As it turned out, everything was not fine.

It was with a light step and a merry song in my heart that I found myself at the Lover’s Lane motel and breakfast buffet, Room 28, twenty minutes later. Just as I expected, the place was a bit of a shady mess, the sight of which brought a warm smile to my silly face.

Avidia, it seemed, liked to have her fun in some shall we say interesting environments. Well, I wasn’t going to judge her for it. Some people preferred the setting for their trysts to be pristine and perfect like the setting of a fairy tale, and others liked grinding it out on the threadbare carpets of the sleaziest dives they could find. Either option was good enough for me.

I’m very easy to please.

“Keep watch outside, will you lads?” I asked my companions before entering the room. Schultz barked in acknowledgement and took a position beside the door to stand guard. Orby, on the other hand, just floated in the air and emitted a confused sort of beep at the order he’d been given. I really think he would have stayed there all night if Schultz hadn’t given an irritated bark that I’m sure roughly translated into Get over here, stupid! Which sent the blood orb scurrying over to his side.

Heh. It didn’t take those two very long to get a friendly little dynamic going, did it?

I gave the door a few light raps before stepping inside to find the curtains drawn, the pleasant scent of vanilla candles filling the air, and some romantic-ish electronic music playing in the background. In the center of the room was a large heart shaped bed illuminated with flickering neon pink lighting.

“Scoooore,” I said to myself. This was going to be wild.

“Shhh,” said the breathy whisper of the woman behind me as she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around my waist.

“This is an interesting setting,” I said as I placed my own hands over hers. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I’ve always wanted to try out a place like this,” she said coyly. “It’s fun, right? The perfect background for some naughty roleplaying.”

“We’re doing roleplaying as well?” I asked excitedly. “Oh! Can I be an angry Gamestop manager? You can be the sultry customer trying to trade in her old games for the advertised value without a power rewards card. Are you ready?”

“…huh?” she asked.

I ignored her and said, “Now listen here, Missy. I keep telling you your membership expired last year. If you want full credit, you’re gonna need to throw me a little something extra, got it?”

“Kyler, what is a GameStop?” the woman asked in confusion.

“I’ll tell you all about it in bed, babe,” I said as I turned around to kiss her passionately. “Now let’s just—”

My breath caught in my chest at the sight of her.

“What are you doing here?” I asked in surprise.

Anikka Velas grinned slyly at me before throwing her arms around my neck and drawing me in for another kiss.

“That is what I’m doing,” she said breathily before using her teeth to nip gently at my ear.

She was dressed in a black shift under a red robe, with her golden hair cut in a messy, spikey pattern that suited her. Her vivid blue eyes twinkled at me beneath a messily applied layer of black mascara.

She looked great. She looked like a disaster. She felt like trouble.

Her teeth on my ear felt good. They felt very good. But I was no longer in the mood for it.

“Lady Anikka,” I said calmly. “I’m not certain how up to date on recent events you are, but you're one of the people in this world I would be happy never to lay eyes on again in my lifetime. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Is that all you have to say to me?” she asked, with a hurt expression on her face. “You’re taking your leave? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” I replied. “Nothing at all. And in the interest of keeping myself that way, that’s why I’ll be avoiding further contact with you. Those in your circle have a tragic tendency to die young, don’t they?”

“Only the ones who deserve it,” she whispered.

“Not even the decency to fake a little remorse,” I said. “You’re a rare sort of beast, aren’t you?”

“I’m what the world made me,” she said as she pushed past me to take a seat on the bed. “It pressed too hard and now I’m wearing its wounds in my soul.”

“Oh, bless your weary little heart,” I said mockingly. “Are things going that poorly in the land of milk and honey?”

“Why are you speaking to me like that?” she asked.

“How should I speak to a murderess?” I wondered.

“I-I read the report my father had on you,” she stammered. “How can you even think to call me that with some of the things you’ve been up to?”

“Because I’m a hypocrite. And possibly a psychopath. There are no great expectations for the likes of me,” I said. “But for someone like you, with all the choices in life that others could only dream of? It’s a shameful thing to see you sink to my level.”

Annika was back on her feet in an instant, standing inches away from me with an intensity that heated the air between us. She placed her hands over mine and tried to smile with a face that trembled like it wanted to weep.

“I’d do anything to be with you,” she swore.

“Have you tried throwing yourself off a bridge?” I asked her.

“Stop mocking me. Please…please stop being so mean to me,” she pleaded.

“Then stop acting like such a joke,” I said angrily as I pulled myself free of her. “I already told you, your days of toying with Evans have ended. I’m who you have to deal with now, and I’m far too old for this melodramatic nonsense.”

“You’re the one who ran away!” she yelled as I began walking to the door. “You ran away like a coward and left me to fend for myself! You said you’d protect me!”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You left me behind,” she said accusingly. “Why did you leave me behind? I needed you! I still need you! And now you’re doing it again!”

“You needed Evans so much that you stabbed him in the back?” I countered. “Did you forget about the part where you murdered him? I didn’t.”

