Red hot sparks flew up into the air as I repeatedly struck the glowing metal on my anvil, my mind in a meditative state as I focused on manipulating the ambient Qi swirling around the forge. I let my instincts guide my hammer blows as I both studied and guided the Qi flows, trying to sense where they were most willing to congregate – actually, ‘willing’ might not be the best term, but at times it did feel like Qi had a mind of its own based on how it moved.

For instance, the ambient Qi in the forge would generally avoid interacting with anything, including metal, but if I was able to concentrate enough of it around the metal I was working, and then strike it at just the right spot while circulating Qi through my hammer, I could sense the ambient Qi actually sinking into the metal as if it had changed its mind and suddenly found a lovely new home.

I had developed this technique by watching my father, Jaws, and the other experienced smiths at work. They weren’t doing exactly what I was, but I could sense a hint of it when they were working on something they loved and specialized in making well (armor for some, swords for others, and even household goods like pots and pans for a few). The concept was generally the same, anyway, but my ability to actually sense and actively manipulate Qi gave me a massive advantage.

I was just starting to work on infusing another layer of Qi when I felt a strong gust of wind, causing me to lose my focus as the fire of the forge started dancing crazily. Then there was a yelp of surprise from cross the forge (where some of the other smiths were working), followed by a shriek and a bellowed curse.

I turned to face the direction of the wind, and I saw the door swinging wildly back and forth as if it was about to jump off its hinges… and then I saw the Merrik.

“Soulbinder… beware… doom… comes…”

Bloody beast! My jaw gaped open as I took in his typically dirty and disheveled form, though somewhere in the back of my mind I noted that he didn’t really look any older than the last time I saw him – Jesvae would want to know.

My mind was blank, and I wasn’t able to think of anything to say; nobody was, in fact, and the forge was strangely silent except for the dull roar of the fire and the sound of the door still rattling back and forth.

“Where… is… your… sin…”

That… did not sound great. Sin? My mind raced, but I couldn’t think of anything… did he mean Alder, and the people I killed?

Or… ohbloodybeast no way… I did meet him right after Wulfric…

…and we already thought that what I did might have been ‘soulbinding’…

…wait… it was a sin!?

I mean, the Merrik hadn’t seemed happy when he called me a soulbinder, but he hadn’t seemed particularly angry either, nor had he warned me not to do it again…

None of the other smiths had spoken, and Jaws was in his office so he might not have realized anything had happened yet, though he would eventually come to investigate why it was suddenly so quiet.

“Wha… what is my sin? I… umm what do you mean, ‘doom’?”

“Bring… me… the… sin…”

Listening to the Merrik speak was very odd because he seemed to speak both slowly and quickly at the same time. He sounded labored and like he was struggling to form words, yet little to no time actually passed while he spoke… was he speaking in an altered time frame, like how I could move and react faster after each tribulation?

“Do… uhh… do you mean my friend Wulfric? W-why do you want him?”

I tried to take a deep breath and calm down my racing heart, but it felt like he was pulling me into his altered time rate as we spoke, and I was struggling to get enough air.

“You… may… die… but… your… sin… is… innocent…”

Oh, BLOODY beast, crapcrapcrap... did he want to protect Wulfric, but leave me to fend for myself? And what in the spirits was this ‘doom’ he spoke of! How much time did we have!? And why was I asking myself these questions!

“Uhhhh… ok, so you want to protect Wulfric? What about me? What is coming? How much time do we have?”

And then there was nothing but the sense of air passing quickly past my body, though it was oddly silent… in fact, this reminded me of the first time I spoke with the Merrik… I tried to move, speak, even fight back and resist, but it was like I was stuck in a daze, and time and distance were simply passing me by too fast for me to react.

Then things slammed back into focus, and the forge was gone…

Actually, all of North Stone Village was gone…

I tried to reorient myself, and the first thing I saw was a stone bunker buried in a field, but the massive reinforced door that was supposed to protect the opening was gone as if it had been ripped clean off its mountings…

Oh… right, I had been here before. This is where I saved Wulfric’s life.

“Soulbinder… where… is… your… sin.”

So much for getting my questions answered then… I hoped the door of the forge had taken less damage on our way out than it did on the way in, or Jaws was going to be pretty unhappy with me… no, wait, what the beast was I thinking – priorities, Heller! Survive first, door later!

“Wulfric is with me in… uh… no, I mean, with the other me… umm… Ah, right, he is in the mountains, in a fort on the other side of The City, in House Spiritwind territory… Will he be ok?”

I was just to add an additional question about Tetra, as at this point I figured I might as well trust that the Merrik has our best interests at heart (he had been the savior of our people for centuries, after all, and had never been known to hurt anyone), when the world blurred around me again, and I fell back into the fugue state were time and distance had no real meaning.

As sluggish as my thoughts were, I started to theorize that the Merrik was doing actively using an ability on me, maybe to protect me during his ultra-high-speed movement. Either that, or he was just keeping me helpless so that I wouldn’t be able to cause him any further trouble… regardless, I was pretty sure that the reaction I was having wasn’t simply the result of high-speed movement and or time dilation, and I didn’t feel any acceleration when he started or stopped moving.

The world snapped back into focus, and although it felt like only a few minutes, I was simultaneously certain that we had been traveling for just over three hours. As to how I was certain, I had no idea, and every time I tried to think about it I felt queasy, so I quickly decided it didn’t really matter anyway.

“Soulbinder… where… is… your… sin.”

It took a moment for the Merrik’s words to register, and it was then that I realized that I knew almost exactly where we were, as if I had been conscious for the entire journey… which made me feel way worse than just the time thing.

I tried to distract myself from thinking about exactly what was going on in my mind, so I decided to just focus on his question. My sin…

“Wulfric is that way.”

And then there was blur…

It would be great if I had a way to warn myself, but the only way I could do that was to pass a message to Wolfram so that he could forward it – the soul link worked only two ways, from me to Wolfram (or him to me) – but… that would require meditation… which in turn required concentration…

Luckily it only took a few more stops, but before I could even figure out what I would say to myself, we had already arrived.