"Love will never break your heart again."

Second time someone promises that, and they say it as if it's a good thing. But I know better. Love won't break my heart again because I won't find love again. I know in my gut I'm not meant to bond with Laura "Fuoco" Rossi, even if C and fate decree otherwise. She's a model of international fame, and I'm... me. The ugly, scarred Olympios brother. The one who's never belonged anywhere.

My ascension depends on our bonding, but a woman as beautiful and refined as Laura would have nothing to do with me of her own free will. That's why I won't give in to her advances, hard as that may be.

And Gaia, is it hard.