Information continues to come as I rest from the ordeal. Even if I changed the rules mid-way, channeling all this mana was still a new experience. The attack lasted approximately a quarter an hour, and I used in the neighborhood of 20 thousand mana. I’m pretty sure this is already beyond even Merlin, and the rate at which used it was quite high.
The greater limitation is however my body. It protests at the smallest movements, but in the grand scheme of things, the change is minimal. Behind me, just a minute in, I hear a message being relayed across the wall.
“Everyone, keep to your posts.”
Rumors fly abound on the reason, though most people know of Lord Max’s reputation, and in tacit agreement, almost everyone stays without a fuss. With my roots, I tap into the mana conduit and watch as the mana from the battery in my house is slowly drained. A little over 10k has made its way to the village batteries. Although we have used a lot of mana, it was still less than 100k mana points.
Guessing that the next attack won’t come for at least some fifteen minutes, I start on a couple of endeavors. First, the second mana battery goes into my inner world as well. I had thought about how to dump its mana into the city should the need arise, but this was probably a better way to go about it.
With the millions of root strands around it, I begin the process of forming, runes to tap into and transport the mana. Although I need to use a little mana occasionally to grow them, most of it can be done by simply moving the roots around. Ten minutes later, the control mechanisms and mana conduction systems are all in place, and I wonder at the massive speed and flexibility increase this provides me. It is not right for every occasion, but in most cases, it’s an amazing way to work with runic structures.
I turn off, even the trickle of mana Pando’s seed is absorbing from the main battery, and turn on the new connection. He starts to pull in over a hundred mana a second, and I guide it slightly here and there. Nothing that would exhaust me, just enough, limber up after a hard mental workout.
The main focus is on growing the underground root network. But more of it seems to instinctually expand in the direction of my village. Seeing this. I stop the initial attempt. And instead, focus on a single root strand to reach all the way. Not very thick, but still enough for minimal connection. The throughput of the connection could always be expanded later on.
Minutes go by as I continue this simple and relaxing activity, connecting with Pando’s seed, and helping him to grow at such a rapid rate was simply incredible. It’s then I think of another modification I can make.
I focus on my inner world, having no idea of how difficult it would be, start to move the roots over, and make each of them into the shape of battery runes. Only occasionally, do I need to grow a few strands, but mostly it relies on just moving the roots to follow the rune patterns.
With the impetus now being different from simply tapping into an existing battery, things change a little. Before, the time it took me to do anything was almost negligible. Now it’s like the difference between a 2 d printer and a 3d one. You go from seconds to print a big page to hours for even a modestly sized figurine.
This is still faster than trying to engrave on copper plates, and for that, I’m immensely grateful. After a few tests, I find it takes me a few minutes to make a battery that can hold a thousand mana. The whole thing goes to the back of my mind as I try to automate the process.
I’m still short of truly being able to do that with another more familiar action, the portals to my inner world. But the training is still another step on being able to take control of my autonomic nervous system. Or at least adding a simple task like this one to the endeavor.
I meditate as deeply as possible, as I sustain the inner world portal and its mental companion, forming the runes of a battery.
It's surprisingly easy to let go of almost all of my focus on these tasks, but even if I woke up only hours ago, I know I will be going to sleep early today.
Through all that, a single concept is firmly on my mind, home. Though that is probably the wrong word. You don’t instinctively know all about your home, as I have been able to learn about my surroundings.
An unknown amount of time passes, as things flow around me, and unbeknownst to everyone, an old friend rears its head again, though this time it does unconsciously.
My perception filter. Nobody bumps into me or anything but it’s almost like I’m filtered out of their perception. As a tree would, you notice the first few times, but then you simply filter out, because you only need to pay enough attention to it not bump your head.
The constant stream of information makes its way to me, and I basically ignore most of it. Not because it's not important, but because only a single piece will bring me out of this meditative state.
And sitting peacefully there I continue until I’m alerted.
“Enemy scouts detected 5 minutes out.”
I continue sitting there, but my heartbeat, a second before only a couple of times per minute, speeds up a little. My brain waves, extremely low a moment before, also increase in frequency. I hold a lighter meditate state to let more information in.
