Lewis had stayed silent during the whole explanation, and once Simone had finished, he stayed quiet for a moment longer. It took him some time to contemplate and process what had happened, how it had happened, and what he was going to do about it in the future.

“I’m not apologizing for the marks,” he said as he poked one of the bite marks, getting a yelp out of Simone. “As for everything else…” He frowned. “I can’t threaten to kill everyone in the room. But I figure a few well placed threats should be able to keep the gossips quiet.” He got up and stretched, still stark naked. Simone stared at him with a happy smile before realizing that she had lost her train of thought. Even if he had been obnoxious the night before, she had still enjoyed it…

“Snowball…we have a busy day today. A lot of letters to write and deliver. A lot of threats to make. Maybe some bribes…” He glanced back at Simone as he started to get dressed. “We need to make sure that this never happens again…right?”

Imprisonment Enrichment

It was two days into her imprisonment. Lewis, as she had come to know him, (if that was his real name) came and went as he wanted. She was put into a room with just a bare bed and a blanket. The blanket was god knows how old and she could smell it. She was left in the clothes he had managed to wrangle in for her. They were large robes that looked ridiculous on her.

Her hair was braided, not because she wanted it to look good but because she was sure that she was never going to see a brush ever again. God forbid he threatened to take her hair from her too. She was scrunched up into the corner of the room looking out the window to the sky.

She could feel the heat of summer. It was quite a large gap in her memory that was missing. She remembered snow. She hadn’t spoken much since after the bath they had gotten when they arrived. If anything she was too eerily quiet.

The girl had gone on a hunger strike to refusing everything given to her and leaving it alone on the writing desk in the room. She was trying to survive on her own terms. That and the constant nightmares every time she closed her eyes were making her not hungry at all.

There were patches of blood all over the room from god knows what she did to herself while asleep. She knew her throat hurt from screaming and she could taste blood. It led her to curling herself up and putting her head against the wall.

Was she even who she thought she was?

Her eyes felt heavy as she closed them. She had been trying not to sleep for the last day and a half, the first peace and quiet Lewis had gotten since bringing her back. The exhaustion was setting in. Maybe… If it were a quick nap…

Then the screaming started again. Something was after her and she was bound and determined to fight for her life. Her body seemed to move by itself but she managed to fall right off the bed hitting her head off the corner. Enough to knock herself out for the time being. She had a nice wound now on her head as the blood trickled. Whatever was haunting her was doing a lot more damage than anything she could do to herself.

Lewis bit the tip of his thumb as a scream echoed through the halls of the tower. Nobody would be around at this time, and he wasn’t overly concerned with what others might think of him. Much worse happened in Raith’s realm, and he didn’t give a damn what the others thought of him. As long as Master Raith continued to teach him about strength…

Well…nothing else mattered.

The problem was that he couldn’t get a damned night’s rest. Ever since he had taken that job from the Duskwood, he had found himself in a hell of a bind. His promise to kill her had technically been fulfilled, but the problem was that she refused to stay dead.

This was a morally grey area when it came to the fact that he submitted the job as ‘complete’ to the client…but that didn’t really leave much of a stain on his pride nor his reputation, Besides…there was no such thing as immortality. Death would come for her as swiftly as it came for everyone else. Even if it had to jump through some minor hoops.

His first attempt at her life had been a shock to the heart with a rope dagger. That had failed. So he tried again. And again.

And each time she had thanked him.

It was that act that had captivated him. Who would thank him for death? Someone who wanted to die. Someone who couldn’t die.

Once more the screaming started, and this time there was a crash that followed it. Lewis let out an audible sigh of disgust, and stood up. He walked through the door, and noticed the blood all about. “What the hell is this…” There was anger in his voice. One of the easier emotions to use, and one that usually produced results. He more or less knew the reason she was screaming, but he had no idea how to make it stop.

Of course, he had tried ‘resetting’ her, but that ended up being more work than it was worth. Keeping her alive was the easiest to do at the moment, as resetting her forced her to lose all memories. No, he had to take the time to solve this problem.

“What can I do to make you shut the fuck up…”

Simone had stirred the moment she heard his voice. The world was lurching as she reached up and felt her head. The sticky warmth that was there answered her question before she began to scoot her body away from him.

The girl made it to the other corner and curled up putting her head against the wall. She was trying to stay awake and her labored breathing showed as much. “I’m trying!” She finally shouted at him. “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?”

She started to cry but it was a silent sob, “I can’t sleep. I’m trying not to sleep.” The head wound made her dizzy as she lurched back against the wall and closed her eyes.

It was the screaming and the sobbing again. She was asleep.

Lewis watched the girl struggle against the sleep, and the tension seemed to leave him. For a moment, he had forgotten the real reason he wanted all of this power in the first place. He had seen what children had to go through, what suffering was caused by those in power. The kids running down the streets, stealing for food. Offering themselves for slave labor or worse… Being sold and traded amongst the filthy nobles…

All he had wanted was the power to end all of that. And now, sitting before him was a girl who was, much like the rest of the children back home, suffering.

“There’s a bathroom down the hall. It isn’t much, but you can wash your face. Take care of the wound…” He paused. “Clean yourself up, and wait in the common room.” He walked over to the tower door, and glanced back. “Do as I say…and I’ll try….” He paused. “I’ll make the nightmares go away…” His voice was barely audible, as if he were struggling to find a kind way to speak to her.

With that, he descended down the tower, and to the potions master of the Temple.

It was there, he met the apprentice, Jack. Lewis had seen the boy every so often running about doing a variety of tasks. It seemed like he was doing everything he could to secure a place in the Temple, and this was just another step in his journey.

“I need something for nightmares.” Lewis was giving him a dead stare.

