Unfortunately, Gruthka knew very little beyond the location of the darjee camp and a rough estimate of their numbers. This particular band of darjee had been plaguing the fwyn for some time, whittling down their numbers a few slowly but steadily. The dozen fwyn that Gruthka could call upon for a raid were actually all of the remaining adults in the clan that could fight. There were other clans in the area, but Gruthka had no authority to summon them. They could only hope that some would come anyway.

One thing that Gruthka did know was the darjee schedule. He estimated two, maybe three, days at most before the darjee would return to this camp. That gave them a window of opportunity to prepare and a chance to take out a good portion of the darjee in a surprise attack.

‘How many of your people could join us in an attack in three days time?’ Verdan asked, considering the options they had before them.

‘Three, maybe four, the others are too far away or out of contact right now. I can summon them to a nearby burrow, but we would need to know when to strike,’ Gruthka said, gesturing off to the west.

‘What if you came with us?’ Verdan mused, more to himself than anything, tapping his fingers on his staff in thought. ‘My construct will warn me when they return, we can all come back, and you can liase with the others so that we attack at the same time.’

‘That will work,’ Gruthka said slowly, clearly thinking it over to see what could go wrong. ‘Yes, that will work. I will return to the burrow now and send word. Are you able to wait here for a few hours?’

Verdan simply nodded, and the fwyn inclined his head in response before turning and heading into the woods. Kai and the brothers tensed slightly at the movement but made no move to stop Gruthka as he ran off, the shadows of the woods allowing the grey-furred creature to vanish from sight with ease.

‘I hope he was meant to do that,’ Kai said, a slight edge to his voice as he stared off in the direction Gruthka had left with a hooded gaze and a tight grip on his spear.

‘Yes, he’ll come back and then return to the cottage with us, then when I’m alerted that the darjee are returning, we will all come back here so he can fetch the others,’ Verdan said, looking round to find a comfy spot to rest while they waited.

‘It feels wrong to work with a non-human. Are you sure he’s trustworthy?’ Kai asked, shifting his weight as he glanced from Verdan back to the woods.

‘As sure as I can be, his hate of the darjee seems real enough. The rest we can work on,’ Verdan said, seating himself against a large tree with a sigh.

‘Hmm, we’ll see,’ Kai muttered, walking off into the woods.

‘Don’t worry, we’re behind you all the way,’ Tim said, leaning in and speaking in a low tone to keep it between them. ‘Anyone else, and we’d be worried, but we believe in you, Boss.’

Verdan smiled back at the guard, touched by their faith in him despite their lack of knowledge about the fwyn. ‘Thanks, it’s appreciated.’

Tim gave him a wide grin before heading over to join his brother, who was busy munching some jerky from his pack. Seeing the brothers settle in, Verdan took the opportunity to head back to the darjee camp and infuse the construct he’d created with enough Aether to ensure it would last for a full three days. He doubted he’d have a chance to come back and refill it at this rate.

-**-

The wait for Gruthka, and the following journey back to the cottage, was filled with silence. Kai was uncomfortable with Gruthka’s presence, and the fwyn quickly picked up on his body language, giving the whole thing a tense atmosphere.

There was a brief moment of worry when they entered the glade with Gruthka. The spirit powering the wards turned its attention to them, giving Gruthka significantly more scrutiny than the rest of them. The small fwyn froze in fear at the initial scan and almost fled in a panic before Verdan could calm him down.

Still, once they were inside and Verdab explained the situation, things calmed down nicely. Gruthka was intrigued by how different the atmosphere was in the warded glade and almost immediately wandered off to look around on his own.

Gwen came from behind the cottage to greet them, stumbling a little as she saw the fwyn walking calmly with them. Verdan quickly explained the basics of what had happened; he didn’t want the ward to pick up on her feelings and drive the fwyn out. He doubted the ward had sufficient complexity to pick up on something like that, but it was better safe than sorry.

‘So, how long do you have?’ Gwen asked one he’d finished explaining, walking alongside him as they made their way back around the cottage to Verdan’s favoured spot on the bench by the pond.

‘Two, maybe three, days, not long, but it will have to do,’ Verdan said, noting the small pile of journals and books next to the bench as they approached. Gwen had clearly been busy while they were away. ‘How goes your research?’

‘Mixed results,’ Gwen said with a heavy sigh. Sitting down at the other side of the bench, she grabbed the top journal off the pile and rapped a knuckle against it. ‘This is the journal she was keeping when she gained control, but the whole thing is filled with religious nonsense. She talks a lot about becoming closer to the goddess and how her belief helped open her eyes. Nothing helpful at all.’

‘Nothing helpful!’ Verdan spluttered, going into a coughing fit for a moment before fixing Gwen with an incredulous gaze. ‘Have you forgotten that witches have a patron goddess?’

‘Well, no, but why does that matter? It isn't like we pray to her or anything,’ Gwen said with a shrug, casually showing a level of disrespect to her patron that would horrify the witches he’d known.

‘I think this is one of those situations where I can provide some key information again,’ Verdan said, pausing to take a drink from his water flask and gather his thoughts. ‘What do you know about the goddess of witches?’

‘Ceravwen, goddess of rebirth, women and witchcraft. Patroness of witches and linked to the first witch according to legend. Lots of ties to nature and a few other gods, ’ Gwen rattled off, clearly knowing the basics at least.

‘All correct, but missing a few key bits. The biggest is that she wasn’t just linked to the first witch. Ceravwen personally granted the first generation of witches their powers. The first Hearth Witch, the first Hex Witch, the first Herbal Witch, you get the idea. She is your patron as all witchcraft uses her power intermixed with Aether, power that is replenished through prayer, ceremony and worship. More importantly for our current needs, she is the one who sends familiars to provide her followers with control of their power.’ He paused to shake his head in disbelief once more at this new world he found himself in. ‘I thought this a matter of finding the right ritual, not that you didn’t even worship your own benefactor. No wonder you have no control. You're trying to wield divine power without the proper tools.’

‘But, that makes no sense. Why would we stop worshipping Ceravwen if she held so much power?’ Gwen protested.

‘These things don’t happen straight away, I imagine it was a slow, quiet death of worship until so few were true believers that she was blamed for the lack of control as well,’ Verdan said, tapping a finger on his chin as he considered how it could all of played out.

‘Could it be so simple?’ Gwen said, more to herself than anything. ‘We only needed to believe in her to gain control.’

‘It could be. I’m no witch, though. My advice is to read the books and learn about her. It takes more than lip service for this to work; you need to truly believe. Perhaps you could try and perform some form of communion during a storm. All the Aether will be stirred up and active to begin with, and it will be when your magic is most linked to nature. If that doesn’t work, I’m all out of ideas,’ Verdan gave her a slight shrug, not having anything else to offer.

‘Yes, okay, I need to think about all this,’ Gwen said absently, gathering her things up in a daze and turning to go back to the cottage. 'Thanks, Verdan.'

Verdan contemplated Gwen's problems for a few moments before shaking his head. He had no more information to give, and the time he had before the darjee arrived was going to be spent expanding his gathering spiral and building his reserve of Aether. He had a feeling that some larger spells would be called for soon, and anything with a large area of effect was Aether intensive by its very nature.

Slipping into his meditative state, Verdan took control of his second spiral and began to compress it, ready for expansion. He had a few days to work with, and every minute would count.