“Sit there, please,” Jerryl said, indicating a hard wooden chair in front of a wide, empty table.

Saul did as the captain asked. Jerryl seemed in no mood for argument, and Saul could understand that.

Jerryl moved to the other side of the table. He placed his hands flat on the surface and leaned over, staring hard at Saul, saying nothing.

The barracks seemed like it might have been an inn once, but travelers in these northern reaches of Xorn were few and far between, and the building had been taken over as accommodation for the garrison and their captain.

The room on the upper floor was a wide stone-walled chamber with little furniture except the table that Jerryl used as his workbench and a few wooden chairs. A set of plain wooden shelves stood against one wall packed with documents and scrolls, and a threadbare rug ‘decorated’ on the floor. One grimy window let in light from the bright winter’s day outside.

There was a generous hearth, but Jerryl had been gone since spring and the room had not been used. His return was unexpected, and the fire had not been lit. The room was cold and smelled damp.

Saul took a breath to speak, but the captain stopped him with a raised hand. Jerryl reached into a leather carrying case that hung from his belt and drew out a strange object.

It was about ten inches long and looked like a scroll case, with a cap at both ends. At first, Saul thought it was made of wood or some dull metal, but then Jerryl passed his fingers across it, tapping on it in a particular way, and the object transformed.

Saul’s eyes widened. It was in fact made of clear heavy crystal and contained something that looked like thick liquid gold.

The resemblance to his System’s Arcane Dust vials was uncanny. Saul was immediately fascinated and wanted to know more.

Jerryl held the device up, and Saul saw the form of a Sigil, pale lemon yellow, printed on the outside of the crystal tube. The Sigil looked as if it had been wrapped around the outside of the strange object.

“What is…?” Saul began, but Jerryl shook his head.

“In a moment,” the captain said. “I’ll tell you in a moment. For now, hold still, please. This will not hurt.”

He held the strange device out toward Saul. To Saul’s amazement and surprise, he saw silvery letters much like the ones that were the hallmark of his own System, playing out in the air above the device. They might have been written on a scroll the way they were laid out, but they hung above the crystal tube without being written on anything visible.

The letters were facing Jerryl, and so, from Saul’s point of view, they were reversed, but that did not stop him from reading them.

Sigilite Scanner Active…

Scanning…

Scan complete.

Scanned item:

Class: Human

Name: Saul Kramitz

Age: (Error, multiple ages detected, details unavailable)

Origin: (Error, multiple origins detected, details unavailable)

Magical Ability: Present

Magical Ability Details: (Error, unknown magical form detected, details unavailable)

Weapons ability: Present

Weapons ability Level: Advanced

Weapons ability details: (Error, background unreadable, details unavailable)

Command ability: Present

Command ability Level: Advanced

Command ability Details: (Error, background unreadable, details unavailable)

Scan details finished.

Jerryl had read the words with an expression of increasingly startled amazement. He tapped the scanning device firmly with his fingers, and it transformed back into dulled metal as he slipped it back into the carry case at his belt.

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“I’ve never seen a scan result like that before,” Jerryl said quietly. “Multiple ages, multiple origins, unreadable background, unknown magical form? What is that? At least it confirms the name you call yourself is true. The Sigilite Scanner doesn’t lie.”

“Sigilite Scanner,” Saul repeated.

He remembered that, in this timeline, it was not uncommon for mages to use Sigils to grant special abilities to items. But that usually meant swords, armor, crafting tools, and the like. He’d never heard of such a thing as this scanner before.

“That’s right,” Jerryl said. “A Sigilite Scanner. And it’s usually able to tell me all I want to know about the background and abilities of a person or item I’m interested in. But not this time. As I say, however, the scanner does not lie. Do you?”

“What, you mean do I lie?” Saul asked.

Jerryl nodded.

“Only when I have to,” Saul answered.

Jerryl sighed, and his shoulders drooped suddenly. He slumped forward in his chair for a moment, then sat up straight again. Despite his youth and energy, he had just ridden far with a company of Raptor Riders, and the weariness of the journey was plain to see on his face.

“Do you feel you need to lie to me?” he asked.

“I feel that I have to be…careful with the truth,” Saul answered warily. “I understand that you’ve been disturbed by seeing the way the soldiers here have gotten into the habit of obeying me. Please, don’t be concerned. I’m not going to usurp your command. I do have some magical ability, it’s true, and I have prowess with weapons and an understanding of tactics and the command of soldiers. Since you left, I’ve worked hard to regain my health and build up my abilities, and through chance, I’ve been able to render some service both to the village and the soldiers.”

Briefly, he told what had happened with the forest trolls and the warlock who had been controlling the goblins. Then, he told of his waking at the coven, and the warlocks’ talk of ‘preparations’ that Saul had overheard at that time.

“Well, I see that this has happened without your meaning to, at least,” Jerryl said. “I can tell well enough when a man is lying, and you’re not. That’s good enough for the moment. I sense there is something strange about you, and I don’t like mysteries, but I am content that you’re not an enemy of me or the villagers, so I’ll not press it any further for the moment.”

