Yvonne headed back to the Sect, leaving the triad of Spirits for me to deal with. I didn't blame her; she had her own issues to deal with. Our friendship was just beginning, and if I wanted it to grow, involving her in matters that had to do with my Fief simply wasn't appropriate.

She hadn't abandoned me before she'd left, she had taken the time to teach me how Spirit contracts were formed and explain that interactions with Spirits you hoped to reach an agreement with needed privacy. The Spirits refused to even entertain forming a contract if there was even one other person observing. Even Storm would have to leave me to the vagaries of dying Spirits. Spirits that might strike out and attack, in an effort to claim my vitality, hoping to heal themselves.

Her advice had come with an apology and an offer to return and help if needed. But I was the Baroness of this territory and how I dealt with or healed the Spirits was now my responsibility. She had already given more advice and help than I had expected. We had only interacted three or four times, and half of those meetings had been for business.

She had enough experience running a Fief to give me her candid assessment of the craftsman and facilities that had been built in that section of town. That advice gave me a great frame of reference to begin working towards repairs and upgrades. As well as a realistic appraisal of the type of professions and craftspeople I needed to recruit or train to help the town become prosperous.

It didn't take me long to organize matters well enough that I was ready to leave, too. My impression of Gwen and Faun had only gotten better as the day advanced, and I was now certain I could leave matters with them. I left town hoping that they continued to live up to the promise they had shown when I wasn't around for them to impress.

I did send a missive to Elder Shadow detailing the issue with the Spirits and asking for a meeting. I let him know that I had found the evidence of smuggling the Patriarch had feared existed, as well as the item in question, and reminded him he had offered to send Shade, a member from his House, to help with auditing and organizing.

I would need that help until I found someone I could depend on to run the docks legitimately. I was honest enough with myself to know that there was no way to completely eliminate some of the shadier dealings that happened at the docks, but that didn't mean I wanted the entire venture overseen by a thief's association.

I really needed someone I could trust, and the Nascent Soul cultivator Elder Shadow had promised may be able to do more than audit the information at the docks. I was hoping he was willing to help defend the town until the repairs to the eight-trigram formation could be made.

It didn't take long to arrive at the area where the triad of Spirits were gathered. An area where the forest, river, and ocean converged, at least where the forest used to abut the river and ocean. Signs of deforestation were clearly evident and explained the problems with the Wind Spirit. Great swaths of trees chopped down, most of them just lying there ignored. Where they had been felled.

The signs of corruption were evident. Swarms of flying insects as well as legions of beetles gathered to feed off that corruption. I knew immediately what had been done here. I had stopped this very same process, this burning and clearing of trees, before I'd entered and claimed Xiwang and Fief Myche.

Whatever reason Chon had for having the forest cut back so drastically, he was consistent in his actions. This rape of the forest was hard to fathom for me. I expected it would be hard to understand for most Elves. Elves respected the bounty of nature too much to do something this wasteful.

The insects that had gathered responded to my arrival by attacking. Large flying behemoths, half my size, each armed with stingers that could inject poison or extract blood. The beetles were much smaller, barely the size of a clenched fist, but there were so many more.

The attacks seemed coordinated as if a hive mind had gathered each species of insect and set them in motion. My Tessens were equipped and my feet dancing into the first movement of [White Crane Opens Wing] as soon as I realized the danger.

I hadn't equipped the armor Yvonne had crafted ahead of time, instead of wearing the normal cultivator Hanfu. I had thought the people of Xiwang might feel less intimidated if I appeared in clothing they were more familiar with. I would not make that mistake again; it was better to be protected than to worry about first impressions.

My new Dharmic control of the elements made my battle dance so much more intuitive. I didn't need to worry about creating platforms of air or ice or worry about how and when to place my feet as I pirouetted across the sky. Because my Dharmic body had completely attuned to the elements I was aligned with, Wind and Water were mine to control.

And I took advantage of that control, darting across air currents, creating shields of water that lashed out with each strike of my Tessen, bisecting the flying insects, bifurcating the beetles. No matter what word you used, I danced furiously and freely, destroying everything that attacked.

My attacks became more graceful as the number of insects' corpses piled up. My movements transcending anything I had been able to execute until now. An economy of motion, the reward for risking myself against such a large horde of opponents. Insight was achieved, and I realized that the [Dao of Movement] didn't require big sweeping gestures to be effective. Even the slightest flutter of my fans set in motion events that I could capitalize on.

Stolen novel; please report.

Once the battle was finished, and the few surviving insects had fled, I looked at the pile of corpses with regret. Not that I had been forced to slaughter them, but that I would have to store their corpses until I had the time to harvest them for parts and beast cores.

The number of dead would take me months to harvest. If I planned on doing the work myself. But the town needed revenue, resources, and a way to survive. This would give them a start. I would pay the townspeople in beast cores for their work while restoring the town's treasury at the same time.

