As the ship rocked back and forth, Lewis gripped the edge of the railing. It was one of his least favorite ways of traveling. It was something about being trapped on a boat with no escape that made him uneasy. Perhaps a life of always knowing the escape route was something that was a curse in this instance. He thumbed a ring in his pocket.

That’s the escape ticket. Raile had given him this ring before they left for work, in case Lord Raith came calling for his services. Supposedly it opened a gateway to wherever he desired, and could be used just about anywhere so long as Lewis knew the destination and the ring was charged. Still, the insurance policy was not enough to ease his mind.

“How much longer Raile?” Lewis asked as the merchant walked up beside him.

“Well, we’re going to…that island there.” Raile pointed off in the distance. There was a standard floating dock in the distance, which seemed to be where they were headed. “It has a total of two docks. There’s a smaller one near the house, but we can’t dock there.”

Lewis noted the lie that Raile told about the number of docks, but didn’t question it. It didn’t matter anyway. Lewis and Simone would probably end up exploring the whole island before they decided to do anything with it.

“How…did you come across this again?” Lewis asked. He hadn’t really had the opportunity to discuss the finer details.

“It’s…a story I’d rather not go into. The owner was ranting and raving about ghost pirates. I sent Rhen to check it out…it’s clear, I promise.” Raile waved his hand. In all likelihood, Rhenakos dealt with the problem on his own. That kind of issue was usually his specialty.

“You’re almost as shady as I am, you know…” Lewis replied drily.

“I’m a businessman. And besides…they were literally just holding on to the place to let the property value go up. Such a waste. At least this way, it’ll get some use.” He pulled out a variety of documents. “See? Look at this gorgeous house.”

Raile produced a picture of the house. It was a giant, two story Tudor style mansion with a single tower near the front. From just the front, Lewis could guess that it had over twenty rooms, give or take. It was definitely going to be weird living there. I really hope that Lord Raith will let me create a portal to my room there. I’ll need the escape. If not, he at least had the ring.

“Where’s Simone?” Raile asked as he rolled up the documents. “We’re almost there.”

“I’ll go find her.” Lewis pried himself off of the railing, and looked around. Ah. There you are. Simone was gazing off the side of the ship near the back. She seemed to be enjoying herself. Lewis walked up beside her. “Raile says we’re almost there. Are you ready?”

Things were complicated at best.

At least with her and not with Lewis. With Lewis, she knew where she stood.

“Simone, I don’t know how to tell you this but… You can’t have children.”

Simone had already known the answer. “I know… I was just hoping…”

Angela gave her a frown and put her file down, “Whatever the fey lord did… caused a reaction to the new body. I couldn’t give you your womb back. That’s not to say that with time I couldn’t make it work. You just have to have a little hope that’s all.”

It wasn’t the best answer in the world. Especially with the way the fey lord wrote his contracts. It left Simone depressed and it could be easily read whenever she was around children. The constant sighing, whenever she was around babies, was a big sign. She thought she had gotten over this. She thought she was over that part of her life.

Apparently, being in a safe place finally with someone who actually loved her… made all those feelings come flooding back.

She was leaning against the railing of the boat staring out over the water. This had been Lewis’s idea and she couldn’t say she wasn’t fond of it. When Lewis told her that Raile had found them a home to look at she had perked up a bit. She hadn’t known Lewis was looking, to begin with. It wasn’t like they could grow outside his room with the way her body was. It gave her a new bit of hope, a tiny bit.

“Yeah,” she offered a smile. “The way the sun looks on the water is pretty here. The water is darker than back on Parvpora.”

The fact that Simone was acting a little more like her usual self was a good sign. Lewis knew that something was wrong, but even with the resonance they had together, he couldn’t tell what it was. It wasn’t like Lewis wasn’t dealing with his own issues as well.

Xeik had called him out in their last fight. Lewis was well aware that he was a killer, and he knew that what he did was justified, but the younger boy had made a strong argument. All Lewis did was take from the world, and kill, and slaughter. He could hear Xeik’s words echo in his mind.

You kill left and right with no thoughts on the consequences. At least when I try to help, I pull children off of the street so they have a place to grow up without fear! What do you do? Just pile bodies in the streets?

