As she read aloud another poem, Lewis once again matched the prose, word for word, and as she finished, he looked away. What is this? Why do I know so much about you? I know you, but you’re unfamiliar. This isn’t the real you….

“You have a good voice,” Lewis said aloud. He looked back to her when she asked if he had found what he was looking for. He frowned. “No…no I haven’t. But I don’t think it’ll be here,” he said. The assassin sighed, and shook his head. The Simone that my heart remembers was not so quiet and timid. Yet, she was here. Why was that?

“You can take the book,” Lewis said as he walked towards the door. “Let’s get going. I’m going to introduce you to Lord Raith.” Maybe he knows what’s going on here. If anyone does, he should. As they traversed the halls, Lewis started to talk to Simone, almost casually. There was a strange, unfamiliar sensation to it, as though he lacked the capacity to form the words he was looking for. It was much easier to form thoughts of what he wanted to say, but not the words. It made his speech…awkward, at best.

“You know a lot about poems…” he said. There was a brief silence. “What…is your favorite? You rarely speak of things you enjoy…you only ask for hobbies.”

Simone once more blushed and hid her face from him. He was being adorable now that she thought about it. He was missing some weight to him though, she could tell. Did he not eat a lot? She got excited as she carried the book with her.

As they walked the hallways he wasn’t ignoring her like normal. It was weird but not unwelcome. If anything it made him seem more human to her. She did a little run to catch up by his side and she thought about it. “I guess… I can’t remember the book it’s in but… There was a poem called Nightingale in the Peonies by Everett Brooker. It was all about a nightingale who hid in lavender peonies. Which is silly because… lavender peonies don’t exist. At least I don’t think they do… but I really like it. It's why peonies and lavender are my favorite flowers and color. There are a few others like Lila by Janus Webb but I don’t know it as well. I just know it was dedicated to his sister.”

She blushed a bit, "I haven't talked about it for a long time I feel… which is silly. I…" She felt her head a bit and shook her head. "It hurts to remember when the last time was."

Lewis was surprised at how talkative she was. It was like a switch had been flipped, and she was opening up. What was more surprising though was the authors and names of poems she read off. I’ve not heard of those. But the names… That brought a genuine smile to his face as he stopped. It was taking a lot for him to control the emotions he was feeling. Those are the names of… His head was hurting, but he was close to an answer.

Janus. Lila. Everett. Alshaya. “Our kids…” He looked to Simone, his eyes wide. “Those are the names of our kids…” Things were slowly starting to click into place on why this didn’t feel right. “Quick, come with me. We need to hurry!” He ran past her, grabbing her arm. “Keep up.”

The entered the throne room where Lord Raith should have been, but there was a man sitting there instead. The man was just a little taller than Lewis, burt much wider. He was wearing a fancy looking coat, and had a small table with paperwork in front of him. His black hair was striped with silver, and he had a set of reading glasses. What was odd, though, was that he held himself much like Lewis would, with a piercing gaze.

“Who invited you here?” he asked harshly. “Oh…it’s you, Lewis. And Simone.” He nodded, pushing up his glasses. “Just in time.”

Lewis narrowed his gaze. “Who the hell are you, and where is Lord Raith?”

The man scoffed, “How dare you talk to your father like that.”

The assassin froze. “Wh-what? Who the fuck….I don’t…” He looked to Simone. “What the hell is happening here?” This isn’t real…this can’t be real…

Simone blinked at him a bit, “Kids?” The younger Simone let out a gasp as she kept up with Lewis. “Why… are we running? We don’t have any kids… Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Simone was confused by what was going on and she gave several different faces as she tried to think.

When they made it into the throne room Simone separated from Lewis for a moment, “You are scaring me, Lewis. You don’t remember? You brought me to your father’s tower and he told you that you could keep me here. Don’t you remember? He told you that he felt bad about your mother…”

She shouldn’t have said anything as she covered her mouth. “But you always get mad at me for asking about her.” She bowed to the older man. “I took a book from the library… Is that okay?”

“Did Lewis say it was?”

“Yes!” Simone’s eyes lit up.

“As long as you return it then…” The man looked down at his paperwork. “It is good timing that you are here though Lewis. I have a job for you.”

Lewis looked between the two. Things were horribly wrong, but they were acting as though everything were normal. It’s either them, or me His memories were still in a haze, but things were starting to get clearer. There’s no way that this is real, but I guess I don’t have much to go off of. He crossed his arms.

