Xeik groaned when Angela finally responded. "Look! I'm trying my hardest here. We're in some weird….dream thing. Simone is here, she's tiny, and doesn't seem to know us. Cut me some slack!" Lewis pouted when she mentioned that no one ever came to visit her. That hurt him in a way that he wasn't expecting, knowing full well that the real Simone would hate being all alone. "But…don't you hate it? Not having visitors?" She started to poke at Xeik, who rolled his eyes."YES, I'M REAL.". He huffed in a very Mia-like way, crossing his arms. "Angela! What is happening? I've never seen magic like this before. Can you nullify it?"While the healer conversed with Angela, Lewis frowned at the young Simone. She has called herself a throwaway. "Why…do you say that about yourself? You're not a throwaway, Mone. You're a person who deserves happiness, just like everyone else. I bet you're lonely out here…that you miss talking to people. I bet Llywellyn comes around every so often too, and even as you push him away, you secretly hate it."

“Oh well forgive me for telling Mia she was pregnant and that’s where I’ve been,” Angela muttered back.

Simone was looking at Lewis now, “You really must love your Simone…” She got closer to him. “You are trying so hard for me but why? I don’t actually matter to you… Llywellyn… Blames himself a lot so he doesn’t come around too much.”

She went inside and came out with a small diary, “I write to myself for when I rebirth… and it's the same story. Someone shows up and then they leave when they can’t take it anymore. I’m a throwaway Lewis. Everyone leaves me. So… After carefully reading… I decided not to let anyone close anymore.” She held up a page entry with that written in big letters. It was dated fifty years prior.

“Not even Lly.”

"Telling Mia what?" Xeik yelled at the sky. He paused, letting the news sink in. "Mia is …" he flushed. "Pregnant?" He spun around on his heels and immediately shook Lewis. "LEWIS. MIA IS PREGNANT."Lewis blinked. "Yes. Yes she is. Now can you HELP ME FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET OUT OF HERE.""Oh, right," Xeik said as he looked back to the sky. "Well? What do you think Ang?""Well," the sky spoke. "I'll see what I can do about the magic, but the magic is situated in Parvpora, so I doubt it'll do much."Xeik was barely paying attention, muttering to himself about how he was going to be a father. "Okay then, Angela. Do what you can." He looked to Lewis, mouthing that he was going to be a dad."Focus, Xeik." Lewis looked back to Simone. "But ..I can break the curse. Well…Xeik can break the curse. I can set you free from this pain. I can make it so you're never lonely again…"He paused. "I care…because I can't stand seeing you hurt. Even if you're not my Simone…"

Simone was watching with amusement. This man was going to be a father. That was nice. “You seem like you would make for a good father. You are really caring.”

“One more thing, I think that… It would be a bad idea for Xeik to break the curse on Simone.”

When Simone heard those words she got really sad. “I see… so you can’t do it.”

“No, but you do know the true name of the fey lord don't you? Why not just tell Llywellyn and have him kill the fey lord?”

“His name?” Simone got excited and ran into the house. She came back out with what looked like pyrotechnics and lit one off. “Llywellyn has been trying to find out his name for ages. He should be here soon…”

After a few hours of waiting a rugged Elven man with a small army showed up. It didn’t look like their Llywellyn after all. Even Simone was weary of him. “Please tell me you didn’t drag me all the way out here for some foolishness like loneliness again. You were the one who wanted to be out here.” His voice was cold.

“It’s just that…” Llywellyn dismounted off the horse and shoved Simone against the house.

“Stop wasting my time.”

Simone’s eyes teared up, “They know the fey lord’s name!” She pointed at Lewis and Xeik.

Lewis and Xeik were surprised at the sudden excitement from the girl. The name was all they needed, and Llywellyn could hunt the fae lord down and kill him. That would be the end of that, and the problem would be solved. “It sounds like a solid enough plan,” Xeik said with a smile. “We can make it work.”

It took several hours for Llywellyn to show, and when he did, it was a shock to both the Divine Mender and the ex-assassin. His entire demeanor was completely wrong, and the two barely recognized the man that they had befriended. What shocked them more was the disdain and loathing that he displayed towards the young Simone. The few words that he pointed at her were enough to piss Lewis off.

