Chapter 160: Root II

Li slightly opened his mouth to respond, but a flash of teal light burst forth from the shrine's heart. In the instant the light flickered and dimmed, Iona had dematerialized, her physical form completely eviscerated as her spirit, cleansed of all human influence, integrated itself within the heart.

Li could see the heart beat rapidly, growing a deep green instead of its usual amber red. Little pulses of brighter green traveled out from the heart, passing up the roots that suspended it in the air and flowing through the entire structure of the shrine itself. With every beat of that great heart of vines and roots, the spiritual energy that made of Iona flowed further and further, illuminating the shrine with a flickering green aura that cut through the nightly veil that had settled over the forest.