Chapter 113
Funny-Looking One
Azariel endured a stare of a young girl the best he could, which was not that well, in all fairness. He'd never been good with children (he'd never been good with adults, either, but children especially), as he found them strange, unpredictable, and relentlessly honest. And yet, a child stared at him with obvious curiosity in her eyes.
Beside her was an older man who seemed equally curious, though wasn't as apparent about it. The three sat around a roaring fire while Leo moved between several black pots of boiling water, tossing in mouth-watering herbs and vegetables. The silence was palpably heavy, but Azariel didn't know how to break it.
"You look funny," the girl said. There it was, the staggering honesty. Azariel didn't think he looked funny, not really--everyone looked more or less like him, with varying degrees of attractiveness, of course. However, compared to Leo or her or even the older man beside her, Azariel did look a bit funny, at least.
"Hm, I do, yes."
"Were you bullied?" his heart bled as he caught from the corner of his eyes Leo's shoulders jumping up and down. "I knew this boy, Tan. He was funny-looking, too. Other boys bullied him, a lot. One time I had to step in and yell at them because he was bleeding! Made him even funnier-looking, though." in some ways, Azariel would have preferred if she outright just called him 'ugly'. It would have hurt, sure, but being called 'funny looking' hurt even more, somehow.
"No, I wasn't bullied," he said. "Others... were funny looking, too, in my town."
"Lucky." whether she intended it or not, the girl had great talents for tearing down one's confidence. Azariel saw a future in which she became one of those renowned bards, though he prayed she would ease up on him, at the very least.
"Don't be mean, Shui'er," Leo said as he joined them, sitting down for a moment and lightly caressing the girl's head.
"I'm not?" she was a natural, it seemed. It was even worse.
"You are," Leo said. "Unless they are mean to you, you can never comment on anyone's appearance, okay? No matter how funny looking they are."
"Really?"
"Hm. You never know what they went through. What if, for instance, the person had a scar right on their face. They'd look funny too, no? But then you learned they got that scar because they were protecting somebody they loved. What if I got a scar protecting you? Would you call me funny-looking, too?"
"No! Never!" she quickly exclaimed, tossing her arms around Leo. "You're the handsomest! Always will be!"
"What about Grandpa Yang, Shui'er?"
"Uhm, you're, you're handsome too, Grandpa..."
"Wow."
"See? It's not just you, Aza," Leo turned toward him and said, prompting Azariel to chuckle faintly. He knew already--children were so, always were. Honest, especially if the world allowed them to be. That alone told more about this place than anything else--the girl seemed fearless, unbothered, and unperturbed. She was not skeevy over a stranger, she wasn't reserved, she didn't flinch at the sound his voice... How enviable, Azariel thought, recalling his own early years and how different they were. "Ah, there are you guys. Hm? Did you get scared because of this scrawny guy? Ha ha, don't worry, don't worry. He means no harm. And if he does, I'll beat him black and blue until he doesn't. Right, right. Yes, very much."
Looking around, Azariel saw a convergence the likes of which he'd never seen before in his life--there had to have been nearly a hundred Spirits, old and young, surrounding the small camp. Large, small, misshapen and proportioned, they seemed apprehensive at first, but Leo's words calmed them. He truly seemed to be talking with them rather than at them, though it could just be the way he was.
No matter how much they tried (and they tried plenty, especially before the rebellion if the writs were to be believed), no human had ever managed to communicate with a Spirit on any larger level than they would have with any one mortal animal. And yet, there stood a man before him, thousands of years later, seemingly capable of not just understanding them, but also having them 'obey' him without the Covenant.
"Here," inevitably, the dinner was served--first to the litany of animals and Spirits that lined up rather neatly without causing any fuss, then to the young girl, the old man, and eventually Azariel himself. He thought he'd get some dregs at the most, but he got the exact same meal everyone else was eating--a vegetable stew that caused Qi within him to stir even at the mere sniff of it. His stomach growled at the same time, and the young girl exploded into laughter while the older two barely held it in.
Azariel took the first spoonful and, on the most primal level, began to understand why the Spirits were so subservient to the man. If he could eat this every day... wouldn't he, too, kiss the boots of the man with a wide-strained grin on his face? Of course he would! Shame, in the face of such potential, had no place! If he ate this stew every day, not only would his meridians and dantian grow twice, thrice, perhaps ten times stronger, there was even a chance of his Spiritual Roots--no, it was happening.
He put down the plate and sat cross-legged, closing his eyes and chanting the mantra inwardly. Unbeknownst to him, his body began to float, golden threads of light extending like tendrils from his frame.
**
Leo reached out and gently pulled Shui'er back.
The girl was becoming more and more mischievous, he mused, and was on her way to likely poke Azariel's sides. She pouted for a moment, but was soon distracted by the rather brilliant golden hues emitting from the newcomer. By now, Leo had understood the root of this--his Spirit Roots were likely evolving, or at least mutating. Though Leo himself never experienced such a phenomenon, it was probably because the system simply 'upgraded' his roots without any of the fanfare.
