He felt them before he saw them.
The Rootmind had been keeping him informed of them since it first picked them up, there slow and deliberate march, this was what they had known was coming and yet having seen it for himself, feeling the unseen weight and pressure such a force seem to radiout spread through the soil and himself shook him. His first instinct was to pull back, his mind questioning if it could stand up to what was coming but he didn't pull back instead taking a deep breath and reporting what he saw and what he could feel only to stumble as the cacti and other thorn vines and bushes forced there concern through, his head thumping as they those who had been furthest out where destroyed, there final words a warning about the enemy making camp.
"Chris." Sera's voice cut through the noise in his skull making him blink and realized he had stumbled into the middle of the village and had fallen forward at some point, his hands pressed against the ground, his unfocused eyes taking note of everyones confused and concerned gazes locked onto him, the area having grown very quiet.
"They're here," he his voice coming out steadier than he felt. "Armies of them."
The northern wall was quickly crowded with everyone from the village, word having spread through the village faster than Chris could have managed on his own and all wanting to see what they where up against, the Rootmind even picking up and humming with the collective anxiety of every person who'd chosen to stay, a low background thrum of fear and stubbornness that he'd been trying not to listen to for the past week now flooding his mind and making him feel greater fear and determination. Now they were all here, staring past the mist that hid the thorn vine mats and the cactus-studded approaches toward something that didn't look real.
Thousands of shapes, moving with the kind of disciplined coordination that told him these weren't militia, conscripts or the new recruits he had faced before. These were professional soldiers. The kind who'd been trained to march, to fight and to follow orders without question. Oddly he couldnt help but feel a faint sense of pride that the Empire sent what he felt was there finest just to deal with a village in the middle of a stretch of land no one wanted.
The soldiers spread out in organized rows, erecting tents and pavilions with the efficient precision of people who'd done this a hundred times before. He felt through the network how there supply wagons formed a perimeter behind the main camp well there horse lines were established to the west. He even noticed through the rootmind how engineers had began surveying the ground, measuring distances and marking angles and in the center of it all, surrounded by a ring of guards that was noticeably thicker than the rest he could feel a cluster of people who didn't move like soldiers. It was easier now to try and get a more accurate look both with his own eyes and through the rootmind now that they where no longer marching.
The small group he focused on seemed to either just be standing or sitting well talking quietly among themselves, what had him focus on them though was how they moved wrong, far too fluidly and confident with something about them that the rootmind easily picked up but couldn't explain. Even the guards around them weren't just protecting them from outside threats. They were keeping them in.
"Heroes," Korr said from beside him when he mentioned them. "Theirs eighteen of them, all summoned people forced into this..." Chris said softly, hating how they seemed to be treated. "And the guards are no doubt there handlers, specially trained to constantly be a sliver stronger than them or holding the magic to restrain and reign them back in."
Chris noticed them mixed in among the guards, a handful of figures who stood differently from the rest, more alert from what he could feel. One of them, a tall woman with close-cropped grey hair and a sword at her hip, was positioned between the hero group and the rest of the camp, her posture loose but her weight forward on her feet in a way that Chris recognized from Sera. Ready to move and intercept.
"If there still following the same protocals i remember there should be three heroes per a handler, the extra guards help keep them manageable without making it look like a true prison detail."
"Except it looks exactly like what id imagine a prison detail to be."
He simply looked at Chris as if he where an idiot at that before shaking his head. "The Empire doesn't summon heroes to fight for them. They summon them to own them and throw them into the meat grinder and support there own interests or 'valued' people. You heard for yourself, about the contracts, the debt, the constant surveillance and everything else, it's nothing but a cage with nicer bars and those handlers are the lock."
"Lyra's possibly with them," Sera said. She was standing further down the wall, her hand resting on her sword hilt, her face unreadable. "If she is then it would be in an adviser role. Probably loving every minute of being close to the action while staying far enough away to not get dirty, giving her own input on how you would react and respond."
"You dont sound like you like her, was she that awful? I mean she didn't seem that bad."
