It did not take long to gather the farmers. Sindra had made sure they could all be easily contacted, having tallied and kept track of every individual room in every unique inn where the followers were distributed.

With the farmer's guild now possessing formidable clout, it was also possible to rent out whole inns, meaning it was just a matter of sending fast messengers out to the relevant inns and resting places to get everyone back.

Now, as Li stood at his podium in the audience hall of the guild, he took a moment to think and to appreciate.

Appreciate the sea of faces before him. Some human. Some beastwoman. Some young. Some old. A breadth of diversity that likely had not been seen throughout Soleil for many decades, especially in light of the duchess's human favored rule.

But what did unite these varied faces was a sense of tire. Many of the faces were sleep stolen from them by the looming threat of war that had settled heavy atop the city like an iron weight.

Li did not want to be the one to tell them he, the most radiant beacon of their hope, was leaving them, but ultimately, it was because he was the center of their hopes that he had the responsibility to tell them.

"Let me begin by saying that I hope that your stay in the inns these past few days have been comfortable." Li leaned into the podium, letting his voice permeate through a projective voice crystal resting atop a silver-wrought perch fashioned in the shape of a branch. A custom order from Alexei.

"Slept like babes, aye!" shouted an older farmer. "Better than laying on rough hay, I'll say."

A general murmur of agreement spread throughout the followers.

"Good, good," said Li. "You can thank Sindra and Ven'thur for that later, but I will tell you now that you will no longer be sleeping in inns. I have come to an agreement with the authorities of this city and the duchess of the land.

When the five armies stationed in Riviera mobilize out at sunset, Riviera's gates will open. All of you will be able to return to your fields and farmhouses. The beastwomen who have made their homes in the forests will know the comfort of the wilds again as well."

Li saw that the murmur that spread throughout the followers this time was more tentative. A few happy faces, a few worried at the prospect of leaving Riviera's walls – walls that were mythologized for their sturdiness and strength.

"Fear not for your safety," said Li. "For Iona, the guardian spirit whom you draw many blessings from, will receive far more strength to guarantee your lives. She will moderate the forest, ensuring that order and balance bloom, and she along with Ivo will have access to a cure to the demonrot. A cure that I specifically devised with all my divine might.

The Justicars whom you have seen standing tall as still sentinels will no longer be still. They will be animated, and I tell you now that the stone golems you see lying watch over the walls of Riviera are no match for them." 

Li paused for a brief second, letting the followers find relief in his words to lessen the blow of announcing his departure.

"All this, I lay before you in preparation of my departure."

This time, loud conversation immediately broke out as his followers immediately protested, raising their voices and hands to try and talk to Li while drowning each other out.

Ven'thur stirred in his seat behind Li, likely considering calming the crowd, but Li held up a hand to stop him.

"I do not want to leave you," said Li. His voice projected with far more intensity than before. Not an aggressive intensity, but a personal one, his Allspeak letting his words sink deep into each and every worried soul in this room.

His words carried strength, and with that strength, a promise of safety, and that feeling, he imparted into all the anxious hearts before him. That quietened the followers, and he continued.

"But many of you are old enough to remember the horrors that the demons can bring. Leaving the demons to be will only stack up more and more misery. Misery that may not be yours at first, but eventually, those hordes will reach Riviera.

I intend to halt the invasion before that can even happen. To ensure that none of you ever face the wrath of the demons again, I will face all the danger, the horrors, and the struggles of battle. For you. So that you may live your lives in your fields and forests free from worry and harm."

Many of the eyes in the room cast downwards, ashamed that they were leaving Li to go to war by himself, knowing that they were too afraid and weak to muster up the will to fight themselves. Li did not begrudge any of them for it. Many of them were farmers who had seen firsthand the horrors of invasion, had lost loved ones and fields and limbs and all manner of things precious and close to their hearts.

It meant they were human. No, mortal. They feared death, and that was natural, and whatever was natural, Li understood.

At the same time, he could also spy eyes that were alight with fire, ready to raise arms and go with Li. He had thought much about it, whether to bring some of his followers to fight, but in the end, he had decided against it.

"I am not shaming you, nor am I telling you to raise arms and march west. I will leave tomorrow with Old Thane and my household, and no more lives shall I risk with me. Do not see my absence as misfortune, for it is far from that.

