“Sorry~ We should have checked with Xeik before I ate anything,” Simone made a face and chuckled.


Thinking about it she blushed, “Oh fuck… We forgot Rhen again! Quick Snowball!” She looked up to the white bird who nodded and took off. “He should bring our other friend here… Hopefully, Rhenakos didn’t forget about the job…”


After an hour or so Rhenakos made his way in and Simone smiled, “You got him!”


“PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT! I’ll have you know I’m a blue blood! I can go wher–”


“MICHAEL,” the mountain boomed as Angela appeared at least in an ethereal form. Her hands were on her hips as her foot tapped impatiently almost like a grandmother in waiting.


“LADY ANGELA! Quick you fool! PUT ME DOWN AND UNTIE ME!” As soon as Michael was free he knelt in front of Angela. “Great Lady Angela. The Mother of All. The Weav–”


“Stop kissing my ass kid. You know why I had them get you,” The goddess had her arms crossed even tighter somehow. “You are lucky I didn’t just ransack the city for you!”


“They don’t respect me!”


“Do you know how much blood, sweat, and tears it took getting your mother pregnant with you! Get your ass back to Adeluna and stop acting like a brat! MAKE SURE YOU APOLOGIZE TO YOUR MOTHER!”


The man put his head down, “Yes Lady Angela… Will you open a gate for me?”


“Of course… but if you don’t go home I’m going to smite you… Do you understand?” Angela gave him a smile as he nodded and ran through her portal. “Good work all of you. I see you have made new friends on your journey. All very important. My Xeik is also seeing the world! That makes me very happy. Xeik you should be able to make a mana stabilizer from the inner shell of the kiska fruit. I’ll send you the ingredients for Simone.”


“So… that kid is?” Simone finally asked.


“AH! One of my old apprentices quit to go be a baron’s wife,” Angela answer and smirked. “She was talented but duty called. Xeik you know some of her work. You studied her notebooks when I first started teaching you. Her name was Bianca.”

No matter how many times it happened, Xeik always enjoyed watching the goddess go off on someone. The absolute terror that Angela invoked was something to be awestruck with, and Xeik hoped that one day he might be able to replicate such feats. After all, he was learning from one of the best.

It came to a surprise to Xeik, though, that this man was related to LAdy Angela’s circle. “Oh…right, Bianca. I remember some of those notes. Helped me learn quite a few new things.” He was already pulling out the remnants of the kiska fruit and started working with the inner shell.

“You grabbed that thing?” Lewis asked as he scowled at the fruit.

“Well, be glad I did. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to make a counteracting agent, and we’d be stuck here longer.” He started to work with the ingredients that Angela had sent over, and soon he had a thick paste. “All right…just put this under your tongue. It won’t taste great, but when it dissolves it should star-”

“Who in blazes was that?” Jakob said finally, as he looked between Lewis, Simone, and Xeik. “Just who the hell are you people?”

“Oh her? She’s my teacher. Quite a damn good one, too,” Xeik said as he finished helping Simone take the medicine.

Lewis rolled his eyes, “Ever heard of the Dusk Assassin? Or the Divine Mender?”

Xeik sighed, “Don’t spill all of our secrets to the first strangers we meet on a mission…”

“Well I bet you’ve heard of me, Rhenakos!” the demon hunter said with gusto.

“Who?” Hunter replied earnestly.

Rhenakos let out a hefty sigh. “I really need to take more jobs in Onnen, don’t I?”

Simone stuck her tongue out at the medicine and chuckled softly. “I suppose there’s no reason in hiding it any longer. Lewis hasn’t taken a contract in a long time for good reason.”

Once Simone was stabilized she looked up, “You and Os are more known for getting kicked out of taverns than for your demon-slaying in Onnen… Though I suppose with the girls getting older you might be more well known for your store in Jayou.” She chuckled.

“And who are you? Do you have a big secret?” Jakob looked to Simone.


“Just a cursed princess to a fallen kingdom. Well, I used to be. That’s how Lewis and I met. I’m fairly normal compared to these two.” She poked fun at Lewis.

Just then a portal opened and Mia came through as she skipped over to Xeik and checked him over. “Who’s that?” Hunter tilted his head.

“Xeik’s wife Mia. She’s a mute so don’t be alarmed when she doesn’t speak,” Simone waved at Mia who waved at everyone else. She saw the Kiska fruit and poked at it. “I wouldn’t Mia it’s not good for people like us~”

Mia huffed and made a face. She took out her pen, “Job done?” She wrote it out in the air to Xeik. “Myrri wants candy. You promised.”

“Ohhh… a father shouldn’t break his promises~ I think I got this covered though.” Simone produced some candy. “This is from Benin.”

“Simone saved your hide,” Mia smirked as she took the candy.

“Where is Myrri right now?” Simone tilted her head.

“On the island with Lila.”


And that was all it took for Lewis to get that look on his face.

It seemed as though everything was starting to wind down, and the threat of what had happened in Sorora was slowly becoming just another bad memory. It didn’t take long for Lewis and Xeik to exchange a bit of information from their new ‘friends’, with Lewis once again promising to make an effort to seek out Jakob’s mate. It wouldn’t be an easy task, but between Lewis and his contacts, he was sure he could find some sort of trace.

Rhenakos watched as the group made their plans, and rolled his eyes. “So what even happened? Simone is over here naked under a blanket, and you all are acting like you’re buddy buddy with each other. Did Simone and Lewis get caught fucking in the alleyway again?”

“That sounds more like you than anything,” Xeik said with a glare. “Right Lewis?”

Lewis looked away, as if trying to ignore the question.

“Lewis…? S-Simone?”

Simone looked away as well.

Xeik closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “You two…really need to stop.”

“It was only once,” Lewis said with a smirk. “And we didn’t get caught.”

Rhenakos laughed, “Everyone in the tavern heard it…you should have seen the looks of horror on their faces. The sounds these two make…you’d think there was a murder.”

“That’s because it was Rhenaks and Os in an alleyway getting caught quite a few times might I mind you. We’ve bailed them out of jail before.” Simone rolled her eyes. Lewis though was trying to avoid the topic.

Once the scenario got told Simone shrugged. “First off, I took a dagger and cut Lewis up. So it was murder… Technically.” She saw Jakob and Hunter and gave them a shrug. “Listen, we don’t judge any of you on your kinks so you don’t get to do it to us. And I still haven’t forgiven Nath for trying to fuck me!”


Rhenakos looked at Simone, “I tried to fuck you and Lewis almost killed me.”

“Rhen… you tried fucking me every time you could for the last decade and a half…”


“And I’ll still keep trying ya Ice Queen.”

Simone crossed her arms, “For your information… It was a fruit that made me transform back into my form. Lewis and I didn’t fuck in the alleyway… Though it was discussed.”

“LEWIS,” Xeik looked at him. “We talked about that!!”


“We talked about it. We obviously didn’t do it…”