Li had casted [Tranquility]. A flutter of green leaves materialized and swirled around Ivo's form, and each time they circled around him, the old man's skin grew healthier, tauter, less wrinkled. His back became less and less hunched. The milky blindness in his eyes faded more and more. Even his teeth began to grow back. His atrophied limbs filled out, growing to the limits of what his once loose and dirty robes would allow.

All this, because Li restored the immense amount of life force he must have sacrificed to protect his way of life. No, not restored, returned. Li had merely paid back the debt that the man had paid to nature.

Ivo stood up tall, almost reaching Li's height.

Where before it would have been easy to pin down Ivo's age as nearing ninety or more, his real age was now unmistakable: he was a man in his early sixties, but he appeared even younger for he was a man who had spent a lifetime communed with life and the land. A man who should have had a body as hearty and hale as the soil he must have once toiled with, strong and sturdy, muscular and unyielding.

Li had given that body back to him, and with it, the first thing Ivo did was to kneel, his jaw setting as tears welled from his eyes.

"Great One," said Ivo oncemore, but this time, his voice flowed with the smoothness of a clear spring stream. It was a voice that had spoken loud and proud once, leading men to blessed harvests and hellscape battlefields alike, and that voice now fully and proudly proclaimed Li as great.

Li touched Ivo's shoulder and smiled. He felt power flowing from himself as he felt Ivo's immense faith gather around him. Power that brought words out from himself that did not sound like his own, and yet, they embodied his intentions perfectly.

"Stand, Ivo. The earth is no place for you to be right now – you will have much time to tend to it later. For now, your role is to stand upon your own two feet, feet that I have restored through the blessing of the forest, and lead your people as living proof that the old ways have yet to fall."

"Your word is my will, Great One," said Ivo as he stood to face his people.

The farmers took more steps back, the older ones growing pale like they had seen a ghost. Their knees trembled like they were too weak to hold up their bodies, their wills that had witnessed a miracle of life that they had not been witness to ever since their entire way of life had been uprooted.

"The blessing of the Goddess," said Theo in awe as he too dropped to his knees. "How many years has it been since I have felt it? This warmth, this life, this hope?"

Seeing Theo fall in reverence, all the other aged farmers followed in unison. From them, faith bloomed like wildflowers in springtime, spreading out and radiating in waves of invisible force that funneled directly into Li. He could feel for once what it meant to be worshipped so strongly, and

"Know that I am not your Goddess, nor am I your Great One," said Li. He put out an open hand to gesture at the farmers like he was a shepherd beckoning his herd back to him, and it was then that he realized there was a faint glimmer of verdant green wreathed around him.

As he looked upon the farmers staring up expectantly at him, Li had a vision of the past. Of a war torn, smog-choked, barren world that could have been saved with faith like this.

"No, I am not Morrigan, and I cannot bring her back, but what I can bring unto you is the chance to uphold the legacy she left behind. A place where your faith is not persecuted, hidden under shadow and fear, but laid bare to set as shining example to all others.

I come from a land where the old ways have been forgotten, but I have never forgotten.

For years, I sought to bring them back, but to no avail. In consequence, the lands crumbled, and the skies choked. I come to these lands to find those of kindred spirit to mine, and in you, I have found such kinship and more. I know the boundless faith you all once held and still hold, no matter how much the years may have tried to dampen it.

I ask of you to consider me a vessel of the old ways, as human as you are in many aspects, but in communion with an entity far beyond your grasp. A being of unfathomable divinity and yet boundless generosity for those that are stewards to the land.

A Guardian not only of the forests, but of your fields, your lives, and your futures should you devote yourselves."

"The power of the forest flows through him, it is true," said Ivo, his eyes flashing green as his life sense returned to him. He beheld Li while kneeling.

"I know not for the rest of you, but as a man that once stood as your high priest, as emissary between our fragile mortal bodies and the bounty of divine blessing, I am ready to devote my body and faith once more. The Lady would have had it no other way, I am sure. She would not have us withering away as old men, taking her memory with us to our musty graves. She would want us to take up our plows and faith once more and continue that which she began but could not end."

"You need not say more, brother," said Theo. "Just as I joined you once against the infernal horde, so shall I now."

The other farmers murmured in reverent agreement, but a younger voice of discord cut through. It was the youth from before.

"I know nothing of farming," he said with shaky voice. "I can respect the wishes of my father and mother to choose to return to the land, but I cannot give up the life I have carved out within the city. It is of no offense to you, it is simply that I know of no such other life, and there are many of my friends that would agree with me.

And besides, there are many also others here that wish for more, to see the wide world, to use our youths fully."

Li had a response for this. "I know, and I will not push this way of life upon you when you do not truly understand it. That is why I will have your businesses maintained such that those of you in the younger generation may still have a life you are used to.

But to those of you that wish for more, to escape the boundaries of this city, I have no recourse. You must strike out on your own."

"Oho, there's more opportunity in the world than you all think!" Leon raised his hand from the corner of the room. He flashed a smile as white as the luxurious silken suit he wore. "Some of you young ones want adventure, is it? Then I can offer all that and more. I recently lost quite a few men of mine to a monster attack in the frontiers of Duvin, and I can always use more manpower.

With me, I guarantee you shall experience all the adventure you want and all the riches that the wilds of Duvin can promise. Under Lakely Building, the greatest of all building efforts in the entire duchy, you will find more than enough excitement and wonder to last you lifetimes.

Not to mention the superb retirement benefits should you think that far ahead."

"I trust that will be satisfactory?" said Li, and the younger farmers nodded, overwhelmed by his presence. It was then that he realized just how much of an impact he had on the room. All the adventurers with the exception of Azhar were also staring at him awestruck. The beastwomen had grown completely silent, looking towards Li but averting their eyes out of instinctual respect.

"That's enough of the serious talk," said Li as he took in a breath, the aura of emerald green fading from him. "And the day's just begun. All of you, farmer and beastwoman alike, follow me. We're going to my farm. There, we'll talk about how things will be for the future."