Oswin was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the village with scrolls spread out around him like a paper nest when Chris walked over. He had offered to move one of the tables into his home but refused, saying doing it outside gave the best light and that he would have his own place made once the coins began rolling in. He told him that it would be his way of pulling his weight.
When Oswin looked up it was with an expression Chris had learned to recognize as the one he wore when he was about to say something that would change things without knowing if it was for the better or worse.
"Well, I have finished the catalogue," Oswin began, tapping the largest scroll with one ink-stained finger. "Every plant. Every function. Every mutation and secondary growth that I've managed to notice along with any interactions I could document in the time I've been here." He paused, seeming to choose his next words carefully, which was never a good sign. "Chris, what you've built here is unprecedented with so much value and potential I can't put a number to the value."
Chris blinked, kneeling down across from him and trying to make sense of the various forms and documents. "Unprecedented how?"
"I've been a merchant for over a decade. I've traded in every major city on this side of the continent. I've seen what the Empire's botanists grow in their greenhouses and what their so-called 'green mages' could create. I was even lucky enough to see the demon lands cultivations and what they grew under their black sun greenhouses." He paused with a frown. "I am not proud of what I had to do in order to have that opportunity, or what it cost me to have the chance to see the elven groves tucked away in their deep forest. None of those have managed to come close to this place." Oswin gestured around them at the village, pointing out the place as a whole. "The interaction you have achieved between your plants alone would be worth a fortune, especially if you were able to replicate it in other places. And the soil your medical grass produces, and yes, I did test it, don't give me that look. As a merchant I need to be aware of everything I have access to. And your soil? It's more fertile than anything I've encountered in the Empire's controlled farmlands! And the medicinal properties of your shadow berries alone could fund a small kingdom if so desired!"
Chris let that sink in. He'd known the village was something. He had grown the place into what it was now himself after all. But hearing it laid out like a merchant's inventory hit different. It made it seem less like a home and more like a resource. And as much as he didn't like it he knew it was the way many others would see his home.
"And the way the medical grass of yours is able to enrich the ground it spreads onto is beyond anything any empire is able to do," Oswin continued, clearly warming to the subject. "I watched it enrich patches of ground that shouldn't manage to support any life at all. If you could produce enough of it, which I more than believe you could with the rate it spreads, the trade value would be even further beyond the previously uncountable level of value your village already had. You're sitting on so many amazing things that every nation on this continent would readily kill to control. And when I say control, I don't even mean everything here. I mean they would kill to have a fraction of what you've made!"
That once more made him realize he had underestimated the true value he had and the greed others would hold.
Sera appeared from somewhere behind the bamboo rows, her sword at her hip and her expression the one she wore when she'd been listening longer than anyone realized. She probably had been. "So, we're even more of a target now? Will you finally understand our warnings have weight?"
"You were always a target," Oswin said mildly to correct her. "The empire never just lets people be, but that's not why I'm telling you this. I'm telling you because the trade run needs to happen as soon as possible. If what I've documented is even half as valuable as I believe it is, then the demand will outpace your supply by a considerable margin. And the sooner we establish contacts and set expectations, the better positioned you'll be to avoid them trying to force your hand. I will also be able to recruit some extra muscle and hands which will further loop back into further growth for all of us."
Chris looked at him for a long moment before nodding slowly. "Do you have enough goods? We discussed starting with the alcohol but do you think that will be enough?"
"Yes, it should be good enough to start something. I took a bit of the shadow berry vines leaves along with a variety of dried berries. All of this should be enough to entice some of my old contacts and partners. It's also the easiest goods for me to transport right now. Once I have a large pack and perhaps a pack mule we can look into expanding our sales inventory if we are able to." Oswin explained as he began rolling up his scrolls and tucking them into the leather satchel at his side. "The initial sales will be mostly small and controlled as we get a sense of what the markets will bear and I try to convince them to trust me on this. Then I'll come back with actual prices, real offers, and we can negotiate from a position of knowledge rather than desperation while hopefully bringing back some proper aid."
It made sense. It was also the first time someone besides Sera and Korr would be out in the world while knowing the full extent of what grew here.
Sera seemed to hum in thought for a few moments before disappearing for a short while and returning with a worn leather pack, the Imperial crest half-scraped off the front. It was the same pack she had on her when she first came here, and now she held it out to Oswin.
