Author note: So, somewhere during the 8e of this month I'll have an interview with PopPop61 who talks about books - mostly LitRPG. He's had some big names there, and I never did something like that ;) So, anyway, I think its live so I'll see if I can get a link + some explanation on how to get there beforehand for any of you who wants to show up. It should be 21:00 CET.
Still can’t believe how big it is, Irwin thought, as he looked at the enormous tower next to Blackglass.
The Shipwright Guild Tower had been built over the years he was away, and although it was separated from the Crathan empire’s capital, that situation clearly wouldn’t last forever.
He glanced at a long, narrow barge loaded with raw ore, Degnin Iron, likely meant for simple and small decorative items. It had stopped in front of one of the buildings that had been built along the road, one with a sign indicating it was a smithy specializing in non-card reforging.
The other buildings between the Shipwright Tower and the city were either large warehouses—which looked like the work of a stonemason with sprawling structures—or a couple of woodworking shops. Beyond them, the start of multiple other buildings was clearly visible, and by his guess, in a few years, the road would be lined with buildings from the city gates to the tower’s entrance.
The tower itself was like a small city. The bottom half was large enough to house tens of thousands of people, while ten layers of docks rose up to circle it. The lowest layer began roughly forty feet above the ground, while the highest was about four hundred feet up. Attached to the docks and flying around were hundreds of ships. Most looked to be transport sloops, hauling materials or personnel to different parts of the tower.
Near the highest dock lay the Caldera, big but not the largest. That honor went to an unfinished hull that dwarfed everything around it, including the tower.
Irwin’s gaze landed on that, and he shook his head. It was a ship that defied all common sense. Even unfinished, the hull was close to ten times as large as the Caldera, with high railings and a door that led into a back cabin meant for a giant.
She’s crazy, Irwin thought, recalling when he’d first seen the beginning of the hull.
According to Rindiri, it would become a ship capable of carrying his giantselves across the portal gallery. Well, as long as he remained in the main branches. There was no way anything of this size would be able to navigate the connecting branches. Not that Rindiri seemed to worry. She was having runes worked into the wood that would allow for a shield powerful enough to withstand even the storms beyond the barriers… at least, as long as there was someone powerful enough to provide them with soulforce.
A shame it won’t be finished in time, Irwin thought.
“I bought a few stretches of land on both sides, near the tower.”
Irwin ripped his gaze from the enormous ship and looked at Daubutim in surprise.
“Why? Are you planning on returning here?” he asked.
“No. I’ve spoken with some of the older body-double haulers that move things from Eluathar here, and they are willing to help me create a new Guild,” Daubutim said quietly. “I haven’t thought of a name yet, but it will be one that moves people and things between worlds without needing to travel the Portal Gallery. I’ll make it an official part of Eluathar’s Council of Guilds.”
“Like a teleporter guild?” Irwin asked curiously.
“A bit, but it's not really teleporting. Perhaps I’ll simply call it the Movers Guild. Either way, together with the others, it should provide Eluathar with enough income after both of us are gone,” Daubutim said.
“After we are gone?” Irwin asked in surprise.
“Yes. If we want Eluathar to survive the things that even the Galladin Empire didn’t, we need to make sure it has the ability to continue expanding and enlarging its forces. They will need soulshards for that, and we can’t just assume the Cardsmiths Guild will be able to provide enough by itself.”
Irwin stared at his friend in slight confusion. Daubutim had been immensely busy since they had arrived on Scour, far more than even recruiting an army’s worth of Crathans could explain. Was this what he’d been doing beyond that?
“You do remember that unless we get killed, we will live for thousands of years?” he said, knowing that was a grave understatement in his own case but ignoring that for now. He grinned at the idea of Daubutim forgetting anything. “Even without being a Crathan, you will live upward of two thousand years.”
“If we don’t get killed, yes,” Daubutim said. “But I am not planning on remaining the leader of our people for that long. By my estimate, the war against the Guidar will last between a few hundred years and end in a stalemate after which the Council of Guilds and Cities will take over.”
