there in Mamlak. “I’m so sorry.”

“Not your fault that babies are doing what babies do,” Lewis kissed Lila who he handed off to Simone. “Hopefully no more cabbage stalls get ruined.”

“They’ve been wrecking the market place… I feel like I’m going to get banned.”

“I can always kill the stall owners,” Lewis smirked and Mone just laughed with a shake of her head.

“Go play in your grapes. I’ll call you if I need you,” Mone kissed him gentle and helped the twins walk. Janus sat on his butt and looked up at his mother. “Really? You have to walk honey…”

“No,” Janus yelled.

“YESSSSS,” Lila yelled back at her twin brother.

Simone rolled her eyes and put Janus on her hip, “Fine, you win today.” She got them into the marketplace and soon Janus was down and totting next to his sister. “You can explore a little bit but not a lot.” Simone walked behind them as they explored and babbled at each other. She reacted a bit too late as Lila pulled down a net holding fruit with Janus’s help.

“MY FRUIT,” the stall owner yelled.

Lila picked up a watermelon and was munching on it.

“NO,” Simone panicked and she talked with the stall owner before handing silver over. “Look what you two did.”

“Not it,” Lila held her lips out before putting more watermelon in her mouth.

It had been a long time since she had visited Mamlak, and with word coming in that something was causing problems there, she decided now was a good time to head there. She had arrived only a couple of hours ago, walking into the city and starting to look around. She did draw a few eyes to her, because the armour she was wearing was rather unusual. To everyone looking at her, it was clear she was female, and the steel armour, lined with gold accents, was a standout. It covered her upper body fully, and the helm had a face plate on it that hid the wearer’s face, even her eyes were hidden in the shadow within the helm. Making identifying her nearly impossible.

The female knight walked along the street, casually chatting with people here and there asking how things had been in the city as of late. According to them a few small incidents had happened, so she was starting to get the feeling that perhaps things she had heard had been exaggerated?

“MY FRUIT!” Someone yelled.

The knight turned in the direction the yell had come from and made her way over to see what was going on. By the time she made it there she saw a woman talking to the stall owner while two children were acting, well, like children, and not doing what their mother told them. The face on the front of them seemed to very subtly shift into a small frown.

She knew she was sticking her nose in others’ businesses again, but the knight walked over to the stall and spoke in a friendly voice, the mask on her helm showing a smile. ”Hello, I don’t mean to intrude, but, is there something I can help you all with?”

Mone took time to try and get Janus clean who had blueberries all over him. “No, I mean yes… but.” Mone looked overwhelmed for a moment. She wasn’t by any means a new mother. “You would think after having twelve children I wouldn’t be this frustrated.” She laughed a bit. “I’m so sorry to involve you… Can you hold him?”

She held out Janus who looked like Lewis but with black hair and his blue eyes. The toddler didn’t even struggle. “You little deviants. I took you to help Daddy but it looks like I’m the one who needs the help.” Simone’s eyes flashed azure for a second obviously Lewis was assessing the situation. “My husband says thank you for helping us. Well in his own way…”

Once Janus was in Sirona’s arms he calmed down and held a bored expression on his face. “They cause so much damage and they are only a year and a half… They understand you though. They are very intelligent and I’m not just saying that as their mother. Every mother wants their child to be smart.” Simone explained as she chased Lila.

“NO,” Janus yelled at his sister.

“YESSSS,” Lila yelled back.

“I GOT YOU,” Simone yelled as she pulled Lila up. Janus wiggled a little and Lila appeared in front of Sirona with magic and she started to cry.

“Janus I had her,” Simone sighed as she caught Lila again. “Janus, for example, doesn’t like to walk so he started to portal himself around the house. Lila is just the queen of getting what she wants.” She rubbed the girl’s white hair. They weren’t born naturally so…” Simone laughed. “But you didn’t ask about any of this.” She was so proud of them she couldn’t help but gloat over how smart they were.

“Please, let me pay you back with tea or something… They should settle down for a snack…”

The mother did request help in the form of the knight holding her son. Sirona wasn’t experienced with children, but she was still willing to help and took hold of Janus when his mother handed him over. He was covered in blueberry mush but that didn’t bother Sirona in the slightest. The woman’s eyes flashed azure for a moment before she said that her husband said to say thanks, that was an interesting way to communicate, very convenient to have.

She listened as the mother chased her daughter around and talked, she caught the little one, but then the boy in Sirona’s arms wiggled. The expression on the face plate of the armour shifted a bit into a more surprised expression as the little girl suddenly appeared in front of her, in the air! Thankfully her mother seemed to anticipate this somehow and caught her before she hit the ground. Had the little boy teleported his sister?! Had this happened before?!

