Chapter 720: A Sweet Scented Lily - Part 2
It hadn’t been a day in another god’s territory, and the soldiers from Athenia had fallen ill with stomach aches and bloody vomits. At first, Raven suspected it to be an attempt at sabotage by the giants, but to his surprise, even the citizens of Eclanor were falling unconscious in the streets. Erika and the Holy Order instantly suspected Asmareth, but after a heated argument with the giants, Melenai, the royal scribe, managed to convince them to investigate some more before pointing any fingers.
A wave of relief washed over Raven as he watched the priestess and the Holy Order coming out of the royal mansion. Erika, of course, wasn’t pleased with the outcome, and after getting permission from Raven, she decided to go back to Asmareth’s temple and check for any sign of curses or to find a cure for this problem with their goddess’ help.
’Athenia was right. Some people live with faith, others live for their faith.’ Raven thought to himself, watching the thousand and so soldiers of the holy order following Erika to the site of the fallen temple. ’Her zeal, I don’t know what to say, but I probably need to talk to her about it or find some way to control it just a little.
While he had no doubts that Erika would never betray him, her faith was so strong that it drew obvious concerns. Even so, making a mental note to talk to her about keeping her thoughts and emotions separate, he turned to the others.
"Poison, the food was poisoned," Amedith said as soon as his eyes met Raven’s.
"Weird thing is, no elves were affected, only humans and some demi-humans," Mel added further.
"Also, I talked to everyone who helped with the mess, but I didn’t see any deceitful emotions coming out from them," folding her hands, Liliyana lightly shook her head. "None of them are lying; they have no clue how the poison got in our food."
"Yeah, I don’t doubt that. Moxy helped with the preparations after all, and she’s sick too." Clicking his tongue, Raven squeezed his fingers into a knuckle. "Besides, it’s not just us but the people of the city as well that got sick."
"Could it be that the demon general knew that we’ve arrived and somehow managed to poison the water?" Hearing some footsteps coming from the side, Raven turned to find the prince of Nile and the three djinn sisters, including Elana. "As the god of the desert, I can tell you that’s how many wars were won. By poisoning the one commodity that’s more valuable than gold, the water."
Staring at the prince, Raven gave some thought to his theory, and although it made near perfect sense, he didn’t wanna discount any other possibility just yet.