Chapter 281 - Demonkind (2/2)
”You believe in the Light?” said Li as he took note of the locket. ”I am not pressuring you to answer as a seer for another faith. I simply want to know.”
Mason contemplated the question before shrugging. ”Once, I did. My father was a priest of the Light, and he taught my brother and I much of its warmth and blessings. Of the lands of golden wheat and eternal sun promised in the life beyond this one to all those devoted.”
He pocketed the locket again. ”But he was also the one to leave us on supposed pilgrimage when coin ran dry. I would like to believe that so long as I fight, and that I fight for good that I can be proud of, I will have lived a life worthy of the gods and spirits and anyone else higher up and peering down upon me.”
”A good philosophy,” said Li. ”I encourage you to stick to it.”
”My beliefs do not challenge you?” asked Mason tentatively.
”Not at all.” Li paused. ”Have you or your brother ever gone to Ivo and the druids for learning?”
Both brothers shook their heads with some embarrassment, for it was a requirement for being in the fold of the Farmer's Guild. Ivo insisted on it, though Li was not too strict on enforcing it.
”Then I will explain. The faith I wish to spread is not so much faith at all. It is simply an understanding that you and everyone else walking upon this world is part of it. Responsible for it. The druids learn this by attuning themselves with nature, understanding the beauty of its breathing, of its every ebb and flow.
We are beholden to the earth beneath us just as much as we are beholden to each other. In that way, your ideal of living a life for the good of others is not one I will reject. No, I would welcome it instead. I do not demand absolute obedience to me or any rigid, unchanging doctrine. Think for yourselves to do what is best.”
Li saw Mason and Mercer nod at Li, and he paused for a moment, wondering whether he should continue. To bring this up now.
At the end of it all, Li wanted a world that was stable and at peace with itself and with all the lives upon it. Was that truly possible? He wondered that plenty himself. There would always be divides between people. Differences. And differences meant conflict. He wanted those conflicts to fade away with his faith as a mediating force, but at what point was he to demand obedience? To use force to arbitrarily decide who was right and who was wrong?
And how would he even begin to approach differences across not just people, but beings? Especially between all the mortal races and demons. For Li knew from interacting with Zagan that demonkind was not a monolith. They had their ways, but they had conflict and strife among themselves.
Demons had spent a thousand years wreaking havoc upon mortal races for it was hard wired in their natures to hunger for negative emotions. It would seem they would be fundamentally incompatible with any sort of mutual understanding between themselves and others. And yet, Li felt he owed it to Zagan's service to grant demonkind a chance in his eternal garden.
”But I will say now that what you believe is good may not always be right. That is why I wish you to think for yourselves. To ever change your judgement to the world that changes always around you,” said Li. ”For I am not going west with the intent to destroy the demons. I am going to help. To restore order. Certainly, those that oppose me thoroughly, I will deal with, but a demon's life is still life. I will aim to preserve their kind, to grant them a chance.”