It started as a faint humming.
Not the usual pulse of the Rootmind that had become a steady background rhythm Chris had gotten so used to that he sometimes forgot it wasn't his own heartbeat. Rather it was something deeper. A vibration that seemed to come through the earth itself, far away and faint like feeling a drum through a wall yet something he couldn't ignore.
Chris was in the eastern fields with Denna and Holt when he felt it, kneeling in the dirt with his hands pressed flat against the soil, trying to coax a new plant he had managed to grow, something new and different he hadn't tried before, a patch of nutrient-cycling moss that would help further nurture and help the soil well enhancing the plants regeneration, healing and growth speed, he was slowly urging it to spread faster between the rows of early shoots from seeds the pair had brought. Denna and Holt had gotten used to Chris doing his strange still-and-quiet thing in the dirt over the past few days. Denna just kept working and asked practical questions about soil depth and watering schedules that Chris was mostly able to answer when he wasn't working through the network, having grown more adept but still nowhere near as good as he was when connected to the rootmind.
When the hum came through the moss he'd been coaxing seemed to feel it too, the tiny green filaments pausing their spread like they were listening to it.
"You alright?" Holt asked, noticing how he seemed to freeze.
"Give me a minute."
He pushed his awareness down into the network, asking the rootmind for help as he sent it past the village perimeter, past the thorn vines and the scream flowers and the extra walls of Ents standing watch, a extra layer of defense they had only finished a few days back, out into the dead grey plains to the limit of the root network.
The Rootmind had been growing since he'd planted it, spreading through the soil in every direction, slow and patient, feeding on the nutrients the yam tree cycled up from deep below to help sustain itself as it reached across the barrens with care. It didn't reach far, not compared to what the world tree could probably sense on its own but it reached far enough to find the cause.
And what it was picking up made his stomach tighten. A lot of movement.
Not the scattered activity of the Imperial remnant camped to the north—those few dozen survivors who'd been sitting on the ridge since the raid and slowly been recovering well waiting for orders. This was something else entirely. A mass of marching feet, hoof beats and wagon wheels crowded so close it came across as one mass of moving force, all moving in one direction. Still far enough away that he couldn't hope to get a clear count through the Rootmind, but the sheer weight of the vibration through the soil told him everything he needed to know.
It was an army. One far beyond what he had thought possible or expected to come.
He pulled his hands from the dirt and stood up abruptly. Denna and Holt were both looking at him now with expressions that shifted from curiosity to concern.
"Korr," he said more to himself than to them before walking towards one of the walls, knowing where to find the demon, falling into a half-run that had his boots crunching across the ground, the Rootmind humming its deep persistent warning through every plant he passed that then rippled the warning further out.
He found the demon on the northern wall. That was where Korr spent most of his time these days, standing with his arms crossed and his red eyes watching the distant ridge where the Imperial survivors had made their camp. Sera was there too which he was glad about, sitting on the wall with her legs dangling over the edge and her sword across her knees, seemingly enjoying a moment of calm he was about to break.
"The Rootmind's picking something up." Chris didn't bother with preamble. "A lot of movement coming from the North. Too much for a patrol or a resupply, its no doubt the army we knew would be coming."
Korr didn't move. Didn't even turn his head. But something in his posture shifted, tightened, became more alert. "How far?"
"Still quite far but still to close for comfort. They're moving but not fast so I estimate a week at worst." Chris rubbed the knot mark on his wrist absently. "The Rootmind can feel the vibrations through the soil but it's too concentrated to get any real numbers."
"How do you know it's an army and not a caravan?"
"Because I can feel the wagons and horses along with lots and lots of people marching." He paused, frowning as he pushed his awareness further out. "It's not one group either which makes it worse, theirs multiple groups converging from different directions and also in large numbers, all heading the same way and seemingly ready to merge."
That got Korr's attention. The demon turned slowly to look at him with an expression that was hard to read. For a moment neither of them said anything before Korr let out a slow breath through his nose.
"A week." Not a question.
"Better than four days," Sera said from the wall, her voice flat and matter-of-fact. Probably both well trying to make him feel better and state a fact at the same time.
Chris just rolled his eyes at her words. "Gee, thanks."
"You're welcome." She said with her usual monotone.
Alister appeared seemingly from nowhere. Chris had seen the man do it four times in the past two days and it hadn't stopped being unsettling as he still hadn't figured out how he was managing to do it.
"You felt something didn't you," Alister said. Not a question. "I could tell from the way you all but ran through the village, it was exactly like a man who just received bad news."
"The Empire's closing in." Chris told him flatly as he crossed his arms. "A full army with multiple columns all converging on the edge of the Barrens. The Rootmind picked it up through the ground, and it seems there about a week out if were lucky."
Alister was quiet for a moment. Chris could almost see the gears turning behind the man's thin face, the logistics brain doing what it did best. Calculating, projecting and running numbers.
