Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 928: Picking Up The Pieces - Part 2

As the Tridents traveled towards the closest kingdom from Alliance, the hero’s group either settled into their rooms or busied themselves with helping bandage the injured. A few remained in the meeting room with Raven, planning their next move and going over what happened during his outburst in the crystal mansion.

Staring at his own hands, Raven tried to conjure a flame laced with a taste of corruption, but not a flicker of the profane stuff appeared before him. With the demon in his soul now purged, his control of it had gone as well. Leaving only darkness in his arsenal of conjuration.

”I don’t think I can summon the creatures that I caught with corruption anymore...” Pressing his lips shut, the hero heaved heavily before lifting his shoulder and looking around. ”I’ve lost the demon, the monster that Arche was talking about.”

To a degree, he was right. The monster that was the devil was taken away by his deal with the dazzling demon; alas, his general side and the weight of responsibility that it brings, remain with him as they had with Helga. Growing bitter and angry was the curse of the burdened, but for now? There was no time to dwell on such matters.

”You said you got a few new skills in return?” Helga asked, leaning against a wall with Moeria standing right beside her.

”Seems like it, but like some curse its all random gibberish written all over them in my head.” Shrugging his shoulders, Raven pinned Maria in his gaze. ”Do you think Tia can decipher them? She deals with curses if I’m not wrong.”

”I don’t think so?” Grimacing as well, Maria awkwardly shifted in her chair. ”Is there nothing you can read that can give us a hint?”

”Well,” closing his eyes, Raven looked through his stats again. The skills, a few of which he could read before, had also been encrypted in some bizarre symbols with a fleeting chance at symmetry. ”Not really.”

As he mumbled those words, he was reminded of the one skill that he had read before the encryption occurred. ’Fae Mother’s Due’, further reminding him of Nighsilver’s advice to free the fae mothers.

’Hmm, maybe they can help?’ Opening his eyes, he looked at Moeria–the person who had promised them to find Nerva’s lair, a place not far from which the mothers were entrapped on the coiled spine of the dead goddess.

”How are you adjusting to Mono’s body? Ready enough to find the witch goddess’s lair yet?”

With the sudden weight of everyone’s attention on her, the otherworlder awkwardly chuckled and stood up straight. Avoiding eye contact, she scratched the back of her head and whispered.

”Maybe I need a wee bit more time?” Slowly shifting her gaze to the hero, she drew a deep breath and gathered her courage. ”The thoughts have stopped thanks to the chaos that occurred not long ago, but I feel...”

Pressing her hands together, the woman cycled between scratching the back of her hands and pulling them apart and then together. Her breath had also grown audible and shallow.

”Fine, you can take a while longer than we find a way for you to merge with Athenia’s mind or whatever it is you need to do to find that witch.”

”Speaking of witch–” Abruptly cutting him off, Aria stepped forward, accompanied by Mel. Staring at the hero, her weariness apparent on her contour, she asked. ”You said you talked to Nightsilver. He told you to free the fairies, but what about his soul? I know you must’ve asked about it. Why is it in you and–”

”I did ask,” Raven interjected.

”And?!” Feeling an anxious tug on her heart, Melicia stepped forward–her hands gripping her heart with worry. ”What did he say?”

Allowing a moment to pass in silence, the hero lifted the heavy stone on his heart and began revealing everything he had found through his conversation with Nightsilver and Nerva. A lot was said, and a lot would never leave that room or fall on another’s ears. Erika, Amedith, and Liliyana were not present, but those three would be the only exception to the rule.

”So...it’s true then?” As if struck by a lightning bolt, Mel’s body stiffened on the spot. The elf swallowed and inquired further with a gasp. ”Nerva, made you?”

Visibly growing upset, Raven rose from his seat and stared into Mel’s eyes. His eyebrows narrowed for a spell before he forced himself to look away and ask a question of his own.

”I have Nightsilver’s soul, Nerva’s speck or whatever, and my body’s made by Umbra–the mother of dark fae and dark elves.” Looking at Mel again–who now held a dejected look in her gaze, Raven added. ”It would be like saying a midwife is the mother of the children she delivers. The only part I have of her is so minute that nobody, not even I, could feel it. Even Nightsilver’s presence was more apparent, and the same with the demon lord–the manifestation of hatred for the divine, and Umbra? Like the fairies and the elves, she has more claim in making me than that witch goddess will ever have.”

”I have to agree,” suddenly chiming in from her quiet corner, Linkle intently stared at Mel. ”Even I mix different ingredients in a pot and make potions, that doesn’t mean I gave birth to them. It’s alchemy and no different than cooking a meal. The fowl in your stew? You made it, not gave birth to it, even if it has a hair or two that fell in.”

Picking herself off her seat, the witch held her right hand towards the ceiling and glanced up.

”We cosmic wizards also made lesser beings to serve us at times, but just because we made them doesn’t mean that we gave birth to them or that we are their parents.” Lowering her head, she pointed at Mel. ”You summon woodland creatures, does that make you their mother? Isn’t the magic that manifests them into the real world a part of you? As a witch or a socceress, it’s an easy concept to grasp, but maybe not to the rest.”

In silent consideration, the group pondered Linkle’s theory. Some agreed with her assessment, including Raven, while others were still feeling conflicted about the whole ordeal. Alas, after a quick apology by Mel, which Raven graciously accepted, things quieted down in the meeting room, and everyone went their own way for now.

There was still much to do, much to untangle before their destination could be reached, and the first order of business on that list for Raven was to thank the fairy who’d saved him by visiting her in her room. Liliyana and Amedith would be waiting for him. One of them, an angry devil for getting everyone in danger for the second time, and the other a magus most understanding–but more importantly, a brother not willing to give up on his sibling, no matter the wicked goddess or the devil who shall soon collect its due.