The defenders worked furiously to ready themselves for the next attack. The Fwyn likewise emerged from their burrow to weaken the surface of the pit traps once more before Verdan sent them back to the city to rest.

He’d intended to keep them here to reinforce the wall, but they’d pushed too hard in the last week. He’d rather they rested now and be able to help later when their magic would make all the difference.

Despite their rushed preparations, the Sects made no overt move against them for the rest of the day.

Scouts and small patrols could be seen in the distance as the Sects tried to lock down the area around the city, no doubt in response to sightings of the Airta, but there was no sign of anything more substantial.

Commander Griffon enforced breaks and cycled the guards on the walls to keep them fresh, something that Verdan made sure to instigate for all the magic users.

The lessons of his failed spellcasting were still bright in his mind, and he wanted to avoid something similar for any of them.

-**-

Verdan had expanded the Fwyn’s burrow to make a usable spot that was still close to the front line and was deep in his meditation when Tim shook him awake.

“Boss, come quick,” Tim hissed, waving for Verdan to follow as he awkwardly left the burrow.

Verdan clambered out of the small space quickly, his gaze surveying the dark area around him as he followed Tim to the wall.

Night had fallen while he was busy meditating, and while there were still guards present, Griffon seemed to have withdrawn the majority to get some rest.

It was a sound plan. This was only the first day of what might be an extended siege, after all.

“What is it?” Verdan asked softly as they climbed the stairs to the top of the wall.

“Since I accepted the bond, Sylvie and I have been connected somehow. I can distantly feel her, and right now, she’s frustrated, angry and worried,” Tim explained as they moved to a raised section so they weren’t exposed.

“Understood,” Verdan said, taking Tim’s explanation in stride. Parada was strange, so none of this really shocked him. “So what is it that’s concerning you?”

“Well, I felt all that from her, but I also heard a few howls in the distance, and they wouldn’t be doing that if they were just resting. I think something’s gone wrong.”

Verdan nodded, taking Tim’s concerns seriously as he looked out into the darkness.

If the Airta were on the move, that likely meant the Sects were as well, which could mean a night assault.

“Canfo dyn,” Verdan muttered, throwing out a ripple of Aether that spread out from the wall, pinging mentally with every sapient creature it came across.

A series of pings, too many for Verdan to count in such a short space of time, came as the wave of Aether passed the halfway point.

“What is it?” Tim asked worriedly as Verdan grimaced.

“There’s an attack coming. Go and start waking everyone up, but make sure they’re quiet. We have a few minutes before they’re here, so we should put that to use,” Verdan whispered quickly, hurrying Tim off as he considered the best thing to do in this situation.

Nodding to himself, Verdan cast his message spell, focusing on alerting Lieutenant Silver, Commander Griffon, Kai and Gwen. Between them, those four would be able to get things moving.

Frustratingly, there wasn’t that much that Verdan could do without revealing his presence. His spells were just too flashy and loud for this kind of work.

The next few minutes were tense, and Verdan made sure to periodically cast the detection spell, tracking the progress of the enemy as they slowly made their way closer.

Whispered messages made sure that all the guards were aware of what was coming, hopefully cutting down on the impact the attack would have.

Reinforcements slowly began to trickle in word spread, though surprisingly, Cullan was the first to arrive, the big man grinning maniacally as he crouched down next to Verdan.

“How many?” Cullan whispered softly, his eyes gleaming in the slight firelight.

“About forty. I’m sensing slight Essence usage as well, so at least a couple are Sorcerers,” Verdan replied equally softly, doing his best to not be unsettled by Cullan’s anticipation of the fighting to come.

Truly, he was thankful that the Idrisyr were on their side.

“Good, good. How long until they’re here?”

“About..” Verdan started to reply but was cut off by a cracking sound, followed by a hiss of surprise and a cry of pain as one of the attackers stepped on a trap pit.

Stepping to the side and throwing a hand out, Verdan conjured an array of softly glowing orbs, throwing them down onto the ground in front of the wall.

Each orb was a little brighter than a torch, so only illuminated a small area, but Verdan had thrown over a dozen in the first spell, and he repeated it twice more, casting further from the wall each time.

Several more cracks and screams came from the dark as more traps were found, but with Verdan illuminating the area, the attackers were in a bad position, and they knew it.

Blasts of everything from animated darkness to globs of acid and arrows formed from flame pelted the wall as the enemy charged forward to cover the remaining distance.

Dark shapes were revealed by the dim light Verdan had provided, and the guards were quick to open fire, crossbows twanging across the wall as they unloaded into the enemy.

“Eyes!” Verdan shouted as the Sect Sorcerers were about to reach the wall. “Grym disir bel!”

A shining ball of radiance erupted into being above the wall, bathing everything around it in a stark white light that revealed the score or so Sorcerers that had made it to the wall, many of whom were clutching their eyes in pain.

Those who had worked with Verdan before were quick enough on the uptake to shut their eyes, but a number of the guards didn’t and ended up just as disorientated as the Sorcerers.

“This is more like it!” Cullan roared in approval before leaping from the wall and smashing into one of the momentarily blinded Sorcerers, forgoing his blade to bodily slam his target to the ground and cave their chest in with a powerful blow.

“Kill the Wizard!” A cry came from Verdan’s left, where a Weeping Death Sorcerer in more elaborately embroidered robes was providing covering fire for his companions by attacking the guards on the wall with a long whip of liquid darkness.

The earthen wall was barely fifteen feet tall, so even shorter-range attacks like that were enough to reach those manning it.

The darkness-wielder must have had some authority within the Sect, as the three nearest Sorcerers turned their attention to Verdan, rushing at him with blades at the ready.

“Ast!” Verdan conjured a shield, cutting off two of them from him as he spun to take the sword of the third on his staff. “Gwth!”

Pure force blasted out from one of Verdan’s hands, slamming the Sorcerer into the lip of the wall and breaking countless bones in their body.

The other two attackers were breaking steadily through Verdan’s barrier, their Essence whittling away at his Aether as fast as he could feed it in, but a second blast of force was enough to send them flying back.

A javelin of darkness soared up from the apparent leader of the attack, striking the orb of light that Verdan had conjured and shattering it with ease.

Darkness plunged down over the battle once more, but the short time of bright light, for all the good it did, had robbed the guards of their night vision, leaving them at the mercy of the Sorcerers.

Verdan cursed and quickly conjured a fresh light, only for one of the opposing Sorcerers to strike at it immediately, fracturing the spell once more.

Mundane light was being brought to bear in the form of torches borne by reinforcements, but the areas furthest from the light were struggling the most.

Creating a shielded globe this time, Verdan reinforced the spell with extra Aether, but his preparations were unneeded.

A dozen or so enemies remained either on the wall or at its base fighting with Cullan, but a handful of the more powerful Sorcerers had fled and were already past the pit traps and racing back to safety as fast as they could.

“Thanr ceis,” Verdan conjured a blast of seeking flames that he sent after the leader of the group, but one of the fleeing Sorcerers was able to blast it with a decay spell of some sort, destroying it.

The remaining Sect troops were killed in short order now that light was restored, but that same light was enough for Verdan to see the damage done by the attack.

The Sorcerers involved had seemingly been a cut above the initial force, and between that and the issues with the light, Verdan had a feeling that they’d lost more people here than they had in the assault during the day.

The Sorcerers fled at the end, which should have left Verdan feeling as though they’d won, but the reality was more complicated than that.

Better precautions would be needed for the nights; they couldn’t rely on Tim getting a bad feeling from Sylvie every time something happened.