"Your pack?" Chris said questioningly, looking between it and her. "That's your —"
"It's a pack," Sera cut him off, and her tone made it clear the conversation was over before it started. "It's got good straps, water-resistant lining and more pockets than any merchant has a right to need so it should help him carry more than he originally planned. Besides, I don't use it anymore." She turned to Oswin and placed it down in front of him. "The clasp on the left side sticks a little though, but don't force it or you'll break the whole thing. Just jiggle a bit and it works." She finished before turning and starting to walk away.
Oswin took it carefully, seeming to understand that this was more than a bag before nodding once. "I'll bring it back in one piece." If she heard him, she didn't show it. Instead she kept her pace.
Chris walked him to the entrance once he took one more round across the village, taking a few more bottles and berries before taking multiple wooden goods and even a variety of leaves.
They steadily walked past the rows of bamboo that had reorganized themselves under Korr's direction and the numerous spike bushes that now sat in a far better kill zone formation now rather than scattered wherever they'd sprouted or wanted to be. The thorn vines along the path parted slightly as they passed and the now thick, almost wall-like layer of scream flowers that pulsed a quiet acknowledgement from their place within the ents, mixed with the numerous thorns.
"There's supposed to be a dried riverbed that runs parallel to the main path making it easier on the feet and less exposed and open. According to my tree with the deepest and furthest reaching roots I can tell you with certainty there's water about halfway along the path. Some kind of underground spring that pushes up through the rocky outcropping and the water is clean."
Oswin raised an eyebrow. "Your tree talks to you."
Chris just smiled at him. "It talks to everyone. Most people just can't hear it, well except the big Ent at the entrance. He can talk properly but only likes doing so when he feels it's important."
The merchant laughed at that, a genuine sound before he clapped Chris on the shoulder. "I'll be back before the worst of the heat. Try not to burn the place down while I'm gone — or rather, try not to grow something that burns the place down. Given your track record from what I've heard I'm not sure which is more likely." His words had Chris laugh and wish him luck.
Chris soon watched him disappear into the grey haze of the Barrens. The leather pack visible as a dark shape against the dead landscape steadily fading away entirely.
The village somehow felt a lot quieter after that.
Not silent. The plants still hummed and shifted and murmured in their constant, living way. The Rootmind pulsed its steady rhythm through the network and Chris could feel every node, tendril and root as clearly as his own heartbeat. But the human presence like the one that wasn't Sera or Korr was gone now and the absence of it left a space that felt larger than it should have. No doubt because it felt like it expanded the village ever so slightly, having grown and added to it.
'He'll be fine,' he told himself but he didn't know if he believed it. Only knowing it was better than standing at the northern edge of the village and staring at nothing while hoping for the best.
He chose to throw himself into work once more because that was easier than thinking about how many things could go wrong for Oswin between here and the borderlands. And there was plenty that needed doing anyway. Plants he'd been neglecting for months such as the yam and fig tree, the ones he'd grown early on and then mostly forgotten about because they weren't defensive or aggressive or immediately useful.
The fig tree was the first. It had been growing quietly while producing its sweet milk and fruit for them and Chris had mostly left it alone because it seemed content to just exist and talk with the cloud tree most of the time. But Korr had pointed out during one of his endless assessments that the fig tree's root system was growing deeper and beginning to stretch wide, connecting to the roots of the other trees.
"Anchoring?" Chris muttered, kneeling beside the fig tree and pressing his hands into the soil. "Right. That's, yeah, that actually makes sense. You're even helping the soil from what the medical grass told me."
He reached into the rough connection and the fig tree responded immediately, eager in a way that surprised him. It made him realize it had been a long time since he'd given it real attention and he felt something like relief from it as he started redirecting its roots further across the world tree and Rootmind's network. Its roots spread slowly, thick and strong as they threaded around them, locking in place with the network while strengthening the soil of the village further. It helped to ensure that it would hold against wind, rain and anything else the Barrens decided to throw at them.
'You could have told me you were struggling and needed help expanding,' Chris thought at it. The fig tree's response was something like embarrassment mixed with stubbornness. It had been managing fine on its own but it wasn't going to say no to a little help.
