The scouts came at midday, which was either poor timing or deliberate.
Midday meant full village activity with people moving between buildings, traders at the small market area near the central hall, children in the open ground between the cottage rows.
Maximum civilian presence, maximum complication for whoever was defending. Deliberate, then. Heaven's field units had been sloppy on the valley road. These ones had thought about it carefully.
Lucius felt them at the edge of his Divine Sense range, four signatures, moving in from the northern approach in a spread formation, spacing themselves wide enough that a single response couldn't cover all of them simultaneously.
His range had extended since level five, and the extra distance gave him enough warning that he was already moving before the first one cleared the village perimeter.
He found Valeria in the cleared ground east of the cottage, mid-drill, and didn't break stride.
