Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

Irwin followed Tiscian through a door that looked like obsidian rock. It was smooth and slick, except for a beautiful sword engraving that decorated the entire length of the front.

One step in, he looked around in surprise and slight shock.

Smooth dark-red pavers covered a hallway that ended at a low staircase that led into a room with pale white walls. Dark-golden, red-inlaid furniture stood everywhere. A bench and some chairs surrounded a low table. A few cabinets were placed against the walls, and to the right was a small library-esque area with three waist-high bookcases and some shelves along the wall. Everything looked clean and well-maintained but oozed age.

Two doorless entrances, one on the left and one on the right, led away, deeper into the building, while a double staircase curved up the walls and towards the next floor.

A fresh but spicy scent made Irwin's mouth water, and he followed it to a table laden with two types of fruit he'd never seen before- a purplish red oval-shaped-one the size of his fist, and a pale golden flat and curved fruit attached to a red stalk which somewhat reminded him of grapes.

"Welcome to my home," Tiscian said as she watched him with a slight glitter in her eyes. "I don't like false modesty, so yes, I did my best to fill it with all the luxury I could find. My grandmother always said: fight hard, live well. Many of my people think luxury makes you weak, but if that's the case, they are welcome to a spar."

Irwin couldn't tell if she was showing off or just happy with his reactions. He tried to recall if Scintilla had ever said anything about her mother, but all he could remember was that she was powerful and that she preferred talking with one of her aunts- the name of whom eluded him. Though, as he thought about that, a thought came bubbling up in his mind.

I wonder if Numilli ever came back...

The last time he'd seen the odd… crazy? Ignitzian cousin of Scintilla, she had been absorbing the crystalized soulskill of an earth-titan as it was dissipating.

I'll ask Tiscian later, he decided.

Tiscian beckoned him, walking past the table and picking up one of the big, purple-reddish fruit. She looked at him, seeming to weigh something, then held it out.

Feeling anxious about meeting his children, Irwin accepted the fruit, deciding that something in his stomach wouldn't hurt. Besides, he was a bit hungry.

The fruit was surprisingly heavy, close to the weight of a fist-sized chunk of ore. It was also hot, to the point that it felt like a burning coal. Irwin instinctively knew that if any normal person touched it, their flesh would melt from their bones.

"That's a Puari, though some people call it Molten Metal fruit. If you look at the top, you will see some lines. You can twist the fruit, forcing it open to get to the sweet and spicy insides. It does take a bit of effort."

As she spoke, Tiscian picked up another fruit and showed him the lines before wrapping her hands around it and starting to twist. The muscles and tendons on her lower arms and neck popped out, and she hissed. Then, a soft plop came as the fruit cracked apart along its seams, and more of the fresh, alluring scent burst free. A pale, orange liquid oozed around the edges, and Tiscian quickly pulled the sides apart, tearing the fruit flesh into two wet halves. Then she took one of the metal knives that lay on the table and cut a square into it before using the tip to get it to her mouth.

Irwin had been watching, and he swallowed as the scent made his mouth water even more. Without waiting, he gripped the fruit. Not sure how much force he'd need, he started very gently, increasing his grip until, with a little effort, the fruit came apart, and one-half almost dropped to the ground.

Tiscian's eyebrows rose a bit as Irwin juggled them. As the scent grew stronger, he grabbed a knife, copied Tiscian, and put a small cube of the orange fruit in his mouth.

Hot!

Irwin began blowing through his mouth as a sense of incredible spiciness filled it. It was only uncomfortable for a few moments. Then he got used to it. With a few chews, through the tough, leathery fruit, it slid down his throat, burning like the strongest liquor he'd ever had.

With his mouth watering even more, Irwin quickly made his way through half of the fruit before he looked up.

Tiscian was looking at him, a second bit of fruit halfway through her mouth. As soon as Irwin looked at her, she lowered it and nodded.

