Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

"Done."

Irwin blinked as the single word ripped him awake from the daydreaming semi-sleep he'd drifted off in. Daubutim sat at the table, head in his hands, elbows on the table, and the book shoved to the side.

"Are you alright?" Irwin asked.

"Fine," Daubutim muttered. As he looked up, face pale and drawn, Irwin saw that his eye was a dull amber with no red bolt of lightning remaining. It almost looked like when he'd have one of his episodes.

Irwin rose and walked over worriedly.

"Don't worry about young Daubutim," Gelwin said, causing Irwin to hesitate and look at the ancient sorcerer. "He has done something that proves he can become one of the future carriers of history. This, however, is never easy, and he will need some rest. Now, there are two paths you may take, and neither of them is easy."

Irwin looked at Daubutim, who forced a smile at him.

"Okay, and what are those?" Irwin asked.

"You can head back right away, and young Daubutim can use the runes to change the endpoint of the portal to point toward one of the three locations he has learned."

I thought that was what we were going to do? Irwin thought, slightly confused.

"The other option is to exit this tower and contact the remaining sorcerers," Gelwin said.

"What? Why would we do that?" Irwin asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Because they are some of the most powerful carded that haven't joined either Indoutor or Lord Bron," Gelwin said. "Which means that if you don't wish to have either of those two try and wrest control over the new world, you might want to have them with you."

Wrest control? Irwin thought. He could see Indoutor doing that, but Lord Bron? He tried to understand the implications of what he'd just heard. A look at Daubutim showed his friend was frowning, a single tiny lightning moving across his eye before vanishing.

"We need more information. Can you tell us more about the situation in Caldangen and Degonda?" Daubutim asked calmly.

"Your cousin, Indoutor, took control of Indoutor Tower and the other towers that managed to survive during the time you were absent. With the help of the cards he brought from Fiverio, he strengthened his soldiers and increased the size of Indoutor tower to that of a small city," Gelwin said.

"He didn't return to Caldangen?" Daubutim asked.

"No. There are some unsubstantiated rumors that Caldangen remains able to resist itself, but you will have to find out for yourself how much of those are true," Gelwin said. "After you have moved people to the new world, you can return here and learn the waypoints that lead there if you wish to check."

"What about Degonda?" Irwin asked. "I'm happy to hear they managed to survive, but how did they even do that? There were so many portals popping up before we left."

Gelwin looked at him with gleaming eyes. "It is you that granted them the ability to do so. Don't you recall?"

"What?" Irwin muttered, confused when Gelwin said nothing but smiled knowingly.

What did I do that could have let them survive? Irwin thought as he recalled his time in what had been a merchant outpost. All he did was help with some missions, reforge some cards, and-

"Trimdir and the others?" he asked, sitting upright. "They are reforging cards?"

"Correct, my young friend," Gelwin said with a smile. "From what I have learned, it seems that at least one of them has gained the ability to reforge topaz cards, giving me great hope for the future of the Galadins people. Because of the influx of comparatively powerful cards, Lord Bron managed to keep Degonda free. Details beyond that are scarce, but all of the people in the towns and villages in that area managed to survive by joining Degonda."

Irwin felt a wave of pride as he imagined the other smiths had learned to reforge cards so high without the help of Ambraz or anything else.

"What would you suggest we do?" Daubutim asked, causing Irwin to perk up with interest.

Gelwin folded his hands together on his lap. "I would either speak with the sorcerers or head to Degonda."

"Degonda," Irwin said immediately. "If that doesn't work, we can talk with the sorcerers, but I'm sure lord Bron will listen. He used to listen to Trimdir!"

Daubutim was quiet for a bit, then sighed. "I need rest to think properly," he said as he rubbed his head again. "But I don't see a problem with that."

"Then I would suggest you go back and prepare," Gelwin said.

Irwin was about to stand up when he thought of something else.

"Can't you talk with the sorcerers? I'm sure they would listen to you," he asked.

"I presume they would," Gelwin said. "However, I need to remain in this room, and I will not allow them in here. There is a chance they would try to harm me, and that is not a risk we can take."

Irwin nodded as he rose and looked around. "Is there anything else you can do or tell us?"

"My advice would be to bring those you trust to the new world, give it a name, designate a spot for the first town to be built, and continue from there. As much as you will feel pressured to bring everyone over in one big wave, this will only cause more trouble later," Gelwin said. "Beyond that, I'll not be there to supervise it, so you will have to do what you can."

Irwin looked around the room, somewhat sad that there were no windows to look at the world around it.

