Leaving Vaijon to his practice, Verdan made his way over to where Magnus and Dirk were learning their breathing technique from Kai.

Taking a seat nearby, Verdan carried on working on his own spiral until they were done. Sending the two Kranjir off to get some food and rest, Verdan motioned for Kai to hold back and quickly created a silencing ward.

“I take it there were some developments with Vaijon, then?” Kai asked, gesturing to the barrier around them.

“Not entirely, but he identified a root problem with using the spiral. The flow of Aether is increased, but the conversion to Essence requires your attention and intent.”

“That makes sense,” Kai said with a slow nod. “Once we established I couldn’t split my focus I didn’t progress with it. It sounds like that might have been a mistake, though.”

“Well, you’ll have to form it from scratch each time, but it might help.”

“Would you mind giving me some guidance on the process again?” Kai asked, sinking gracefully back down onto the ground as Verdan nodded.

Conjuring yet another seat for himself, Verdan went through the steps again, helping Kai form a new spiral. Having done it before, the process was relatively straightforward and Verdan was heading back into the camp in short order.

The impromptu training session had taken enough time that the camp had been all but fully established by the time Verdan was heading back through.

A gathering seemed to be happening amid the Sect area that Verdan was passing through, so he paused to listen in and see what was happening.

A group of around thirty Sorcerers had gathered and were having a loud discussion about deployment of resources and the amount of retainers still present.

“Quiet down,” Kurgane’s voice cut through the noise as the Sorcerer made himself known. “As Elder Vaijon isn’t eligible, I’ll be taking responsibility of our group. The good Commander has a lot on his plate, so if you have any issues or concerns, come to me directly. I will ensure that everything is dealt with.”

The group settled down as Kurgane took control, and Verdan slipped away, not wanting to get involved or be spotted.

On the surface, that all seemed good and well-intentioned, but Verdan had his doubts. It was a fine line between shifting the burden away and shifting the power away.

If it was anyone else, Verdan would give them the benefit of the doubt, but Kurgane was a snake in the grass. No, he was definitely laying the groundwork for something.

For now, though, there wasn’t much Verdan could do about it.

-**-

The second day of travelling began much the same way as the first, and the scouts fanned out ahead of them as they pushed on as quickly as was safe.

It was a tough balancing act that Silver was left with. If they went too slow, then they would arrive too late to do anything, and potentially be caught up against a much stronger foe.

If they went too fast, however, they risked ambushes and blundering into dangerous situations. They needed to get there quickly, but they needed to be in one piece at the end of it and ready to fight.

In an effort to make contact with Elder Vanarr and see what the situation was, Silver also sent the Unbound Gale messenger on ahead.

It was a risky journey for the Sorcerer, but they needed more information.

Several hours passed and the sun was high in the sky when Cullan came riding up to their wagon atop Ava, his oversized horse, with a second mount trailing behind him.

Cullan was an Idrisyr, a descendant of Idris, one of the last giants. Idris had managed to alter her descendants to make them closer to human-sized, but even so, Cullan was just over seven feet tall and had a powerful build.

Apart from the powerful build, which all Idrisyr shared, they also seemed to all have red hair and green eyes. In Cullan’s case, that also included a well-kept red beard to match his long hair.

Cullan had been badly hurt during the last fight, but his natural durability had kept him mostly intact, and with some minor healing from his sister Branwen, he was doing fine.

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Natalia had shaken Verdan out of meditation when she saw the huge man riding over, and Verdan moved out to the front to greet him.

To Verdan’s surprise, Cullan was wearing his scale mail rather than the usual loose shirt that he favoured. That, combined with the second steed, gave Verdan an idea of what was coming.

“I hope you’re ready for some fun,” Cullan called out as he drew up alongside them and threw Verdan the reins of the other horse.

“Oh?” Verdan caught the reins, but made no immediate move to leave the wagon. “What did you have in mind?”

“Lukas wants us to move forward and investigate some tracks that the Pathfinder found. One of her scouts is waiting at the head of the column.”

“Why us?” Verdan asked, but Cullan simply shrugged and patted the huge two-handed greatsword that sat snugly across his back.

“Perhaps he wanted some heavy hitters without too many people being involved.”

“Well, let’s go talk to that scout then,” Verdan said, hopping down from the wagon and swinging up onto the horse in a mostly graceful move.

Then again, the amused look that Cullan was giving him told Verdan it was probably less graceful than he’d hoped.

