Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

Irwin put his sleeve over his nose to stop breathing in the massive amounts of dust. All around him, others were coughing and sneezing as they moved through the large, multistory building.

Stepping up the narrow, round staircase, he reached a small hallway with three doors. Pushing one open revealed a windowless room with a bed, a large table, a chest, and some closets. Irwin frowned, stepping back and looking into the other rooms. He found what he was looking for when he pushed open the third room. Two wide windows gave a view of the level beyond, and because he was at the highest level, he could even see part of the trees and even the edge of the lake.

"My room," he muttered as he stepped inside and closed the door.

The shutters of the room were open, and although there was some dust inside, it was way less than what he'd seen in the rest of the building. He threw his bag into the corner beside the door, then walked to the windows and gazed outside. The level-ceiling was barely two feet higher, and moss and shadow vines grew across it, creating a nesting place for birds, most of whom were sleeping quietly. As he watched them, he also saw large numbers of insects, some the size of his hand, crawling about, eating the moss. A few birds moved about, sometimes diving up to eat one of the smaller insects.

The soft chittering and singing made him grin as he gazed out across the lower houses before him. As deep as they were in the grove, a thin layer of dust was visible on some of the roofs, and he wondered if that came from the Firespark storms or something else.

As he gazed out at the sliver of the massive lake that he could see, he took a deep breath and felt a tension that had been there for many months now dissipate. At the same time, a heavy weight seemed to lift from his shoulders.

No more rushing. Finally, some time to live and plan, he thought.

The image of his mother and brother flitted through his mind, and he imagined them standing still in time, hopefully in a safe place.

"I'll only go out when I'm strong enough to, at a minimum, get them and the others out," he said, feeling his mind ease up even more, knowing that he had time. "If there's no other way, I'll bring them to Fiverio and pay for them to be citizens if I can."

"Such low ambitions," Ambraz' voice snorted from his pocket as the Anvil began struggling out.

It flitted out, then around his head, before landing on his shoulder. Irwin ignored him and turned around to inspect the room. It was larger than any he'd had before, with enough space for more furniture. Still, even without it, he liked what he saw.

"A bit sparse, but the view isn't too bad," Ambraz said before snorting as he flew around.

Irwin looked at Ambraz, and as he saw it flit about the room, even going below the bed, he frowned. Having time meant he'd have to get some answers from the Anvil.

But not yet, he decided after a few moments.

It took him a few moments to locate a small closet with a broom that looked like it was older than the city. Still, it was enough to clean out most of the dust. As he busied himself cleaning up the room, listening to the others stomp around, Yogog's booming voice rippling through the house, he couldn't help but feel content.

After he finished putting the thin pale bed linen over the windowsill, he emptied his bag, putting his tiny amount of belongings around the room before moving outside.

When he reached the central room, its ceiling so low he could touch it, he saw Balarn sitting at a table, leafing through a thick stack of papers. The room had been cleaned, though a few piles of dust and cobwebs still lay in a corner.

"If you are done with your room, you can just sit there," Balarn said, seemingly preoccupied.

Irwin nodded and took a spot. Soon the others began trickling in. Greldo was one of the latest ones, sitting down beside Irwin.

"I got the room directly below you," he whispered. "Coals is there now, happy to finally be out and about. I checked the ones beside the room you picked, but they didn't have any windows."

"Exactly why I took this one," Irwin replied with a knowing grin.

Yogog was the final one to enter, having arrived from outside with an annoyed face and another stack of papers. He walked to the far side of the wall and began putting them up there with small pins that he easily shoved into the wood of the wall.

"Seriously annoying," he muttered as he jabbed two pins in the top ones before stepping back.

"All yours," he snorted as he gestured to Balarn.

The bearded Smith looked up, and Irwin saw his eyes narrow as he looked over the wall.

"Two at Emerald?" Balarn grunted as he got up and moved to read what was on the paper. After a few moments, he sighed.

"Well, whatever. At least there's no time limit on either. Still… two? We will need to work through a year of orders before we do what we need for those."