"Whatever one may say about my daughter, she definitely wasn't a liar," she said. "Come, bring the rest of the Puari. It is a great way to get the little ones to show up. Also… you might want to refrain from eating all of it. It is somewhat heavy on the stomach."

With a crooked smile, she walked towards the right entrance.

Irwin looked at his fruit, then the others, and shrugged. He was hungry enough to finish a few, but that would have to wait. Besides, he did feel his sense of fullness increase.

His long legs quickly helped him catch up, and they walked through a hallway with multiple entrances to luxurious rooms. Most looked like sitting rooms, but there were also sparring rooms and something that looked like a spacious kitchen.

At the end was a massive circular staircase that led down.

The final room before they reached the staircase looked like an elaborate bedroom. As he looked inside, Irwin saw two young girls lying on their stomachs on a couch. There was a book in front of them, but they were intently staring at the door. As their burning red eyes met Irwin's, they quickly focused on the book, and he could almost see them pretending to read it.

"I told my granddaughters that they are not to bother you until you have settled," Tiscian said as she walked down the stairs. "They are the daughters of my seventh daughter, Sisrini… She was-"

For the first time since meeting her, Irwin saw Tiscian's calm facade flicker as a look of intense pain filled her eyes. It lasted for only a moment, but Tiscian didn't continue.

He knew she had likely been thinking about one of her deceased daughters and kept quiet.

They continued down the stairs, and the temperature began climbing, going from the dry, flat heat that had been everywhere since he arrived to an almost pulsing one. After a few minutes, he began picking up bubbling sounds, and shortly after, they walked out into a surprisingly small cavern. Perhaps twice as high as him, fifty feet across and a hundred wide, all but a small stretch was filled with lava that slowly dribbled from holes in the left wall while flowing down into a single, larger one on the right.

Bubbles appeared on the lava all the time, exploding in a spray of fiery stone, which was accompanied by the plopping he'd heard. A powerful soulforce resonance came from the lava while it glowed in his eyes beyond what lava usually did.

Irwin sensed concentrated marbles of soulforce moving lazily around the basin of lava, some vanishing along with the stream as it flowed away, and new ones appeared through the holes constantly. They weren't all the same size or intensity, with a few currently lingering deep below the surface, closer to the size of his fist.

Are those-

He had no time to finish his thought as Tiscian walked forward and knelt beside the lava, beckoning him to come forward.

"I don't know how many, or if any, are here right now," Tiscian said as she put her hand into the lava without a care in the world. As she stirred around, seeming to struggle a bit to move the thick, viscous material, she began softly humming. A moment later, her soulcards began resonating, and Irwin sensed some of their properties.

Fire, heat, speed, and an odd summon, Irwin thought. It was hard for him to keep the different soulcards apart as they seemed wholly meshed with Tiscian, but there was one that was more complex than the others.

His attention was diverted to the lava as he noticed the larger concentrations of soulforce make their way to the surface. Tiscian showed no reaction, and Irwin pointed at the nearest one.

"Something is coming up," he said softly.

Tiscian continued humming as she cast him a quick, surprised look. Then she turned to the spot he'd pointed at and cupped her hand. A pale yellow flame rippled along her hand, and Irwin sensed the slight increase of heat from it.

The largest two soulforce concentrations were now right below Tiscian's hand, and Irwin watched in wonder as a tiny, finger-sized being stuck its head out of the lava. With red, spikey hair and two very large, intensely dark red eyes, a tiny being climbed onto Tiscian's hand with arms that seemed translucent and unsteady. Her face was surprisingly similar to the small Ignitzian girls he'd seen, though it was the only part that was similar.

"Hello, little one," Tiscian crooned as she smiled and raised the tiny, unstable-looking fire-elemental-like being up.

The tiny Ignitzian to be had legs that seemed like a swirling mass of fire and heat and an upper body roughly that of a humanoid, and she smiled curiously.

"Look what I've brought!" Tiscian said softly as she scraped a bit of the Puara fruit with her knife before holding it to the tiny being. It lunged for the knife, then seemed to flow around it, her body closer to a liquid than a solid.