“A stalemate?” Irwin exclaimed, turning to look at his friend, his surprise and confusion growing to disbelief.
“The time dilation has slowed, and will slow even more,” Daubutim said, staring ahead, his eyes swirling rapidly. “Even with our plans to use Exarg’s world at our advantage, we will lose the ability to even remotely catch up to the scope of the Guidar’s empire. We will be able to offset some of the difference because of you and the other cardsmiths, but not nearly enough.”
Irwin frowned while Daubutim continued.
“Now, to fully win this war, one side would need to kill off the other side. Even if we were the same size as them, the Guidar tried for over ten thousand years to wipe out the Galadin. They have an empire that spans dozens of main branches, likely hundreds or even thousands of worlds, and they still failed.”
Irwin stared at his friend, realizing that what Daubutim said made sense. He had been so stuck on surviving the war, saving the Langost Branch, that he hadn’t really thought about how to actually completely end the war. A part of him had pictured just finding and killing the Guidar, a bit like what the Sjaidin had planned, but how would that even work?
“So?” he asked. “What do you expect will happen?”
“The most likely outcome is that your plan succeeds. We will clear the Langost branch from Chained, then lock down all entrances as the worlds and harbors try to rebuild. After that, we will expand our reach to the adjacent branches, but due to the size of those, it will take a long time. At some point, the Guidar will send more forces to stop us, if those aren’t on the way already.”
“What if we free all the Chained?” Irwin said, frowning.
“Even if you free all of them on our branch, recall what Ubral and Zeit told us. Only a relatively small force was sent here, but the Guidar will undoubtedly figure out you are unchaining their forces and find some way to counter that. The only way this would work would be if you could expand your influence across an entire main branch and unchain all of their forces en masse…”
Daubutim cocked his head as if he suddenly thought of something. “Could you?”
An entire main branch? Irwin thought, somewhat stunned.
He pictured the size of the branch around Eluathar, one of the largest single branches he’d seen, and instantly knew the answer. Even if he became a thousand times more powerful as a worldcarded, he might only be able to spread his aura across a single branch. But an entire main branch like the Langost Branch? Even just the distance between them would be too much.
Daubutim must have seen the answer on his face and merely looked back in the direction of the tower.
There has to be a way to end this war, Irwin thought, as he imagined a war that would end in a stalemate.
They continued on in silence, a part of Irwin wondering why they were suddenly talking about this. The bigger part of him, however, was trying to resist the idea of a forever-war.
“What if I create cardsets for shadow assassins similar to the Shaidin?” he asked.
“To hunt them? We can potentially destroy the current Guidar leadership, and we should attempt it, just like they will do with us as soon as they find out just how dangerous you really are,” Daubutim said, seeming unsurprised by the suggestion. “Irwin, the problem is scope. To travel the known Portal Gallery takes many years, even with skipping parts by teleporting. Worse, the ends of neither their part nor ours have yet to be found. If we manage to attack their leadership, the Guidar will spread and splinter apart, hiding as our ancestors did. Now, it’s not impossible to wipe them all out… just highly unlikely.”
“Wait? So, how would we do that?” Irwin asked.
“There are two ways I can imagine, and I don’t think we are capable of either. Create a disease or curse similar to what they did, but one specific to Guidar, and somehow have it infect them. It would have to have a hundred percent infection rate, incredibly slow to act, undetectable until it was too late, and lethal,” Daubutim said. “Now, I know there are rare cards that allow the creation of diseases, but I have already researched types, and none work. Worse, those that are the best would infect all living things…”
Irwin grimaced at that, then shook his head. “I know of some of those disease cards, and they are either lethal and fast, or inconvenient and slow.”
“Exactly,” Daubutim said. “Now, the second option is even more difficult, as it requires us to create tens of thousands of free-roaming worldcarded.”
“What?” Irwin blurted. “Wouldn’t twenty or so not be enough? Yilda, on her own, locked them to this Portal Web and worried them immensely. Why would we need that many?”