"a week?" Alister said it slowly, like he was tasting the words. "That's enough time to establish basic internal supply lines if we have the resources, but it's not enough time to build proper fortifications from scratch. You already have the walls though, and the plant defenses, which means we're not starting from zero."
"We're not building an army," Chris said, and his voice came out sharper than he intended. "We're defending a village." He added with narrowed eyes.
"Its the same thing from a logistics standpoint." Alister countered, unflinching at Chris's tone, which Chris supposed made sense for a man who'd survived the purge of a governor and even assisted the replacement for a short time before being forced out. "You have a fixed position, limited resources and an enemy with superior numbers approaching on a known timeline. The question isn't whether you can match them force for force, because we both know you can't. The question is how efficiently you can use what you have to make attacking you more costly than it's worth, how to draw it out and force them to leave."
Chris stared at him. Alister simply stared back and soon Chris realized, with something between irritation and grudging respect that the man wasn't being cold or dismissive of there situation. He was being useful in the only way he knew how, using numbers and efficiency with a detached analysis that made Chris feel like he saw the whole situation more as a problem to be solved than a person being forced to make seemingly impossible choices.
"How would you do it?" Sera finally asked, the question being something Chris was grateful she asked because he didn't want to be the one engaging with the logistics man when his chest still felt tight from the Rootmind's warning.
Alister seemed to considered the question seriously. "Layered defenses as we are currently doing but don't commit everything to the walls. You have ground between the village and the northern ridge that you already control through these plants of yours along with a extra wall, make sure you use it. Make them pay for every step they take." He held up a finger. "If the army is as large as you say, their supply lines will be their weakness. A large army needs a lot to keep there soldiers content, they would also need water, both things they would need to bring and constantly be brought as the Barrens wont provide either. If you can stretch their approach and force them to commit far more resources to logistics than the assault, you reduce the force that actually reaches your walls."
He said it as if it was something simple to do.
Korr was watching the man with an expression Chris couldn't quite read but seemed to be something like reconsideration. "He's not wrong. It's what I would have done on the Eastern Front. Layer the defense, make them bleed as much as possible for every foot they gain before they could even reach the walls. And the plants can do what soldiers can't—they don't need food, they don't sleep, and they don't have moral that can be broken."
Chris pressed his knuckles into his forehead, feeling the bark ridges press into his skin, the knot mark throbbing faintly underneath. a week. Maybe more if they were lucky. He had a single week to turn a village that was still healing from the last fight into something that could survive an Imperial army.
Somewhere behind the guilt and fear the weight of everything pressing down on him, a small part of his brain was already cataloguing what he had and what he needed along with how he could stretch both. He didn't like that part of his brain very much right now, but it was useful so he let it work.
That was when the Rootmind pulsed again.
Not the north this time, it was the South.
Chris went still. He didn't push his awareness out this time, instead he pulled it in, focusing on the southern perimeter where the cloud tree's mist thinned into the dead grey expanse of the deep Barrens where he felt it, movement again but different than before. Lighter and faster. Not the heavy march of soldiers and wagons but the careful, deliberate patrol of what he came to recognize as scouts moving through terrain they didn't want to be seen crossing.
"Demon scouts," he said quietly. "Coming from the South. The Rootmind's picked them up."
Korr was beside him near instantly, his hand going to his sword before he seemed to realize there was nothing to swing it at. His red eyes narrowed toward the South. "How many?"
"Can't tell exactly but maybe half a dozen? They're staying at the edge of the Rootmind's range, just barely close enough to feel and seem to just be watching for now, keeping there distance."
"They're watching because Veylan told the Lord it would be best to watch." Korr's voice was grim. "That calculating bastard didn't need to threaten us. He just needed to tell us the truth and let us do the worrying for him, just as he said his lord will wait for the opportune moment to act."
Sera stood up from the wall, her sword sliding into its sheath with a soft click. "So we have the Empire coming from the north and demons watching from the south waiting for an opening? Two armies converging on a village in the middle of nowhere."
"Not converging," Chris said, and the word came out hollow. "The demons are just watching. Veylan said the Lord wouldn't attack because the numbers didn't support it."
"Numbers change, boy." Korr's voice was low. "He told you that too, just with different words. The moment the Empire attacks and your defenses are committed north, the arithmetic shifts. That's what scouts are for. They're not here to fight, they're here to wait for the best opening to act."
The silence that followed was heavy. Chris stood there with his hands pressed into the soil at his feet, feeling the Rootmind hum its awareness through the ground and the distant rumble of the Imperial army to the north and the lighter whisper of demon scouts to the south. For a moment he could feel the entire shape of it all, the way two forces were slowly tightening around the village like a closing fist.
The world tree's root found his wrist and squeezed gently. He didn't know if that was comfort or warning or just the tree doing what it always did but it brought a small smile to his face.
He needed to start growing again soon.