Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 148: Poisoned Blood And Sharing Tents

"Purify!" Liliyana squeaked while healing Raven's poisoned blood.

Sharing sharp glances with each other, the two felt razors stabbing at their throats. The very blood in their veins was fighting their disobedience, it wanted to claw away at the person to tear their flesh and feed on it.

"Go heal the others! I'll be fine on my own now," getting off the ground, the mage made his way toward his tent.

Glaring at his back until he'd disappeared inside the tent, Liliyana made sure not to turn her back to him. Given even the slightest chance, and a slip from restraint, Raven could easily end her life, and it didn't take the fae devil long to realize it.

Just the dark aura oozing from his flesh was a mark of his potential, something only a devil could see without casting a spell or any other form of magic.

"Ririri!" Chimed Will-O, bringing Lilyana back into her mind.

"You're right, I should get my bearings and go on a different path," Liliyana replied, assuming the tension between the two would fester forever.

Getting off of her knees, she went around checking the others and purifying their poisoned blood caused by Libyan's curse. Spreading poison throughout the bloodstream, the curse could've easily consumed everyone so far, had it not been for Liliyana's peculiar magic that none of them knew anything about.

"Where did you learn this?" Asked Erika, the last of the bunch to be healed by the Fae child.

"I don't know, somehow it comes to me like second nature," grabbing Erika's hands, Liliyana focused her mind and with a bristle of light emerging from her hand, the poison in her bloodstream was purified once again. "You should lay down, seems like the poison only spreads when you move around."

Slowly looking up at Erika's face with a weak smile, the devil was quite surprised to see her smiling back. Their first encounter was just no different than hers and Raven's, and yet it seemed as though the priestess had already grown fond of her somehow.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

A flicker of red flashed in Erika's eyes.

"You remind me of someone," slowly reaching for the devil's face, Amsodia gently caressed Liliyana's cheek. "But no, everything is fine."

As the dash of red disappeared, Erika pulled her hand away and mumbled in a tired whisper.

"If it's the goddess' wish that you travel with us, then who am I to condemn you?" Her eyes fluttered for a spell before the young priestess's head hung low with drowsiness.

Falling by the campfire with her body bobbing to and fro, she could've fallen face first into the fire, but Liliyana decided to make herself grow in size and carry the tired priestess into her tent. After carefully resting Erika beside Aria, the devil-child looked around wondering where she should sleep herself.

"Outside maybe?" She pondered, but the hooting of owls and the howls of wolves made her body tremble in fear. Not to mention the slithering sounds of snakes, reminded her of the Lamias who'd kept her imprisoned for as long as she could remember. "Then where?"

Looking around again, her eyes eventually landed on Amedith's tent. She knew that he was sleeping all alone while the others had someone sleeping with them.

'Maybe he'll let me share?' Slowly making her way to the very tent, Liliyana slipped her head inside and noticed Amedith lying down with his eyes staring up at nothing. Noticing the intruder quickly, however, he glanced over to her with a crooked frown.

"Did you need something?" He asked, his voice slightly musing.

"Um, a place to spend the night?" Her nervous giggling paired with an awkward expression, only confused Amedith further, although looking to the side at the empty spot where Mel used to be, he simply rolled away from it and hummed Liliyana in. "Thanks a lot! It's been so long since I slept lying down! Ahaha…"

Still awkwardly laughing as she got in, she quickly managed her size to fit perfectly in Mel's spot. For a moment she simply lay there basking as her spine finally had the support to rest on. After a few seconds, however, she glanced towards her feet at a small blanket by her feet. Pulling it over her body, she felt warmth washed all over her.

'What is this feeling?' Gotten to the cold of the mossy dungeon, she'd forgotten how it felt to be this warm. Tearing up slightly at the slightest of convenience, she shook her head from side to side. 'Stop crying, you idiot! Just sleep.'

With a deep sigh, Liliyana shut her eyes to let herself fall asleep. It only took her minutes in the blanket before her body was completely relaxed, and only a few minutes more to slip into a light dream.

The night on Amedith, however, wasn't as kind, and though he rested on the same stuffing, his mind refused to let him rest. Racing through thoughts about everything that had happened so far, he felt…empty? Like a part of him had been stripped, and it had, but with enough time there was potential for it to be restored another way.

Noticing the wisp fluttering its wings before his eyes, he tried to swat it away, but as it landed on his cheeks, he felt like he could hear a voice. Whispering a sweet melody, like a choir of delicate angels.

"I trust you." He could've sworn he heard those words, but as the wisp chimed instead of speaking words, he was no longer sure if he'd made it up in his mind.

'What were wisps again?' He wondered, journeying through memories back to the times when the nuns at the church told them stories about the world outside of Athenia. They painted a picture so colorful, so sundry in nature, that even the imaginative minds of children couldn't paint it as they were.

'Only bits and pieces remained, but if I'm not wrong, wisps are abundant near faerie dwellings for some reason.'

Even so, Amedith already knew that no matter how far they looked, there were no faeries in this swamp, the forest before, even in Athenia. Which only made him turn to Liliyana and wonder.

'Faerie? Or perhaps a Fae child like Raven?' The realization made the first person to understand Liliyana's true nature.