Forn leaped across the river and landed right next to me.

  Then she looked around and stared at the ground for a moment.

  “My father came here?” She asked.

  “Someone did, though he didn’t give me a name.”

  She closed her eyes and sighed.

  “It was my father. I thought he had chosen to stay in the grove but that was just a piece of him. His main body must have left without me noticing.”

  “He splits himself?”

  Splitting, cloning, mirroring, or whatever you wanted to call it was a common technique. The problem was that this technique was useless for stealth. If the goal was to do two things at once then yes, you could do that. But there was always multipresence. A person of even the seventh rank could be in multiple places at once.

  And if it was for stealth or power then it was entirely useless at my rank.

  After all, you are you, and relative to yourself you will always exist. If Forn’s dad fought with someone of a higher rank then they could kill him, then proceed to kill the other him left within the grove. The ties between the separated beings were immensely strong.

  But it probably wouldn’t be able to get into the grove and that gave at least a part of him protection that even a God-King couldn’t violate.

  “Yes, it's more common among all the God ranks, particularly above the fourteenth realm. But it makes sense, he seemed kinder at the end of our conversation.”

  I gave her a confused look, and she elaborated.

  “At his level, he splits himself up, his power, his law, his dao. Druid’s are care takers but are also hunters. He left his kinder part in the grove and sent his hunter part out into the wild.”

  “Does that diminish his strength?”

  “Only in the nature of the split. He might not be able to heal himself as well or take care of the forest, but he should be able to hunt just as wildly as he does regularly.”

  “Interesting,” I noted.

  She opened her hand and displayed a large leaf tied up with plant fiber.

  “Here, at no charge to you. Its well grown Soulsween a long with a few other herbs my father threw in there. He said you might find it useful for your alignments.”

  I took the small bundle from her and sent my senses into the leaf. It contained a large amount of Soulsween, rooted even along with a number of other herbs.

  “This- this is quite a lot.”

  “Yes,” Forn nodded. “It also contains payment your half of the dragon.”

  “There’s no need-”

  “No no, simple Soulsween doesn’t make up for what you did. Even my father insisted on that.”

  She didn't have to tell me twice.

  I smiled and accepted the gifts. A part of me was worried. It thought of schemes and hiding and possible plots being executed by the druids. But if that was truly the case, then they would have just done it by now. Forn’s father was a God-King and he could do anything to me at any moment, and the fact that he hadn’t gave me comfort.

  “Your father is gracious,” I replied.

  Forn snorted.

  “You met with his hunter half, and the Dao knows that part isn’t gracious at all. Tell me, how long did it take before he insulted you?”

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  “He didn’t insult me me,” I shrugged. “He was just honest.”

  “Do not lie to me. Honesty without consideration is still insult.”

  “He said I acted like prey and that prey would have been a better nickname than Drean.”

  “Drean? I wasn’t being too serious when I gave you that name and I didn’t tell him that much about you,” she mumbled.

  “He must have been watching.”

  “Of course he was,” Forn said.

  “Is that a problem?”

  “Partly. To cultivate one’s dao is to live one’s life. My dao is that of the growing wild. But to be wild means to be free, from both protections and restrictions.”

  “And him watching over you restricts your practice?”

  “Yes,” she replied with a strong nod.

  “If it means anything, he said he wouldn’t have helped you fight the dragon. He was certain about that.”

  “Was he?” Forn said with a look of genuine surprise.

  Then she smiled.

  “Yes, that means something. Thank you.”

  Then she dug into her pouch and pulled out a small stick.

  “Here,” she said holding the stick out to me. “It's a sapling. A piece of our Grove. You can plant it anywhere and use it as a direct connection to this place. And don’t worry, while the tree will always be tied to this grove, it will blossom and change into something new the moment it's planted, meaning even we can’t trace it back to you.”

  I bowed and accepted the gift.

  “It is a sign of formal acceptance. It allows you to come directly to this area the next time you need to buy something.”

  It was something to guarantee repeat business. That made sense, though I didn’t understand why she would give it to me.

  “How does it work?”

  “It roots onto the forest you attach it to, fundamentally changing its nature to adapt to its surroundings. This makes it undetectable by us but it's still something from the Cosmic Forest so you can use it as a node to get here and back, as long as you know its existence after it's been planted.”

  That made sense. There were hidden realms after all. If the multiverse was a map, then the heavens and hells would be like the north and south poles, and while you could point to general areas on it, you didn’t know every state or town on the map. And you could infinitely zoom in on the map and find even more places hidden between what you thought you knew.

  After all the celestial realms were major constellations, stars that could be seen from anywhere in the void, and the infinitely smaller realms that existed between couldn’t be known by everyone.

  But these people had God-Kings leading them. I had met one and it was doubtless that they had others.

  If they really wanted to, they could probably divine my location.

  Then I looked at my tail and felt the book returning itself into my storage space.

  Well, maybe they couldn’t determine my location with a God-Imperiums nature attached to me.

  I looked at the sapling and wondered if I could get a God-Imperiums nature to attach to it to. Maybe. It would make it hard or even impossible for it to be divined.

  I wondered if the nature of my tale could be shared with the tree.

  I’d have to ask the Tome. It said that both it and Wukong would only intervene in matters related to God-Imperiums and divinations, so maybe this would fall underneath that umbrella.

  You aren’t protected from all divination. You aren’t even protected from most of it. Dangers can still find you, only matters related to God-Imperiums will be thwarted. Even now you are known to the people of this place and if they truly wished to, they could divine your true name. But they haven’t and as long as you’re not antagonistic towards them, they won’t.

  That scared me.

  You’ve inherited the cowardice of both mortal and god. You see what Dane sees and yet you move with the emotions of a mortal man. Yes, they can attack you. Yes, it is a choice they can make for no reason, but they are immortals boy, God-Kings even. Their dao has been tempered over time incomprehensible and they would rather die than turn against it. You can trust them to be themselves. You can trust your own judgement of them to be true. You only do as I say because of my power, you only obeyed Wukong because of his but you do not look to our nature.

  We are that we are. We are bound by our paths and no matter how much we might deviate, even God-Imperiums can not change their very natures so easily.

  Know them, know yourself and be assured in your actions. You will grow for it and in growth you will heal.

  I thought about those words for a moment.

  I understood them. For my soul to heal, for me to heal, I had to piece together the parts of Dane and Bill into one functiuonal whole. The herbs would help but that was only the initial stage.

  By being overtly cautious, I was avoiding conflict and by avoiding conflict, I was avoiding growth. My dao helped, but it was weak compared to my soul. I need to grow. I needed everything to grow.

  It was easy to be a wise immortal Infront of Chin and that small group of villagers. But everyone could give advice to children. If a kid played in the mud and you told them to clean themselves, then were you wise or just an adult?

  My nature risked being blindsided and stupid. But to heal required action, which risked letting me make stupid decisions.

  But, were they stupid?

  Was Dane’s path the only way to go?

  He was intelligent, sure, but he was also Dane. Most of the damage to my soul was due to his decisions. He avoided danger in the real world, but he had torn his soul.

  To live was to act and to act was at times to falter. I had to be okay with that. I had to risk that.

  I felt the weight of a choice on my shoulders. The weight of a world full of consequences.

  I looked towards Forn and smiled.

  “Do you know where I could go hunting?”

  is 30 chapters ahead.

  Also, check out my other fiction. It's a superhero fic, with as much worldbuilding as an epic fantasy. Trade the swords for guns and the kingdoms for cities and the wizards for flying men who don't quite understand how underwear works and you get something like this.

  New chapter coming Monday.