“Don’t say it.”
Lirai’s grin widened as she walked through the narrow streets of the market district.
“Say what?” she asked, glancing at Sinturkal.
Her friend snorted as he stepped out of the way of a courier rushing along from the other direction.
“Fine, if it makes you feel better…”
“It does! How good can he really be?” Lirai asked, wiggling her thick metallic eyebrows at him. “You really said that.”
“Fine, I might have underestimated him,” Sinturkal said, throwing his hands up. “Yes, he is more skilled than any smith we have seen, at least with the types of cards he showed us. Still, you can’t be serious about taking him up on his offer. Why would you want to leave here?”
Lirai looked around the gleaming black streets. She didn’t feel as oppressed by them as she had when she first arrived from the small desert town she’d grown up in, but even now, part of her longed for those vast open spaces.
“Even if I don’t go with him, I wouldn’t stay here,” she said, shaking her head. “I’d want to see the other three Great Cities, then go to the Viridia, and see Cindergrove. Then there’s Oxarite, and their cities, and-”
“Right! I get it, you don’t like Blackglass,” Sinturkal exclaimed. “Then do that! Why go to Eluathar and potentially never return?”
“I’m curious,” Lirai said as they reached a dead-end alley with a few doors leading to three narrow apartments. “I want to go there, see how far I can push my cardsmithing skills. Did you ever read those stories of the original Purperions?”
Sinturkal blinked, looking up as if surprised by the sudden change of direction the conversation was going in.
“I… What? Yeah, one or two. You are talking about the stories they wrote down from beyond the Portal Gallery?”
“I want to see more than just Eluathar. That war? It’s gotta finish at some point, and when it does, I want to buy a ship and travel! See the place the Viridians might come from, originally, Suderfuix, I think it's called, and then further.”
Sinturkal shook his head, sighing deeply.
“Well, then you'd better be early tomorrow, because from what I heard and saw, a lot of people want to be in the three hundred.”
Lirai grinned as she pushed open the door to her small home, a single room that functioned as a bed, living room, kitchen, and bathroom.
“I’ll be very early,” she said. “Because my good friend is going to wake me up at the time he always goes to practice!”
Sinturkal barked a laugh as he opened the opposite door.
“Fine! But you better teach me the things you are taught!”
“Deal,” Lirai said, closing the door, her mind abuzz with what the next day would bring.
--
“Alright, welcome to your first class. Please quiet down.”
The spacious chamber went from an excited buzz to deadly quiet instantly, and the entire class of three hundred smiths focused on the central area.
Irwin looked up and around at his project for the next few years. A class filled with mostly younger cardsmiths, nearly all Crathan, and definitely none with more than three cards, and none of them a fullhand.
“Now, you all had the introduction from your teachers, but I’m going to do it one more time, just to make sure you all understand what you are getting into,” he said calmly.
Three hundred pairs of eyes, and a few dozen Ganvil’s stared down at him from their own small smithing areas. The room was large, with rows of working areas starting at, for him, eye level, and rows going up from there, giving him a clear view of everyone in them. Sound-dampening runes were hidden in the edges between the areas, while sloped staircases between every pair gave him easy access.
Flowrishin really did go all out here, he thought.
“All of you have three or fewer cards, and no diamond-ranked ones,” he said. “You will have to unslot them and accept the cards I have here-” he raised his hand, causing a set of cards to appear, which he fanned out. “Then you will slot these.”
He waited a moment, but nobody looked surprised, which they shouldn’t have. They should have heard this before, multiple times. Still, it was one of the two requirements that he knew had caused some of the best young cardsmiths to reject the offer. He didn’t blame them.
“After this, I will help you to create a heartcard. This is something we will start with a month from now, and you will all get one, so no rushing the removal. Understand?”
“Yes, Guildmaster Irwin,” a few people said, while some nodded.
“Right, some rules,” he said, holding back a grimace. “You can call me Teacher or Irwin, either is fine. If you don’t understand something, raise your hammer so I can see, and I’ll come and see what’s wrong. If the question is something others would benefit from, I’ll hold a short lecture.”
He looked around, and this time most said ‘yes, teacher’, with a few going for Irwin.
Still so calm, he thought. That should change in a moment.
“Now, there are two sets of cards. The first set will give you an instrument, body improvements, and soulforce sensitivity,” he said. “A few months after you get your first heartcard, I’m going to fill your soullake.”
A stunned silence came, followed by shouted questions.
Irwin let it continue for a minute before raising his arms and sending a short burst of his aura out.
It instantly causes everyone to fall quiet, eyes wide and startled.