As he said that, he knew that even if it were only twenty, the chances of that happening were tiny. He wasn’t even a hundred percent sure if he could become a free-roaming worldcarded yet, and he had cards that he would likely never be able to recreate. Who knew how long it would take for more to appear?
And normal worldcarded aren’t going to help, he thought.
“I understand why it's so confusing,” Daubutim said with a weary sigh. “It always comes back to the scope of the Portal Gallery. Add to this, according to the Shaidin, that the Guidar leadership is always spread out, and if we destroy one part of it, they will quickly create a new one.”
Daubutim and Irwin fell quiet for a moment as they gave way to a group of haulers carrying sixty-foot logs from the forests of volcano-trees on the other side of the city.
“Also, they live too long,” Daubutim said, his voice low. “What would happen if we hid somewhere and went into some form of hibernation for a hundred thousand years, or a million. When they resurface, who will stop them?”
Irwin didn’t respond, knowing that in his case he might still be alive by then. The mere thought of such a long period of time made him shiver. He’d been expecting a short walk and a chat with Daubutim about how many Crathan’s he’d been able to find that would be moving to Eluathar. Instead, they had suddenly been discussing what might happen even if they managed to reclaim and defend the Langost branch. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been planning ahead, just… not this far. Daubutim, however, had, and he’d come to some conclusions he didn’t like at all.
“There has to be a way to end this war permanently,” he said, thinking about his children. He wanted them to be able to explore the Portal Gallery without having to deal with the Chained Fleet.
“Just the full scale one,” Daubutim said, before sighing out. “Remember, this is based on what I can come up with. There might be ways to end this permanently. If I could get into the Library and get my hands on the information there, I might be able to find out something. Perhaps there’s a way to have our Portal Gallery somehow reject the Guidar. From all we have learned, they aren’t native but are from another Portal Web.”
Irwin nodded as he thought about the Library. He’d never been there, but between Gelwin’s warning and the things his otherself on Granvox had found, going there was a bad idea.
“So, what is the best case you see now?” he asked, wearily.
“You become a worldcarded before they realize how close you are. At the same time, we either free or kill the Chained in the Langost Branch. Then we free the Tweelak branch, which has a much larger population than ours, and spread the knowledge of creating cardseeds. Then we spread out as fast as we can, hopefully before the Guidar realizes what is happening. We also spread body-double movers, or shadow teleporters, if we have those by then. We continue this until we grow large enough to make it impossible for the Guidar to breach through. We don’t need to become the same size as them, because we will have more powerful warriors. Add to this, a superior way to transport fleets and worldcarded, and eventually they will stop bothering with us.”
Irwin took a deep breath. “The best case you see is us being able to defend ourselves until they leave us alone because we are too much of a headache?”
“Realistically? Yes,” Daubutim said. “We still need a lot of things to go right for that, and it's possible they already sent a massive fleet here to wipe us out after the death of Slaudi. If that’s true, you might have to move everyone into your soulscape and flee.”
Irwin shivered as he pictured having to bring as many people as he could into his soulscape and flee. As big as his soulscape was, it wasn’t the size of a world yet, meaning he wouldn’t be able to bring everyone.
Seeing the tower entrance a few hundred feet away, he clenched his hands.
“We need to figure out a better way,” he said. “Perhaps we can spread the knowledge of cardseeds to the central branches.”
“Even if you do that, and even if they could, it's unlikely they will come here to save us from the Guidar,” Daubutim said.
Irwin’s hands clenched harder, the sound of metal screeching across metal causing a Crathan hauler to look around in confusion.
Is this why Yilda vanished? he thought. Did she try to defeat the Guidar only to figure out it was impossible?
“Now, don’t worry too much,” Daubutim said. “Things could have been far worse, and if we really have to, there’s one place we can flee that the Guidar can never reach.”
It took Irwin a few seconds to realize what he meant.
“Through a World Portal.”
“Exactly,” Daubutim said. “It’s a final solution, because we have no idea where we will end up, and things could be far worse than where we are now.”
Irwin didn’t respond, but nodded at two guards to the side of the tower entrance.
