Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

Irwin reappeared in the yellow clouds, this time unsurprised as he began dropping down. He pulled the small, four-man boat out of his soulscape. As soon as it appeared, he grabbed it and pulled himself inside. The odd shape of the boat caused them to start spinning as he pulled himself to the helm, and he quickly jabbed his finger at one of the runes. Immediately, the boat’s small sail swished out from under the prow, and it stopped spinning. Irwin slammed into his seat as the ship's descent stopped a moment later.

“Much better,” he said, guiding the ship down to where he sensed the baby chaos whales. As soon as he shot out of the thick, disorienting cloud cover, the four were circling around him, sending out worried and somewhat fearful resonances.

“I came back as fast as I could,” he said, even though he knew they didn’t understand him. “It’s just that the time dilation in here is pretty strong!”

One of the chaos whales let out a croon accompanied by what Irwin could only describe as a complaint.

He grinned and shook his head, sending resonances of comfort. As he was doing all this, his otherself was prepping the group in his soulscape. Scintilla gave the kids a loud talking to, telling them to listen to Ambraz and not do anything bad in their father’s soulscape.

Irwin grinned as he saw Soot share a look of startled disbelief at the suggestion with Flux. Scintilla hadn’t been happy to leave them alone on the ship, but she also hadn’t wanted to let him go alone, so they eventually just decided to bring the kids into his soulscape. Nisziz had almost died from laughter until Scintilla threatened to draw her sword, Leafbrand, to make her shut up. Irwin had let everyone know that if he and Greldo weren’t there, Earila would be in command, which surprised nearly all of them and caused Earilla to be unable to speak for a good ten minutes.

He laughed softly at the memory before focusing back on the here and now. A moment later, Greldo, Scintilla, and Dahlia appeared one at a time.

“Ugh, no!” Greldo groaned, pinching his nose. “It smells like an unholy combination between a volcano and the tanner back in Malorin!”

Irwin ignored his friend’s complaints and the slight pang as he thought back to Malorin. Instead, he kept a close eye on everyone. If they showed any sign of being uncomfortable, he’d pull them back into his soulscape. Scintilla saw him watching and grinned.

“It’s fine, pretty eyes. It smells a bit like home but with something foreign mixed in. It’s also not that cold, just a bit chilly.”

“Chilly?” Dahlia muttered, pulling the front of her vest open slightly before nodding at Irwin to show she was alright.

Irwin guessed that the air was fine, at least below the clouds. He wasn’t going to attempt their luck higher, though, at least not yet.

“Gelwin’s nuts,” Greldo muttered, and Irwin looked up to see his friend goggle at the immense gas giant that covered the other side of the horizon.

Scintilla and Dahlia turned around and showed different levels of surprise and wonder.

“I've never seen a gas giant before,” Dahlia said, her eyes glittering with curiosity. “From what Grandfather told me, they are priced for their extremely high chaos soulforce concentrations. Every now and again, powerful plumes of it are ejected toward the moon worlds around them.”

“What use is that?” Greldo said, shaking his head. “We’ve all been in the storms, and there’s a ton of chaotic soulforce there. It’s useless, isn’t it?”

Dahlia rolled her eyes at him. “The chaotic soulforce saturates the outer shell of the world, the thing that prevents the air from leaking away, and some of it gets purified in the process.“

Irwin looked up, but all he saw was the thick yellow and orange cloud cover.

“She’s right,” Ambraz said. “Most of these worlds are useless because there are barely any valuable resources here. A few families have created small harbor towns around the portal and earn some soulshards from people going inside. They hope to be lucky and find a high concentration of purified soulforce.”

“What will that do?” Greldo asked curiously.

Irwin already knew the answer but let Ambraz continue, knowing how much the Ganvil enjoyed explaining things.

“If they are lucky, it will fill up a part of their soullake,” Ambraz said, his lips pressed in a line. “Which sounds great if not for the fact that the purified soulforce would need to be of the right type, and even then, someone might only be able to absorb the same amount as would be in a topaz rank card. The number of people that luck out like this is probably countable on one of your hands.”

Irwin grinned, but Greldo, for once, wasn’t distracted.

