Unfortunately, the next two guards were also unable to trigger the device, so Silver left to gather the next set to be tested while Verdan sat the guard down at the table with them.

The guard was a hawkish-looking man with pale blue eyes and light brown hair called Auger, who was apparently the guard who’d killed a Sorcerer with Verdan’s shield breaker bolt.

“Please, do the same as before,” Verdan said, passing Auger the tester once more and watching as it gave the same result. “Interesting. Kai, what are your thoughts?”

“The light means that the energy is present, but it isn’t one of the types you’ve accounted for, correct?” Kai asked with a thoughtful expression.

“That’s right, but even related elements should come through on those.”

“Should it be that bright, though?” Kai asked, motioning for Auger to pass him the device before activating it himself. “See, the light is just as bright from Auger, but shouldn’t mine be stronger?”

“That’s a very good point,” Verdan said, impressed that Kai had noticed such a minor detail. “He shouldn’t be producing that strong a reaction at all, as the glow should be simply the passage of energy. Unless that’s related to his element in some way?”

“Is there anything about light or things glowing that speaks to you?” Kai asked, leaning in to address Auger directly.

“I don’t understand. What’s going on here?” Auger asked uncertainly, looking between Kai and Verdan. “Why did that glow when I did as you asked? Is this some new sort of enchantment?”

“We’ll explain at the end. Now, answer the question,” Kai said, fixing the guard with a stern look.

“I don’t know, maybe?” Auger said, shifting in his seat a little. “I mean, I’ve always been proud of my sight. I’ve got the best eyes in the city.”

Verdan tapped his leg thoughtfully, intrigued by the possibilities of what Auger was saying. He remembered that Kai had talked of his love of fire and wind, and Tim had said that Tom had been obsessed with rocks and stones growing up. Was there a personality effect involved?

It seemed bizarre to imagine, but Sorcery was quite odd, to begin with, so who knew what would or wouldn’t be relevant?

Kai asked a few more leading questions about things Auger was interested in, and Verdan listened with interest as more evidence came together to suggest a link between the element a Sorcerer used and their personality.

There was a solid test Verdan could run, however, so he asked Auger to close his eyes and try to reach out with his sense. “Disir.”

A small globe of light appeared above Verdan’s hand for a moment, and Auger’s head snapped around to it immediately, though his eyes remained closed.

“I can feel it, it’s so faint, but it’s there,” Auger said softly, shivering a little as Verdan dismissed the light. Opening his eyes, the guard looked between them with a concerned expression. “What does this mean?”

“It means that you have the potential to become a Sorcerer. Congratulations,” Verdan said warmly, enjoying the shocked expression on the guard’s face.

“Me? But how?”

“Were you ever tested?” Kai asked gently. “Did you ever try and join a sect?”

Auger shook his head mutely, lost for words, not that Verdan could blame him. A revelation like this would no doubt change everything for him.

“So, his element is light, or something linked to it,” Verdan surmised thoughtfully, wondering just what form that would take in Sorcery terms.

“Indeed, from what you’ve said, I’d say you’re likely an Enhancer or Augmentor, but we’ll discover that later.” Kai nodded slightly to himself as he spoke, which was a good thing, as Auger seemed to be in shock. “It’s likely that you have only a slight amount of Essence or that you’ve internalised it all, which is why you’ve never presented as a Sorcerer.”

“Incredible,” Griffon said, shaking his head in disbelief as he looked between them, his coffee forgotten on the table. “It’s one thing to hear you say it but another to see it in action. How soon until he has control?”

“I’ll be running all those we gather through as intense a course as I can, but two weeks just isn’t enough time for them to be truly effective. That’s not to say that this is pointless, just that they won’t be at full strength,” Kai said, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully.

“In a similar way to Tom?” Verdan asked, thinking back to when Tom had been able to gain active control of his Essence.

“Not quite; he generated enough Essence to have a breakthrough, whereas the candidates we’ll have will have varying amounts of Essence. We’ll need to work them up to the point that they can take conscious control. It’s a very individual process, but I’ll do what I can to assist.”

“There may be some advice that I can give as well,” Verdan said somewhat hesitantly, thinking of what he could do without having too great an impact. “I’ll sit in on some of it if that won’t be an issue?”

