Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

"Just wait till you are ready to create your heartcard," Ambraz said in between crunching on his second card. "When we combine all your cards, remove some useless parts and increase those we need, your drinking problem should largely go away."

Irwin leaned back, staring at the stacks of cards. According to Ambraz, the best one there still wouldn't be all that useful. It just left a bad taste in his mouth that even after selecting them as he had, there wasn't a single one that gave him some movement ability.

"Can you tell me a bit more about how to get a heartcard?" he asked, slightly disgruntled.

Ambraz swallowed the remnants of the card, then turned to the others, licking his lips.

"No more cards," Irwin said. "We need to finish those missions first. If we do that successfully, you can have another one."

"I'll hold you to that, kid," Ambraz said. Then he flitted through the room.

"So… heartcards are easy and incredibly difficult," he said. "Not as difficult as soulcards, of course, but still. To get one, you need to either be a cardsmith or… well, let's leave it to that for now. As a-”

"Let's not," Irwin said as he tapped the finger, interrupting Ambraz. "What other ways are there to get a heartcard?"

The Anvil's lips turned into a pursed line.

"If you don't want to tell me, you could just tell me what that symbol on your head meant when you ranked up. And perhaps start by explaining why you can even rank up in the first place?"

Ambraz sighed. "So… when a creature dies, most of the time, their soulskills shatter. As you know, sometimes they don't, and this is when they crystalize into a card that beings without soulskill seeds can use."

"Right… as I know," Irwin snorted. "Soulskill seeds?"

"Come on, you can't expect me to explain all of that to you? We'd be sitting here for weeks if I had to tell you everything you don't know!" Ambraz snapped.

"Soulskill seeds?" Irwin asked, raising an eyebrow. As he did, a tiny flicker of an idea came to him.

"Fine! Fine… Well, I can't tell you that without- Ugh, don't glare like that! Fine! Better sit back and relax then," Ambraz shouted as he landed on the table, radiating annoyance.

"So, there are three important distinctions of beings that we know of. Types, you can call them. The most common are those who are born with a soulskill seed, which will grow stronger during their lives as they age, kill, and eat things with soulpower."

"Wait, those are the most common?" Irwin muttered. He'd always thought that people with cardslots were the most common…

"What? Of course they are! Almost every world we know about is filled with them, while less than one in a thousand has any others," Ambraz said.

"Now, as I was going to say. The second type is those born without a soulskill but with the ability to take and use the crystalized soulskills that we call cards. The final ones are the Addled, who have neither, and do little more than kill and eat anything they come across. "

"So after a world shatters, do only those without soulskill become Addled?" Irwin asked.

"Hell no! Everything becomes Addled!"

“…”

"Uh, well. Everything that doesn't have a super powerful soulcard. But let's not go on an even longer tangent! You asked about heartcards and how to get them," Ambraz quickly continued. "So, in your world, nobody got one, and that's because there were no card smiths. The only other way to get one is- Ugh, I hate this part. Anyway, it's by removing it from a living soulskilled being!"

Irwin frowned as Ambraz began flying around agitatedly again.

"How? By cutting them open?" Irwin asked, feeling slightly disgusted at the idea.

"Yeah, that's the gist of it," Ambraz snapped. "I don't know the details, and I don't want to, but there are powerful factions far from the Portal Gallery's main branches who are said to do this. Disgusting practices."

Irwin couldn't help but agree with Ambraz when he suddenly thought about something else.

"Do you have a soulskill?" he asked.

"What? Do you want to cut me open?" Ambraz spluttered as he flew to the other side of the room.

"What? Of course not!" Irwin exclaimed. "But you said there are three types of beings, and you don't have cardslots and aren't an Addled."

"..."

"Wait, you aren't an Addled, are you?"