“So, in this world… the type is fire?” his friend asked, looking around curiously.

“Fire, flame, heat, rock, stone, and a whole lot of subtypes,” Irwin said, as he looked around at the soulforce that resonated around mostly the tips of the mountains, weakening greatly the lower he looked.

“What? Fire and flame are the same?” Greldo asked, grinning at Irwin.

Irwin shook his head, both at Greldo’s rhyme and to answer the question.

“No. They are related but two distinct types,” Irwin said, remembering what he’d learned at the academy. “Fire is burning something, and includes some specific types like heat, burning, and flame.”

“Right…” Greldo said, raising an eyebrow. “What practical difference is there?”

“The more specific something is, the more powerful,” Ambraz said. “ Say you have a topaz rank flame card, and let's assume you can control the flame with it. If you have a fire card that does the same, you would need it a rank or higher to get the same control over the flame part as you would with the topaz card.”

Greldo’s frown deepened. “Alright, but then why would anybody want something besides a specific subtype?”

“Versatility,” Dahlia said, joining in the conversation. “It’s why very few people use the subtypes of flame like the one Scintilla has. Most people have amethyst, topaz, and emerald rank cards and only ever reach a single soulcard. They prefer versatility over specialization. Going specific is something that either the nobles, the rich merchants, and smiths do.”

“There’s more,” Irwin said. “Remember that just like with your first handcard, you can’t just slot any card. After you get your first soulcard, any future cards need to harmonize with it, limiting your options. If you go for fire, you can slot any flame, heat, and other subtype of flame. But if you take flame, it will be much harder to slot heat or fire.”

“Right, and in both cases, it's impossible to slot ice, cold, and the rest,” Greldo said, nodding thoughtfully. He looked around again, humming thoughtfully. “So, what does that mean for me in this world? Can I go around searching for one of those concentrations of purified soulforce?”

“Your soulcard has the heat type because of Coal,” Ambraz said. “That means the chance of you finding a concentration on this world is very small.”

“But not zero?” Gerldo asked.

Ambraz snorted. “No. Not zero.”

Greldo began looking around, and Irwin could see he wanted to start exploring. He didn’t blame him. After he finished getting everything settled, he’d love to look around this new world. It would beat their constant search through the frozen waste they had before. Hopefully. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Well, then, I guess it's time to see how lucky I am,” Greldo said, looking around and shaking his head sadly. “Though I’d have liked a place for Coal and me to hunt, the idea of filling my soullake is nearly as great! I’ll leave a clone here and explore a bit!”

Before Irwin could react, Greldo vanished, and the sloop rolled and balked from the sudden loss of weight. Irwin grunted as he struggled with the tiny helm.

Scintilla hummed and leaned closer to Ambraz.

“Say we find one of those high concentrations of soulforce. Can we wait for Mia and the others to be old enough to get a handcard and give them something that would match the type?”

“Nice try,” Ambraz said. “If it was that easy, don’t you think the people owning other worlds like this would have done so? No, the problem is that those concentrations are fickle and only remain for a few hours at most.”

Scintilla leaned back with an annoyed sniff.

A short while later, Irwin landed the sloop on the mountain, not too far from the top. By now, the ambient soulforce had gone down, though the heat from the ground more than made up for it in temperature.

“So, what are we going to do?” Dahlia asked, jumping from the ship. “Are we going to make an outpost here or go further away from the portal?”

“Here or somewhere else nearby,” Irwin said as he looked around. “If something happens outside, I want to be able to react as fast as possible. The same is true if we need to get out of here fast.”

“Alright… and how are we going to do that? We don’t have any stoneshapers, do we?”

Irwin hummed as he looked around. “No, but I do have cards. Let's see if we can find a good place for an outpost and then see if one of the blademaidens is interested in one.”

The rest of the day passed quickly, with their group finding a small cave system and Irwin bringing more of the Igntizians on-world. When he dropped off the last group, only a few people remained on The Concerto. Hind, Helm, Earila, Zender, and Boohm remained with the ship to protect it if needed. They would remain there for now, but as soon as things here were settled, Irwin planned to rotate them out, with either himself, Greldo, or Hind and Helm being there, together with a few of the Ignitzians. Nisziz had agreed that she would split the Blademaidens up into three groups, which would rotate there.

