Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 962: And So She Plays Her Hand - Part 1

In a secluded corner of Aurum, merchants gathered with questionable permits. Selling slaves, monsters, exotic meat, and all forms of narcotics and trades, but as was the case everywhere in the city of law, as long as they abided by the law and had their permits, even such dubious dealings were allowed to flourish.

Surprisingly enough, neither the elites nor the nobles had backed the market for centuries. Yet the position of power, the head of the council, went against their own instinct to rid this city of its black market. Every light needs shade for without it, there’s a lack of balance. If outlawed entirely, crime will find its way. At least when regulated, the council can step in with its leash around the market’s neck.

Such was the balance of good and bad in Aurum. Not entirely evil nor pious without fault either. Wandering under the shade of the many overlapping tarps, the hero and his party eyed the goods on display with either interest or dissent. The slaves were one thing, but the other items were questionable at best. Having assumed such to be the case, Helga and her daughters had stayed behind by the wagon.

Aradin, however, wished for his group to walk the market to get June’s mind off their daughter for now. As much as he loved their daughter, he wouldn’t wish to lose June trying to get her back from the grips of Nerva. Her memory was eating away at the grey elf; her powers were waning, and the light in her eyes had fled already.

Like a husk, she leaned onto him, wobbling like a toddler barely able to walk. Seeing her in such a deplorable state, he hoped to stir something within her even if it was drawn from the monsters and slaves they were walking past.

”They’re all criminals then?” Raven’s voice from far ahead of their group made its way to Aradin. Lifting his head, he noticed how the merchants were glaring at the hero with great interest as he walked on by–leaving his group to get a better look at the goods without someone staring down their shoulders.

”Every single one of them is a criminal,” Brien’s response eased some of the unease Aradin and his group felt about the slaves. ”The worst kind with crimes not worth sulling one’s tongue. Ellia can report their crimes better than me anyhow, but let’s save that distaste for another time?”

”No different than Elenaris then,” looking at a cage right next to him, Aradin strengthened his grip around June’s shoulder. ”Only criminals get turned into slaves. Automatons for that matter with the Iron Queen.”

”Hmm?” Gently lifting her head off her husband’s shoulder, June glanced at the cage before resting her head back on him. ”Where are we?”

”June...” Aradin’s shoulder dropped at her words; he had no answer to give, nothing that would bring her any comfort.

”Aradin, maybe this wasn’t a good idea,” Hannah whispered into his ear from behind.

Tris felt no different; bringing June out didn’t exactly feel like the best of ideas. Despite that, their leader had her walk. Surrounded by slaves and slavers while his superior walked further up ahead. Staring at the back of him, Aradin’s gaze narrowed. They’d been walking in his footsteps, and yet it felt like they’d lost more than he had.

’I want my daughter back...’ Only days more he had to wait, but even that time weighed on him like an anvil. A swirling air of hatred enveloped him in but a few seconds, broken by the sound of crying from one of the cages.

”Is that?” Everything and everyone froze to the sound of a child’s visceral cries, erupting through the clutches of a mother held within one of the slave cages. Before Aradin could move a finger, June was already drawn to the sound as if it was her own child crying for its mother. ”Wait, June...stop.”

Nothing mattered to the mother as her hands reached through the bars to touch the child balled within its withering mother’s body. Covered in long white hair that made up most of her replacement clothing, the sorry woman within the cage crawled away from June’s hands with her arms wrapping tightly around her child.

”G-g-gauh...” She begged, her voice barely audible.

”Give her to me,” hand outstretched, June turned herself into the sickly mother’s reflection. ”I will take care of her. I will–”

”JUNE! THAT’S ENOUGH!” Pulling her away from the cage, Aradin stood her up with all of his strength. ”What are you doing?! That is not our daughter, so sto–”

”T-taaek eerr...” The pale mother’s whimper easily cut through Aradin’s anger. And as he looked down at the woman in the cage, holding her child up towards them like an offering, he could not bear to look at her–not without breaking into tears at the sorry state of their existence. ”I...I will die here, s-so take her!”

As if some life had breathed into her by the possibility of her child surviving this nightmare, the woman’s voice cleared.

”Aradin, let me take her,” grabbing her husband by his shirt, June looked him in the eyes with a bright smile flashing across her lips. ”We can raise her together. Even if Aurora doesn’t come back to us, we can–”

”That’s enough.” Having silently stood by as the whole thing transpired, Amedith could no longer bear to simply listen, and thus, stepping forward, he grabbed the iron bars to the sick mother’s cage. ”What crime did you commit to end up here? Be honest; whether you’re in your daughter’s life going forward or not may depend on your honesty.”

Walking up behind him, the rest of the party stood witness to what the woman had to say. Feeling the intensity of the pressure placed on her, however, her gaze wandered aimlessly until it barely lifted back up and she looked at whom she assumed to be a fair lady.

”I...I killed someone.”

”Who and why?”

”I, I thought I could loot them after.”

”And did you?”

Her head dejected, she shook her head side to side.

”No, I got scared. The blood...It was–” As her body began to tremble, Amedith conjured holy chains around the bars and shattered them under their grip. Pulling the front gate off entirely, he turned to Aradin and June and asked.

”Take her if you want; the kid will hate you when she learns how you separated her from her mother. Even left her as a slave.”

”We can always buy her,” Liliyana whispered from the back.

”OH! Of course, if you’re interested–” Right as the owner of the slave–a round, short man with fabric most exclusive stepped forward, Amedith glared at him sideways. ”Ah, I-I meant, of course you can have her! She has a kid with her for God’s sake! I wouldn’t keep her in a cage forever!”

”You really want me to test your words?” Asked the magus, pulling out the sword of judgment.

”O-of course not! I’m sorry if I-” A sudden thud pulled everyone’s mind away from the merchant and onto the sickly woman now lying on the inside of the cage. Her daughter too had fallen unconscious, and for whatever reason the stench of something oddly profane had begun to bleed from within.

’What is that?’ Thought the party and Aradin’s group. Although they already knew what it was, believing it to be true was another thing entirely.