Imagine this. With the table being in the middle of the room and seven of probably most powerfull beings in the whole castle and a murderous atmposhere surrounding them, it felt like war was about to be started any moment.
On one side of the table sat Vlad and Snow. One sitting with clear ethiquete imposed to them, the other being more casual with her blade resting next to her.
On the other side, the two sisters and Raven were all avoiding eye contact. Solara because she was resting her head and closed her eyes, Raven because shadow of his hair was hiding his eyes and lastly Luna closed her eyes as she drank the tea presented to her by Siren and now limping Victor.
"This tea is delicious. You should try it." Said Luna as she lowered her cup.
"What is it you wanted to talk about." said Vlad as he awkardly stared at Raven.
"First of all, we understand your pain. the Blight, as I have named it now is something that spread over this kingdom as well. Many people have died..." Luna has sighed. "Or have met worse fate, according to Raven and Siren."
"What are you getting at." grunted Snow, who was clearly not in a good mood.
The same could be said about Solara who responed with: "The point is that we have absolutely no idea what is causing it. All we know is that its killing stuff and transforming it. I can guess you have seen that too."
"You are describing it like its a living being. Is it a disease or what?" Asked Vlad.
"Not entirely. It's almost like...how did you describe it, Raven?"
"..." Raven had his arms crossed. It was obvious that he was starring daggers at Vlad, the shadow merely hid his eyes.
"Raven, please. You are the one who understood it the most." Siren whispered into his ear. He sighed, lowered his head and quickly raised it afterwards.
"The blight is neither a thing nor a living being. It is an intent given mind." he stood up and walked to the side of the table. He summoned his scythe and let out a singular drop that fell onto the table. He then quickly drapped it inside a glass container of sorts.
"Imagine the process of creating life. First you need form, Blight's form isnt given, it can reshape it and control the body of its host, both from biological and mental standpoint.
Then, you need mind. However mind is nothing if not thoughts without focus. Untamed and chaotic, they thrash and act on their base desires. One of the most basic ones is hunger. The Blight is only motivated by its desire to eat and consume. Sometimes, it will try to preserve itself, but the hunger will never dissappear."
As Raven was giving this speech, all others were intlently listening. But the one who's focus was more present was Snow. Here eyes were now glued to the Blight inside the container. This tiny little thing killed so many of her people.
"The last thing life needs is focus. In other words...a soul." Raven raised his index finger towards his mouth. Almost as if to silent someone. "People say that what doesn't have a soul cannot die. That is a lie thought. I know that better then anyone that what life and death have in common is not the soul, nor form nor mind..." He then changed the position of his index finger, he pressed his middle finger against his thumb. "Its me." and he snapped. With that, the writhing blob of black goo stopped moving as it released a singular screech.
"That is all good and all." Snow stood up and looked at Raven.
"But this doesn't help us figure out how to deal with this."
Siren stepped forward.
"That isn't necessarily true...what we have seen with Raven somewhat confirmed one of his suspicions. Or so he said."
"Precisely. In Revise, the miners dug too deep and uncovered a part of the chain that is binding one of the Old Gods. This chain was almost like a focal point towards which a lot of blight started to move."
"Wait...you mean that it's from the Old God's body?"
"No...it's much worse. Because its trying to climb the chain, and also gravitating towards it, the Blights is being sent there and coming back. It isn't from the Old God. It is relaying a message." As Raven said this, almost like a sudden moment of heureka struck him.
Silence befell the room. That conclussion was almost utter nonsense. How did he even come up with this stuff.
"How did you?"
"When I kill something, no matter what, it's soul will be retrieved by my scythe. I have then complete controll over it and can ask it questions. Whether they answer is entirely up to the inteligence of that creature, but sometimes, they do comply. And the Blight was saying the same thing as we were heading deeper into the tunnel. It said 'Not this.' Over and over. Its trying to find something. Spreading itself to locate something...or rather...someone."
"The behemoths we slayed at Revise with Raven had a different massage though, according to Raven, when we flew back, the soul of one of them said something that was directed towards me. It was 'Found her." Siren stood next to Raven.
"Why would the Behemoths be searching for someone and this blob something else."
"Because the behemoths have eyes that percieve more then just form...they percieve origin. They wanted to find Siren...because she is the last remaining pure blooded Valkyrie...correct?" asked Raven as he looked at her.
She merely looked down.
Snow looked confused, that confusion then turned to rage as she grapped her sword.
"Are you saying that all those people...they died because of you?"
Raven looked at her and everyone felt the tense atmosphere get even more heavy. The shadows in the room became darker and started to gather around Raven for some reason...but then they stopped. He exhaled and the shadows retracted.
"No. Someone is controlling the blight...Someone is searching for a pureblooded Valkyrie. They would kill everyone regardless. Her life is actually giving us an advantage...because she is alive...the one who is trying to hunt her down will focus entirely on her."
"And how do you know that." asked Luna who was quiet until this moment. Even she was a bit on the edge when she heard that it could have been Siren's, and then by extension her fault.
"Because now I know who is hunting her."