Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

Irwin and Daubutim were staring out across the bustling area around the town wall. The buildings inside the wall could barely be called done, with no second stories or door and window frames anywhere. Even then, the area beyond the wall was already being divided up into what one day would become the city. That would be long from now, though, as right now it was nothing but bustling emptiness of lines and tents in the mud.

Lines of stones created sections that were dividing the area up.

"How much are you going to let them decide?" Irwin asked as he looked at his friend.

"Most of it. I've only outlined the main roads and districts directly around us and all important trade routes and important buildings." Daubutim said before pointing towards the distant forest. "The further away from the center, the less outlining there is, and only the guard buildings and some squares around the edges are there."

Irwin nodded as he looked at the edges Daubutim was talking about.

Far in the distance, another wall was being erected around what would be the city's eventual outer perimeter. Parts were ready, but most here were just a foot-high rough stone ledge.

Irwin watched the gravely overworked stoneshapers walking around, and he felt sympathy for them. They had been working nonstop ever since they came here and wouldn't have much rest for at least another few years. The only benefit they got was that they didn't need to worry about food. The little there was would go to them. Well, and the card-smiths, guards, and rangers.

"Wouldn't it be better if you outline the entire city?" he asked absently.

"If I tell everyone exactly where they are to build and limit what they can build too much, it will take away their sense of belonging. Father always said that the most important thing for a leader to do was to give their people the idea that they had a say in matters and that they belonged. It's the best way to create a sense of unity."

Daubutim fell quiet as he looked around before continuing. "But don't worry. As I said, the crafters' and workers' squares have been well designated, as are the inns and other places of importance."

Irwin took a quick look at his calm friend. Ever since Daubutim had heard that his father was truly dead, he seemed to refer to his father differently than before, with less bottled-up anger.

Perhaps knowing someone is truly gone does that, Irwin thought as he faintly thought about his father. He'd never met him, but he'd always imagined finding the place he'd been born. Now, that was impossible, as was finding out if his father had any family.

He fell quiet, continuing to look at the bustling city. It had been almost a week since the Portal to Giard had been closed, and time had flown by. Most of that had been spent categorizing and reforging the cards they had gathered. Some were from when he had wiped out the Imps near Malorin and the Nyzir around Esterdon, but he'd also gotten all the cards Daubutim was able to get from the guards, rangers, as well as a massive amount stockpiled by Indoubtor.

I wonder how being locked in jail works for him, Irwin thought. A tiny part of him wondered if Daubutim was actually going to publicly execute him as he'd said.

He shoved the worrisome thought away and focused back on the cards. He'd reforged more than he had in a very long time, focusing only on the crafting, shaping, or farming cards, which he had sideways reforged and upgraded to emerald rank. Those had been divided amongst the most suited people, which luckily hadn't been something he'd had to decide. Daubutim and Bron had somehow managed that, and the only benefit of having starving and tired people was that there had been very few with the strength to complain about it.

Any cards that dealt with water management had been sent to Tréanbá, while those that dealt with woodworking mostly went to New Malorin.

I wonder what New Malorin looks like, he thought.

It probably had way more wooden buildings, as it was closer to the denser forest area to the south. He hoped the rangers there were having more success with finding food. Bronwyn and his mother were there.

"The biggest problem now is to have as many people survive starvation as we can," Daubutim said as if he read his mind.

Irwin grunted, his own stomach clenching as it thought about food. He got far more than the average person, but he'd found out that it didn't help much if you also needed five times as much.

Ignoring his growling stomach, he looked at the tents and campfires in the middle of the designated housing lines. People were lying and sitting around, most barely able to move.

Daubutim's eye began pulsing with red lightning, causing a gleam of red on the wall.

"The rangers are doing their best, but we can't overhunt this area, or we will get far more trouble later down the line. Besides, there wouldn't be enough food even if we did that. Most of those Bullfrogs fled towards the western marshlands, and there are not enough Sixtusks here," Daubutim said.

"No, we need a way to increase the speed at which the crops will grow. Without a first harvest within a month, we will start losing people."

Irwin grimaced. He'd gone through every card they had searching for something like that, and he'd found nothing.

"There's none," he said.

"I know," Daubutim said, turning to him with a stoic look. "So we are going to do something else."

Irwin raised his eyebrow, pretty sure he knew what Daubutim was going to say.

"Find someone with a card that can be reforged to do what we need," Daubutim said. "I've sent messengers to every camp and town to find us anyone with a card that deals with plants, growth, or anything like that."

Irwin sighed. He'd considered the same thing, but there was a major problem with the idea.

"If the person we find isn't a ranger or guard, he is probably too weak to survive the reforging," he said. "Reforging a card takes an immense toll on someone, and if they are starving..."

