Reaver arrived to his manor and announced his presence slamming the door loudly. Quickly, a group of maids approached him and took his coat, his hat and his cane without muttering a word. They knew when their Master was not in a good mood and now he seemed to be quite angry, so it was not wise to bother him.

Barry approached his Master happily and followed him as he made his way to his office.

- "Welcome home, Master Weaver"- he said, trying to keep up with his fast pace- "Is there anything you need?"

- "Actually, I do"- he replied, not even looking at him- "I need you to leave me alone".

Barry's smile disappeared as he stopped following his Master.

- "Alwight, Master Weaver. I…"

Reaver opened the door of his office and looked at Barry angrily.

- "If anyone dares to even look at my office's door, I shall kill him…or her, I'm not picky. Is that clear?"

Barry nodded and bowed to him before returning to the kitchen, where maids and other servants talked about their Master's foul mood in whispers. As soon as Barry entered, they stopped their gossiping and looked at him.

- "I think it is better if no one approaches his office today"- he said- "Unless you don't mind dying, of course".

The servants looked at each other in fear and went on doing their chores in silence.

Mrs. Norrington, who had witnessed the whole scene, remained still in a corner and frowned. When Barry left the kitchen, she followed him.

- "Do you have any idea what might have happened to Master Reaver?"- she asked him when they were far from prying ears.

Barry looked at her and shook his head.

- "He didn't say…But since that mysterious woman came here, he hasn't been his usual self".

Mrs. Norrington remained silent for a moment. He was right, since that woman's visit their Master seemed upset and restless…Maybe there was a way for her to find out why, even though it was going to be difficult and dangerous.

- "Let's hope he feels better soon"- she said as she went back to the kitchen to continue her chores.

Reaver sat behind his desk, staring blankly at the wall in front of him and holding a chalice of wine.

Dainara…She was all he could think about, and even though the pain and the guilt for her death had disappeared, the thought that she was so close to him after so many years but he couldn't have her was hurting him deeply.

How could he get her back? How could he convince her that his love for her was still as strong as it used to be hundreds of years ago?

You have changed…My husband is dead

These words resonated in his head loudly once and once again…Maybe she was right, maybe Lucious was as dead as he had been trying to convince himself all these years that he was. But then, would she ever love him again? Would she ever accept what he had become?

Reaver took a long sip of wine and sighed deeply. He looked at the lower part of his desk and opened slowly the drawer where he kept his most beloved possessions, opening then a little wooden box and taking out a wedding ring. He held it in his hand and caressed it sweetly as the name "Dainara" shone brightly in its inner part. He then looked at his empty finger and wondered if he should wear it again…Would she approve of it? Did this ring even belong to him anymore? He closed his hand around it and pressed it tightly, drinking what remained in his chalice quickly.

Suddenly, he looked at the clock that decorated his desk. It was about to be noon and he needed to go to Bowerstone Industrial to check personally that everything was going as expected. He got up from his desk, putting the ring inside his pocket, and went to the bathroom to freshen himself up.

He approached the ornamented golden basin that stood right below a beautiful framed mirror and threw some water on his face. Then he raised his head slowly and looked at himself in the mirror…

He would look at himself very often, always making sure he looked as elegant and handsome as possible, but he just realized that it had been a very long time since he had actually seen himself. His pale skin, the darkness that was growing slowly below his eyes, the consequences of the price he had to pay to be alive…

He raised his hand and touched his reflection on the mirror. Was that really him? Had he totally turned into Reaver, killing what little remained of Lucious inside of him?

Dainara was right, her husband was dead, and all that remained was a man Lucious would have hated to become. But he had no choice, he had to become Reaver, he couldn't bear the thought of being the one responsible for his hometown's destruction, for the death of his loved ones…

Reaver looked at his reflection angrily and punched it strongly, breaking the mirror into a thousand pieces. He opened his hand, now bleeding due to the cuts and saw how the wounds healed slowly, leaving his hand untouched as if nothing had happened.

He was Reaver, he could get anything he desired…he even got immortality. He would get Dainara, he would make her love him. No matter the cost, Dainara would be his soon.

He dried his face and got himself ready to go out, as elegant as usual. He opened the door of the bathroom and made his way to the foyer, where some maids were cleaning.

- "Would someone be so kind as to bring me the rest of my attire?"- he said in his usual tone.

The maids quickly brought his coat, hat and cane and helped him put them on with scared faces and not daring to look at him. Reaver held one of the maids' chin and raised her head.

- "My dear, why such a serious face? You would look much more beautiful if you smiled".

The young maid smiled shyly and kept on looking down as she blushed.