“Sorry, father,” he said. “I…haven’t been feeling well today.” Simone had mentioned he was acting weird, so the excuse could work. The old man was talking about a job. Did that mean he took the place of Lord Raith? There’s no way I imagined him. Raith guided me to become the assassin I am today…that much is clear. He took me in…

“What’s the job?” Lewis asked finally. Does that mean I assassinate for this guy, who claims to be my father? There was the real question. Wait…the way everything else seems to be going…am I even an assassin here? Out of habit, he checked for his daggers, which were all where they should have been. He was hoping that even his hidden ones were still where they belonged. I at least have my weapons…I’ll play along for now. I don’t have much else to go off on.

The old man looked at Simone and shrugged before he looked towards Lewis, “I need you to steal some documents for me and hand them off to my other sons at the west airship dock. They are a set of inheritance notes and are of great importance. You’ll know your brothers by the fact they look like me. They already know about you Lewis, my boy. I’ll take care of Simone until then.” The rest of the details of the mission were given to him.

Simone was holding onto the book. She looked worried, “Lewis… I… You should sleep before the job. I’ll be safe until you are done.”

Lewis found himself drowsy. When he woke up he was in a room similar to the one he woke up to with Simone. He still had the anti-magic on him so he could do the job. There was no way they could have known about Simone.

It would be easy. Except something had gone wrong. Once he made it outside the room where the notes were being held… He found a particular scene. “Wait! I don’t know what you are talking about!! PLEASE,” the man from his dream was on the floor with a very pissed off Simone holding him by his collar.

“WHERE. IS. MY. HUSBAND?!” She slapped his face again. This man had her Lewis. Her rage was seething and it showed from the way the candles were almost breathing with her in the room.

Xeik burst through one of the office doors and grabbed Simone. He was attempting to restrain her the way he had been taught if necessary.

The whole thing was confusing, but Lewis had no other choice but to go through with the job. Perhaps the documents that he would be stealing would pull things into a clear view. It wasn’t his usual type of job, but if it was his ‘father’ asking, it was an important job. Still, as he snuck through the area and made his way towards the office where the inheritance paperwork was being held, he couldn’t help but feel as though this job were completely wrong.

It was when he found himself outside of the office, that he realized that he could hear a woman arguing with a man in the next room. It was easy enough, either eliminate them both or wait until they left. Since this involved inheritance, that meant that it was important to leave people alive, lest it cause legal issues down the way. Lewis scoffed. Much slower. He frowned.

“WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!?” the voice yelled.

Lewis cocked his head to the side. The voice sounded familiar, but before he could try to identify it, he felt a presence coming towards the office. The assassin hid himself in the shadows, and a man darted into the room, one who looked panicked. Wait, is that…?

Lewis peeked into the open door, and his eyes widened at the sight that was happening before him. Xeik was there, pulling Simone off of the man who claimed to be his father. “What the hell is going on here?”

The three of them all stopped, with Simone’s eyes growing wide at the sight of her husband.

The older man looked shocked as well. “My gods…you look just like her…” His face paled. “You survived…”

“Xeik. XEIK. You fucking let me go,” she was fighting with all of her might but all of her might still made her less strong than Xeik was. “I’m finding Lewis. I don’t fucking care what I have to d–”

The moment that Lewis broke into the room Simone was instantly done fighting. “Lewis!” Simone’s face instantly lit up and the fire stopped having a tantrum. Xeik let Simone go the moment she started to fight him again knowing she was okay. “I was so worried,” Simone ran over and she instantly took her face in her hands and kissed him repeatedly. “I still can’t feel you though…”

She looked at Xeik, “Fix it.”

She was so focused she didn’t see the man getting closer to him. “STAY AWAY FROM US,” she hissed as she took hold of Lewis and the fire exploded from the fireplace. Xeik grabbed the man to pull him back.

“You look just like your mother,” the man said and Simone paused her anger as she held Lewis tightly.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Lewis was extremely confused at what was going on. Why was Simone here? And she was older than the other one, but somehow this one felt different, more real, closer than the one in his heart. But there was also the man who was supposedly his father, but instead of that commanding presence that he held before, he was acting as though he had seen a ghost.

