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26th Brightening of the Third Cycle of the Month of Kalendryas in the season of Winter; Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XV Post Fractum.
It had been a Cycle since Eyvind had ordered a full scale retreat from Hiems and all the other advancing forces. The armies had hastily marched back with Eyvind himself leading the rear guard while the forward units followed the give orders. Scorch Sheria, leave nothing useful behind. Evacuate the civilians, burn the forests, salt the fields and poison the water wells. Nothing would be left untouched and unspoiled, it would seem Aeternia had fell on Sheria and the man responsible for the orders was now arriving in Everdark with the rear guard. The hardened Black Shields were all covered in ashes from the fires set by the forward units of the marching army. It had been a tiring journey and the men were also tired of seeing destruction, ten Brightenings with the Suns covered by smoke clouds were more than anyone could endure.
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16th Brightening, 3rd Cycle, Month of Kalenryas, Winter Season
The majority of civilians refused to be evacuated. Many were farmers, hunters, trappers, miners and others who considered themselves as one with the land. A high percentage of these families had been in Sheria for several generations. This was the only place they knew as home.
Once the smoke started, the citizens in that area were alerted and did their best to spread the word. When Legionnaires came to farms to spread salt on the land, in most cases the farmers were terrified and watched their land rendered useless by the invaders from the north. They came to realize that they were better of with a raid by the Orcs now and then, than with the Imperial Legion. It did not take long for the farmers to organize into small groups, and follow those who raped the land. When a salt wagon separated from a group and was driven to the next victim, these farmers would set upon them, kill the Legionnaires, take the horse and burn the wagon. In many cases the farmers would lose and be killed while trying. These casualties strengthened the resolve of the survivors. It did not take long for the soldiers to realize that they were fighting against their own kind. Very few of the the Imperial Legionnaires deserted, but some did.
It was a different story with the Sherian Serpants. These were citizens of Sheradine Province and they were being ordered to turn against their bretheren. More than half of them deserted from their units. A good many of those deserters joined up with the farmers to fight against small units of the Imperial Legion. The more territory that the Legion tried to spoil, the more spread out they were and thus more likely to be attacked. The cruelest and slowest deaths were dealt to the well poisoners. Even the Orcs did not stoop that low when they attacked. The farmers and deserters took no prisoners. They had no place to keep them. Captured Legionnaires were killed.
The resolve of the Legionnaires to lay waste to Sheria was surpassed by the resolve of the citizens who chose to stop them. Most citizens were not ready to confront the Imperial Legion but out of a population of ten million, it did not take a large percentage of them to make a big difference. The word was passed to as many communities as possible and when given the opportunity the Sheria citizens set snares in the roads to cripple the horses of the Legionnaires.
Over towards Narim, the Druids in their Grove took note of the smoke. Three Druids that were capable of doing so, changed their forms to hawks and flew to the smokiest area to investigate.
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