Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

"I'll join you," Crithann said calmly, closing his door.

Irwin stared at his mentor and friend in surprise. "What about this place," he said, waving around at the town that was slowly growing into a bustling city.

"There is no more trouble, and there are many heartcarded here to protect it," Crithann said as he looked around. "Besides, do you even know how to reach the Earth Titan body?"

Irwin smirked. This was exactly why he was here in the first place.

"Let's go. There is a teleporter here that will help us," Crithann said as he began stomping through New Grianfál.

Irwin walked after him, quickly catching up and falling in pace with the giant Veridian.

It took them a while to reach Crithann's goal, which was in one of the more remote places of the town—a small, two-story house built beside the wall.

Crithann knocked on the door with enough force for the entire thing to flex, and a startled shout came from inside.

"Yes, yes! What is it?"

"It's me. I need your help for a day," Crithann rumbled.

Someone stomped through the house, and the door was pulled open, revealing a brown-leafed, dark, and old-looking Viridian. Intense green eyes stared at them as a leafy eyebrow rose.

"My my. The leader and the smith! Let me guess, you need to go somewhere that's not within walking distance?" the Viridian said, his voice sounding like the groans of an old massive tree bending in the wind.

"Yes," Crithann said before turning to Irwin. "This is Ruislaoch, one of the oldest Viridian here."

Irwin nodded as the brown-leafed Viridian stepped out of the house, slamming the door shut behind him.

"I told you when I came here that I was done with teleporting everyone around," Ruislaoch said. "If I'd known you would come and enlist me within days, I could have just stayed in Cindergrove!"

The Viridian's words sounded annoyed, and Irwin saw a weary look in his eyes.

"I need you to bring us to a surfaced Earth Titan," Crithann said, who seemed to ignore the reaction. "It's already been scavenged, but we need to take a look at the heart chamber."

Ruislaoch eyes widened, and he looked at them with interest. "Well, why didn't you say so?! That sounds way more interesting than porting around, hunting murderous, rampaging Imps."

Irwin was surprised at the quick change, then quietly listened as Crithann explained where they had to go.

"It's fine if you bring us to the ruins of-" Crithann began, only to be interrupted by Ruislaoch's annoyed snort.

"What do you take me for?" the old Viridian snapped as he raised his hands. A soft wind suddenly blew around them, and Irwin smelled wet grass, leaves, and spring. "Don't compare me to those youngsters!"

The outlines of leaves and vines began appearing all around them, quickly turning solid and real. A moment later, Irwin and the two Viridians stood inside a tiny clearing in a beautiful forest. Sadly, it only lasted for a moment before the image turned translucent and vanished. There was none of the jarring, painful warping of the teleportations Irwin had felt many times. Instead, everything had been quiet, pleasant, and fast.

Now, they were standing deep within the desert, and Irwin saw a familiar set of rocky hills sprawled out a few hundred feet away.

"This thing hasn't been here that long," Ruislaoch said. "You are sure it's been scavenged already?"

Irwin looked at the distant hills.

"How can you see how long it's been here?" he asked.

Ruislaoch snorted as he tapped the side of his head. "You'll learn when you live for another few thousand years, Smith," he said before letting out a humorous grunt. "Besides, I've got a soulcard that deals with vision and perception."

Crithann began walking forward, stoically staring around. "Ruis, be sure to stay close to us just in case," he said.

"Of course!'

Irwin hummed as he fell in step with the others.

I wonder if there are any of those wyrms left, he thought.

Half an hour and a long slide into the dusty darkness later, he found out there were.

The chest cavity was dark, but none of the three cared as they looked around. There was no sign of the carcasses of the wyrms and demons that had been killed when Irwin was last here, and he wondered who had eaten who.

He turned his attention to the distance, seeing small wyrms moving through the far wall of stony flesh. There was no sign of any of the massive ones, though that didn't mean there were none.

"Why are they still here?" Irwin whispered. He wasn't worried that the wyrms would come. Between his flame and Crithann's overwhelming power and the ability to teleport, he expected very little trouble.

"Lingering soulforce," Crithann rumbled, not even bothering to whisper. "These wyrms are small enough that consuming the flesh will still benefit them."

Ruislaoch was walking around, examining the wall and the ground before looking into the cavernous depths of the bowels.

"So, you want to examine the heart or go straight down?"

"Down? Why would we go down there?" Irwin asked as he stepped beside the old Viridian. The bottom was far below, and he saw dozens of holes drilled by wyrms leading into what was beyond. Although the structure of the body faintly resembled a human, that stopped at the general outline.

"Sometimes Earth Titans collect interesting metals and gems in their bodies," Ruislaoch said.

Irwin hummed at the mention of metal. Then he shook his head. "I'm going to check the heart cavity first. I'll be right back," he said.

Crithann and Ruislaoch followed him as he walked towards the ledge that led to the hole he'd gone in a year earlier.

Never imagined I'd return here, he thought as he climbed up the hole and then walked through the tunnel. It took a short while to find the passage that led to the destroyed wall where the heartcard had been.

"Completely empty," Ruislaoch muttered as he looked inside and snorted. "Well, go and do what you have to so we can check for more interesting things!"

Irwin stepped into the hollowed-out space and looked around. Some tendrils had survived the destruction hanging from the sides, and the only other thing that stood out was the slight elevation below where the heartcard had hung.

I wonder why it wants to be buried here, Irwin thought, slowly removing the coal-like body of the emberion from his pocket.

The tiny orb was duller than it had been the night before, a very dark gray instead of black. Looking down at the tiny corpse, Irwin sighed.

"Thanks for everything," he whispered before kneeling beside the elevation. It would be as good a place as any to put it.