“Guildmaster Irwin,” one of the two said, bowing his head slightly. “Guildmistress Rindiri is waiting for you on the top floor. If you move to the furthest staircase, there’s a ship waiting to carry you and Lord Daubutim there.”
“Thank you,” Irwin said, walking into the tower.
Let’s hope Rindiri has better news, he thought.
--
Irwin walked through Blackglass hours later, his head throbbing painfully from all of the things Rindiri and Daubutim had told him, or asked him. Most information had to do with ship numbers, sizes, crews, while he was asked questions about the number of Ganvils they could reliably expect to boost shields and how many people would be allowed on Exarg’s gas giant.
Hours of synchronizing with his otherself just to get a few answers had eventually worn him out, and he was glad when they said they would handle the rest themselves.
He rubbed his head as he reached the square that bordered Flowrishin’s estate, a surprisingly small area with an older building. The metal-engraved, double doors were open, showing a small garden with beautiful plants strewn around, adjacent to a smithy that seemed ancient. Vines crept up the walls, covering the roof, while a thick layer of yellowish glowing moss grew along a permanent shadow-side. Not that there were shadows, as it was the middle of the night.
If she hadn’t told Irwin she didn’t really sleep anymore, he wouldn’t have shown up at this time. As it was, he sensed her soulforce signature within the forge area, the swirling soulforce around her showing she was busy reforging something.
He walked across the pale golden grass and into the smithy, and instantly the heavy thuds of a hammer striking her Ganvil, Klei’am, echoed around him.
Flowrishin stood beside a dormant smithy, striking a yellow-bordered Topaz card.
“I’ll be done in a minute,” Flowrishin said, not taking her hands away from the card.
Irwin saw a small bench on the far end of the smithy that seemed to beckon him to finally sit down. As he sat down carefully, he felt the almost too solid wood barely give below him, and leaning against the wall, he sighed. He watched Flowrishin continue reforging for a while, but soon his mind wandered off to the discussion he’d had with Daubutim.
There has to be another way to end this war…
His mind continued spinning until a barked laugh made him look up.
“See? Even the Guildmaster falls asleep sometimes,” Klei’am said. “I told you it's not because you are old.”
“Bah, he is probably just pondering how to improve my reforging,” Flowrishin said, shaking her head as she grabbed the card from the Ganvil’s surface. “I am old.”
“No, you are not,” Klei’am said. “I’m sure there’s plenty of really old Viridians around the Portal Gallery, and there’s really ancient Ganvils, according to father.”
Irwin laughed, trying to hold back as he heard Klei’am call Ambraz father again. Of all the Ganvils he knew, Ambraz’s odd rank zero was the only one to ever do that, with the rest using Proginator or just names. He also knew that Ambraz wasn’t at all happy with that. Between that and the two still bickering about age, he felt the remainder of his headache fade away.
“So,” he said, pushing himself up and walking to Flowrishin. “Is this one based on your newest cardseed?”
“It is,” Flowrishin said, handing him the now Emerald-ranked card.
Irwin looked at it, noticing a faint image of what looked like a tiny tree with legs.
A summon?! he thought, eyebrows raising.
He unleashed his soulforce senses, focusing them on the card, and he almost dropped it in shock.
“Ha! Told you he would be shocked,” Klei’am said. “If you had found me before he found Ambraz, I’m sure we would have been the ones to discover cardseeds.”
Flowrishin ignored Klei’am, smiling at Irwin. Her barkskin was still as smooth as the last time he saw her, and he could barely recall how old she’d looked when he first met her.
“It’s cursed,” Irwin said, staring at the card in confusion.
“That it is,” Flowrishin agreed.
Irwin focused on the card, trying to get more information from it. Without Ambraz, he wouldn’t be able to get the exact explanation, but his own senses were more than good enough to get a general reading of nearly any card.
“It’s some type of tree summon,” he said, before sensing a familiar thing that made his eyebrows shoot up again. “With teleportation abilities?”
