Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

It took over one and a half weeks for Ambraz to wake. One and a half weeks that Irwin spent with Scintilla and their children, thinking about what had happened.

The things that most preoccupied his mind were who Zazir and his people were. That, and the Wizteriaz.

He'd spend time talking with Tang about them, and the giant Fiz'rin had explained that long ago, he'd spoken with an elder Fiz'rin, who had fought Wizteriaz during a Gallery Barrier breach that eventually destroyed an entire side branch. Sadly, beyond them being very rare and very nasty, all he knew was to break them up into tiny parts and destroy them one at a time. The best way was to shatter their core and separate that, which would also reduce their ability to think clearly.

Now, he was lying in bed, Scintilla softly snoring beside him- pressed against his side, while Ambraz was in his soulscape, playing with the small Embers.

Like every night since he'd destroyed the Wizteriaz, his mind was drifting around, moving between what Zarzir had said and what he'd implied to who and what the Guidar were.

If they are really fleeing from the Guidar, we need to get into contact with them, Irwin thought, not for the first time.

He knew that if Zarzir's people attacked everyone they came across because they thought they were Guidar, there would be fighting. That would potentially create so much bad blood that even after the truth came out, things would have escalated beyond a peaceful collaboration.

Not that he expected the Ignitzians to be up to working with Zarzir's people.

Zarzir of the Waiters.

He pondered the name, wondering if his people were The Waiters or if it was some group within his species.

Scintilla made a soft sound as she turned on her other side, pressing herself closer to him as if searching for warmth. Irwin absently placed his arm around her shoulders, and she let out a soft sigh before continuing to sleep.

Beyond all the troubles, The Waiters, or whatever they were called, could cause, there was one more thing he couldn't place. How were they able to consume a card and take part of it into themselves? From everything he knew of the ancient wars, there had been no people who could do that, as even Zarzir had been powerful enough to fight against people with more than one soulcard easily. A species that powerful would have been known to Gelwin, or Daubutim would have read about them, but he'd heard nothing about them.

Perhaps they are from another part of the Portal Gallery closer to the Guidar?

As his mind continued to mull over things, he knew what he really needed was to find more of The Waiters and talk with them, convince them he wasn't some monstrous soul stealer.

It took him a long time to finally find his rest, and when he did, his last thoughts were about reforging Tierabel's heartcard- now possible with Ambraz awake.

--

Irwin focused as he struck on the assortment of cards, watching them swirl together as Tierabel's new heartcard formed. It wasn't the first nor the most difficult heartcard he'd ever made, but as the last vestiges of the handcards vanished, he noticed something he had never before.

As the card solidified, he saw the remaining soulforce from the cards, the resonances that wouldn't be part of the heartcard drift or ebb away like misty tendrils.

As the last of what he needed to do was done, he ignored Tierabel's happy cries and watched how the more green soulforce drifted along the fiery ambient soulforce, their colorations sticking out. No, drifting wasn't the right word… it was most like ripples in water as if something passed across its surface and left behind a signature of its passing.

With his mind still clear from the reforging, Irwin watched how the remaining soulforce moved to the trees beyond the room that doubled as his temporary smithy. The ambient soulforce there was a mix of pale green, partially hidden behind swirls of red, orange, yellow, and gold. As soon as the remaining soulforce reached it, the pale green gleamed brightly for a moment, then darkened as the tendrils of soulforce were absorbed by it.

I wonder if I could somehow contain the remnant soulforce, Irwin thought, humming softly.

"Smith Irwin, thank you so much!" Tierabel shouted, drawing his attention to the girl, now with silver eyes.

"You are welcome," he said, watching her with her hands pressed to her chest and almost jumping for joy. "Now, go and show your parents," he said, knowing the two older Viridians were likely outside, passing for worry.

"Okay!" she shouted, dashing away.

Irwin unsummoned his hammer as she exited the room. A moment later, Ambraz shrunk to his small form and landed on his shoulder.

"If only all heartcards were this well-planned and easy to do," he snorted.

Irwin knew he was referring to Scintilla's card, which had occupied them both as they tried to devise the best way to create it. They hadn't even reforged her preferred sixth card yet, as Ambraz wasn't sure if adding that to the mix would allow a heartcard to be formed that retained the cold resistance she would need.

"What would be the fun in that?" Irwin said as he looked around the room. It was empty, safe for a table pushed to the side, and calling it a smithy was stretching the term to mean any place he and Ambraz were in.

"Now what, kid? I promised Mia I would play with her in the Pyrofluxfall!"

Irwin couldn't hold back a soft laugh.