“Okay,” he said as he pushed Simone off of him and drew a dagger. “Everyone needs to start talking, now. What the fuck is going on!”

Simone looked at him, “What do you mean? We’ve come to find you!” She looked back to Xeik, once more commanding him to fix Lewis.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Lewis said as he drew a dagger. “First, this man over here tells me to go get documents, but then he’s here? And Simone was there, but she wasn’t you, and-”

Xeik rolled his eyes, “Oh for fuck’s sake.” He threw out the Divine Sands, and they slammed into Lewis, pinning him to the walls. Lewis struggled against it, glaring at Xeik. The older man who kept acting like Lewis’ father started to move, and Xeik tossed sands his way as well, tying him down to a chair. The Divine Mender looked to Simone with angry eyes. “Don’t you dare move, or I’ll knock you out.”

He moved to Lewis, and examined him. “He’s under a powerful illusion spell. Not sure the origin. Easiest method is…” He tools his fingers to Lewis’ neck, as well as several pressure points in his arms and legs. At once, both Simone and Lewis felt each other. The powerful magic they shared washed over Lewis, disrupting the spell.

“Now…are you going to stay calm?” Xeik asked Lewis.

“If I must…” Lewis said as he was let down. The first thing he did was go over to Simone, and give her a loving embrace. “I’m sorry…there’s a lot that’s happened…” He nuzzled her for a moment. “We have a lot to talk about…” There was a genuine smile from him. “I love you>”

Xeik rolled his eyes, “Not the time.” He turned his attention to the older man. “Start talking. Name. Occupation. And what the hell do you keep saying to Lewis.”

The man was still staring at Lewis. “You look like Leto…your mother.”

Lewis looked at him with an incredulous look. “My mother died a long time ago…”

“Yes. She was killed…and I thought you were killed as well. That was what I was told…” He cleared his throat. “My name is Roma Granados. And…I think I may have an idea as to what is happening…” Roma looked to his desk. “In there is my will and testament…I do believe that it may explain some things.”

Lewis walked over, and pulled up the documents, reading over them. “It looks like here that you’ve nullified your children’s inheritance.” He looked to Roma. “What does this have to do with me?”

“Well, Lewis…” He looked the assassin in the eyes. “You’re my son. And the way the will is phrased…”

Lewis looked back to the documents. “Wait. It just excludes a few names. Says everything is left to a living relative, but it doesn’t have a specific name. That would mean that-”

Xeik crossed his arms. “If it could be proven that Lewis is your son, then the inheritance goes straight to him.” The healer shook his head. “But how. If everyone thought he was dead. There’s no way you could have tracked him down.” There was a sigh. “No…that’s a lie. There’s probably a hundred different ways to do it. It’s less on how at this point, and more that they did…”

The assassin threw up his hands. “What the fuck does this even mean?”

Simone looked almost hurt when she was pushed away. Something was most definitely wrong especially since they couldn’t feel each other. Simone held up her hands when Xeik commanded her not to move, “I’m not.” He was done with the whole thing and she wasn’t about to disobey not with Lewis clearly alright now.

Once the resonance was back online it was clear from the exhale that Simone did. Her worry, her love, and all of her care rushed over Lewis like a vast ocean. She missed him greatly. She hugged him tightly and kissed him once more. “We do?” She smirked at him and kissed him again. “I love you too…” She had forgotten about the presents for now, all she needed was Lewis.

Simone looked at Lewis and then back at Xeik. “I might be able to fill it in. Now that I’m understanding the situation a bit more from Lewis’s memories. I can’t hear anything that was said but just from how I look… The information they have on Lewis is very old. It was from back when I first arrived in the tower after Lewis killed me the first time…” She corrected herself. “First three times?” She couldn’t keep track. “So… They have no idea we’re even married now. Or about the children… It could have gotten much worse had they figured that out… Which means our track covering has worked.” She was pleasantly surprised and happy at how much they had managed to hide.

Her color drained, “That… means I was slapping my father-in-law…” She facepalmed immediately and hid her face into Lewis’s chest. “I can explain!” She held out her hands. “I just get very, very upset when my husband disappears. Our bond is unique. I can feel him at all times… and I felt him go missing. So… when they said that this was where they took him I just assumed that you were the one who kidnapped him and I just reacted… I’m very, very protective over Lewis.”

…They couldn’t begin to understand how much their love.