Around me, dozens of copper plates attached along the wall unexpectedly start to work like an announcement system. Charlie’s voice, a reassuring, yet unyielding sound resonates through the speakers, as he stands just behind me in front of the commander’s hut.
“Everone, we have unfortunately confirmed our fears. Rumors have been flying abound, but we detected enemy scouts a few minutes out. They look to be from the so-called Lord Max’s village. There doesn’t seem to be any diplomatic solution to the dilemma, though we may discuss terms with them if they are amenable. If they however just want slaves or don’t entertain the notion of cooperation between us as a viable path, they will taste our steel and magic before even coming close to the walls.”
At that, the crowd cheers. This was not his best speech, but with emotions running high nobody even notices. The small concern I had of everyone trying to bolt like headless chickens is thrown out of the window.
Most of the people injured on the first attack are coming back to man the walls, and I continue to rest as my surroundings, slowly but surely, are coming into sharper focus. Nothing extraordinary, and the range is still only about 10 meters, but this simple action somehow resonates with me. As if the knowledge I’m granted, was always there, I just needed to tap into it.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
In the few minutes until the attack, everyone is on the walls with rapt attention to the forest. The clearing is now even bigger. There are almost no trees for more than half a mile. So, they won’t be able to hide on the approach to the village.
Charlie leaves at the new costumery speed around the village, a run. He is probably heading to the control room, or something else as important and I put it out of my mind.
I open my eyes for a moment, and looking at the sun, judge it’s almost 13:00. This means they have come from a closer place than the closest village, and they also must have some fast way of transmitting messages. Unless they were coming in blind, and I doubted Lord Max got to where he is by being careless.
Five minutes in they still haven’t sown themselves. About seven minutes after the initial warning, I feel thousands of people making their way to the edge of the forest. There were few roots that far out. But I concentrated on having at least a couple sparsed out to tell me when they arrived. The little mana flowing in that direction stops, so if their magic users were paying attention, they would not be able to tell there was anything of notice under their boots.
I tap into the com line, and say:
“Enemies detected at the edge of the clearing.”
I spend a minute moving my roots around to provide them a rough map of where I feel people stepping.
Instead of them all continuing forward immediately, only a group of three comes ahead. Nearly a thousand people watch with rapt attention as the three people make their way past the defenses and to the foot of the wall.
With high agility, they are quite fast, and in no time they stop by the gate.
“Hy, we are envoys from Lord Max. We would like to speak to Charlie.”
After a moment of thought, I also begin to add a few surprises on the path of anyone trying to follow them. A grim start to form in my mind. I may not relish what is to come, but even if most of them were bullied into it by Lord Max they still chose to attack, and for that, their path would be followed by adversity.
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I sit in the map room. It was troublesome to set up a command structure here, and there were a couple of restrictions. But I was basically the leader of the village, and there were no good ways of taking the information from the map table out, so we engineered a pair of small batteries, to keep me and the ‘cartographers’, to keep in contact with the outside world. Thous that was still a debated topic given though only one of them had the actual class.
As I hear someone starting to speak, I pay attention to the relayed message, and a small light on the copper plate before me indicates it is coming from outside the gates.
“Hi, we are envoys from Lord Max. We would like to speak to Charlie.”
I wonder if I should mute them and speak on to the people in the commander room, but decide against it. They should trust me by now, and I was in a better position to stall for time talking without long relay times. Probably counter-intuitive, but true nonetheless.
And stalling for time, was only to our village's advantage, not theirs. They were probably just hoping to come out of this with fewer casualties.
A question that plagued me through it all was how they managed to stay undetected even with a full team of six people looking for them with our enhanced map, but that is a question for later.
With confidence, I start to speak:
“We were hoping your intentions were benign, but you have matched your reputation.”
“We have come to negotiate, we are honest in that.”
“Then why is your army so close?”
“That is our leverage, usually people are more circumspect, but Lord Max prefers to be more direct. If you would invite us in, we would present your options.”
“No.”
