Gruthka already knew where the main darjee camp would be located and the best way to get there, so there was little need to wait now that they'd dealt with the hunting party.

Kai also stated that he advised against any sort of delay. The sorcerer pointed out that the darjee would know something was amiss as soon as their hunting party failed to report in. If they were going to act, they had a brief window to do so.

Despite Verdan's assurances, Gruthka seemed almost surprised when Verdan declared that they were ready to head north with the fwyn.

Verdan might be a wizard with a passing knowledge of low imperial and who the fwyn were, but he was still a human. In Gruthka's eyes, they were the most untrustworthy race they knew. Verdan hoped that this joint venture would start to undo some of the damage done.

Once Verdan confirmed they were still heading north, the fwyn exploded into action. Gruthka had ordered them to ready supplies already, but they'd been left in a nearby secure location, just in case.

While the fwyn gathered their supplies, Verdan and his companions prepared themselves. There was sure to be a nasty fight at the end of this journey.

Interestingly, the fwyn were also able to provide a pair of wooden shields for the brothers. The make of the shields seemed human to Verdan, but Gruthka didn’t explain where they had come from.

Once ready, they set off as a group, making some headway into their journey using the last few hours of light that they had. Gruthka had said that the main camp was a full day of travel away, so they pushed on into the early evening before stopping. This way, they had only a half-day of travel tomorrow to look forward to.

Kai found them a nicely defensible area for their evening camp, and, at Gruthka's command, the fwyn got to work.

Verdan watched with interest as the fwyn created a shelter of compacted earth for them all, lining the outside with threads of stone for stability. The small creatures worked in harmony with each other, allowing them to channel large amounts of Aether into a spell and accomplish larger workings in a short space of time.

It was an interesting method, and Verdan wondered how they avoided issues with some of them having different ideas of what needed to be built. After all this was done, he'd need to sit down with Gruthka and see what he could find out.

-**-

Verdan awoke just before dawn the next day and took the opportunity to meditate outside the shelter before everyone else was awake. For once, he didn’t create more of the spiral or condense it. Instead, he grabbed hold of it with his will and began to speed the cycle, drawing in the Aether at a higher speed.

It was a will-intensive activity, and within minutes there was sweat beading on his forehead. At the same time, however, he got half again as much Aether as he would normally. Given that they were going up against a ferocious and numerically superior foe, Verdan was certain he’d need every last drop of precious Aether he had.

Verdan maintained his effort until everyone else had awoken, his face pale and his skin clammy by the time he released the spiral. Sighing deeply, Verdan hunched over and rested his elbows on his knees, his chest heaving as though he'd been sprinting around the camp. He’d recover soon enough, but there was a reason why he’d done it this early in the day.

Opening his eyes and looking around, Verdan was pleasantly surprised to see just over a dozen fwyn were speaking quietly outside the shelter. They seemed to be deferring to Gruthka, who saw him watching and came over.

‘Wizard, your fame has brought more of my people to aid us. The ancient tales give hope to those who had long since given up. It warms my heart to see them joining us, bringing us together once more. You have my thanks,’ Gruthka said, bowing low to Verdan, who returned the bow from his seated position.

‘It's easy to let despair take a grip, but today we’ll show them that your people can strike back in a way they never expected. With so many fwyn by my side, we will surely be victorious.’ Verdan put as much confidence as he could into his words and saw Gruthka straighten up in pride.

‘We’re not leaving without our clanfolk. Not a single one is going to be left behind,’ Gruthka declared with a firm nod, heading back to his companions to pass on Verdan’s confident words.

‘Encouragement?’ Kai said from behind Verdan, his voice pitched low enough that the fwyn wouldn’t hear him, even with their oddly acute hearing.

‘They needed it,’ Verdan said, equally softly. He turned to share a look with the sorcerer. They both knew how dangerous this was going to be, even with a few more fwyn on their side.

Stretching his back and wiping the sweat off, Verdan gathered his things and got to his feet. He'd taken off a lot of layers for his meditation, but he was quick to put them back on now that he could feel the cold wind biting at him.

His Aether reserves were as high as they'd ever been since he woke up; he was ready as he was going to be.

