Li followed a new trail to the heart of middle Riviera, on a street near the city hall. With a night as foreboding as the current one, not many walked the streets. There were still quite a few superstitious people about in this world, and the faith of the Light also ingrained in the humans here a mistaken belief that demons spawned from the dark, a misconception they easily latched onto with the innate human fear of the night. 

As a result, it was easy to navigate where Ada lived. Iona had told Li that Ada and her family consisting of her husband and former farmer father ran a small bakery on this street. Li did not have to search much before he found it. It was a surprisingly nice and spacious business, occupying an entire two story building.

On the first floor, there was the bakery, its glass display showcasing empty plates where during the day there would have been appetizing baked tidbits to advertise. The second floor was where Li's attention directed, as he could tell this was where the family lived, as evidenced by the fact that he could see the gleam of a lantern light through a window. 

Li reached out and tried opening the bakery door. It was locked tightly shut. It did give a little, and his sharpened hearing could make out the jingle of a latch lock behind the door. A good thing, too, as if the lock was built into the door, he would have had to destroy it entirely.

Instead, all Li did was aim his finger through the crack of the door and cast [Shapeshift: Itzpapalotl Proboscis], morphing his finger into an impossibly thin, black carapaced and thorn like protrusion that slipped through and, with a flick of his finger, sliced through the chain latching the door shut.

Li undid the shapeshifting and made his way into the bakery, making sure to close it firmly shut. 

The pleasant smell of baked bread settled in the air. Li noticed that the bakery was quite nice. Well maintained and cleanly swept, speaking to the hard working characters of those running it. Hopefully, he could talk to them without much conflict, as it would be a shame to show force against them.

Li focused his senses to the absolute max that he could in his human state, making sure there were no escape routes to raise a clamor against him while also detecting the steady breathing of Ada and her husband and the shallower, quicker breaths of the daughter and grandfather.

Li raised a brow. He had picked up something quite interesting as well, but he only had to spend a moment to figure out what he was hearing. It would appear that he would not have any issues getting this family to talk.

Li came to the end of the bakery where there were spiraling wooden stairs leading upwards. The faint orange glow of lantern light leeched onto the steps, promising a brightly lit room above. He came to the first step of the stairs before he rapped his knuckles against the wooden wall. 

Almost immediately, Li could hear panicked voices. A rush as the daughter was pushed into her room. A scramble as heavier footsteps – the husband – picked something up and stood at the edge of the stairs. 

"Relax," called out Li. "Ada, was it? I'm here on behalf of Iona. Dropping off some medicine she forgot to give you. Had a few things I wanted to talk to you all about as well. Now, I'm not the type to wait for no reason, so I'm going to come up."

Li took casual steps up the stairs until he met Ada's husband at the top. He clutched, surprisingly, a well made short sword in his hands. There was even a rune of sharpness etched onto its shining new leather handle. But the man himself fell far short of the blade. He was not unfit by any means, but there was a certain softness to him, laid fully bare as he was shirtless, obviously not expecting visitors.

It was evident in the small gut that gathered at his belly, at the flab clinging on his arms, that made it obvious that he was no fighter. His hands trembled as he held onto the blade with a shaky and unfamiliar grip. His rough moustache shivered as his lips quivered in fear.

Not that it would have mattered even if he had been the foremost fighter in the whole duchy. To Li, both were equally powerless.

"We aren't seriously going to do this, are we?" said Li with a smile. He reached out for the sword's blade, his movements oozing relaxation, and he put the blade between his index finger and thumb. "Incredible sword, really. Sterling Silver, enchanted with a lesser rune, and, now that I feel it, even imbued with a bleeding curse. What did this cost? Five gold coins? Six? Impressive a bakery owner could afford it."

"W-who are you?" said the husband as he froze up, instinctively understanding that any fighting movement was tantamount to suicide. He took a glance behind himself, at Ada who had pinned herself against the wall. 

Seeing this, the husband did not back away, defending his family. At the least, he was still a dutiful husband and father. 

"I thought I told you before I came up? The whole point of me announcing myself was to make sure you had time to get ready. I didn't think this was how you would get ready, though. I'd say it's a little rude." Li moved his fingers to the tip of the blade before exerting pressure, snapping it off. 

It was now that the husband finally took a step back.

Li took the broken blade piece and swallowed it up in his palm. When he opened his palm back up, the high quality metal had been shriveled up into an infinitesimally tiny ball of scrap metal that he tossed behind his back. 

"Now, are we ready to talk?" said Li. The husband pursed his lips together, dropping the sword as he raised his hands in the air. Li nodded. "Good. Now put on a shirt." 

_____________

Li sat cross legged on the floor, as did Ada and her husband. They sat themselves beside each other and in front of him, and he almost felt like a teacher reprimanding students. At the corner of the room, there was an elderly man curled up in blankets, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth, his thin lips moving rapidly but uttering nonsensical whispers.

Li had given the couple time to get their minds in order, moving their father aside and also telling their daughter to stay quiet and calm in her room. The living space was surprisingly cramped considering the generous size of the building for a single family. 

Here, for your daughter, in case her fever comes back," said Li as he rolled a vial towards the couple. 

