Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 832: A Call To The Priestess Of Aphrodite

As the hours calmed and June woke up, the child was laid in her care, and she, along with Aradin were given some privacy with their daughter/. However, that didn’t mean that Raven or the other were taking the second leniently. For their minds were racing, and already the hero had called upon the priestess Kara as she could see with a touch what no memory nor vision could show.

Linkle raced her mind as well, and while the wait continued, Mono and Shamisha, as well as the missing members of Aradin’s party thus far, were now present inside a room in the spire. Garcia was the only one missing from the initial group that had shown up. According to Raven, since Linkle was an expert in magic and Mono in mechanics, then with Disty as a studied vampire in biology could most certainly help tie some things together.

The witch, although she hadn’t seen the vampire’s work firsthand, agreed, and so did Mono, but for her, the reasoning was quite different. Pacing the room, Linkle had grown more anxious than before. The adrenaline had drained from her body, and now that she was no longer under its numbing effect, her heart was racing, and her mind kept reminding her of the child.

"I... really delivered a kid–" Swallowing through her dry mouth, she let herself fall on the edge of the room’s king bed. "Never ask me to do that again. Gods!"

Heaving a sigh, she lay flat on her back and just stared blankly at the ceiling. In the meantime, Mono and Shamisha were still being filled in on the information required before they could help tackle the situation. Everyone from the study of dark water, the situation with Aradin and June, as well as the king’s men, and what happened at Inktaus–all of it, and sure enough, it was taking quite a bit of time.

Left to think clearly, Raven was on his own. Sitting in a chair in front of a window, he was staring out into nothing while thinking about how to piece the puzzle together. Nerva, Nightsilver, the demon lord, the power of corruption that he’d acquired, and now the so-called candidate, all of whom seemed to share this same power.

’Umbra should know something.’ He thought to himself, but being who she was, there was little chance Umbra would give him anything without taking something in return. A part of his soul he’d already lost to her, and he was in no haste to lose more–not yet, at the very least. ’That demon general was going to tell us something, but Morgan killed him before that. Maybe if he’d been alive a few seconds more, maybe then we could’ve gotten more information.’

Back then, he felt fortunate that the demon was dealt with, but now he wanted to go back in time and stop Morgan from killing the man before learning about what he had to say. Alas, that time was gone, and now he sits in silence surrounded by riddles.

The next thing that popped up in his mind was the mantle of heroes and the djinn Elana–even Gallaria felt like a good lead in the moment, but if they knew something as important as that, wouldn’t they have told him already?

"I heard I was needed?" Cutting through his thoughts came the priestess Kara–appearing out of thin air as if she’d sliced through space and popped right next to him. "So here I am, where’s the child? Let me hold her."

Turning to the priestess, everyone fell quiet. She’d appeared without anyone realizing it, and her presence was as thin as a veil and more elusive than a shadow in the darkness.

"You know already?" Mel asked, rising from her seat with an eyebrow raised.

"Why do I get the creeps every time she shows up?" Aria muttered beside her, and although nobody said anything, the sentiment was shared across many hearts.

Even Raven felt uneasy by her presence. But the time for dwelling on such things was far from now.

"Alright, come with me." Leading the way out of the room, Raven took only Kara and Liliyana with him. The two being fae wanted to be there while the priestess read the little girl’s stats, race, and everything that there was to know about her.

Walking into the room where the child was held, Kara noticed the baby girl in June’s weak arms. Stretching her hands forward, she whispered a prayer, and her words somehow washed the weariness out of the mother and the child.

"What... Did you do?" June asked, separating her daughter from her nursing breasts.

Handing the girl over to Aradin, she sat upright and glared at the priestess.

"Aphrodite’s high priestess, isn’t that right?" Scowling, she turned her gaze to Raven. "What is she doing here? I don’t want any servant of that foul goddess near my kid! Where’s Erika! Bring her here, please."

Holding his hand up, the general warmed the serious tone on his face a little. Taking a deep breath next, Raven shifted his attention to Aradin.

"She’s just going to hold the kid’s hand. We need to do this to know more about her unusual birth." The father’s shoulders loosened a little, but as he looked at June, his resolve wavered quite a bit. "June may be your wife, Aradin, and the girl your daughter, but there are greater things at risk right now. We need to know more about her before things spiral any further."

"Just a touch, Aradin, I won’t even scratch her. I promise," Kara asserted right as Raven was done vouching for her.

With a heavy heart, the father closed his eyes and offered his daughter’s hand to the priestess. Wrapping her fingers around the girl’s arm, Kara closed her eyes and channeled the archaic to wash over the girl as runes. Scanning every bit of her, the priestess took only a few seconds before pulling her hand away.

"My..." Pressing her lips shut, she tried to smile but couldn’t. "She has more fae in her than our general. As for her ancestry, she remains an half elf, but that’s not what concerns me, it’s–"

Slowly shaking her head, she lifted her head and looked into Aradin’s eyes.

"Aradin, your daughter–she possesses the essence to be the demon lord herself."