“Oh, the infamous Lewis…having nightmares are we?” Jack mocked. He had never liked the way Lewis strut around the Temple, acting as though being a direct apprentice to Raith was so special.

“No, the girl I have kidnapped in my room can’t sleep.” Again, Lewis didn’t seem phased by the mocking tone.

“Excuses, excuses,” Jack replied as he started to work on the potion. It was a fairly easy one to make, something even he could manage. It was hard to screw up…

“When have I ever needed to lie,” the assassin responded curiously. “I tell you things at face value, and yet you refuse to believe me.”

“Because you would never have a girl in your room. That’s just impossible, even for you,” Jack replied as he passed the finished tonic over. “Sweet dreams, Dusk.”

“Whatever…” Lewis waved his hand, and made his way back to the tower.

Simone stared up at him. Her head still hurt but still she took what he said as fact. Maybe he wouldn’t let her suffer in this horrible place. She cleaned her wound up before going downstairs. She wasn’t used to it but it seemed… Homey enough. There was a fire going and a couch in front. She sat down and waited for Lewis to return.

He came back with some tea and poured some of the tonic into it. She was silently watching but she didn’t know if she trusted it completely. Though if he wanted to kill her there were a variety of different ways she knew he could do it. She took the tea and drank it. It stung from the visible response it had.

Before long she was curled up on the couch and asleep. There was no movement and her breathing was fine. She stayed asleep for a very long time. You would have thought she was dead but the amount of rest she hadn’t gotten… It was all being made up for now. Lewis left her on the couch and there was a knock on the door.

“The Potion Master wanted me to bring another tonic jus—” Simone slumped herself up and was rubbing her eyes as Jack spoke to Lewis. “Holy shit you actually do have a girl.”

His voice spooked Simone and she took off up the stairs and into the room Lewis had put her in.

“…What the fuck is wrong with her?”

Lewis rolled his eyes when Jack entered the room without knocking. The fool had a deathwish…had it been any other day, he would have been riddled with daggers. “Knock, or next time I’ll end you.” There was just the perfect hint of edge in his voice, just enough to validate the threat. He took the potion from the other boy as Simone ran off.

“She’s…” This was hard to answer. It took Lewis only a moment to realize that explaining her actual situation would be far more work than it would be to lie. “She’s a pet project for the time being. A broken shell of a girl that I wish to see if I can fix.” For the time being, that would suffice.

“Wow, that makes you sound like a creep,” Jack replied with a sigh. “But it seems like you’re sort of taking care of her. Has she eaten yet?”

“No…” Lewis grimaced. She had been refusing to eat, and that was the next problem to tackle.

“Cool, I’ll bring up some soup. If she really needed that nightmare tonic, then it might be messing with her stomach. Soup is light and will probably help.” Jack seemed to want to be helpful.

Of course, Lewis knew all of this, but he hadn’t thought to apply that knowledge to this situation quite yet. This made him come across a much worse person than he really was. “Fine…do that then. And be quick.”

“So touchy,” Jack replied with a growl. “How about you go get it yourself, jackass!”

Simone was laying on the bed staring out the window. She seemed far more awake than before. Once she heard the door close downstairs she made her way back down to look around. She was quietly avoiding Lewis.

Jack had come back up with a potion and some soup knocking on the door, “For her head.” He was glaring at Lewis. “Hey,” his voice spooked Simone but this time she didn’t run. “Lewis asked me to get you this.”

Simone narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head.

“Too many people?” Jack was trying to see just who this girl was but he left. “If she needs any more tonics just write a message at night and I’ll bring it in the morning. Can’t have people dying here unless we mean it.”

Once Jack was gone Simone went over to the soup and sat down to eat.

“If you’ll be staying here… You’ll help clean.” Lewis didn’t get a response but she acknowledged him. “What do you even like to do?” At this rate he didn’t know if she would even respond but…

“Read. I like to read… and I like handicrafts,” her voice was gentle a far cry from how scared she had been. “Like… Needlework or knitting.”

Stupid hobbies, but if it keeps her occupied, Lewis thought to himself. His face remained ever stoic as he write down a few things on a spare piece of parchment. “We have a library. I can bring up some books next time I go out. As for the knitting and needlework, I’m sure the maids have something.”

Simone slowly nodded, unsure of the sudden change in Lewis. She shifted uncomfortably, and the robes she was wearing slipped off her shoulder. She stayed still, unmoving, seemingly not bothered by it.

But Lewis, evidently, was. “And a tailor first thing tomorrow. Those robes are practically worthless…” There was a harshness in his voice, almost practiced. “You will comply with their every command, and once they are done, you will not complain about whatever is given.” He looked. “You ate most of your food. Are you still hungry?”

“Y-yes.” she said timidly. Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Speak louder, and more clearly,” Lewis said, annoyed at her response. Despite his old desire to free the enslaved children, he was never quite good at taking care of them. That had always been handled by Xeik and the other boys of the guild.

Simone looked up at him for the first time with curiosity before looking away, “You told me to be quiet.”

For a moment, Lewis was taken back and had to think of something, “Obviously, I meant that when I wasn’t talking to you directly.”

She nodded once more, “Yes, I’m still hungry.” It was more audible this time but she was still unsure of how he would react to her. Was he just testing her? Was he going to take the food away? What was his angle in all this?

When he did in fact bring her more food there was a shocked expression on her face but her stomach spoke for her as she dug into it. The hunger strike was finally over now that they had the tonic.

There was a knock on the door and it was Jack, “So I talked with the potion master. It’s a hex. I took some of her hair down to him.” He held up his hands to Lewis. “Look you can be pissed off at me but the hex can be broken. It’s a pretty nasty one. The tonic just keep giving it to her. It’s a hex to kill. People don’t do that unless they are holding a grudge.”