Sera didn't say anything at first, her face shifting ever so slightly before she spoke slowly. "I was in the same circles for a while. Diplomatic functions and 'training exercises' but it was training only in name, then there was the events where they paraded the specialist program graduates in front of the nobility to prove the investment was worth it and sometimes needing to prove it by fighting an heir, needing to hold back well still showing our strength." Sera's mouth twisted. "She was always good at appearing harmless while collecting information during those things, even goading others into fights just to try and find any weakness or points she could exploit. She may have seemed harmless but don't underestimate her."
Chris filed that away and turned his attention back to the empires camp. It was still growing—more soldiers arriving at a steady pace with more wagons and more equipment. He could feel the weight of it through the Rootmind, a slow grinding pressure that was spreading across the landscape.
The demon scouts to the south had pulled back. Chris checked the Rootmind and found them at the edge of his range seemingly watching and waiting. The Empire's arrival had clearly shifted there plans, either the size or arrival time, he knew they were adjusting but couldn't care about them.
Two hours after the main body finished setting up camp a new envoy arrived at there gate again, he wanted to attack during that time but Sera and Korr both advised against it, how it break customs set in stone centuries ago and would harm there reputation in the long run. He didnt like it at all, tried to argue but ended up relenting when it was clear he would lose both of them if he pressed.
The envoy came alone, riding a grey horse and came the center of the northern approach with a white flag tied to a lance held up into the air. Clean clothes, polished armor and the kind of handsome middle-aged officer that the Empire probably put on recruitment posters. He stopped at the edge of the outer ring and seemed to wait.
Chris was already at the gate when he arrived. Korr had wanted to send someone else Sera, preferably, or one of the newer arrivals who could pass for a soldier but Chris had overridden him. If someone was going to come demanding surrender, they were going to look him in the eye while they did it.
"I am Captain Aldric Hollens," the officer called out, his voice carrying well across the dead ground between them. He didn't shout—just projected, the way someone did when they'd been trained in the formal art of delivering ultimatums. "I speak for Commander Valen of the Imperial Seventh Army. We are here on the authority of Emperor Castien III to address the threat posed by this settlement and its occupants."
The name meant nothing to Chris, but the title did. Seventh Army. It meant that besides the three now present the empire still had atleast three others waiting in the wings.
"The threat we pose? And what supposed threat would that be?" Chris called back. "We're a village in the middle of the Barrens! We grow plants and no one even wanted this stretch of ground, it was your dump site."
He seemed to scoff and look down his nose at Chris. "You harbor a demon and clearly employ forbidden magics. You have attacked Imperial citizens and soldiers previously." Captain Hollens didn't blink as he seemed to list of the supposed crimes Chris had committed, the words coming out smooth and rehearsed, like he was reading from a script that someone much more important had written for him. "You have also been given multiple opportunities to submit to Imperial authority and have refused each and every time. But commander Valen is understanding, he is willing to extend one final offer: lay down your defenses, surrender yourselves for questioning and allow Imperial forces to secure this location. Do so and in return, those who cooperate will be treated fairly under Imperial law."
"And what would you even considered fair treatment?"
He smiled now, no doubt thinking his words where working. "Those who are determined to be innocent will be released and reintegrated into the empire. Those found guilty of crimes against the Empire though will face judgment according to the severity of their offenses with matching punishment." Hollens paused, and for a moment his polished expression flickered—something human underneath the armor. "I would encourage you to accept this generous offer, Mister...?"
"Chris."
His smile slipped for a brief moment, clearly unhappy that all he got was first name from someone he saw as inferior. "Mister Chris then. The Commander is a reasonable man as I said, even the Emperor himself is. What is being asked of you is not something unreasonable. We only ask that you surrender, answer our questions and this can end without bloodshed."
Behind Hollens, Chris could see the thousands of soldiers in the distance, the siege engines slowly being assembled well he recognized as mages congregating in groups near the command pavilion. An army built to take a fortress, deployed against a village. The sheer imbalance of it was almost funny.
"No," Chris said firmly.
Hollens blinked, clearly not expecting that. "I'm sorry?"
