To everyone’s surprise, Rhenakos was a surprisingly good pilot, and took little effort to navigate their way towards Adeluna. It took a few stops for them to make it, but finally they found themselves sailing across the landmass south of the Vilpamolan peninsula. Down below, they could see the Moritius Swamp.

Lewis was gazing off the side of the airship, taking in the sights. It had been a long time since he had such a lull in his routine, and he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the time. Even though it hadn’t truly been a long time in Simone’s mind, he felt as though he were years older and wiser. He was so lost in the lull, that he almost missed it.

“Wait…I…” He turned around to yell at Rhenakos. “Rhen! Find a place to land down there!”

“Don’t call me Rhen!” the hunter yelled back. “And we’re nowhere near Adeluna. What’s wrong!?”

The assassin pointed, “I can’t entirely explain it…but the marsh below…I think it’s there. It has to be.” It wasn’t so much as an analytical observation, more that it was an air of familiarity. Almost two thousand years can change a lot, but Simone and Lewis saw it in her past, and the assassin was slowly learning that sometimes, going with your gut feeling was worth it.

“Simone. Take out the Arc. Let’s see what happens.”

Simone watched Lewis carefully and she spent her time around him. She had managed to get some handicrafts to keep her sanity on the long journey. “Lexi was cute,” Simone spoke up to Lewis with a smile. It was quiet for them and not a lot was said.

When Lewis finally spoke up Simone jumped up and she looked down. “I don’t… remember if there was a swamp.” She rubbed at her head a bit. There hadn’t been not in her time but she took out the arc all the same.

“Look,” she watched as the pendent started to point in the direction of the swamp. “It looks like it's in that overgrowth.” She pointed to a particularly overgrown part of the swamp. There were some ruins sticking out of the tree line but they were blackened compared to the shining white stone that had been Auclair. "That's… where Auclair City is." She looked really sad for a moment.

As Lewis took note of Simone’s sudden change in disposition, Rhenakos landed the airship in a clearing not too far from where the Arc was pointing. It wasn’t long before the group disembarked, and were on their way towards the old city. The demon hunter took his time as they approached the outskirts. There had been a few natural born traps along the way, most of which were easily avoidable, but areas like this tended to attract dens of bandits and other undesirable creatures.

“All right,” Rhenakos said in a hushed tone, glancing back at the party. “Here’s the deal. Like the marsh back there, don’t…just don’t touch anything. Most of the stuff here is bad. If it isn’t poisonous, it’s volatile and may explode. For the love of the gods please do not use fire magic.” Ironically, he was probably the only one capable of it, but he seemed serious this time.

For once, Lewis was keeping his mouth shut and listening. Rhenakos may have been an oaf in his mind, but when it came to these kinds of explorations, Lewis was out of his depth, whereas Rhenakos was doing this on a regular basis for Raile.

“There may be bandits or other wildlife in the area. For the wildlife, just try to back away slowly. Anything in this marsh should be relatively harmless as long as we leave it be. As for the bandits…” He gave Lewis a look. The assassin smirked. That would be easy enough.

“Simone, where’s the arc pointing?” Lewis asked. “We’ll head that direction.”

Simone was listening intently to Rhenakos and nodding. “This is my home…” She sounded really sad. “But I’ll be good.” She didn’t realize that it hadn’t been her home in a very long time. The fires that destroyed Auclair had long been done and barely anything but the castle and a few buildings remained.

She pulled up the Arc and looked at Lewis. For a moment the arc swung in Lewis’s direction and Simone got bright red. “No, no… NO NO… Auclair.” She whispered to the arc and finally, it swung the direction where she needed them to go. That was close. There was a sigh of relief.

Life had vacated the place and even the camps around the part of the swamp where Auclair was had campfires. No one was getting closer. Their skins pricked up from the insane magic that had been used here but Simone was still going forward. She stopped at what looked to be a wall of some sort. “This was how we would get in and out of the city. There two were other gates but this one was the largest.”

There were houses in muck everywhere and Simone was even walking through some of the muck as she looked around. “This was the merchant’s corner,” she looked and sounded really sad. If she could cry it would be now. “When I was younger we would come down here for candies.” She pointed to the leftovers of one of the buildings.

“I can’t remember what happened here but I hate it.”

Rhenakos took note to where the arc originally pointed. It seemed as though Lewis was too engrossed in searching for threats to see it, and the hunter wasn’t about to let it be known. Right now it was far more important that they each focus on the tasks at hand. Rhenakos pulled out an eye patch, placing it over the demon eye. Whatever magics were here were far more powerful than he had anticipated, and it would be easier to dull the pain this way.

