Lieutenant Silver’s words hung in the air between them for a moment as Verdan closed his eyes and took a steadying breath.

“I assume you’re telling us this for a reason,” Verdan said eventually, opening his eyes once more as he got the burning rage inside him under control.

Michaels had been a problem from the first time they met, but Verdan had always chalked his interference up to idiocy and petty anger.

Perhaps if he’d pushed back harder, Declan would still be alive.

“We’re going to arrest him this afternoon,” Silver said, drawing Verdan out of his self-recrimination. “The Commander is concerned that there may be other agents of the Weeping Death in the city, however, so we would like you to attend if possible.”

“Oh, we’ll be there,” Verdan said, a dark smile touching the edge of his lips. “I hope that someone tries to resist.”

An almost inaudible growl of agreement came from Kai at Verdan’s statement, and the Wizard glanced over to see his companion clutching his spear in a white-knuckle grip, his entire posture shouting out his contained anger.

“We’d like to bring him in with the minimum of conflict,” Silver said with a somewhat concerned expression. “If this is all true, we’ll need him to cooperate to find the extent of what’s happening within the city.”

“I’ll not start anything, but I won’t hesitate if someone else does,” Verdan said flatly, unwilling to risk anyone else in an attempt to safeguard Michaels.

“That is all we ask,” Silver said with a nod, gesturing with one hand to the waiting guards. “Should we proceed with the tests, or would you like to take a few minutes?”

“We can proceed, but give us a moment,” Verdan said, breathing deep as he mastered his emotions and motioned for Silver to head back.

“I never trusted that smug bastard,” Kai growled once Silver was out of earshot. “He better pray that he knows enough to be useful for a while because as soon as we don’t need him, I’ll be mounting his head on a stick outside the city.”

“Trust me, I’ll be helping you,” Verdan said, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t help but look back and think of the times when he’s been an obstacle. Remember when he interrupted us and stopped me from reinforcing the eastern gates?”

“I remember,” Kai said with a grimace. “I never expected that it could go this far. I should have known better.” Kai’s tone was bitter, but Verdan couldn’t fault him; he was blaming himself just as much.

“Enough wallowing. Let’s see how many new Sorcerers we’ll be adding to your care,” Verdan said, starting back toward the group as he tried to bring his thoughts back to the matter at hand.

Kai remained visibly angry throughout the majority of the tests, though he seemed to have calmed down by the end. It helped that they were able to add two new Sorcerers to the group, a fire Sorcerer named Dan and an unknown element Sorcerer called Malk.

Dan had an unfortunately low amount of Essence, to the point that he’d struggled to activate the testing device, but Malk was the opposite. Despite none of the elemental tests activating, the energy section of the test had lit up as much as it had for Kai.

Kai was currently trying to work out Malk’s element by asking his usual leading questions, but the answers he was getting were vague and unhelpful.

They couldn’t exactly blame Malk for not knowing his element, though, so Verdan decided on a slightly different approach and headed over to Silver. “Do you know much about Malk?”

“Not really,” Silver shook his head slightly, his watchful gaze remaining on the guards who’d already been tested and had been sent back out of the estate to wait. “I only brought him because Sergeant Troy recommended him quite strongly. I was trying to stick to people I know, but I didn’t want to cut him out from the selection process.”

“Ah, a shame. It might help narrow down his element if we knew more about his likes and what he finds interesting, you see.” Verdan explained with a slight shrug.

Oddly, the name of the Sergeant who’d recommended Malk sounded familiar for some reason, but Verdan couldn’t place where he’d heard it before. No doubt he’d encountered the man at some point when working with the guard.

“I’ll let you know if I think of anything,” Silver said with a nod before looking up at the sky and shading his eyes. “It’s approaching noon; the Commander will be meeting us at the headquarters in the next hour or so. If you need more time, though, I can send a runner and let him know.”

“No, that will be fine,” Verdan shook his head, knowing that Kai would accept no delays in arresting the treacherous Lieutenant. “Give me a few minutes to organise things here, and we can go.”

“Of course, I’ll send the rest of the guards on their way in the meantime.” Silver left to go corral the guards who hadn’t passed the test, leaving Verdan to update Ruan on what was happening.