"So, this is what you told us about? The reforging we have to do?" Monyque asked.

Balarn nodded as he moved back to the table, leaning on the edge as he gazed around. His gaze landed on Greldo, remaining there for a moment before he shrugged. The other guards hadn't shown up, and from the shuffle above, it seemed they were still deciding on rooms or cleaning them. Four smiths sitting on the other side of the room were looking at Balarn. Yogog was leafing through the papers that Balarn had previously been looking at, snorting at times.

Although they were all Topaz-ranked smiths, it was clear that Balarn and Yogog were the seniors, as they had been here before. Monyque was leaning back, relaxed, while the other two sat quietly, staring at Balarn. Although quiet and withdrawn, Irwin had found out they were actually cousins, nearly the same age, called Nimdal and Syndal. They came from the As Noiral family of smiths and were seen as the family's first hope at producing Emerald Rank smiths.

"Yes. So, I've already told you much of what we are going to do here on the trip, but let's get everything cleared up just in case. From now till we leave here, we are Tensor's outpost here. Besides the fact that the time-dilation here is incredible, we are mainly here to take back rare metals and cards. As I told you, there are a lot of fire and metal beasts, elementals and demons here. They come from deep below Scour's surface, welling up from inside the volcanoes in waves that surge out across the desert, fighting each other and anything they find."

Balarn spoke calmly, and although he was repeating something he'd told them before, the others listened.

"Lots of mercenary bands and powerful heart-carded roam the desert, collecting cards, while people from the miners guild dig inside the mountains to unearth the veins of steel. Normally, most of these riches are not allowed to be taken off-world but are to be used to increase the wealth of the Urdwellan family. However, due to the large numbers of people, there are not enough smiths. Which is where we come in. Gebladir Urdwellan has given spots to different nearby Smith's charters to send off-world smiths here. If we handle enough of the missions he hands out, we are allowed to take some of the things we acquire with us, while the charters that perform the best are even given rewards."

Irwin frowned. He'd heard this before, and after having talked with Greldo about it, they had both wondered about something.

"If they need more smiths, why not just allow all smiths to come here and work? And why limit it to topaz-rank?" he asked.

Yogog snorted, then laughed. "Always forget you're from a farming world, kid!'

Balarn ignored Yogog and focused on Irwin.

"If too many off-worlders stay in a world, it becomes unstable. Although it's not as fast as with portals, it still requires a lot of effort to stabilize. This is why when Gebladir Urdwellann took over the word, he didn't bring many heart-carded, but mostly hand-carded Viridians with little chance to ever grow beyond that. You see. When someone is born in a world, they are seen as from that world and don't add to the instability. By now, most, if not all, of those initial Viridians, have died," he explained. "Now, if Gebladir would allow everyone who wants to simply come here, it would cost him insane amounts of effort to keep Scour stable."

Irwin shared a look of surprise and worry with Greldo. Didn't this mean that all those people that had come to their world had worsened the instability?

"This is also why we have to make sure to work hard. There are barely any worlds that are as suited to increasing our craft that have so few higher rank smiths as Scour. That's also why nobody complains too hard about Gebladir's steep rates to stay here. Understand?"

Balarn raised his eyebrows, and Irwin nodded that he'd understood.

"Alright, now let's get to the heart of the matter," Balarn said as he turned and waved at the wall. "There are twenty-four missions there that we need to do before we can leave. They are divided in ranks matching the smithing ranks, from Quartz to Emerald," he said as he waved at the pieces of parchment that were divided into groups on the walls. "The lower ones are Quartz, and those two at the top are Emerald. Now. If we leave before we finish them, all will need to sign a declaration that we will return to work here for twenty years without payment…"

Irwin gasped, then shook his head. Nobody had told him about that until now!

"But don't worry, there is no reason to assume we can't finish the missions, even if there are two Emerald assignments this time."

"Do we have to reforge two cards up to Emerald?" Monique hissed.