As they traveled through the ruins of the once proud city, Lewis couldn’t help but notice the reactions that Simone was having. A cocktail of complex emotions welled up, and for a moment he almost felt a tear well up. It was sudden, irrational, and threw him off guard if only for a moment.

He hated it.

Once again, Rhenakos was far more observant than Lewis would ever give him credit for. Even without his knowledge of what had transpired in Simone’s mind, he had a gut feeling that the girl was definitely affecting him in some kind of way, mystical or not. The hunter was far more in tune with his emotions than he let on, especially when it came to the things that could affect a quest of this level of importance. Still, he decided to remain silent.

“Lewis,” Rhenakos said as Simone approached the market quarter. “You said something about being able to recognize things. Anything familiar?”

The assassin nodded. “This is close to where…” He paused. To where I saw the fires. He was suddenly, overwhelmingly aware that if he said it aloud, it might cause a reaction in Simone. Instead, he pointed towards a path. “It should be that way. The main castle…if I remember correctly.”

Knee deep in the thick muck of the swamp that was once her home Simone was looking more lost than ever. It took time for this to happen and for younger Simone, she was slowly coming around to the fact that something was very much wrong with her.

She waited through the water continuing her almost trance-like state as she came upon what looked to be a huge half-dead tree. All the leaves were gone and it held a rather spooky look to it. Her mind was taken back to the time before the curse started and before her mind had holes punched through.

Her feelings intensified to a point that they were probably unbearable. It would feel like a field of fire. The memory flooding back between Lewis and her. A memory he hadn’t seen.

”Simone?” A boy not much older than Simone was up in the tree and he handed down a flower. “When I become king of Auclair~”

“When you become king?” Simone looked up at him laughing. “That means you have to marry me first,” she had been reading on the ground under the great white oak. There was a stubborn look on her face as she put her hands on her hips. “I’m not going to rub your feet every night~”

“That would make you a poor wife if you didn’t,” the boy tussled his hair and it was a very Simone thing when she managed to push him out of the tree so he fell on his rear. “Rude!” He pulled her down and they were laughing.

A carriage or two rushed past them and Simone got a worried look on her face. “It’s that lord again,” she was scared and trembling but the boy held her protectively.

“I won’t let him have you… Neither will your father. It’ll be alright.”

“But it wasn’t… and you didn’t. You betrayed me when I needed you most. You could have used armies to protect me and you just FUCKING LEFT ME HERE,” she started to scream at the tree. “You got scared and you ran away like an asshole and you even declared me dead instead of having them look for me!” She kicked the tree. Younger Simone was in complete control as the memories flickered. “Now look at Auclair. LOOK AT WHAT YOU LEFT IT AS! Some prince. SOME KING! You were useless.” She kicked the tree again. "Can't believe I was in love with a damn coward."

At this point, Simone had dropped her shaking fists and started to make her way near the castle. Her chest was rather heavy now. The stone bridge was mostly intact separating the front of the city from the back. She hopped up on the edge of the bridge and balanced her way across it.

” Simone, you shouldn’t be doing that. First off, it isn’t ladylike, and second… I don’t need my only daughter getting hurt.”

“Daddy, if I was going to get hurt I would have by now. Life is going to be boring with all these rules~”

“I just want a boring life after all… Maybe if I had followed all the rules~” She stopped herself at the end of the bridge and looked up at the castle. “No, he still would have come for me.”

Rhenakos took a step back, looking between Lewis and Simone each. Something was definitely connecting them together, a magical line that could almost be tangible at its peak. This bond between them was powerful, and perhaps dangerous. And Angela was dumb enough not to notice? He furrowed his brow. No. That can’t be right. There’s no way she didn’t notice. What’s her game here…

Lewis collapsed, similarly to Simone, feeling the same mixture of emotions as she did. They all hurt so much. Anger. Sorrow. Frustration. Regret. They were all so intense, and so much more than he had ever felt. This was what it was to have emotions, and he hated every second of it. What was the point? It was all a hindrance.

Except that it all wasn’t. There were strong emotions that he knew about. The guide. Happiness. Lust. Relief and acceptance. He flushed, something brand new to him as he recalled the time between him and Simone after their ordeal. Was that…love? There was a spark of that feeling in his heart. The tiniest spark. But he knew Simone could feel it.

Lewis rose to his feet, “Fuck the rules. We make our own…” He walked over to Simone, and held out his hand to help her up. “And we’ll break every rule we have to in order to make this right.”