"She's close to assuming her eventual shape," Tiscian said softly, staring intently at the tiny being. "Ignitzians start off as tiny beings made up of only heat and soulforce. As we grow and change during our early lives in the lava streams and seas below the surface, there comes a time when we become more than just emotional beings and gain a semblance of consciousness. She's very close already, and I suspect she will solidify completely within a few weeks to a month and join us."

Irwin watched the tiny being.

"Is she…" he began, hesitating.

"Your daughter?" Tiscian asked, looking at him with a smile. "No. Your children are much younger, though there are three that grow with a surprising speed, almost as if they are doing so on purpose."

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Irwin nodded as he watched the tiny Ignitzion. He saw a few more, almost as large, hovering just below the surface while a few dozen smaller ones moved along to the sides. He got a sense of curiosity from them, though he couldn't say what caused it.

"She asked if you were her heat-father," Tiscian said as she laughed softly.

A shiver ran through Irwin as he finally recognized something of Scintilla in her. They both had the same hazy laugh, their eyes narrowing slightly as their lips curved up to show similar canines. Before he was found staring, he quickly focused on the lava.

"There are more here," he whispered.

Tiscian was quiet for a bit, gently stroking the tiny Ignitzion that was still oozing across the knife.

"You can sense them?" she asked, focusing on him. "The smiths we have here, even those of our own kind, usually aren't that sensitive. Do you have cards that help with that?"

Her eyes were calm again, but Irwin could sense a bit of reluctant distaste in how she asked him. As he did, he suddenly realized he could read her, and finally, it clicked. Although she physically looked very little like Scintilla, and although she was older and more adult than her daughter had been, Tiscian's behavior and little tells were very similar, if not identical. The flickering eyes when they got either curious or agitated, the mocking smile, the tilt of the head.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Irwin blinked. He'd been staring at her while thinking about Scintilla.

"Can I do what you are doing?" he asked quickly, trying to distract from his roiling emotions.

"You can try," Tiscian said after a moment. "Scintilla told me you have a flame. Try to coat your hand in it if you have enough control, and fill it with gentle, soothing emotions. There's a chance that your own children will appear, as they should recognize your soulscape's resonance."

Irwin moved a bit to the side before summoning his hand and covering his flame in a thin sheet. As he'd seen Tiscian do, he let it billow out a bit, letting the golden yellow flame's heat match that of the surrounding lava before increasing it.

"You have very fine control over your soulcard," Tiscian said, looking at his hand. "I thought smiths need only brute strength?"

"There are many types of smiths," Irwin said as he watched the tiny unfinished Ignitzians move around below his hand, seeming hesitant.

Wondering what she'd meant by filling his flame with gentle, soothing emotions, Irwin recalled Tiscian's hum. It had been like a children's song, and deciding it was worth an attempt, his second self summoned his soulstrum guitar. It took him only a few tries to find the right chords, and then he began playing a simple song his mother used to sing to him, humming along as he dipped his hand in the lava, which felt like hot water. He let his soulcard resonate with the song, as he did when reforging.

The tiny fire elementals stopped moving, and then some moved further away from him, the two largest even going so far as to rush to Tiscian's hand. Two smaller specs, perhaps the size of a finger bone, moved closer, hesitating, before shooting at his hand with surprising swiftness.

Irwin raised his cupped hand, creating a little bath of lava an inch above the bubbling surface.

"Just wait. They may come, but it can take a-"

Tiscian stopped talking as two tiny fire elementals climbed onto Irwin's hand. They were even less stable than the one on Tiscian's hand and only a third the size.

"Two… and they have grown again," Tiscian said, scooting over toward him slowly so as not to drop the tiny Ignitzian on her own hand. She leaned forward, inspecting the two tiny Ignitzians. Their faces were less stable than that of the one on her hand, and instead of moving, they seemed to jump between different expressions. Currently, it was switching between excitement and joy.

