The sun was practically oppressive, as they made their way back through the dusty alleyways to the center of town, both women doing their best not to brush against the brick walls of the buildings around them.

  “Are you suspecting the Jiak is behind this? I have heard no report of misdoings by the current Liung family.” Nai asked.

  “I don’t know.” Emlia responded. “But something doesn't’ seem right. Think about Kiro’s story. Did he ever see Meil’Yeostli?”

  Nai paused for a moment, arms clasped behind her back as they walked.

  “No. He did not.”

  “I need to see if i can find someone who has seen our fallen spirit now that it’s been enraged. THe statue -” emilia pointed to it as they passed it again, the girl glancing briefly at one or two new offerings at the shrine, “will likely not represent her current appearance. MAny spirits… change, when they go mad. But the description of the talon protruding from Kiro’s chest… unnerves me.”

  “Why?”

  Emilia stared up the street at a single building, next to a small saw-mill, that was noticeably larger and better made than the rest in the village. Not dramatically so, but better all the same.

  “Because, I have a suspicion that if we were to see the talon that impaled our tree-cutter, that it would look very familiar.”

  Nai nodded once.

  “You think he was killed by that demon?”

  Emilia shrugged. “I don’t know anything yet, not after only talking with one person, but…. Why were there two men? What were they talking about? Why didn’t Meil’Yeostli begin charging through the forest until the two of them appeared? What happened to the second man?”

  Emilia paused, shaking her head as she tried to clear her questions.

  “We need answers. We know the Liung family hasn’t been keeping to their duties, regarding the dead. Whether he is involved or not, I cannot allow that.”

  Emilia narrowed her eyes, trying desperately to keep her hands from clenching into fists, fighting the urge to draw her sword and demand the man pay the families back. SHe recognised that with the sheer number of deaths the village had experienced, the town’s coffers might just be empty, but the rage was still there.

  Nai said nothing, letting her regain her composure.

  “I may need to exert some influence.” Nai muttered. “While you are a spirit-guide, you are young. And, forgive me for saying this, not terribly intimidating.”

  Emilia blinked, pausing to look at the other woman.

  “What?”

  “Intimidating. You are not.”

  Emilia blinked for a moment, glazing down at the sword on her hip.

  Nai rolled her eyes, leading the girl down the street to the mayor’s home.

  “Intimidation is about presence. You have confidence, skill, even, however, to intimidate, the other person has to believe that you are skilled, and that you hold power over them.”

  “I - I could literally kill him.”

  Nai shrugged.

  “And he likely has a lackey or two paid to protect him, so he will not consider you a threat.”

  Emilia just nodded.

  “You will need to speak, so you will need to understand. Normally, I represent lord Langshen - you represent the spirits, together, we represent the stability of this man’s world. You, however, represent the lord more than I do at this time. You have his seal. He will fear you for that, yes, but you need to make him feel it. Guilty or not, we need to know what this man says. And he will likely say more if he fears repercussions from Langshen.”

  Emilia nodded. She shifted the sheathe at her hip, glancing at the patch that had been attached to her sleeve.

  “ I admit, I had forgotten that.”

  Nai sighed. “I know. Hence the reminder, little spirit-guide.”

  Emilia sighed, stopping at the brick steps that led up to the actual home of the Liung family, hesitating, gripping the strap of her Liuqin.

  Nai watched her for a moment.

  Emilia pursed her lips.

  “I’m not sure what I should say to him.”

  “For protocol?”

  Emilia shook her head.

  “No, to get what I want.”

  The girl looked up at the black stained doors, at the slate tiled roof that set it apart from the thatching of the vast majority of the rest of the village.

  “I need to find Meil’yeostli, to help her. But I also need to find out what caused her rage. I need to know who broke their pact.” Emilia stepped up to the door, the somewhat lax guards snapping to attention as she approached, Nai following close behind. Nai spoke softly, just loud enough to reach Emilia’s ears without looking in her direction.

  “And you will ask the Jiak if he has a suspect?”

  Emilia waited as one of the guards banged on a brass knocker she would have thought ornate, before having to wait outside the palace of Langshen. A large brass thing, decorated with what appeared to be depictions of a Wyrm, the horned serpents that bore through the ground, serpentine dragons with fangs as long as spears.

  Silence filled the small courtyard, at the end of the single true street.

  “No.” Emilia finally whispered to her servant.

  “I want to find out if he is my suspect.”

  Nai said nothing more as the doors ground open, revealing a space with oak beams supporting a simple vaulted ceiling. There was no throne, this time, thank the gods, but there were a few officials carrying bound slats of bamboo, dashing across the space to other corners.

  A voice bellowed from somewhere inside the building.