Greldo was still exploring, but he didn’t worry about his friend. What he did worry about was if he could find an Ignitzian willing to slot a stoneshaping card.

Why do I have the feeling this is going to take a while, he thought as he looked at the group of Blademaidens, arms crossed and frowning at him.

---

“How many of these worlds are there?” Greldo asked. “We’ve been to a lot of worlds, and we never saw one.”

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Irwin sat on a nearby rock, grinning as his friend walked around excitedly, pelting Dahlia and Ambraz with questions. Behind him, a loud groaning came from the cave system as Libriz and Mouzin were reshaping the caves to meet their needs.

The memory of the discussion almost caused his headache to return. Why they had been so against it, even if they knew they could unslot them again, was something he would probably never understand.

“I don’t have exact numbers,” Dahlia said, raising her arms in exasperation and drawing Irwin’s attention back to the conversation. “All I know is that it was implied there weren’t a lot. I know of three near the central part of the Langost branch.”

“Okay, and are all of them dead like this?” Greldo asked, looking around and pointing at the desolate wasteland around them. “No trees, no signs of plants at all, and no lifeforms besides those creepy birds?”

“Worlds hovering around a gas giant are always rank one or two,” Dahlia said. “We should be happy that there is breathable air here!”

“What? Why wouldn't there be?” Scintilla asked from beside Irwin.

Irwin wasn’t any less surprised. He’d only ever been to worlds that he could breathe.

“All rank three and above worlds are guaranteed to have air,” Dahlia said as if she were reading something from a book. “Only a third of the rank two worlds have that, and only one in ten of the rank one world.”

“So what is there instead of air?” Greldo asked.

“Lethal or toxic fumes,” Dahlia said. “Some are yellowish like the stuff above, and some are invisible. Then there are the worlds that are almost like chaos space. But those are very rare. If I remember right from my grandfather’s book, the scholars and librarians think that worlds that are rank one are barely able to hold themselves from shattering. Some are so weak that the chances of someone even finding a portal before the world beyond is shattered and returning to the primal chaos are tiny.”

Irwin listened to them for a while longer before finally releasing Dahlia from the constant questions of his enthusiastic friend.

“Grell,” he said, voice loud enough to interrupt Greldo before he could ask something else.

“And-... what?” Greldo asked, focusing on him.

“How far did you say you explored?” Irwin asked.

“I moved in a few expanding circles around us,” Greldo said. “I didn’t find anything within at least twenty miles of us. Then I headed in a straight line for a few hours and just found more of the same.”

Irwin nodded as it matched what Ambraz had told him to expect.

“That’s good,” he said.

“How is that good?” Greldo exclaimed. “There’s less to see in this world than out in the portal gallery!”

“It means there’s very little danger,” Irwin said. “We are going to make a small outpost here, then continue exploring the mountains every now and again. If we can’t find another, better world, we will create a more permanent base here.”

“And then what?” Scintilla asked.

“Then we are going to head to Dimarintsia and figure out who is after the smiths and what their connection is with those invaders,” Irwin said.

“You aren’t planning on leaving me here, right?” she asked, leaning into him and glaring at him while running her nail around his jawline.

“I was thinking about leaving everyone here,” Irwin said slowly, holding her eyes, which began gleaming dangerously. “Except for Greldo, Boohm, Hind, and…”

Scintilla prodded his side, and Irwin laughed as he tapped her nose. “You.”

“And the kids?” Ambraz asked over his shoulder.

“They will be fine,” Scintilla said. “It's normal for Ignitzian children to be without their heatmother for most of their early life, as they are usually trained by others.”

Irwin felt a slight twinge at that, and although he nodded in agreement, he quickly added: “Not that we are leaving soon. This world has a time dilation of a bit over three times, and I’m planning on creating some things before we leave.”

Greldo hummed. “If only I were able to find those portals myself. Then I could move around much faster!”

“Well, then you should go and find a concentration of soulforce for your type and fill your soullake,” Irwin said, grinning.