What I am doing is giving you all of my trust. In my absence, the Winterwoods and the fields of life that we have all worked to cultivate will be at risk. I entrust that duty, the duty to preserve order and life, among all of you, young or old, human or non-human.

These fields are your life, and I will not tear you from them. But what I will do is ask that you tend to your homes. Defend them when you must. In return, just as I am placing my trust in you, I ask that you place your trust in me. In my decision and the order I promise."

Li saw that the followers had grown silent, mellowed by words that touched the very fabric of their soul. He nodded and took a step back from the podium. "Prepare yourselves. Ready your belongings. Take to your ancestral homes. Cherish the trust I bestow upon you."

==========

Li sat around the heart of his shrine with Ivo. Iona hovered in front of them, and threads of green, luminescent energy flowed from Li to each of them. Tia sat on a bed of leaves a little distance away, looking at the whole ritual wonderingly.

It was nightfall now, and Riviera was visible in the far distance, its great walls and sentry towers brightly lit with firelights and the glow of magical staffs.

The city had grown much quieter now that the five armies had left, leaving behind only native Rivieran knights and the blood legionnaires under Launcelot. The followers had spread out across the city walls, returning to their fields and homes as Li bid.

They moved with renewed confidence, their souls touched by Li's words, but he did wonder how long that effect would last upon them with his absence.

"I believe I have committed the spell to mine heart," said Ivo. He was cross-legged in meditative position, his scarred and calloused, dirt-stained hands at his knees. His eyes were alight with green energy, and his breathing was shallow as he tried to circulate the vast amount of magical energy running through him.

"Good," said Li. He noted the old priest's struggle. "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"So long as I attuned with the Root, it will not be too much of a burden," said Ivo. "It reminds me of when Morrigan taught me a spell to bind myself to the lives and fates of all her followers."

"The burden you face now should be far less than that," said Li. "So long as you have conduits to channel and manage it from. Here, Iona will ease your burden. Away from the Winterwoods, I have erected a totem at my cottage that you can utilize as well to channel the spell.

Of course, this is in the slightest chance that the demonrot somehow ever does make its way here. Which I do doubt, considering I will be battling the demons in their home."

"Aye, but it is always better to be prepared," nodded Ivo.

"A wise sentiment," said Iona. "And do not be worried if the spell is difficult to grasp for now. I can teach you to better handle it over time."

Ivo bowed his head. "Much thanks."

Li looked westward, thinking.

"Does the battle worry you, good seer?" asked Ivo.

"No, not that," said Li. "I am just wondering of the future. You know, Ivo, I intend to spare the demons."

Ivo's jaw set as he looked down, his expression hardened. He must have had countless memories of war and loss regarding the demons.

"You know my vision," said Li. "A world without senseless bloodshed. A world where ecosystems can stay in balance and where all life can respect each other. Not a world without death, of course, for that too is part of the Cycle, but I wish to see a world where petty conflicts do not upturn the order of the world.

In that world, the demons play a part also, for they too tread upon the dirt."

"This may be the first I disagree with you, good seer," said Ivo. "But I believe that vision far too idealistic. Demons are beings of chaos. They exist to devour mortals, and they revel in our suffering. That is their fundamental nature."

"Where there is light, there must be darkness," said Li. "And the demons are not as one-dimensional as you would like to believe. I believe there is room for them to harmonize with the rest of life. These invasions the demons drum up will end, for they topple the nature of balance in this world. But their existence, I will preserve."

Ivo frowned. "And in preserving them, they must reach out and consume mortal life. It is part of their inherent desire. How will it be when they devour one of our own? Forgive me for questioning, good seer, -,"

"No, it is good to question. I brought this topic up because I want you to question me. To make me think." Li grew silent as he continued to stare at the westward distance. "I do not intend on having the demons integrate among common mortal lives. But land that is theirs shall still be theirs.

As for the matter of consumption, it is my hope that in times to come, both demons and mortals may reach a mutual understanding and respect that prevents it."

"Respect?" Ivo furrowed his brows before his expression eased up. "I cannot begin to understand how that will be achieved, but if it can be, it will be under you. That, at the least, I can believe."

"As I said to the rest of the followers, have trust in me," said Li. "But for now, I am afraid we must halt our conversation for there are a few intruders approaching us."