Chapter 19: Powerful Earthenwood Palisade
The ground trembled softly with each fall. One after another, massive trees were torn from the earth as if invisible giants were pulling them up by the roots and hurling them down. The sound of cracking wood and thundering impacts echoed through the forest like distant war drums.
Kaelor stood beside Mildred, arms crossed, his expression carved from stone as he watched the silver haired woman work her will.
Vi raised her hand again, her lips moving in hushed incantations Kaelor couldn’t hear. A vibrant shimmer passed through the air as arcane energy surged through the ground, and another tree, thick as a hut and tall as a tower, was wrenched free and slammed to the forest floor.
He had expected the task of gathering lumber to span several days, at best, but in just a handful of hours, she had downed a hundred trees.
One hundred.
After the final tree fell, Vi exhaled and wiped her brow. Mildred handed her a water pouch, which she took without ceremony. "That’s one focus crystal exhausted," she murmured, almost to herself. "One of those could fetch hundreds of gold coins."
Kaelor narrowed his eyes, studying her. "Then why use it?"
Vi met his gaze and smiled faintly, a flicker of amusement dancing in her eyes. "Has no one told you that you’re quite charming when you speak with that kind of confidence?" Her tone was light but not mocking. "You might not have the looks of a charmer, but you certainly talk like one."
Kaelor scowled, looking away as if her words had no weight. "I didn’t ask for flattery."
"And I didn’t give it," she replied under her breath, drinking deeply from the pouch.
The rest of the day passed in the steady rhythm of labor. With the help of the townsfolk and the Dreadclaws, the fallen trees were heaved onto crude sleds and dragged back to town.