- "Well, let's see what wonderful surprises hold my glorious industries for me today"- he said, leaving his manor- "Tatty-bye, my lovelies!"

Reaver got into one of his carriages and made his way towards Bowerstone Industrial, where hundreds of workers walked around the gray streets quickly as he crossed them. Finally, the carriage stopped in front of a huge factory and Reaver got off of it, making his way towards the door as the workers prayed that he didn't notice them.

He entered the factory and looked around with a smirk.

- "Good day, my dear workers! And how are you all feeling today?"- he said in an almost sarcastic tone.

The workers bowed to him, not daring to look at him directly, and went on with their work. A big bald man approached him quickly and bowed to him.

- "Good morning, Master Reaver"- he said happily- "It is an honor to have you here, sir".

- "I'm sure it is, Irons"- he replied frowning- "But it sure isn't for me…Oh, dear, I wonder how you people can stand this…aroma around here".

- "I'm sorry, Master. You want me to hit them until they learn to wash themselves?"- said Irons sadistically.

- "Oh, no, don't bother. Their hygiene habits are not my concern, I don't come here that often anyway"- he then made his way to the first floor, where his office was located- "Come, you must report to me everything that has happened in my absence".

Irons followed him quickly and soon both men were inside a big dark office decorated with Reaver Industries posters and some fancy ornaments.

Reaver sat down behind a big wooden desk and Irons remained still right in front of him, like a soldier expecting orders from his captain.

- "Well?"- asked Reaver- "How have my beloved workers behaved this week?"

- "Well, you'll be pleased to hear that in all your factories, production has increased 10%, Master"- said Irons happily- "We were able to deliver our products faster and your benefits have increased considerably".

Reaver smiled, pleased about what he had just heard.

- "That's very good, indeed"- he said- "But I'm sure that you had some mischievous workers that needed to be punished as well, didn't you?"

Irons sighed.

- "Well, other supervisors have been complaining about sick workers…In this factory we only have one, Master, but I can assure you that I'm doing everything I can to make him work normally".

Reaver looked at Irons and frowned.

- "Sick, are they? Throw them out of my factories immediately! It could be contagious and these miserable people may ruin my business".

- "Very good, Master Reaver. They'll be out of here in no time".

- "Anything else I should know about?"

- "Well, a young woman entered this factory a few days ago and tried to help our sick worker, claiming that we should treat him nicely and give him some rest"- said Irons in a mocking tone.

Reaver scoffed.

- "Surely a member of the so called Resistance…They are bloody annoying. I trust you threw her out immediately?"

- "Of course, Master. I grabbed her arm and pushed her out of here like the piece of rubbish she is!"

- "I wish I had been here to have witnessed that. I do so enjoy seeing these pathetic people get humiliated"- said Reaver smiling- "But enough of this, is there anything else?"

- "Actually, yes, there's one more thing"- said Irons firmly- "Yesterday, I caught one of the workers, a young woman, leaving from your office as she hid something below her clothes. It seems that she had managed to pick the lock somehow while I was busy talking to our carbon supplier and she stole something from here. I didn't tell her anything because I knew you would be coming today and I wanted you to handle this delicate matter…personally".

Reaver frowned angrily and opened a little safe box which he had right under his desk, confirming his suspicions.

- "She stole my gold! That little strumpet!"- he looked at Irons firmly- "Bring her here".

Irons smiled.

- "Right away, Master"- he said, leaving the office.

Reaver untied his Dragonstomper from his holster and placed it on the table. How dared that little worm steal from him? Did she really believe that she could take his gold and live to tell the tale?

Suddenly, the door opened and Irons pushed a young woman inside. She must have been no more than 20 and she was wearing dirty clothes, torn in some parts. She looked at Reaver with so opened eyes as she sobbed inconsolably.

- "Here she is, Master. She's all yours"- said Irons with a smirk.

- "Thank you, Irons"- replied Reaver looking at the young woman defiantly- "Leave us alone, please".

Irons bowed to him and left the office, closing the door behind him.

The young woman started crying and covered her eyes with her shaky hands.

- "Please, don't kill me! Please, I beg you!"- she said desperately.

- "Tell me, my dear, can you give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you?"

- "My mother is sick, she needs medicines and we can't afford them"- she said, still crying and breathing heavily- "My father is dead, I'm all she has…Please, don't kill me, Master! I promise I won't do it again! I'll do anything you want!"

Reaver smiled, got up from his chair, taking his pistol with him, and approached her slowly.

- "Really? Would you be willing to do anything I want?"- he caressed her face sweetly and raised her chin, placing his lips so close to hers- "What if I want you to die? Would you do that for me?"