"What? Of course not!" Ambraz snapped, flitting back and hovering in front of Irwin with a scowl. "First you threaten to cut me open. Then you call me an Addled! Bah! Why do I even stay with you…"

"I didn't threaten you," Irwin said, taking a weary sigh. "So, you have a soulskill."

Ambraz muttered something, and Irwin blinked.

"Come again?"

"Nothing. You are right, now let's continue. Heartcards! After you get your sixth card, you first combine your right-hand cards, then when it's all settled, you combine both hands into a heartcard. Now, not everyone does this because there are a lot of disadvantages to it," Ambraz said.

"Disadvantages?" Irwin asked, cocking his head. He decided to ignore Ambraz's reluctance in telling him if he had a soulskill for now. It wasn't crucial right now.

"Yes. Disadvantages," Ambraz said. "You can have six cards, each with a maximum of two passives and two actives, meaning you can have twelve passives and twelve active abilities. Now, remember when I told you that you need to get at least one diamond rank card?"

Irwin nodded, recalling Ambraz telling him he didn't have to try and get only legendaries. Just one would be enough.

"Well, that's because having even one will allow you to create the highest rank heartcard. Which is Diamond-"

"Or Ammolite?" Irwin asked, suddenly recalling the term he'd heard being tossed around a few times now.

"... Yes. Or Ammolite," Ambraz added.

"Which is?" Irwin asked.

"..."

"Ambraz?"

"A legendary rank above Diamond, the acquisition of which is said to be kept behind locked doors by the most powerful families and charters on the main branch, far- far away," Ambraz said.

Irwin's eyes widened. If he could get some more powerful than Diamond and continue all the way up to becoming a soulcarded, his mere presence on Giard might be able to stabilize it!

"And you wouldn't happen to know how to help me get that…?"

"How, exactly, do you expect me to have that?" Ambraz asked in disbelief. "I've never even been on the main branch of the Portal Gallery!"

"Too bad," Irwin muttered.

"Yes, too bad," Ambraz replied.

Something about his tone caused Irwin to look up in wonder.

Why do I get the feeling he knows something?

"Well… If you do know, I will expect you to help me get it," he said.

Ambraz's mouth fell open, a strangled gap coming from him. Then he flitted about, and Irwin heard him mutter in what he knew was Ambraz's own language, one that sounded like anvils clanking on each other.

Wondering what was up now, Irwin shrugged. "So… heartcards? Diamond ranks? Disadvantages?"

Ambraz sighed as he landed on the table.

"Reforging your handcards into a single heartcard means you will have only one card," Ambraz said, sounding annoyed.

When the Anvil didn't continue, Irwin cocked his head. "So?"

"So, cards, including heartcards, can only have a limited amount of passive and active abilities?" Ambraz said.

Irwin frowned. "How many?" he asked.

"Well, a quartz-ranked heartcard has one, and you get one more active or passive per rank beyond that," Ambraz said. "Which is why I told you to get one card to diamond rank, which will give you six active and or passive abilities."

Irwin did a quick count, then leaned forward in shock.

"Wait, if I create my heartcard, I'll only have six abilities remaining? I already have eleven now!"

"Exactly, which is why most of the common people never even think of becoming heartbound," Ambraz said.

"Yeah… I can see that," Irwin muttered in disbelief. "So, why do people do it?"

Ambraz grinned. "For power, of course. Although you can only have six abilities, well, that's if you manage to get a legendary card, you can combine them from all of your cards. They will also become more powerful, and you will unlock your soulforce."

Irwin felt his head begin to spin as he stared at the Anvil. "Soulforce?" He vaguely recalled having heard the term before. Trying to remember, he finally recalled an instance when Ambraz had said something about it back in the desert world when he had been with Desmir's group.

"You have Soulforce?" he asked, surprised.

"How do you!? Right, I mentioned that, didn't I?" Ambraz grunted. "Yes. I have Soulforce… but not a lot."

"Okay… so heartcards means giving up a lot of abilities, but those that remain become stronger, and you gain Soulforce, which I have no idea what it does," Irwin summed up.

