The spirit didn't answer right away.
She stood beneath her branches and looked down at Jin for a long moment, flowers slowly opening and closing along her hair, as though she were turning his words over in her mind the way a river turns over a stone.
"A leader," she said at last. "Not a master."
"That's right."
"Then show me." She stepped back from him, her bare silver feet sinking softly into the grass. "Here. Now. In front of all of them."
The crowd around the tree shifted. Someone near the back whispered something. Areum took a half step forward, and Seul put a hand out without looking to stop her.
"The rules are simple," the spirit went on. "You will fight me. If you can make me yield, I will accept you." Her green eyes glittered. "And I will give you something, a gift. One that I have not given to anyone in a very long time."
"And if I can't?" Jin asked.
"Then you will have no right to benefit from my power," she said. "And will not bother me any more"
