“You’re pushing them too tight,” she says quietly as she passes me.
“They’re unstable.”
“They’re scared,” she replies, not slowing. “Different problem.”
I watch her correct a stance with a light touch, her voice low but steady as she speaks to them.
And I adjust.
The first warningdoesn’t come from sight.
It comes from the ground.
A low vibration runs through the soil beneath my boots, subtle enough that most wouldn’t notice, but steady, rhythmic, wrong.
I still.
Kareth feels it a second later, his head turning sharply toward the tree line.
“That’s—”
“Movement,” I say.
Not scattered.
Not random.
Structured.
“They’re early,” he mutters, already shifting his stance.
“Yes.”
I turn toward the outer edge of the village, my gaze cutting across the unfinished barricades, the partially set lines, the places that should have had more time.
“How long?” I ask.
Kareth doesn’t answer immediately. He’s listening, measuring.
“Minutes,” he says finally.
Too fast.
I exhale once, steadying the shift before it can become hesitation.
“Signal,” I say.
He moves immediately, turning, his voice cutting across the village in sharp commands.
“Positions! Move—now!”
The reaction is instant.
Not clean.
But fast.
People scramble, soldiers snapping into place, villagers shifting toward the positions they were given, some moving too quickly, others freezing for half a second before being pulled along by someone else.