“Why do you keep speaking like that?” Anikka asked angrily. “Just stop it! Stop playing games, stop playing with me!”

“Are you really the one being sported with?” I asked her. “Are you the poor little rich girl in this scenario? You can’t have your way so you’re having a tantrum. Do you realize how tedious you sound?”

“Kyler, stop it!” she shouted.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I don’t want to,” I replied. “In fact, I think I prefer you this way. You’re a beautiful girl, Anikka, but it’s a distant sort of beauty, isn’t it? Unapproachable. Unknowable. Seeing that face twisted in anger pleases me greatly. Imperfection is what truly makes someone worth remembering.”

“You’re acting like you don’t even know me!” she sobbed.

“Of course, I don’t. We’ve never even met,” I said as I turned away from her. “Anything else to say? It’s your final chance.”

“Why are you leaving me again? Don’t do it!” she said as she clutched desperately at my arm. “Kyler please, I need you! You’re the only one who understands me!”

At the mention of Kyler Evan’s name again, anger burst bright within me, volatile and white hot, alongside a sudden desire to be hateful and cruel. Why didn’t any of these fools understand?

I grabbed Anikka by her shoulders and pushed her against a wall. Then I gripped her chin and tilted her face toward mine so that she could look me in the eyes as I spoke.

“How many times will I have to repeat this fucking conversation with you insipid little people?” I growled at her. “Look at me. Look at me! I am not Kyler Evans. I was never Kyler Evans. Whoever he was, he’s now gone. Yes, Anikka, gone. Dispensed with by your cruel hand, remember? Broken and lifeless on that cold cavern floor bereft of clothing and dignity. A toy that you chose to cast aside.”

“I didn’t,” she whimpered. “I would never do that.”

More lies. I would hear them no longer.

“You did,” I said icily. “You killed him. Murdered him. You threw him away like a broken doll. But now you, the architect of his doom, dare to beg for his return? It’s pathetic. So pathetic.”

My hand slowly lowered to her throat.

“Why do you deserve to live when he didn’t?” I asked.

“I don’t,” she said with tearful eyes. “I don’t, I don’t.”

“Then why did you do it?” I asked her. “Why did you betray him?”

“I couldn’t stop them,” she wept. “I tried to; I swear! But they were following my father’s orders. He read my journal, he knew about us, and he wanted you dead.”

“Ah, now it’s your father’s fault,” I said. “What pitiful little star-crossed lovers you and Evans must have been! It seems as though the whole world was against you!”

“It was!” she yelled suddenly. “IT WAS! EVERYONE! EVERYONE, USING ME! TREATING ME LIKE AN OBJECT INSTEAD OF A PERSON! You were the only one, Kyler! You were the only one who saw me! You knew I was hurting! You understood me!”

“And for that, he was rewarded with death,” I said.

“It was THEM!” she screamed. “IT WAS THEM!”

“Prove it,” I said as I cast [Mesmerize] and overwhelmed her free will with the power of my mind. Her face immediately slackened as her posture relaxed. I then stepped away from her and took a seat in a chair while leaving her to stand. “No more of these theatrics, Anikka Velas. Tell me exactly what happened that night.”

“What would you like to know?” she asked calmly.

“Were you the one who killed Kyler Evans?”

“No,” she said.

“Did you know he would be killed that day?”

“No. The actions of my attendants surprised me. I had no idea they were going to do that,” she said. “When I demanded to know why, they informed me it was at my father’s command.”

Huh. So, she’d been telling the truth after all. That was surprising.

“Why would your father want Kyler Evans dead? He had no standing, no relevance. In what way was he a threat?” I asked.

“Because I loved him. Because I wanted to be with him,” Anikka said. Although her voice and body language remained calm, as she spoke those words, I saw more tears beginning to well in her eyes.

“Why?” I asked in confusion. “He had nothing to offer you.”

“He was everything to me,” she said. “He saw me.”

Oh, for the love of night. Pankratz had gotten it completely wrong and misunderstood everything he'd seen. I shouldn’t be surprised by that; how many times had that boy proven himself to be an utter fool? I shouldn’t have given back his hand. Maybe I’d feed his remaining one to a hungry goblin. It would serve him right!

This girl had been telling me the truth all along. Anikka Velas hadn’t been using Kyler Evans until she got bored with him. And he had never been a victim of her supposed cruelty.

The two of them had genuinely been in love with each other.

What a mess.

“Sit down,” I said, gesturing towards the bed. When she was seated, I asked, “What brought you two together?”

“Shared circumstances,” Anikka said sadly. “Like Kyler, one of my parents was a commoner. And unlike my sister and father, my class, apothecary, is production based. The Velas are a clan of warriors, so I was looked upon as an embarrassment. I’m pretty, though, so Daddy decided I still had some value to offer for when I came of age.”

“He decided to have you married off?” I asked.

“Not even that,” she said bitterly. “He gave me to your brother as a mistress. An incentive to encourage him to marry my older sister, Thalia.”

My stomach roiled in disgust.

“He gave you to…my brother? Why? Why was attaining Patrick so important that he’d allow his own daughter to become a… consort?” I asked.

