Chapter Six

Evangeline looked around the stately room with a bored expression on her beautiful face. She'd been stuck in a room with just Kaitlyn and their servers, and she soon found out her future sister-in-law was a lot younger at heart than her twenty years. It made it harder for her to feign interest, as they clearly didn't share the same interests or ideas. Evangeline had been tutored extensively for years to prepare her for one day ruling a large household like this, but Lord Simia had been a little more relaxed with his daughter; he figured it could wait until she was least twenty and two. He didn't want her to miss out on her youth as they wouldn't be seeking to marry her off until she was about the same age that Ryan was now anyway. Any family would be lucky to have her, whether she knew how to run a household or not.

"Nieve!" the redhead almost barked, only just keeping her voice at an acceptable level so as not to draw Kaitlyn's attention.

"Yes milady?" Nieve asked grudgingly, keeping her voice polite. She saw her friend glance away from her conversation with the young Simia Royal for a brief second, worried about the tone she could hear.

"Fetch me some water and a light snack," Evangeline demanded. "Preferably fruit," she added, to limit the chances of her server bringing her heavier food stuffs such as bread.

"Of course, Miss," the brunette nodded with a polite smile. "Miss Kaitlyn?" she asked to offer to bring her something back as well. If she was going to brave the maze that this house was to find the kitchen, she might as well make the most of it. Who knew how long it might take her?

"No thank you Nieve," the white-haired girl declined politely. She'd had a proper breakfast this morning, unlike her brother's wife-to-be. Her blonde handmaiden gave her friend an apologetic look before she moved to be slightly more in the middle. In Nieve's absence, Layla would have to serve both ladies. She tried to straighten her pose out, knowing that the redhead was stricter than her Royal.

They didn't speak much while they waited for Nieve to return, but most of the conversation was between Kaitlyn and Layla. Evangeline spent the time looking at her surroundings again, taking stock of what would soon become hers.

"I think I hear Ryan, wait here," Kaitlyn suddenly jumped up and left the room before her handmaiden could object or offer to go for her.

"How long does it take to get some water and fruit?" Evangeline muttered angrily to herself, clearly not considering Layla enough of a person to maintain her manners. Even if the blonde server did tell anyone, no one would believe her anyway. "Why did they assign me incompetent staff?" she continued, at which her small audience of one had to bite her tongue not to speak up in defence of her friend. "For God's sake Layla, stand up straight," Evangeline snapped now, when she saw the slumped shoulders that had really started to annoy her. She was satisfied to see the help almost jump to attention, putting in extra effort to hold her straight back for longer than a few seconds. The redhead was about to bark another instruction when Kaitlyn and Ryan appeared, so she quickly got up as elegantly as she could, with a big smile for her future husband.

"Miss Evangeline, don't you look beautiful today," the Simia heir smiled, reaching out to take her hand. His blue eyes flicked over to Layla when he heard her let out an almost soundless snort of derision, making him think that perhaps he and his sister had heard correctly from the hallway.

"You're too kind," Evangeline recaptured his attention, with a fake bashful smile.

Nieve luckily came back then, instead of five minutes earlier, when she would surely have received an earful from the guest lady. As it was, she now received a "thank you, Nieve. That's great." Layla could see by her friend's eyes that she wondered what was going on to actually get a kind word from her.

"Did you find the kitchen okay then?" Ryan asked her, getting a small nod in response as the brunette had already taken up her proper hold and position. "Nieve and Layla only started with us the same day as you arrived," he explained to his fiancée-to-be.

"Oh, that's so great," Evangeline responded, and it was a miracle if the two Simia siblings didn't hear the same fake tone that the two servers could. In her mind, it spoke volumes that the Simias would assign her new help instead of veteran staff, and it answered her mutterings from before about her server's competency.

"Yes, it is," Kaitlyn said, trying not to sound defiant in response, wanting to stand up for both handmaidens. She knew though that, if her brother's future wife heard her tone, she would complain to Lord and Lady Simia about the reception she was receiving, and it could put the agreement in jeopardy.