Ada, surprised, said, "You weren't lyin' about the medicine?"

"I don't make lying a habit," said Li. "Iona told me this was a good way to get you to talk to me, but she probably meant tomorrow. You see, I'll probably be busy tomorrow, so I wanted to get this talk over with tonight, which was why I had to break in. Apologies for the lock, and I'll cover the repairs."

He shifted his gaze to the elderly man at the corner. "But onto why I'm actually here. I'm here to talk to your father, though, by how he is, I doubt he's all there. That leaves me to ask you two about him."

Ada looked taken aback, but at the same time, her tense shoulders eased down. "Papa? Why him?"

"Is it about father's illness?" said the husband. "An arcana scholar had come before to investigate his madness. Are you perhaps one of them?"

Li shook his head at the husband. He noted that the husband must have married into the family, considering Ada called the old man 'papa and the husband called him by the more formal 'father'. 

"Okay, Ada, I'm mostly here to talk with you then. I'm here because I'm working with Iona to bring the old ways of the forest back again. You're familiar with them, right?"

"Herbalism and all that magic, aye."

"Good. You see, farming has a close relationship with the old ways. So tell me, your papa used to be a farmer, right?"

Ada's brows knitted together in concerned confusion, but she went along with the questioning regardless. "Aye, but that was many, many moons ago. Gods, more than twenty years."

"You must still have been old enough to remember him farming, then. I'm sure he didn't give up right after the fields started to do worse around thirty years ago."

Ada's hand fidgeted rapidly, twitching almost involuntarily before her husband reached out and clasped it. "Aye, I was a wee little lass when I remember leavin' the farm. It was after mama passed. Papa took us to the city, opened this bakery, and it's all we've done."

"All we've done, yes," nodded the husband with quick and urgent nods.

"You two seem to be anxious for some reason. Relax. I'm just curious about the old farmers, you see. As you can tell, I'm not from around here, and I actually recently moved here to be a farmer. I have a farm right outside the city, but it's strange to see that almost none of the other farms are working."

"Well, there's no future in em' is what papa said. Bakin' is all I've known, though." 

"Ah, that's a shame. Figured I could use some company. Tell me, though, did your papa ever talk to you About what farming was like? About worshipping forest spirits?"

Ada shook her head. "Papa told me he loved farmin', but never told me why he left. I figured it was cause' he couldn't get coin. And spirit worship? That's heresy, and papa would never do that."

Li was beginning to realize that Ada was too young to be useful. She was born right around the end of the demon wars and Morrigan's death, so she had no idea about what her father did beforehand, when he actively farmed and worshipped. This was on top of the fact that the duchess had gone on an active campaign to purge beliefs other than that of the light, meaning Ada's father had likely shielded her from his past worship. 

With a sigh, Li asked, hoping for a lead, "Tell me, how did your papa fall ill?"

Ada shook her head sadly. "I don't know. He just got worse and worse over the years. Started mutterin' in his sleep some ramble, sounded mighty monstrous like. By the time I took over, he was like this."

"I don't blame him," said the husband, and Ada pulled at his hand, bidding him quiet.

Li nodded, beginning to understand more of this family. "Can I try talking to your papa?"

Ada looked at her father, at how he had curled himself into a ball, his teeth chattering despite the fact that several blankets engulfed his tiny and emaciated frame. She said, "Aye, don't see why not. Maybe a new face will get him back to reason." 

Li walked over to Ada's father and knelt in front of him. The old man shrunk away from Li in trembling fear, his eyes bulging and wild as he pressed himself further and further into his corner. 

Li gently stretched out a hand towards the elderly man. He must not have been much older than sixty, but his mental state had aged him immensely. He seemed now liable to drop dead at any moment, his breath wheezing and his movements made with visible difficulty. 

In this world, terminal illnesses and permanent mental illnesses could not be healed away normally as they were considered to be part of the person's body. 

Otherwise, nobody in this world would ever die of anything except old age if they did not fight. Although, Li did figure that any higher tier healing spells would easily overcome this restriction judging by the fact that there were tales of strong spirits, dragons, faeries, and other mystical beings healing such terminal afflictions.

However, Li did not intend on healing the old man just yet. He knew he was already attracting attention by going around the city and directly investigating instead of getting the count to do all this work, but he needed to throw his presence out there as he eventually planned on making his human form some kind of 'avatar' that spread the will of his true form. Healing this man was not something he was yet willing to do until he had a following willing to believe that his powers came from divine blessing. 

The show of force breaking the sword, he could explain with martial arts, and many adventurers could attest to that. Miracle healing, though, tended to bring about far more attention than just being kind of physically strong. 

"It's okay," said Li, his voice quiet. He placed his hand on the old man's arm, feeling the bone-thin limb through the blankets. 

The old man was panicked, his eyes darting from side to side, but then, they finally settled on Li. 

There was a pause. A moment of silence as the old man seemed to become still like a statue. Then, he raised trembling hands through his blankets, clasping wrinkled hands over Li's arm. Tears welled from his eyes, pattering on the skins coiled around his body. 

His lips moved, speaking in a language that must have sounded like utter nonsense to Ada and her husband. A tongue she had previously described as "monstrous like". The language of forest spirits. 

"Great One."