“A thousand?” Verdan echoed with disbelief.

“A thousand,” Cristian confirmed with a firm nod. “Four main groups, two of which are split further into what we think are Sorcerers and their retainers. The others are trying to get an accurate count of Sorcerers, but there are at least a hundred or more.”

“Damn,” Verdan muttered, considering their own forces with growing concern. In magical power alone, they were severely outnumbered, though he doubted the quality of the average Sorcerer. In the end, though, it would come down to holding the walls. “How many guards and militia do we have?”

“We have two hundred experienced and veteran guards, just shy of three hundred that are trained but lack the experience and a hundred and fifty militia who’ve banded together to help,” Griffon recited from memory. “With your arrows and the few enchanted crossbows, we can do a lot, but we’re outnumbered and outclassed.”

“We do have the defensive position, though, as well as the traps, the walls and Verdan’s defensive wards. All of that is a force multiplier.” Tim pointed out, trying to bring a touch of positivity back to the conversation.

“He’s not wrong, this will be tough, but we don’t need to win. We just need to survive long enough,” Verdan said, thinking of the incoming reinforcements. “They will be reluctant to risk Sorcerers at first, so we need to do as much damage as we can early on before they move to counter us.”

“They might not realise about us Witches yet,” Gwen said slowly, pulling on her hair where she’d tied it back. “Carla and I could pool our power and do something similar to what you did back at the village. It would take a lot, but it might be worth it.”

Verdan knew that Gwen was still angry with him for his deal with the Steel Custodians. For all that it might have been the right move to protect the city, it was still putting more power into the hands of Sorcerers.

Still, he was glad to see that she wasn’t letting that get in the way of everything now. This wasn’t the time for differences of opinion.

Either they all worked together, or the Sects would own the city by the end of the week.

- **-

A runner from the front fortification came sprinting into the command post just after noon, reporting that the Sects were on the move.

Verdan was meditating and working on his gathering spiral when the news came. Every last drop of Aether could mean life or death now, and while he understood the need for rest, he fully intended to use every free moment to push his spiral further.

Getting to his feet and grabbing his staff, Verdan rushed down to the earthworks alongside the bulk of his companions and the allies they’d gathered in the city.

The plan remained to do as much damage as they could upfront, assuming that the Sects did as Verdan expected and primarily send their retainers and conscripts.

It would be useful to keep their magical abilities secret, but the chance to deal a severe blow and help even out the numbers involved was too big to ignore.

Taking up position on the wall of the new fortifications, Verdan looked out across the light woodlands that dominated the area outside of Hobson’s Point.

Several paved roads cut through the trees, the largest and most prominent of which led east. It was this road that the Sects were advancing down, their weapons and armour glinting in the sun as they marched on.

It was hard to get an accurate count on what was coming their way as some of the enemies were in amongst the trees, but Verdan put it at a solid two hundred or so.

There was a definite temptation to start picking off the few robed figures he could see with long-range spells, but the last thing Verdan wanted to do was stop the attack before it had begun.

This was a test of their defences, and Verdan could easily put himself in their mindset and think that this was hardly a critical moment.

This was almost a quarter of their total force, but the Sorcerers were thin on the ground from what Verdan could see, and the Sects had repeatedly shown that the Sorcerers were all they cared about.

Kai moved up to join Verdan and began pointing out a few key points about the enemy. “The central group look like mercenaries. You can tell from the lack of Sect colours. Given what we encountered, that means the front group is likely made of captives being forced to fight.”

“Disgusting,” Verdan muttered, seeing the differences that Kai had pointed out and feeling even less sympathy for what they were going to do to the Sects.

Verdan’s experience with pitched battles had been between forces that were unified and cohesive, not this strange medley that the Sects had put together.

“They’ll likely make them charge first. Is there a way to temporarily strengthen the pits?” Kai asked, his lips curling into a slight smile as Verdan nodded. “Good, then this is what I have in mind…”

-**-

The Sect group advanced at a steady pace, coming to a halt a short distance from the first pit, putting them just outside of unenhanced bow range.

The intimidating sight was somewhat undermined by the front ranks of the group being made up of terrified captives, but the heavily armed mercenaries behind them more than made up for that.

Several runners had been sent for the supplies that Kai had requested, and they were yet to return, so Verdan and the others had no issue with letting the Sects display their military might for as long as they wished.