At the offer of tea Sirona nodded. ”You don’t have to pay me back for anything, miss, but, if you want some company while you have some tea I wouldn’t be against that.” She replied, the face on the helmet shifted to be a smile again.

“I would be happy to have tea with the tamer of my children,” Simone laughed a bit and Lila clapped her hands.

“BAD,” Janus replied to his sister.

“Deviants have no room to call other deviants bad,” the voice spooked Simone as Lewis appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “I thought they needed these.”

Simone took a change of clothes for both children and smiled a bit, “My savior and hero as always. You didn’t need to though. They could survive stained.”

“Ah, but that would make me a terrible husband and father,” Lewis kissed his wife and nodded to the helpful stranger. “Thank you for wrangling the terrorists with her. I now have to get back to the other six terrorists. Two of which are pulling each others’ hair.” Lewis dipped out and Simone took a breath.

“We have eight children under ten,” Simone breathed it out like she had been holding it in. “We can’t have children so Lewis and I adopt… Janus and Lila were the exceptions to it all.” She realized she was being rude, “My name is Simone Terrowin… these little ones are Janus and Lila. Trouble one and Trouble Two if you will.” She found them a nice tea shop and sat them outside before she started to change their clothes. “Stop squirming so much,” Lila fought her while giggling letting it be known it was more of a game. She handed Sirona Lila and took Janus who looked much happier in his mother’s arms. She raspberried his belly and he laughed at her. “You don’t fight me as much as your sister.”

Once she got the orders in there were some scones that were brought over. She broke them apart. "You need to use your teeth." She held out a small part to Lila who took it and held it in her hand before holding it up to Sirona. "Ah… Now you want to be sweet."

The father of the children arrived and Sirona thought there was something familiar about him, not that she had met him before, but perhaps someone had told her about him? She nodded to him when he thanked her, the face on the front of the helmet shifting subtly to show a smile. ”My pleasure, always happy to help with terrorists.” She chuckled lightly, this was a cute, and apparently large, family.

The father took his leave and she looked back to the mother again, eight children under ten?! That wasn’t something Sirona could imagine herself dealing with, but she had a lot of other issues to work on before she even came close to thinking about having one child, let alone anymore than that. She and Lewis… wait, that name was familiar to her. She was listening but the face on the front of the helm betrayed that she was also thinking on something else at the same time. Terrowin, Lewis Terrowin, yes, now she knew it! She set that aside in her mind for the moment as she did not want to be rude to Simone. ”I’m Sera.” She introduced with her usual false name when she was incognito.

They came to the tea shop and Simone started to change Lila’s clothes while Sirona kept hold of Janus until they switched. Sirona looked to the little girl she was now holding and the face on the front of them put on a friendly smile. ”Hello, Lila.” Simone handed Lila some scone but the little one instead offered it to Sirona. ”Aw, how can I refuse?” She laughed and accepted the bit of scone. Instead of raising the face plate on the helm she put the bit of scone under it an ate it from there. Clearly she was hiding her identity at this point if she wasn’t willing to reveal her face even while eating.

However, Sirona did make one mistake. She went to break some scone off to offer it back to Lila to get her to eat. To do so, Sirona removed the gauntlet on her right hand because breaking bread with a heavy metal glove on was not easy. As she did so it revealed her hand of course, but also part of her arm that was covered in the black ink angelic tattoo work that also covered Sirona’s body. Sirona’s version of making herself incognito was to hide her wings, and shift her body type enough to fit into this armour instead of her usual set, she also had to make sure her brilliant blue eyes did glow from under the helm either.

With her free hand ‘Sera’ broke some more of the scone off and held it for Lila to eat while she looked to Simone. ”May I ask, have you and Lewis been together long? And, if I may be so bold, I believe it is wonderful that you two decided to adopt and give a home to so many children.” She paused a moment to think on how much she wanted to say before adding. ”My work puts me into contact with many of orphanages around the lands, it’s always a lovely day when one of the little ones gets adopted.”

“Trust me… We can always use the help,” Simone said sheepishly. Even with all the house help, Lewis’s father, the two of them, and even Xeik and Mia… It almost never seemed like enough. Thankfully out of the youngest eight Glyn was only six months old so he wasn’t too active just yet. He had been more interested in sleeping like Janus, which was a blessing.

