𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒃𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑰𝑰 / 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘 & 𝑩𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝑭𝑭

𝟏𝟔. 𝑨𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒚

"Raven!" Jordin called, seeing her jump from a roof down but noticed quickly her dark stare. "What happened...?" She asked worryingly.

"A minor inconvenience." Raven informed briefly walking up to them.

"Let's go inside..." Wylan grabbed the attention on him and was the first to turn around quickly and march inside his lab.

The rest followed silently. Inside the small corridor and onto the big stairs, footsteps stomping as they walked or skipped down the stairs.

Raven stopped her pace. She was here before but her breath stopped now that this lab is not just a lab to her. Out of her anger prevailed fear. The time has come for her to be experimented on. But she won't back down now.

Jordin instantly walked towards the table, taking off her leather bag and placing it on the table, walking right behind the equipment table and going with a hand over her hair. She was in her thoughts, looking carefully at the equipment as she began gathering it, going through order in her head.

"Is there any wine?" Larissa called, walking calmly inside, looking around.

"Uh- N-no-" Wylan informed.

"Disappointing."

Adonis approached Raven, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder as he had seen her frightened stare.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to, you know that?" He assured her of her choice.

Raven nodded, "I know," she acknowledged, "but I won't back down now. I need to know how it works myself. To understand it." she shifted her eyes to Adonis, "There might be a connection." she admitted, "My fear shall not be what's stopping me."

Adonis nodded, he was worried still. No one knew how this will go. What would be revealed or what will happen. It left them on edge but they had to be sure. It's their field after all. And as Adonis wanted to move to see whether he could help Jordin in her preparations, he felt a hand clutching his wrist. He turned back to face Raven.

"Venom." She whispered.

His eyes widened in realization. His head spun towards Jordin and Larissa. He marched instantly towards Jordin, pretending to grab anything that could be of help, slightly leaning towards Jordins ear.

"Venom." He whispered as their eyes met.

Both of their heads spun to look at Raven. Her eyes showed that they heard correctly. Venom was their code word to meet back at the Little Palace and now it has been used again. There's matters to discuss. But they knew it will take place at a later time. Jordin quickly darted her eyes to Larissa that caught up quickly and walked over, giving them a confused look on their slightly worried faces.

"Venom.." Jordin whispered to Larissa that showed the same reaction as they both did a minute ago. Looking at Raven that was looking at them and strolled a little through the lab. Larissa sighed and nodded acknowledging.

"So..." Jesper began, "...what exactly are you going to do?"

"We are going to experiment on Raven to find out the origin of her power or just simply understand it." Jordin said while finding gloves on the table that she grabbed to put on. An old habit she developed from her youth once a little attempted experiment of hers went wrong that made her stop her craft for a longer time before she got into the Little Palace for training. Ever since then, she didn't dare to not use gloves.

"Isn't Grisha power mostly unexplainable?" Jesper asked, knowing well what he is talking about.

"Power like mine isn't." Raven chimed in, stopping in her spot as she looked at them gathered at the table, "I must admit I'm nervous."