"This is so annoying," Ambraz muttered. "Listen, imagine that you're a container that can hold water. When you become heartcarded for the first time, the container becomes bigger depending on the size of the heartcard. After you do, you will be empty, and your next goal will be to fill yourself up. Now, it's not water you need, but Soulforce."

"The more Soulforce, the stronger I get?" Irwin guessed.

"No. The amount of Soulforce determines the number of soulcards you can hold," Ambraz said. "Though, I guess that would make you more powerful in the long run."

Irwin leaned back, thinking about everything Ambraz had said.

"Listen, I don't think it's useful for you to know all the rest," Ambraz said. "Just know that, for what you want to do, you need at least one diamond-rank handcard, reforge all of them to the most powerful heartcard, and then start collecting Soulforce. I promise I'll tell you anything you need to know before you need it!"

Irwin gazed at the Anvil and, after a few moments, nodded.

Ambraz let out a sigh of relief before hovering above the cards.

"Now, back to your initial question. No card here will give you a teleportation or ranged grab or hold ability, nor should you take one if there was! Instead, I would suggest looking for a card that you can later combine with your Fire-sensitive body or Coperion Body card. Fire is known to have many abilities that allow bursts of speed, while there are a lot of metal cards that could combine with Coperion Body to give you a way to move metal with your mind. Both would help you with reforging, and you can easily combine them later," Ambraz said.

Staring at the cards, Irwin shrugged. "And none of these have anything like that?"

"Probably not, and if there are, I don't know how to reforge them to get it. Both abilities I just named are incredibly rare," Ambraz said.

"Great… well then, let's just go and reforge them and finish some missions until Balarn is back," Irwin said as he pushed himself up.

"Sure. Let me eat another of the cards first?" Ambraz asked.

Irwin shook his head, a mock smile on his face. "After we finish the missions."

"Sure. Work me to death without feeding me," Ambraz said, disgruntled. Still, he flitted to the center of the room to change into his working shape.

I'll head back to see if there's a mission that will give me another card when we finish, Irwin decided.

---

Balarn finally returned early in the morning of the next day, stomping into the building with a cursing Greldo on his tail.

Hearing them, Irwin pushed himself out of his bed and rushed down to greet them. He had finished another two missions and had been planning the next, and hopefully final, one the following evening.

As he rushed down the staircase, he was surprised to hear Scintilla's door open, and a moment later, the hot-headed Ignitzion followed him down.

As he moved into the room, he stopped in horror. Balarn's beard was partially burned off, and a large red wound covered his cheek, while Greldo's hands were wrapped up in fresh white bandages.

"What happened?" he blurted as he walked to his friend, inspecting him for any more wounds.

"We ran into a nest of Cinderants, and their queen decided we weren't supposed to be there," Greldo said. "And hello to you too."

Irwin grimaced. "Your hands…?" he asked.

Greldo scowled at his hands. "Useless, just like me, but no worse than they were."

Balarn put three cups of water on the table before sitting down again and staring at Irwin.

"Your friend is downplaying his achievements," he said. "Without that shadow skill of his and Coal, we would have died."

Irwin's eyes widened as he sat down, noticing that Scintilla had remained in the door opening, watching them quietly.

"I thought you said you were going to do some easy missions?" Irwin asked, feeling a slight anger grow at the idea of Greldo nearly dying.

"Which is what we did," Balarn said as he sipped a drink before sharing a knowing look with Greldo.

"Have you heard any… rumors?" Balarn asked quietly.

Irwin frowned, unsure what they were talking about.

"We met a bunch of purple-eyed bastards that tried to capture Balarn," Greldo said.

"Shit," Irwin grunted, knowing his mother would have slapped him if she'd heard him.

He ignored the slight sadness that brought and grimaced. "Lord Urdwellan warned me about something like that."

