Verdan tapped a finger against his lips in thought as he watched the second test sword peak at a bright red colour before it started to cool. His initial idea had been that the amount of Essence that Kai had poured into the blade had overpowered Verdan’s construct. However, with the results from this test, that didn’t seem to be the case.

The second test had used a lot less Essence from Kai but had the same unfortunate result. While it could be that Kai needed to use even less Essence than that, Verdan doubted that was the case. It was more likely that there was another aspect to this that he hadn’t considered yet.

Perhaps the issue was the use of Essence rather than Aether; that was the only other thing that jumped out at him. The problem Verdan had with that was that Essence was Aether, just aspected to a specific elemental concept.

"Tell me again how you cultivate your Essence," Verdan said, knocking the damaged sword off to one side with his staff before heading back to his chair.

"We meditate and draw in the world’s energy from our surroundings. Though, that is what you call Aether, right?" Kai said, pausing to look over at Verdan for confirmation before continuing. "Right. So we draw in the Aether and regulate the flow by breathing exercises. As we draw it in, we focus on the concept that resonates with us, and the Aether is converted to Essence to be stored in our core."

"The Aether is converted to Essence," Verdan repeated, looking up at the ceiling for inspiration as he considered what Kai was saying. Conversion was the key word here. Aspecting Aether to create Essence must have a more significant impact than Verdan had anticipated.

Thinking back on what Kai had said, Verdan’s mind lingered on the description of how a sorcerer focused on the concept they held while cultivating. That sounded almost like how Verdan held a concept in his mind to cast a spell.

Creating the Aether construct a third time, Verdan made a change for this one. He used the Aether to form channels within the blade, giving access to Kai’s Essence but not trying to impart a concept to it. If Verdan were to add his Aether, it would do nothing, but he was confident that Kai’s essence would do something different.

"Kai, run your Essence through the blade, as before. However, this time, I want you to focus on the blade being wreathed in flames, like something an augmenter would do," Verdan instructed, eyes glittering with anticipation.

Kai nodded and took the blade, his eyes gaining a faraway look as he fed his essence into it. The whole process was much smoother now on their third attempt than at first, and it took Kai only a brief moment of concentration.

Kai had barely begun the process when flame seemed to lick out of the metal itself, enshrouding the top third of the blade with yellow flames. Kai dropped the sword immediately, mistaking it for the same issue as before.

The flames continued to writhe around the sword for a moment before the remaining Essence within was consumed, and it returned to its normal state. The blade itself was cool to the touch and completely unaffected by the fire, just as it should be.

"How?" Kai murmured, looking down at the sword with wide eyes.

"Your Essence must have an inherent concept attached to it. When it was entering the sword, the competing concepts were fighting each other, and the result was the sword itself being heated. You could form your own temporary enchantment by guiding the concept as you did." Verdan explained with a broad smile, rather pleased with himself.

"But, this is something only an augmenter should be able to do!" Kai half-objected.

"I’m not as confident with how Essence works now that it’s demonstrably different, but I think you could learn to do this without me with some training. For now, I can put these temporary enchantments on, and it will work," Verdan said with a gesture to the sword. "The Aether will be used every time you channel Essence into the construct, and it will require a steady flow of Essence, but not a bad result, really."

"Not a bad result," Kai echoed, shaking his head in disbelief. "How many times could I use that construct of yours before it failed?"

"Let me see," Verdan said, examining the construct with his Aether senses. The integrity of the construct was good. There were a few areas where the Aether had been worn away but nowhere near enough to impact functionality. "It’s hard to say. We’ll need to examine it over time and compare the loss of integrity to usage."

"Right, of course," Kai said, giving Verdan a long look before shaking his head. "You do realise how many enemies you’ll make with this, right?"

"Why would this make me any enemies?" Verdan cocked his head to one side, confused by the statement.

"A potential new way of doing things that allows non-augmenters to do something like this?" Kai shook his head and rubbed his face. "The sects won’t like it, not one bit."

"Well, it’s a good job that there aren’t any sects up here, then," Verdan said, bridling at the thought of someone limiting the research he could do for such a pathetic reason. "Besides, only I can make these, so the impact will only be minor, for the moment."

Kai didn’t say anything, but the look in his eyes told Verdan that the reality of the situation might not be so straightforward.

"Look, I’m not curtailing my work just because some idiots might take offence," Verdan said, his tone growing heated as he raged at the stupidity of humanity. "I might be academic by choice, but that doesn’t mean I won’t fight for what I believe in." A moment passed in silence before Kai inclined his head in acknowledgement, and Verdan sighed heavily as his anger faded. That was a bit much of a response on his part, but it cut right down to old wounds.

"Boss?" A faint call came from outside the room, interrupting them before Verdan could say anything further.

"I’ll take a look," Kai said, grabbing his spear as he went to leave the room. Pausing at the door, Kai looked back at Verdan with a resolute expression, "for what it's worth; I feel the same. I’ll back you up all the way."