"Alright, I'll go first. Give me a few moments to go through first so I can take care of anything on the other end," he said, walking to the hovering portal.

Before stepping back in, he took a final look at Gelwin. Somehow, he had expected something else, and he didn't understand why Gelwin hadn't just taught Daubutim the waypoint locations before. The only thing he could come up with was that he hadn't had them on Fiverio, though he still wasn't completely sure how the sorcerer's card worked.

"See you soon," he said. As he turned and stepped into the portal, his last thought was that he'd been talking with Gelwin, the man from legend, and it had felt entirely normal.

--

"Daubutim, one moment if you would."

Daubutim stopped a foot from the portal, turning around and looking at the ancient sorcerer. His assumption was that it was the same one he'd spoken to before, at least in mind.

"When you bring the first people over, there will be a moment where everyone who thinks they should be in control will try to gain it. At this point, you have a difficult decision to make. Irwin seems like the type of person who will continue exploring the Portal Gallery, and as much as I am impressed by his skill as a cardsmith, his ability to lead a world is lacking. You, however, have everything you need to succeed, combined with a clinical mind and a good heart," Gelwin said, his voice cracking softly from all the talking. "This can not be said by many of those who will attempt to gain control."

Daubutim had turned fully toward him, wishing that his card's energy would recover faster. Although he was able to stop himself from regressing, he had no energy to think as fast as he wanted to.

"Right now, you are powerful compared to those on Giard, more so if you can manage to get the final card to complement your others and become heartcarded. You will be able to become the leader and enforce this by this power disparity. However, this will not last forever. If you don't move when the opportunity arises, it may not come again."

You are right in one thing. I need my final card and the energy of a heartcard, Daubutim thought.

"I am not sure what I'll do," he finally said. "But I will not let someone, not even my cousin, grab control and potentially ruin the effort we have made."

"Good," Gelwin said with a wrinkly smile. "Now, you had better head back."

Daubutim waved in parting, then turned and stepped into the portal, vanishing from the dusty old room.

"And so it begins," Gelwin whispered, looking at the portal that would remain here until Daubutim redirected it to one of the midway anchor points.

I can give you one month, he thought. All I hope is that you can bring many of our people to that world.

He struggled to rise and then walked towards one of the many bookshelves. With a shaky hand, he pulled on one of the books, causing a dry click behind the wall. The bookshelf shakily moved to the side, causing a brilliant purple light to pour out of a short corridor that led into another room.

After that, plan B will be ready, and I'll have no other option but to go forward with it, he thought as he walked into the room, his dusty, robed body bathed in the purple light.

--

"So, what do we do first?" Irwin asked.

He and Daubutim were standing before the portal, back in the forest. There had been nothing around when he had appeared.

"I will return to the ship and talk with Greldo and explain to the others that we need to finish a part of our mission before we can let anyone else in the world," Daubutim said. He grimaced and rubbed his head again.

"You need to rest," Irwin said. "Although we need to hurry, there is no use if you are so drained that you revert to one of your episodes."

"You are right. Resting is safer on the ship, so I'll do it there. However, leaving this side of the portal unguarded is not smart. You should remain here, perhaps clean at the river, and keep an eye on the portal."

"I'll make sure nothing happens," Irwin said. "After that, you are coming back here with Greldo so we can head to Giard?"

"Yes. I'd prefer if one of us remains here and one on the ship, but going to Giard might be dangerous even with your and Greldo's heartcards."

Irwin agreed, but he did know that would leave one problem. "How are we going to make sure nobody comes inside here? I'd prefer not to have to leave Ambraz in front of the portal."

Daubutim frowned, and Irwin saw him struggle before responding.

"I'll discuss with Rindiri and Xi'kroak that neither of the ships is to remain near the portal for three days because of what we are doing. They are not to allow anyone through. That will hopefully give us enough time to get the first group here," he said. "As soon as we have trustworthy people starting to build a town, it will give us the time to go around and gather the rest while Zender and some of the others can be here and play messengers."

"We should get the rangers here first," Irwin said as he looked around. "They can start scouting, guard against those creatures that roam around, and hunt for food."

Daubutim nodded as he looked around, and Irwin saw his face go slack before he grunted in annoyance.

"What?" Irwin asked, scanning around but seeing nothing.

"I just realized we now have two portals to guard, and we can't do both at the same time," he grunted.

"Ambraz can guard the portal for a while while I stay here," Irwin said.

"I know, and that will work for now, but what do we do when we go to Giard?" Daubutim asked.

Irwin tried to come up with something until he saw Daubutim zone out as he stared at the ground.

