"Ah, the fruits of your minor expedition down south, I presume?" said Ven'thur, smiling. "I did try to have a few familiars keep tabs on you when you went silent for some hours, but there was a foul smog blocking the sky that killed my magic. For that, I must apologize."

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.

"All of you, my faithful followers, have waited patiently for the guild council to reach a decision, and we have settled upon one. Firstly, however, I must apologize for my absence. It is rare that events go astray from my projections, but it has happened in my journey south for a cure to the demon rot.

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.

In those times, find strength within your own hearts. Do not be idle lives moving at the beckoning of my whims. When you find that the times are dark and guidance grows thin, find strength within your own hearts, and I guarantee that you will find a way through any crisis."

Li paused for a few seconds to let the audience take in his words, and then continued.

"As for what we have decided upon this meeting, I may disappoint you, but we have decided that you all stay in the city. Near each other and near the guild where it is safe, for I shall be absent once more."

He felt a surge of anxiety rush through the hearts of the followers, and he soothed them. "But not for long. I am in the final steps of defeating this demon rot, and then, my followers, all of you will be free once more to roam your fields and the forest.

Fields and forest will be unharmed, untouchable by even the mightiest and most terrible of demon kind, for what is a demon in the face of divine might? Of might that transcends divinity? For that might is what graces the gardens that I present to you.

But it is not merely my might that comprises that garden. No, that is but a small part of it.

The vast majority of my gardens are all of you, my followers. You will live your lives to your best, in harmony, and in plenty, growing golden crop and finding peace amidst the raging tides of war.

Even should I be absent, do not abandon your fields. Your forest. Your way of life. For it will come to set a great example to the rest of this broken and mistrusting world and, hopefully, invite them into this way of life.

This responsibility, I grant unto you, and I hope that all of you will take it to heart."

Li stepped away from the audience and went back. They were still silent, and he did not blame them. From what he learned from Azhar, it was an incredibly touching experience to be spoken to through Allspeak, to have words imbued directly into the being at a level as intimate as the soul itself. He hoped that effect would keep these words further burned in their memory.

For now, though, Li did not want to waste any more time. The longer he spent away from where he needed to be, the more complications would arise here in this realm.

"I am leaving now for my final preparations," said Li to his council members. "Old Thane, Ivo, and Sindra, I give you full authority over my followers in my absence. Please, tend to them well as you always have."

"And myself?" said Ven'thur, noting his name's absence.

"You are coming with me," said Li, a faint smile forming on his face. "Or, now that I think about it, you will be taking me where I need to go."