Making this long-distance call from the mountains during the Extraordinary Solar Cycle could not have been easy for Dragon Scribe.
Dong Fan said, "Oh," took the correct fork, and kept walking.
The projection hovered ahead of him, drifting backward and flickering as though it might vanish at any moment. Dragon Scribe continued, "It's just hard for me to get around the Abandoned Mining Area, so I asked him to help. Unfortunately, he's not much of a talker..."
"I understand. With a 'lord' like that at the top, nothing about the people of the Lost Kingdom would surprise me." Dong Fan walked on at an unhurried pace. "But why serve as scribe to someone like him? You're neither human nor ghost, and you're stuck in the mountains. If you switched sides, wouldn't you be a hundred times better off?"
Dragon Scribe's broad, fleshy face kept smiling. "Stories about the lord have spread far and wide. But do you know the extent of his power, Divine Child?"
Dong Fan brushed a hand over the mine wall and felt its heat, now unmistakable. "I've heard a little. That he can't be killed, no matter what?"
"I won't comment on anything else, but the lord's immense vitality is undoubtedly the Anchor Point of the Illusory Divine Kingdom in reality." The smile on Dragon Scribe's vine-woven face turned bitter. "Things like us, neither human nor ghost, can only survive at his side. Changing allegiance is easy enough, but who could free me from the mountains?"
"Is that so?"
It did fit with what he had heard about being "rootless and adrift" and "long removed from being human."
But could neither the True God, the Pope, nor Li Wei meet that need? What about Wildfire and Wan Kui?
Ronan held back and did not ask.
Sang