Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Helping Tanya to sit upright, Raven pressed his lips together–unsure how things would go on from the moment she realized the situation that she was in. Letting her lean her back against the wall and just spend seconds resting, the mage finally decided to explain to her everything that had happened while she was dreaming.

To the surprise of everyone, nothing seemed to bother her. She didn\'t care for her husband almost killing her accidentally or the fact that he was now mentally blind. Even as Raven reached the end of his explanation not an ounce of worry was reflected on her face–instead what she had was a question, something she\'d felt coming from a mile away.

"You want me to forget about him, don\'t you? Like he has forgotten about me?" Somehow, she knew what Erika and Asmodia had cooked up in their mind.

Even the devil was surprised at how easily she was accepting the bizarre. But seeing deeper into the broken woman, Asmodia noticed a flicker of disturbance, and not just any kind, but one that had her at the edge of her sanity.

\'She\'s unstable, if we leave her like this, she\'ll go insane.\' Linking their minds together, Asmodia let everyone present know exactly what she\'d noticed. Which in turn urged Raven to quickly conclude the situation before it led anywhere unsavory.

"Yes, but not just you, everyone except us will forget about him. The goddess wants him to serve her church with no room for distraction," relaying Athenia\'s orders mixed in with Erika\'s plans, Raven reached for Tanya\'s shoulder and continued. "But that means you\'ll forget him and everything that binds you to him."

Shifting his gaze to the slumbering child, Raven concluded what he had to say. However, unlike what any of them had expected, Tanya didn\'t even look at Rowen\'s kid before responding.

"Fine…I want to forget everything about that bastard, even if that means losing his child," everyone\'s hearts were pricked for a moment by her words, everyone except one.

"Unfortunate genes anyways, you\'d make a better mother for a superior man," it was Arche speaking through the gem, and furthering their surprise, Asmodia chimed into the conversation as well.

"I don\'t see much in his future either," looking at the infant, Asmodia gazed into his past, present and future. "Weak, angry, and if you continue to be with your man–an absolute cuck, he\'d make a better celibate clergyman at the church–serving beside his father as an orphan."

"You\'re all fucking monsters!" Amedith yelled, and though Liliyana wanted to say the same–knowing about Raven, a fae\'s relationship with Tanya, she knew it was better the child end up an orphan than be killed by his mother\'s lover.

Athenia wasn\'t exactly happy with the situation either, as abandonment was unfortunately something she was far too familiar with. However, once again, came the fact of Raven\'s fae nature with the added dilemma of neither his mother nor his father wanting the child at all.

\'Unfortunate, but I\'ll bless him with a fruitful service–and though he may never sow his seed in a woman, he\'d be the one to raise my children.\' Referring to the orphans as her children, Athenia concluded the discussion inside everyone\'s minds.

"Very well then, you and everyone who knew Rowen will forget he ever existed as anything more than a clergy–that is…" Pausing for a moment to imagine Atheina instead of Aphrodite in her head, Erika heaved a sigh and continued. "That is my goddess\' command."

Closing her eyes to channel holy magic, Erika offered Tanya a hand while Asmodia gestured for everyone else to get out of the room. Doing as instructed, everyone tried to leave, but grabbing Raven\'s hand, Tanya wouldn\'t let him go away. As for the child, he was left in the devil\'s care–soon to be carried to the church where he would live amidst many other orphans who might arrive there.

"Stay with me, okay?" Tanya begged, pulling Raven close and squeezing his hand against her chest.

Looking at Erika, Raven received a nod–assuring him that he could stay, even though it was better for everyone to leave the two alone.

"Just don\'t look at the light or try to peek into her memories, that might end up erasing some of your own as well…" Using Tanya as a channel to connect all minds but the party\'s through the help of her goddess, Erika muttered a spell that she was borrowing from Athenia. None of the words made sense to her, and neither did the runes she was inscribing on Tanya\'s palm.

It was a godly spell after all, and the goddess didn\'t want her priestess to be burdened with its power.

"Now close your eyes, else you wish to be blind…" And with that warning, a flash of golden light bloomed inside the room. It burned their skins, and their hair, and even made their clothes dry and crisp.

For Erika and Raven, it felt like nothing but a sunbath, however, as the light retreated Tanya was unconscious on the bed, having carried the burden of being a nexus for wiping out memories of her ex-husband.

"Goodbye Rowen, nothing of value was lost today," Erika whispered, and although unconscious, Tanya wholeheartedly would\'ve agreed.

The rest of the night Raven spent it beside Tanya, and when she woke up in the morning she was greeted with a kiss.