Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 975: Joy And Fever

While the nightmare was over, joy had yet to greet the heroes. Lying in bed with the worst fever in their lifetimes, their own breath against their skin felt like shards of ice tearing into their flesh. Scattered in their own room inside the consulate building, they had decided to rest and let it pass. However, their sudden illness had become a cause for concern for the consulate members.

In their eyes, the heroes had gone to sleep and woken up deathly ill. Was it a local disease that they weren’t resistant to? Or was it someone’s foolish attempt at poisoning? In either case, the security outside their room had become ironclad–not even allowing others from their own group to visit each other since the fear of a doppelganger wasn’t exactly unfounded within such a diverse group.

One such doppelganger–or shapeshifter, rather–was sitting in her own room, smiling ear to ear, her eyes locked on her sleeping daughter.

"I thought I could watch her grow older." Brushing her hand against her daughter’s pale skin, June drew a deep breath and turned to look at her husband. "I just hope that it’s me who goes first and not her."

Kara’s warnings rang in June’s ears like a din. A half-elf possessing the powers of both parents and their inadequacies as well. Prone to disease and a shortened lifespan when compared to pure elves, Aurora would possibly die before her mother but would surely outlive Aradin. With that in mind, the father reached out and cloistered June’s hand.

"Everything’s going to be fine, June. That monster won’t even lay a single finger on her again; we won’t let her. No matter what."

June’s smile weakened, yet warmth bloomed in her heart. Nothing mattered anymore; she had her daughter to herself again, and not even her own thoughts could steal that joy from her.

"Open the door." A familiar voice rang outside their door, and they looked in that direction; they saw Tris and Hannah walking right in. The pink feathered harpy was holding a stack of wrapped boxes while the demi-bull was guiding her and giving her directions. "The clans sent us a present the moment they heard that little Aurora was back!"

Setting the boxes down on the floor, Hannah opened the very first one and pulled out some clothes meant for Aurora. Looking through the cluster, however, she noticed one small problem with the gifts.

"Mercedes probably didn’t tell them that our girl’s now a full-grown woman." Holding up a small onesie with patches and glitter, Hannah awkwardly smiled while looking at June and Aradin. "No wonder General Raven doesn’t trust her one bit."

"Haha." June’s laughter echoed throughout the room, overshadowing all thought and background noises.

The others just stared at her, smiling themselves, overjoyed that she was slowly getting back to normal. By the time her laughter died, everyone was either sitting by Aurora’s bed or standing at the foot of it. Like a glass doll, delicate yet striking, the little girl in the form of an adult was as innocent as she was tragic.

"Wasn’t there a girl called Choux? An adult in a child’s body?" Tris spoke without thinking, unaware that everyone was listening to him. "Maybe there’s a way for us to reverse her aging? Or find a way to–"

"The fox-girl, right?" Cutting him off, June looked him in the eye as he snapped out of his trance. "She was tricked by the king Aran; her brother was dead, but he kept it a secret from her. Our general had possibly found a way to revive her brother, but when they went back to the brother’s grave, all they found was a frozen heart. At least that’s what I’ve heard happened. So no, I don’t think I wanna try whatever that evil man did to Choux on my daughter."

"J-June, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to–" Cutting his own sentence short, Tris shook his head and decided to simply move past the tragic point. "Forget it. I still have some news to deliver."

"What news?" Hannah asked, frowning.

Shrugging his shoulders, Tris brought his attention back to the little girl.

"The Iron Queen’s Twin told me in confidence about the queen’s invitation. She wants us to visit her with Aurora, for clothes and assessment. I’m not really sure what, but the Twin mentioned how it could help us keep her safe if we talked to her."

"Wait," holding her hands in front of her chest, Hannah took a step back. "Mercedes already mentioned the horrors assaulting Elenaris and other trade places; are we really sure that we wanna visit anywhere with Aurora while all of this is going on?"

It had only been an hour, but Mercedes had made her rounds through multiple kingdoms collecting reports about the attacks while also inventorying which places were in need of what. Ever since the heroes and Aradin’s group were pulled into that nightmare, the horrors have begun ransacking every single kingdom and island, even the dark corners of Inktaus, which was otherwise immune to infiltration for the most part.

"Yeah, but it’s all been manageable. Otherwise, how would Mercedes of all people have traveled these places? She’s like the worst when it comes to handling stressful situations."

"Tris, let it be for now. We will visit once the general is ready to leave Aurum." Speaking only for the second time during their interaction, Aradin put a curtain on the discussion and instead decided to focus on something else. "June, stay with Aurora. The rest of us will go and help the city guards hunt horrors. If they’re everywhere, Nerva wouldn’t spare Aurum either."

Gripping his hand tight, June held onto her husband. Pulling him closer, she locked their lips for a kiss full of passion and unspoken tension. And the moment she let go, Aradin knew what had to be done–especially since the heroes were still recovering from their illness.

"Time to kill those phantom whoresons," he said, taking Tris and Hannah with him.

Staying behind with Aurora, June continued to dote on her daughter with her motherly caresses and kisses.