Irwin barely heard her as he felt a tiny wave of joy and curiosity come from the two tiny Ignitzians. They were definitely sentient, but they had very low intelligence. From what he could tell, they resembled many other elementals he had seen and heard about, with one critical difference.

The powerful connection between his soulcard and them. More specifically, the flame part.

A soft resonance began building, and before he really knew what was happening, the two tiny Ignitzians vanished from his hand, reappearing inside his soulscape.

"Where did they go?!" Tisician shouted.

Irwin didn't even respond, as his full attention went into his second self, both parts almost fusing. He had no time to think about what happened as he watched with horror how two tiny specs hovered mid-air. Their burning shapes instantly began dimming, and a sense of despair shot from them. Irwin was already moving, flying at a speed he'd never be able to in the outside world, and reaching them while a ball of liquid fire engulfed the two shapes, causing their projected panic to disappear. It turned to a weak surprise and worry.

Irwin sensed their questions, though they weren't verbal, and he shot down to the cold lava flowing down the mountain, quickly moving the tiny Ignitzians inside the comforting heat.

They instantly began exploring, and the worry seemed to vanish as if it had never happened.

Ambraz moved into his Soulfoce, flying towards him.

"Kid, what happened? Why did you pull them inside?"

"I didn't," Irwin said as he watched the tiny Ignitzians, his mind finally catching up to what had happened. Both of them were his daughters!

Before he could let that thought settle, he quickly returned to his body, his other self splitting off from the other.

"They are safe," he told a worried-looking Tiscian. The older Ignitzian was kneeling beside him, the tiny one on her hand gone- likely back into the lava.

"They just moved into my soulscape!" Irwin said, shaking his head as he rose, looking at the lava, worried more would come.

His second self was swimming beside the two in his mindscape, listening to their soulforces resonate questions and emotions at him.

"What?!" Tiscian hissed, staring at him as if expecting him to tell her he was lying.

"They resonated with my soulcard and just… flowed inside without anything I could do," Irwin said.

"What!?" Tiscian said, her eyes wide with shock. "That… shouldn't be possible… yet. You say they are fine?" Tiscian asked, crossing her arms as she inspected him. Her calm returned. "Show me?"

Irwin hesitated as he watched the Ignitzian. Shouldn't be possible... yet? Also, although she was hiding it again, the shock she was expressing was far more than he'd yet seen from her.

"Don't worry. I'll contain my soulforce," Tiscian said. "But I need to be sure they are fine. Usually, it takes preparation and very specific circumstances for this to happen."

Irwin looked at her, trying to hide the fact that he'd not even thought about that problem yet.

"Ambraz, could it cause trouble if-"

Ambraz interrupted him, sounding excited as he moved through the lava.

"It's fine. Even with all her soulcards, her soulscape isn't large or strong enough to cause any dissonance with yours!"

Ambraz let out what sounded like muffled laughter as he moved through the thick lava while one of the Ignitizans was swimming circles around him, curious feelings rippling from her like questions that had no words. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Alright," Irwin said as he held out his hand.

Tiscian's hand was surprisingly warm, almost more so than the lava had been- but it wasn't painful. Irwin focused, and it took him some time to cause a resonance between them that was strong enough to allow her inside.

A moment later, the chamber was empty except for him, with Tiscian vanishing and reappearing within his soulscape.

"By the Flames of Aghos…" she said.

She looked around, a flicker of surprise in her eyes.

"You have only one soulcard," she said.

It wasn't a question but a statement, so Irwin didn't bother responding. Instead, he watched her stare at his soullake and the card hovering above it with wide eyes before shivering.

"Where are they?"

Irwin pointed at the spot in the lava lake where he felt them, and Tisician shot forward. It took her only a moment to locate the Ingitzians, and as soon as she did, she shook her head.

"They will be fine. The heat, soulforce, and resonance here are closer to the deepest growth pits within the Obisidian Cavern and even better suited than the Connection Chamber we were in. Its…” She seemed to want to continue, then frowned and shook her head, turning to Irwin.