A bit stumped at the short reply they wait for more, but eventually give up and start to speak trying to play non-chantilly.
“Well, with your technology it makes little difference. And that is exactly the main focus of our visit, this magical technology is of great interest to our Lord. With it and is enough for an alliance, where you would be the sub-capital of our small empire. You would only answer to him and nobody else, all you are required is to share your runic products with the Lord and his villages, for appropriate compensation of course. You have the chance to join in the greatest group from this instance, maybe even from all of Earth.”
“There is just one wrinkle, you are telling us to join or die.” Before I can continue, he starts to speak.
“We understand, that the natural instinct is to reject the offer made under pressure, but we have to insist. Join our alliance. It’s a wonderful place to all in it.”
“And if we don’t?”
“That is why brought the armies. But why would you reject joining the greatest defense you can have. You have the power to make it into the type of place you want it to be.”
His words, on the surface, seem to make sense, but it doesn’t pass the smell test. Things may look all nice and rosy on the surface, but deep down underneath, the actual cost is too great. Trying to stall a little longer, I continue to ask specifics on how this alliance would work. After a few minutes, it’s clear I’m only stalling and they speak.
“It seems you are not actually interested in the offer. We have all the leverage, and still, you refuse to agree, only trying to stall for more time.”
With one last attempt, I start asking another question.
“But, how would this trade happen?”
Ignoring my question. They speak:
“It’s clear you have rejected our offer a second time, so if the gates are closed in five minutes, we will consider this your third rejection of our generous offer. And you will be made to submit.”
Things are not as simple as he stated, but it doesn’t matter. As I’m disconnected from the plate at the gate, I hear the commander and a few of the lieutenants speaking.
“It’s madness. They show up with a big ass army on our doorstep, and expect us to fold?”
“There have probably villages that did fold just from seeing his army. Not that we actually have seen them yet. From what Nash has provided, we estimate 3000 people. That is a quite significant force, and we will be hard-pressed to defend against them.”
There is nothing besides the preparations already undertaken that will have an impact, so I stay silent and trust we made the right choices. Listening to the chatter, and updates, I wait for a time where my expertise may come in handy.
Are you out there, Lord Max? I hope you are, so you will witness the futility of your actions. I hear as the reinforcements about 10 miles out from the village are called in closer. Not quite called to deployment yet, just as a reserve force for now.
-----------------------------------------
I curse vehemently having seen Nash alive, well, and stronger than ever.
I look around and see no one. It was hard work convincing them that I actually needed a messenger bird, but as a chief component of his takeover of the village, I had some leeway. There is quite a lot of new information I didn’t manage to pass along. Too bad the envoys were not allowed inside, that would resolved this neatly.
Although he did specify not to use the bird under any circumstance unless there was no other choice, and if I did do so at night, this is an emergency. He would agree this is an exception. They probably didn’t have any scouts close by, and the methods and sheer amount of mana spend told a very different tale from the last attack. And if I was already sending a message, might as well do it send everything I learned.
With the message well secured to the messenger bird, I release him from his cage, and he 4 inches long Pidgeon-like creature takes flight.
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“Lord Max, as expected they rejected your offer.” I hear as the envoys return from the gate. “They didn’t even allow us to enter the village, we talked with Charlie through his new walkie-talkie magic whatever.”
“As you said, it was the expected response.” I take a deep breath in, and with a smile, on my face and strength I never felt back on Earth, bellow for my troops to hear: “Mages, full illusion up, everyone march forward.”
Everyone already knew that this was the plan, but it never hurt to be clear when we had the time. Now, I just want to see their faces when they saw thousands of troops suddenly very close to their walls.
And this is just one of my surprises. Though given the trashing Nash gave a part of the squad sent to his house, I shouldn't underestimate them. It would have been such a boom to have him by my side. I think perhaps greater rewards might have convinced him or a different approach, but I would take the consolation prize if I couldn’t have him.
As I think of the fool that hated him, I look over the village with my spyglass. What greets me a moment later sends my blood rushing. A messenger bird is slowly taking flight over the village.
“The idiot, I will strangle him with my bare hands.”