The following morning, Verdan hosted the Chosen and their Blades at his mansion as he explained the situation.

They’d all given their word to keep anything they learnt to themselves within the city before he started talking, but Verdan knew it was only a matter of time.

Eventually, word would get out, and then people would begin to panic.

“This is bad, very bad,” Ciaran said for the third time as he paced up and down the sitting room.

“Do any of you have a way of warning your Clan?” Verdan asked, resisting the urge to snap at Ciaran and tell him to stop his pacing.

“I have a few pigeons with me,” Osran said, somewhat reluctantly. “I can use them to warn my grandfather, who will be honour-bound to pass on the message to the Thrain and the Gallowan.”

“The Gallowan?” Verdan asked, not recognising the name.

“The Clan that holds the southern border in the east,” Maeve said, coming over to where Verdan had spread out the map and tapping the area north of the peninsula that held Macba. “This is where they stretch down to. We lost more of the south here on the western side than they did over there.”

“Understood, and will these pigeons be able to pass a full message?” Verdan asked, resisting yet another urge to sigh at the strange looks he got. “I do know what a pigeon is, but we don’t use them for passing messages where I’m from.”

Osran cocked his head to one side with a curious expression. “This particular breed will fly back to their home roost when released. They are dumb creatures but fly well and don’t get lost. We can attach a message to them for the handler on the other end. It is, of course, a one-way trip.”

“So we won’t have any idea of how the Clans will respond, or if the message has even been delivered.”

Osran nodded and spread his hands. “It is the best solution we have. I can have the handler bring them here and we can send a pair of them this morning.”

“A pair? I thought you only needed one?”

“We do, but when we need to warn of potential invasion, some redundancy seems warranted,” Osran said dryly.

“A very good point,” Verdan said with a nod. “I think we should go ahead and get that done as soon as possible. Then, we need to discuss what our next steps are.”

“Morag, could you fetch the birds and their handler?” Osran asked, looking over to his Blade.

“Yes, Chosen,” the burly woman said, bracing to attention before hurrying back out of the mansion.

“Thank you, Osran,” Verdan said, starting to say more but pausing as the door opened again and Kai entered, Gwen and Hedda filing in behind him.

“Perfect timing, we were just about to discuss next steps,” Verdan said as the Sorcerer and the two Witches took their seats.

“What do you have in mind?” Ciaran asked, taking his seat once more. “From what you said, this Steel Custodian Sect will take on the brunt of the work.”

“Yes, but if they fail, this city will be in danger. What I need to know is if you will fight with us if the worst happens.”

The atmosphere in the room grew tense as the Kranjir all bristled at Verdan’s words. The only ones who didn’t react where Hedda, Dirk and Benlen, but then they had either known Verdan the longest or knew this wasn’t aimed at them.

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“You think we’d abandon you?” Ciaran asked incredulously, breaking the silence that had fallen in the room.

“I believe you would all wish to stay, but I don’t know enough about your Clans to know if you’d be forced to leave.”

“Unless given specific orders by the Thane, we may do as we will,” Maeve said, giving Ciaran a pointed look and motioning for him to relax. “Our goal is to protect the Clans, deal with threats that arise and protect the honour of our Clan. This Host is absolutely a threat, and it would dishonour us all if we did not fight.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Verdan said honestly, feeling more than a little relieved that the Kranjir would be helping if it came down to it.

He’d been confident that they would, but several hundred trained warriors would make a big difference, so he’d needed to make sure.

“Would we be able to stop them, Master?” Dirk asked with a slight frown as he considered the issue. “Just how many Cyth are there?”

“A Host means thousands of them,” Verdan said softly. “Perhaps even tens of thousands by the time they get here. It also means they’ll entrench themselves where they can, forming camps to better corrupt their captives. If all that falls on just us, then no, I don’t think we could.”

“So our hope is that if they get past the Sorcerers, they spread out enough that we aren’t overwhelmed.”

“More or less, yes. That’s all we can do for now, but the city is making some preparations as well. Kai, do you want to discuss the watchtowers and patrols?”

The Sorcerer nodded and got to his feet before launching into a discussion of the plans that Silver had laid out.

The Kranjir wouldn’t have much to do with any of that, but it would hopefully reassure them that their position here wasn’t as untenable as it seemed.

-**-

Once all the Kranjir but Dirk and Benlen had left, Verdan gathered the rest around a table to discuss their actions as they picked at some food Adrienne had brought over.

“How likely do you think it is that the Steel Custodians will contain the Cyth?” Gwen asked, fixing Verdan with a firm look. “I want your honest thoughts as well, not whatever you think I need to hear.”

Verdan chuckled and shook his head. “You know me too well. The reality of it is that I’m confident that everyone is underestimating the Cyth here. The chances of the initial response from the Sects being enough is low. I’d say it is non-existent, but I don’t know what methods they actually take.”

“Damn,” Gwen muttered, rubbing her face before shaking her head. “Is it really that bad?”

“Have there been any other big Cyth issues in recent memory?” Verdan asked, looking over at Kai, who had spent a lot of time wandering and looking for trouble.

Kai shook his head. “Not of this scale. Smaller ones like we saw here before the issue with the Weeping Death. No Hosts, though, not for as long as I can remember.”

“Then yes, I think it will be that bad. The Cyth are a plague on us all, and they spread much faster than you’d expect. We need to be ready for the worst.”

“Alright, what do you need from us?”

“Have you had chance to check in with the rest of your Coven?” Verdan asked, thinking of some of their discussions in the past. “Have they made any progress in recruiting other nearby Witches?”

“Yes, and yes, they have, but not enough to make a real difference. There’s a coven in a town to our south now, and another over in Dresk, but they are still quite small.”

“They may still play a part in what’s coming. What else is there in Dresk? Do they have a Sorcerer Sect?”

"They do. They’re called the Eternal Wardens,” Kai said thoughtfully. “If I remember right, they are mostly concerned with keeping Dresk secure and preparing for the next Rising. I’m reasonably confident that they will be open to working with the Steel Custodians.”

“Good, very good,” Verdan said, picturing the map in his mind. “That means that if all else fails, they’ll at least get slowed down by Dresk.”

“That’s a cold way to look at a city falling to the Cyth,” Gwen said frostily as she gave him a hard look.

“Trust me when I say I will do all I can to stop it,” Verdan said, meeting her gaze unflinchingly. “My first responsibility, though, is to everyone here. To all of you.”

Gwen looked like she wanted to argue further, but eventually sat back in her chair unhappily.

The others looked unhappy with his approach to this as well, but none quite so much as the Storm Witch. Then, they didn’t have quite the same experience as her.

Kai had been captured by them, yes, but they hadn’t started trying to corrupt him the way they had with Gwen. Verdan couldn’t imagine how she’d felt, but he had no doubt that it gave her a unique appreciation for all of this.

Surprisingly, though, it was Hedda that spoke up. “We should focus on what preparations we can do that are transferable. I don’t know what that will look like, but if things are as potentially bad as you say, then we don’t want to be stuck waiting for them to come to us.”

“Agreed,” Kai said with a nod. “If we get the chance, we must take the fight to them. Letting them come to us dooms the city.”

“Very well, let’s discuss exactly what that will look like,” Verdan said, leaning in as they began to discuss what options they had.