"You know that's not her name yet, right?" he said, focusing on what his other self was doing within his soulscape, namely, playing with the oldest of his children, who were now partially able to remain outside of the Pyroflux.

Mia, as Ambraz had begun calling her due to her own referral to herself as me, was sitting on his shoulders while he, Scintilla, and the embers were running, swimming, and playing in the enlarged Pyroflux lake.

He'd spent a few days expanding the river network before drawing a massive amount of Pyroflux from the sea into his soulscape. It now held a network of smaller and larger lakes that were nestled along the border of the volcanic mountains. With Ambraz's help, he'd created a series of tunnels that allowed it to leak down and into the ground, back to the volcano, where it accumulated in a large underground reservoir. The pressure of the volcano caused it to be ejected out of one of the sides, creating a large Pyroflux waterfall that streamed down in two large and one small river that refilled the lakes.

Even now, a few days later, he was still caught in wonder as he sensed and saw the complex network, glad Ambraz had woken up early enough to help create it.

"Kid?"

Irwin blinked, realizing he'd been drawn to his soulscape with both of his selves. Leaving Scintilla and the young ones to his otherself, Irwin refocused on the present.

"Before that, I wanted to suggest something," he said as he walked to the table.

He focused, pulling something from his soulscape, harder as his otherself was too busy to hand it to him.

When he finally succeeded, two simple quartz cards, a wooden one-foot-long spoon, and a meatbat lay in his hand. Although only utility items, as most quartz cards were, by now, he knew perfectly well how powerful each could become. All he had to do was reforge them to amethyst, then sideways reforged them to become the lowest rank of carded weapons.

"I want to try reforging these two to amethyst and into daggers if I can, then sideways their wood type into one of the types you said could become sentient," Irwin said, staring at the two cards and sensing both of their resonances. "After that, I want to circumvent my lack of any wood typing and try to reforge them to Topax and to the sorts of wood that have heat absorption while adding some metal, if possible. Because of my own types, I'm hoping adding both fire and metal to the wood and the sword will help stabilize all of the handcards when we need to create her heartcard."

Ambraz was quiet for a bit, then hummed. "Adding metal to wood-typed cards isn't unheard of, but it's usually done with things like axes and some types of armor… still, I don't see how it couldn't work with a sword. We will need to have over half of it be of wood… What do you want to try? Make an overly large wooden hilt and a metal blade?"

"No, that would probably not allow us even a chance of making a sword that can become sentient. I'm thinking of making the entire core and handle of wood, then an edge of metal that drills through the wood and leads to the hilt, covering the finger guard and the pommel."

"Difficult, but that could work! But how will you fix the balance?" Ambraz asked, and Irwin could sense his interest spiking.

"I was thinking by thickening the edge or adding weight to the pommel," Irwin said before frowning." But we will probably need to ask Scintilla how well it worked between each step, as it's going to be trickier than a regular sword."

"Interesting," Ambraz said, and for a moment, Irwin thought he was going to suggest starting right away. Then Ambraz let out a loud hum, and his interest died slightly." Let's try tomorrow!"

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"Alright," Irwin said, holding back from laughing as Ambraz almost dove into his soulscape.

He sensed how the Ganvil rushed through it, toward the Pyroflux river where his otherself, Scintilla, and Mia were playing. He grinned, then stretched his arms and walked towards the exit.

The small town was bustling around him, Viridians walking from and into the sprawling forrest, disappearing into the corridors that drilled into the stone wall as they went about their day. The ambient soulforce around him was a mass of tints of orange, filled with streaks of green, while from the Pyroflux streams, the yellow and red of the playing Embers came. With the new dam built by the Veridians, they were locked from moving into the sea, something he and especially Scintilla were very happy about. It meant they were safe as long as the earth titans wouldn't come here, who had luckily not been detected for over a week.

Irwin hesitated as he thought about returning to his and Scintilla's small home. He decided against it as he sensed Scintilla still busily playing, the constant stream of extra information from his other self flowing into his mind. She wasn't ready to leave yet.

"Let's go see what the others are doing," he muttered, turning toward the large town center, an area partially cut out from the tree-covered rocky elevation.

As he walked along the cut-out entrances that led to the viridian homes or deeper into the town, Irwin spread out his steam. He kept it as thin as possible so that most wouldn't notice it and used it to locate Zender, Hind, and Boohm. Ever since he'd used it in the tunnels over two weeks ago, he had started using it as much as he could. Although he'd been aboard ships for most of the last few years, he knew that wouldn't always be the case, and having a way to detect most, especially larger things in a wide area around him, would be invaluable.