Once Sirona had Lila the little girl gave a smile and waved, “HIIIII.” It was cute, dragged out, and hid how much trouble she could be with those innocent blue eyes. The girl was curious of Sirona but she had been around lots of people her short life so Lila didn’t do anything too crazy. She giggled once Sirona ate some of the scone and happily munched on her own piece.

“Gods, that is a good question,” Simone smiled down at Janus and then looked back up at Sirona. “I would say ten years? We’ve only been married for… I want to say eight or nine. We adopted our first child… seven years ago? Everett is seven going on eight this year. We got him when he was only a few days old. I got a story to tell if you want to listen…”

There was a sad smile on her face as she thought about it. “I’ve always wanted a big family and I’m certain a family nor a wife never crossed Lewis’s mind at all before I asked… It’s a big thing not being able to have children as a woman. The amount of men who throw you away is… huge. It’s how Lewis and I met actually. He’s retired now but he was a real famous assassin at one point.” She felt comfortable with this woman and there was no point hiding it. The Dusk Assassin didn’t exist anymore. “He got hired to kill a woman who couldn’t give birth to children. Barren they said. Enchantress, I do believe is the word Emil used for me. It was so much more… but silly Emil never understood that what is on the outside might not be entirely what’s on the inside.”

She helped Janus with a piece of scone, “A fey lord cursed me for nearly two thousand years. I retaliated as much as I could but as a human we’re weak. I was surely no match for a man of his prowess. So when I didn’t give him what he wanted he killed every child, grandchild… I ever had. My curse was unique. The worst form of immortality. Every time I died I would forget everything back to when I was sixteen once more. Not remembering anything from my life before, barely even knew who I was. If I managed to live, I would only live until twenty-nine before my heart would give. The curse was relentless. A way to break me. It did but… I killed his people and told him we were both alone.”

Janus held her finger and she smirked before looking up at Sirona, “So he tore my womb out. Sank me to the bottom of some lake for three hundred years before Emil’s house help found me. It’s all-important to the story you see… because without a womb I can’t be of any use to a duke like Emil. After six years of marriage and numerous times of trying… numerous doctors somehow missing that my womb didn’t exist at all… He hired Lewis to kill me. It was better than divorce he said. He had no way of knowing that I wouldn’t die.”

She started to laugh, “The look on Lewis’s face when I didn’t die. I can remember it all now that the curse is gone. If it wasn’t for the person Lewis was… I wouldn’t exist in front of you as I am. For all the evil he was… There’s so much good in him. When we couldn’t get my womb back from Lady Angela, I must have cried for days. I refused to talk to him about it. A bad wife I told myself. It’s how I was raised. To see my worth in the number of children I could bear. Lewis was struggling with himself too. He wanted to do good instead of just kill. So he bought us a big house and surprised me. Said ‘Simone, let’s adopt all the babies and children.’ He had no way of knowing that… what I was struggling with the most was my ability to give him that. It was the answer I needed as an out.”

She leaned back in her chair, “Obviously, I’m not human anymore. You must have realized that just by sitting with me and holding my children. Lewis did end up killing me a week after we killed the fey lord that imprisoned me… but it was because I asked him to. The thing about humans that I find hysterical is that we don’t talk to each other until it’s too late. By the time both of us knew what we wanted I was dead. Angela was furious but she helped bring me back for a price. That neither of us can exist without the other now. We’re one. Angela has a unique sense of humor as a goddess. Not only did she bring me back and tie me to Lewis. She made me an omen of death, a night phoenix. One of the last females of my kind. Her own little sense of humor in all of it I guess. Lewis the assassin and his wife the death that descends.” She rolled her eyes.

Her gray eyes moved up to Sirona’s, “I don’t know why I’m even bothering to tell you all this. You are a stranger but for some reason, I get the feeling you need to hear this. I’m not sure why and I’m not going to question what’s kept me alive and thriving for centuries. In any case, Lewis retired about a year ago. We got tired of it. Constantly having to hide who we are… Never knowing when he was going to be home. We wanted to be idiotic simple island nobles who just wanted to be with their kids. We’ve had enough bullshit to last us… well forever if I may be so blunt. I’m kinda tired of it.” She rolled her shoulders.

“Especially because of these two.” She smiled down at Janus who looked up at her and showed her some of the scone again. “I see that. You’ve been munching on it pretty good.” He squealed when she acknowledged him and Simone giggled. “These two are our only biological children but I did not birth them alone. Lewis and I can hit something called resonance when our two forms become one. Our life force becomes absolute. In this form, we found out we can give life to new little beings but at a price that was too steep for us to be allowed to do it again. I’ve had my ability to have children taken from me three times now. It hurts us. Maybe it’s punishment, maybe we don’t deserve it, or maybe life is just being funny in its own way to keep us humble. Janus and Lila are the only two little people we can give the world that are a part of us… I’m happy we even got the chance to begin with.”