The group waited for a few more minutes, in which Evangeline finished her water and picked at the berries Nieve had brought her, until Riven came to pick them up. The tall bodyguard led them to a courtyard that had been redecorated into a gym.

Layla and Nieve stood to one side and waited while the other four went into separate dressing rooms to change. Riven was the first to come out, shortly followed by Ryan. The two women needed a little more time to get out of their dresses and into the clothes they were wearing now. They'd all changed into pants and bodyfit shirts made out of a stretchy, fireproof fabric so they could move freely.

As soon as the young Simia and the future lady had joined the two men, Riven started his instructions.

Layla looked with big eyes as the three of them formed a circle around the bodyguard, and, per his instructions, started attacking him one at a time. They had to get him to tap out before he could reach them. Kaitlyn started by making plants rapidly grow around the tall man, trying to get vines to wrap themselves around him, but everything she tried seemed a step too late. She pressed her lips together in concentration, her arms waving and small beads of sweat forming on her forehead. The ground split underneath his feet, but he stepped away in time, jumping forward until he'd reached the white-haired girl and tapped her shoulder. She rolled her eyes and poked her tongue out at him before she walked over to the two handmaidens.

"We've been training like this for three years, no one's ever beat him," she huffed, slightly bummed out that even the ground splitting beneath him hadn't stopped him. It just wasn't fair that he could hear whatever she thought.

Next was Evangeline; the redhead smirked at her opponent, standing with her feet apart before she raised her arms. A sudden gust of wind hit them all. Nieve gasped, not having expected the violence that came with her lady's power. Trees were groaning in what was feeling like a storm, but Riven had already hit the floor, tossing a knife towards the brown-eyed woman to break her concentration. She only just jumped away, narrowly escaping the sharp object, but as soon as her concentration faltered, the wind stopped too, and the bodyguard was before her.

Ryan didn't wait until his friend had turned towards him, blasting a ball of fire his way, hoping to catch the man off guard. Riven, however, dodged it, and watched the fireball hit a bush.

"Ryan, watch it," his sister yelled at him, watching leaves go up in flames. She knew she could revive it once the flames had consumed it but splitting the ground had taken a lot more energy than she had expected.

"Sorry," he called back, though he didn't seem to be too sorry as he tossed three more fireballs his bodyguard's way. Riven jumped, rolled and dodged just in time to escape them, all the while getting closer to the Simia heir. It took him a little longer than with the girls, but eventually Ryan started to get distracted by Layla's gasps, and Riven could punch him on his shoulder.

"Keep your focus on me," was all he said to his friend, who gave him what was supposed to be an innocent smile, rubbing his shoulder when it was clear Riven had hit him much harder than he strictly needed to.

They had a couple more rounds of one-on-one combat before Riven told them to come at him all at once. Even then, he managed to avoid their attacks, and even saved Kaitlyn when one of Ryan's fireballs changed directions because Evangeline had decided to attack the bodyguard at the same time as the Simia heir. "Communicate," Riven shouted at them angrily, tossing a rock towards Ryan as he rushed to the redhead to tap her out.

All the while, Layla and Nieve watched in awe at the four primes who looked more like warriors than spoiled rich kids. "What happens when one of you gets hurt?" the blonde asked Kaitlyn when she once again joined them on the side-lines.

"We have healers close by," she shrugged, doubling over when a sharp pain hit her side. It had been a while since she'd been this out of breath. It happened quite often that one of them got hit by whatever someone else threw Riven's way, or by one of the knives the bodyguard tossed their way, but the healers could mend most wounds without leaving any scars, so they were never really worried.

Nieve couldn't take her eyes off the bodyguard that was giving Ryan and Evangeline some pointers. She hadn't understood why Riven's powers had made him quite so important to the royals until just now. The way he could sense whatever was coming his way, was unlike anything she'd ever seen. If he could beat someone as strong as Ryan or with such a violent power as Evangeline, who could stop him? Not to mention that the bodyguard wasn't even controlling anyone's minds right now. He wouldn't even need to fight if he could make someone else do the work for him.

