Verdan left the adventurer’s guild a few hours later with a lot less Aether but a lot more silver.

It was an odd circumstance that he found himself in, where money was more important than magic.

For much of his life, Verdan had focused entirely on his magic, eschewing money beyond what he needed to live comfortably. Now, however, he had a staff, guards and was paying for multiple adventuring teams.

How times changed. If only his old Master could see him now.

A slight smile touched Verdan’s lips as they made their way back to the estate, one that vanished when he saw what could only be Disciple Macannan waiting for them.

The Sorcerer stood outside the estate’s gates, suited in heavy armour and bearing a large halberd. Two more armoured fighters stood beside the Sorcerer, though their armour was far less impressive.

Interestingly, one of the two extras bore a heavy bag over one shoulder while the other stood in position to keep watch over them.

“Wizard Blacke,” the Sorcerer greeted him as they drew close, one fist clanging against his breastplate in a salute that Verdan returned.

“Disciple Macannan, thank you for aiding my companion yesterday,” Verdan said, glossing over that it was Kai who had aided Macannan. Such things mattered little when being polite.

“It was a pleasure to fight alongside him,” Macannan said, his gravelly voice tinged with respect as he nodded to Kai. “May we speak inside?”

“Of course, please, follow me,” Verdan said, heading through the gates with the heavily armoured group clanging along behind him.

Macannan’s aides handed over the bag to the Sorcerer once they were within the estate, taking up positions outside the mansion as Verdan, Kai, and Macannan stepped inside.

Oddly enough, Macannan kept his armour on as they moved to the sitting room, though he left his halberd in the hall, as did Kai with his spear.

Kai must have seen the look on Verdan’s face as he cleared his throat to draw the Wizard’s attention. “Steel Custodians are sworn to remain in their armour unless with the sect.”

“Ah, yes, I apologise. I should have been the one to explain that,” Macannan said, reaching up to remove his helmet and set it to one side. “This is as much as we are allowed.”

Macannan had a shaved head, grey eyes and a prominent square jaw, but what drew Verdan’s eyes were the numerous cuts and wounds that had healed over. The Sorcerer had seen his share of battle.

“A restrictive oath,” Verdan commented neutrally, making the big Sorcerer chuckle to himself.

“A carryover from a darker time, but one we bear with pride. Now, originally your companion asked me to come to discuss matters with you, but I have heard several tales of your magic, Wizard Blacke, and I have my own questions for you.”

Macannan’s gaze was oddly intent as he spoke, making Verdan suppress the instinct to shift in his chair.

“Very well, that seems acceptable,” Verdan said, glancing at Kai but finding no answers. “First, could you tell me more about the Steel Custodians? I know little of your sect.”

“We are a militant sect devoted to securing fallen Enclaves and expanding the territory and dominion of civilisation. We have no interest in politics or infighting between sects. What matters is our mission.”

That same focus and intensity returned to the Sorcerer’s eyes as he spoke, making Verdan realise he was dealing with a true believer.

“I see, and are you aware of our problem with the Weeping Death and their attempts to take the city?” Verdan asked, mulling over the mission of the Steel Custodians internally.

It was a worthy goal to try and reclaim what was lost. He could respect that.

“Yes, and I am sorry to say that infighting here does not concern us. I regret that this is occurring, and, personally, I side with your people, but we do not get involved.”

“Even when their attacks, like yesterday, weaken the city and our hold on the area?” Verdan asked, trying to understand where the sorcerers drew the line.

“While that is true, the growth potential is provided by the Weeping Death taking over the city and using it to grow as a faction. We do not step in with simple attacks or even large battles. We would only take sides if lasting and permanent damage was done.”

“An arbitrary decision when the deaths of those protecting this city yesterday will be both lasting and permanent,” Verdan said, eyes narrowing as he stared down the Sorcerer.

“We have to draw the line somewhere, or else we would spend our strength championing causes when there are other sects to do so. Our focus must always be on our Mission.”

“I see,” Verdan said simply, understanding there would be no swaying the Sorcerer to their side.

“I think you do,” Macannan said, nodding with finality. “Now, I wanted to discuss your magic. I understand you’re not a Sorcerer?”

“That’s correct,” Verdan said, tensing a little as he wondered where the metal Sorcerer was going with this.

“The description I’ve had is that you are a versatile magic-user with an array of abilities, including enchantment. Does that extend to some knowledge of magical items?”

“It may do, depending on the item, how it works and its function. I’m no Enchanter,” Verdan said, his curiosity piqued by the odd line of questions.

“Hmm, very well. I would like you to examine an item I possess and determine its function. I will pay a large silver for the attempt.” Macannan produced a single large silver coin, which Verdan knew was worth fifty normal silver darns, a significant amount of money.

