Page 195 of Light Leech

They shook their heads. One spoke among them. “You never debriefed us after your meeting, sir.”

He sighed. “He has a Gui.”

Some of them raised their eyebrows in interest, but the one who had spoken remained placid. “I fail to see how this resolves the anomaly?”

He took a deep breath then pressed his palms together and faced her. “This one is a disciple, servant, whatever you call it, of the serpent woman.”

“Nuwa?” An older man gasped as he listened from the side of the room. He approached with others in tow.

“The Luxist God?” a younger man asked.

“Sure,” Don said. The more he spoke, the less I felt he was involved in the research of whatever project this was. It felt more like he was an outside sponsor who offered enough lumens to fund the project just so he could stamp his name on it upon completion. “Diama,” he pointed to a middle aged woman who was in a deep focus across the room, “tell them what that means.”

“Aren’t I just so lucky that you talk loud enough for me to hear the entire conversation across the room?” She stood from her desk and approached. “They already understand the implications of it.”

He looked around with an uncomfortable pressure in his throat.

“So you can understand, sir?”

I tried to tame my smile, satisfied that at least one of them did not act like he was the paragon of wisdom that he thought himself to be.

“I–”

She faced the others as she spoke over him. “I was the one who has been following the Journeymen’s presence with Dear Leader Kim’s secondary reps. Had I been on the council, I would have already clarified this. The Dear Leader would have eliminated PetNab from the test if it had not been for me. While RalEsp is crucial for obvious purposes, her Gui was not a true servant of the serpent god. Fortunately, my complaints raised through Don’s mouth at the council brought us what we needed.”

“How is this going to fix the temple anomaly?” a man asked.

“The connection to the–”

“I thought the serpent god was of Arabasian origin?” another asked.

Diama sighed. “Different cultures see deities in different ways. Gods are not bound by our rules and geographical differences, but—“

“Are we sure he will obey you?” another asked.

Diama glared at Don.

He grinned, then shouted. “Shut the zeg up and focus. Are we listening?” He leaned towards Diama and whispered, though even his hushed voice was loud enough to hear. “This is why I’m on the council, you plug?”

She rolled her eyes.

He winked and pulled away.

Diama placed her arms akimbo. “We need to harness the Gui before the next equinox.”

“For the serpent effect?” a younger girl asked.

“Exactly.”

An older man spoke up. “So are we just going to extract it from him like they did with Dokkaebi?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because we can’t control the will of a Gui. Dokkaebi is ours because he always has been.”

“More like we are his,” a girl said.