Especially as they still had to locate his fifth and last child.

The thought of the last ember, which Mia had said was last seen heading far into the depths below The Burrows, made him worried. The more time he spent with the other four, especially Mia, the more he felt a bond with them. Now, knowing that another of his children was potentially alone and in need made him want to head there and search for her.

If only I knew where she was, he thought with a frown.

As his joy faded slightly, replaced by an absent worry, his steam revealed a few people within one of the diners. Based on their size, he was pretty sure two of them were Zender and Boohm. It didn't surprise him to find them there.

During their stay, he'd learned that the Viridians barely ever prepared meals for themselves, instead preferring to eat out. Due to this, the comparatively small community had many places to eat, many specializing in different dishes that their owners had learned on their travels before they came here.

One of those, the one Boohm loved going to, was owned by a pair of Viridian sisters who specialized in Onyxian food. Though not as burning hot as the hottest things eaten by the Ignitzians, the food was spicy and powerful, and Boohm, Hind, and Zender seemed more than happy to be there, either eating or sharing stories with the two sisters and a few other customers who frequented it. The fact that their temporary residence was a few doors away didn't hurt either.

As his steam swirled through the small eating area, he couldn't see anyone who resembled Hind in size.

Probably with Tang, he thought.

He didn't bother to attempt to spread his steam to find her, as she was probably within one of the queries, which, although he might be able to reach it if he only stretched his stream in a single direction, was not worth the trouble.

A few of the Viridians he passed nodded at him while others quickened their pace, glancing at him when they thought he couldn't see.

What was left of his happy mood of creating another Heartcard vanished, replaced by a slight annoyance.

According to Sahroot, many Viridians feared his and the others' presence, fearing it might draw more invaders or one of the earth titans. The worst thing was, he knew they could potentially be correct. According to Mia, the earth titans had been far more aggressive in their chasing of Embers, to the point that it was why she had to stop searching for her fifth sibling.

Halfway to the diner, a figure entered his steam running his way. He stopped and turned to see Heimnin run his way. The worry on his face almost made him want to groan, knowing something was up.

"Heimnin?" he asked wearily as the Viridian grovekeeper stopped before him.

"Smith Irwin, Sahroot asks that you join him and Loumei in the town hall!"

Irwin frowned as he saw the worry etched in Heimnin's bark-skinned face.

"What happened?" he asked, turning back in the direction Heimnin had come from.

"A Fiz'rin from Smelter came with the news, and…" Heimnin trailed off, his frown deepening, causing his leafy brows to touch and crunch together with a rustle. "It's probably best if Sahroot tells you himself."

Sure, I guess a week of calm is enough, Irwin thought sarcastically. He'd hoped they could remain here, free of worry, until Mia and perhaps some of the other rapidly growing ones solidified, but apparently, something had to happen again.

It took them a few minutes to reach the town hall, and as he entered, he saw Tang and Hind standing to one side, speaking softly with a tall Fiz'rin. He almost reached Tang's shoulder, making him taller than Hind and himself, while his spikey, gleaming hair rose a hand-length straight up. Sahroot and Loumei stood near the central area, worriedly talking with a group of Viridians.

Irwin saw Hind beckon him, and with a glance at Sahroot, he walked towards her. As he reached them, the other Fiz'rin turned to him with eyes that were the red and yellow versions of his own molten balls of metal. They were set in a somewhat flat, angular face that looked almost forged, with a large pale scar running across the entire length of the dark, coppery forehead, starting at the tip of his ear and disappearing in the opposite hairline.

"Captain, this is my uncle, Lavandar Oredelver," Hind said. "But we all call him Lava."

"Well, well! I see Tiscian was right," Lava said, stretching out his hand and clasping Irwin's tightly. His voice was deep like all Fiz'rin's Irwin had met, but with a smooth, dangerous quality.

"You do have my grandfather's eyes!" Lava said, his grin widening.

"Or yours," Hind said with a weary smile.

"No, girl, mine don't have that bottom swirl," Lava said, staring intently into Irwin's eyes. "Besides, when he finishes that Heartcard, I bet his will have more red!"

As he spoke, his grip increased, but Irwin easily matched it, and Lava's eyes lit up with approval.

"Nice to meet you," Irwin said, drawing his hand back when the other finally released it.

"The same, though I'd have preferred it being for a different reason," Lava said, his smile fading, replaced by a stoic.

"What is going on?" Irwin asked, glancing at Hind.

"Better we wait for Sahroot to finish," Tang rumbled.