“Hey, what the fuck,” Lewis demanded as he stepped between Simone and Llywellwn. “She called you here because she trusts you. I know the fae lord’s name, and I’m willing to hand it over so we can break the curse.” Though now, he was starting to wonder if giving him the name was a good idea.

Xeik looked at Lewis and then at Simone. This is a different timeline, supposedly. Does that mean Llywellyn changed too? And that means… He wondered if even the Gods would be different. That also meant that Lewis and Xeik might have taken different paths. He wondered…

Llywellyn looked to them, “I thought you said no outsiders Simone? Since when do you go back on your word?”

Simone shook her head, “They just showed up today! They know things about me… They couldn’t have unless they actually know me.”

The elf king took a step back and stared at Lewis, “Speak now or I will kill you both. I have an army waiting.”

Simone looked hurt but she nodded to Lewis, “Please, tell him…”

“His name is Alvaro Mistweaver. It’s his true name and you can hunt him down using it,” Lewis went to comfort the terrified Simone but she just ran back into the housekeeping him out.

“I’ll eliminate the fey lord then she can do gods knows what with her shell of a life. Stay here for all I care.” The elf king left in a huff to complete his promise to Simone.

Xeik glared at the elf king as he left, looking back to see Lewis standing outside the door of the small hutt. It pained him to see Lewis this way, and even if none of this was real, it didn’t change the fact that he cared for Simone in a way that he couldn’t possibly understand.

“Lewis, I think it’s a good idea if we just let her be for awhile,” Xeik said after a moment. “I think she just needs time to process what’s happening. Maybe she’ll come around.”

It took him a moment to respond, but finally he nodded, and walked away from the door. The two found a nice set of trees close to the hut, and with Xeik’s Divine Sands, he made two makeshift hammocks. “Let’s get some rest and we’ll figure things out as we can, okay?”

“Yeah,” Lewis said, climbing into one of the hammocks. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep. Xeik, however, stayed awake. This world felt wrong to him, perhaps because he could see the way that the life energy flowed through it. Perhaps because this was a world that shouldn’t exist, things were different. Was it really an alternate timeline? That magic, if it existed, wouldn’t be easy to pull off. It would take more than even the power of a God to do it.

The Divine Mender sighed, and climbed into the hammock. “It doesn’t make sense…” He closed his eyes. “Life…mana…”

Lewis bolted up. He could feel it in the air, a chill. The sun had set, but the cold that was running up his spine was something more. It was familiar. The eyes of a killer, the silence before the slaughter. He was up in an instant, without a sound. Where. He barely had to ask when he saw movement. Sloppy. Amatuer. He threw a dagger, and the figure stopped, parrying it.

The figure seemed surprised, and unsure of what to do. That hesitation cost him dearly. The clash of daggers, though, resonated loudly, and Xeik was up in a flash as well, drawing his own daggers. Lewis was already on the amatuer assassin though, tackling him onto the ground and putting a blade to his throat.

“Nice try,” Lewis said as the hood fell back. “You’ll have to-” His eyes widened, mirroring that of the assailant below him. “The fuck?”

“What the fuck?” the figure said, his hazel eyes staring into a matching pair.

Xeik ran up, and looked at the two. “What the fuck?” He was staring at two images of Lewis. One was obviously older, and more toned, while the younger one with the blade to his throat looked small, and starved like he hadn’t eaten in days.

The real Lewis put pressure on the blade, “Start talking.”

“Fuck off,” the younger Lewis said, struggling. “The hell kind of magic is this!?”

There was scrambling at the door front he hut, and Simone peeked her head out, “L-Lewis? What’s happening?”

The younger Lewis looked shocked. “What the fuck?” He looked between the girl and the real Lewis, and shook his head. “No…this isn’t worth the pay. What the fuck is actually going on…”

“Who’s the mark, Dusk?” Lewis demanded, using the codename.

The younger Lewis glared. “How do you-”

“Talk.”