Saul bowed his head in acknowledgement. “Thank you, Captain. I can’t tell you my full story, but I’m here through no decision of my own. The village and the villagers—and your soldiers, for that matter—have helped me and protected me, and if I can do the same for them, I’ll be satisfied.”

Jerryl fixed Saul with another long, penetrating stare, then sighed. “Oh, very well,” he said. “But I’ve got my eye on you. I believe you intend no harm, so I’ll let you continue as you have been. And now,” he said, standing, “I’ve had a long, hard ride, and I’ll ask you to leave me be for the moment. We’ll talk again soon.”

* * *

Over the coming weeks, it became clear to Saul that Jerryl had spoken to the soldiers, the villagers, and to Sergeant Dryan, and that the full story of what had happened was confirmed by everyone.

Saul made a point of not changing anything. He continued to drill with the soldiers, to train Zorea and Brand and anyone else in the morning outside his hut, and to regularly check in to the Workshop to monitor his progress.

At first, he had the clear impression that the soldiers were not sure if the work would continue, but Saul realized it would be important for them not to feel that Jerryl’s return meant they could no longer have something they enjoyed. Jerryl clearly realized this, too, and did not intervene.

A few weeks after his return, Jerryl turned up at Saul’s hut in the evening. It was a cold night, and the snow was falling steadily. Saul had reached Level 6 in the Workshop earlier that day, and was sitting by the glowing fire, sharpening a short Xornian sword that had been gifted to him by one of the soldiers.

“Give us a bit of time, would you?” Saul asked Zorea, who had been sitting with him.

She nodded silently, rose, and left the hut as Jerryl took a seat.

“Well, Saul,” the captain said, “you’ve certainly made an impression on the soldiers, and the villagers can’t speak highly enough of you. They tell me that you can use magic without a channeler, as if you were your own anchor, and they tell me you have a great deal of skill with weapons and tactics, too. I’m impressed with what you’ve taught the soldiers. We’ve gotten a bit stuck in our ways, I think, in terms of strategy and battle formations, and the soldiers are all very happy with what they’ve learned.”

He paused, looking keenly at Saul, who said nothing.

“I’ve been thinking,” Jerryl continued, “thinking about what the scanner said. Multiple ages detected. Multiple origins detected. I’ve been trying to puzzle out what that means. The scanner said you’re twenty-two years old, two years younger than I, and yet you seem to have the knowledge and experience of a man twice your age at least.”

Still, Saul said nothing.

Jerryl smiled and glanced over his shoulder despite the hut being obviously empty, before he went on in a lower voice.

“I’ve been around the world a bit, you know,” he said. “I’ve seen strange things, and I’ve heard of stranger ones. I’ve heard stories of people who are reincarnated from one life into another; old souls, they call it. I thought that was just a story, you know? A legend, not something that actually happened in the real world. But now, I’m not so sure. Multiple ages detected. How else can I explain that?”

Saul took a breath, opened his mouth, shut it again.

Jerryl’s smile broadened. “You may have many talents, Saul Kramitz, but dissimulation is not one of them. I’m right, I can see it in your eyes. The young people, Brand and Zorea, do they know?”

Saul shook his head. “They know about the magic, of course, and they know there is something strange about me. They know there’s more to my story than I’m letting on. Zorea has guessed the most. She said I…that I talked in my delirium while I was recovering, in the weeks after I arrived here. But I’ve explained that I can’t tell her the whole story, and though she has also seen a bit of the world, she’s apparently not heard the same legends as you.”

“Or at least she has not put two and two together,” Jerryl said thoughtfully.

He rubbed his hands together and chuckled, obviously highly pleased with himself for working out the truth of the riddle. He leaned closer, speaking confidentially, his eyes burning with excitement and curiosity.

“So, you are an old soul,” he whispered, “a man reborn into a new life with the memories of his old life still intact, just like in the legends. Who were you?”

Saul groaned, then sighed and gave in to the inevitable. “I was a battle commander,” he said. “And an immensely powerful spellcaster. I was the anchor for the greatest channeling that has ever been created.”

“But how is it I’ve never heard of you? When were you alive? Did you die? Were you from some other land, or from a very long time ago?” Jerryl’s enthusiasm and excitement was beginning to remind Saul of Brand.

Saul smiled, then shook his head slowly.

“No, Jerryl,” he said. “I was from this land, and from a time very close to this one. But the reason you have not heard of me is that I’ve been reincarnated back in time not forward. I’ve been sent back from the future, to a time before my own birth. I’ve been sent back, and I’ve been placed into this new body. I have to regain my magic before the time of my own birth. If I don’t manage it, the two timelines will clash, and the world—the whole universe—will be destroyed.”

“By all the gods!” Jerryl exclaimed, and Saul shuddered involuntarily. “How long do you have?”

Saul glanced at the snow falling outside the window. Winter was passing, and he had been a year at Harkin’s Holdfast training and recovering his strength.

“Eleven years,” he said.