Chapter 27: Morality is not good, if you end up dead...

Rowan POV:

Basil was the one, out of the two of us, who had a way with words. Mostly he pissed people off that way. Sure, he managed to get the rank of general by himself, but that took him about twenty years. If it wasn't for the curse, we would have never met.

I am almost sorry about the way we cut off the witch's head. Not that it changed anything. Sometimes I wonder how I would have looked if I had the chance to grow up. 

But those thoughts wouldn't save the life of the nature spirit. It was good, that he had enough morals, to try and feed all these people, but, honestly, he was pale like Death himself, his mana was just a wisp, and I could see the rings under his eyes.

All in all, he had good intentions, but he didn't have the power necessary to achieve them. Story of the life of everyone after the war, if one had to be honest.

"Jean, was it?" I think I heard his name mentioned a couple of times, still, I wanted to be sure. He nodded, and I smiled. Since I still looked like a young boy, I still had an air of innocence around me. Jean relaxed, just a bit, but he relaxed.

"It is very good of you to do such things, honest, but don't you think it would be better to fix the fields in Lergo instead?" Mike was right that this work of Jean's won't lead to anything. Not only because he was not strong enough to feed a town which numbered more than 100,000 people, but also because it would make those people dependent on him.

That was no way to live.

"Fix... the fields?" He asked, and I nodded. I wrapped an arm around Basil, so he couldn't run away. Basil didn't look it, didn't sound so either, but he was the one who cursed Lergo into the ruin it was now. 

The Queen was dead. We were in the party of her son. Honestly, the war was over. Basil had a lot to atone for as well. It was time he started.

"Basil can help you. He is an experienced Mage," I didn't want to admit to Basil's crimes. He did what he did to save the world, just like I did what I did for the good of my country. 

"He is?" I knew what would fallow, so I made sure that Basil, and more importantly his iron-inlaid boots, were far from Jean.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Not that I could do anything for his temper. Jean had kicked a beehive, and now he was in for a tongue lashing. "Do you think that I ended up as a gene..."

Basil held his tongue. The people were already looking at him with suspicious. It was one thing to see some homeless Halfling going around the streets with a smile on his face. But it was too much to want from the people to not put two and two together. Those were adults. Most of them had lived through the war.

A mob could tear a Halfling in so many pieces, that I was sure that Basil would not even be able to survived until the night fell.

"I can do it, yes," which was more than what I could hope for. Basil had really grown. He was a different man than the Basil who left me to kill the evil Queen. A Basil who made love like he was not expecting to ever see me again.

For some reason, the life in Lergo agreed with him. Made him softer, not bodily. He was still well-build and healthy. But in his soul.

"Really?" Jean's eyes were big. So green, that one could mistake them for the grass he had created in the piazza.

"Yes, really. But for that, we need to do a couple of rituals. For that, you need more mana," all true. The ritual that Basil had in mind would strip Jean of his power. Yet, for an entire country to be healed from a curse, sacrifices had to be made. 

When Basil didn't speak about this detail, I furrowed my brows. It was not fair to the kid. Not fair at all.

"Tell him what he has to do! Basil, tell him, or I will leave you!" I didn't speak these words lightly. Basil was used to doing things for the greater good. Still, that simply couldn't fly. He was about to use the trusting nature of a young boy to atone for his sins.

It was not fair! I couldn't let him do it!

Basil lowered his head, his hand reached out to mine. I slapped it away.

"Jean... you won't be a nature spirit afterward. You will be a human," the crowed finally stopped with the whispering. It was too much to ask. Some actually started leaving, the hope in their eyes turning to ashes.

"Yes, I will do it!" 

I blinked, thought that I was starting to hear voices in my head. But the boy actually got out of Mike's arms, and made a couple of steps towards Basil and me. 

"Did you just say...?" I asked, my voice shaky. How could we ask this of a child? How could the child agree?

"I stole from the farmers. Jack's mother didn't get her potato soup before she passed," I had no idea what he was talking about. His gaze I could recognize, I had the same look in my eyes during the war. It simply seemed odd that he could also have it. "Such things should be paid for!"

What was wrong with this world? A world, where children had more honor than adults? Where a nature spirit was ready to tear a part of his soul, to save people who looked down on him?

"Are you sure?" Basil asked.

"No, but I will do it anyway," Jean said, then swayed on his feet. Only Mike's quick reflexes saved him from falling. His body was weakened from the mana use. His eyes remained hard like titanium.