Verdan managed to get some sleep after the attack, but it was fitful at best.

When the morning came, he was sore and aching, but that was a lot better than some of the guards who’d been on duty the night before.

Twenty more defenders had died in the night assault, with double that number injured in some manner. Thankfully, the majority were treatable cases, but one or two of the injured had lost limbs, either to the enemy or to amputation to save their lives.

None of this was unexpected, but it revealed a weakness in their defence. The enchanted weaponry allowed their guards to deal serious damage to the Sorcerers, but they also needed to see them.

Verdan foresaw a number of night raids in their future, so he intended to spend the day working on a solution using an old trick he remembered.

Oddly enough, the trick he thought of had been done by a Green Witch with a penchant for fungi. She’d sown the battlefield with luminescent breeds and accelerated their growth during a midnight raid, giving just enough light for the artillery Wizards to do their work.

Sadly, Feli, the Green Witch in Gwen’s Cabal, was nowhere near experienced enough for such a tactic, so Verdan was currently sitting in the temporary housing they had near the gates, trying to figure out a way to do something similar with a spell.

The orbs he’d thrown out had done the job, but there needed to be more of them, and they needed to be able to function without him being there.

Beyond that, the other concern was enemy action. The darkness Sorcerer had targeted Verdan’s light spells to great effect. Any permanent fixtures he tried to put in place would be equally as vulnerable, and Verdan lacked the Aether to risk so easily.

No, what he needed was something with a short to middling duration, easily usable by any of the guards and not large enough that it posed an easy target for the Sorcerers.

Verdan came up with a few different spell ideas, but in the end, none of them quite fit what he was looking for.

The idea came when he considered what equipment the guards had already that he could work with.

The first thing that jumped to mind was the enchanting machine that Verdan had created. The guards were already used to using the bolts that were being fed through it, so adding a secondary type of ammunition would be easy enough.

Verdan created the first bolt with an attached Aether construct that would give off light once the bolt struck something.

The Sects had been quiet after the attack the night before, so Verdan left word with Kai before making his way back through the city to meet with Elliot.

The first casing that Elliot had made for him was mainly for show, so hopefully, the smith could craft a new one for him in a fraction of the time if they left all that out.

Verdan would make the bolts for tonight himself, but allowing others to take over the production for him would save a lot of time and effort in the long run.

-**-

Verdan was able to produce thirty bolts for the guards by nightfall, and Elliot had enough of the casing for the enchantment machine done so that they would be able to set it up the next day.

As Verdan expected, the Sect launched an attack during the night. This time, though, they failed to chase the Airta away, and one of the shifters was able to run past the fortifications and alert the guards.

With advance warning, the defenders were able to put their new bolts to good use. Twenty of the thirty bolts were sent out, illuminating the area enough to give the guards targets to start picking off.

The leader of this particular attack saw fit to withdraw almost immediately, which Verdan saw as both good and bad.

The positive side was that the Sect attack was pushed back with no losses and only a small amount of expended equipment.

The downside was that they were out of the illumination bolts already, and while the Sect had lost a few fighters, they had many more to spare.

Small victories like this were welcome, but they wouldn’t defeat the Sects this way.

-**-

Verdan managed a few hours of sleep after the attack before waking just after dawn and heading back into the city to meet with Elliot.

Creating the new enchantment machine was simple enough, with both of them working together, and in just a few hours, it was set up alongside the original in the workshop.

Ruan and the others were still at the estate, so they would start to add the second machine into their routine. They wouldn’t have a big throughput, but it was enough that Verdan could replenish their stocks with just another hour or two of work.

Being away from the fortifications for this long wasn’t ideal, but Verdan had left instructions for how they could signal him if he were needed urgently.

Until Verdan saw one of those signals, he had to trust that they had things in hand.

-**-

Verdan ended up recruiting Samuel and a dozen or so people from the local area to work on speeding up production of both the piercing and light bolts.

Verdan was still reluctant to put the machines into the hands of anyone else, but he’d worked with Samuel enough to get a good feeling for the gruff foreman. His work was in good hands.

A few people had taken carts to round up more stocks of normal bolts while others were ferrying the new ones over to the eastern wall.

The sun was dipping down to the horizon by the time everything was running smoothly, but enough had already been produced to make sure that the guards would be supplied in case of an overnight attack.

-**-

Verdan returned to the wall the next morning with a fresh supply of crossbow bolts that he happily passed over to Griffon’s quartermaster.

Thankfully, both the eastern wall and the fortifications they’d set up still held, though apparently, there had been several minor attacks during the night.

Verdan couldn’t help but feel guilty for his night of rest, but he was thankful that his efforts with the light bolts had not been wasted.

“Excuse me, Wizard Blacke, the Commander is having a strategy meeting if you’d like to attend?” A fresh-faced guard approached Verdan, gesturing back towards the makeshift command post he’d visited previously.

“Thank you,” Verdan gave the guard a nod before making his way over and stepping past the sentries on duty outside.

With some extra time to prepare, the command post had grown from little more than a pavilion with a table to a full working space for Commander Griffon and his staff.

Griffon, Silver, Kai and Gwen were already gathered around the table that dominated the space, each of them looking more rugged than the last time they’d all gathered here.

“Verdan, good, you’re here,” Griffon called out as the Wizard entered. “We were just going over plans to pull back from the fortifications.”

“Have things gotten that bad?” Verdan asked as he joined them, running his gaze over the map on the table as he did.

“They attacked us three times overnight, and they’re getting better at closing with the wall. We lost almost forty good men and women driving them back, and it’s only going to get worse,” Silver said with a grim shake of his head.

“Our plan is to prepare to pull back this evening and prepare some sort of trap for them. Could you assist with that?” Griffon asked, cocking one brow in Verdan’s direction.

“I’m sure I could think of something,” Verdan murmured, thinking of some of the Aether constructs he could set up if needed.

What he had in mind would be a poor trap for another Wizard, but he may as well take advantage of the lack of Aether senses the Sorcerers seemed to have.

“Good, good, so we’ll start moving supplies now…” Griffon began to explain as they began to put the plan together.

-**-

After their planning session was completed, Verdan spent some time meditating and gathering the Aether he’d need for the traps he was going to set.

They’d initially intended to deliver a powerful blow against a massed assault, but it seemed that the Sects were content to chip away at them instead.

Verdan split his focus between working his gathering spiral while simultaneously adding on another layer. It was hard work with a spiral this close to being finished, but at the same time, he was agonisingly close to finishing his sixth spiral.

Completing the sixth spiral was seen as the minimum for a qualified Wizard, as it was the last large increase in Aether gathering. Every spiral from the seventh onward would provide less of a boost than the one before.

Verdan reluctantly brought his meditation to an end and started down to the forward fortifications, making it only a few steps before he saw the distant glint of metal as a large portion of the Sect force began to move out of the woods.

“Sound the alarm!” Verdan shouted to the closest guard, hearing others do the same from atop the city walls. “Get everything into the city!”

The volunteers helping move all the supplies back into the city didn’t need to be told twice and began to hurry past Verdan as he rushed down the path.

From what he’d seen, this was a major push from the Sects, and the minimal garrison they had down there wouldn’t stand a chance without serious reinforcements.