“You know what else is bad for business?” Lewis asked with a dark expression. “Being dead. Let’s talk in your ‘office.’”

Jasper looked at the two, and almost said something, but changed his mind. He motioned for them to follow him upstairs, leading them into a messy workspace that could barely be considered an office.

“What can I do for you,” Jasper said finally. “It’s obvious that you botha re…uh…on edge tonight. Can I get you a dri-”

“We want information on the client who ordered the Emil Somerset hit,” Lewis stated.

Jasper looked at Lewis with disdain. “You know I can’t-”

“And I know you do give out this information for the right price. And tonight, the price is your life.” Lewis slammed down a bag of coins. “With a small added bonus.”

Jasper sighed, and started to look through his files. Much to Lewis and Simone’s surprise, he easily found the documents. Organized chaos.

“Right…the Somersett job was… ordered by Emil. Right, I remember now. You were supposed to kill his wife.” He looked at Simone, but kept his mouth shut. “So you should already know that he was the one who ordered the hit.”

Lewis sighed. “I think you’re misunderstanding…” He leaned in. “The one who orchestrated it.”

There was a spark of recognition in Jasper’s eyes, and he immediately took a sharp breath. “I…don’t know what you’re talking about. And I think that this is a waste of time and that you should lea-”

“I know a liar when I see one…”

Simone got up and followed them. She kept her arms crossed and followed behind. “Listen, Jasper…” She pushed Jasper down. “If you don’t start telling me who ordered the hit on me. Not Emi–”

“You?”

“Yes, me.”

“You were supposed to kill her!”

“AND HE DID PLENTY!” Simone raised her voice. “Why do you think so many assassins came through and failed? Did you think that they just changed their mind? How many hits were put on me.”

“Seventeen,” Jasper stuttered out and looked at Lewis. “Lewis was number seventeen.”

“Doesn’t shock me. It was most likely Emil’s father also pushing it but… I want to know who was helping push it. Start talking Jasper… I’m not in a good mood.”

Jasper sat still for a minute before shaking his head, “Never saw his face but he wore a rather plain-looking cloak. He was the one who gave me Emil’s name to look for. Said it would give a nice cut on his wife’s death. Of course, it came off weird that it failed seventeen times but weirder things have happened. I didn’t know Emil was going to freak out in the tavern the night Lewis took the job.”

“… Makes sense that Emil would,” Simone spoke up and put her finger under her chin. “We had been married for some time at that point. It was about to be the solstice. It’s sort of important for that area of nobility. He had hidden the fact I was barren but it would have come out at that party. Because Emil had just taken over as head of the house that year. So we were forced to participate. He said it had been a tradition… For the last three hundred years.”

Lewis closed his eyes. So it was a long game, then? The pieces of the puzzle were slowly fitting together, but they were still missing the vital part in all of this, the one key that could lead them where they needed to go.

Who?

“Jasper, I have a very important task for you,” Lewis said as he opened his eyes. “I want you to spread a rumor. Three hundred years ago, there was an illegitimate child born from the Auclair line, and has passed down from generation to generation.”

“Why would anyo-” Jasper started to ask, but was cut off by a glare from Simone.

“There’s an island off the coast of Itjivut with a castle that was recently built. Upon learning the Auclair blood runs through them, they sought to hide from the world in fear of what may become of the cursed bloodline that fell to ruin.” Lewis looked over to Simone, and nodded.

Jasper slowly nodded. “Okay…that sounds super specific for no real reason, but if that’s what you want, I can swing it.”

“Good,” Lewis replied. “And now the bait is set…”

“Make sure you repeat exactly what Lewis has said,” Simone tilted her head towards Lewis. This idea could work and they could find out exactly who was pulling the strings. Simone knew her magic was strong but her body was weak. Her children who were born from the resonance were the best offspring one could hope for when preserving a bloodline. They didn’t have the flaw of her mana deficiency.

“Should we prep for a vacation then?” Simone looked up at Lewis who was smiling down at her the best he could on the outside.

“A vacation with you? Of course.” They linked their arms together. “We’ll kill you if you fail~” Simone sang out as they left through a portal. Jasper was hyperventilating understanding that the wife was just as bad as the husband. These were two people he didn’t really want to piss off any more than he had.

–

Simone and Lewis went back to their winter getaway. She had changed into a silk robe and sat on Lewis’s lap. They were enjoying the fire and some wine. “It might take a bit for the rumor to spread and for them to find this place… The winter alone is going to make them have to prepare.” There was a smirk on her face. “That means we have time to ourselves.”

She sighed a bit as she dragged her nail down his bare chest, “I do hate being interrupted though… but honestly, we probably have time.”

And it was a surprising amount of time that they had alone before anyone dared show. It was a whole two days that passed with now ord, and two days that Simone and Lewis more or less did nothing but wait.

Well, they did more than just nothing…

It was on the third day that Lewis and Simone noticed that the island had been infiltrated. Merely hours into the day, the castle was breached, but neither Lewis nor Simone made any real attempt to stop it. Instead, the two waited patiently by the fire. Sure, they were well prepared and armed to the teeth, but they were patient.

Lewis took a sip of the wine he had. It was usually frowned upon to drink before a job, but…this was special. A treat. They were about to find out who exactly was pulling the strings.