-**-

Verdan and Kai set off a short time later, with Lieutenant Silver and a pair of guards guiding the way as they went to rendezvous with Commander Griffon.

The Commander was waiting for them with a small contingent of guards, his expression grim but resolute.

“Wizard Blacke, thank you for joining us,” Griffon said formally, shaking Verdan’s hand and nodding to Kai. “This isn’t the outcome any of us were anticipating, but please trust that we’re willing to see this through to the end.”

“I can only imagine how difficult this is for you,” Verdan said, imagining how he’d feel if one of his people betrayed him like this.

“At this point, I’m simply glad that we’ve found this out now rather than a week from now when there have been many more opportunities for him to betray us,” Griffon said heavily. “But enough of that. We all know why we’re here, and The plan is simple enough; the Lieutenant is absent today following his father’s funeral, so we know he’ll be in his family home dealing with some of the aftermath of that.”

Verdan grimaced, not particularly happy about arresting a man on the day of his father’s funeral, regardless of how much of a dick he was.

Still, they knew where he was going to be, and even waiting for tomorrow could cost lives when they were this close to their deadline.

“What do you want from us?” Verdan asked once it was clear that the guards had no immediate questions.

“I want you to hang back and keep watch on the immediate area. If any Sorcerers are nearby, we’ll need you to act quickly. We have a few of the shieldbreaker bolts you’ve provided if we encounter significant resistance, but we’ll be relying on both of you primarily.”

“Understood, we’ll keep watch for you,” Verdan said, tapping one hand against his leg as he considered the situation. “I’d recommend having a runner on hand as well. If this does escalate, they can go straight to the Crea estate and bring reinforcements.”

“A solid idea, I agree,” Griffon said, assigning the role to one of the guards before sweeping his gaze over them all one last time. “Any final questions? Alright, let’s head out then.”

Verdan muttered out a few words of power as they started towards the centre of the city, casting a pair of wards on himself. The first would detect Aether usage in a reasonable area around him, and the second would create a protective shield against any incoming Aether-based attacks.

Essence was aspected and somewhat different, but it was close enough, in Verdan’s opinion, for the ward to cover it, and as his intent drove the ward itself, that was all that mattered.

The walk to the Michaels family house was uneventful but tense, and that tension only grew as they drew closer.

They had ten guards with them, two armed with crossbows and the rest with swords, so they were a substantial presence as they moved through the city, and Verdan could see their movement drawing more than a few eyes.

If there were more Weeping Death agents in the city, and Verdan had no reason to think there weren’t, then they would soon be aware of what was happening.

It was difficult at the best of times to keep their movements hidden within the city, but when they had no idea who was their enemy and who wasn’t, it was all but impossible.

“Okay, everyone, you know your job here,” Griffon said as they entered a particularly expensive-looking section of the city.

In fact, looking at their surroundings, they weren’t far from Tobias’s estate, which Verdan supposed made sense if this was the richer part of the city.

The building that Griffon led them to was similar in design to Tobais’s, though it was slightly larger, with more ground around the exterior.

A set of sturdy but ornate gates barred their entrance to the mansion’s grounds, with a pair of private guards standing watch and looking more than a little apprehensive at the approaching contingent.

“Gentlemen, is the Lieutenant present?” Griffon asked as they came to a stop at the gates, his guards fanning out to either side in an intimidating show of support.

“Yes, he is. Would you like us to announce you?” One of the gate sentries said, glancing apprehensively over to his companion.

“No, I’m officially commanding you to stand down,” Griffon said, stepping forward and resting a hand on the sheathed sword at his belt. “Will that be an issue?”

Griffon was a short man and not particularly physically intimidating at first glance, but Verdan had to hide a grin as the two sentries paled and quickly got out of the way, raising their hands to be well clear of their belts.

Griffon assigned two of his own people to keep control of the gates while the rest of them moved through.

“Now we’re here, we’re on the clock for any potential response, so I’m going to push ahead quickly. Ready?” Griffon looked over to Verdan, who nodded firmly.

It was time to bring Michaels to justice for what he’d done.