Lyra and her party stopped a short distance away, standing on a small sandy slope.
The village spread in front of them. She faintly heard their scout remark that it was far different from what they had seen before, as if it had been grown rather than a worn and barely livable place that it was before, with a faint mist swirling around it making it seem almost illusionary. Its walls gave them the impression of watching them and a gate woven so tightly that one of the heroes muttered something about bamboo, her tone making it more of a question than a statement as they gleamed faintly silver in the evening.
The ranger beside her let out a low whistle. "This place is nothing like what I read in the report."
Lyra said nothing. Her father's reports had mentioned walls and plants that moved. They hadn't mentioned anything like this.
The mage, one of the summoned heroes called Elara who had been pulled from another world six months ago, seemed to be frowning. "There's something in the plants here, some kind of awareness." She began before shaking her head. "I can't explain it, and I am almost certain that's bamboo, but I could be wrong. It could just be a native plant that looks like it."
Lyra filed that away. "And what about that grey patch over there?"
The scout squinted. "I don't really know." He paused. "Whatever happened there was bad, though. There's clear echoes of death at a level I haven't felt since I was lucky to be part of an undead extermination, but it's too focused, too small a patch. At that time it was a vast area. It's also not spreading, so there shouldn't be any risk of undead being present."
Lyra noted the location as something worth trying to find out more about if things went well before leading them toward what she could clearly see was the entrance.
The knight was swift to move to her side, his hand on his sword and clearly on edge already. "My lady, perhaps we should—"
"We should walk and talk to the people here," she said, not looking at him. "We're here to observe, make contact to find out what is going on so we can return and report it. Not to start trouble."
She didn't add that starting problems with someone who had the ability to make plants grow in the Barrens was a poor move to make. If he could grow here, what could he be capable of in a proper field? If he had access to fertile land? The knight was smart enough to figure that out on his own but didn't seem to be happy about it.
The mist seemed to thicken as they approached, cool against her skin and responding to their presence, thinning ahead yet growing blinding around them. She knew they were being herded, and by how the others were reacting, it was clear they knew this as well. Thankfully, it seemed like they were being guided right to the entrance, as everything cleared once they reached the front of the bamboo gates.
She quickly noticed movement along the walls—vines, thick and dark, sliding between the bamboo shoots and along the armored-looking tree walls. Flowers that pulsed with something that wasn't light and seemed to react steadily toward anything that drew close, making the scout tense. The mage's hand had also tightened around her staff.
She took note how the posts on either side were carved—no, she corrected her train of thought, grown—into spiraling patterns that caught the morning light. Whoever had built this place had put thought into it. Care. The reports had clearly been lacking.
The gate seemed to fold and slip open as if it were a curtain, allowing a trio to walk out.
At the front was a young man with a staff in hand, his eyes fixed on her. He was far younger than she'd expected. The reports had said an old man was in charge and that months back, possibly a year ago, a young man had been noticed, but they hadn't said he would be roughly the same age as her. His arms were tan with faint bark-like ridges and black line tattoos tracing up toward his neck like veins of ore through stone.
Behind him, a woman in battered armor stood with her hand on her sword. A former knight, Lyra realized, recognizing the way she carried herself as being one of discipline and training.
At her side walked a figure in black armor who watched in silence with blood red eyes. A demon, she realized with a frown. Her father and even the report hadn't mentioned that either.
Lyra stopped her party at a respectful distance, close enough to speak freely and show they weren't hostile but far enough that they could try to make a run for it. She didn't bow to him, though. She wasn't here to show weakness, and as far as she was currently aware, he wasn't some kind of ruler. Instead, she chose to simply incline her head slightly as a form of acknowledgment.
"You're the one in charge of this place?" she asked. "The one who made this place into… this?"
The young man seemed to study her for a few moments, then his eyes moved across her party—the knight, the mage, the ranger, the healer, the scout—lingering faintly longer on the mage and ranger, which she found rather interesting. She took note of how his eyes seemed to widen ever so slightly before returning to her.
"And you're from the Empire. I can't say I hadn't expected this, but I did hope it would have taken far longer, Miss…"
"Lyra Jarves," she said neutrally. "The head of this little diplomatic envoy sent to observe and report back whatever we learn."
She saw the woman behind him stiffen at her name, but beyond that, the other two showed no reaction. The young man's face remained unreadable. He didn't seem to recognize the name—another bit of information she filed away for later. Sometimes it was the small details that mattered most. A reaction, or even the lack thereof, told more than most realized.
