Lewis and Rhenakos followed behind her as she lead the way, the lantern lighting their path. Simone seemed determined to find it out, and she was ever so close to realizing that there was, indeed, a problem with her. The look of pain on her face as she touched the painting was evidence enough.

It took a lot for Lewis not to kill her right then and there. If she learned the truth again, it might cause a problem, but at this moment they needed her to discover it, no matter the potential cost. Still, he kept his hand near the bone dagger, his heart racing to match hers.

Rhenakos noticed his change, but said nothing as they ascended to the next floor. The two had no issues navigating the steps, unlike Simone, and easily cleared the gaps as they followed her to the next area.

Her room.

Rhenakos sniffed. It was a messed up, mixture of twisted magic and Simone. He wrinkled his nose at it, grimacing. “It’s definitely your room. It reeks of magic as well.” He looked to her. “It’s that very magic that kept this place from burning.” The hunter placed his hand over the eye patch and his left eye. The pain was more than he was used to. This room was something extraordinary.

“Question is…what are we even looking for,” he asked. “Lewis, any ideas?”

Lewis crossed his arms, shaking his head. He hadn’t entered the room. Whatever was in that room was making him feel uneasy. It was hard to tell if it was his own feelings or if it was Simone’s. “How the hell should I know?” he said, annoyed.

“Simone,” Rhenakos said, rolling his eyes at Lewis and turning his attention back to her. “Is the Arc reacting?”

Simone shook her head at Rhenakos. “No, it’s just spinning at this point. This whole place is making it trip but… I have an idea where I might have hid something I didn’t want someone to find.” She moved over to a tall dresser. “Lewis?” She looked over at him. “Can you help me?”

It was heavy and full of clothing she was sure. The screech from the dressed sliding against the stone was ear-shattering but once they got it clear Simone pushed some of her hair behind her ear. “It should be right here.”

She knocked on the stone walls and finally, she found the one she wanted. The click was audible as the gear work turned and the hidden passage was revealed. “See?” The hidden passage was narrow and full of cobwebs. She flipped a chair and broke the leg with some work, it took her a lot of work to get it to snap even if it was old. She let out another light pant before she took the chair leg and started to clear the passage. “These were our emergency escape tunnels should something happen. It leads to the tower.”

She put her hand to her head for a moment. “I… jumped from there. I think but that would be silly.” But it wasn’t and it made a lot of sense to Lewis. “If I were to hide something~” She led them up spiraling staircases that had largely been left alone and intact. The magic got heaviest there and it was overtaking even Simone’s scent. Someone had used this exit with her.

The tower had holes throughout the wooden floorboards and Simone was careful as she got around the rotted wood. “Over here,” she shoved a few crates out of the way and pointed at something etched into the wall. Alvaro Mistweaver.

“It’s a name.”

It was all starting to come together as they ascended to the top of the tower. There was something powerful up here, and Lewis was hoping it was what they needed. Rhenakos was obviously in pain from the magical density, and even Lewis could feel some kind of pressure from it, despite his inexperience with magic.

As Simone moved crates out of the way, and discovered the name, Lewis let out an audible laugh. There it was. Right in front of them. The true name. With a true name, they could do a lot.

Rhenakos clapped his hands together. “So this is it, then?” He smirked. “From here…it should be smooth sailing.” He looked over to Lewis, and his eye widened.

Lewis had the bone dagger in his hand, and moved quickly to Simone with every intent to kill her now. Better to reset her memories than to risk the name triggering something. He brought the dagger down, stabbing her heart through the back. For a moment, the bone dagger felt hot, and then nothing.

Rhenakos drew his blade, glaring at Lewis, “What the fuck are you doi-”

The magical powers that Simone held immediately exploded as they had before, bringing her back to her youngest self. He picked up her body, cradling her. Her head was resting on his shoulder, and for a moment he thought she looked almost peaceful.

“We need to go before she wakes up,” Lewis stated. “I’ll explain later.”

Rhenakos sheathed his blade, but was still giving Lewis a look. “I don’t like this.”

Lewis looked down at Simone. Neither do I.

It didn’t take them long to retrace their steps, and soon they were back outside, close to the spot where Lewis had witnessed the fae lord violating her. “We should be fine here,” he said as he set her down, taking out the necklace that Lady Angela had given him.

Right up until she saw the name… He tapped it. I just hope this works.

Simone’s face went white as she looked not that far from where the name was. A skeleton but that necklace. Her eyes got wide and her mouth went dry. “Dad-” Lewis shoved the dagger through her back and the curse reset itself.

She didn’t wake up immediately almost waiting for Lewis to say it was alright. The crystal glowed a bright purple for a moment as the circle of magic formed. Everything that Lewis had witnessed up until that point that he wanted her to know she would know.

There was a stirring from Simone as she felt like her head was splitting open. “Lewis?” Her eyes were glazed over for a few moments before the crystal stopped its glow and fell still. “What happened? Did I blackout again?” She felt drunk almost as a hand came up to her head.

“Where are we? Did we find what we needed?” Her limbs felt so heavy as she laid there. “I’m so tired Lewis.”

It worked. Lewis knelt down, feeling her head. She felt normal enough, and seemed normal enough. “Yes, you blacked out again. The magic up there was too much for you to handle, so don’t go back.” He helped her stand up, but she seemed wobbly still and ended up leaning into Lewis for support.

“We managed to get a lead on him. I won’t bother you with the details,” he said, giving Rhenakos a stern look. “It shouldn’t take much longer to track him down. Isn’t that right, Rhenakos?”