The body parts that couldn't be used could be sold to the Sect for contribution points. Points that could be used to purchase construction arrays. It was all circular, and I needed to find a way to keep the Sect from prospering at the expense of my Fief.

Each insect had an abundant amount of meat that would serve the town well. Most of the insects were tier-one. Even the smallest child could eat this meat if prepared properly. The tier-two meat would be saved for Storm. I thought the carapace might make an interesting armor, but I would leave that to others to figure out.

Once the battle was over, and I had swept the corpses into my storage device, it took me a while to find the Spirits Storm had discovered. Not because they were hidden, but because I had to adapt to the way I perceived the world around me to see them. Yvonne had hinted that my expanded perception would be the key to finding and interacting with them, but that was the extent of her advice.

I had already experienced how my perception had morphed to use the elements as an additional point of reference, but it still took a concerted effort on my part to grasp the nuance required to see the world the Spirits lived in.

Strangely, it was the sound the Spirits made that allowed me to see. A whisper, a voice in the wind. The sound of white-water bubbling as it flowed over and around rocks. The crashing of the ocean against the shore. Each of these sounds unique to the Spirits that had been contracted and agreed to serve.

As I identified each sound, a mist, almost a hazy fog, formed. A fog that gave rise to a layered reality. Pockets of fog each forming images and movement in rhythm with the motion of air and water. Illusions forming to create scenes that offered an understanding of Air, River, and Ocean.

The three ladies cavorting, joining together, or whipping each other into a frenzy. The calmness of a summer's day and the frenzy of a gale-force storm. The Spirit of Wind first took shape, the echoes of storms resonating with the elements of water, air, and lightning that I controlled. The Spirits of River and Ocean taking longer, requiring real effort on my part to isolate and identify them.

I was frustrated that it had taken me so long to perceive these last two Spirits. Air and Water were my primary elements, but it wasn't until now that I tumbled on to the fact that I had focused my understanding of water exclusively as it related to rain and storms.

Water as River and Ocean were new concepts for me.

Flowing Water Sect had been built next to a waterfall, in part to take advantage of the water element the cascading water allowed, but I had never resonated with that aspect of the element. I had instinctively narrowed my focus of the water element, to ignore the waterfalls the Sect was built on. I now understood that may have been a mistake on my part, one I might have never acknowledged making if not for the need to see and speak with these Spirits.

I would need to expand my understanding of the water element and work to include a wider multifaceted understanding of how that element was so much more than the shackles I had created. It gave me pause as I stopped to wonder if I had limited my understanding of Wind in the same manner.

"She sees us," Air whispered.

"Is she an enemy?" River gurgled.

"She has the taste of one that has claimed the land," Ocean warned as she crashed against the shore.

Hearing their words made it easier. Each Spirit had form, but it wasn't what I had expected. They weren't three ghostly bodies taking the shape of Elves, wailing in anguish, waiting to be saved. They were Spirits temporal. Wind, River, and Ocean given intellect, memories, and obligations.

The Wind Spirit was evident in every gust, every breeze that stirred the dead leaves that had fallen across the land, the gentle breeze that caressed my skin, or the brief zephyr that caused the plants to sway as it passed. The River Spirit was the bubbling sound the rapids made, the splash of fish as they leaped, the buzzing of insects and sounds of animals that came to drink. Ocean Spirit was the smell of fish, the foam of water crashing against the shore, the taste of salt from water droplets that fell back as waves and surf retreated.

My image of them as Elf was too limiting. They were each an echo, a manifestation of Wind, River, and Ocean. Beings that had formed and accepted characteristics and emotions that were not limited to shape and form, only isolated and limited to this specific area.

They were shaped by the convergence to the wind, river, and ocean that was unique to this exact location. They had grown, they had shaped personalities, and they had personalities as a result of that convergence. Identities that harmonized with the confluence of the intersection of ocean, river, and air.

I expanded my perception, now that I could see them, to try to understand what Storm saw that made her think they were dying. It wasn't hard to see. The hints were already there, the intrusions of Elf that had impacted the environment already noticed.

The clear-cutting of trees had impacted the shape and function of the Wind Spirit. She had come to rely on the steadfastness of trees with roots sunk deep within the earth to mitigate the might of gale force winds. With those trees gone, it made it impossible for her to protect the town and land.

The refusal to replace spent beast cores in the cleansing array had allowed raw sewage to be dumped in ocean water. Ocean spirit had been forced to absorb that poison, the damage only increasing as coral, fish, and plants were poisoned. An ecosystem unable to adapt quickly enough to the damage of that unrestrained waste was being poisoned.

The river was harder to understand, the acidity of water as magma was diverted and flowed into the river much further upstream. I would have to track down where those lava streams were coming from, but the damage was already being felt. Fish fry were dying in immense numbers, soil and sediment leeching the hydrochloric acid from the water and introducing it into plant life, and the rising temperatures were changing weather conditions.

Each aspect of Spirit was dying because the Elves had broken covenant with nature. We were killing them, and if changes were not made to save them, we would be killing ourselves.