"Aren't you afraid he might betray us?" Lu Yang asked as the trio continued eating.
"Always," Leo said. "But... I don't know. He seems the lot who is more loyal to himself than any one cause."
"Those are the most dangerous," the old man warned and Leo faintly smiled.
"In a way. But they're also the least dangerous in another," he added. "So long as you satisfy whatever their innermost greed is, they'll remain loyal."
"And you know what his is?"
"There is a saying in my hometown," Leo said. "A child unloved by the village and in want of its embrace will burn it down to feel its warmth." Lu Yang listened keenly as Leo continued. "From what little he spoke of his life, it seemed he always held a yearning for the most quintessential thing a human would want."
"Power?"
"Family."
"Oh."
"Odd where you mind wanders," Leo said, glancing at the old man. "Considering you sacrificed your life to save your family."
"Khm. Merely a momentary lapse."
"Of course. The point is," Leo said. "He's become one of those people pleasers in a desperate attempt to get others to like him and let him be one of them."
"And he wasn't?"
"I'm sure he was, on some level," Leo said. "But not enough. I don't believe in unwavering loyalty, anyway. It's imperative to be selfish, lest you let the world take advantage of you."
"Odd where you--"
"--yes, yes, somewhat of a hypocritical contradiction," Leo interrupted with a sigh. "But, tell me, who to profess whatever platitudes but those in positions privileged enough to never have to defend them? Only the rich can say 'money cannot buy happiness', only the satiated can say 'abstaining from food is sometimes good', only those with a house can proclaim 'I sometimes want to sleep under the stars'. I'm the same. I am privileged enough to not need to be selfish. Thus, I always hope to never have to defend it."
"Indeed," Lu Yang said. "I was largely the same, I recall. Regardless, I'd still be careful. We know so little about him, and even less of his circumstances. I still have grave doubts in my heart that what he is saying is even true--though there always existed rumors of ancient clans, there were rumors of ancient 'everything'. Tombs, graveyards, lakes, fruits, realms, dragons... in all instances, I feel, they were either stories woven by bards for a coin or two, or rumors spread out by bandits and such to lure the hopeful to their demise."
"... I was thinking of taking him to the steles," Leo said. "Do you want to come?"
"I'll pass," Lu Yang said with a grunt, not looking too well for a moment. "But it will be a good test. If he truly is as ancient as he claims, he will have to know the language."
"Hm."
"I'll stay back and watch Shui'er. Unless you want me to come."
"Show her how to tend to a garden and such," Leo said, patting the young girl yet again and drawing her back out from her golden-light-inspired haze. "She ought to start working a little bit, huh?"
"Me? Working? Yes!" the young girl exclaimed, standing up rather flamboyantly. "I don't want charity! I will work and pay for my meals!"
"Wow," Leo exclaimed softly. "Were you excited about work at her age, old man?"
"Are you kidding me?" Lu Yang scoffed. "I used to bribe my maid to lie to my Father about where I was."
"Well, our Shui'er is special, huh?" the young girl beamed and planted herself on Leo's lap, rocking back and forth and humming. "Alright, you have entertained her enough. How was it?"
Azariel landed and awkwardly scratched the top of his head, looking away. Leo noticed that the circulation of Qi had simplified sometime ago, which meant that the man was likely faking it to listen in on Leo's and Lu Yang's conversation.
"Forgive me; I didn't mean eavesdrop."
"You did."
"Yes, indeed. I very much did."
"Why even bother lying if you're going to confess at the slightest pressure?" Leo quizzed.
"It's in my bones, I'm afraid," he chuckled. "I will try to work on it."
"No, it's fine. Considering how awful you are at lying, you may as well be telling the truth all the time, anyway."
"Oh."
"So, you've heard it, where I'm taking you."
"The steles, yes," Azariel nodded. "Thirteen arranged inside a big hole and around a well?"
"You know the place?"
"Everyone knows the place," Azariel smiled faintly. "We used to call it 'Cradle of Death'. I've never been there--by the time I was born, the area was considered sanctified, and only False Immortals were allowed to go there. From what my mother told me, though, the last Demon erected those steles as we were closing in on them, and supposedly wrote Thirteen Truths that, once spoken aloud into the world, would unleash horrors that resided within the Well."
"... right."
"It's a tale, 's far as we could tell," he added quickly. "Supposedly, quite a few people went into the Well in search of this horror, but it was just an ordinary well. And as far as steles go, I'll probably be only able to read one--the 'main one' was written in the Common Tongue that every human and demon at the time knew, but the remaining ones were all written in the demon's Ancient Tongue. There were some rumors that a pair or two survived and went into hiding, but... it's unlikely. For all intents and purposes, the language, even in my time, was considered extinct."