The Elder grimaced and didn’t reply for a few moments before sighing and rubbing his face. “I’m sorry, I can’t think of any way to put this without potentially causing an issue. Do you mind if I’m direct?”

Verdan’s mind raced as he tried to consider what issue Vaijon might be referring to. Catching himself, he waved for the Elder to continue. There was no sense getting too concerned just yet.

“Alright then,” the Elder cleared his throat before sitting up straight and adopting a more formal posture. “I’d like your permission to offer a place in the Disciples of Adamar to Kai.”

Verdan blinked in surprise, caught completely off guard by the request. He’d been expecting this to be something about Kurgane from how serious Vaijon had sounded.

Taking Verdan’s silence as anger, Vaijon held up a hand calmingly. “Now, I know it’s a lot to ask, but I do have some compelling reasons.”

“Wait, wait,” Verdan said, holding up his hands to cut off the Elder. “I don’t understand. Why are you asking me?”

Vaijon frowned, looking just as confused as Verdan felt. “I was under the impression that he’d pledged himself to aiding you?”

“Well, yes, he did do that,” Verdan said, remembering back when they first met. “But I’d hardly attempt to control his future because of it.”

“I see,” Vaijon said slowly, giving Verdan an appraising look. “I think that perhaps I’ve been spending too much time with the Sects. Thank you for reminding me of how it should be.”

Verdan chuckled despite himself. “If you have any other issues that can be resolved so easily, I’ll happily take them on.”

Vaijon echoed his laugh before turning serious and motioning to the ward around them. “This stops anyone from hearing us, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Good, then there’s something else I want to tell you,” Vaijon said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “You remember the Stormlord assigned to us, Nathir?”

“Oh yes, I was going to give him a piece of my mind about his strength estimates, but I was told he was killed in the final fight.” Verdan paused, taking in the look on Vaijon’s face. “Or is that not correct?”

“As best I can tell, no, it isn’t,” Vaijon said heavily. “I was going to do the same, and like you, I thought he was dead. However, I’ve had more exposure to our casualty lists than you have. When I was working through them, I noticed that a core group of the Stormlords were also missing.”

“They were based over at the other wall, though. Wouldn’t such losses be expected?” Verdan asked, remembering the chaos that followed Brenn’s abrupt withdrawal.

“Yes, but no bodies were found for any of them. That was enough to make me suspicious, and when I looked into it further, no one remembers seeing any of them once Macannan arrived. As best I can tell, they disappeared some time between Brenn leaving and Macannan arriving.”

“I see,” Verdan said, frowning in thought as he cast his mind back to the battle. He hadn’t been in a position to really see anything over that side, though.

“You see why I’m concerned,” Vaijon said softly, meeting Verdan’s gaze with a grim expression. “I don’t like the look of this at all.”

“Neither do I,” Verdan said, considering it all for a few long moments before turning back to the Elder. “With Brenn’s actions as well, this is beginning to look like an orchestrated attempt to undermine us.”

“It is possible that we’re looking at two separate incidents of cowardice,” Vaijon said without much conviction.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You don’t believe that,” Verdan said, making it into a statement.

“No, I don’t.” Vaijon shook his head with a grimace. “The problem is that I have no idea what possible benefit they could have for undermining us. If we failed, the Host would have run rampant. Who knows how many people would have died before the Sects could have destroyed it?”

“But you can’t see any other reason for two different groups from different Sects to abandon us at the same time.”

“No, I can’t.” Vaijon sighed, rubbing his face again. “But neither can I see an alternative when we found almost all the other bodies for those who died during the attack. There’s no reason for fifteen of the twenty-five Stormlords to disappear. Especially when we have the bodies of the few that are confirmed killed.”

“Let’s work on the assumption that they betrayed us, and that they had a reason to do so,” Verdan said after considering their options. “It costs us nothing, but being wary might well save some lives.”

“Agreed. I’ve kept this to just us for now, so I’d appreciate discretion on your part.”

“Of course, I’ll keep this to myself. Let me know if you learn anything else, though.”

“Will do,” Vaijon said with a nod before getting back on his feet. “We’re heading out shortly, you should come back to camp.”

Verdan nodded and cancelled the silencing ward before getting up to head back with Vaijon. “You never did tell me those reasons for recruiting Kai.”

“Oh, they’re fairly obvious,” Vaijon said with a shrug. “He has our special requirement completed now, and he’s already a strong fighter. Give it some time and he’ll be an Elder as well.”

Verdan nodded, but his attention was drawn away as he saw that the Airta who’d gone to fetch the Fwyn had returned.

Breaking off from Vaijon, Verdan made his way over to join them and ensure everything was packed and ready to go.

-**-

The reformed caravan set off less than an hour later, heading south down the river to find a crossing point. It was a bitter realisation that their own action of destroying the bridges would slow them down, but they’d had little choice.

The good news was that they were keeping to the prospective schedule that Silver had laid out and were making good time.

Unfortunately, the bad news was that Morag and a third of the Eternal Wardens wouldn’t be joining them.

More specifically, they would be following along after them, but only once the reinforcements from Dresk arrived to take up the garrison duties.

Morag was staying to keep watch over it all, leaving the rest of the Eternal Wardens under the control of Vaijon, and Kurgane.

It was clear that Vaijon was the effective leader of the Sorcerers at this point, but he lacked any official capacity to keep that role.

Without Morag, the official responsibility fell to Kurgane.

Hopefully, the arrogant Sorcerer would rise to the challenge, but considering what they knew now, Verdan doubted it.

-**-

Thankfully, the first day passed them without incident. The surviving Kranjir scouts worked alongside the Airta, whatever rivalry they’d had in the past long forgotten.

If anything, that initial rivalry had let the two groups get a good accounting of their strengths, and they played to them where possible.

Natalia had taken control of the wagon when they got underway, leaving Verdan to sit in quiet meditation and work on both his spiral and his new breathing routine.

When they eventually reached their camp for the day, Verdan let his tired mind slip from his meditative state and turned an eye inward to see what his progress had been.

Comparing his progress to what he would normally manage in such a situation, Verdan nodded in satisfaction. Even with his poor mastery of this breathing technique, the difference was substantial.

Coming to a decision, Verdan turned to Natalia as they came to a stop. “Will you be alright getting everything set up on your own? I have something that needs to be done.”

“If you could do the fire first, that’ll be fine,” Natalia said with a shrug. It wasn’t quite as nonchalant as she was trying to appear, though.

“It’s okay, Boss, I’ll lend a hand,” Barb said, jogging over to join them and waving for Verdan to head off as needed.

Wincing at her unintentional pun, Verdan muttered a few Words and quickly formed a firepit and rudimentary seating before leaving the two of them to get settled.

Since her realisation of who Kurgane was, Natalia had been a little on edge, not that Verdan could blame her. They all knew that Barb would be able to do little to help if Kurgane acted, but having the tough Kranjir woman nearby seemed to help settle Natalia’s nerves.

Verdan, however, had settled his nerves by refreshing his protective wards on her clothes and adding more to the wagon. If someone broke in or damaged it, he’d know.

Verdan hoped he wasn’t becoming paranoid, but between the threat from Kurgane and the recent demonstration of what Wizardry could do, he was feeling wary.

It would take some time for word of what he’d done to spread, but once it did, Verdan was expecting some ill-advised attempts to dispose of him.

Power like he’d demonstrated would disrupt the balance between the Sects, and more than one Sorcerer would kill to prevent that. Of that, Verdan had no doubt at all.