He placed his pistol over her chest as she shook uncontrollably.

Lucious promised me he would never kill anyone…He promised me he would never do anything to hurt me…You are a murderer…You are not my husband…You killed my husband…

The words that Dainara had told him came to his mind and made him unable to move, unable to shoot. He might not be Lucious anymore, but he remembered perfectly how one day, hundreds of years ago, when his beloved Oakvale still existed, he promised Dainara that he would never kill anyone, that he would never do anything she disapproved of…

He lowered his Dragonstomper and grabbed her arm firmly.

- "Get out of here as fast as you can. If I ever see you again, I swear I won't be as merciful as I am today, is that clear?"

The young woman remained shocked for a moment and then opened the door and left the office quickly.

Irons frowned and approached Reaver.

- "Master, why is she…alive?"

Reaver sat down behind his desk and left the pistol on it.

- "I finally decided that such lowlife didn't even deserve one of my precious bullets…But if I see her again, I can assure you I won't feel as generous anymore"- he said firmly- "And now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to be alone…This whole affair has given me a headache".

- "I see…"- said Irons disappointed as he made his way out- "See you later, Master".

Reaver rubbed his forehead and sighed deeply. He knew that he couldn't keep doing what he had done today…Soon, word would spread and he would look weak, he would lose all the respect he had worked so hard to earn throughout all these years.

But he also knew that, by being ruthless, by killing people, he was breaking the promise he had made to her, he would be hurting her deeply…and she would never love him.

What could he do? What would he do?

He got up from his chair and looked at his factories through the dirty windows of his office as he reached for his pocket and caressed the wedding ring he was carrying inside.

- "She will love me, I will make her love me…"- he thought- "I will make her understand why I had to do what I did, I will make her see how happy we can be now that our problems are over, now that we have a beautiful manor, now that we have more gold that we could ever dream of…now that we have eternal life".

A new day had arrived to Bowerstone, filling the streets once again with merchants selling their wares around the marketplace and citizens greeting each other cheerfully.

Inside Bowestone Castle, dozens of servants walked up and down doing their daily chores.

Queen Nichole made her way to the kitchen, greeting happily all the servants she found on her way. As soon as she arrived, her loyal dog greeted her cheerfully, jumping on her and licking her cheeks.

- "Good morning, Valjee! You beat me to the kitchen again! Are you hungry?"

Valjee barked happily.

- "Then let's have some breakfast".

The Queen got some delicious toasts with honey from the table and started eating while a servant filled Valjee's bowl.

- "Gilda, have you seen my guest this morning?"- she asked one of her servants.

- "No, Your Majesty. I haven't seen her since yesterday, in fact. I believe she's still locked in her room".

The Queen sighed. She didn't know what Reaver had told Dainara but whatever it was it had upset her enough as to make her stay in her room since he left. She had thought of going to talk to her, to ask her what was wrong, but she had finally decided to leave her alone…Maybe she didn't want to talk about it and she didn't want to annoy her.

- "If she comes looking for me, please tell her I'll be in the War Room"- she said to the servant.

Queen Nichole finished her breakfast quickly and went towards the War Room, where she was to meet with Kalin, Ben and Page to continue the meeting Reaver had interrupted the previous day.

When she arrived, Kalin and Ben were already waiting for her.

- "Good morning"- said the Queen- "Where is Page?"

- "She said she would join us later"- replied Ben- "She had to talk to some friends of the Resistance before she came".

- "Has something happened?"- asked the Queen, concerned.

- "I don't know"- he said- "She didn't say".

Queen Nichole remained thoughtful for a moment.

- "Well, let's start without her then"- she said finally, turning to Kalin- "Have you found out anything interesting about the amulet?"

Kalin sighed deeply.

- "Unfortunately, I haven't. I studied it thoroughly yesterday and, remembering your words on how to use it, I went to the forest and tried to use it against some hobbes. But it didn't work…I held it firmly in my hand and I pointed at the creatures with it, but they seemed unaffected. Are you sure that person you saw didn't do anything else?"

The Queen raised her eyebrow, surprised.

- "She didn't do anything else, I'm sure of it…I don't understand".

- "I say we load our pistols and take those shadows down in the traditional way"- said Ben- "A good pistol never fails".

- "We need this amulet. Pistols and swords will only kill them temporally, we need something to kill them off once and for all"- added Kalin- "Your Majesty, where did you say you found that person? Maybe we can find her and ask her for her aid in understanding the amulet".

The Queen remained silent for a moment. Kalin was right, Dainara would be very useful to help them with the Eye of Avo, but she had suffered so much…she didn't want to involve her in more problems, more grieving.