"Yes, but only to sixty percent," Balarn said. "Both me and Yogog have already managed this before. It will just take a lot of work. Which means that we will be starting this as soon as we have gone through the Quartz ranked missions. Only after we finish them are we allowed to take other assignments at quartz rank to start earning the resources needed to do the higher ranks. Last time Yogog and I were here, it took us a year to get enough resources to even begin the Amethyst rank and another four to reach Emerald."

"After which we bloody spent ten more years before we finally managed to finish that," Yogog said.

"Nine… but yes. It took a long time, most of which was spent gathering cards and metals to attempt the Emerald reforging," Balarn said. "Which is why, as soon as we finish the quartz missions, you four will begin taking as many missions and tasks as you can at that rank to gather resources. Remember, as long as our success rate is one in five. We don't have to pay for this first batch's resources!"

"Fewer fails is better," Yogog said, before grunting. "We get to keep the resources we don't need, which is what we will need to start out with."

Irwin swallowed. Balarn had told him this on the wagon ride here, and he still had a hard time believing he could just get cards for nothing. Then he thought about what the lead smith just said, and he frowned.

I reached topaz rank in a reasonably short time… why did they not manage to reach Emerald yet if they were here fourteen years?"

"Don't give me that look," Yogog said as he moved to stand before Irwin. "Do you even know what it takes to go from Topaz to Emerald? At Topaz, all you need to worry about is removing the card's impurities and hammering home the potential. At Emerald, you-"

"Hogwash," Ambraz snapped, his voice muted from Irwin's pocket. He struggled out and flitted into the air, his lips pursed together. "How do you ever expect to create one hundred percent Topaz rank cards with that mindset? You bloody well need to align the entire card's potential by harmonizing your own cards and their vibration with the card you are working on. Furthermore-"

Irwin leaned back as Ambraz began talking about reforging cards. He'd heard it all before, but he was interested to see that both Balarn and Yogog had fallen quiet, staring at Ambraz with surprise. A few times, it looked like one of the two was going to say something, but slowly they leaned back and listened with glittering eyes.

When Ambraz finally stopped with a snort, he landed on Irwin's shoulder.

"Now, do you understand? Don't underestimate the low ranks, or your basis of progression will be crooked," he said.

There was a silence, and as Irwin looked around, he saw a burning hunger in Monique's eyes while Nimdal and Syndal were nodding.

"Thank you, Anvil of the Gods," Balarn said as he stared at Ambraz intently.

Ambraz snorted, but the smile on his metal side widened.

Balarn waited for a moment before focusing back on the others.

"Now. Everyone take a look at the quartz rank missions, then choose one. Yogog and I will go get the resources we need after that while you familiarize yourselves with the area here."

Irwin pushed himself up, walking to the wall before the others. By now, he was more than a little curious, and as he gazed at the first mission, his eyebrows rose.

Reforge twelve metal utility cards to Amethyst to seventy percent or higher. Follow the standards and requirements below.

A long list of requirements for various crafting utensils followed, and he licked his lips before moving to the next.

Reforge four fire-based quartz pseudo-weapon cards to seventy percent or higher weapon cards. Follow the standards and requirements below.

Another list of requirements followed, and a quick glance showed most of the weapons were ax-types. Below that one was one that made his eyebrows jump up.

Purify one hundred bars of raw Firesteel to a ninety-five percent purity or above.

"One hundred bars?" he muttered. He could hardly believe someone even had that much Firesteel! Back home, they could have made a hundred swords with those!

"Yeah, those are always annoying," Yogog said as he looked at the paper. "Luckily, we only have a handful this time. The previous time over half of our missions dealt with purifying ore."

Irwin quickly read through the other missions and found that all of them were roughly the same. It seemed that weapon cards were deemed harder, as they were always four. A look-up showed that the missions deemed Amethyst rank meant reforging Quartz cards to ninety percent or higher or Amethyst cards to Topaz at seventy percent. He also saw that there were far more stringent demands on exactly which cards and what parts of the cards needed to be enhanced.

After deliberating for a bit, he finally decided to take one of the utility missions. Having twelve cards to practice with would be far better for him.