"Which is why I have gathered a small amount of food and recalled all carded healers in New Degonda. The first batch of people who say they have cards dealing with plants and farming will arrive in a few hours, and I need you to inspect their cards. Pray we find one that will work. After that, we will feed them and heal them for a few days."

Irwin nodded. That would probably work if they got a week to recuperate by eating enough.

"Also, pick the best two and give those the two energy increase cards we have," Daubutim said before looking at him. His eye began swirling red, and he frowned.

"What?" Irwin asked.

"If you find one that is very good, reforge their card up to heartcarded," Daubutim said.

"That will cost a lot of cards that could strengthen people so they can survive," Irwin said.

"We need food, and we need it fast," Daubutim said. "We have three hundred and forty-eight thousand people spread out across five cities, seventeen towns, and more hamlets than I have managed to keep track of. The supplies we brought from Degonda and Malorin will last less than a month. That's including the food the rangers are bringing in."

Irwin took a deep breath, looking up at the sky. He'd expected everything to go so much better after they reached the new world.

They quietly looked at the bustling people below, both lost in their own thoughts.

Irwin's thoughts drifted to the last week at Trimdir's. The older Smith and the others were hard at work reforging the weaker utility cards, but unlike Irwin, they could only successfully reforge a few cards per day. If they did more, they risked overexerting themselves. Besides, he was the only one who could reforge above Amethyst and be sure to succeed. So, he'd been reforging nonstop, and although he enjoyed most of it, he could do with a break.

Not that he was going to stop. The only reason they didn't have a wave of death yet was due to the slowly increased number of carded people. Even a single uncommon Amethyst card would help people survive for longer, increasing their resilience to hunger. Besides, many were able to help the rangers by hunting further out and harvesting the plants, roots, nuts, and carrots so the carded healers could determine if they were edible.

"I found a carded healer that can fix my eye," Daubutim said.

Irwin blinked, stunned by the sudden revelation. He completely forgot about that, and he was about to congratulate his friend when he saw Daubutim's dubious look.

"What?" he asked.

"The eye will need to regrow from scratch," Daubutim said with a sigh. "It will take nearly eight years before it will work as it should."

Irwin grimaced, unsure if he should say what he was thinking: that it was better than having no eye at all.

"Perhaps I can reforge the healer's card?" he said.

"She's got an emerald card already," Daubutim said.

"What? Who is she?" Irwin asked, astonished. A non-reforged emerald rank healer card was rare, even on Fiverion!

"A sorceress that was hiding from Indoubtor in Esterdon," Daubutim said calmly.

Irwin whistled, then sighed. "Well, I can reforge it, but that would cost too many cards, and I still need to forge your heartcard."

"It's fine," Daubutim said. "It can wait. Besides, I don't know what the effect would be if my eye is healed after I get a heartcard."

Irwin slowly nodded as he thought about that.

"Don't worry, we will eventually find more cards. Let's wait till Xi'kroak returns," Daubutim said calmly. "If he found another portal to a less stable world, you and Greldo can go there to get cards."

"You do know how unlikely that is, right?" Irwin said.

"I know."

Irwin sourly thought about the massive stack of cards he had brought from Scour. None were left, and although he knew he'd not used any wrongly, he just wished he still had some left. He glared at the ground. How many more problems did they have to solve?

"Perhaps we can use the first adjacent world we find and have it grow unstable so we can farm the portals," he said.

"Perhaps," Daubutim said calmly. "If it's a bad one, we could, but if it's a verdant, safe world, we will likely give it to either the Yuurindi or the Da'xi."

"Kid, the chances of it being a world you don't want to keep stable are just as small as Xi'kroak finding another portal nearby," Ambraz suddenly interjected from Irwin's shoulder.

Irwin looked at the Anvil in surprise. Ambraz had barely spoken over the last week, and all of his prodding hadn't gotten the reason.

"I suggest you take the first adjacent world and keep it stable, but don't give it away," Ambraz said, his lips pressed in a thin line. "Keep it and have someone you trust create scouting towns. Although I'd love to have the first world for my people, what we need is stability—send rangers and others there to search for portals to worlds beyond it. Although rare, there should be at least a few. In that world, search again until you find a leaf. Those are the ones you want to turn unstable."

"Are there always portals to other adjacent worlds?" Irwin asked as he thought back to Giard. From what he knew, the portals only began showing up when Fiverion started farming them, and none had ever been found, not exit portals or to adjacent worlds.

"What? Of course not," Ambraz said with a snort. "The higher the rank of the world, the stronger the adjacent worlds, and the more likely you will find one with adjacent worlds of its own. This keeps going for a while, but eventually, they will end up with a leaf: a dead-end world like Giard. Those have only portals to their main world, and the only other portals that can appear are those that come when it turns unstable."