“Don’t think I won't try,” Greldo muttered. “But do you have cards that would help me see those closed portals?”

“Not as well as me… but I don’t think you should take those. You already have a very diverse range of types, and your next set of cards will already be pretty limited.”

Greldo sighed wearily as he continued pacing around.

“Fine. Well, you go and do your thing so we can start searching as soon as we can! I’m going to check closer to that gas giant.”

Greldo and Coal vanished, and Dahlia let out a relieved sigh.

The rest of the second and third days passed slowly, with some temporary living quarters and a kitchen shaped from the caves, as were some door slabs. The four chaos whale babies kept drifting off as if searching for something, and Irwin had to rush out twice to save them from Fowlies. Finally, half a week after arriving, most of their temporary base was done, and Irwin and Scintilla sat in their large room. There were two entrances leading out of their room. The smaller one led to a short hallway with two other rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. The larger one led into a short hallway that led to a shared common room.

“I’m going to have to ask Mouzin to create us an extra-thick door slab,” Scintilla muttered as she looked at the door to their children's rooms. A loud racket came from there, as the six seemed to be playing some kind of game that involved stones and a lot of shouting and laughter.

“Don’t worry. Nisziz said she was going to start them on their blade training tomorrow,” Irwin said, prodding the sharp, black sand of their bed and finding a thumb-sized stone. Grunting at it, he tossed it to the pile in the corner.

“Are you going to start searching tomorrow?” Scintilla asked, pressing herself against him and humming contentedly.

“Yes. Greldo and I will search for up to four hours, then return,” he said. “The day after, I’ll start doing reforging and checking on that chaos whale card I found.”

“Hmm, hmm,” Scintilla said, yawning. “I’ll stay here tomorrow, then go scouting those tunnels we found when you are smithing. Maybe I can find some ore, so you can make us proper hinges.”

Irwin nodded as he gazed at the ceiling. It was rough and a muddled dark gray with thin cracks, but Mouzin had sworn that the structure could hold even if a volcano erupted.

As he heard the racket in the nearby rooms die down, six pairs of feet came rustling toward him. He sensed the familiar soulforce of his children as they snuck into the room.

“I was just about to go and tell you it's time to sleep,” Irwin said as he pushed himself up to find Soot and Glow sneaking low across the ground toward his feet. They both had little rocks in their hands, and when they met his eyes, they hid them behind their backs.

Irwin glanced at the door where the other four stood, grins fading.

“I was wondering where those came from,” Irwin said, his eyes widening innocently. “Is this a request for more Scinder Scallops with breakfast?”

Six heads rapidly shook no, and Irwin couldn’t hold back the grin. “Good! Now off to bed. Your mother is already sleeping.”

Scintilla didn’t say anything, but he felt her pinch his side. Luckily, his nearly metal skin prevented it from being as painful as it could be, and he ignored it.

“Aww….” Zan said.

Although the others said nothing, all of their faces turned sad, and Irwin took a deep sigh before relenting. “Fine! One family hug, then it's time for bed!”

There was a loud cheer, followed by six small shapes running and colliding into him and Scintilla.

A short struggle later, Irwin carried his six children to their rooms, wished them goodnight, and dimmed the light runes on the small metal plates embedded in the wall above their entrance.

“Dad, can we come with you to search worlds in the future?” Flux asked, lying in his bed and staring at Irwin.

Irwin saw Glow and Soot stare at him and knew that the girls would be listening intently.

“After you get your first full-hand,” he said.

“And when do we get that?” Mia asked from the other room.

“That fully depends on how well you all do on your blade training,” Irwin said, tapping his nose. “So, better listen well to Nisziz.”

He saw Soot and Glow’s eyes gleam, while Flux was staring thoughtfully at the ceiling.

“Now, good night! And no more whispering!”

A few minutes later, Irwin crawled into his sandy bed, rolled on his side, and felt something poke his ribs. With a grunt, he plucked another stone from the sand and tossed it in the corner. As the stone hit the wall and dropped down, soft laughter came from his children.

“Little rascals,” Irwin whispered, while Scintilla hugged him.

I wonder if Mom felt like this when Bronwyn and I were small, Irwin thought.

