Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

By the time Diane and her family made it to Eclanor with teleportation, the cure for the sickness had been given to most of the soldiers. The holy order was still gone, but Raven and everyone else were at least still waiting for time to pass behind the royal mansion. Taking doses of the medicine themselves, everyone ensured that they wouldn't get sick even if they hadn't manifested any symptoms just yet.

"Someone poisoned the food?" Walking into Raven's tent behind him, Daine couldn't believe what she was hearing. "But why? Who would do that?"

Leading the family inside, Raven turned around and gestured for them to take a seat on a couple of chairs scattered on the side.

"Sit down and stay inside for now, I don't want anyone else to fall ill." Heeding his advice, the girls sat on the chair, and once settled, they realized something horrific. The beddings with the blankets on the ground, hiding under them, were Rose, Brenna, Aerin, Moxy, and even Tanya and Aura.

Thankfully, another trio was staying at the inn and had avoided the worst of it. Even so, with the city water poisoned, they too were sick, but not as much as those who'd stayed with the army.

"They…They've taken the medicine, and the poison shouldn't affect them anymore with the rings I gave them," drawing Daine's attention to himself again, Raven walked closer to her family. "This is why I didn't wanna bring you guys with me, but everyone kept insisting, and I just gave in, I guess."

Heaving a sigh, Raven stretched his hands towards Diane and Lana. Shooting a glance at Zoey, he figured that she didn't need any immunity, given the fact that she was mostly iron.

"Umbra, watch over them, will you?" Following his whispers, a pair of dark fairies appeared from within his hands and made their way to the girls' earlobes. Blooming into silver light, they turned themselves into pearl earrings hanging on both sides of their heads.

"What's this?" Lana asked, feeling up the earrings.

"Those fairies should warn you if anything you're about to consume is poisonous, don't take them off as long as we're here, alright?"

"Should we, uhm…" Speaking up with a tremor in her voice, Zoey glanced up at Raven's face. "Should we go back to Elenaris? Maybe take the others with us if staying here is so dangerous?"

Returning her gaze, Raven shook his head.

"If you leave now, that would be the same as telling the culprit that you're precious to me. They'll chase after you, kidnap you even and after what happened last time with June, and Shamisha, I don't think I can take that risk." Reassuring the trio with a faint smile, Raven placed a hand on their shoulders one after the other and squeezed them gently. "Now, what we can do is remain calm and think about how to handle this. Amedith's already trying to figure this out with Liliyana, and Maria's group is also keeping a close watch on the most likely culprits."

"Alright…I guess we'll just have to stay in here for a while," Daine replied, her heart pounding in her chest.

Anxiety had taken hold of the family, but since going back could prove even more dangerous, she decided that it was best to stay close to their partner, who could at least help them in case trouble arose. Nodding at the girls, Raven tried to reassure them further before finally leaving the tent. As soon as he walked outside, however, he was met with a fleeting whisper of a person.

"Elowen sent us. Orders now, payment later." Turning his head, Raven was shocked to find that nobody was behind him.

'A map maker with spies good enough to avoid being sensed by me. No way, he's definitely hiding something.' He thought to himself, but since the spies were waiting for his order, Raven decided to focus on sending out the scouts first.

"You'll follow the scouts, visible and help them survey the region that we're gonna invade," he said to the elusive spies while making his way closer to Regalia.

A while later, after the orders were done, the whispering spies disappeared. Left alone for a moment, Raven tried to think of his next move, but before he could make up his mind, Mel came rushing to him with Aria in her tow.

"What happened?" He asked, squinting at the elves.

"We found this," Mel replied, holding an open letter in his direction.

"What is this?" Taking the letter from her hand, Raven quickly began reading through its contents.

"We found it by the pots, pinched under one of the cauldrons they used to cook today's meal." Glancing up at Mel again, Raven's mind wandered once more. How did the letter get there? And who was it from?

Turning his gaze back to the parchment, however, he quickly dismissed all confusion about what had happened today.

'The city's water has been poisoned, but someone from your own camp had poisoned the food while it was being prepared. Most of the civilians will fall sick, but the added poison in yours will drain your soldiers of their strength, slowly and without them even knowing until it's too late. I'm already taking a risk by telling you all of this, so do me a favour and don't let anyone else know that you know that there's a traitor. Otherwise, there might be another warning, because I would be dead.'

The contents of the letter cleared the confusion as best as it could. A traitor amongst an army of three thousand, trying to search for the person, even looking through their memories, would take much longer than a week. And that was time that Raven did not have, especially since the source of the water poison was still presumed to be the demon general's doing.

'Unless…That too was done by the traitor to shift the blame to the general.' Questions upon questions piled up in Raven's head, first the culprit, then this mysterious letter sent by a saviour, and at last, how well he'd assessed the situation compared to what it truly was. However, with no clear answer in sight, the thing that came first was to do something about the lasting effect of the poison that was revealed in the letter.

"Gather the elves, I have an idea how to deal with this thing," Raven said to the girls, and without ever questioning his intention, they complained and gathered the only race unaffected by the poison, the elves.