That tiny spark was enough to get Simone’s attention. She looked up at Lewis and gave him a smile. “Yeah, fuck the rules,” she didn’t ever use such crude language but if the rules were out the window than she didn’t have to care. Her voice was so meek as she took his hand and held it even after she got up.

“Why are people so worthless sometimes Lewis? They make promises but when the time comes they break it and go back on their word because they are scared,” she watched Lewis for a moment before looking back up at the castle. “Sweet words to get a nice title and a good wife but you won’t move to actually protect that? I don’t get it.” Her fingers laced with his. “You protected me,” she didn’t know why she said it but it sounded more like a piece of her floating through as the guide’s emotions floated freely into Lewis.

She pulled him along as she found the courtyard to the castle. Suddenly the woman was scared and she clung to Lewis’s arm. “Something… Bad happened here.” It was the spot where she had been violated and she was tiptoeing around it even letting go of Lewis to do so. “Something is here though.”

The castle was surprisingly in much better condition compared to the rest of the city. As if it were just as stubborn as she was. There was debris blocking the entrance but Simone didn’t let that stop her as she tried to move it all by herself. She didn’t look that strong but it moved for her as she flopped the stone over. She was panting before entering the ruins of her home.

“It’s so dark…” It was only going to get worst. “Do we have something to light it up?”

It was interesting watching the two interact. It was slowly becoming apparent just why Lewis and Simone held this connection, and it wasn’t as simple as it had first seemed. From what Rhenakos could observe, there was something different about Simone. Much like how the young man had formed a strange bond with that odd fox girl, he had also formed a bond with this girl that went against his very nature. If it had not been for his own bond with Osiria, Rhenakos would not have understood how it was possible, but these connections almost always formed against their will.

The way Simone spoke of a particular spot in the ruins just before the house made it sound as though something terrible happened, and from the way that Lewis reacted, or more importantly, avoided reacting, Rhenakos had a general idea of what could have happened. Still, the hunter remained unnerved. So far, everything between them seemed stable.

They approached the main part of the castle, and to no one’s surprise the path was blocked. Before Rhenakos or Lewis could start to do anything about it, Simone did her damnedest to do it herself, and surprisingly she managed to clear the larger rocks.

At her request for light, Rhenakos pulled a lantern from his belt clip. Normally, it was for magical induced darkness, but today it would have a much more mundane role. He walked forward, side by side with Simone, instructing Lewis to cover the rear in case anything happened.

He was curious how either of them would react to being separated. Lewis was easy enough to guess. Despite his fluctuating emotional state, he seemed content as it still involved protecting Simone.

“Lead the way…just stay close,” Rhenakos said to Simone. “Ready when you are. We’ll go as slow as you need.”

“If we waited for me to be ready… We would never go anywhere I fear,” Simone muttered it and pressed forward with a courage that she hadn’t shown in her younger form before. She had to see this to the end whatever it was. She had bits and pieces of it but not the whole thing yet.

Simone was looking all over the castle once they were on the move. Things were well preserved even with the flow of time and the fire that obviously had rampaged through. Something was keeping this place alive. She stopped at a burnt painting. The color was fading but she could see it all past the mold. Something had kept it intact.

Vaguely the shapes and colors could be made out to be a man and a younger Simone standing next to him. She reached her hand up and just her touch was enough to make the paint chip off. “It’s been a long time since I…” She paused and looked at Lewis and Rhenakos. “Something is wrong with me isn’t there?” She wasn’t looking for an answer but she did look up.

“If I were me… where would I hide something.” It wasn’t something she should have known about but the more she thought about something. The more she realized they were here for something she could give them.

She got to the stairs going up and she looked at Lewis and then looked at Rhenakos. “This way,” The stairs were partially destroyed but Simone grabbed hold of a window ledge and edged herself up using parts of the stone that were left on the side. She only misplaced her foot once and slipped just a hair. There wasn’t a scared noise that left her lips though only a sigh as she re-positioned her foot.

She got to stable ground and waited for the two men with her before going into the hallway. The destruction was even worse but one door remained mostly untouched. She turned the knob and the wood creaked and she let go of it as the door fell off the hinges.

It was a large room with mirrors, dresses, you name it and it was there. The large four-post bed had torn canopies. She moved in and looked around. “It’s… not burned.” She looked over and came over to a desk where she touched the paper and it fell apart in her grasp. She frowned a bit. “ But… it should be. This is my room.”