213 Destination (1/2)
Li nodded. He had informed the guild council he was going down south to deal with issues, but he had not been too specific, mostly to keep word from getting to Tia and making her worry. Though, now, in light of all the events that had transpired, that precaution had ended up being pointless.
”That delay was unseemly of me. No need for you to apologize,” said Li.
”Though,” said Ven'thur. ”Never once did I doubt your triumph over any forces you are pitted against. And I suppose, considering you are a master of your crafts, it would have done well for an artist and intellectual such as yourself to have had some privacy.”
”Thankfully, I did not come out of my little private session empty handed. I set out to find a means to devise a cure against the new demon rot.”
”Then, good seer, have you found a means to combat it?” asked Ivo. His jaw was set in tense worry. ”The rot of this new era is tremendously malevolent unlike anything I have witnessed before, and I say this as a veteran of the last invasion. I was just now about to advise you against setting our followers outside the walls for risk of it.”
”I've no direct experience with it, but if Ivo is one to speak of its deadliness, then I can but back his vast experience and knowledge in these matters,” said Old Thane.
”Be calm, everyone,” said Li. ”For I have found a means to fight against the rot, to render it utterly useless and our followers even immune.”
”Then I have no qualms returning our followers and priests to their fields and forests. Rather, I encourage it,” said Ivo.
Li shook his head. ”Not yet. There are a few final hurdles I have to overcome. But now I do have a rough assessment of what's going on, and I have decided on a course of action. I will speak to my followers now, for they are anxious for word, and I will tell them to stay here for now.
Are there any objections to this?”
Li heard only silence, and he nodded, seeing that there were no dissenting opinions on anyone's faces that they for some reason did not want to voice. ”I will take that as a 'no.' Then here, old man, can you carry Tia for a bit?”
”Of course, lad.”
Li stood up and gently carried Tia's sleeping form to Old Thane. He turned to the audience and walked up to them, and as he did so, silence once more descended. All eyes, human, feline, wolven, avian, serpentine, were on him.
He spoke, not needing the magic crystal to amplify his voice. He used Allspeak, his words reaching the hearts of every single individual in that room equally.
Take that as an understanding that I may not always be there for you. I will strive to guide and nurture all of you as much as I can, of course, but fate may pull me this way and that, never far from you, but still, there may be distance.