“The rules. If you have questions, raise your hammer,” he said.
Instantly, dozens of hammers shot into the air, and he shook his head.
“No, I’m not telling you how I’ll fill your soullake, but you will learn eventually. You won’t learn while you are here, because it's information that doesn’t work on Scour if I’m not here.”
Well, technically without the Chaos Whales, but…
He saw that most of the cardsmiths were still fidgeting for an answer, but they would just have to ignore it.
“Now, you were all distracted by the soullake, but did you hear that I said you all will get an instrument summon as one of your first cards? Can someone tell me why that is?”
Hammers that had still been up went down until only a handful remained.
Irwin pointed at a young Crathan smith with slightly paler skin and eyes almost completely black with just a shimmering of an orange glow in their depths.
“Name, and why do you think you will get the musical instrument?”
“Lirai of the Palesands, and I think it's because your cardsmithing type is music, which means you can teach us much faster like that?”
Irwin nodded. “That’s the right answer, and… that’s an unusual name.”
The young woman shrugged, but Irwin saw her eyes dull ever so slightly.
“It’s just how the towns in the Glittering Desert deal with orphans. They give the name of the town to the children.”
Irwin nodded, knowing he was going to have to get to know his new students a bit, but not right now.
“I did not know that,” he said, before turning to the rest of the class.
“Lirai is right. As you probably know, I use the musical style of cardsmithing. Now, I can use some of the others, like strength, fire, and I do mix those in. What I’m going to teach you is how I use music. Why? Because, as was told a few days ago, the current situation in the Portal Gallery is not good. We have too few cardsmiths, too few warriors, and too many problems. The time dilation is also weakening, and according to the calculations of a friend of mine, within a hundred years from now, Scour will have gone from its current rate of thirty-seven to under twenty.”
A hammer shot up, and Irwin pointed at it.
“Do you know why?”
Irwin hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. Did you learn about Oculithar?”
A ripple went through the classroom, which he took as yes.
“Good. Well, right now there are too many Oculithar, and not enough things killing them. This is causing issues with the way the soulforce resonates in the Portal Gallery. Well, it's more complicated than that, but it just means that all time dilation is weakening.”
More hammers went up, and he pointed at another.
“Can’t we kill them all? Wouldn’t that return the time dilation?”
Irwin blinked as he looked at one of the few Oxarites in the room, a man with red and silvery metallic hair that gleamed in the light, and a scar across his neck that disappeared in his tunic.
“If we could, it probably would,” he said. “But the problem is that they are hiding deep in the shadowrealm and some are bigger than all of Blackglass.”
The Oxarite’s eyes widened a fraction, and he swallowed.
“Ah…”
“Now,” Irwin continued. “The reason I am telling you all this is that you will be asked to not only reforge cards and make them if you can learn to create a cardseed, but also to occasionally fight. This could be against the Guidar’s forces or Oculithar, or something we don’t know yet. So. I know you were told you would be leaving Scour and have to unslot your cards, but I wanted to give you an honest picture. If anyone has second thoughts, now is the time to leave. I won’t think any less of you, but if you accept the cards, I expect you to be committed.”
Irwin stopped talking, looking around the room.
Some people showed no reactions, a few frowned, and a couple of hammers went up.
“Yes?” Irwin asked, pointing at young Crathan, who couldn’t have been over sixteen.
“We weren’t told anything about fighting,” the boy said slowly. “It sounds like a-” he stopped, frowned before continuing. “Is it smart to put cardsmiths in dangerous situations if there aren’t a lot of them?”
Irwin held back a grin. The kid had clearly wanted to say it sounded stupid.
“Not all cardsmiths are equal,” he said, taking a deep breath and letting a portion of his soulforce pressure ooze out.
The reaction was instant as everybody jolted upright, staring at him like he was a predator that had just appeared in their midst.
“Most cardsmiths never get in the position where they can have all the cards they need to reforge as much as they want,” he said, holding the pressure as he spoke. “However, some do. Those who do are among the few people in the Portal Gallery who have a shot at becoming truly powerful. After your first set of six cards, I have a second set. It will give you a hammer card, more body improvements, and a few handy skills. I will reforge your second heartcard if you can’t do it yourself by then. Then I’ll fill your lake again.”
Three hundred cardsmiths stared at him in disbelief, still barely able to move.
“With those two soulcards you will be instantly shoved among the strongest we have… not the strongest, because as you were told, none of these cards are above ruby-rank,” he continued. “But you will be very strong, even compared to many of the warriors. Better yet, after that, you can continue building on these two cards, and with the ability to earn more cards, you are likely going to keep growing. So, the reason you may be asked to fight is that you will be able to.”