"Just head back for now," he said hurriedly. "Perhaps you will come up with something after you had some rest. If not, one of us will just have to stay behind. There's no way around it."

Daubutim nodded dully and turned away. "I'll be back as soon as I can," he said before he began running forward. His movements were fast but nowhere near as fast as they had been before.

His card must be completely drained, Irwin thought.

He followed Daubtim's heat signature until it vanished between the trees. After standing there and looking around for a while, he began walking around the portal in expanding circles, inspecting the trees, plants, and even a few mushrooms. Eventually, he grew tired of that and began pacing before the portal, reading through his book with Galadin sheet music.

As the sun continued up, then down the sky, he just wandered around aimlessly. By now, he'd thought about their problem from a dozen angles, and the only thing he could come up with was that Greldo remained behind. He was the only one who could cover both of the portals, having Coal at one and him at the other and the ability to shadowport between them if needed.

I hope Daubutim didn't fall into a long slumber, he thought as he picked up a small rock and tossed it into the forest.

It was growing dark, and he knew that if Daubutim slept for a mere three hours, it would be the middle of the night before he returned.

"Bored yet?"

Irwin jumped back, hammer in his hand and his flame rippling across his body.

Greldo stood in the shadows of a tree, grinning.

"Seriously," Irwin snapped. "You could have warned me you were coming!"

"True," Greldo said. "But that wouldn't have been half as much fun as this."

Irwin snorted as he pondered for a moment if he should hurl his hammer at Greldo. Deciding it wouldn't matter if he did as his friend would just dodge it, he unsummoned it and glared at him.

"How is Daubutim?"

"Better. I don't know what you did, but when he returned, he looked horrible! I do like the new color of his eye, though; it doesn't constantly remind me of ice!"

"Did he tell you what happened?"

Greldo shrugged as he walked forward. "Only a bit, but enough for me to realize we aren't going back together."

Irwin nodded. "I think you are going to have to remain here, at least for the first bit. After we get Lord Bron and others we trust here, things will be easier."

"Definitely. There's one massive problem, though!"

Irwin frowned as he looked at his friend. "What?"

"Do you think anyone is even going to recognize you?" Greldo said with a smirk. "Between your coppery skin, that beard, and the fact that you are over two heads taller than the last time they saw you…"

"I'll just tell them about the things we did before, which I know," Irwin said.

"Let's hope that works," Greldo said with a grin.

They continued bantering deep into the night, and at some point, their discussion went to Malorin and whether it would still be there. Although Greldo cared little, he still wanted to go and see, and Irwin was incredibly grateful for it. The idea of having to go there and find the city destroyed, with nothing but the dead around, made him slightly afraid.

Finally, when the first glimmer of dawn was already coming, Greldo stopped midsentence, cocking his head.

"Coal just told me that Daubutim is here," he said. "He is coming over and bringing Ambraz."

Irwin nodded, and they quietly waited until Irwin saw a tiny heat signature appear and disappear between the trees in the distance.

"Here he comes," he said.

"Wasn't sure if that was a shadow or not," Greldo muttered as he looked around.

After a short while, a blur with tiny bolts of crackling lightning rushed towards them.

Daubutim stopped before them, and Irwin felt slightly jealous at how little difficulty he had to slow down from fast to stop. Then he saw Ambraz on Daubutim's shoulder and grinned.

"Glad you're back," he said before turning to Daubutim. "Do you feel better?"

"My card was just drained," Daubutim said. "I'll have to make sure to prevent overusing it this much in the future."

"Sure, sure! Good to see you," Ambraz snorted as the tiny anvil flew from Daubutim's shoulder, landing on Irwin's. "And you don't have to thank us for blocking the portal for nearly an entire day and night. You're welcome."

Irwin grinned. "You did great," he said.

"Damn right I did. Now, are we heading back to that backwater world or what?"

"Almost," Irwin said, turning to Daubutim. "I take it you came to the same conclusion as us?" he asked, making a head gesture at Greldo.

"Greldo and Coal need to stay here to guard the portals," Daubutim said.

"Which shows that being strong and smart won't help if you need to be in two places at the same time," Greldo said. "Alright, I'll remain here and leave Coal at the exit portal. So, you can just send someone through, and I'll handle it on this end."

Irwin nodded as he removed the stack of cards from his pocket and removed a few from the top. He handed them to Greldo, who raised an eyebrow. "You do know I don't need payment, right?"

"These are topaz-ranked crafters cards," Irwin said. "The images should show which does which, but most deal with stone and woodworking. The others are more generic, but hand them out to those who have some skill in that area already."

