Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

"Is he gonna be okay?" Standing beside Linkle as she checked on Raven, a look of terror had taken over Mel. The sudden burst of energy sending Raven away from Choux and the mere fact that he lost consciousness even though the blast itself wasn't that big–had her and the rest of the party heavily concerned. And for some odd reason, the Djinn girls were present and seemingly worried in his room as well.

"He's fine for the most part…" Even Linkle was puzzled as to what exactly could knock out such a resilient man in an instant. Staring at his unconscious face, she was hesitant for a moment, but recognizing that there was no saving her without saving him, she conjured one of the live-giving necklaces and put it around Raven's neck.

"What's that?" Seraphim asked from the doorway while glaring at Linkle's back.

"A charm to ward off evil spirit," Turning her head to the djinn, Linkle stared back at her for a while in warning. "Why are you two here anyway? We're gonna arrive at the island soon to get some rest like your brother."

Ignore her, however, the sisters stayed by their door–their minds and bodies strangely attached to Raven. As for the others, Aria, Amedith, Liliyana and even Regalia were patiently waiting for them to get out so that they could talk about what they were meant to do when the ship arrived at Lantherem. Only one night's time is all it would take to get there and the party had already gone through half of it.

"Linkle, if you wouldn't mind accompanying me outside for a moment?" Kicking herself off the wall, Regalia moved closer behind the witch. With Raven unconscious and the others having no experience leading a group, she had decided to step up and the first thing on her list to do was catch Linkle up to speed about what was happening and also ask her some questions.

Glancing back from over her shoulder, the witch looked at the wolf-girl in a curious light. She didn't know exactly what Regalia wanted to talk about, but it was obvious that didn't want the siblings to hear a word of it. Getting up from the floor with the monster holding jewel in her hand, Linkle nodded at the general and started following her out the door.

The few who remained inside kept up a facade of carelessness and masked their alarm towards the siblings, against whom they were ready to unleash an assault at any moment if they dared step over any lines. The same went for the monster girls inside the jewel as they watched over both the drake and its owner sleeping under a sleep spell cast on them by Maria. Brought back from Athenia after the fight against the fleet, she was now busy struggling in the kitchen trying to fry a simple meal of fish.

As the witch and the general emerged from under the deck, however, her eyes followed them through the window of the cabin where the only burners on the vessel were stationed. Staring at the two from the window, she wondered what they were talking about and whether there was anything she could do to help besides burning fish.

"Maybe an extra pair of ears might help?" Whispering a spell, she conjured a small spider made of mist and sent it crawling to the duo's feet.

Linkle noticed it at once, but glancing through the window–she saw no harm in letting Maria in on the information she was about to reveal since eventually everyone had to know as she couldn't hide it for much longer.

"You mean to tell me that little necklace, that's part of a god?" Stunned at the revelation, Regalia took a step back and just stared at the witch.

In response, Linkle conjured a pair of dark and the clear necklace and held it towards Regalia so she could feel their power herself. Although reluctant, the wolf-girl reached with a quivering finger and grasped the necklaces in her hand. The moment she held them both a sharp pain shot through her head while at the same time, it kept dissipating thanks to the clear necklace.

"Sh-shit!" Handing the necklace back to Linkle, Regalia quickly drew the power of her patron to heal herself. Being a warlock of an ocean deity, she wasn't meant to hold any holy relics and that pain shooting through her palm was to her proof enough of the necklaces' divinity. "I'll be fucking damned, that thing…How did you–"

"I don't know why Athenia decided to give it to me, but if I had to wild guess–it's probably because the party's getting into too much trouble because of me," making the clear necklace go away, Linkle held only the dark one in her hand. Letting in hang between her and the general, she stared at its dark glimmer and whispered. "If I can just bring this to the hells not even Tariyaan can survive its power unscratched."

"Unscratched?" The word didn't exactly inspire confidence in Regalia. Folding her hand, she leaned against the walls of the ship with visible doubt apparent in her expression. "It won't kill him or you're not confident that it will kill him?"

"Only one way to find out really," as if she'd already thought about being asked that question, Linkle didn't wait a second to respond. To distract from the topic at hand, she finally decided to ask her what was the deal with the Djinns and how the party was supposed to handle them.

As Regalia began clueing her in on Raven's plan from start to finish, a cloud of smoke rose in front of Maria's eyes. She didn't notice it at first, but as the smoke began filling her lungs, the ex-queen was sent out of the cabin coughing a lung.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"FI–FISH!" She screamed, angry at the dead fish even though she was the one who'd burned it on the grill. With her coughing and yelling out so loud, her illusion was gone and eventually the party decided to station someone else on the grill or they'd starve to death on this journey to Lantherem.