As our bodies and minds merged, memories combining and sorting themselves into a single continuous stream, we could feel a subtle difference – almost like a pressure – that seemed to be stemming from the knowledge of the imminent doom that one of us would have to face after we split.

I didn’t consider myself a coward, but I was fully capable of experiencing fear… and the best way to deal with fear, for me, had always been to face it directly. Therefore, it wasn’t too surprising that, for the first time, there was a struggle over which of us (the two duplicate halves of Heller… of me) received the ice powers… and would therefore be the one who had to flee blindly into the mountains, leading whatever danger the Merrik had foreseen away from both Tetra and the remaining Heller.

What was somewhat surprising, and made both of us feel somewhat of a warm glow, was that the struggle wasn’t to avoid the ice powers, but to take them. In essence, both duplicates were trying to sacrifice themselves in order to save the other, and we had reached a stalemate, with neither of us wanting to back down and take the cowards path.

So, my cultivation ability to duplicate myself decided for us, as it was meant to do when given no solid direction, and assigned the powers randomly. And that was how I found myself facing the other Heller, who had been assigned the ice powers…

I felt an uncomfortable mixture of guilt and relief, and also a little anger both at myself (for feeling relief), and at my duplicate (for making me feel relief). Logically I knew that we were both the same, and that we had all the same memories, as well as identical bodies, up to about a minute ago when we finished our re-synchronization.

I cleared my throat, trying to think of what to say.

“I… so, what now?”

I had been about to apologize, but I knew that such a gesture would only irritate me, and therefore would certainly irritate my duplicate.

He let out a short laugh, surprising me, and smiled.

“Well… I guess now I get to go on an adventure, and you stay here with mom and dad…” He was silent for a moment, his smile fading, “Keep them safe for me. Them, and Tetra, and little Zephyr.”

It took me a moment to get my thoughts in order, knowing that he must be even more afraid than I was, but not knowing how to express my admiration or my thanks. Well… maybe there was one way.

“I swear that I will keep them safe, no matter the cost.”

He raised an eyebrow at me and then gave me a solemn nod after another moment. By the spirits… was I really about to send myself away to die?

And then, thankfully, the intense moment was broken when Wulfric arrived.

“Heller! You done there? If we are going to save Tetra, we have to go now! I know that what you are doing is important, but the Merrik told us to hurry!”

The other Heller and I both sighed, turning in the direction of Wulfric’s voice. The Merrik had said ‘soon’, not ‘now’, so my duplicate and I had agreed that we could spare a minute or two in order to synchronize before the final departure. If anything, it would make sure that our auras were as similar as possible, increasing the chance that the deception (if you could call it that) was successful.

When the three of us made it back to the clearing that we had left Tetra in, we saw that Jesvae had been working steadily on setting up defenses around what had once been a stump… but was now a full-grown tree with Tetra trapped inside of it. At this point, none of us saw any options except to blindly trust the Merrik, as we had no way to really understand what was going on, and the Merrik had been (as far as we could tell) working towards the greater good of our people for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Also… the fact that he didn’t really need deception if he wanted to hurt us, since he was plenty strong enough to turn any of us into a fine paste before we could even begin to resist… So, we just had to hope that Tetra was alright, and that she was able to breathe somehow under all that wood. The tree had grown leaves, and it was even larger than the original tree that the Merrik had chopped down had been, as far as I could tell, and I found that to be somehow reassuring. As long as the tree was still living I felt that it was a sign that Tetra was going to be alright.

Jesvae noted our arrival with a curt gesture, “I have signaled the rest of my soldiers, and they should be here shortly. It would be best if you left before then, as I don’t want to see more than they should. Do you know if… He… is going to go with you?”

The gesture she made towards the Merrik, who had gone back to meditating underneath the tree, was much more respectful than the one she had given us, and even with everything else going on seeing her be this hesitant with someone gave me pause.

“I don’t know if I should hope he does, or hope he doesn’t.” Quipped my duplicate, the Heller with the ice powers.

I forced a smile, trying to pretend that a whirlwind of emotions wasn’t eating me up from the inside.

“I don’t know, but I think he might at least drop them off somewhere further from here. He can move awfully fast…”

Ice Heller let out a quiet chuckle, and moved towards Wulfric, asking him if he was alright, and if there was anything we could do to make things right with his family. I hadn’t even thought to ask, as things had been moving too quickly, and my mind felt like it was stuffed with cotton…

I almost wish I was the one who was going, not the one who was staying… the uncertainty caused by lack of knowledge or having anything that I could do to help was starting to drive me crazy. Waiting around during an emergency felt like it was a lot more stressful than being able to respond and act in some way… even fleeing into the mountains was at least something! I had to wait here with Tetra, and just hope that some unknown threat wouldn’t suddenly appear and kill us both.

A startled yelp and a light breeze broke me from my musings as I was trying to think of what I could possibly say, or do, to make the situation even a little better. I span around, my heart beating wildly in my chest as adrenaline flooded my veins, searching for a threat…

And then I noticed that the Merrik was gone, no longer sitting under the ‘Tetra Tree’…

… and so was Wulfric, vanished from the place he had been speaking with my duplicate, who was also missing.

Bloody beast! So, was that it then? No stilted and stuttering speeches from the Merrik… no final goodbye?