34 Counsel (1/2)
Li took a quick look behind him. The builders were busy at their work, the handymens' hammers banging away and the runesmiths' picks carving the right runes. Sighing in relief, he turned to the proctor now reveled all too suddenly as treant and grabbed her shoulder. He walked her aside, away from the builders.
Zagan stayed where he was and sat down but kept a close eye on Li, his telepathy still in range. The children, seeing the demon sit down again, felt comfortable enough to approach and ran their little chubby hands up and down his coat of matted black hair.
”Are you insane?” whispered Li to the treant. ”Saying you're not human right in the open? Do you understand the risk that puts this farm in?”
”That is my mistake, yes, but I cannot control my excitement. Not in decades have I felt such hope,” the treant said, her hazel brown eyes practically twinkling. She grabbed Li's arm with trembling and oddly cold hands. ”To know that there is still a living forest guardian is truly a blessing. I feared this world was once lost to the old ways, but you are a shining sun amidst the dark. I, Iona, former root of the incendic woodlands, will serve you with all my being.”
Li let go of Iona, and she almost looked like a lost puppy with how her hands still stayed in the air, still grasping where his arm used to be.
”Look, who said I needed any help?” said Li. ”I can manage this farm perfectly by myself. And how did you not know what I was the first time I met you? All the other spirits I've met have noticed immediately.”
”I-I'm terribly sorry if I offended you by not recognizing.” Iona rolled up on sleeve of her robes, revealing an almost bone-thin arm. ”It has been so long since I have been properly rooted to a guardian, and so my spirithood has worn thin. I am afraid that my senses have dulled as well – it is only when I witnessed you destroy those Black Vine heretics that I truly understood the scope of your being.”
”Wait, you were following me?”
”From a distance, yes, I was worried about you. At first, I thought you a young talent soon to be put under Black Vine's culling, but to think that it was you who culled them. I have worked long to battle their heretical defilement of the forest's bounty, and now I see that they have stopped all their distasteful underground activities – you are truly a guardian spirit worth following.”
Li raised a hand to calm Iona down. ”Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Look, I understand that you want a place to call home, but this place is packed already. Plus, I really don't need an assistant.”
Iona wrung her hands together as she pursed her lips and tried to think of something. ”I can be useful; I truly can be!”
Somehow, despite how emotional she was, her eyes still managed to maintain a deadpan stare. The dark bags underlining them didn't help at all, making her seem even more cold. Yet her lip quivered and her hands shook as she waited for Li's answer. Whether this was due to a lack of energy or her regular expression was a question left in the air.
”Okay,” sighed Li. ”How?”
”All of this-” Iona cast her hand across, motioning towards the cottage, the farm, and all the building work in progress. ”It is all just a front to hide your being, no? I know it - you must be a guardian spirit that has lost his domain and divinity, maybe from the demon invasion thirty years ago?”