The tiny remains stood out against the ruddy flesh-turned-stone of the Earth Titan, and Irwin looked at it for a while. When nothing happened, he rose, took a final look, and walked out of the heart chamber. Ruislaoch and Crithann were watching him quietly.

"That was an emberion, wasn't it?" Ruislaoch asked softly.

Irwin nodded as he began walking back to the main cavity.

"It saved my life," he said. "And without it, I wouldn't have been able to create my heartcard."

There was no response, but he turned as he heard an odd rustle. Turning around, he saw that Ruislaoch was standing with his hand outstretched at the entrance. The walls around it were morphing softly, and odd brown-red vines grew from them, rapidly blocking the entrance. Leaves began growing from them, and within moments, the entire entrance was hidden from view by a bush.

"There, that should keep any small demons out," Ruislaoch said as he turned to Irwin. "Now, let's go and see what we can find below!"

Crithann quietly followed him, padding Irwin's shoulder in passing.

"Thanks," Irwin said as he smiled at the elderly Viridian.

He followed after them, his mind still.

--

As the muffled footsteps faded in the distance, the silence returned in the small heart chamber.

Time passed, hours, days, as the tiny Emberion corpse went from a very dark gray to light gray until it was almost white.

Finally, a crack appeared over its length, and with the sound of ripping paper, the orb split apart as a cloud of minuscule sparks exploded out. Barely visible to the naked eye, they drifted apart, landing on the ground and the walls.

Almost immediately, they began glowing a dull red as they absorbed the lingering soulforce.

--

Two days after he returned from the Earth Titan and five after Scintilla left, Irwin was breathing heavily, glaring at the massive hammer on the ground before him. He'd been swirling his hammer around for hours, trying to become fluent in using it to reposition himself in combat. Though he was getting better at it, he had found that he wasn't as agile as he wished he was.

"So, she's gone?"

Irwin jumped and turned around, the hammer behind him unsummoned and resummoned in his hand faster than someone could blink.

Greldo stood a few steps away, a pair of silver eyes below dark eyebrows instantly drawing Irwin's attention.

"Woah! Jumpy much?"

Irwin chuckled, unsummoning his hammer.

"You took your time. Glad to see everything worked," he said.

His grin widened as Greldo looked at him, staring at his eyes.

"I thought you were going to do that later?" his friend asked, pointing accusingly at Irwin's eyes.

"What? And let you have all the fun?" Irwin said, putting his hands in his side like his mother sometimes did when he was young.

As Greldo shook his head with a grin, Irwin saw that his hair had changed. It had always been darker than his, but now it was nearly pitch black with just a few silvery strings mixed with them. Beyond that, he had a heavy stubble on his tan face and exuded a sense of explosive power.

"Bit early to become gray, isn't it?" Irwin asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Hah, hah. Very funny," Greldo said, shaking his head. "So now that we both have a heartcard, does that mean what I think it does?"

"If what you think is that we are going back to see what Daubutim did in the few weeks we were gone and laugh at the fact that he probably doesn't have six cards yet-" Irwin said, tapping his chin. "Then yes."

"..."

"What?"

"I was thinking about going back and finding a way to save your family and some of the other nicer people from back home," Greldo said.

Irwin felt a twinge of sadness when Greldo didn't mention his own family but nodded.

"Yes. That too."

"Awesome, then let's go and get everything we need. Are you ready?"

Irwin cocked his head, then frowned. "Is Gadorley still here?"

"He's talking with Crithann, I think," Greldo said. "Why?"

"Let's go! I need him to bring me to Cindergrove and back a final time."

"What? Why!?"

"Because I'm almost out of cards again," Irwin said.

"You're what?!"

Irwin laughed at the shout of disbelief, and he sprinted away, using a little of his kinetic energy to increase his speed.

--

A day later, Irwin, Greldo, Balarn, Monyque, and Nimdal were gathered together at Smithing Square. Crithann was standing before them while Gadorley was waiting patiently. A mass of people stood around the edges, causing a muted chatter.

"If you ever need a place to stay, you have a home here," Crithann said as he clasped hands with Irwin. "And use my present well," he added in a whisper that Irwin knew only he and Greldo could hear."

"I will, thanks," he said.

The image of the thin stack of papers riddled with music notes stuffed in his massive new backpack came to mind, and he grinned.

Though I'll need to learn how to read those before I can do anything with them, he thought.

He was pretty sure Ambraz would be able to teach him, but the Anvil was still unconscious.

Crithann turned to Greldo, offering his hand. "That counts for you too!"

"Maybe when I'm your age," Greldo said with a wide grin to show he was joking.

Crithann chuckled and stepped back.

Irwin felt a burst of nervous energy bubble up as he looked around.

Although he was slightly sad that they were leaving Grianfál and Scour behind, there was a large part of him excited at the prospect of where they were going! He wanted to see how Daubutim and the others were doing and if they had found a way to bring people over. If not, he was going to use his new rank as an Emerald Smith to see if he could get those in the power of Fiverion to allow him to bring as many people as he could find over. Even after he'd spent many soulshards on new cards, he still had over four hundred thousand soulshards left.

"It's time to go," Balarn said, and Irwin nodded as he walked toward the other smith.

Technically, he was a higher rank than Balarn, but Irwin was more than happy to have Balarn arrange everything.

"Thank you for everything," Balarn said as he raised a hand at Crithann. "If you ever need something, come find me at Tensor's Charter, and I'll do what I can to help!"

Crithann bowed his head, and a soft cheer rang out from the crowd.

Gadorley seemed to decide that was the right time because Irwin saw the now familiar green light and vegetation appear from his side. As it did, Greldo stepped next to him.

"I could have gotten us there," his friend whispered with a wide grin.

"Next time," Irwin said as the leaves enveloped them.

The final thing he saw was Crithann staring at him stoically with a massive hearttree behind him.