88 Birds of a Feather

Meanwhile over in Lady Vanya's residence, a reunion of sorts was happening.

Lady Vanya was in her sitting room, waiting for a video call to connection.

For the past eight hours she has been trying to get in contact with her older sister, but every time they called the connection was dropped.

If things continued on like this the only way she would able be to communicate would be through comms, which will take a couple of days.

Frustration setting in, Vanya started to pace around the room. She thought to herself, "If this time the call doesn't work, I'll use the comms."

For another twenty minutes, she waited until Vanya heard a voice coming in over the speakers.

"Hello?"

Lady Delju faces appeared on screen confused and curious, wondering who might be calling her at night around this time.

"Sister...I've finally reached you."

Hearing the word "sister", Lady Delju took a good look at the other person on the screen.

"Vanya?... Is that you? You look....different."

Lady Delju and the rest of their family never pay much attention to Vanya, she was the weakest and ugliest of them all. Situated in the background to be kept hidden to save the family some face from the other high clans.

Believing her luck was bad if Vanya was calling her, Lady Delju wanted to feint tiredness to end the call.

"Vanya, I don't think I can talk for long. I'm really bus-"

Understanding her sister was looking down on her, Vanya interrupted Delju before she could go any further with her lies.

"Oh, me too. There's a house guest here, maybe you happen to know her..."

Irked at being interrupted and for not being able to end the call when she wanted to, Lady Delju flares up at her sister.

"How would I know your house guest!? Really!"

"So, you don't know a Miss Mikaela Amara..."

"No! I don't know any Mika- Wait! Who did you say is at your home?"

In not wanting to talk to her sister, Lady Delju didn't listen to Vanya words completely.

"Miss. Mikaela. Amara."

Lady Delju went still as stone, almost making Vanya believe that the video froze.

"Delju?... Are you there?"

Lady Delju was occupied thinking about her daughter words for her to hear Vanya talking to her.

"Sienna was right, all we had to do was wait." Delju didn't even know her sister had married, and who would have thought Mikaela would fall right into Vanya's house. What luck!

"Delju?...Delju!..."

"I'm here!...I'm here." Trying to hide her excitement, Delju wanted to find out what her sister called for.

"So what the reason for this call?"

No matter how Lady Delju wanted to mask her emotions, Vanya could already grasp her thoughts.

After all, Delju didn't even want to take her call, and now she wants to talk. Vanya laughed in her head as she saw her plan coming together.

"Oh well, I remember you married into an Amara clan. I thought it might be the same one, but if it's not then sorry for the call. I'll let you go since your so busy..."

"No! No, I'm not that busy that I can't spare a few minutes to talk to my sister."

Vanya didn't want to take the fakeness coming from Delju any longer and got straight to the point.

"Do you like this step-daughter of yours?"

"....What do you mean?" Delju could sense that Vanya had a proposition for her, but she needed to be careful, she remembered what happened to Lady Jaelah.

"What I mean is if you scratch mine back, I'll scratch yours..."

That night Lady Vanya and Lady Delju made plans to solve the nuisances in their lives.

_____

Lady Delju hung up the call from her sister very satisfied in the end.

Walking into her mother sitting room, Sienna saw her mother in a daze and smiling to herself. Wondering what good news happen to cause this delightful mood in her mother, Sienna questioned her mother.

"Mom, what has you so happy tonight? Is father coming here...?" Sienna thought the only thing that could get her mother so happy would be her father's attention.

"No... but you're not so far off."

Really curious now, Sienna asked her mother for details.

"Okay, okay. I'll tell you...You know Mikaela is in the Steppes, right?"

At the mention of Mikaela, Sienna gave her mother her full attention and nodded her head as this was well established from before.

"Well, my sister just called me saying she has a Mikaela Amara staying in her home as a house guest..."

When her mother said Mikaela was within her family's hands, Sienna could see a plan coming into works.

"What did Aunty say?"

"Vanya and your uncle will handle everything on their side. We just need to convince your father to pay out some money."

"Money?... Why?"

"Sienna, though they are family that doesn't mean they will work for free. The money will guarantee their cooperation." Delju looked at her daughter thinking that even though she was smart, she was still naive in some areas.

"Mother...this must be done without any flaws. I cannot end up like Kamyrn and Lula..."

"Don't worry, if anything goes wrong we can blame it on your father's friend for not handling his family correctly."