Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Lantherem, an island sitting between the two greater islands–each with their own rulers with conflicting plans for their future.

One declared the island of land as their heritage the other their property and right, but neither had a hold of it as it was in the deep clutches of pirates and the alleged heroes protecting it; or at least it was, until the chosen of Aphrodite had shattered the shackles of crime binding the place from progress.

The islands and their rulers saw this as an opportunity, an opportunity to set the record straight and make the island part of their atlas.

"A fleet of ships, we must send it to that island and declare it ours before our enemies, my lord." The shambling frame of an older woman peers up at her lord, her body quivers with disease as she stands hunched forward and leaning on a cane thicker than her wrists.

"It would be a perfect hub for moving goods from our kingdom to the cities of the mainland, we can't afford such an asset to fall into the hands of those imbeciles."

Her gentle voice echoed through the council and in the ears of the wise men and women who'd been taught under her guidance. However, their silence wasn't proof of their agreement, quite the opposite in fact. Scowling their brows, tapping their fingers on the armrest with frustration, even cursing under their breaths, the brightest minds of Aranuvia wanted her gone for her divisive nature.

Even their lord turned his head to them to hear some rebuttal but silenced by a wicked training of lashes, none dared to speak against the wise woman. Unaware of their torment, the king turned back to whom he thought to be the wisest of them all, and with a simple nod, he asserted the annexation of Lantherem to go into effect.

Lifting his gaze to a general standing by the meeting hall's gate, the king held his hand high and gestured to him to get started with the preparations. But as the man nodded and turned around to leave, the door to the council opened up from the other side. Through the gap between the doors, as it opened, the council and the king laid their eyes on the witch hunter letting down her fur hood.

Looking straight at the king with her crystal-silver eyes, she walked forward through the open door. Bumping shoulders as she passed the general, she gave him no heed and neither to the rest of the council. As far as she was cornered, nobody but the king mattered, and to a degree she was right.

"Choux…" Breathed the king, his shadowed figure peering down at her.

Leaning forward to reveal an aging face with a beard greyer than it was dark, the king stared at her for a while and simply admired the cold fog forming around her.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"So…" Leaning back in his decorated throne again, he uncrossed his legs and stretched his hand outward. "How was your scouting trip to that island? Did you find anything of note? Maybe a pirate leader who could prove difficult?"

Standing in silence for a second or two, Choux took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Opening them soon after, she heaved a sigh and the dark tiles beneath her were instantly frozen with a thin layer of ice spreading from them to the rest of the floor around her.

"I saw a witch, got distracted; had to flee." Looking up at the king again, she spoke in broken sentences to keep things brief.

"You what?" The king blurted, his eyes twitching with a hint of annoyance. Shifting his head from resting on one hand to the other, he continued to stare at Choux but she refused to elaborate her answer. "You pest…You can't do one thing right!"

As his scream echoed through the hall, the general finally excused himself–content in the knowledge that he hadn't been overshadowed by the girl, at least not yet. The girl was powerful, a trace of something special flowed through her veins, after all, yet her defiant nature always led her to trouble.

Could he afford to lose such an asset, he would've gotten rid of her, but with their ongoing war against Elenavia, he is forced to wait until victory lands in his favor.

"Get out of my sight this instant!" Yelling at the top of his lungs, the king sent the only person inside that room who wasn't afraid to speak their mind.

Once she was gone, a thick layer of angst had taken over the council. Not even the wisest woman, Maryline dared to speak to the upset king. As for the others, they hoped for someone to speak up against her, someone to start the rebellion of ideas that they themselves have become a victim of since the moment Maryline began teaching them.

Insults about their skin color, about the slightest sign of being mixed, or the fact that someone's nose wasn't right, one thing or the other, the old and decrepit woman always found a way to demean her students. Their confidence, broken from a young age and their opinion struck down by her arrogance, none of them dared to be the first to voice their dissent, at least not in the council meetings.

Outside the castle, each one of them was a perfectionist of their craft, but once inside their skills and experience mattered as much as their opinion, which was none at all.

Staring at the king, their eyes squinted in frustration, they wanted him to pull off his blindfold and think for himself. An excellent warrior, a knight of honor in his time, the king was a man devoted to tradition and that witch of a woman exploited that weakness.

"Is that all, or does anyone else have something to say?" Giving one last chance to hear opposition, the king slammed his greatsword against the floor to get everyone's attention back on him.

But as he glanced at the many faces, so did the woman who'd broken the councilmen and women since they were children. Thus none dared to speak a word, even though deep in their heart they wished at least one of them would. None wanted war for the sake of an island, especially not on the whims of an old dying woman.

"Then it is final…" Their eyes widened at the king's words, but with the knowledge that their incompetence was to blame for his decisions, none said a word for their minds and their confidence were in tatters and pieces. "Help the general prepare the ships, I expect that island to be righteously ours in a week!"

With the council dismissed it was time for everyone to prepare for a war, a war for what reason exactly? Not a single one of them could tell. Experience exclusive tales on empire