"Observe and report what exactly?" he asked. "A village in the middle of nowhere with a small patch of people trying to survive? Also, are you sure you should have shared that?"
Lyra let the question hang before carefully answering him. "If you had been expecting us, then knowing why we came shouldn't matter. But rumors travel faster than you'd think. A green place in the Barrens with walls that move and plants that fight? It's like something out of a child's story. It's far more than just a patch of people trying to survive, wouldn't you say?" She paused. "The Empire wanted to know what was actually going on out here. The place has been dead for centuries, no value and a buffer of sorts. So when the rumors kept growing, they needed to look into them."
His expression didn't change, but she managed to catch the faint twitch at his wrist. A small thing, easy to miss, along with the way his finger began to tap his leg. He was listening to something they couldn't hear.
"Rumors?" he finally said. "Even if they spread from a few people, was that really enough to send a party like this?"
She sighed at that, noting how he didn't seem to realize the true significance of what he had done. "Empty places don't stay empty forever, especially a place like this which is accepted. But when something grows this rapidly and is so out of place? That's something people take notice of. And it wasn't just a few rumors—they have been spreading rapidly, and certain people began to worry that it was something to do with the demons."
She watched him process that, how he looked over to the demon who looked amused. Clearly, while he consorted with one of them, the reaction wasn't that of someone subservient or working as a partner. She noticed how his eyes drifted for just a moment to the village behind him, to something she couldn't see. The person talking to him, maybe?
When he looked back, his voice was steady. "Well, I can start by assuring you I'm not working with them. His situation is just… unique. But we could probably go back and forth for hours, so why don't you just get to what you would need for this 'report' and why you're actually out here. I'd prefer if we didn't drag this into the night."
"Alright," she said. "What we need to know is what you're building out here and why, what you want, and most importantly whether you will be a threat."
"Or something else," he added, clearly unamused.
Lyra smiled slightly. "Or something else."
That was when the knight moved. His hand had been on his sword since they stopped, but now, as he stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the demon, his blade half drawn.
"You claim all that and expect us to just accept a demon is here for no real reason?" he half demanded in a harsh voice. "If you're not working with them, then why allow one of their kind to stay?"
Chris didn't immediately answer, instead looking at the knight with hints of disdain. "He's here because he chose to be and because I wasn't going to turn away someone with nowhere else to go."
The knight's jaw tightened, clearly not liking that response. "The Demon Lord's forces have killed Imperial citizens, burned villages across the various empires. If you think we'll stand by while you—"
"While I what?" Chris said, cutting him off. His party members tensed as Lyra gripped the knight's shoulder, giving him a stern look and drawing him back. She noticed how there was something in his voice, not exactly a threat, but rather as if he wanted them to make a move, to justify any possible counter attack. "You came to observe? To gather 'information'? Then observe or leave with what you just learned. This was meant as a place to help people who end up in the Barrens. I decided to give your group a chance. One final chance to show me the people around here aren't entirely beyond aid."
The knight's blade stopped. It was almost entirely drawn, but he seemed to hesitate in drawing it fully. Lyra could see the calculation in his eyes—the need to prove something, but also how he seemed to acknowledge that if he drew his blade fully, regardless of whether he struck or not, he would be to blame for anything that may follow.
Slowly he pressed the blade back down, pushing it back into its sheath. Lyra noticed how the young man's gaze drifted toward the mage and ranger again with hints of curiosity, and how they had been staring back with similar looks.
"You're not from here," he stated, staring at the heroes, his words making the ranger blink, clearly not expecting him to say that.
"What?"
"The way you and the mage? Your friend next to you with the staff," he continued. "Your eyes and the way you both seem to carry yourself is different from what I've seen with everyone else till now."
The mage and ranger exchanged an uneasy glance before the ranger spoke first. "We were summoned to this world about six months ago." She tilted her head. "But there's something different about you as well. There's a softness to you, a lack of world wariness I've seen in others."
Lyra noticed how his face didn't change, but there was a faint twitch, a pause before he seemed to take a deep breath and sigh.
"People end up here for a lot of reasons," he said. "Some of them stranger than others and by… means that most wouldn't understand."
The mage opened her mouth to ask something, her eyes growing slightly wider, but Lyra moved first. She felt the conversation was drifting, and while this was an interesting avenue, she didn't want to risk him ending the meeting by feeling he had said something he shouldn't. She could already tell he was careful and guarded, but he was clearly not hostile. He wasn't what the empire seemed to be worried about.
