464 Pia 3

The leader of the now small group of soldiers wasn't willing to be killed by whatever, Saavi was doing to his men.

Grabbing Pia, he held a dagger to her neck. "Back away! Or I will cut her throat!"

"Whose throat might you be talking about?" Saavi smirked at the male.

The leader looked down in his arms and realized Pia was no longer there.

"Ah! Where….?"

The rest of his men looked at him in shock before looking over behind Saavi to see Pia being held by another shorter female.

"What the…"

"How did she…."

"When did she…" Were all the words the men could muster.

Realizing that they had no more leverage, the leader wanted to use his men to distract Saavi so he can get away.

Yet, before he could shout the order to attack, Saavi beat him to the punch.

"*Love*[1] each other to death." 

The soldiers felt this control come over their bodies as they dropped their weapons and rushed at each other, as if they were seeing their long lost lover.

Even the men already on the ground withering in pain, couldn't stop their bodies from moving to join in on the dog pile a few meters away from them.

"Can we go? I really don't want to stay for this…" Celaena commented from behind Saavi.

"Yeah, let's go."

Saavi grabbed Pia's other arm and they walked away from the scene.

Finding an empty residence, Saavi and Celaena broke in and sat Pia down to treat her wounds and find proper clothing for her to change into.

"Celaena, check the closets for any clothes."

"Got it."

As Celaena rushed off, Saavi ran to look for a medic-care container in the home.

"You'll probably find one in the kitchen." Pia pointed out to her when she couldn't find it in the bathroom.

"En."

Coming back out, Saavi held a box full of first-aid care.

Raffling through the box, she tried to calm her nerves while treating her mentor's injuries, but Pia saw right through her and grab her shaking hands.

"I'm alright. Nothing happened."

Saavi broke down crying in Pia's lap after that as she patted her back.

"Sigh, your still the shy little fledgling we pick up how many years ago, huh?" Pis said after awhile.

Saavi sat up wiping the tears on her face, realizing how selfish she was being. To have her mentor comfort her during a time where she should be the strong one.

"I'm sorry…" 

"It's fine. Now, wipe your tears and help me with this," She held up bandages and medicine to treat her wounds, "...afterwards, we can go to Lady Lyra's courtyard." 

"En."

Celaena came back into the room holding fresh servant clothes. "Here."

With a change of clothes and a quick rest, the three ladies left the abandoned residence and made their way toward Lyra's courtyard.

"Lady Delju went to Lord Cohnal!"

"En, she and Lord Cohnal worked together to get Miss Sienna out of the clan. Lady Lyra doesn't know where she went, but we know she didn't go to the countryside like she was supposed to."

"Does Lord Mano know?"

"En. Apparently, Lady Delju wasn't the only wife of his to have an affair…"

"Wait! You mean the other wives too…?"

"Well, all except for Lady Lyra, Thalia and Jaelah."

"Unbelievable…" Saavi was shell shock.

"Not really, he's been trying to get rid of them for a while now. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong partners for they flings."

"What do you mean?"

"Lord Mano had given the wives the option of a divorce long ago, but none of them wanted to take it as they all wanted a piece of the Amara clan. That being said, they chose to have affairs with Lord Mano's brothers and cousins." Pia shook her head, "They all dreamed of having a child and then taking over the clan, but little did they know their lovers were just having fun with them."

"So, where are the wives now?"

"Dead….although, I didn't see Lady Delju's body."

"Dead?"

"Cohnal obvious had them killed. He wouldn't share his power with Lord Mano's females." Pia said simply.

Processing the fact that the only wives left in the main family were Lady Lyra and Lady Thalia, took some time for Saavi to come to terms with.

Along the way Celaena's attention was pulled away by a somewhat unusual figure escaping through the gardens.

"What is that?"

Both Pia and Saavi went into defense mode, thinking that they were about to be under attack from soldiers again.

"No, you two look over there…" Pointing at a haggard figure with sagging skin, jumping into the garden's brushes.

"….Lady Delju." Pia said after trying to get a good look at the person.

"Why does she look like that?" Saavi remembered Lady Delju being more on the plumper side.

"She must have use her gifts to get away." Seeing that they didn't understand, Pia went on to explain. "Lady Delju has a gift that has side effects. She can enlarge her body with air or weight it down with water. However, after enlarging her body with air and then deflating it, her skin will sag." Pia guessed that is probably how she got her away from Lord Cohnal.

"What is the side effect if she weights down her body?" Saavi asked.

"What do you mean what is the side effect if she weights down her body? You already seen it." Pia shook her head as she kept walking towards the back courtyard, "Lady Delju was once thinner than Lady Thalia, but due to accident she used her gifts to weight down her body. However, because of that one time, she has never been able to fully work off the excess weight ever since."

"Heh...Talk about getting the lucky draw on gifts, huh?" Celaena remarked as she continued to follow behind Pia.

"What about Miss Mikaela?" Pia asked once Saavi went silent.

"She having dinner with the King."

"WHAT!" Pia and Celaena stopped in their tracks to stare at Saavi's back as she kept walking.

"Why would she be having dinner with the King?"

"Yeah." Celaena chimed in, Saavi only told her Mika had another emergency.

"He invited her of course. She couldn't turn him down. That's is why we are here in her stead."

"Then we should hurry up to inform Lady Lyra."

Picking up the pace the three females, rushed towards the back courtyard.

[1] I hope I don't have to explain what she really meant here -__-