"What?" Balarn snapped as he nearly knocked over his cup of water. "You spoke with him?"

Irwin nodded, quickly explaining what had happened.

"So. Ambraz ranked up," Balarn said, seeming to hesitate before continuing. "What rank did he become?"

Irwin almost told the truth but managed to hold back.

"Two squares," he said.

A soft vibration in his pocket showed that Ambraz wasn't asleep.

"Not bad," Balarn said, as Irwin saw a brief look of disappointment flash across the other's face, belying his words. Balarn must have noticed as he quickly changed the subject.

"So, how are the missions going?"

"I handed them in and am working on the second set," Irwin said.

Balarn blinked, staring at him intently. "How many in the first batch were a success?" he asked.

"All of them," Irwin said. The words barely left his mouth when Balarn leaned forward, eyes sparkling.

"All?!"

Irwin nodded. "Syndal has most of the soulshards."

Balarn leaned back and began laughing softly.

"We might have some trouble, though," Irwin said.

"More trouble? Sure, we can handle more," Greldo muttered.

Irwin quickly explained what had happened with Haudur's Charter, but to his surprise, Balarn just snorted.

"Lady Relinda again? Don't worry. I'll have Yogog pay her a visit. Last time didn't go too well for her. Where is he, anyway? Did he go off on another mission?"

Irwin thought quickly, then shook his head. "No. He hasn't returned yet." As he said it, he suddenly had a very bad premonition, and seeing Balarn turning pale only made it worse.

"You're kidding, right," Greldo said. "Do you think those bloody purple-eyed bastards got him?"

"Unless they have an army or a soulcarded, there's no way they got past big sis Hotzli," Scintilla said as she stepped into the room. "With her there, they should always at least be able to run away!"

Irwin shared a surprised look with Greldo while Balarn nodded.

"She's right. Sadly, that doesn't mean they can't get into trouble. If Hotzli uses her skill, there's no way of knowing where they ended up in this burning world."

"Right, and now for those of us who don't know everyone's skills?" Greldo said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hotzli has a card that allows her to teleport herself and a few others away over large distances. It's instantaneous, meaning it's a great way to get out of a hotspot. The bad thing is that, due to this, there is no way for her to decide where she goes. It's just a large distance in a random direction."

"Yeah… that sounds like a great skill," Greldo muttered. "What if she teleports into the middle of the sea?"

Balarn shrugged. "Then she had better learn to swim. Not that there's one here. Anyway, that skill of hers is the reason she is very sought after as a guard, and it saved us a few times the previous time we were here."

"So… there's a small chance they got teleported to the other side of Scour?" Irwin asked.

"If they are unlucky, yes. They should be fine, but all we can do is wait for them to return," Balarn said with a weary sigh. "Which means, Haudur's Charter might be more of an issue than I'd initially thought."

"No worries! I got a great mission for Irwin and me," Scintilla said, smiling widely. "It's near the northern volcanic reaches. From what I know, most of the smiths and guards of Haudur's charter have bad heat resistance skills. They can't survive that heat!"

"And Irwin can?" Greldo snorted before turning to Irwin with a look of barely concealed worry.

"He should be fine," Scintilla said.

"That might be for the best," Balarn said, frowning. "With you finishing those missions, there will be enough soulshards for me to hire another guard. That is if you managed to get Greldo one to help him with the heat?"

Irwin jumped up, a massive grin on his face. "Right! I almost forgot!"

He ran up the stairs, ignoring the surprised shout from behind, and a few moments later, he returned with a yellow-bordered card. As he handed it to a very curious Greldo, his grin widened.

"I reforged it to Topaz, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of your best cards!"

Greldo frowned as he looked at the rings chained together. "If you say so. What does it do?"

Irwin's grin widened as he triggered Eyes of Blaze.

