Verdan was saved from any further questions by Samuel arriving, followed shortly by Adrienne and a tray full of snacks.

“Samuel, thanks for coming,” Verdan said, rising to shake the other man’s hand. “Take a seat and grab something to eat.”

“Thank you,” Samuel said, taking a small sandwich from the tray before sitting near Verdan and looking a little overwhelmed by the presence of the Fwyn and Brecan.

Fortunately, Verdan’s other guests were momentarily distracted by the snack tray.

Henry had followed Verdan’s instructions perfectly and had included a few plates of fresh greens and mushrooms for the Fwyn, and a plate of assorted stones and minerals for the Brecan.

Verdan had sent Pawel out previously to gather what he could without spending too much, and was quite pleased with what he’d brought together.

A few shards of crystals, offcuts from a stonemason and small pieces of copper ore were about as much as they could offer, but the Brecan seemed happy.

Well, as best as Verdan could tell the emotions of a seven foot humanoid made of rocks with crystals for eyes, anyway.

At the very least, Gar’Dru seemed to enjoy the small salt crystal that Henry had served, which was something.

“So,” Verdan said, clearing his throat to bring everyone’s attention back to him. “Let’s talk about how we can go about getting these watchtowers built. Samuel, could you go over what we discussed yesterday?”

“Right, can do,” Samuel said, looking a bit more comfortable now he knew what his role was. “So, as we discussed, I’ve separated out the process into what is made of stone and what will be made of wood. Ideally, what we’ll see is that….”

Verdan listened carefully as Samuel detailed how it would all be split up, nodding along at the correct junctures until they’d brought the two Fwyn up to speed.

“If I may,” Verdan said, nodding to the two Brecan. “How many Brecan are joining this effort?”

“Lan’Wai will lead the effort of a dozen Brecan,” Hursk said with a nod to the green-eyed Brecan. “Gar’Dru is here simply to hear our translation of your words on the Host.”

“I see.” Verdan nodded, rolling the numbers around in his head for a few moments. “What I propose, then, is that we all meet tomorrow morning at the closest building site and work through it together. Then, once we’re all satisfied, we’ll split into three groups. Ten Fwyn and four Brecan to each group, and build another each.”

“Four in one day?” Samuel echoed with a shocked expression. “Is that even possible?”

“Once you’ve seen the Brecan at work, you’ll understand,” Hursk said with a raspy laugh.

“If you say so.” Samuel sat back in his chair, looking a little uncomfortable about the whole thing.

“Trust me, Samuel,” Verdan said softly, meeting the older man’s eyes. “We’ll get it done in time.”

The foreman nodded, somewhat reassured, so Verdan turned back to the Fwyn and waited as they translated the conversation for the two Brecan.

It was hard to know exactly when the conversation was done. Verdan only knew a conversation was even happening because he could sense the ripples of Aether that were part of it.

Eventually, the ripples came to an end and Hursk had a whispered conversation with Gruthka before turning back to Verdan. “The Brecan will be ready for tomorrow morning.”

That had seemed a lot of conversation for such a simple response, but Verdan didn’t push him and instead got to his feet. “Very good. Thank you all for coming. We’ll meet outside the gates mid-morning. Samuel, feel free to bring whoever you need with you.”

Samuel nodded before making a quick escape, followed soon after by the Fwyn and Brecan.

Verdan had thought the group would leave, but instead they all simply disappeared into Dru and Aeva’s burrow, which he had no doubt was already twice the size it had been this morning.

Sighing, Verdan made his way back to the workshop to finish working on the tester for the Sigils.

-**-

Some hours later, Verdan looked over the finished globe with tired eyes. This was the most detailed of the three he’d made, with what he hoped was close to the proper density of Sigils.

In the process of creating these, he’d realised that the Sigils on the original artifact were actually arranged in countless triangles, all with very specific distances and orientations.

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When he’d noticed that, he’d immediately thought of the triangular crystal formations back at the tower and had gone down to the Automaton remains in the base of the workshop to take a closer look.

Sure enough, even on the Automaton, everything was in threes and arranged as a triangle.

Flushed with excitement, Verdan had jotted down his notes before going back to his carving with renewed vigour.

If the triangular arrangement was for more than mere aesthetics, than that might explain why none of his previous forays into the Sigils had worked.

Each of the three testers he had were carefully made with this principle in mind, and Verdan took a steadying breath before picking up the first.

This tester was with a mere fraction of the Sigil density, though the ones he’d used were exactly the same as on the original.

Feeding Aether into one of the Sigils he’d carved, Verdan felt the Aether successfully enter it, which was already an immediate victory.