The younger Lewis scoffed, “The girl. I was hired to drown the girl. I was told specifically that she was to be chained and tossed in a lake, never to be found.”

“How much. And who.”

“Never got a name,” the younger Lewis replied. “But it was five hundred thousand silver up front, and two million upon completion. Some crazy lady. Looked like an elf chick.”

Xeik’s eyes widened. “Wait…did she have…” He drew a symbol in the air, the Sulwal Crest, “This symbol?”

“Yeah…” the young Lewis replied. “How did you know?”

“The Queen?” The real Lewis responded. “The Queen hired you…”

“Wait, a fucking Queen? This definitely isn’t worth the money then…”

Simone rubbed her eyes from the sleep and heard the commotion as she opened it. Once she got her answer she came out and plopped down by the obviously younger Lewis. “You were an assassin?” She looked up at the older Lewis.

Focusing she tilted her head, “They were married eighty years ago.” She pulled out her diary and flipped through it. “That’s when Lly… got really mad at me. He stopped coming to see me around then. Just came to see me when I rebirthed.”

She blinked a bit, “IS THIS how you met your Simone?! YOU MARRIED YOUR VICTIM?! ISN’T THAT LIKE AGAINST SOME KIND OF RULES?! What did you do put a knife to her throat? Threaten her with 'If you want to live come with me'?! YOU ARE LIKE THE VILLAIN IN THE STORIES I READ! THE POEMS EVEN!" She saw that the younger Lewis was hurt she went inside and came out with the bandages. "Let me help you."

Lewis looked at the younger version of himself, and gave a glance that said “Don’t even try”, and released him. The younger Simone started to bandage him up, and that was when the real Lewis finally nodded.

“Yes…I was an assassin. I was contracted to kill you…er….my Simone. The problem is,” he looked at her, and her eyes widened. “That’s right. The curse. I couldn’t do it.” His eyes went to the younger Lewis. “Back then…I was prideful…”

“The hell are you doing, acting like you’re me?” the younger Lewis said with a glare. “You aren’t-” He winced as the bandage went around his wound.

“I am you,” Lewis replied. “From…a different time. A different world…” He sighed. “Look, I won’t bore you with the details, but…I wanted to break the curse.”

The younger Lewis winced again, “The hell. Do a better job, or I’ll-”

“Shut it,” Lewis shot back. “When I first met you, I was a lot like this asshole here. Cold. Callous. Willing to do what I needed just to get ahead. I didn’t even bother taking care of myself.” At that, the younger Lewis’ stomach grumbled. “So, I went to a Goddess to break the curse. And…in order to get the name of the Fae Lord, I had to save Simone.”

Xeik rolled his eyes. “You make it sound romantic. He basically just dove into Simone’s mind to find the name of Alvaro. He did it out of selfishness.”

Lewis glared at his friend, and sighed. “No, Xeik is right. But…what I saw in Simone’s mind…in your mind, were things that changed me. I don’t know how, or when it happened, but…we ended up together.”

“You’re leaving out the part where you ki-”

“Shut up, Xeik,” Lewis said quickly. “We don’t need to go into all of the details.”

Simone was looking up at the other Lewis. “Huh.”

She was trying to be gentle with the younger Lewis and she made a few faces at him. “What are you going to do kill me? You can try but it won’t work. That’s what they are trying to tell you.”

Her gray-blue eyes met his hazel. “And I marry this guy?” She pointed at the younger Lewis. “I don’t buy it. What do we do have a bunch of little Simone and Lewis’s running around?”

“In our world…” Lewis looked sad. “Llywellyn never saved you. You ended up taking revenge on Alvaro and he ripped your womb out. We managed to have twins but… not the normal way.”

Simone looked sad, “But I al–”

“You always wanted a big family. We do. We have twelve children. We adopted all but Lila and Janus.”

“NO WAY,” Simone got excited. “Like Lila the poem and Janus the author?!” She hurt younger Lewis in the process. “I’M SO SORRY!” She started to panic. “I can try to kiss it?! Make it feel better? WHAT DO I DO?!”