- "I found her in the Wraithmarsh, but I don't know where she is now"- Queen Nichole lied- "Don't worry, Kalin, we'll find a way to uncover its secrets".

As soon as she finished her sentence, the door opened and Page entered the room, looking quite angry.

- "Excuse my delay, Your Majesty"- she said.

- "What happened? Are you alright?"- asked the Queen, worried about her.

- "No, I'm not"- Page replied angrily- "When the meeting is over I need to talk to you".

- "You may talk about your worries, we have nothing else to say about the amulet for now"- replied Kalin- "If you don't mind, I'm going to the library to try to find out more about it".

- "Of course"- said the Queen- "We'll meet again as soon as we have news".

Kalin bowed to the Queen and left the War Room. Ben looked at Page and raised his eyebrow.

- "So, can I stay? Is it about the Resistance or about some girlish stuff?"

Page crossed her arms and frowned.

- "It is about Reaver, as usual"- she said.

- "What about him? What has he done now?"- asked the Queen.

- "He's firing every worker who is sick! Under the pathetic excuse that it is necessary to prevent their illnesses from spreading, he's leaving every sick person jobless and with no means to buy some medicines to cure themselves. He's basically condemning them to death!"

- "Bastard…"- said Ben angrily.

Queen Nichole frowned.

- "We must do something, we can't allow them to be fired"- she said.

- "Can you do something to prevent this from happening?"- asked Page- "You are the Queen, maybe you could create a law…"

The Queen sighed.

- "Unfortunately, a lot of the labor laws cannot be changed…When my brother gave Reaver control of all the industry of Albion, the deal was that he was allowed to make decisions concerning his factories as long as he was creating jobs for the Kingdom".

Page punched the table in front of her angrily.

- "That son of a…We must do something, Your Majesty, we can't allow this injustice to happen".

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door, startling them.

- "Come in"- said the Queen.

The door opened and, to the Queen's surprise, Dainara appeared behind it. She wasn't wearing her hood and she looked paler than before, her eyes swollen as if she had been crying all night.

- "I'm sorry to disturb you, Your Majesty"- she said shyly- "I didn't know you were in a meeting".

- "You are not disturbing me at all"- said the Queen, happy to see her out of her room- "Please, come in".

Dainara looked at Page and Ben and entered the room slowly. The Queen approached her.

- "Let me introduce my friends to you"- the Queen turned around- "This is Page, one of my advisors and a good friend, and this man is Captain Ben Finn, Captain of Albion's army and my…"

- "Who is this woman?"- asked Page, interrupting the Queen.

- "You know, some manners wouldn't hurt you sometimes"- said Ben to Page.

Queen Nichole placed her hand on Dainara's shoulder and smiled.

- "This is Dainara, a friend of mine and a guest in this castle".

Ben approached her and kissed her hand politely.

- "A pleasure to meet you, Dainara".

Page remained still and looked at her suspiciously.

- "Nice to meet you…"- she said, trying to sound polite.

- "We can go on discussing what we were saying before"- said the Queen- "I'm sure Dainara won't mind…She doesn't particularly like Reaver either".

As soon as she heard that name, Dainara's expression changed.

- "What about him?"- she asked quickly.

- "Well…"- the Queen started to say.

- "Your Majesty, are you sure we can trust her? How well do you know her? I have never seen her around the castle"- Page interrupted.

- "I know her enough to know that she has strong reasons to hate Reaver"- said the Queen- "He killed her husband".

Dainara looked down.

- "Is that true? Did Reaver kill your husband?"- asked Page.

Dainara nodded sadly.

- "Why?"- Page asked again.

- "Because he was a good man…because he wouldn't have allowed him to be what he is today".

Page frowned.

- "What a bastard…"- she then looked at Dainara- "Don't worry, he'll pay for what he did. We are Bowerstone Resistance, a group of people who fight endlessly for the rights of everyone on this city. Reaver is always hurting poor people, trying to take their rights away…Every day, he thinks of something new to make our lives a little worse. Just yesterday, he decided to fire from his factories all the workers who are sick, sending them to their deaths".

Dainara got even paler and felt a horrible pressure on her chest which didn't allow her to breathe properly.

He was dead, he didn't exist anymore, Lucious couldn't be hurting so many people…

The room seemed to move around her, making her lose her balance. The Queen held her before she fell to the floor and took her to a velvet sofa, where she sat down.

- "Are you alright?"- she asked her.

- "Yes…just a little dizzy".

- "Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned Reaver or your husband…I'm sorry".

Dainara took a deep breath. They were right, he had to be stopped, Lucious would hate what he had become…

She got up from the sofa and approached Page firmly.

- "I want to join the Resistance".