"They should be fine here for the time being. It might actually be very beneficial. The resonance between you and them has to be incredibly high for this to happen, meaning the purity of your card's flame is of the highest grade."

Irwin nodded, watching and sensing the tiny Ignitzians swim upstream toward the entrance into the volcano. His soulcard was humming contently, resonating with the tiny fire elementals. As they swam around, he could feel their tiny but powerful joy, and slowly, he realized there were more emotions mingled in. A sense of familiarity and trust towards him, but also something odd... relief. A very strong sense of relief.

Irwin frowned to himself and tried to send a question to the tiny Ignitzians. The joy burned brighter, filled with a sense of wanting to hug and cuddle. Irwin managed to return the sentiment, then tried again, slightly more forceful, while adding words even though he was pretty sure they couldn't understand those yet.

'Why are you relieved?'

The Ignitzians became agitated, sending out waves of hope, fear, and abandonment. With it came a mental image of safety, warmth, and a soothing voice that spoke nonsensical words, which were ripped away by… something the two Ignitzians couldn't seem to describe besides something that felt like eternal darkness and cold.

The entire emotional deluge lasted for only a few moments before it was cut off. The two Ignitzians had reached the tip of the mountain and rushed down a narrow tube that led into the volcano. Their agitation was replaced by joy and exuberance, and they seemed to forget about Irwin, just swimming around.

Irwin was staring at them, his mind reeling from the images he'd been sent and the emotional package attached to them.

It took him almost ten minutes of quietly watching them before he had managed to work through what he'd seen. Most was hard to discern, but the voice had been Scintilla's, and the darkness and cold had been what had taken her away.

As he was wondering if they had somehow seen what had happened to Scintilla, Tiscian turned to him.

Irwin felt her push against his soulscape, trying to get out, and he realized something. He could prevent her from going out if he wanted to. He had done the same with You'gyn but never needed it after that time.

Tiscian's eyes narrowed, and then she sighed. "I think we need to have a talk. It's something I didn't expect to be having. Today or ever, really. Can you let me outside so we can go somewhere with chairs and food?"

Irwin hesitated, wondering if he should just tell her they would do it here. Then he pushed the idea born from worry over the emotions of the two tiny Ignitzions, his children, away.

"Some food would be good. And I expect that you will explain what has happened and why you are so shocked by it," he said, smiling to show he wasn't angry.

Tiscian was quiet for a bit, seeming to ponder something as her eyes unfocused. After what had to be a minute, she finally nodded. "I'll explain. Let's head out and to the library."

Irwin gently ejected her from his soulscape. As soon as she was gone, he felt a sense of relief as a strong pressure left his soulscape.

As one of his selves continued observing the tiny Ignitzians, the other cracked his neck as he watched Tiscian look at the lava before walking to the stairs.

"Let's go. After this, I need a drink," she said.

Irwin did as she asked, and they walked up the staircase until they reached the corridor. As he was able to look inside, he just caught a glimpse of two small, fiery-haired, fiery-eyed girls pulling back around the corner of the room.

Tiscian sighed. "Such a hard time to listen to directions, just like their mother."

Irwin didn't respond but followed her back to the main room, where she pointed at one of the sofas in the small library section.

"Just have a seat. I'll get us something strong to drink."

Irwin nodded, moved to one of the large padded stools, and sat down. It was only when his backside touched the chair that he realized he wasn't in his own room. Then he felt the pillow squeeze below his weight. The wood started cracking, and a moment later, the legs gave away, and he and the chair dropped forty inches down with a loud thud.

With his legs stretched forward, Irwin stared up at Tiscian, who was looking at him with wide-open eyes, a bottle in her hand and two glasses in the other.

Running feet came from the hallway, and a moment later, the two little girls looked into the room with wide eyes. It lasted for two seconds. Then they began giggling and laughing, almost dropping to the ground as they stared at him.

Irwin took a deep breath, looking at the other chairs before crossing his legs and leaning back a bit, glad that the back didn't rip apart.

"I'll just stay here if that's alright with you," he said, looking at Tiscian.