Kai, Gwen and the brothers were ready not long after him. Everyone had the same determined expression as they prepared quietly for what was coming. None of them thought this was going to be easy.

Still, Verdan had a few ideas, especially with a few more fwyn on their side. A bit of earth-craft might just be able to level the playing field a little.

-**-

Gruthka carried on leading them north, taking them on paths and trails that meandered through the pristine forests of the area. Few creatures bothered them on their journey, which wasn’t surprising given the number of them passing through.

As the sun was just starting to reach its zenith, Gruthka brought their group to a halt at the base of a large tree-covered hill. Gesturing for the other fwyn to rest, Gruthka beckoned for Verdan and Kai to follow him up the hill.

The three of them climbed to the top, with the short fwyn picking his way easily through the thick and tangled roots of the trees as the two humans struggled to keep up with him.

When they reached the top, Verdan climbed up onto a rocky outcropping and got a good view of the area. There was a large area of ruins just beyond the hill, which looked to be where the darjee were squatting.

In fact, there was something familiar about the layout of the ruins. If Verdan looked at it from the right angle, they almost matched to what he'd expect for the remnants of an old imperial forward base. Interesting.

The walls and buildings that had once been part of whatever this was were in absolute ruins. The least damaged area was the shattered leftovers of the outside wall, followed by what looked like a collapsed main building in the centre of the ruins. The rest was chaotic and disorganised, with some signs that other groups had built over some areas at some point. The whole thing had likely changed hands more than a few times over the years.

‘This is where they base themselves. Darjee like to live in ruins like these when out hunting and raiding. What do you think?’ Gruthka said, turning his wide eyes to Verdan expectantly.

‘I think that they have grown sloppy if they ever were disciplined to begin with,’ Verdan said after translating the Fwyn’s words for Kai.

From Verdan’s point of view, he had only recently been fighting in the war, so he had the right mindset for looking at weak points in an enemy’s position. To him, the darjee were arrogant beyond belief.

A cursory look at the ruins told him that they had a few stationary guards but no roving patrols and no magical protections that he could sense. With adequate magical support, a decent attack force would roll over this camp with ease.

Sadly, they were a ragtag group of combatants at best. Kai was a capable fighter, and Verdan was ready to provide fire support, but they were only two people. So much of this depended on the fwyn and Verdan's other companions. Still, Verdan was quietly confident, as long as they had time to prepare.

Pushing back from the top of the hill, Verdan led the other two down to where the rest of the group waited. It was late morning now, and he wanted to strike in the early evening, so they had time to work with.

-**-

Kai watched as Verdan engaged in an animated discussion with the fwyn, as he called them, in their own tongue. It was so strange to Kai that these creatures had taken to the Wizard so calmly. Kai was almost tempted to learn their language simply to understand how that had happened.

The ease with which they'd become allies and the acceptance of the fwyn as they travelled together cast doubts on some of Kai's previous experiences. Sleeping in a shelter created by the strange creatures was an illuminating experience for Kai. A group of earth sorcerers couldn't put together a fortified structure like that so easily, not without being individually very powerful.

While Kai might not know much about the fwyn, he knew that they weren't individually that powerful, so they must have some trick to doing it. The suggestion that sorcerers could learn from non-humans would get him killed in the south, but that was what Kai saw here.

However, Kai couldn't lay all the blame at the feet of the battle-mad sorcerers that plagued the land. He knew he’d never considered peaceful resolutions either with non-humans in the past, and he was as progressive as any sorcerer could be.

Truly, Verdan was making Kai reexamine himself, one belief at a time.

Kai’s eyes slid over to Gwen, considering that revelation as well before he cleared his mind and took a meditative pose on the ground. It looked like the conversation was over, and they were doing something fairly substantial, so Kai would use the time he had as best he could.

Seating himself on the lush grass, Kai turned his mind inward to his soul. The elemental essence within him was slowly replenishing after the last fight, and Kai had enough to fight now if needed, but he would rather ensure he was fully prepared.

Grasping the energy flowing within him, Kai brought to mind the concept that had first allowed him to become a sorcerer. The burning energy of flame, the speed of fire, the heat of his body as he moved faster and faster.