Verdan sighed to himself as he heard Kai walk away. As much as what he’d said was true, he also didn’t want that kind of conflict. Verdan was tired, tired of the unnecessary fighting, of the doubt and the politics of it all.

The fight against the darjee with the fwyn had been almost a relief for him. The good and bad had been clear to see, there were no moral shades of grey, and he’d had good support from his allies. Even so, Tim had almost died in the process, and Verdan didn’t want any more blood on his hands.

Shaking himself out of it, Verdan put the test swords to one side and headed out to see what was going on.

Verdan caught up with Kai at the entrance to the workshop, where he was talking with Tim.

"What’s going on?" Verdan asked as he walked over to them. Tim glanced to Kai for permission before turning to Verdan and answering his question.

"There’s a couple at the gate for you, Mr and Mrs Barbeau. They said that Mr Brock had sent them your way. I got one of the local lads to watch them while I came to find you."

"Good work, Tim," Verdan said, glad that Tim hadn’t just let them wander in or left them unsupervised. "Bring them over to the manor and give your assistant this." Verdan passed Tim a few copper darns for the man he’d conscripted and sent him on his way.

"Who are they?" Kai asked as the two of them started toward the manor.

"Tobias said he was sending a prospective housekeeper and chef my way. This sounds like it might be them," Verdan said, unsure of who else might be trying to visit him.

Kai waited with Verdan at the entrance to the manor as Tim brought over their visitors, his wolf companion walking along at his side. Some of her silver fur was stained dark red around her neck, reminding Verdan that he had to look at helping her sooner rather than later.

Putting that aside, for now, Verdan stepped forward to welcome Mr and Mrs Barbeau. Mrs Barbeau was a middle-aged woman with some streaks of grey running through her dark hair, but she smiled warmly at Verdan and seemed to exude a motherly aura.

Her husband, by contrast, looked to be a few years younger despite his short, grey hair. Like Tobias, Mr Barbeau had a gaunt physique, but he didn’t look as unhealthy as Tobias had when Verdan had first met him.

"Welcome. My name is Verdan Blacke. I’m the new owner here," Verdan said as they drew near.

‘"A pleasure to meet you, Mr Blacke, my name is Adrienne, and this is my husband, Henry." Adrienne gave him something approaching a curtsy, and Henry bowed silently. "Mr Brock sent us to discuss an opening in your household. If you have time?"

"Ah, please, none of that. Call me Verdan, and, of course, please come inside," Verdan said, opening the manor's front door and waving everyone in.

"Boss, I don’t want to impose, but Sylvie’s collar is cutting her a fair bit. Can you take a look?" Tim asked softly once the Barbeau's had gone inside with Kai.

"Sylvie?" Verdan queried, a smile tugging at his face despite the situation as he gave Tim a judgemental look.

"What, she’s silver, and I can’t just call her wolf, can I?" Tim crossed his arms defensively, blushing a little. Silvie whined softly and rubbed her head on Tim’s knee, making him smile and absently fuss her head.

"Of course, that would be silly," Verdan murmured, masking his amusement as he crouched down and tried to get a look at the wolf’s collar.

Understanding his intent, Sylvie sat down and turned her head away, exposing the collar and the bloody flesh around it. From what Verdan could tell, the collar prevented the flesh from ever fully healing around it, causing it to remain as a partially open wound. The risk of infection was high, let alone the pain and discomfort.

"Iacha," Verdan rested a hand on Sylvie’s head, sending a burst of positive energy into her. Verdan did his best to direct it to heal the wolf physically, but the vile corruption in the collar worked against the Aether as soon as it entered her.

Having healed the wolf several times now, Verdan was becoming more familiar with the corruption within the collar and how it acted against him. He estimated that it was reducing the efficacy of his Aether to a mere third of what it would normally accomplish.

The flesh around the collar was somewhat healed, but that was all. It was enough to hopefully reduce the pain the wolf was in, but nowhere near as much as Verdan wanted.

The more Verdan interacted with this form of corruption, the more frustrating he found it. Cyth corruption would have just fought directly against his Aether, letting him break it down directly. The collar, however, acted to suppress any Aether entering the wolf but didn’t stop it from acting. It was far more subtle and more effective.

"Thank you," Tim said, a sad smile touching his face as he looked at the freshly healed flesh. "She doesn’t let it stop her, but I can tell it hurts her."

"I’ll do more when I can, but she needs more than a simple spell to fix this. When my equipment arrives, I promise I’ll do more for her," Verdan said solemnly, resting a hand on Tim’s shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze.

"I know, Boss, I trust you," Tim said, straightening under Verdan’s touch. "Come on, Sylvie, let’s go for a walk."

Verdan watched Tom walk away, Sylvie at his heels, and ran a hand through his hair; he hated feeling so helpless.

"Verdan?" Kai asked from behind him, reminding Verdan that he had other things to deal with.

"I’ll be right in," Verdan said over his shoulder, taking a moment to compose himself before following Kai into the manor’s sitting room.