Card: Greater Shared Physique

Type: Topaz, Minion Coupling, Reforged by Irwin Roddington

Owner: -

An especially rare mutation of a rare card. Can connect to a summon card, causing a permanent sharing of physical aspects.

Passive: Change physical attributes to resemble those of the connected minion closely.

Active: Change all physical attributes to match those of the connected minion. Grants access to one of the minion's active abilities.

He quickly read the card's specifics, and as he did, Balarn whistled while Greldo's eyes were shining brightly.

"Minion Coupling cards are incredibly hard to reforge into anything but the basic ones!" he said.

"I'll go to my room, summon Coal and slot it right away," Greldo said as he jumped up. "And Irwin? Thanks!"

Irwin nodded as he watched his friend sprint out of the room. As soon as they heard the door slam shut, Balarn let out a soft grin, turning to Irwin.

"I wonder if he will get Coal's fur."

Irwin blinked and shuddered.

"That's possible?"

Scintilla burst out in laughter.

---

The next evening, everyone was waiting in the room, chatting softly.

"Think he is too afraid to come down?" Monyque asked as she sat beside Irwin, grinning widely.

"No," Irwin said as if he was a hundred percent sure.

Which he wasn't.

Dammit, I hope he didn't turn into a fur-covered demon-looking person, he thought.

A soft thud came from the floor above there, followed by Greldo's door opening and closing.

"Here he comes," Monyque whispered.

The five smiths waited with bated breath as Greldo walked into the room, and as he did, there were a few surprised outcries.

The first and most obvious thing was Greldo's burning red eyes below thick bushy eyebrows that matched Coal's. They were set in a slightly more squared face. Although he had a slight stubble, he wasn't covered in fur, which was obvious because he had a sleeveless shirt on, revealing long athletic arms. If he wasn't in the present company, he'd probably be seen as muscular.

None of this was what Irwin instantly noticed, however.

"Your hands!"

Irwin's shout caused the rest to startle, but he didn't care as he stared in joy at his friend's hands, no longer covered in gloves.

"You know you people shouldn't be whispering behind someone's back," Greldo said as he sank down beside Irwin, raising one of his hands for the other to inspect. "I heard every word you said,"

There was a round of muted laughter.

"So, which features did you get besides increased healing and hearing?" Balarn asked, sounding curious.

Greldo snorted. "Smell, heat resistance, strength, and agility. The whole package. Trust me… I could have done without the smell," he added as he sniffed and grimaced. "You people reek."

"You don't smell great either!"

"Just be happy you didn't get fur."

"Which active did you get?"

"Why did it take so long?"

"What does that full change look like?"

Irwin grinned as he saw his friend frown at the others as they burst out with questions.

"Long? I'd like to see you lot try and combine your first hand of cards in a few hours," Greldo said.

Irwin leaned back, recalling that his friend hadn't done that yet. As he looked at Greldo's left hand, he wondered what had healed them. The combining or the new card.

"And I'm not going to show you my new skill. Let's just say the fur is black," Greldo said as he clasped his hands.

Irwin saw him rub his own fingers, and he smiled again.

"What's all the bloody commotion?"

Everyone looked up to see Scintilla and some of the other guards walk inside.

"Oh," Scintilla crooned, her eyes widening as she looked at Greldo. "Would you look at those eyes… enough to make a girl melt!"

There was a moment of stunned silence, then Irwin leaned back, laughing at Greldo's stunned look.

Serves you right, he thought. He remembered full well how much Greldo had laughed at him each time Scintilla called him hot stuff or some other odd pet name.

"So… does this mean we are going to head out?" Scintilla asked, looking at him.

Irwin shook his head. "I need to finish one more mission, then I want to take a final look at the available missions. If there's no card for me- we can go."

"Ugh! Come on, can't you do that after we are back? Besides, you won't find the really good cards outside of the auctions anyway!"

Irwin shook his head. Going out with at least one more card would be way safer.

"Fine. But try and hurry up, alright?" she muttered before walking away.