He shook his head no.

"Good, so you are going to do what I said, right?" He nodded."Good." She threw him away from her. "Now go." He quickly ran to get the wine. Sophia took a deep breath. She was trying to gain control again when Xena came up to her.

"Nice moves there Sophia. Are you planning on doing that to all the merchants?"

Sophia turned to her. "No, just my friends."

Xena noticed Sophia’s eyes. "Nice parlor trick. Where you learn that from?"

"From Ares."

By this time Tyndas returned with the bottle of wine. With shaky hands, he placed the bottle on the bar. Sophia tossed him the dinars. "Now scat." He quickly disappeared, leaving behind both the wine and dinars.

"He showed me how to use my powers, and I didn’t cut him completely out of my life. How about you, have you heard from ‘dear old dad’ lately?"

"Not recently. I think he finally got the message that I’m not coming back."

"Are you kidding me? He never gives up an obsession."

"I know that. He just trades one obsession for another."

"So, do you have any clue who he is obsessing with now?"

"Yeah, he’s obsessed with the one who he believes is my successor."

"And who is that?"

"Gabrielle." Sophia eyes budged out of her head as her jaw dropped to the floor.

Xena laughed at the sight. "Long story, tell you about it later," she placed a hand on Sophia’s shoulder and guided her out of the door, "but first time to plan a picnic."

  ********

They came back to the inn with everything Xena needed for the picnic. Xena headed towards Tyndas. "Did you give Gabrielle my message?"

"She hasn’t come back yet."

Xena walked back to Sophia, a worried look across her face. "Tyndas said that Gabrielle wasn’t back yet. I’m going to check upstairs, just in case he missed her." As she turned and headed for the stairs, Lila came down. "Lila, what are you doing here?"

"Hi, Xena. I wanted to talk with Gabrielle. Listen, I know she was telling the truth. Even though Mom doesn’t want to accept it." While she spoke to Xena, Sophia came up. "And I decided to take your advice Sophia. I’m getting the Tartarus out of this place. Do you think that the Amazons have room for one more?"