Once more she frowned, “I’m scared because I know I am broken and damaged almost beyond repair some days. I get sad and frustrated at myself because I can’t get over the trauma of abuse, rape, and other things I’ve been through in my long life. I’ve even blocked Lewis from hearing me right now because I don’t want him rushing here just to hug me because I know he would. He above everyone else hates how much I loathe myself in the morning. He feels everything I feel. The immense loss, the pain, and sometimes he even sees my memories. He’s the best husband. I know he’s going to make me deal with the trauma soon by going and see Lady Angela’s Xeik but… I’m scared of what that will unleash. I’ve bottled everything up since it started and forced myself to go forward. It’s absolutely terrifying.”

Janus hugged himself to her and she hugged him back, “But I got all of you so I think I can do it.” She kissed the top of his head. “Like Lady Angela, I tend to see the world in a whole bunch of shades. Black and white doesn’t really exist in my world not anymore. It used to when I was a girl before everything happened to me. There are good people like Edwin who pulled me from the dungeon I was kept in and there are evil people like Alvaro who put the curse on me. However, it's the people in the middle that make the most impact… Like Lewis or Lady Angela… Myself I suppose. These really are the things that keep me up at night sometimes. Most women worry about their meetings, their sewing clubs, whatever the hell else noblewomen do these days… I just worry about my existence. Constantly. If it’s been worth everything I’ve been through to still be here. Still, very much human on that front I feel… That much hasn’t changed.”

She drank her tea when it came and even let Janus have a sip, “Not all of it. Silly boy.” She cleaned his face and looked up at Sirona. “Just thought you needed to hear that. I don’t know why I just follow my instinct. For what it’s worth though, therapy with Lady Angela is going to be the worst torture I’ve ever been through.” There was sass as she shook her head. “That Goddess is an enigma.”

Simone mentioned Xeik and Sirona’s mind clicked all of the pieces together at once. She had a vague idea who Simone was, but Xeik had spoken of Lewis more so, asking Sirona to help his children should anything happen to him. He had one point been aligned with Raith before Raith’s fall, but now here he was, a family man taking care of a small gaggle of adopted children.

When Simone mentioned that she had a story to tell Sirona nodded and leaned back in seat a bit, still helping Lila to eat if she needed it and just keeping the little girl entertained as best she could while listening. What Sirona did not expect was Simone to give her full life story, or at least a great deal of it anyway, but Sirona listened without a word. It was a harrowing tale indeed but she did not interrupt until Simone was finished and Sirona grinned under her helm. ”That she is.” She agreed and smiled down to Lila for a moment and looked back to Simone.

”To your question if it’s been worth it to go through everything to be still be here, and, I must say, that was all something for sure. Well…” The face on the helm smiled as she picked Lila up and sat her on the table facing her mommy. ”I can think of two very good reasons why it’s all been worth it and I know you can think of a few more, hm?”

She paused a moment, yes, it would be the right thing to do then. ”Simone, I made a promise not too long ago in fact, and I intend to keep it should the situation arises, and, well, it pertains to you. I was visited by the one named Xeik and he requested from me to make sure that if something were to happen to Lewis, and by extension yourself though he did not mention you by name, I would step in to make sure your children would be safe.” She made sure that Lila would not fall off of the table and then looked back to Simone.

Not saying anything more for the moment the armoured woman started to glow until she was just a figure of pure light. This did of course catch other peoples’ attentions, but she didn’t care. After a moment her wings appeared and she leaned forward to make room for them, and as the light faded Sirona in her true form was sitting there. She had on plain clothing with her hands exposed, showing the tattoos that ran along her skin from her hands up into her sleeves and the ink on her face and lip. Her brilliant blue eyes looked to Simone and then to Lila to make sure the little one was secure on the table before she reached back over to secure her if Simone would allow it.

”I am sorry for the ruse, Simone, but sometimes it is nice to be recognized while I am away from the Cathedral. Please, call me Sirona.” She introduced. ”As I said, Xeik requested that should something happen if I could step in and make sure the children have a safe place. Seeing as you are their mother, I need to ask; is this something you wish from me? I did promise Xeik I would, but you are their mother you have the right to tell me no in this case of course.” She left it there and waited to see how Simone would react.