Greldo whistled. "You'd almost think you'd planned all this beforehand!"

Irwin grinned, and then there was a moment of quiet between the three. Daubutim broke it as he walked towards the portal.

"I'll attune the portal to the waygate nearest to Degonda," he said. "It's in a hidden room below one of the hills near Grinning Man's hilltop."

"I wonder if any demons found it," Irwin said.

"If they have, I'm sure you can clear them out easily enough," Greldo said. "It would be more fun if you came there, and there's a portal in the same room!"

"I wouldn't call that fun," Irwin muttered. "I'd probably not even be able to close it."

They quietly watched Daubutim begin to clear out the ground around the portal. As soon as he finished, he began using his two-handed sword to draw complex glyphs in the soil around it.

"What do those do?" Greldo whispered.

"Those things are so the one that is going to attune the portal has something to focus on," Ambraz said, sounding highly interested. "It's Galadin script. By the way, did that old beardy face say anything about me?"

"He asked where you were when I arrived," Irwin said.

"Good! … Wait, that's it?"

"Pretty much," Irwin said as he saw Daubutim had finished and was now standing before the portal with his hands forward. There was a flash of light, and then his cards appeared above his hands, and he began walking around the portal, tracing the runes he'd drawn before. Irwin was surprised to see that they began glowing, seeming to draw in the energy from Daubutim's card. At the same time, a soft vibration came from the runes that were lit up, and as Daubutim continued around the portal, eventually, they were softly humming in a very specific melody.

It's just like smithing, Irwin thought as he inspected the glyphs.

A few moments later, Daubutim finished with the final Glyph, and as soon as it lit up, the portal gave off a single bright flash. Then, it seemed to shimmer while the light of the runes around it faded as they returned to nothing but lines drawn in the ground.

"That should be it," Daubutim said as he turned to the others.

"Well, you two better get going," Greldo said as he waved at them. "The sooner you leave, the quicker you are back."

Irwin saw a tiny bit of worry in Greldo's eyes, and he forced a laugh. "Don't worry about us. You just make sure you aren't skewered by more of those boar things."

"Pah, I'll be fine," Greldo said with a wide grin.

Irwin nodded before turning to Daubutim. "Alright, let me go first. Wait a minute so I can clear the entrance if needed."

Daubutim calmly nodded.

Irwin walked towards the portal, noting no differences from how it had been before.

"Ready?" he asked as he looked at Ambraz.

"What kind of question is that? I was born ready!"

You were born? Irwin thought, wondering how that worked. Then he grinned and jumped into the portal.

The familiar jarring flash came, and then he was inside another purple corridor.

"So! How about you tell me what I missed?" Ambraz said. "Do you have any idea how bored I was?"

Irwin thought about the first part of his own wait.

"I can guess," he said before telling about their meeting with Gelwin.

"Something seems fishy," Ambraz snapped angrily when he was done.

"What do you mean?" Irwin asked.

"Come on! That beardy face is tens of thousands of years old or worse, and he's had hundreds of years to prepare, and this is the best he can come up with? Send a bunch of kids to bring everyone here?"

Irwin frowned. "He said he couldn't leave the tower…"

"So what," Ambraz said. "He's also on Fiverio, right? He could have sent people from there to contact people on Giard to prepare for all of this."

Irwin stared dumbly into the distance, realizing Ambraz had a point.

"But why didn't Daubutim say anything?" he finally asked.

"Come on, kid! Daubutim has the best memory of anyone I've ever met, and he is pretty smart, especially now that he can use his full mind. However, how much experience does he really have with these types of things? Less than you, I'd say! No, I think that beardy face is up to something."

As they continued hurtling through the tunnel, Irwin thought about what Ambraz said, going over their meeting with Gelwin. He didn't feel like anything was really off, but he also couldn't deny that what Ambraz said made a lot of sense.

"Great," he finally muttered. "So now, what do we do?"

"What do you mean?" Ambraz snorted. "Get your people out of there. Just be on your guard. I'm not sure if Beardy Face is hiding something bad or not."

They continued hurtling forward until, after a long time, the end came in sight. Hammer in hand, Irwin prepared for what could happen as he slammed into the end of the portal.

He stumbled out of the portal into a dusty, rocky cave. The air was stale, but a quick look around showed nothing but a single stony tunnel leading away.

As he walked forward, examining everything, he felt a soft vibration in the ground. A moment later, there was another, and a distant rumbling came.

"Seems like you came just at the right time, kid! There's fighting up there," Ambraz whispered.

Great, Irwin thought as he waited for Daubutim.