“Now, now…it’s rude to keep us waiting…” Lewis said in his usual monotone drull. “Please do step out of the shadows…”

As if to answer his call, a tall figure walked into view in front of the fireplace. He was clad in black leather, and his face shrouded in a mask. “Lewis Terrowin. And Simone Auclair Terrowin…it’s a pleasure. It would seem that-”

“You were mislead,” Simone replied with a half smirk. Normally she would have been happier that she won.

“Yes,” the man replied with a tired tone. “No matter. If you’re here, that means that the children are left unguarded and-”

“Yeah, about that,” Lewis said with a sigh. “I left my kids with the man I trust most in this world…and there’s no way he’d let any of you lay a finger on them.”

There was silence as the man processed this news. “I think you will find that we are not to be underestimated.”

“And I think you should know,” Lewis said as he stood up. “ That neither are we…” At once, four figures surrounded Lewis, each with a blade drawn to his neck. The ex-assassin scoffed. “It’ll take a lot more than that to kill me…believe me, someone’s already tried.”

“Enough,” Simone said as she stood up as well, obviously irritated. “Just who the hell are all of you and what the hell do you want.”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” The main figure asked. “What does anyone want? Power? Recognition? Wealth?”

“I need you to stop preaching this philosophical bullshit and give us an actual answer…” Lewis said with a bored tone.

The man laughed. “Always cutting right to the good part? Where’s the fun in that. What’s life without some dramatic flair?”

Lewis sighed, and with a swift motion, spun in place. Blood flowed from the four assassins necks, as well as his own as each of the enemies dropped. Lewis rubbed the open wounds on his neck, grimacing. “Not…the best feeling…”

Simone had moved forward and brought the main figure down to his knees with powerful magic, blue flames circling his neck. “Answers…now.”

Simone circled the man and she whistled, “You lot are pretty impressive. Hiding behind the scenes guiding my fucked up life.” She yanked the man’s hair back and she saw it was full of color. “And boy either you dye your hair, you are long long lived, or you know some secret to stay young.”

Knocking the mask off of him she stared into some pretty orange eyes. They were filled with magic and the man wasn’t bad looking either. “I’ve never seen him Lewis. At least, like this but I can tell him has some strong magic.”

“You keep talking like I’m not here…”

“I don’t really care if you’re here or not. You wanted me for power and well… I’m useless now that my womb is gone.”

“I didn’t expect you to destroy it…”

“When given a choice between being violated again and being a mother or destroying it and adopting more beloved children… I made the right decision. I am not a victim. Never have been. Never will be.”

“What would you call it then?”

“Being a survivor,” she was calmed down now as she threw up spells around the room. “You’ll find you can’t leave and if you try… You’ll find yourself in a mirror realm. So make yourself comfortable. I want answers.” She let the man up and pushed him onto a couch. "You must know that my husband and I are stubborn and we almost always get our way. Start talking."

It took almost an hour to pry the first of many answers from the elvish assassin. After that, the answers came tumbling out. How the organization had a sect within it that prided themselves on the purity of magical families, of keeping the bloodlines of such magics alive and well at any cost. And of them, how the Auclair line was a rarity that could not be replicated. In the end, though, he died before he could reveal anything else.

“Amatuer…should have offed himself the first chance he got,” Lewis stated with a bored tone. He wiped off the dagger he had, leaving a blood smear across his shirt. “Huh…I liked this shirt.”

The last thing that they had gotten out of him was the location of a dead drop. In that dead drop was the location and names of some of the low end members of the purist faction. The contact and entry point to the organization. It seemed almost too good to be true, but then…this elite squad had supposedly never failed a mission. The expectation would be that they didn’t fail again. Which meant…

“I can be bait,” Simone stated.

“No,” Lewis replied immediately. “I don’t like that one bit…”

Simone put up her hands, “We can take Xeik with us. Leave the kids with Angela, Raile, or Llywellyn. I don’t want to be caught off guard.” She knew he wouldn’t let her be taken. They had their peace and he wasn’t willing to give it up this time.

They entered the Terrowin castle and immediately found Xeik. They were still covered in blood. “Silva, can you have Harold go clean the other house? Tell him to toss the bodies over the cliff into the deep snow.” Silva nodded and went off to deliver the message to their residence cleaner. Always handy to have one on hand since Simone didn’t necessarily like the clean-up portion of it all.

“Xeik, come with us for a moment away from the kids,” her voice was serious as she took him up to her study and shut the door. “So, here’s what we found out.” Simone and Lewis recounted everything to Xeik. “More than likely, this group has been running amuck for a long time.”

There was a thought that crossed her mind. “I’ll be right back.” She was wondering something and she grabbed Llywellyn on the way back through. She had a large record of sorts. “I filled him in on what’s going on now.” The elf lord sat down and watched as Simone leafed through the book.

“You know we normally execute anyone who steals records.”

“Borrowing them and they were mine first,” Simone said lazily as Llywellyn sighed. “Ah.” She said as she ran her finger down the page. “Jerome wasn’t fully human. There was a sliver of elf blood on his mother's side about four generations back.” There it was. There was the catalyst. "His family's bloodline didn't have a talent for magic either."