A few moments later, every Smith had a mission paper, and Balarn nodded.

"Alright, follow me!"

He headed out of the room, and everyone followed. As the last one out of the room, Irwin noticed that Yogog remained bent over the table, staring at the paper stack.

"Go go, this isn't something you need to worry about yet," he muttered. Then he blinked and looked up with a grin. "Though, in your case, you will be helping me with these starting in a few months from now."

Unsure what Yogog meant, Irwin nodded and quickly followed the others who were outside and moving into the small smithy to the side. There were four anvils in the back with two forges behind them and one to each side, creating four small, semi-separated areas. Mobile bellows hung to the sides, as did a half-dozen dusty aprons. Near the entrance stood two heavy wooden work desks with a variety of hammers, tongs, and other items. A large slab of gray crystal was embedded in one of them.

"Alright, as we don't have enough workspaces, we are going to have to share them for now. Perhaps in a few years, we can afford a better place, but for now, this will have to do," Balarn said as they turned back.

"Irwin, could you light the forges for us?"

Irwin nodded, walking forward as he summoned his flame. As it roared to life above his hand, he shoved it into the large mass of dark coals. It took a few minutes, but eventually, the heat of his flame caused the forge to burst alive, and a short while later, the others followed.

"Alright," Balarn said. "Thanks, Irwin, that saved us a good chunk of time!"

"I really should get me a flame like that," Nimdal, the taller of the two cousins, muttered.

"You will have plenty of time to search for cards to complete your hand," Balarn said. "I would also suggest, for those who have room, to take it slow and not make any rushed decisions. Although it's possible to remove some cards and start again, we all know that will make it a lot harder when you are combining your cards into your first heart card!"

Irwin stared at Balarn, suddenly thinking of Daubutim. His friend had removed all of his cards, not just one! What did that mean for him when he had to combine them?

"Now! I'll be heading out to get the resources. Nimdal, follow me. The rest of you, please clean this place up so we can get started right away. We have enough soulshards for a few weeks of food, but it'd be best if we start right away!"

There was a disgruntled round of agreements, and a short while later, Irwin was handling a broom again, wondering if his mother would approve. Probably. She was one for cleanliness.

They had long since finished when Balarn and Nimdal returned. Balarn was carrying a massive wooden box, grunting as he did, sweat pouring from his head. He seemed relieved as he slammed it down onto one of the worktables. Nimdal had a smaller box but seemed even worse for wear.

They should have asked me to come, Irwin thought, deciding to keep that thought to himself. He'd carried a lot of metal in his short life, and doing with less would be fine for him.

"Alright," Balarn said as he pulled off his thin, drenched shirt revealing a chiseled body. He took two large stacks of cards from his pockets and put them on the other table.

"Now, all of you, get the cards or metal you need. If you want to check if you succeeded in the percentage, just use the grading crystal here," he said.

Irwin saw him point at the gray crystal, and he guessed it was similar to the one Ichela had used.

"I'll make myself useful and clean the rest of the rooms," Greldo said as he looked at the forges in distaste. "It's way too hot here. After I'm done, I'll walk around to figure out where things are."

Irwin nodded, but Balarn stepped forward before Greldo could leave.

"Greldo, make sure you don't cause any trouble. Although smiths are seen as useful here, and people won't make much trouble for us, there are a lot of mercenaries on these floors, and not all of them like off-worlders."

"Thanks for the warning," Greldo said as he looked around the buildings behind the smithy.

"I'll be back soon," he said before walking away, quickly disappearing between the buildings.

"Wasn't he going to clean the house?" Monique asked.

Irwin grinned widely as he stepped up next to her and began leafing through the cards to find those he needed.

"Greldo never was one for cleaning," he said.

"Then why did he say he would?" she asked, now sounding utterly confused.

Irwin just shrugged, quickly gathering the twelve cards he needed. As he looked around, he decided to put Ambraz next to the tables, away from the other four spaces. He didn't need the forge right now, and this way, they would have enough room.

As he put the first card on the Anvil, he smiled happily.

Finally, I'm a real cardsmith!