Thankfully, none of the guards had taken more than light wounds, so the whole group could make the trip back to Hobson’s Point together.

Jenkins and the guards broke off to head back to their headquarters once they were in the city, leaving Verdan and the others to head back to the mansion.

Dirk had been quiet and reserved for the trip back, so Verdan left him to his own devices and instead retired to his room to look over the notes he’d managed to copy and bring with him.

Hours of copying over the documents had given Verdan a hefty sheaf of paper to read through, which he was looking forward to.

The rushed reading he’d done in the tower to categorise everything had given him a bit of context as to what he would find. Still, that was only a fraction of what he had available.

Conjuring a light for himself, Verdan settled into his favourite chair and began to read.

-**-

The next week settled back into a new routine for Verdan. He would spend time with Natalia and work with Dirk on his exercises, but most of his project time went into reading the notes he’d copied.

Four days after their return, Verdan went back to the tower alone and spent hours copying the rest of the documents he could find.

So far, the information he’d gathered had been limited. Too much of it relied on existing knowledge to make sense.

Unfortunately, these Artificers were clearly highly skilled, and their notes and project logs were intended for their own eyes, so quite often, nothing was fully explained.

What Verdan did find out was that the sigils they were using were different to those on most enchanted objects.

Verdan had already noted that the sigils being used were smaller and less intricate than those on the enchanted items he’d seen in the past, but it was more than that.

Artificer Bayan referred to this new grouping of sigils as Standardised, and if Verdan was inferring correctly, to the ones that enchanters used as Composite.

Composite was an interesting word to use, and it made Verdan wonder if these new sigils were broken down into sections of the others.

Unfortunately, Verdan simply didn’t know enough about sigils to be able to confirm that, but he made a mark against the relevant passage and carried on reading.

-**-

Nine days after their return from the tower, Verdan was just finishing his morning training with Dirk when Tim came in and interrupted them with an apologetic expression.

“Sorry, Boss, but you’ve got someone to see you,” Tim said with a gesture back the way he’d come. “Some guy who says that Samuel sent him.”

“I’ll be there shortly,” Verdan said before turning back to Dirk and the training dummy that his apprentice had been slowly destroying. “Good progress today, Dirk. Your intent is coming along nicely, so keep practising.”

“Can’t I just cast with my emotions all the time?” Dirk asked with a sigh. “It’s so much easier than making an intent for the spell.”

“It’s easier, but a bad habit all the same. You overuse your Aether, which limits how many spells you can cast. Not to mention that focusing on your emotions in a battle can blind you to what’s going on around you.”

“Yeah, I know,” Dirk said, sighing again as he moved away from the training dummy and took a seat to move on to the next stage of the session.

Verdan could feel the Aether start to move around his apprentice as Dirk began to run through some basic training exercises. Part of him wanted to reassure Dirk further, to tell him that he would get there, but he didn’t want to coddle him too much.

For all that he was Verdan’s apprentice, Dirk would be nineteen in a month or two. The last thing that Verdan wanted was to make Dirk feel like he was being treated as a child.

Leaving Dirk to his exercises, Verdan made his way out to where a burly man in thick clothing was waiting next to Tim.

“Verdan, this is Bartan, a lumberjack working north of the mountains,” Tim said as Verdan joined them.

“Pleasure to meet you. Thanks for clearing out the camp and helping us all get back to work,” Bartan said, bobbing his head in a small nod to Verdan. “Samuel asked me to come and let you know that we saw a Kranjir caravan heading south toward the pass. Should be here anytime.”

“A caravan?” Verdan quirked a brow in Tim’s direction, but Bartan answered first.

“Yeah. Used to be we’d get one every year. Not had a caravan in almost five years now.”

“Right, so it’s from one of the Kranjir clans?”

“Yeah, they’re trading caravans,” Tim chimed in. “They buy a lot of metal for various things, so they probably got word that the city foundries were open again.”

“Interesting, thank you for letting me know,” Verdan said, shaking Bartan’s hand before heading back inside to let Dirk know.

Under the circumstances, they could finish early for the day to go take a look at the caravan.

-**-

Dirk had been excited to hear that a Kranjir caravan was going to be arriving in the city and had left to go tell his mother.

The same enthusiasm seemed to be sweeping through most of the others as well, so Verdan gave everyone the time off and instead set up a few wards to supplement the ones already in place across the estate.

Once he was satisfied, Verdan followed after everyone else and made his way to the largest market square in the city. He’d always wondered why there was such a large area that was left empty and why it was so close to the northern gate.

A good portion of the city seemed to have been made aware that the Kranjir were here, as the streets were busy, and there was a general flow of people heading over to the square where the caravan would be setting up.

Following along with everyone else, Verdan eventually got into the square and looked on with disbelief at the bustling marketplace it had become.

The far side of the square held a score of large wagons and twice that many shaggy-haired horses, which were being led into what looked like stables specifically made for such an occasion.

In front of the mass of wagons, there were a dozen stalls that had been put together, which were seeing steady traffic.

Local stall owners were in the process of arriving and setting up around the exterior of the square to take advantage of the activity. The permanent eateries, inns, and shops based at the edge of the square, however, were already doing a brisk trade.

So much concentrated activity felt like a glimpse into what the city might have been at one point before its decline. Verdan’s efforts, along with those of his allies, had helped to kickstart the city once more, but it was nowhere near back to its peak.

Moving into the crowd, Verdan threaded his way through to get a closer look at the Kranjir stalls.

The main things that seemed to be on offer, from what Verdan could tell, were animal products from the north. Leather, hide, furs, meat, and even a few captured birds of some kind.

One stall seemed dedicated to leather and had what looked like four or five different types for sale and in good quantities.

The Kranjir man running the stall had relatively few ritual scars on his face but was backed up by a hulking man in leather armour who was covered in them.

Something about that second man, who Verdan assumed was a guard of some sort, struck Verdan as odd, but he couldn’t quite decide what it was.

Frowning, Verdan turned his attention to what was being sold to the Kranjir, noting that it all seemed to be barter. No coins were swapping hands between the two sides.

In general, it seemed that the Kranjir wanted metal ingots of iron and steel, but they would accept finished tools and weapons as well.

None of the dark-haired northerners were wearing metal armour, but they all seemed to be armed with metal weaponry.

With nothing to offer for trade, Verdan took a look at a few of the other stalls before moving over to those put up by the local merchants.

Creating temporary enchantments for the local adventurers and guards paid well, so Verdan had some spare coins if he saw anything interesting.

If not, he might stop by the adventurers guild and put some bounties out for more monster organs. Natalia was always happy for more dryd, after all.