Standing in front of the demon general’s only remaining servants, Raven placed a hand on one of their shoulders and decided to peer into their heads. The axe-bearing devil with a toned body and clothes made of bones, her mind was like a narrow street with only one singular thought in focus.
’Serving...’ Raising an eyebrow, Raven peered further in. And to his surprise, there was little loyalty towards the demon general, for in her mind, for as long as she could serve someone powerful and abuse that power for her own good, any master would do. ’That makes this tricky.’
A crease of concern appeared on Raven’s head. The woman couldn’t be trusted, as the moment someone more powerful appears, she might defect and join her master’s opponent. Looking at the ball of spirit–the girl’s sister, he assumed she was the same; however, her temperament can’t be as bad.
"Can’t be trusted, but at the same time..." Taking a step back, Raven stared at the girls still being held down by their binds. "Killing them now would be an execution, and I don’t think that should be my decision."
"Then whose should it be?" Maria asked, squinting.
"Your son, Milo." Glancing back at her, Raven took his bracelet off and held it towards her. "The king should make the decision about whether we want to keep them alive or execute them."
"We kill so many others; why’s this any different?"
"Because they’re not an immediate threat, that’s why. And if we started killing everyone who we can’t control, then we’d have a lot more dead bodies than living people. I mean, just imagine if we did that from the moment we arrived here. The giants, their people, everyone would be dead by now!"
Even though she wasn’t entirely convinced, Maria decided to take the monster-holding bracelet and put it on her wrist. Keeping up the same concerned expression on her face, she agreed to take them to Athenia; however, not without retort.
"I’ll see that he executes them."
"That will be his decision then, as it should be." Turning his head to the rest of the group, he gestured for Helga to tag along with Maria. "You should accompany her home once we’ve dealt with everything else. Until then, all of us are sticking together."
"Fine, but I still don’t feel too good about this." Maria complained some more, but Raven knew that he had to insist, not only to uphold his own standards of judgement but also to ensure that Amedith and Liliyan didn’t get upset.
Had he made himself the judge and the executioner, their sense of justice was bound to cause more unrest amongst the party. Thus, leaving it to the king, he’d successfully avoid any internal trouble that may fall his way.
"We have more prisoners to visit," Linkle reminded, and with a nod, Raven decided to follow her lead once again.
While on their way to the next cell further down into the dungeons, the witch was approached by Mono and asked a strange question.
"Is there any way your people could travel to another world?" An eyebrow was raised, but Linkle didn’t think much of the question at first. "Cosmic wizards and all, I was curious if your kind ever landed on other worlds or if you being here is an anomaly of its own."
"Only outcasts are left trapped in worlds, but..." Lifting her head, Linkle wondered where this conversation was headed. "Why do you want to know?" ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel-fire.ɴet
"Hmm?" Humming to herself with her eyes focused at the front, Mono kept on walking without saying another word–at least not to Linkle. Allowing herself to fall a few steps behind, she moved beside Raven and whispered to him yet another question. "I heard Athenia was going to send Morgan back to his world. Did she ever mention how she was gonna do it?"
Just like the witch, Raven was quite confused by her line of questioning. In his mind, there was no use visiting other worlds when their own was in peril. But Mono thought differently, and since one of her clones had passed through another world into theirs, she wanted to know if it was possible–possible for her to visit one of her great-grandparent’s homeworld, Gaia.
"No, she didn’t. Erika had a conversation with her, but even she had no idea how Athenia was going to send the killer back to his homeworld." Though Raven’s response was disappointing, Mono kept it from reflecting on her face. Acting casual with her hands on the back of her head, she slowly turned around and started walking in the opposite direction of the party. "Where are you going?"
"Home...With you back and everyone else seeing to things, I should get back to Elenaris–that owl-girl you sent my way must be waiting for me to work on her wings anyways." Watching her walking away, the group paused for a moment until the queen of Elenaris had disappeared out of their sight.
With Mono gone and possibly Shamisha as well, only Aradin’s group and Daine’s family would be left of the people who needed to be sent back to Elenaris. And sure enough Helga fell into the same category, but before the giants were dealt with, she couldn’t be sent away, as Raven and his party were in no condition to retaliate if the giants decided to fight back against whatever it is that the general had to say.
Thus, moving onto Frazer and his group, all the while Aradin and the rest remained, Raven focused on the task at hand. With the task being deciding the fate of these prisoners of war. Whether to send them to Milo alongside the servants of the devil or to do something else entirely with them. Either way, it was bound to be a tricky decision.
Especially since Frazer hadn’t spoken a word ever since his capture, and the rest of the girls under Muena’s threat refused to speak up even though their clans were most likely wiped out by the effect of the blast that had taken out the demon general.