Lewis looked away from Simone, and out into the deep waters. “Yeah. It’s pretty here.” He had an idea, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it. Raile was helping of course, and seemed supportive. Rhenakos had merely just laughed at him, but he seemed interested in seeing how it played out. All he had to do was talk to Simone.

Gotta see the palace first. He was nervous. Or at least, what he thought was nervous.

As the ship docked, Lewis led Simone to the walkway, and the two descended. The air was warm and muggy, but he had come prepared, wearing a set of light coloured clothes to compensate. It looked so strange on him, and Raile still had a hard time reconciling the look even after the few hours they had travelled together.

With Raile leading the way, the group followed a beautifully laid out, overgrown path down to the house. “It will need a lot of work,” he said as he motioned for them to watch their step. “But it’s still in a good condition. There’s a lot of ivy growing up the side, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to cull back if you need.”

As they turned the path, the house came into view…

Leilah had her fun with Simone putting her in a sundress telling her to live for her in the moment. She wanted to go and Simone had submitted to the clearly cabin fevered pregnant woman. She looked rather cute all things considering. It was a shade of plum that she wouldn’t have picked for herself but it did look nice on her.

Though it was also a little short for her liking but Rosenites were also weird. It was just Lewis and Raile anyways so it was okay. Taking Lewis’s hand she walked off the ship and looked around. “We got time,” Simone answered dryly. Her mind was still elsewhere.

Once she saw the house she let her eyes get wide. “Lewis, when you said you found us a house… I didn’t know you meant a fucking castle.” She didn’t sound upset if anything she sounded sort of happy. She barely knew anything about it but that it was on an island and that they were visiting it.

It looked cute with their ivy. “And you said that… No one else wanted to buy it?” That was the devil in the details as she stared at Raile. “Not that it matters… How rotted is everything or is it in good condition?"

Raile started to list of a variety of issues, most of which were low cost maintenance things. Floor repair here and there, wall repairs on the upper floor. A few pieces of roofing needed to be replaced, and other issues that seemed like they could knock out in a few weeks at best.

“Oh, and there’s a cave on the other side of the island with a rotted out pirate ship, but…as long as no one’s playing on it,” he gave Lewis a look. “It should be okay. Getting that removed would cost a pretty silver, but it isn’t required.” The merchant handed Simone the paperwork to review, still giving Lewis a look.

The young assassin glared back. “Fine! I’ll ask damnit! Just stop looking at me.” Raile gave a smile, and walked off, taking time to look at the small mansion on his own. Perhaps he had other ideas to go alongside Lewis’. This left the two of them alone, and Lewis was starting to get nervous again.

“So…” Lewis said looking to the side. “Iwanttostartanorphanage.” The words tumbled out. He paused. “I. Want. To. Start. An. Orphanage,” he repeated much slower. “I think it will…do good in the world. Xeik…” He didn’t want to say more about it, and simply didn’t. “I enjoy what I do, but…I want to try and do more. And I want your help…”

“Playing.. on.. it?” She looked at Lewis with a really hurt expression at first. She had no idea what he wanted to do and it just sounded like he was planning on a future he couldn’t have with her. Simone took the paperwork to look it over and she tilted her head at some of the details.

When her husband finally exploded towards Raile she had this innocent expression like 'What the hell just happened?' between them. Then it was just the two of them and Simone stared at Lewis.

Staring at Lewis as he failed to look at her. At first, she tried to copy his words just so she could figure them out, however, when he spoke slower her face lit up a bit. “So… Lots of children then?” It was perking her up more than she had been in the last few days since her health check-up. “Even babies?” It didn’t need to be a baby from her not if Lewis was open to others.

“I…” She looked sheepish for a moment. “Found some stuff out from Angela.” She looked a bit sad. “I’ve had a lot of doubt in myself and for a moment I was scared that…” She took a breath and she found herself hugging Lewis tightly burying her head in his chest. “Angela said the fey lord cursed my womb so bad that she couldn’t fix it. For some reason, that really hurts.”

Lewis held her for a moment. He wasn’t sure what to say or how to react. If anything, this was the first time he was clueless on what to do. She was so strong all of the time, but now? In his arms she felt so frail, so easily breakable. “We can do whatever we want here…if you want it. I…” He gripped her tightly. “Simone…as long as I’m with you, I’m okay. So let’s…do it. We can adopt as many kids as we want to, and take care of them here.” It was because he wanted to add more to the world.