“Your brother is an A-ranked Holy Knight,” said Anikka. “Both the class and the high ranking are extremely rare. Holy Knights are also coveted because they have the potential to evolve into Paladins, which are S-ranked, just like the Regent’s grandson. All of Gardenia’s elite had been chasing after him to join them, before he settled on my family.”

“Judging by your reaction, I assume that being my brother’s mistress has been a less than thrilling experience,” I said tactfully.

“He’s a monster. Both he and Thalia,” she said sadly. “They hurt me.”

Damn it.

“He hurt you too,” she continued. “Ever since you were children, he went out of his way to oppress you. But you were never afraid of him. You always talked back, and he hated you so much for it! Then you got involved with the equalist movement and—”

What?

“Hold on,” I said, raising a hand to pause her. “Are you saying that Kyler Evans was an equalist?”

“Yes,” she said. “You and that Nick Pankratz were always going on about it. Nick was obviously just joking, but you were so serious about the topic. You’d always say things like, An end to nobility and shitty older siblings! You were so funny!”

“I…was? I mean, he was? Kyler Evans was an amusing fellow?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. And so brave, too. You were just a porter, but you weren’t afraid to speak your mind,” Anikka said admiringly. “No matter what they did, no matter how many beatings, you didn’t care. And you weren’t afraid to approach me either.”

So, that was the sort of person Kyler Evans had been. The sort of individual I personally admired. Someone who challenged life’s arbitrary unfairness and didn’t passively bear with it as I’d always done.

“You promised me we’d leave one day,” Anikka continued. “That we’d escape to the reclamations and make a new life for ourselves away from this awful city. Somewhere where classes didn’t matter, and we could just be together. You told me we’d be free one day. But then it happened, in that fracture. They held you down and beat you and humiliated you…Kyler, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t do anything…”

“Stop,” I told her as I rested my head in my hands while I absorbed these revelations. “Just stop for a moment, please. This is an awful lot to think about.” Then a thought suddenly occurred to me. “Why did you accuse me of attacking you to begin with? You were shouting for them to keep you away from me.”

“You were alive,” she said. “I’d just seen you be beaten to death but somehow you were walking around without a scratch on you. I thought I was going insane, that I was in hell. I didn’t…I didn’t realize what I was saying. I still think I went mad.”

“You didn’t. You haven’t,” I assured her.

“It doesn’t feel that way,” she whispered. “Especially when you died again in the school, and I realized my mistake. Twice! Two times you were stolen from me! But then all this time later, Daddy received a report that you were somehow still around and meeting with the Regent himself! How did you do it, Kyler? How do you keep coming back? And why won’t you take me with you?”

“I don’t think you’d like the means by which I survived,” I said to her quietly. “At times I can barely tolerate them myself.”

“I don’t care. I just want to be with you,” Anikka said. “Please forgive me. Please take me back. Please help me.”

Her yearning for her dead lover pained me greatly. Looking at her in such misery, it reminded me of myself when Adelbert and Emmaline were…lost to me. How desperately I wished I could change the past and earn their forgiveness. How I had wished to overturn death itself just to have another chance to make amends with my friends.

But even when I’d acquired the power to take those steps, the redemption I sought was still denied to me.

Some crimes can never be forgiven.

Some mistakes can never be undone.

I think I understood this girl perfectly. And in that moment, I decided that I wouldn’t allow her to suffer any longer. She was still young. Still beautiful. There was no reason for her to live burdened with the malice of her cruel family. There was still time for her to enjoy her season under the sun. To find love again. To know joy.

But for Anikka to live without fear in the garden, first all the weeds had to be plucked.

Every single one of them.

“Go to sleep,” I told her, as I rose from my chair. “Rest without dreams as peacefully as you can. Everything will be settled by the morning.”

“Where are you going?” Anikka yawned as she lay on the bed. I pulled the blanket over her and smiled as she drifted into gentle slumber, certain now that I was making the right decision.

“I’m paying a visit to your family,” I told her sleeping face. “And in return, they’ll be paying for everything they’ve done. Now rest.”

On my way out of the room, I mentally summoned my daughter.

Rachel. Return to me.

It didn’t take her long to appear. Within a few minutes, she was at my side along with Orby, as we walked purposefully in the direction of the Velas estate. Before departing the motel, I ordered Schultz to protect Anikka.

“If anyone with unfriendly intentions approaches that room, show no mercy,” I commanded him.

He barked once to show he understood. In return, I scratched his ear, pleased as always by his loyalty and obedience.

“So where are we off to now?” Rachel asked as we set out.

“I’m sure you’ll like it,” I said. “It’s a high class all-you-can-eat buffet. Nothing but fine dining as far as the eye can see.”

“Nice,” Rachel said cheerfully. “I like the sound of that! I just hope they have enough to satisfy a pair of gluttons like us.”

“I’m sure they will, daughter,” I said with an anticipatory smile. “Just be sure to bring your appetite.”

“How should we dress?” she asked.

“I think something red would be suitable,” I said.