Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

A weapon was needed to bind with the essence of a necroflower. Linkle had hoped to use it for poison but since the group had decided to go for an assassination with a real possibility of failure, she didn't want to use such an irreplaceable item on a one-time use poison. Instead, by binding its power with a weapon–the very same that would be used to sneakily kill Tariyaan, she hoped to ensure a great chance of success by making the essence reusable.

"It will run out though so be careful to not waste its power," Linkle advised, her hands moving from one pot to the other while simmering random herbs, potions and ores inside different pots.

Leaning against the wall in her workshop at the mansion, Raven couldn't help shake the feeling that something was wrong or was about to go wrong. Thankfully, however, Rose, Amelia and Brenna were not present at the mansion and Tiara, Robin and everyone else who couldn't fight, including the maids, were moved to the Athenian castle.

'Darius still has to stay until we're done, Aelin is here too as well as Reina. I need to get these people out as soon as possible before something bad happens.' Making a note to quickly get them out as soon as their tasks were over, Raven looked up at Linkle while bringing out from behind him a piece of string that was as sharp as a razor.

"I want you to bind it to this," lifting his hand to show the string to her, Raven pulled it tightly in both directions but even at his best, it refused to stretch much less break up. "If I can get behind him and use it on his neck, he wouldn't know what hit him before his head's already rolling on the ground."

Stopping what she was doing for a moment, Linkle eyed the item with a hint of confusion.

"Why a string? We can use much better weapons to bind it to," she said, but with a firm shake of his head, Raven walked closer.

Setting the string on the table, he grabbed Linkle by the arm and made her look at him head-on.

"A girl who lost her body to a parasitic horror used to use this very string, I made her a promise that I'll finish what we'd started, and I did…" Turning his head towards the weapon, he stared at it for a spell, reminded of Lilith and the last smile she gave to him. "I believe she wouldn't want you to lose your body, the same goes for Maria, Elana, and who knows how many more people?"

Unsure what was going on in his head, Linkle grabbed Raven's hand and moved them off of her shoulders. Turning her head towards the string, she couldn't fathom what he must've seen to value such a basic weapon so seriously.

"What are you even trying to say?" She asked, looking back at him standing.

Taking a step away, Raven heaved a sigh. Lifting his head, he took another breath before speaking up.

"You're a horrible person, Linkle. But I don't wanna lose you the same way I lost Lilith that night, that's what I wanted to say," a frown quickly appeared on the witch's eyebrows, but before she could breathe a word, Raven had a few more things to say. "You've helped me and my party a lot, but after this, after we've gotten your body back and we get something out of it as well, if you do not work on the way you act then we'll go our separate ways."

"What? I didn't even wanna be a part of your group anyway!" She retorted, a bit taken back by the sudden outburst of truths by Raven.

"I know and maybe that's the problem?" Staring at her, Raven took a few steps back and leaned against the same wall as before. "You never saw us as your friends or your allies, just a means to an end, we were. At times it was to get something while at others it was to simply turn a profit. It took me a while, but while thinking of a plan to infiltrate the hells all day, I had a lot of time to go over everyone's motives for joining this fight."

Folding his hands, he kept staring at Linkle. His eyes unblinking made the witch's skin crawl with a sudden burst of anxiety. He was undressing her in the deepest sense, in fact, while looking at him, Linkle saw her own reflection talking back to her.

"Helga is doing this for her daughters, Darius to repay his debt to you, Reina because she's getting paid by the treasury, and the rest? It's because they think that's what I expect them to do." Waving her hand in front, Linkle's reflection threw daggers of scorn through her gaze. "Tell me one person here in this mansion, doing this because they're your friend or they like you for some reason…Just one person, Linkle, do you think there's even a single person who is helping you because you are you?"

The sound of bubbling from the cauldrons flooded into the silence that had taken over after Raven revealed the witch's true character. Linkle had no response for she knew every single one of them was being either paid by her with something or were only there because Raven had asked them to. Frozen in place at the realization, she was forced to ponder.

'What am I doing wrong? Do I even matter?' Even in her infinite knowledge, she had no answer to such simple questions. For she, a cosmic wizard had no idea what it meant to be human, or at least part human. In her eyes, everything was a commodity, every person just another ingredient for her pot.

"The cauldrons are boiling, you should return to work," snapping her out of her own head with those words, Raven kicked himself off the wall and began walking towards the door. "I'm no saint either, Linkle, but unlike you, my heart won't let me abandon even a greedy person like you."

Right as he was about to pass her, Raven felt the brush of Linkle's fingers and the very next instance, a pair of hands wrapped around him. Pressing her face to hide herself from the shame of realizing what she truly was, she didn't want him to leave, at least not until she was done talking.

"You, it's you…" At first, her words made no sense, but then she added while rubbing her face against Raven's back. "You're that person who's helping me because it's me, there I answered your question…you acid tongue bastard…"

Feeling the weight of her actions finally crashing on her shoulders, Linkle kept Raven bound in a hug and eventually came the tears; the tears to the realization of how much of a horrible person she'd truly been.

"We're heading out tomorrow morning, let me go…" Raven demanded, and although she did as he'd asked, the moment he turned around, she gave him another reason to stick around. Stay tuned with My Virtual Library Empire

Getting at the tip of her toes with tears flowing down her cheeks, she placed her hands on his shoulder and bound him in a sombre kiss. A bit surprised, Raven tried to back away but the humanity–the weakness in his heart, wouldn't let him leave her in such a sorry state.

'I'm sorry…' Said the witch's eyes while peering into his, and although he hadn't forgiven her yet, just like Maria and the djinn sisters, Raven was willing to give Linkle a chance. But before, it was finally time for the bickering lovers to let their love shower over each other…