Five minutes slowly passed by, the tension in the air building bit by bit as the two groups stared each other down before a pair of Sorcerers made their way to the front.

Neither one of them looked familiar to Verdan, so he assumed these were simply the pair in charge of this attack. A dubious honour at best in Verdan’s mind.

“We seek a peaceful audience with the leaders of the city. You are blocking our path, and we believe them to be in danger. Present the council to us within the hour, or we will attack in defence of your city’s liberty.” The Weeping Death representative called out, their voice carrying to where Kai and Verdan stood atop the walls.

“I should have known,” Verdan muttered, shaking his head at the brash ploy the Sects were going with.

No one would present would believe a word of what they were saying, but if everything was spun in the right way, he could see it being believable or at least close enough to be accepted as an excuse.

“Predictable. They have to establish their own narrative,” Kai said with a shrug. “At least they will be giving us the time to set up our surprise.”

“True enough,” Verdan said, taking a step back from the wall and taking a seat. “I’m going to work on my visualisation for your plan. Let me know if they do anything.”

-**-

Surprisingly, the Sect group waited the full hour they had stipulated, and Verdan could have sworn that they looked a little surprised when the city didn’t immediately surrender to them.

As soon as the hour finished, the Sorcerers began to shout their orders.

Verdan couldn’t make out what was said, but the message was clear when the Weeping Death spokesperson threw a bolt of poisonous energy into the crowd of conscripts, sending two of them to the ground with screams of pain.

Fear drove the conscripts forward in a ragged group that picked up speed as they came.

The Fwyn had been carefully reinforcing the pit traps, but Verdan still held his breath as the mass of men and women thundered across them.

Thankfully, none of the pits broke, and no unnecessary blood was shed.

The weak centre of the fortification, where the original entrance had been, shifted in place, revealing a slight gap through the wall.

With no ladders or ropes, the conscripts were little more than fodder to trigger traps and demoralise the defenders, but the fear of certain death was enough to drive them forward and into that slight gap.

“Durst,” Verdan called out as the first of the conscripts started to rush through the gap.

Two boxes of potions and vials of all descriptions sat just beyond the wall, right where the opening lay. Verdan’s spell tore down into them, shattering them and releasing their contents.

“Sia niwlla grym!” Verdan caught onto the released contents of the potions and grunted in effort as he dragged it all into the air and formed a thick mist around the exit, just in time for the first conscript to run out of the gap, face first into it.

The combined contents of nearly every sleeping draught and potion that had been on standby in the guard infirmaries hit the conscript like a rock, and the Aether Verdan poured into the spell greatly hastening the effect.

The spell itself was difficult, and holding on to such a strange concept and unusual medium was taxing, but each conscript that made it through barely had the chance to clear the potion mist before they keeled over and were dragged away.

Verdan let out a heavy sigh of relief as the last of the unconscious bodies were moved away from the wall, and he was finally able to release his spell.

At this point, the mist he’d been maintaining was more Aether than the original liquid. Still, the spell had seemingly replicated the properties of what was initially there, keeping the potency up.

When Kai had asked him if he could do it, Verdan had been unsure. He’d never tried to blend alchemy with wizardry before, not like this. The result had been far more than he expected and it was something to look into once all this was over.

Shaking himself, Verdan turned to see the dozen Fwyn emerge from their burrow and hurry towards the gap in the wall with tired expressions.

The diminutive Fwyn had been working almost nonstop for days, but this was the only way they could avoid slaughtering all those innocents.

“Return to your rest. I will deal with this,” a voice called out in Low Imperial, startling the Fywn for a moment before they eagerly returned to their burrow.

Branwen and Cullan were walking down to the fortification, but it was Branwen who had spoken to the Fwyn.

As the red-haired Idrisyr approached the wall, Verdan couldn’t help but wonder what she had in mind.

“Lord of Earth, lend us your aid to reform what has been sundered,” Branwen called out, her voice thick with power as Exeon coalesced around her.

Striding forward, Branwen placed a hand on either side of the gap and pushed it closed with a single mighty flex of her arms, stone and earth rising from the ground to immediately replace what was being moved as she reformed the wall.

“Did we miss the fight?” Cullan called out into the silence that followed his sister’s display, a morose expression on his face as he watched the unconscious captives be ferried into the city.