Li acted quickly afterwards in getting his new followers settled in. He had already planned on what they had needed. They needed to resettle back to their lands, have their barren fields restored, their farmhouses rebuilt, and equipnt and livestock rebought or repaired. Not to ntion he had to settle the beastwon down as well as he could.
All of that could not take place in one day, but Li could at least lay down the foundations of what was to be. It also kept his mind off of what had happened before, how his divine mindset had creeped up on him, how even now, he felt so restricted, so uncomfortable in his human clothing.
Thus, Li spent much of the day going around the circumference of the city's walls where all the uncared fields lay. He had Ivo take him to each field and reintroduce their owners back to them while Li used his abilities to rejuvenate the life within them.
It was touching to receive heartfelt thanks often coupled with tears every ti he restored the fields, but all Li was doing was giving back what the land had already given to them years before. For the ti being, Li let the farming families stay in their lands or, if they needed to get so supplies back from their city residences, to take a day organizing a move out.
Surprisingly, a fair amount of younger people that were not farrs decided to stick with their parents to tend to the land. A majority, actually, and as Li went about conversing with them as he led the farrs around the city walls, he understood that it was because most of them could not overco the guilt of working in businesses built by blood.
Even those that did not wish to turn to a way of living borne from the earth did not return to their prior businesses but instead sought to sell them so that they could move elsewhere and truly make sothing of their own or join Leon and his building company down South.
To that end, Leon was quite helpful. He was set to leave in a week, but in appreciation for the new laboring hands and the fact that Chevrette's death would leave quite a bit of investnt opportunities for the wealthy company owner to capitalize on, he decided to aid the farrs in his spare ti, unveiling Builder subclass abilities that allowed him to spend mana to rapidly repair constructs such as the farmhouses instead of needing cumberso hand based manpower.
Unfortunately, Leon himself was the only one with such a subclass, though as Li understood it in a brief conversation with the noble, the man had to have a complete and thorough understanding of anything he wanted to build before he constructed it with his mind and mana, making it a thoroughly tireso art to learn. Not to ntion that it was a Lakely family specialty, an ability originating from their ancient Elven ancestor and passed down only to the main heir of the family line.
As for the beastwon, Li settled them relatively equally among all the farming households to assist in their rebuilding and also to act as bodyguards if needs be. Though, as he observed the patrolling knights cease to question them as the hours passed, he understood that at the least from a governntal level, there would be no move against him yet.
From the temples, however, Li was not yet entirely sure. But judging from the strength of the high priests, he doubted they could muster up any unified and potent force against the farrs anyti soon.
Which ant that things went by smoothly. By the ti nightfall settled, Li had built a skeleton of the community he was to lead. The remaining things such as the tools and house repairs and livestock and seeds and whatnot – those would be handled over ti, and those too, Li had a plan for. The seeds he and Iona would handle while the more material needs such as equipnt and repairs Leon and Alexei could assist in.
That was why Li could loose a sigh of relief sitting in the middle of his shrine. In a way, it felt quite odd to be sitting beside what was his taphorical heart – the mass of vines, roots, and flowers that beat rhythmically in tune with his own heartbeat, shining with a faint amber redness that emanated a ghostly yet warm light through the dark of night.
It truly was as if he could see his own heart laid bare before him, just as jarring as it would have been if he had been on a surgeon's table and by so miraculous event he could glimpse his own surgically incised heart.
"It must feel strange to see your heart laid bare like this," said Iona. She sat cross legged on the grass beside Li.
"In a way, but at the sa ti, it feels right. My being was never ant to be contained. It was ant to be spread, worshipped, and revered." Li shrugged. "Which I guess ans my simple farming life is over."
Li rembered a few words from Sylvie a ways back, how she had said she felt that those with power had an obligation to do sothing for this world. Then, he felt nothing around him aside from his farming was worth fretting over, but now, his responsibilities were expanded, and he could see the worth in her words.
When things were settled a little more on his end, Li would talk with the adventurers again and soothe any surprises about his personality they might have seen when he was exercising his divinity. But for now, for that to happen, for him to begin to think about going back to his own farm and the old man without letting himself change into sothing the old man thought he was not, he had to undergo this rooting ritual.
"It need not be over." Iona had her thin hands on her knees in a ditative pose, her eyes closed as she breathed in the aura of the shrine around her. "Your human persona has a strong affinity to parts of your divinity. I am sure with more ti, you will be able to rge everything, your guardianship of the world's life, your dominance over its decay, and your human nature all together."
"Maybe," said Li. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a ruby red orb and placed it within his shrine's heart. That was Ven'Thur's phylactery, and he intended to resuscitate the lich by feeding him the residual life energy that emanated from it.
"But in comparison to the powers I have, to what I truly am, it really does seem like my humanity is so vanishingly small. A little pebble tossed around by an ocean."
"But even that pebble will not crumble apart so easily, even in the face of the vastness of waves infinitely greater than it," said Iona. She sighed. "I know it well from the humanity that I have grown within . I cannot claim to be sothing human, to truly know what it ans to be one, but at the very least, I can begin to understand why Morrigan herself could maintain such a strong will and appreciation for them."