Rhenakos had the overall gist of what Lewis was trying to communicate. Something about the details not needing to be said and the fact that he went as far as to kill her. But that magic, whatever it was that brought her back…it had a familiar scent to it. It reminded him of Os.

“Yeah, that’s right,” the hunter replied. “But there isn’t much else we can do right this moment. Let’s head back to the airship and figure out the next move based on our lead.”

Lewis nodded in agreement. “Can you stand?” he asked Simone. “If not, we can carry you.” This earned a sly smirk from Rhenakos, meaning that the demon hunter would most definitely leave the task entirely to Lewis. The assassins wasn't sure he liked that idea, but didn’t protest.

“That’s good… I trust you.” She offered Lewis a smile but still, she was so much more tired probably from the crystal and the process.

Simone tried to stand on her own but she wasn’t strong compared to normal. There were slight consequences for having her memories back it seemed. “I am too tired,” she looked at Lewis with sad eyes but he lifted her up easily enough.

“I smell like bog,” she realized that she had been wading in the swampy water. “I’m an idiot.” There was a laugh but she couldn’t remember why she had walked through the bog, to begin with. “Are we making our own rules yet?” She looked up at Lewis. She didn’t know why he had told her that but it made her feel better.

Once back on the ship she took a bath and got changed into another set of clothes that had been given to her. Lewis stayed with her just to make sure she would be alright by herself. Her energy wasn’t rebounding the way it should have but she was more awake after the bath. “Maybe I just need sleep,” for some reason she just wanted him to be reassured.

She let out a yawn and leaned into Lewis. “Maybe what we’re looking for isn’t that far~” The fey lord as it was had just noticed something of his was missing at the bottom of the lake after all.

With Lewis taking care of Simone, Rhenakos focused his efforts on using the name to track down the fae lord. The process wasn’t overly complicated, but it did require focus and time, both of which Rhenakos usually struggled with. The rest of the day passed with nothing eventful happening.

It was late at night when Lewis woke up. For a moment, he was disoriented and confused. He felt a weight against him, a sleeping girl who looked ever so innocent to the world. Simone. He let out a soft yawn, and held her for a moment. Why am I doing this? he wondered. She was warm. It felt nice.

“Simone,” he said softly. “Wake up. You need to eat something.” Lewis wasn’t sure why he cared. It wasn’t his fault she hadn’t eaten. So why?

There was a knock at the cabin door. “Get dressed and meet me on the deck. I’ve got news. It’s….not great.”

Simone was groggily snuggled into Lewis. Her stomach was practically yelling but she had been too upset to even eat, not so sure why she was upset, to begin with. She rubbed her eyes when he woke her up and she stared at him. “Probably,” she stretched and pulled herself up. “I can try to eat something small.”

Rhenakos’s knock scared her a bit but she calmed down when she realized it was him. Her heartbeat slowed back down and she found herself getting dressed. She was stable enough to walk again on her own and managed to get a fruit or two for her stomach to leave her be.

She waited for Lewis and followed him up on deck. Munching on the fruit they waited for what Rhenakos had to say or Simone would have had she not dropped the fruit right then and there.

It was a song that was playing. It wasn’t loud but she took a few steps forward in a daze. Taking hold of the side of the airship she began to pull herself up onto the ledge holding onto the ropes. She was looking outward and her foot moved to go forward before letting go of the rope.

As Simone jumped, Lewis reacted with lightning speed and launched himself off the side to follow her. As he hit the ground, she was already several yards ahead of him, as if possessed by some magic that granted her a far greater speed than she would normally have.

Rhenakos dropped behind Lewis, cursing that the fae lord had come faster than he had expected. But that didn’t matter. Lewis darted after Simone, who was traveling back towards the ruins of Auclair. If this was happening because of that damned fae, then he had a general idea of where she was headed.

Only this time the magical presence was almost unbearable. Rhenakos cried out, grabbing at his eye as he entered the outskirts of the city, as if bouncing off a wall. He cursed, falling to his knees. From underneath the eye patch, Lewis could see blood freely flowing.

“Lewis…go on ahead, I’ll…” He gasped again, yelling as the magical pressure grew stronger.

“Useless,” Lewis yelled as he went on ahead, ditching Rhenakos. He remembered the way, and now that they weren’t traveling as a group, found himself once more at the gateway to the ruins of Auclair Castle. “Found you…”

Snap out of it. SNAP OUT OF IT! She was screaming at herself but it was like a leash and she was being drawn in. She had to be stronger than this… So why wasn’t she?

She was making her way through the bog again. Splashing through the water and the mud. Her breath was so sharp as she panted. His arms, they caught her and held her tightly.

“My, my. What have you been doing out and about?” The fey lord was quite a bit taller than Lewis. He had brown hair and piercing silver eyes. His fingers were stroking Simone’s cheeks as if he cared about her well being. “I left you in a safe place remember?” He cupped her face.

Simone’s stormy gray eyes looked up at him as he forced her head up. She didn’t reply to him. “Have we changed our mind?”

The haze broke and Simone looked angry, “Fuck you and fuck changing my mind.” She was screaming at him but he lost that compassionate look.

“And here I thought we had made some progress. Maybe three hundred years wasn’t enough… Though I am wondering just how long you’ve been out.” He smacked her and took out a sword. “Let’s play a game… You tell me what you’ve been doing… and I won’t rip you to shreds.”

“Do as you will,” Simone spit again before he skewered her through the stomach. Simone let out a painful cry.

“I’m not going to kill you, my dear… That might make this too easy.”