He held the pressure for a few more seconds before letting it go.
“Questions?”
He hadn’t expected an instant reaction, but the Oxarite that had asked before immediately raised his hammer. His eyes were gleaming with a hunger that Irwin saw reflected in some others.
“Will you also teach us how to fight?”
“We don’t have the time for it here,” Irwin said. “But you will be taught fighting when you arrive at the Volcano Academy.”
The Oxarite lowered his hammer, and Irwin looked around.
“Now, this would be the moment to leave if you aren’t sure.”
He wasn’t surprised when a few people rose, including the younger Crathan, who had asked the question before.
“Good,” he said. “There will be someone waiting for you outside to explain that you need to keep the things you heard here to yourself for a few days.”
A minute later, twelve cardsmiths had left, which was fewer than he had expected.
“Now! Let’s begin,” he said. “Unslotting cards, especially your first one, is usually a very painful and dangerous thing to do. Which is why you are not allowed to do it on your own. Those with two cards who haven’t had them for longer than a year can unslot their last card; those with three who haven’t had them for longer than two years can unslot theirs. ”
He stepped back, knowing he was going to have a long day.
--
Irwin did his best to ignore the rapid injections of memories from the part of him that was on Scour as he walked up the pathway to Brazardian’s home.
The first few days had been almost impossible, the tension high even for his soulscape, but slowly he’d gotten used to the odd sense of feeling split apart and the massive influx of memories every night as he dreamt.
Now, a bit over a week after his other self had moved to Scour, he was feeling up to the questions Brazardian was bound to have.
“I really think we should go to the academy first,” Ambraz grunted from his shoulder. “You’ve been unable to do anything for weeks!”
“Just a bit over a week,” Irwin said, feeling a new memory settle like a bolt of lightning. He ignored it, knowing that if he gave it any attention, it would cause a stream to start and lock him down for a few hours.
“Fine, but I want to see how the others react to what we can do,” Ambraz grunted.
“I can’t reforge anything useful until my otherself is done on Scour,” Irwin said.
“Sure you can,” Ambraz muttered. “Not as good as you normally can, but it will still make them go all wide-eyed.”
“That can wait for a few weeks,” Irwin said, as he sensed Brazardian’s presence.
They walked into the chamber, and he noticed that the ceiling and the rock had been repaired since he was last there. Brazardian stood where he always did, a massive anvil across from the square, with a small chasm in between.
“I had expected you earlier. Is everything alright?” Brazardian rumbled.
“I needed some time to get used to having my clone in another time dilation and moving both,” Irwin said, interrupting an outburst from Ambraz.
‘Spoilsport,’ Ambraz grumbled.
“Tell me about Worldcards,” Brazardian rumbled.
Irwin rubbed his chin before he walked to a stone on the edge of the platform and sat down.
“Worldcards and worldskill are the next step beyond soulcards,” he said, before slowly explaining what they knew about them.
--
Brazardian listened quietly, trying to keep his mind as calm as possible.
He definitely brings it better than Am, he thought, keeping an eye on his progeny, who was flying around.
If Ambraz had explained things, he’d likely have been unable to keep himself as calm as he could now.
He kept his questions to the end, when Irwin finished, and even then, he only had a few.
“How long will it take till you become a worldcarded?”
He saw the cardsmith blink in surprise, probably having expected another question. He could guess which, and he had those, but this one was the most important right now.
“I need to get those cards I told you about. When I get them, I need to reforge them exactly right, which will be far more important than up till now. If I do get them, it will take a year or so to fill my soullake each time.”
“A year? That sounds like a long time after what you told me about how you can refill it by just reforging and having Chaos Whales in there,” Brazardian said, slightly confused.
“Ah, yeah… about that. My-”
“No, no! I’ve been quiet long enough. Let’s show him? Please?”
Brazardian snorted. “Am, you know it's not possible for someone to move me into their soulscape. Even if I would not resist, and someone somehow moved me in, their soulscape would shatter.”
As he spoke, he saw the cardsmith scratch his chin, glance at Ambraz, and then sigh.
“Fine. But only this one time.”
“Wait, don’t!” Brazardian called out, suddenly worried.
A moment later, he felt something enormous pull on him, ripping his resistances away, and then he was somewhere else. In a place he’d never been to before, with a soulforce resonance that wasn’t what he had thought of as normal for thousands of years.
“NO, send me back before your soulscape cracks!” he shouted, his voice echoing out across the vast landscape around him. Into the air, high above… over the sea…
“What… is that?” he said, staring out across the sea that seemed to go on endlessly.
