The next six days passed in a blur. Verdan devoted a bit of time each day to push himself forward in his gathering spiral, eventually reaching the fortieth layer of his sixth spiral.

Less than he wanted, but hopefully more than he needed.

A dozen more Fwyn had arrived in that time, and Cullan had returned with Branwen, who was exactly what Verdan had imagined in his mind. Tall, long flowing red hair and muscular enough to make the composite bow she carried around into a small artillery piece.

As a cleric of Brannoc, God of Stone and Earth, Branwen immediately fit in with the Fwyn, and after a brief consultation with Griffon and Verdan on what to do next, she set about creating fortifications at the base of the path up to the city walls.

It was a simple idea, really, using the Fwyn’s natural abilities to create an easy fortification that they could initially fight from. Considering the Sects involved, Verdan doubted there would be many earth Sorcerers, if any, and the Fwyn would be working to deny any attempts at destroying what they had built.

Currently, they had several short towers of rock that had been pulled from the earth, with compacted earthen walls running between them and a funnel at the centre.

With the occasional refugee or traveller still passing through, they couldn’t cut off access just yet, but it would take the Fwyn no time at all to fill in the small gap they had left.

There was no sign of the Steel Custodian reinforcements, but that was in line with Verdan’s expectations. They would just have to hold until they arrived.

That assumed that whatever response the Sect sent was enough to drive off the attacking force, but between them and the people already in the city, Verdan was surprisingly hopeful.

In truth, the city had pulled together in a way that Verdan hadn’t really accounted for.

Sure, there were a few issues here and there, as well as spies and people paid to look the other way, but the vast majority had come together in defiance of the Sorcerers.

Unfortunately, Sergeant Falk had been unable to arrest Sergeant Feveraux, and Troy had escaped with a handful of corrupt guards.

Despite that, Falk and Val had worked together to unearth what they hoped was the rest of the corrupt guards and other spies within the city.

Troy and Feveraux were in hiding within the city, and while Verdan would love to hunt them down, he had more immediate priorities.

Verdan had thought that fear of the Sorcerers would keep most of the city cowed, but Hobson’s Point was the last of the Enclaves not run by Sorcerers, and as such, it was home to the most stubborn and independent folk around.

Even the small promise of an even fight that Verdan and the others represented was enough for most of them. The few who had been resistant at first had been brought around when the Councillors had shared the discovery that the Vespa attack had been orchestrated by an agent of the Weeping Death Sect.

Goodwill towards Verdan and his companions had surged when the rest of the Fwyn arrived and were approached by Councillor Lessa. Elliot was required as a translator, but once they got past that hurdle, it all went well.

The Fwyn were escorted to the collapsed iron mine, and within hours, it was opened once more. The Fwyn even located a secondary seam of coal, much to the delight of the foundries in the city.

Even now, every forge in the city was working through their carefully maintained stocks of metal, using all of it to turn out as many armaments as they could in preparation for what was coming.

“Verdan!” Gwen shouted as she came running over, Feli hurrying along behind her.

“What’s wrong?” Verdan asked, glancing between the two of them with concern.

“Tell him,” Gwen said, turning to Feli, who was looking more than a little nervous.

“Well, the spirits we contacted, I’ve been able to keep a loose contact with them, and they’re sensing lots of movement. I think it’s the Sects.”

“Understood. How far away are they?” Verdan asked, part of him finally relaxing as the other shoe dropped. A large force approaching meant they were likely going for a direct assault, which was what Verdan had been hoping they’d do.

“Half a day or so, not much more than that,” Feli said after a moment of seemingly consulting with Shiela, her hamster familiar.

It was mid-afternoon currently, so Verdan expected that the Sects planned to arrive either late in the evening for a night raid or wait out of sight until morning and hit them then.

There was a chance that they would come to talk first, but Verdan doubted it.

“Okay, start spreading the word. We’ve got enough notice to do some work, so let’s go with the trap plan.” Verdan was heading for the corner of the estate already, waving for Gwen and Feli to go and speak to the others.

When Dru and Aeva had first arrived, Adrienne had set them up with a small room in the basement of the workshop, but that hadn’t been enough when the rest of the group arrived, and Verdan had given them an empty corner to work with.

What had once been a featureless section of wall was now a sloped tunnel leading down into a series of underground chambers where the Fwyn lived.

Dru had apparently set up a mushroom farm down there and was using his control over rot and decay to keep them fertilised, which made Verdan wonder how long the Fwyn were intending to stay for, but that was a question for another day.

The Fwyn were working on the earthworks every day, as they’d been judged to be the most important, but now that the Sects were all but confirmed, it was time to start their final preparations.

After a quick conversation with Drui and Aeva, Verdan headed over to find either Sylvie or Delia.

Thankfully, both of the Airta were in the middle of a discussion with Ruan and Tim about some patrols they were thinking of setting up around the city.

“Boss, everything okay?” Ruan asked, looking up as Verdan joined them.

“Feli has potentially detected the Sects. I’m going ahead with the trap plan, but we need eyes on the Sects.”

“We’ll get moving straight away,” Sylvie said, Delia nodding along.

“We need to warn Willowbrook as well,” Verdan said, tapping a hand against his leg in thought. “They’ll need to clear out and take supplies with them. They won’t get here in time, but we can’t let the Sects use them to stay supplied either.”

“I’ll take Cristian and head there. You can go with Zhalia and Davin to watch the main group,” Delia said, looking over to Sylvie, who nodded slightly.

“We’ll try to keep you all updated, but it’ll be difficult until we’re closer,” Sylvie said, her brow furrowing as she looked over to Verdan. “How do we get back in once they’re here?”

Verdan cursed softly as he realised they hadn’t really worked that out. If the Sects blocked off access to the city, any of the Airta or their other allies would be stuck away from safety.

“We could lower a rope down from the escarpment. It’ll be a long climb, but it’s better than nothing.” Ruan offered with a slight shrug.

“That’s not a bad idea, actually,” Verdan nodded, his mind racing as he considered it. “We could make something like the staircase from before, but have it only go halfway, and then a rope for the rest. It’ll be easy enough to collapse if compromised as well.”

“We could maintain contact then and keep people on the outside to watch what the Sects are doing,” Sylvie said, her eyes gleaming as she considered the possibilities.

“I’ll work on the staircase. It’ll be done by tonight,” Verdan said, leaving them to the final details for their part. He had been going to help the Fwyn, but the hidden access would be far more useful in the long run.