Slowly, the Sigil began to glow, though it was taking far more Aether than the original needed. Feeding more in, Verdan frowned as the other two in the triangle began to very slowly light up, but none of the others responded to his efforts.

Upping the flow even more, Verdan saw the nearest Sigil in a different set of three take on a dull glow before the globe abruptly shattered in his hands with a loud cracking sound.

Cursing, Verdan muttered a healing spell as he pulled small pieces of wood out of his palm and brushed the rest off of him.

“Well, that was a nicely mixed result,” Verdan muttered to himself as he contemplated the shattered wooden orb.

The fact that it had worked at all was interesting, and he was pretty confident that the triangular formation was key to it.

Dusting off his hands, Verdan picked up the original that Macannan had given him and did the same thing.

Whenever he’d used it in the past, he’d given it only the barest mote of Aether, to save wasting any, which had always caused only a single Sigil to light up.

Adding more this time, Verdan saw that the same process happened, though with far less effort on his part.

The Sigil he touched lit up first, then the rest of its trio, and then it spread to the ones around it, lighting up the three of them before moving on from there.

Keeping up the steady flow of Aether, Verdan soon held a fully glowing metal orb.

Cutting off the flow, he watched as the entire thing slowly turned dull, with the original trio of Sigils lasting a bare second longer than the rest.

“Alright then, let’s try variant two,” Verdan said, putting the artifact down and picking up his next tester.

This one was functionally the same as the first, but with a greater density of Sigils.

Feeding Aether into it, Verdan frowned as it struggled just as much as the first tester had. Ramping up the amount did cause other groups of Sigils to light up without shattering, but that seemed to be down to them being closer to the first one.

Holding that flow for a while, Verdan watched carefully as a few more Sigils lit up, until a third of the globe was illuminated.

Another minute of waiting got him no further, so Verdan cut off the flow and tossed the tester aside before picking up the third and final one he’d made.

This time the Sigils were just as numerous as on the artifact and Verdan went through the first few steps as he had with the others.

The end result, though, was the same with only a third of it lighting up.

The actual amount of light produced and Aether used were slightly higher, but it wasn’t the result he wanted.

Dropping the tester down next to the other one that had survived the experiment, Verdan got up and paced back and forth, considering the issue.

The Sigils were correct, and the density seemed right, so he just didn’t understand what he was missing. He’d scoured the artifact for any other Sigils when he first prepared for this, and there were none.

Verdan was lost in his thoughts and missed the knock at the door, only realising he had company when Natalia stepped inside.

The alchemist took one look at the shards of wood that were strewn around the floor before arching a brow at Verdan questioningly.

“My first test was a little chaotic,” Verdan said, shrugging slightly. “The other two have shown good promise, though.”

“In that case, why are you wearing a groove into the floor?”

Verdan stopped himself before he could do another lap and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s because I made a good step forward, only to be immediately blocked by something I don’t understand.”

“Want a friendly ear to talk it through?” Natalia asked, brushing some splinters of wood off of the chair before taking a seat. “It might help you realise what’s going on.”

“Well, the basic principle is that the artifact does this.” Verdan touched the metal globe and infused it with Aether, lighting it up briefly before moving over to the third tester he’d made. “And then the tester I made does this.”

Natalia gave him a surprised look as the Sigils carved into the wood began to glow. “I didn’t realise you’d managed to figure out how the Sigils worked!”

Verdan grinned despite himself before cutting off the flow of Aether to the orb. “There’s still more to learn, but yes, I’ve got the basic understanding of it now. If only I could figure out why they aren’t acting the same as the artifact, then I’d really be making progress.”

Natalia frowned, looking between the tester that Verdan had made and the original. “Could it just be the material they’re made of? Does metal conduct Aether better than wood?”

Verdan stared down at the wooden globe in his hand before muttering a curse under his breath and tossing it aside.

Walking over to Natalia, he leaned down and kissed her soundly. “I would have been here for hours without that insight, thank you.”

“I’m glad I could help,” Natalia said, laughing as she got to her feet. “The reason I came to find you, though, was to check in on Kai. He’s been out and away a lot the last few days, but I want to check on his arm.”

“Why, I thought he wasn’t having any issues?” Verdan asked as he dropped the two remaining wooden globes into a box and crushed them with a muttered spell.

He’d gotten past his fear of reintroducing knowledge, but that didn’t mean he was going to leave valuable information out for people to steal from him.

“Well, he came to see me a few days ago and said that it was starting to ache, but there were no obvious signs of corruption.”

“Damn, and he’s not been back since?”

“No, but with everything going on, I’m concerned that it has got worse, but he’s not giving it the time it deserves.”

“Agreed,” Verdan said, running a hand through his hair. “Alright, I’ll see if I can get hold of him and bring him down to see you tonight.”