"Any idea how many steps we can take from here?" Daubutim asked, looking at the Anvil.

"What do I look like, a fortune teller?" Ambraz exclaimed before snorting. "At least one more, that's a guarantee. But after that? It depends on the adjacent world. You will definitely find adjacent worlds that are stable, large, and powerful enough to have their own adjacent worlds. If it's the first one, it is going to be anybody's guess. Ugh! Has it still not sunken into those dense heads of yours how lucky you are with this rank-six world!?"

Irwin grinned as he shook his head, and even Daubutim's usual stoic expression couldn't cover up his amusement.

Ambraz began muttering softly, and Irwin laughed.

"You keep saying stronger worlds," he said as he prodded the Anvil. "What do you mean by that?"

"Hey, no poking!" Ambraz snapped as he flew up and around.

After a few moments, he landed atop Daubutim's head, though the noble showed no reaction.

"It's the amount of ambient soulforce that determines how strong a world is," Ambraz said. "It's also what causes a world to be more stable and why having powerful soulcarded will slow the shattering of a world."

Irwin hummed as he thought about something else. "So, why do cards only drop from unstable worlds? Shouldn't having more soulforce increase those odds?"

"Ugh, Daubutim, you really need to create schools here so people aren't so uneducated!" Ambraz snapped before taking a deep, theatrical breath. "The more stable the world is, the easier the soulforce of a soulskilled being flows back into the ambient soulforce. If it flows back, that means there's no crystalized soulskill. Understand?"

Irwin nodded as he scratched his thick beard, causing a sound of plinking metal wires. An idea poked into his head, and seeing as Ambraz was talkative, he decided to just continue asking questions.

"Is there any way to create cards from ambient soulforce?"

Ambraz barked a laugh. "And that's the million soulshard question right there," he said. "It's what cardsmiths have been trying to discover for thousands upon thousands of years. There have been rumors and legends but never any proof, and if anyone actually managed to figure it out, they either took it to their grave or are hiding it really well!"

"It would be incredibly useful if we had that ability," Daubutim said thoughtfully.

Irwin nodded while he began zoning out, imagining how he could use ambient Soulforce like that. It would mean he'd need to be able to sense it first, something he couldn't right now.

"You don't say," Ambraz said. "Well, if we ever find out, Eluathar is going to be the new center of this part of the Portal Gallery, and we are going to be richer than anyone ever!"

Irwin leaned on the edge of the wall, staring in the distance as he imagined creating cards out soulforce. Besides sensing and harnassing it, what else would that require? Some way to shape it and then turn the resonating soulforce into a crystalized form?

As ideas became cropping up, he didn't listen to Ambraz and Daubutim's continued conversation.

Irwin snapped out of it when a soft crying rang up from below. He looked down and saw a woman hugging a small child. It was crying and shouting about being hungry.

There are more important things to fix first, Irwin thought as the thought of a potentially horrible hunger winter made his desire to go and experiment fade away.

They needed food.

He stayed with Daubutim on the wall until a guard came to tell them that the first group had arrived.

"I need to discuss things with Bron," Daubutim said calmly. "I'll leave for Tréanbá tomorrow. There is news that the fishermen have found edible fish, and I need to start creating the harbor."

Irwin looked at his friend, realizing what that meant. After Daubutim left and he would go to New Malorin, it might be a long time till they saw each other again.

"Come and say before you leave," he said. "I'll see what cards these people have."

"Of course," Daubutim said.

They walked down, then split up when they reached the castle, which was still far from finished.

Irwin spent the rest of the day checking and reforging people's cards. None were exactly what they needed, but he reforged every willing person's handcard as long as they would add to their farming endeavor. Some dealt with removing weeds and insects, while others could preserve seeds and plants.

The next day saw more small groups, but none were what they needed. When he finally fell on his temporary bed in Trimdir's new smithy, weary to the bone, he still hadn't found a person with a card that could potentially fix their food shortage. Besides that, Daubutim had left, and as he gazed at the rough, unfinished wooden ceiling, Irwin hoped things were better in New Malorin.

As the days passed, his worry grew.

Finally, a week after he'd started, he found two people with cards that had enough potential. Both were from the same group, and he could barely believe they had both come from a tiny nearby tent town that was barely scraping by.

Grun was an old, nearly bald farmer with a weathered face who, surprisingly, originally came from Malorin. His uncommon farming card allowed him to sprout seeds, which was the reason he'd been one of the best farmers back in Malorin. His main issue was that he could only use his skill one time per day, on a handful of seeds. Irwin hoped that if his card went from amethyst two steps up to emerald, the amount would increase, and adding four extra cards, one of which increased the energy, would allow him to use it multiple times.

