I've never been good at staying still. In fact, I'm so bad at it that my body's general reaction to staying still and doing nothing but thinking is to go to sleep, which is great because I've learned to fall asleep and wake up really fast just about anytime and anywhere, but kinda sucks for thinking about things. So instead of sitting perfectly still focusing on one thing for hours on end to meditate, I do simple repetitive things like walking, smithing, or even taking a shower when I'm pressed for time. Today I walked, I thought about the problem working in reverse. What would be needed to break or weaken wards and seals designed by thirteen of the most powerful beings in existence working in unison, what kinds of people would have the knowledge needed to do it, I ran math formulas through my head that I only understood a small portion of consciously and kept hitting dead ends.

I'd been walking on the back trails of Pike National Forest absentmindedly letting my feet pick the path on their own, only occasionally stopping to make a small gesture of greeting to any wildlife I passed. I was somewhat surprised when I stepped out of the woods into my own yard. I shrugged out of the loose-fitting shirt and hung it on a hook by the smithy door and pulled on the heavy leather apron and went inside. Walking wasn't working so I'd try something more physically demanding, besides I had gear that needed to be replaced.

I refilled the forge with coal and got it heated up thankful for the simple crank fan I used as a bellows. I pulled a few of the high-quality steal bar stocks from the storage rack and pushed them into the coals along with a partially finished dagger before I started about the task of picking out the tools I needed. My eighty-pound anvil was pulled out and set in an indent on the low granite cube next to the forge, several hammers were dropped onto the hanging rack next to it along with a set of tongs and the chisel tipped hammer I used to trim excess metal. As soon as I started sweating from the heat I felt along the wall to flip on the fans that lined the ceiling drawing out the smoke and turned back to the forge. I pushed the two largest bars deeper into the coals and picked up the lightest hammer to begin the process of pounding out the rough shape of a dagger from the already stretched and folded bar I’d had. I kept working until it cooled to a dull red and returned it to the fire.

I pulled out the next bar, now a bright yellow and started off with gentle strikes of the heaviest hammer watching as the metal warped and flowed easily. I let my mind drift as I worked the metal rotating my time between the three bars. The only light to work with was what little came in through the fan vents overhead and the flames of the coal and the glow of heated metal. If Tyr was right, someone was breaking some of the most complex and sophisticated seals and wards ever created simply to get to me.

I had done a lot of nasty thing to a lot of people but no one I could think of that would have this level of hatred for me should know where I was. It was possible that some or all of the members of the High Council of Magic had figured out who I really was, there wasn't an overabundance of psychic vampires running around that also happened to be Ice elementals. It just didn't track that they would spend the time and effort needed to sync the energy of all thirteen members to do a working like the seals on Earth only to break them just to attack me. Not when it would be easier to yank my soul and consciousness across the boundaries between the realms to somewhere where they'd not only have the upper hand but could keep it without having to undo their own hard work. I went back to where I had started, what would you need to break the seals.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Energy work didn’t have a lot of hard and fast rules which is what makes it hard for science to understand, but some things were consistent. To undo something like the wards you’d be limited in options. They would either need more power than whoever made the seals which didn’t track, if they did they could have just broken the strongest points in the web of seals and they would have shattered all together instead of slowly crumbling. You could do it with an energy similar to the wards but they were created by a group so it would take someone similar to the entire group so the whole group would have to do it to undermine them. Which left someone that could undermine them, and that meant a working that was using energy that was naturally aligned to disrupting the order of something.

That still didn’t follow suit, not many entities had that sort of natural inclination and the power to do something like this and the few that did were deities. Sure I’d annoyed a lot of those but despite most trickster deities being able to do something like this they generally didn’t go in for wholesale death and carnage, they typically expressed their displeasure by making you the receiving end of their sense of humor until they got bored of tormenting you. And any deity could foresee the outcome of their actions enough to know how this would end. I was still missing a piece of the puzzle.

I felt the forge door open and close silently sending a cooling breeze across my bare back. I kept at the work in front of me, small scraps of metal littering the floor around me covered where runes and wards had been etched into the bare stone floor to warn me if someone came too close. I folded the length of steel I was working with back on itself again and used rapid heavy strikes of the ten-pound hammer to weld the piece together again.

“Talk while I work, I don't want to have to restart the forge and it's a nuisance to get the heating on the metal right if you stop midway through on the folding steps.” I returned the unified length of steel to the forge and pulled out the nearly completed dagger again and began pounding out the point and edges with a lightweight hammer.

“I remember. You always went to the smithy when you were troubled after you were healed; none of us ever really understood your methods. I can't stay long Bran. Synbel came to me and told me the situation. All I can say to help, son of my heart, is that you’re the only one who can stop him. He blames you for Corena's death and is seeking retribution.” I turned in a sudden flash of rage dropping the hammer and reaching for a completed dagger that was waiting for the finishing touches as the man vanished leaving nothing but the memory of his rough voice. I paused and replayed the words in my mind trying to figure out what had triggered the sudden and intense flash of anger.

Corena. Just like that, as soon as I focused on the name, I felt the dam break and emotions and memories started pouring back faster than I could grasp them. I collapsed to the floor in a heap and crawled around the granite cube to the back of it. I fumbled with the dagger I was holding before finally managing to slice my hand open. I pressed my palm against the quartz stone embedded in the inert stone and breathed a sigh of relief as I felt the shields snap into place as well as the enchanted sleep take effect along with the sudden drop in temperature. My last thought before my safety net from the memories killing me took effect was that I was tired of surprise visits.