"We don't understand it well enough to know what kind of trouble anyone is having with it. Let's keep all but the senior enchanters clear, too." Better safe than sorry. He has already ordered his people to give it wide berth and had to punish three of them for breaking orders.

Maybe he should have a rotating guard set on the thing. He gives an involuntary shudder. "I wonder what that smell means." There's no real way to know. He hopes it's not some sort of rotting flesh wrapped up in the metal. If that were the case, surely he'd smell it, too?

He shakes his head abruptly. "Perhaps we should speak of something else. It's a dark subject." In addition to giving him the shivers, it makes him sad. "I don't think I've ever asked you what brought you to Kirkwall. Were you just passing through? What rum luck if that was the case."