“Whatever you think is best,” Kai said with a slight shrug. “We don’t know how many people we’re working with yet, and that will determine how we proceed.”

Auger stirred in his chair, so Verdan let Kai take over and walk the guard through the basic steps of meditating and cultivating Essence. It seemed very similar to what Verdan did, just through the lens of a concept.

Given that Kai’s advice was for Auger to focus his thoughts on what resonated with him about light and its applications, Verdan was more sure than ever that there was some crossover between the element and the Sorcerer.

Silver returned with a fresh batch of guards to be tested a short while later, and they repeated the process.

The device worked a bit more as intended this time, allowing them to identify one of the guards as having an earth-based element.

“Johnson, take a seat. The rest of you, on your way,” Silver ordered, sending the group out before looking over to Commander Griffon. “Should I keep going, Commander?”

“Yes, we need as many as we can get,” Griffon said before rising to his feet. “As fascinating as this is to watch, however, I need to get back to work. Please give me an update before you leave, though.”

“Of course,” Verdan said with a nod, part of his attention still on the conversation Kai was having with Johnson, the new earth Sorcerer.

Kai seemed to be able to infer much more information about the type of Sorcery a person could do from the questions about what they liked, and Verdan was still trying to work out how he did it.

-**-

Silver brought them another forty guards over the course of the afternoon, which netted them three more Sorcerers.

The group of five they managed to gather was a motley one, and there was no immediate synergy or commonality between them, which was disappointing.

Johnson, the earth Sorcerer, was an average-looking man with blonde hair and a serious expression. He listened intently to everything Kai said and took the revelation that he was a Sorcerer in stride without even blinking.

Auger had recovered from his own shock and was doing his best to follow Kai’s instructions, but Verdan noted that the light Sorcerer’s gaze was constantly roving the room as he watched them all.

The next Sorcerer was Mullson. The big guard was a heavyset man with dark hair, a badly crushed nose and an array of scars. Given his dark hair, Verdan had tried to work out if his scars were ornamental or from battle, but he didn’t know enough about Kran culture.

They’d had to work through what Mullson liked to get to the root of his element, but they’d worked it out to be something related to cold. Kai seemed to think it was related to ice, but they couldn’t pin it down quite yet.

The fourth Sorcerer was Havych, a short, blonde man with sleepy green eyes who seemed to have something along the lines of a water element.

The fifth and final Sorcerer was Vanada, a tall, blonde woman with brown eyes with what Kai had worked out to be a metal element.

According to Kai, it was harder to gain Essence on sub-elements or more specific concepts, which was why it was easy for Sorcerers to slip through the cracks.

The more Verdan learned about the methods the Sects used to identify Sorcerers, the more he realised that they had no idea what they were doing.

“That’s everyone I can bring for the moment. We can continue tomorrow, but we’ll be including people who I don’t know as well. I trust them to do their jobs, but I don’t know enough about them to know if they’ll keep things to themselves.” Silver said to Verdan once they’d checked the last group, being careful to keep his voice low as he did.

“I understand, but I don’t think we can afford to stop here,” Verdan said, looking over at the five guards that had passed the test. “We have five more on our side, but they will have a lot more than that.”

“A compelling argument,” Silver said, a touch of a frown crossing his face before he schooled his expression once more. “I will bring a large number to your estate in the morning under the guise of similar testing as last time if that will fit with your plans?”

“That will work for me,” Verdan said with a nod, wondering how many more Sorcerers they would gain tomorrow and how much of a difference it would ultimately make.

“Very well, until then, Wizard Blacke,” Silver inclined his head respectfully before stepping away and raising a hand to grab the attention of the other guards. “You are all now on a detached assignment to Disciple Kai. I expect you to follow his directions and show him the skill and discipline that we pride ourselves on. You are all guards of Hobson’s Point first and foremost, and I expect you to remember that. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir!” The five guards chorused back in unison, bracing to attention in their seats as best they could.

Silver surveyed them one last time before nodding to Verdan and Kai before taking his leave.

“Well, we may as well head back and get to work. Time waits for no man, and we’re rapidly running out,” Verdan said, gesturing for the new Sorcerers to get up.