Damyan shot up! Heart racing, breathing heavily. "Woah!" a voice exclaimed. Damyan looked around him. The last thing he remembered was sticking his sword through a guy's stomach and a sharp pain in his thigh. Now it was night; there was a fire, and – "
"I can't believe she did it!" a body flew into Damyan's.
"Ouch," Damyan groaned upon impact.
"Sorry," Jhon said as he helped Damyan sit back up.
"What happened?" Damyan asked as Jhon handed him a waterskin. "Did I fall asleep or something?"
"You were dead," Jhon exclaimed. "There was a cut on your thigh with poison streaming out of it. Raven healed you. It was amazing. This green stuff came out of your mouth and went into Raven's mouth, and then she kissed you, and this bright light shone around your lips and then your body. You should have seen it. Oh, here's your necklace," he handed Damyan a broken iolite necklace. "I had to remove it so she could use her powers. Sorry about the damage."
"Thank you," Damyan absently took the jewelry from Jhon as his brain slowly processed everything Jhon said. "Where is Raven?" he asked. A soft moan on the other side of the campfire answered his question. "She collapsed right away," Jhon motioned to Raven, who was slowly regaining consciousness.
Damyan watched as the sorceress slowly stirred, his eyes unwittingly tracing her scantily clad body. "Raven," he stumbled over to her on shaky legs before falling to his knees beside her.
"Damyan?" she called out softly as her eyes fluttered open.
"Raven," he stared into her large, violet eyes, "you saved me. Why?"
"What do you mean?" Raven cocked her head to the side.
"I…I hated you. I took you away from your family."
"Damyan," she spoke softly before slowly sitting up, "you saved me." Damyan didn't know how to respond to that. "I told you that the other night," she added.
Damyan slowly brought a hand to her face, gently stroking the side of it, moving a few strands of hair as he did so. Raven slowly, hesitantly, nervously, leaned into his touch. "Thank you, Raven," he breathed out, softly, stroking her cheek.
Raven trembled at his touch. She wasn't scared; she was…unsure. So used to being grabbed and roughly handled, she had no idea what to do when a man was treating her so… tenderly. Viktor was the only other person who treated her kindly. But Viktor never made her feel lightheaded or nauseated. Viktor never made her feel…desire. The thought hit her out of nowhere, and Raven immediately turned away from Damyan. "Um…" she hid her face behind her hair. "Where's Aelfred?"
"Uh…I don't know," Damyan answered, "Jhon?"
"I have no clue where she is," Jhon handed Damyan something. Damyan turned and handed it to Raven. It was a waterskin. "Thank you," she took it gratefully, trying not to stare into his turquoise eyes. "What now?"
"Well," Damyan sat next to her, "assuming we face no more obstacles, we should be there by tomorrow night?"
"Where are we going?"
"Themyscira," Jhon answered.
"Wait," Raven choked on the water, "Themyscira is still around!"
"Your soldiers are dead, Your Majesty," the young oracle stated.
"Lies," Graent spoke up. "Those were our best men."
"Those were your best?" Mara scoffed.
"Are you certain?" Slaede asked the oracle. The oracle nodded. "And my sorceress?"
"I can't see her," he replied.
"Not you," Slaede spat. He turned to the young female. "I'm talking to you, Maya." Maya stood nearly in the corner, shaking with fear. "Maya!" Slaede shouted when she refused to answer. "Where is your sister?"
"I don't – I don't know," Maya stuttered in a small voice.
"Surely she's tried to contact you," Graent said.
"Thank you, Graent," Slaede glared at his son, "if you don't mind, I'd like to do the questioning.
"She hasn't," Maya answered.
"Maybe she needs the right incentive," Mara withdrew a knife and approached Maya like a predator. Maya rung her hands in her fine dress as she was wont to do when she was nervous. "P-Please," she begged. "I'm trying to reach her, b-b-but I can't. Something is blocking me."
"Wait!" Slaede stopped Mara. He began to think. The old Ras did have access to an iolite mine, one that I never found. Could it be…? "Mara," Slaede called the psychotic assassin's name, "your grandfather had access to an iolite mine, didn't he?"
"Yes, but he never told me where this mine was," Mara replied.
"Would he have told your cousin?"
Mara clenched her jaw. It was no secret that Damyan was her grandfather's favorite. "He would have," Mara answered angrily.
"See?" Slaede smiled proudly at his son. "Raven didn't leave me willingly. The assassin brat is probably controlling her."
"The same way you do, Father?" Graent asked smugly.
"Continue reaching out," Slaede ordered Maya. "You have until tomorrow to make contact."
"Still," Mara approached the young sorceress with a sadistic smile on her face, twirling her knife as she did so, "we should incentivize Raven, just in case."