It all made sense. Simone’s mood was as clear as day now, and Lewis understood, if only a little, that what he was doing now might help. It wasn’t the perfect solution, but then again, they weren’t exactly the most typical of spouses to each other. This was their way of fighting back against the hands they were given.

“So…what do you say, Simone?”

She listened to his words and snuggled her head into his chest. A little smile appeared on her face and she tilted her head just enough so he could see it. “I’m okay when I’m with you too.” Even she could have her moments where the resonance wasn’t great for her but it had waned greatly in the past few months. They still needed each other but they could be apart for a time and it didn’t bother them as much.

Simone made it look like she was thinking hard about it but she just ended up chuckling, “Yeah, yes. Let’s do it.” She pushed herself up and kissed him gently. “However, ground rules.” She poked him in the chest as a joke. “We take turns getting up. It sucks if you do it all by yourself.” Babies were, in fact, brutal. Only one of them had any experience raising kids at least fully and even Simone hadn’t raised them to adulthood. She had never had that chance before.

“Kids are brutal though~ They tend to be little drunks… Think you can handle that?” He had already made up his mind though and she shook her head. “You can handle anything.” She looked up at the house. “It’s so big Lewis… That’s a lot of kids.” She couldn’t say she wasn’t happy because it did make her happy.

“How the hell did we even end up on a similar wavelength but not know what was going on,” she threw up her hands as a joke. “Resonance is weird…” Did it even work like that? He had a solution to her problem and she had his solution. It wasn’t perfect but it was theirs.

“Want to go see the inside?”

Raile was walking back when they separated, and he had a smile on his face. He had a general idea of what had happened, and based on their mood, he was sure they wanted to go through with the plan. He offered to show them around, and lead the way into the main hall.

The interior was much better than Lewis had been expecting, and the pictures that he had seen had not done the place justice. The main foyer was bigger than Raile’s shop, with an elegant, stained glass ceiling that let natural light in. Two massive stairwells on either side curved upwards to the second floor. In the center, there was room for several pieces of furniture, and the back was mostly glass with a path to the back, inner courtyard.

“This…is almost too much,” Lewis said, looking at Raile. “And I’m paying you HOW much for this?”

Raile shrugged. “Between the upkeep and your income, I’d say…” He did some quick mental math. “Three thousand silver a month. And you’ll have to fix the place up. So that’ll add a couple thousand silver. And once you get that set up, inspections, licensing, furnishings, food…”

“I get it,” Lewis replied, shaking his hand. “I should have enough. It’s not like I’ve spent my earnings on anything else.” He shrugged. “Just don’t break me, Raile.”

The merchant smirked. “Please. This is an investment, believe it or not.” It was almost scary the way he said it. “Anyway. Let’s check out the bottom floor first. Here…” He lead the way down the first hall on the right, showing off the initial set of rooms.

Raile was walking back when they separated, and he had a smile on his face. He had a general idea of what had happened, and based on their mood, he was sure they wanted to go through with the plan. He offered to show them around, and lead the way into the main hall.

The interior was much better than Lewis had been expecting, and the pictures that he had seen had not done the place justice. The main foyer was bigger than Raile’s shop, with an elegant, stained glass ceiling that let natural light in. Two massive stairwells on either side curved upwards to the second floor. In the center, there was room for several pieces of furniture, and the back was mostly glass with a path to the back, inner courtyard.

“This…is almost too much,” Lewis said, looking at Raile. “And I’m paying you HOW much for this?”

Raile shrugged. “Between the upkeep and your income, I’d say…” He did some quick mental math. “Three thousand silver a month. And you’ll have to fix the place up. So that’ll add a couple thousand silver. And once you get that set up, inspections, licensing, furnishings, food…”

“I get it,” Lewis replied, shaking his hand. “I should have enough. It’s not like I’ve spent my earnings on anything else.” He shrugged. “Just don’t break me, Raile.”

The merchant smirked. “Please. This is an investment, believe it or not.” It was almost scary the way he said it. “Anyway. Let’s check out the bottom floor first. Here…” He lead the way down the first hall on the right, showing off the initial set of rooms.