  “Well FIND the foreman! I don’t care what corner of this blasted town he’s run off to, I will have him tell me personally why none of his workers are out in those trees!”

  One of the guards extended an arm to escort Emilia in, but the girl waved him off dismissively.

  A small, reedy voice answered the booming demand.

  “My lord- It’s, it’s not possible! There isn’t a man left in the village willing to enter those trees while the guardian is enraged!”

  “Spirits can be appeased! Sacrifice a goat, a sheep, a whole flock if the gods require! I will have my supply ready for shipment down the river, or i will burn every man in this town for treason to the will of the gods!”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “My lord - only a spirit-guide-”

  “Then FIND HER if she’s actually in this damn village, you miserable little piece of -”

  THe voice cut out, as Emilia rounded the corner of the large room, coming into sight of the two men arguing in the hallway. One wore the green robes and rectangular hat of a clerk, a stylus and a stack of thin bamboo sheets further marking him as a scribe of some sort. The other man stood out, large, with a build that spoke of a great deal of muscle earlier in the man’s life, although he had clearly lost most of it. Emilia found other signs of former success on the man’s form. His clothes were fancy - ornate reds, gold embroidery, but it was clearly old, worn, and more threadbare than she’d seen most nobles allow from their attire. She also noted that some sections of the outfit, while traditional in cut, and color, were clearly made of a cheaper cloth than most Jiak’s she’d met.

  Seeing his crimson face, the trimmed beard, and the thinning hair that could barely be pulled into a Lord’s knot atop the man’s head confirmed to her that this man - whatever position he had once held - stood now significantly lower than he would like to be.

  She bowed, respectfully, trying to follow Nai’s advice an not bow as deep as her muscle memory demanded.

  “Jiak Liyung, I presume?” She asked, not trying to hide her village’s strange accent.

  He stood straighter, taking in her clothing with obvious disdain, until he saw the symbol on her shoulder.

  AT that sight, he licked his lips, swallowed hard, and stood straighter.

  “I apologize.” He turned to his servant, suddenly the epitome of beneficence.

  “Send word for my Tauska - It appears that the Spirit-guide has arrived.”

  Emilia didn’t know what a ‘Tauska’ was. Nai didn’t seemed, bothered, so she kept her composure.

  The rotund man extended his arms towards Emilia in a gesture of welcome, but she kept one hand resting lightly on her pommel, the other on the strap of her Liuquin.

  “It is an Honor to have a Spirt-Guide sent from Langhsen to grace our humble town! Tell me, what brings you up north to the forest of spirits?”

  Emilia raised an eyebrow.

  “Apparently, your incompetence.”

  THe man sputter. Nai went stiff at her side. Emilia made a point to relax. Burn bridges, build bridges… she never knew which route to choose.

  “I beg your pardon? My incompetence?”

  Emilia brushed some dust off of her sleeve.

  “Yes. You are the leader of Liyung, yes? You have taken the name of this village for yourself?”

  The man sputtered again.

  “Why, of course I have, I am the lord-”

  Emilia cut him off.

  “Then is it not your responsibility to ensure that Liyung remains profitable, as it is under the protection of Lord Langshen?”

  “A duty I have been faithfully performing, honored spirit-guide, until-”

  Emilia raised a hand, feeling more centered. She represented lord Langhsen, as Nai had reminded her. She had no need to cower, not right now. She didn’t need to try to understand their games right now. For now, for this brief period, she had the authority to cut above all the pointless words.

  “Until nothing, Lord Liyung. It is your responsibility, Though a lack of attention, or through some purposeful misdeed, something in this town has gone wrong. As it’s leader, it falls upon you-” she pointed directly at him, “to resolve that problem. You have been unsuccessful. So Lord Langhsen has send me.”

  THe man stilled.

  “I - ah -”

  Is there somewhere we could sit? “ Emilia asked, switching to perfect politeness. “I believe it would be best to discuss how I might benefit and aid your town somewhere private, where I can ask you details of the people you have been presiding over without spying ears listening in.”

  “Of course, Lady…”

  “Emilia-Yun. And your name is?”

  “Reian-Liyung.”

  “Thank you, Lord Reian. If you will lead the way?”

  Nai insisted on sipping the tea before Emilia tasted it, and the girl honestly didn’t mind. She had directly insulted a lord to his face, she would accept all the protection she could get.

  The three of them currently sat around a small oblong table, polished crimson wood shining in the light that drifted through the open shutters on this second story, the air a bit crisper than Emilia would have liked due to the season.

