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Thankfully, before she could even scream for help, the pair of guards outside had barged in, clearly having heard the commotion as they moved to secure Gilas.

"Is he hurt?!" a guard asked as he knelt down in front of Gilas. "We should move him."

"How about Pinra?!" the other asked, drawing his blade to make sure that the area was safe. "Is she-"

"N-No..." Shila choked out. "I-I don\'t think she\'ll be a danger to us... Not anymore..."

The guard sheathed his blade, but only after seeing Pinra\'s bleeding body on the floor. Shila could only swallow the regret building up inside her. If only she could save her... Her last words, however...

\'What did she mean by that?\' Shila couldn\'t help but ask herself.

But before she could ponder on it further, her attention turned back to her own son fighting for his life. From there, her decision between thinking about her niece and caring for Gilas was made clear.

She would act for the living, no matter how much it pained for her to leave Pinra in such a state.

***

Clara tensed midstep. Somehow, she could tell that something was wrong. Her Bond with Gilas had suddenly become muted enough that she couldn\'t even feel his presence anymore, which could only mean one thing...

"Gilas?!"

Moving quickly, she made her way back to the manor, only to see that her mate was currently being carried into the manor itself with Shila hot on their heels.

"Mother!" she barked out in worry. "What happened?!"

"Gilas got bit by... something," Shila hesitantly explained. "It looked like a snake of some kind..."

"A snake? Where did it even-"

"That\'s not important right now," Shila harshly cut her off. "What\'s important now is we see what\'s wrong with my son. The specifics will come later."

Clara could only nod at her mother-in-law\'s words. Still, her gaze spotted that Pinra\'s safe house was left open, a pool of blood partly visible from where she stood seeping out onto the ground.

\'So Pinra was the one that did it,\' she growled. \'But why would-\'

"I know what you\'re thinking, Clara. Don\'t..."

Her eyes widened at Shila\'s harsh tone. Clearly, she knew what had truly happened, but why not say it outright? Why wasn\'t she blaming Pinra?

"Is she dead at least?" Clara growled as she watched the men tend to Gilas\'s not-so-visible wounds.

"She is," Shila wearily sighed. "But make no mistake, I don\'t blame her for this."

"What?!" Clara incredulously asked. "Why!?"

"Clara, I\'ve spent the most time with her out of all of us," Shila began. "I was the one that recommended we try and heal her. And she was indeed healing. I can see it in her eyes, Clara."

"But she still did this," Clara quickly rebutted.

"But not without provocation," Shila grumbled in equal parts grief and worry. "I was there during her last moments, and trust me when I say that she has decided to atone for her sins in the worst way possible."

Clara could only grit her teeth as she listened. But as much as she wanted to answer back, she knew that the older woman would simply rebuff anything she would tell her.

"I\'ll go and get Lady Jayra," Clara sighed in resignation. "Gilas wouldn\'t go down to a simple strike like this. And this snake... It sounds like dark magic."

Shila remained silent, but the nod she received from the older woman told her that she was on the right track.

***

"He\'s been poisoned," Jayra stated.

Clara could only sigh as she held onto Shila for support. Jayra was quick to come to their aid, and the mage was quick to diagnose the dark magic currently running rampant within Gilas\'s body.

"Can you heal him then?" Clara asked.

"I would need the snake itself to see if I can even do it," Jayra explained as she ran her hand over the bite wound on Gilas\'s body. "And... Pinra\'s remains... You said that the snake came from her hand, correct?"

"Yes," Shila nodded. "Pinra was clearly distressed when it happened."

"I will have to look over her body for clues then," Jayra stated.

Nodding, Clara called for Pinra\'s remains to be delivered to their makeshift clinic. A pair of men were quick to answer the call, carrying with them the remains of their former enemy. Placing both the body and the severed arm on a spare table, the two women promptly went over to watch Jayra begin her inspection.

"Pinra..." Shila sighed.

"You don\'t have to be here for this, Mother," Clara reassured her. "I can take it from here."

"No, I want to see this through," Shila grumbled. "I\'m the only witness to how she died, and I want to at least be sure of what I saw that time."

"What you saw?" Jayra asked.

"That snake felt wrong even during the brief time I saw it," Shila explained, her eyes showing grief as she recalled her niece\'s death. "Pinra was clearly trying to fight its influence... even going so far as to tear off her own arm for it."

"That... should be treatable," Jayra frowned, her eyes narrowing at Pinra\'s body. "She shouldn\'t have bled out that quickly."

Clara fought the urge to scoff. Truly, even after hearing it a dozen times from Shila herself, she still couldn\'t believe that Pinra would turn over a new leaf just like that. But... if this observation was going to yield something, it would hopefully be the truth.

"Already, I can see something wrong," Jayra frowned as she looked over Pinra\'s severed arm. "The arm... It reeks of dark magic... It almost feels like a contract made with the devil himself."

"A contract?" Clara couldn\'t help but ask.

"I can\'t make out most of it, but I can see that it needed a sacrifice to work," Jayra explained. "I can only guess that she sacrificed something of significant value to her if the amount of dark magic in this arm was any indication."

"Her memories..."

Clara\'s eyes widened as she heard Shila whisper beside her. "So... It was true then?"

"Memories can work..." Jayra hummed in deliberation. "If it was a sufficient amount of it, then I\'m sure the resulting contract would be stronger. The snake itself would also be more potent... It wouldn\'t be able to disappear..."

"Then where is it?" Clara couldn\'t help but ask. "You said we need it to heal Gilas, right?"

Instead of replying, Jayra continued on with her autopsy. As gruesome as it was, Clara watched as the mage cracked open Pinra\'s body. Beside her, Shila\'s grip on her arm tightened as they both watched the scene unfold. Until eventually, something was found that shocked all of them into silence.

"That\'s..."

Clara felt her words leave her as she saw a black tar wrapped around Pinra\'s unbeating heart. The snake had indeed not disappeared. Instead, it had killed its host in the worst way possible, squeezing the heart it was coiled around to make its body bleed out even faster.

"I-I guess we found the snake," Jayra nervously stated. "It\'s... It\'s still alive..."

"I-I think I best leave for now," Shila whispered.

Clara was torn. Beside her, her mother-in-law was clearly distraught. But on the other hand, she was very much interested in how things would unfold with Jayra\'s search for Gilas\'s treatment...

"Go," Jayra mumbled with a frown. "I can\'t even begin to imagine how I\'m going to tackle this. It\'s best that I get a moment of silence."

"I-If you insist..."

With a thankful nod, Clara turned and escorted Shila out of the makeshift clinic. Once they were outside, the older woman almost collapsed on her, her grip on her tightening as she leaned onto the younger woman for support.

"T-Thank you, Clara," Shila weakly smiled.

"It\'s nothing," Clara replied. "Still, to think that..."

To think that Pinra might truly be innocent... Well, this version of Pinra, at least. Her past self had clearly conspired for this to happen, and she had won even in death.

"There\'s no use thinking about the past, my dear," Shila shakily sighed as she composed herself. "For now, there\'s not much we can do now except to wait for Lady Jayra to come up with a solution."

"Right..." Clara trailed off.

Wordlessly, she found herself escorting her mother-in-law back to her bedchamber. All the while, her thoughts drifted back to the sight of Pinra\'s heart and the dark snake currently coiled around it. For some reason, the very sight of it evoked both anger and pity in her.

And still, she didn\'t know whether it was her imagination or not, but it almost looked like the heart it was gripping onto was still weakly beating.