The yam tree was next with a rougher personality and far less eager to please. It complained the entire time Chris redirected its growth deeper and wider through the soil. Its job would soon be to create a nutrient cycle between all of the plants, similar to the medical grass but also pulling minerals from deep underground and distributing them through the root network. It helped the medical grass spread even further. Every step of the way it proved to be extremely opinionated about where those nutrients should go.
"No, not toward the bamboo. They don't need that much. Yes, I know they said they did, but the first grown one, the drill sergeant sounding one always exaggerates. Focus on the outer wall Ents and the thorn vines. They need it more." Chris told him with notes of annoyance.
The yam tree grumbled something unflattering about drill sergeants before it did what he was told.
The cacti were far easier. They'd always been relaxed, friendly and happy to be pointed at a problem and left to solve it. Chris moved several patches that had grown, placing a pair onto either side of his kill box before carrying out the smaller ones with Sera and Korr's help. He directed them where to plant them. Their job would be water denial. Anything trying to approach using the routes they sat on would find the ground increasingly hostile with its moisture being pulled from the soil and absorbed before it could sustain anything passing through. He went even further by asking them to continue spreading across the paths Sera told him the empire would most likely take.
Korr found him working a new patch later that day, clearing a rather large square as the sun began to dip. He stood and simply watched for a while without saying anything, which Chris found odd. He noticed his approach but the demon typically had opinions about everything and wasn't shy about sharing them.
"The spike bushes need some reorganizing," Korr finally said, crouching down and running a hand over the gritty soil. "The ones along the eastern approach are too spread out. A determined force could push through the gaps before they close."
"I thought we already fixed that, staggering them and making them a dual layer."
"We fixed the southern approach. The eastern one was lower priority as not much came from that direction." Korr started drawing lines in the dirt with one clawed finger, sketching overlapping fields of fire. "If you're mobilizing and planning to truly fortify this place even lightly then we might as well do it properly. Tighten the spacing here —" he tapped a spot on a rough map he had pulled from somewhere, created when he wanted to map out the area for them "— and add a second row here. The overlap will mean nothing crosses without hitting at least three clusters. We could incorporate the design right around the village as they grow further and mix it with the stagger approach."
Chris studied the diagram, feeling the spike bushes' eager response through the network. They'd been waiting for someone to give them another job, and the drill sergeant bamboo was already shouting encouragement.
"Done," Chris said, and began ordering them to start uprooting and move to where they were now needed, even encouraging them all to continue multiplying.
By the time the night began to settle and the stars began to poke through, every neglected plant in the village had been given purpose. The fig tree anchored the village's soil. The yam tree cycled nutrients through the outer walls. The cacti spread across the approaches to his village and began quietly pulling moisture from the ground. The spike bushes sat in tighter, deadlier formations and happily hummed with satisfaction. Even the cloud tree seemed to stand straighter, its mist thickening as if it knew something was coming and wanted to be ready for it and help further, even keeping a majority of the mist outside the village.
And that was when Chris noticed it.
The mist was thin inside the village but past the walls it constantly thickened.
It had always stopped at the bamboo line before or crept faintly across the ground, settling into a comfortable haze that hung over the village like a soft ceiling. But now it was drifting far further, past the outer kill zones. He saw its branches shift and sway with the mist following it in subtle waves, rolling out steadily before it disappeared into the haze of the Barrens.
Chris stood at the wall and watched it go.
Sera appeared beside him, and she didn't say anything for a while. She just watched the mist curl and drift past the boundaries it had never crossed before. Chris could feel her weighing something behind those steady eyes.
"It's never done that before," she said with faint hints of nervousness making him nod.
"No." Chris's voice came out quieter than he meant it to. "I think... I think it's been waiting. For the village to be ready or for when it felt something like this was needed."
She didn't say anything after that, knowing exactly what he had meant.
Chris let out a slow breath and looked out at the green sprawl of his village against the dead grey of the Barrens, at the mist that had finally pushed back. He felt something settle in his chest that he soon realized was pride. It brought a smile to his face. He hadn't done much worth noting in his old life, but here he had built something, been through hardships and made it through. He knew far worse was coming but he still couldn't help but smile, enjoying the peace while it lasted and the satisfaction in knowing he had made the most of the opportunity given to him. But even so, he found himself wondering if the old man would be proud of him. Something in him though told him he would be, a faint, almost whisper that made his smile ever so slightly wider.