Sighing to himself, Verdan urged his horse on as the two of them sped up to make their way to the front of the caravan. There wasn’t much for him to do while they were underway beyond meditating and occasional detection spells. Still, he’d used everything that he’d stored up in the final battle, and he was far from replenished.

Assessing his reserves, Verdan was confident that he could manage a few smaller engagements. After how powerful that Cyth Scerrd had been, though, he was wary of what might be present in the rest of the Host.

Reaching the front of the caravan, Verdan saw one of the Pathfinder’s scouts waiting for them. Galstar had brought a small group of veteran scouts with her when she came south alongside the other Kranjir.

Between the dozen or more battles that had taken place in the last fortnight, almost half of those scouts had fallen.

“Wizard, Cullan,” the grizzled scout said, giving them both almost imperceptible nods as he urged his horse into a canter. “I’ll lead you to the Pathfinder. She’ll explain the situation.”

Sharing a look, the two of them followed after the scout as he led them down the trail the caravan was following.

Being away from the main group, Verdan had his detection spells running on a more frequent basis and was watching their surroundings carefully.

Even so, he didn’t see the Airta waiting for them until the large wolves padded out of the undergrowth.

Giving a very human nod, which was always odd to see a wolf do, one of the wolves turned and left the trail, quickly picking up speed.

“Follow me, this might get a bit tight,” the scout called to them in a low voice as he followed after the wolf, Verdan and Cullan trailing along behind him.

The flat and easy path of the trail was quickly replaced by uneven terrain and Verdan began to regret not spending more time in the saddle. This was far from his natural habitat, and he was certain he’d have bruises in the morning.

After what was a surprisingly long ride, the wolf leading them began to slow down, eventually coming to a stop halfway up a forested hill.

To Verdan’s surprise, the wolf scratched something into the dirt and the scout nodded, dismounting and waving Verdan and Cullan forward. “I’ll stay here with the horses. while you head up the hill. Our friend here will guide you to the pathfinder.”

Verdan nodded and swung down from his horse with a wince. Passing the reins over to the scout, he muttered a healing spell and sighed in relief.

“I’m fairly sure that’s cheating, Wizard,” Cullan said, his deep voice tinged with amusement as they followed the wolf further up the hill.

“Says the man who could probably knock out a horse if he tried,” Verdan said, rolling his eyes at the big Idrisyr.

“I’m not apologising,” Cullan said, flexing a bicep that was the size of Verdan’s head. “Besides, I work hard to keep looking this good.”

The Airta leading them growled softly and stopped, giving them both a pointed look before covering the last stretch to the crest of the hill.

Pathfinder Galstar, Sylvie and Blane were crouched among a thicket of old trees, along with a dozen assorted Airta and Kranjir scouts.

“Verdan, good to see you made it,” Galstar said softly as she saw them approach.

Elspeth Galstar was the Pathfinder that the Thane had sent with them. She was a short woman with cropped dark hair and an aura of quiet competence that Verdan respected.

Her cousin Anag was far more boisterous, but that was why she got along so well with Jarn, one of the other Thrain Chosen.

“Pathfinder, Sylvie, Blane,” Verdan said, nodding tightly to each of them as he crouched down next to them. “What’s going on?”

“And why did you need me?” Cullan asked, getting as low as he could, which wasn’t really that low, considering how large he was.

“We’ve come across a strange group, I don’t know what they’re doing, but they have a mixed group of Sorcerers and others,” the Pathfinder said, motioning to their north-east. “Take a look, but carefully.”

Curious, Verdan did as she suggested and slowly moved over to the edge of the stand of trees they were in. Peering down beyond it, he saw a second hill across from them, though it was much smaller.

Outcroppings of rock covered the other hill, and there was what looked like a cave set at its base.

Camping outside of that cave was the group that the Pathfinder had mentioned. There were at least four Sorcerers that Verdan could see, all from different Sects, alongside two dozen people in nondescript clothing.

Each of those two dozen was armed and armoured to a reasonable degree, but the uniformity of it all made Verdan think they weren’t Sect retainers.

If they were, than a single Sect had put this together, but if they had, he’d expect the retainers to be dressed accordingly.

Verdan was about to move back to the others when another group came out of the cave, led by a woman in dark robes. The woman announced something before stepping aside as half of the non-Sorcerers hurried past her into the cave.

There was something about the woman that seemed familiar, but it wasn’t until she shifted that he saw the wand that she’d been holding.

Reaching out with his Aether senses, Verdan could feel the magic around that wand. A familiar kind of magic.