Just that single coin would pay a good portion of the wages he owed for the next few weeks.

“I make no promise to success,” Verdan warned, though he knew he’d accept. He needed the money and was intrigued by what this item might be.

“All I ask is a meaningful attempt,” Macannan said, waiting until Verdan nodded before rising and passing the Wizard the coin and the bag. “The item is within. I’d like to see what your initial thoughts are.”

Tucking the coin away, Verdan opened the bag and reached inside to draw out an odd-looking sphere with what looked like struts of a tripod coming out from what he assumed was the bottom.

The surface of the sphere had fine lines carved into it that made up some sort of repeating pattern covering most of its surface area.

Verdan leaned closer as he turned the sphere in his hands, following a few of the lines as he got a sense of the base design of the pattern.

It was incredibly intricate.

The room was silent, but Verdan hardly noticed as he traced a design with his finger. These looked like Sigils, the arcane symbols that Enchanters used as the basis of their work.

From what Verdan knew, they were similar to Words of Power, and the Enchanter doing the work had to manage their intent and use that to create the end design.

However, these couldn’t be Sigils; they were far too regular and repeated. A Sigil was a single piece of flowing work that covered as much of an item as possible to give the best result.

These, however, were a single design repeated what looked like dozens of times across the whole sphere. So similar, yet so different at the same time.

“What are your thoughts?” Macannan asked, breaking Verdan’s focus for a moment.

“They remind me of Sigils. Have you shown this to an Enchanter?” Verdan asked, his eyes not leaving the odd sphere.

“Not yet. I only recently found it in a ruin I was exploring.”

“I didn’t expect that you would be ruin diving,” Verdan said curiously as he swept the sphere with his Aether senses. It was totally inert.

“Part of our mission is to reclaim what has been lost, whether that be cities and Enclaves that have fallen or ancient magics that we find in forgotten tombs.”

“Interesting,” Verdan muttered, pausing in place as he found a different sort of marker on the sphere. Right at the base, between the spokes of the tripod, there was a divot, a recessed area of the artifact that was half the size of his finger.

Lacking any further physical ways to examine it, Verdan drew up a tendril of Aether and tried to slowly feed it to one of the odd Sigils, being ready to whip it away at the slightest sign of danger.

A normal Sigil would be absorbing ambient Aether to sustain itself, but as Verdan touched this one with his Aether, he could feel it absorb and pull in the energy.

A soft white light bloomed momentarily from the Sigil that Verdan had chosen, but it faded as quickly as it came.

Frowning, Verdan repeated the action with slightly more Aether, noting that the Sigils surrounding the one he chose illuminated somewhat, though it still failed as quickly as it started.

“Impressive, none of us could make it do that,” Macannan said excitedly, leaning forward to watch what Verdan was doing more closely.

“Try and work it like you do your spear,” Verdan said, passing the odd device to Kai while studying it with his Aether sense to watch what happened.

“Nothing,” Kai said after a moment, passing the item back to Verdan, who regarded it with growing interest. He’d watched the Essence leave Kai and try to enter the device, the same as he’d done it.

The difference, of course, was that Essence was aspected-Aether, whereas Verdan used the pure version. That the device reacted to only that meant it was useless for Sorcerers, it also meant that it might well have been designed for Wizards.

“The problem you face is that your Essence contains an aspect; yours is metal, I would assume. This device seems to only work with neutral Essence like I use.”

Verdan used terminology that he thought best suited the situation, not wanting to give Macannan too much insight into what Wizards were.

“Is there a way to teach someone to use magic in your manner?” Macannan asked, tapping his fingers on one leg in thought.

“Realistically, no, and especially not for Sorcerers,” Verdan said firmly. He wasn’t being roped into teaching people how to use devices like this.

“A shame. Do you know what the function is?”

“There is no variance to the Sigils, so my guess would be a magical lantern,” Verdan said honestly, though he had some other theories beyond that.

“I was hoping it might be more,” Macannan said, his fingers tapping for a few more moments before stopping as he rose to his feet. “There were more within the ruins, so you may keep this one if you examine other items of this nature that I retrieve.”

“You have a deal,” Verdan said, trying not to let his relief at keeping the item show. He desperately wanted to examine it further, but he also wanted to downplay its significance to Macannan.

“Very good. I hope to work with you more,” the metal sorcerer said as he moved to the hall and retrieved his halberd.

“Indeed, I look forward to examining anything else you might encounter,” Verdan said, regretting saying it the moment the words left his mouth. He sounded far too eager.

Macannan regarded Verdan thoughtfully before nodding and walking to the exit. “For what it’s worth, I hope you win.”