Hind, who had opened her mouth, closed it with a snap, all but glaring at Tang.

The Fiz'rin, who had to bow his head and crouch slightly to fit in the room, didn't react, but Lava laughed softly.

"I see you have yet to curb most of your enthusiasm, Hind," he said.

Hind sniffed as she looked at the Viridians.

Great, Irwin thought, quickly warning Ambraz and Scintilla of what was going on.

A few moments later, after telling Mia not to worry and to take care of the others, both appeared beside him.

"Ah! So you do have a Ganvil," Lava exclaimed, scanning Ambraz.

Ambraz snorted but said nothing, but Lava didn't seem to mind and merely smiled and turned to Scintilla. "Blademaiden."

"Master Miner," Scintilla said, causing Lava's eyebrows to shoot up.

"Just Lava will do, or Lav, if you prefer," he said with a grin that crinkled his eyes like bent metal.

After waiting for barely a minute, Sahroot turned to them, beckoning them closer while some of the Viridians turned and headed for the door. The other stood behind Loumei, looking worried.

"So, what's going on?" Irwin asked, looking at Sahroot.

"Lava, could you tell Smith Irwin and the others what you told me?" Sahroot asked, clasping his hands behind his back with a weary sigh.

"Of course," the Fiz'rin said. "Tiscian contacted me a few days ago, through a channel she shouldn't know about, I might add, with dire news. Another one of the invaders' ships was spotted just beyond the portal barrier. Apparently, your ship approached it, and it fled as soon as it moved through a hole in the barrier."

"Too bad. We need to talk with them and figure out why they are still hanging around here," Scintilla said.

There was a round of agreements, but Irwin didn't pay much attention to it. His attention was caught by something else Lava had said.

A hole in the barrier?

He recalled when they had arrived near Igniz harbor, and he was sure that there hadn't been any holes when they had arrived. Irwin felt a slight twinge of worry as he thought about Greldo and the others. With only half of The Sonata's crew there, he'd have preferred it if they hadn't needed to move, but he trusted his friend to do what was needed. He was about to ask for details when he realized Lava wasn't done yet.

"When the news of this reached the Bladematriarch, she finally lost control," Lava said, his lips curving in a weary smile that didn't reach his eyes. "From what Tiscian was able to gather, she nearly destroyed the entire castle and caused a wave of some pale purple fog to spread out from it. It… did something with the people present, and most of the city is now deserted."

"Wizteriaz?" Irwin groaned, wondering if it was from one of the other invaders that had gotten in and, if so, why it hadn't moved sooner.

"Not necessarily," Ambraz said, his lips pursed in a tight line. "Thought perhaps it would have been better if it had been."

Irwin looked at his companion.

"What do you mean?" he asked, noticing the others were equally curious.

"Remember how we sensed she was closing in on becoming Addled? Well, on very rare occasions, especially if the soulcards of the person turning addled were unstable, to begin with, they explode. If this happens, a wave of unbridled, corrupted soulforce ripples out, which turns everyone without a very powerful soulcard or heartcard into Addled."

"You have got to be kidding me," Scintilla snapped, staring at Ambraz. "Are you telling me that everyone in Obsidian is now Addled?"

"That would match with what Tiscian told me," Lava said. "Apparently, the people in Obsidian have started surging out, attacking anything and everything in sight."

"So, either we are dealing with a city full of Wizteriaz-controlled people or a city full of Addled," Irwin said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"What about the exit portal?" Hind asked.

"Tiscian managed to reach it in time and took control over the garrison," Lava said. "She is still holding out but has requested aid from the other Matriarchs, but it will take them time to field armies large enough to deal with this mess. More assistance is trickling in, but it's barely enough to keep the swelling tide at bay, and that's only because the changed citizens from Obsidian are still partially locked in the city."

Irwin looked at him for a few moments before sighing.

"Which is why you are here," he said, suddenly feeling calmer. "Tiscian is asking for the Fiz'rin and others to help her."

"Exactly," Lava said, turning to Sahroot.

"I will have a few dozen of my Grovekeepers ready, but I can't commit more," Sahroot said with a firm shake of his head. "Those I sent will be those who can flee if needed, and they will not fight till the death. If the exit portal is closed, so be it. We will survive in the depths, but there are too few of us here."

"That is all we can ask for right now," Lava said, though Irwin saw the Fiz'rin's fists clench tightly before turning to Scintilla.

"Tiscian asked me to come check if Irwin found you and, if so, to request that you make your way to the exit portal."

Irwin frowned, sharing a look with Scintilla, knowing they both thought the same thing. What about their last ember?