“Welcome to my bond’s soulscape,” Ambraz said, landing beside him. “Make sure your soulforce resonance doesn’t change too much.”
Brazardian didn’t even know how to respond, because no matter what kind of soulforce there was here, that wouldn’t happen. Instead, he looked around, trying to understand what had happened. With all of the things he’d learned in the last weeks, he’d never expected that he would ever be anywhere but on Granvox. He’d only been ofworld in his younger years, then somewhere before turning seven hundred, he’d returned to never leave again. A long time…. But also ages ago.
He probed carefully, so as not to break anything, but the structure of the soulforce resonance remained the same.
Irwin stood beside him, looking at him as if he were worried.
“Are you alright?”
Brazardian let out an explosive breath.
“I should be asking you that. How is that even a soullake?” he asked, before thinking of something. “Can I fly around, or…?”
“You can fly around. I’ve got a few Chaos Whales in here that are a larger burden than you are.”
Brazardian laughed softly.
A few Chaos Whales… as if it's the most normal thing.
He focused on himself, shrinking to the smallest size he could comfortably be, which was still much larger than lower-ranked Ganvils, and then flew up.
The world below him began to expand, the sea still endless, while mountains stretched across the horizon. He had to go much further till he finally saw the barrier in the distance and actually believed what he was seeing.
“This is really a soulscape,” he said, causing a burst of laughter from Ambraz.
“That’s what I told you.”
Brazardian sped up, quickly outpacing Ambraz, who began grunting until Irwin picked him up and moved beside Brazardian.
“You can move me and the others to another world…” Brazardian said. “If it's needed.”
“Yes, but any world you are brought to will become unstable because of your soulforce resonance,” Irwin said. “Unless you know a way to change your soulforce resonance?”
Brazardian almost asked if he didn’t already, with all the things he’d been doing and showing since arriving.
He didn’t, though, and instead shook his head.
“There would have been a way if my bonded cardsmith were still alive,” he said.
“I knew it!” Ambraz shouted, startling Brazardian.
“I… what?” he asked, looking at his progeny, not sure what he should expect.
“I told you I was forgetting something important,” Ambraz shouted, seemingly not even paying attention to him. “Hah, kid! I wish you could record the way his soulforce resonance is going to move in a moment.”
Brazardian slowed down. If this had been any other time or place, he would have expected nothing, but now…
What now?
“Uh, I think we should land first,” Irwin said.
“Oh, come on! He won’t break from falling from this height,” Ambraz said.
Brazardian let out a weary sigh as he shot down, heading for a flat area on a mountainside. When he landed, he heard Ambraz mutter in annoyance, which he ignored.
“I don’t even know if I should ask, but… what else did you two find out?” he asked.
“Oh, not much,” Ambraz said. “Hou'dor rebonded, and is going to become rank six in a few more years.”
Brazardian opened his mouth, but no words came out. He closed it with a snap, trying to understand what he’d just heard.
“You are telling me that you found a way for Ganvils to rebond?” he finally asked, feeling something that he’d buried deep below many ages ago, shift.
“Yes, all you have to do is crack your own soulforce resonance,” Ambraz said, his voice soft.
“Are you crazy?! That will get you destroyed,” Brazardian roared.
Had Ambraz finally gone insane?
“It would if you don’t find a smith who creates enough purified soulforce while reforging,” Ambraz said calmly, sounding as smug as before. “That’s why it only works with Galadin smiths. Well… I guess it should work with Crathan smiths, too. Kid?”
Brazardian barely heard the cardsmiths response of acknowledgement as he tried to grasp having to shatter his entire foundation. Each rank up made it stronger, and the process of shattering it harder and with more risk. Beyond three, it was never done as it was suicide. At five, it should have been impossible.
“I don’t think that will work for me,” he muttered. “I’m rank seven, and although Irwin might be able to create enough purified soulforce, I doubt anyone else can… Unless..”
He felt like pieces of a puzzle began sliding together. Galadin, Chaos Whale cards, and sets of cards to create incredibly powerful cardsmiths.
“It still might not work,” Irwin said, sitting down beside him.
“Maybe,” Brazardian agreed, as he felt a desire that he’d not felt for thousands of years rear its head.
But that doesn’t mean I’ll not try, he thought, as he imagined what all that meant. He’d have to start again, but he would be able to perhaps bond to a smith that became a worldcarded, no longer locked to a single world. Even if he was, he could go to a rank-six world with Ambraz…
He heard Ambraz and Irwin speak, but he barely noticed as he began pondering what he would have to do.
Need to make sure not to forget telling them about the librarians, a tiny part of him thought.