After a few minutes' break, Riven called the three primes back to him. He'd placed a flag at the far end of the courtyard, the first one to grab it would win. They were to use their powers to block the others without actually injuring them. The bodyguard joined the two handmaidens before he gave Ryan, Evangeline and Kaitlyn the signal to start. Instantly two walls of fire erupted in front of the women, Evangeline tried to make a gust of wind blow the fire out, while vines grabbed Ryan at his feet the second he tried to take a step, resulting in him tumbling to the ground and the fire blocking Kaitlyn disappearing.

Layla gasped while Riven chuckled quietly, finding it hilarious to see the Simia heir with his nose in the dirt. The task had seemed simple to the common girls, but now they saw how the three primes were using their powers, it was clear this was a very difficult training exercise. Evangeline used the wind to push her opponents back or make them lose balance while Kaitlyn used the plants around her to her benefit and Ryan tried to create a path by burning everything in his way.

It took them a lot longer than Nieve expected to reach the flag, with Kaitlyn's vines pulling the other two back, or wind pushing her farther away from the flag. She noticed Riven was having a hard time keeping his face on neutral when he obviously wanted to laugh every time one of the three primes hit the ground. In the end, the entire courtyard looked like a battlefield, with burned patches, plants burnt yet overgrowing and entire trees uplifted like the aftermath of a storm, and the youngest Simia stood at the end of it, triumphantly holding the flag in her hands.

"Do you do other kinds of training as well?" Layla asked the bodyguard curiously as they ate their lunch in the garden by the kitchen. She was wondering if they would ever need to be trained or expect to have to defend themselves. She also wondered if the primes ever needed to do other workouts. It had been a bit of a mission to get Kaitlyn scrubbed down and back into her formal clothes, so it would be good to know if she was going to have to do that more frequently.

"Runs, mostly with Ryan. Knife throwing. I train the other guards too," Riven started listing, tearing his piece of bread in two and put one piece in his mouth. "Plus of course there's the mandatory sexercise for the guards," he added as he chewed, aiming her a wink to see how she'd respond.

"Wh… what?" the blonde stammered as her face flushed.

He bit back a chuckle; he'd never go for her, but he had to admit she looked pretty cute when she blushed. "You know, sexercise," he winked again, laughing heartily when she shook her head almost horrified and Nieve looked at him in disgust; Jacqueline's comments on their first day made more sense now. "The theory is that, as men, the guards need to… blow off steam on a regular basis, to be able to concentrate properly and not constantly end up fighting each other. They also don't want us to form any lasting attachments or love interests that could be used against us or the family. So, once a month we're expected to quench our needs… with the handmaidens or servers, never the same girl in a year," the bodyguard explained now, finding it highly amusing to watch their expressions change as well as her thoughts. Outwardly Layla still looked shocked and a little intimidated, but she couldn't help wondering if there was a similar rule for Ryan, even when he was about to get engaged. Her friend's thoughts were still closed to him, but her expression told him she was judging them for that rule. Surely, they should be able to control their basic urges. Everyone else did. Was that why they'd been given the dresses they had? Would they be expected to partake in this? They couldn't force them to partake. Could they?

"You're trying to trick us, aren't you?" her steely grey eyes accused him.

"Not at all," Riven said casually. "Feel free to ask any of the guards, but I need to warn you they might think you're interested in… helping them out," he added with another cheeky wink. He saw the two women exchange looks, only hearing one side of the unspoken conversation in Layla's thoughts.

"That's perverse," Nieve said simply, making him chuckle again.

There were times where he agreed with her sentiment, but there were others when he knew that this provided a safer out for some of the other men. Both parties went into it in agreement, and the men were less likely to showboat or try to force themselves on anyone. Most of the server girls didn't seem to mind either, judging by their thoughts of longing and wishing he would choose them.