"I said no. we're not going to just lay down and roll over for you. We're not submitting to Imperial authority because Imperial authority has no right to be here in a place you all didn't even want till I started making a change." Chris kept his voice level but some anger and heat still seemed to slip through. "Your soldiers came here first and attacked us first. We defended ourselves and now you've brought an army to finish what your raiding party couldn't acomplish so don't dress it up as law enforcement, call it exactly what it is, a conquest."
Hollens was quiet for a moment, his face returning to a mask of smooth professionalism, but Chris had seen the crack and he knew the man behind it wasn't as sure of this as he was pretending to be, the ugly anger and annoyance.
"I will convey your response to Commander Valen," Hollens said evenly. "I would urge you to reconsider though. The Commander has been authorized to use any means necessary to secure this location. That authorization includes overwhelming force should he deem it necessary." He turned his horse. "You have until sundown to change your mind or else."
As hew rode back Chris just stood at the gate and watched him go, anger slowly bubbling inside as he turned to begin making preparations.
They had until sundown.
As Chris walked back to he found Korr and Sera waiting. Neither of them looked surprised.
"Sundown," Korr asked but it wasn't a question, clearly having been close enough to listen to the conversation.
With a sigh Chris nodded. "Yeah, we have till sundown. Then they come."
"That's actually generous for them, no doubt hoping the wait will play on your mind and force you to fold." Korr's red eyes moved across the Imperial camp in the distance, cataloguing positions and formations. "It also gives them time to finish setting up siege lines though, to properly position their mages and get the heroes ready. You would think there giving us time to reconsider but there not, rather they're giving themselves time to prepare to try and steamroll over us."
"Which means we should be preparing too in the time we have." Sera's hand was still on her sword. "Will the out ring be ready? will it manage to hold against there first strikes?"
Chris pushed his awareness through the Rootmind, both feeling and questioning them slowly before slowly nodding. "They will hold."
"Good But for how long will that last once they start hitting it? How many will they manage to clear before they breach it and will our inner kill zones manage to thin them afterwards?"
Those where the questions he couldn't answer. Chris looked at the army spread out before them and tried to run the math, not the logistics math that Alister would have run or even the tactical type Korr would but rather the plant math, the math of living things versus iron, fire and magic. The outer ring was dense and layered as best he could manage, he knew it would kill or slow anyone who tried to push through it, but it was still plants, plants that there mages fire would clear slow and steadily if they acted smart, walls they could smash through if they fought hard enough. The heroes alone could probably carve a path through the small cactus field in minutes if they were motivated enough.
"They will last long enough," Chris said.
Korr raised an eyebrow. "Long enough for what?"
"Long enough to make them pay for every step they take and hurt them enough that it will hopefully effect there moral." Chris looked at the demon beside him. "You said it yourself. We can't hope hold the outer ring, so instead we well be using it to bleed them before they reach the walls, to try and weaken them and wear them down."
"I did say that." Korr's expression was unreadable. "I didn't expect you to listen."
"I listen to everything but just because I always listen doesn't mean i have to always agree."
"Then listen to this: eat something substantial, rest if you can and stop running that Rootmind plant of yours like you're trying to feel the entire army at once! When the fighting starts you will need your head clear." Korr ordered him before walking towards the eastern rampart well shouting orders as he went. "Denna! Get the acid balls ready and primed, we may need them. Holt go check the bamboo groves on the west approach and make sure they're ready to harden on command should anyone approach from the side. Everyone else who has given roles move to your stations."
People began to scatter towards positions, grabbing weapons and supplies and whatever courage they'd been saving for this moment. The Rootmind hummed with the collective pulse of it—not just fear anymore, but something harder. Determination, maybe. Or just stubbornness. With this group, it was hard to tell the difference.
They had until sundown. And then the outer ring would be hit first, the walls would would be tested against the weight of an Empire that had decided a village in the middle of nowhere was worth destroying because they couldn't have it for themselves. It was beyond what he expected, worse than his worse case scenario but he held onto hope that they would survive, they had managed against everything else till now and he hoped that luck would continue to hold as unlikely as he knew it to be.
Shaking his head as he realized such thoughts where causing more harm than help Chris pushed off the wall and went to find something to eat.