"The old man who ran this place," she said before the mage could speak, sending her a subtle look. "What happened to him?"
Lyra noticed something shift across his expression, something like guilt mixed with pain and something else that was gone before she could look deeper.
"He passed away." The words were delivered coldly and with notes of regret. Lyra waited for him to speak more, but when she realized he wasn't saying anything, she spoke instead. "Bandits?" she asked gently.
She was a bit surprised when, instead of accepting her sympathy, his jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. "He. Passed. Away." Each word ground out with notes of anger.
She didn't push after that, instead taking a small step back. She had seen this kind of response before, an emotional wall was there, and it would take time to break it down and find out what really happened. Instead, she tried to ask something else. "What exactly is it you want? What are you building here and for what purpose?"
Chris looked at her a long moment, his shoulders easing ever so slightly but his gaze drifting toward the distance, then to her. A smile spread across his face. It wasn't a warm smile, though. There was too much weight behind it, and yet it wasn't hostile either. It carried a weight like what she had seen some soldiers have after surviving a massacre but telling their loved ones they were okay.
"Honestly? I still wonder that very same question. At first, I just wanted to survive," he began. "But it slowly became something more. I want the people who stay here to survive, then to make a refuge and safe place in this hell of a world. A safe haven. Something that lasts." He paused. "Rather than what I want, though, what exactly is it the Empire wants?"
Lyra met his eyes. "I can't answer that, as I don't know yet. I'm just an asset to investigate and give a report. I'm supposed to see if you're a threat or a possible future asset. I actually didn't expect to find all this out here. At most, maybe a small patch of plants or a slowly forming oasis. Not all this."
He nodded at that before looking past her, at the Barrens stretching out behind them and the slowly setting sun.
"You can stay for the night, but I have some rules," he began, frowning ever so steadily. "First, you can set up a small camp by the gate within the walls. Second, my plants will be watching you, which leads to my third point, no wandering around." He looked at the knight. "If you try anything, they'll be the ones to stop you," He said pointing to a pair of vines that had come up behind him, what worried her was how none of them had even noticed them making her shiver. "And I'd honestly prefer that didn't happen."
The knight bristled at his words, but Lyra touched his arm before he could speak.
"We can set up camp outside the gate for the night. I will not allow us to walk into the mouth of a monster waiting to devour us," the knight finally said, earning an almost mocking look from Chris.
"If you do that, then know I won't be responsible for your protection. At most, the plants will protect you only if they wish to do so. Their primary objective is to protect my village, after all."
"Don't think to insult us. We are more than capable of handling ourselves and whatever may come," the knight continued before Lyra could speak, clearly having heard enough and no longer able to hold his tongue. Even as Lyra glared at him, he seemed dismissive of her.
Chris simply smiled a bit wider, notes of amusement clear, before he simply nodded once and walked back through the gate, not even wishing them a good night but instead ending the conversation. The woman in battered armor fell into step beside him, along with the demon who stopped and looked them over before following a moment later, his red eyes holding traces of mockery.
The bamboo shoots shifted for them once more like a curtain of water before weaving together and tightly sealing back up.
Lyra stood there for a long moment, staring at the gate, before glaring heatedly at the knight. "We had a means to enter, and you caused us to lose it!" she hissed.
"I couldn't allow us to take such a chance! To lose the heroes would be a painful expense to the Empire. We can learn what we can and have our scout enter under the cover of night," he replied with little care, dismissing her words as if they weren't important.
"Well," the ranger eventually said, breaking the tension. "That was interesting."
Lyra didn't answer. She was instead trying to cool her anger by thinking about the things she had noticed and been able to learn from their brief talk, the way he seemed to be listening to something, how his gaze lingered on the Barrens, the way his mood turned icy when she mentioned the old man, and the way he seemed amused at the knight's confidence about staying outside the village for the night.
She was also thinking about his reaction to the summoned heroes, the way he spoke about their eyes. She would admit, if only to herself, he raised a valid point. When she met them, she also noticed how their eyes lacked the same edge, the same weariness and hesitance she had seen in everyone all her life. And yet he also lacked it, and the way he talked wasn't like a noble or a soldier. It was more like the heroes than anyone she had met.
She turned back to look at her party, giving a simple command for them to start setting up camp, sending one final glare at the knight, who seemed annoyed at her anger and chose to talk with the scout instead. She was somewhat worried that he was planning something stupid, It was also at that moment she realized she hadn't even gotten his name, that small fact souring her mood once more as she glared angrily once more at the knight.