--

Days, then weeks, passed by as Irwin and the others slowly got used to a new rhythm. Every even day, Irwin and Greldo would go back to the Portal Gallery and search the Graboul’s Teeth for another portal. Then, on the odd days, Irwin was in his new smithy, a large room with a massive forge that Libriz had made for him. Every third week, another group was on the ship, and although some had said Irwin should be exempt so he could focus on smithing, he’d ignored them. Part of that was because he didn’t like the idea of him being exempt; the other was that he had more time to quietly focus on his reforging there than in the smithy.

During all this, Mouzin and Libraiz had continued expanding the ‘temporary’ base, and, reluctantly, everyone began to understand that the chances of finding another portal were slim.

The baby chaos whales had begun exploring ever further from their base and only returned when they were chased by the Fowlies. Not that that was happening a lot anymore. Greldo and Coal had begun hunting them and, by now, had cleared out most of the surrounding lands.

A bit over a month after they arrived in the world which the children had dubbed Crumblecrag, Irwin was standing outside, looking up at the slowly dissipating cloud cover. It had begun the day before, and by now, they could see a pale blue, sickly greenish sky start to appear from behind.

“So, I guess it's not a permanent cloud after all,” Greldo said.

Irwin nodded as his eyes turned to the gas giant. A tiny spec was floating down towards them, and he felt his worry fade slightly.

“There’s nothing up there that can really harm the three of them,” Greldo whispered softly.

Irwin nodded, knowing his friend was right. Between Scintilla, Hind, and Helm, he knew there was little that would stop them up there. The worst Greldo had found were the Fowlies, which appeared to be the top predators. There were some smaller flying animals, most looking like a cross between fish and birds, but none were larger than a hand.

“They went further than you did,” Irwin said.

“Blame the sun,” Greldo snorted, glaring at the bright glow far to the left. Much paler than the ones they were used to, it was permanently hidden behind either the gas giant or the cloud cover, and today would be the first time it actually appeared… probably. That hadn’t prevented it from casting its light in between them and the gas giant, creating a massive band of bright light with no shadows for Greldo, no way to move through. Even during the nights, when it was on the other side, so much light came from the glowing gas giant and its rings that there weren’t enough shadows.

“They are moving really fast…” Greldo muttered, suddenly looking up with a frown.

“I know,” Irwin replied, staring at the tiny dot that seemed to shoot down like a meteor. “Perhaps something is wrong, and Helm is pushing the ship…”

“No… I mean, they are moving really fast!”

“What?”

Greldo looked up and moved his arm in an incredibly fast wave, his arm almost blurring as he moved. “Like this.”

Irwin frowned, his worry growing. “Perhaps something is wrong.”

He turned to Greldo only to find his friend gone. Irwin hesitated for a moment about whether he should go up to them and then decided against it. Greldo wouldn’t be able to reach them, and although he might be traveling the sound waves, he had no idea what was going on.

A minute later, Greldo reappeared, his eyes wide and confused.

“What is going on?” Irwin asked.

“I have no idea, but they are slowly returning to normal as they get closer,” Greldo muttered. “They didn’t look worried, and Scintilla had a big grin on her face as she found something.”

Irwin hummed thoughtfully before looking at Ambraz.

“I have an idea, but is that even possible?” he asked.

“If you are thinking that they are in another time dilation… then I have no idea,” Ambraz replied. “I have never heard of that, but then again, I know barely anything about these gas giant moons.”

The three of them quietly waited for the ship to close in, and as it was a few hundred feet above them, Scintilla jumped over the edge, changing into a bluish streak of fire.

She reappeared before Irwin, a look of triumph on her face.

“You have no idea what we found!” she shouted, standing on her toes and kissing Irwin before moving a bit back.

Irwin decided to keep his thoughts to himself and hummed. “Is it good news?” he asked.

“Definitely,” Scintilla said. “That gas giant has another time dilation, and it's absolutely incredible! It's at least four times as fast as down here! Also, the soulforce concentration up there is so high that even Helm could sense it.”

Irwin’s eyebrows shot up as he connected the dots. If that were true, he might be able to use it to fill up the Aurorium!