A bead of sweat rolled down Kai’s face as he focused on that concept while holding the flow of energy. As the energy flowed inside him, it passed through the lens of his concept, changing into elemental essence and settling into his core.

As the energy that had naturally built up within his body was diminished, Kai started to breathe deeply and with purpose. An essential skill for any sorcerer was learning to breathe correctly. It was vital to bring in as much fresh energy as possible, to breathe deeply, but of the right things.

It was easier to grasp the surrounding energy as he breathed while in a meditative state, but it was yet another thing to focus on. Managing his breathing while holding onto the essence and concept at the same time was always like juggling to Kai, he lacked the skill with it that some of his peers had, but he didn’t let that stop him. Every day he would cultivate the energy within him, push his boundaries and practice splitting his focus like this.

The best method to increase a sorcerer’s strength was highly debated amongst the different clans. Some said that it was best to inflate your essence by cultivating at the peak of potency, forcing your soul to expand to accommodate the new energy being drawn in. Others said that the opposite was true. They theorised that the soul was like any muscle and needed to be used, that it would grow in time due to usage and that cultivation should be done when you had no essence remaining.

Kai didn’t know which one was correct. His chosen approach was simple. He maintained his daily meditations around an exercise routine, strengthening his soul alongside his body. Perhaps it wasn’t the most efficient way, but there was something relaxing about settling down to meditate after a heavy training session.

Kai's struggle to balance the different things he needed to focus on to cultivate properly was interrupted by a strange sensation.

For a brief moment, Kai was able to sense energy flowing through the ground toward a small circle of fwyn. The energy was solid and strong but equally unyielding and slow to change, nothing like the essence he cultivated.

A blink of his eyes dispelled the vision, leaving Kai sitting on the lush grass, covered in sweat yet feeling rejuvenated. Kai felt fresh energy sweep into him and slowly spread throughout his body as he took a final, deep, cleansing breath. Maybe it was due to his conversations with Verdan about imagery, or perhaps his inspiration from their fights. Either way, he’d not had as good a meditation session in a long time.

Kai had already been at a reasonable level of energy prior to meditating. Now, he was as close to peak condition as he’d been in a long time.

A slight rumble pulled him from his thoughts, and Kai watched in fascination as the fwyn grouped together and began to raise rock from the ground to form a thick wall perpendicular to the slope of the steep hill they'd climbed earlier. The rock emerged slowly, but it rose steadily, creating a wall three times as tall as Kai and at least thirty feet long over several minutes.

Once finished, they created two more walls, each fifteen feet long and continuing from each end of the original wall at a right angle that brought them toward Kai. A final wall all but sealed the shape, leaving only a ten-foot gap directly in front of where Kai sat.

The fwyn were noticeably tired now, but they gamely continued on, a few of them moving to the interior of the walled area while the rest began a new wall that extended out from the previous one. This new wall was half as thick and slightly shorter than Kai, but it was no less impressive.

Over the next few minutes, the fwyn formed a smaller version of the shape they’d first created, with the gaps in the two walls lining up perfectly.

The tired-looking fwyn then created a thigh-high barrier that was ten feet out from the frontmost wall and was thigh-high on Kai.

The end result was a barrier that would slow the darjee down, followed by two doorways that were protected by walls that would funnel the darjee down a singular path.

Walking through the centre of the first box shape that had been created, Kai admired the defensive structure that they'd put together. The walls were firm and thick, not to mention tall enough to discourage climbing.

Reaching the interior, Kai saw that the fwyn that had broken off from the group had created steps going up the wall and a corner platform at the top. There would be no protection up there from enemy attacks, but Kai was reasonably sure that Verdan would be up there, and he doubted the darjee would be able to touch him.

All in all, it was an impressive fortification to be created within a single hour, especially by a dozen five-foot-tall creatures. Interestingly, two of the fwyn hadn’t taken part in the building effort. Instead, they stood off to one side, speaking quietly with each other.

Satisfied with their defences, Kai headed toward the hill. He would find a vantage point and keep an eye out for any wandering darjee, just in case.