"And I'd always pegged you for a misanthropist," said Li. "A teacher, sure, but at the end of the day, nobody really appreciated what you had to offer. That's why I can guarantee to you here and now that I will take that mantle that was too heavy for you to bear and carry it with all my might."
Iona opened her eyes. Green laced the edges of her pupils, emanating strongly in the dark. "And I am eternally grateful for that. I am grateful to you even more that I may return to the bliss of true spirithood where I do not need to be weighed down so much by the weight of human will. By all its emotions and burdens.
And yet, now that I sit here monts before losing it, I fear I will co to miss it."
"Hm?"
"The very first human life I consud as a spirit was when I was at the brink of death, after my forest and my guardian had been destroyed utterly. I was fading, and yet one of our followers, a woman whom I had taught the ways of the forest since she was a shaky little child, gave her own life to .
She wished to live and placed a hope within that I may be able to save their villages from the Elven expansion. At the ti, I took her life without a single second thought, for there were no more thoughts to be had. Her single life was nothing compared to what I could do with it.
But when I inherited what was truly human about her – her will – I felt equal parts guilt and appreciation of her sacrifice. Those emotions channeled into that wonderfully brilliant and warm human emotion of hope, into a drive that furthered to try as much as I could to restore the forests."
"But alone, you never had the power. Not to ntion that like you said before, taking in human souls made you far weaker."
"That is true, yes, and when I found myself repelled by Elven machinery in the north and then by adventurers in the south no matter how much good I wished to spread, I realized how heavy the human heart could be. Just as it could push so strongly with the purpose of hope, it could just as easily anchor with despair."
"And that's the state I found you in. Leading a quiet life knowing you can do nothing. Knowing that as the days pass, you lose more and more power to do anything in the first place." Li could piece together now why she had been so drained of energy, her lethargic aura when he first t her, the filthy state of her room, the bottles – she was simply waiting for her life force to burn out so she could pass on.
"But you have no reason to despair anymore. In fact, with here, you've said you've found hope again."
"Certainly, yes I have, and the souls within are at peace understanding that their wishes will be granted. You are imnsely powerful, easily capable of changing this world into the goodness that it and all the lives it cares for deserves. So powerful that I myself am utterly useless in comparison.
The mont I t you, I understood that my purpose in this world had passed. All I can do now is to sacrifice my being and beco your Root so that you may maintain who you are."
"You're not dying, though," said Li. "You're just returning to what you were. You'll be just as alive, if not more so."
"But I will not be who I am now. You do not understand because you have not lost your humanity yet, but when you beco truly a divinity, you cease to be. You beco a moving piece within a far greater whole. Certainly, you may be a larger and stronger piece than any, but still, you will still rely be a piece, an automaton.
When I was a spirit, I did not do anything out of my own will. I did it because I knew it had to be done, that it was my purpose. Dagda, the Guardian I once served, was even more removed than I was, acting solely to maintain the balance of life. There was no person there, no individual. All we did was for the balance of the world, no more, no less.
Only Morrigan ever overca her divinity, and you have taken up her followers for yourself. I hope to see that you beco like her as through the century I have lived, I have co to understand that human will, not mindless function, is needed to overco the chaos of this world and its peoples."
Li was aware of the implicit understanding that Iona was essentially killing herself for his sake. She was becoming a battery to regulate and manage his divine energy so that he could learn to rge his human will with his divine side so that he could beco more than, as she had put it, a function. A process for this world.
"Your lessons were for that purpose, but situations have made it so that we can't continue them any longer." Li did not stop Iona from offering her individuality for his cause. Not out of selfishness – if he had sensed even a shred of hesitation on her part, he would have stopped her. But this is what she wanted with every fiber of her being.
It would be an insult to her to stop her.
"Our lessons will not end, no," said Iona. "You may still commune with here whenever you wish. I can regulate your divinity as you exercise it so that you may by the passing day beco more and more familiar with it."
Li nodded as he stood and walked up to his shrine's heart. He had heard Ivo approaching on ti. He would be the sole witness to this Rooting ritual to spread the word among the farrs for Li did not wish for them to burden themselves any further for the day. Iona stepped to the other side of the heart and placed her palm on it.
Li reached out to put his hand on the heart as well, and it pulsed green with energy, criss crossing networks of shining power streaking throughout the shrine, reaching through the ribs, up the spine, and to the skull, lighting up the night.
Li could see Iona's face becoming far more lively. The dark circles under her eyes lightened and the sickly pallor of her skin faded away to reveal a healthy, almost tan shade. Her hair grew longer, wilder, reaching to her hips and burning with fiery crackles. The gauntness in her fra faded, and for once, she observed the mythical beauty inherent among dryads and forest spirits.
"Thank you," said Li with a nod. He was not the type to unleash long speeches about particularly anything, and he knew that Iona would understand that his words were genuine.
Iona smiled, and it suited her far more than a disinterested scowl did. "I did want to hear your thanks just once more. May this world be as thankful for you as I was."
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