  Standing next to the local lord’s seat was a serious man in blue robes, silver tattoos engraved around his eyes. SIlver bracelets and ornamentation adorned almost every surface of his clothing, and Emilia decided that regardless of the wealth that Lord Liyung tried to project, it was clear that the man standing next to him had no shortage of money. Or, could have no shortage, if he ever sold the literal pounds of metal hanging from his body.

  Reian-Liyung sipped his own tea, eyes narrowed as he examined Emilia.

  “Well, now that we are, as requested, away from prying ears, how may I be of service in your search, Miss Yun?”

  “Lord Langhsen sent me to resolve the problem of your enraged goddess. However, I was somewhat lacking as to the scale and number of attacks, as well as what may have been the cause.”

  The Jiak nodded.

  “Tell me, when did these attacks begin?”

  He tapped his lips contemplatively. She didn’t see any of the boasting, or the threats she herself had expected, just… contemplation. Simple thought.

  “It’s been some months.” he declared at last. “But they have been getting steadily worse. At first, it was just livestock. We increased our offerings, re-doubled our efforts to honor the limitations the fox-spirit placed on the town when it was founded. My Tauska-” He gestured to the ornamented man at his side, “perused our records in great detail, in order to find the original deal made, and struck, to ensure that we were following the letter of the law.”

  Emilia nodded.

  “Do you have theories as to the cause?”

  The lord frowned. He gestured for the elderly man at his side to speak.

  “I am no spirit-guide,” the man said slowly, voice cracked and thin, “but I have studied many such deals, in my time as a Tauska. I have come to three possible causes for our plight.”

  He held up a finger.

  “One, It is possible that we have, somehow, killed or tortured a spirit close to the goddess.”

  Emilia blinked. “Was that part of your deal?”

  Lord Liyung sighed and nodded.

  “Meil’Yeostli is a powerful spirit, a god of this section of the forest and it’s trees. She commanded - among the order to only fell diseased or dead trees,” The man scowled, “that we were to harm no spirit which called the forest home. However, we cannot account for any such action, unless it was taken by one of those whom the Guardian has been taking out vengeance against now.”

  EMilia nodded, the Blue-robed man continued.

  “Second - THe fox-spirit condemned the nature of man for violence. In the original bargain, she swore that if one from Liyung was to ever kill another man within her woods, we would lose her protection.”

  Nai was the one to respond.

  “Why would she care?”

  Both men before them shrugged.

  “It wasn’t written down,” Reian sighed, “only that this was one of the conditions. If man was to kill man, in Liyung, it was to happen within our village. None have dared break this part of the pact in nearly a hundred years, but… it is possible one of those early deaths was not, in fact, carried out by our enraged guardian.”

  “None of these seem like they would lead to her attacking your people though. In both, it seems that the punishment would be a revoking of her protection - not her aggression.”

  THe Tauska was the one to respond.

  “This leads me to my third theory. It is possible, that someone tried to enslave the goddess.”

  “Enslave?” Emilia asked.

  The man grimaced. “MAny will-shapers are not pleased, that only people blessed by gods, such as yourself, have direct influence over the spirits of the natural world. THey can command it’s matter, but the gods of our world, fallen from heaven, and now among us, always bear greater influence over their domain, than a will-shaper may exert. Some have… begun experimenting, attempting to use magic to force a Spirit to their will.”

  Emilia felt sick to her core, as a sense of wrongness washed over her from some place deep in her soul. She felt the repulsion of her own goddess, the anger at the sheer hubris to attempt something like that.

  Both women paused. Emilia nodded slowly.

  “If someone were to try and enslave Meil’yeostli, would she rampage?” Nai asked Emilia. “Would that be enough?”

  Emilia felt the answer, rather than saw it.

  “If the guardian-spirit saw someone even attempt to enslave any spirit within her domain, it would be enough. If someone twisted natural law to such an extreme…” Emilia took a deep breath. “I worry about what we might even be able to do. Normal rituals, normal songs, any normal thing I do to calm down enraged spirits... might be pointless.”

  The lord shrugged.

  “Your problem now. Not mine. I have told you what little we have gleaned from the original bargain, and have left out the ceremonies, festivals, and offerings required of us, given that as near as we can tell, all have been observed dutifully.”

  “Harming a Spirit, Murder, or attempted enslavement of a goddess.” Nai muttered.

  Emilia thought back to the conversation she had with the dead tree-cutter.

  “Are there any strangers in town? Anyone with the ability to do what Will-shapers can?”

  Lord Liyung frowned.

  “Why?”

  “Because there is a Willshaper I have been hunting for years now. If he is the cause of this... I worry Liyung may not be standing for long."

  She leaned closer to the lord, making a point to make the insignia on her shoulder more prominently visible.

  "And I believe that is very much your problem, Reian-Liyung."