The other was Susin, a fourteen-year-old girl who had been an apprentice gardener for the nobles in Caldangen. Her card allowed the growth of plants to speed up exponentially, though, like Grun, she could only do small amounts per day. The trouble was that although her card was at amethyst rank, unlike Grun, she had already combined her's into a full hand, meaning Irwin couldn't reforge it.

After discussing things with Lord Bron, they decided to reforge her card up to heartcard.

It didn't take any convincing for Grun or Susin to accept the deal of food and cards in return for the promise to remain at New Degonda for the next few years, overseeing the start of the surrounding fields.

Nearly a week after he'd found them, Irwin stood in the bustling smithy, helping Susin back to her feet. She was breathing heavily, leaning on him.

Whispers filled the room, but Irwin ignored them. He was slightly winded and had a faint headache. Even though Susin's heartcard was only at emerald rank, the limited food, busy days, and short nights were taking their toll even on him.

"Did it work? Do I have silver eyes now?" Susin whispered as she dully stared at the empty backs of her hands.

"Yes," Irwin said as he nearly carried her to a small chair.

Why do the eyes matter, he thought as he stretched his back, looking around for a flagon of water.

All around, the smiths were staring at him wide-eyed, and he knew that without Trimdir's presence, they might have started asking questions.

The older smith walked forward, handing him a flagon, which Irwin quickly drained.

"You will need to take it easy for the rest of the day," he said as he smiled at Susin.

"Yeah," she muttered before looking up, eyes wide. "It's like you said! The cards are all gone, but… there's something here," she said as she tapped her chest.

"You are sure it is very rare?" she added, her pale silver eyes wide with wonder and disbelief even after all she'd seen.

"Yes, it's an emerald-bordered heartcard and nearly ninety percent perfect," Irwin said with a smile, adding the last bit mostly for the benefit of the smiths.

As he said it, he felt slightly bad for Susin. If things had been different, he might have been able to forge her a ruby heartcard, but as things were, it was impossible. He'd discussed it with Ambraz, but in the end, they decided to go for the most efficient way instead of the best. It was both to save his energy and to save the card energy he needed. This was one of the reasons it had taken them six cards. Still, it was more than he liked but better than the fifteen more that Ambraz had said would be likely if they went for the best they could do.

"Right," Susin whispered. "Emerald, not very rare…."

"Don't worry," Irwin said as he grinned at her. "It takes a bit getting used to, and you aren't the only one. Look-" he pointed at the wall at the back of the smithy where a board hung that showed the names. "That's so the smiths don't forget!"

There was a round of laughter, and he saw Trimdir snort and shake his head. He had been the only one to easily memorize the different names.

"Quartz is common. Amethyst is uncommon-" Susin muttered as she read the board before looking at him. "Do you... you have a ruby or higher card?" she asked wide-eyed.

Irwin nodded, deciding that was close enough.

After answering a few more questions, he looked at the entrance where Grun and Lord Bron stood. To Irwin's surprise, the two men from very different backgrounds had taken one look at each other and bonded immediately. The first time, they had spoken for hours on end, and after that, Bron had begun inviting the old, gnarly farmer to any discussion that involved farming.

"It's best if she rests a bit before starting to practice her new card skills," Irwin said, getting a nod from Lord Bron.

The lord of New Degonda gestured, and one of the healers ran forward, helping Susin up and out of the room while constantly asking her questions. Irwin wasn't surprised at the care Bron and the healers were taking with Susin. She was the third heartcarded human here and the only one that was likely going to stay. Not that it was needed. With an emerald rank heartcard, Susin was stronger, healthier, and would live longer than anyone besides him in the smithy.

"Thank you, Smith Irwin," Lord Bron said as he nodded at Trimdir. "Are you still leaving for New Malorin in two days?"

Irwin nodded as he felt a wave of joy at the prospect of seeing his family. "Yes. I'll wait to see how everything goes, then set out. There are barely any cards left, and Trimdir and the others can take care of those."

Lord Bron nodded, then left with the others, leaving only Irwin and the smiths. A quick look showed that they were rearing at the bit to ask him questions. Turning to Trimdir, who was grinning at him, eyes gleaming, Irwin knew there was no way he was going to get out without answering at least some questions.

"Alright," he said as he moved back to where Ambraz was still standing in his large working form. Leaning against the Anvil, he looked at Trimdir and the others. "What do you want to know first?"

"Why did you sing," one of the smiths shouted, and before Irwin could even think of answering, dozens of questions followed it.

"What song was that?"

"Why did you not reforge all the cards up to very rare?"

"Why not go beyond very rare?"

"What does her card do now?"

This is going to be a long day, Irwin thought as he crossed his arms and began answering those questions he could.