“Yes, though not like they usually are,” Flowrishin said as she took the card back and held it up. “The curse you saw is an odd one. In exchange for being able to do something most handcards can’t do, it causes the one who has slotted it to slowly turn more plant or tree-like. To a Viridian, this is barely an inconvenience, as the two people who have slotted one of my cards only gained some vines in their leaf-hair, and the ability to grow tiny roots from their feet to suck up nutrients. However, the Oxarite who bought one had to unslot it within a few hours, as his entire physique began to change. Unslotting also didn’t undo the changes, and he now has to leave with both metallic leafy protrusions from his head, and parts of his skin that have turned into a metallic type of bark and are too rigid to move and have no sense of touch left.”
Irwin frowned as he stared at the card, pondering for a moment.
“Interesting. Usually, cards that change the body that much work fast, and people don’t get a chance to wake up and unslot them. The Crathan cards work like that. That it doesn’t revert the changes is normal, as far as I know,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Though I wonder what would have happened if he’d kept it slotted. I would expect him to eventually stabilize… but it might be different because it's cursed.”
“It is,” Klei’am said. “I might not be as good at reading cards as Father, but I can tell you that it would have continued until he had turned into a metallic tree-like being that was unable to move. From what I have been able to gather, slotting it requires someone to already have a vegetation-like body.”
“So, a card that changes them into a Viridian and then this one,” Irwin pondered. “So, how does the teleport element work?”
“Well, it depends on how I reforge the cardseed, but the wielder gets the ability to summon a variation of a Tiny Treeling,” Flowrishin said as a stack of cards appeared in her hand. “Each of those gains the ability to bind to two or more trees, allowing them to be connected to each other. Then, the wielder can move from one tree to another. It's not unlike a famous Viridian card, but that one is incredibly rare to the point that there are usually only a few known wielders of one.”
“Is there any range limit?” Irwin asked, instantly curious.
“Yes, but with all reforges it becomes stronger,” Flowrishin said. “Even the worst I made at its lowest rank, topaz, was to teleport across an entire world. According to Klei, the best we have should allow teleportation from one main branch to another.”
“What do you mean, according to Klei?” Klei’am muttered. “It’s definitely like that, but only for the wielder.”
“Someone can just bring others by moving them into their soulscape, right?” Irwin asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes, if someone has multiple bodies and the ability to actually keep others there,” Klei’am agreed.
Irwin hummed. “Why multiple bodies?” he asked, though he had an idea what the answer would be.
“With one body, the soulscape seems fully attached to it somehow,” Klei’am said, sounding excited. “But as soon as someone gets a body double or clone card, something happens to the soulscape. It’s as if-”
“As if it's hovering in between the two,” Irwin said.
“Exactly!”
Irwin stared at the cards, pondering.
It might not work well for metal or fire elementals, he thought. But what about humans… The Galadin on Eluathar might not have the same problem. Besides…”
“You have three other plant-based cardseeds,” he said, looking at Flowrishin. “Reaching Vines, Falling Leaves, and Dewdrop Leaf, right?”
“Yes,” Flowrishin agreed. “Why?”
“How many did you make of those, and do any change someone to be more plantlike?”
“All three give slight changes,” she said, while waving at a nearby table. Stacks of cards appeared on it, a few, then more, until the entire table was filled with stacks of precariously wobbling cards. “I made a couple of each…”
“A couple,” Irwin muttered, suddenly realizing how others must feel when he pulled similar stunts. Although he’d made far more, he hadn’t expected this. He ignored the odd sensation and walked to the table, picked up a stack, and flicked through it quickly.
“Most are topaz, with about one in twenty emerald, and one in a hundred ruby-rank,” Flowrishin said as she moved to stand beside him. “These are the ones for you.”
Irwin had been surprised before, but now he just stared at the cards, then at Flowrishin in bewilderment.
“What?”
“Your otherself is on Granvox, right?”
“Yes?”
“And you will go to other worlds there to clear out the chained?”
“Yes…?”
“Please bring these these to Suderfuix.”
Irwin stared at the cards, then at Flowrishin. He had been planning to go to Igniz, and after that, head back south to the world Brazardian had suggested.
“I can, but why?” he asked slowly.
“I would like you to give them to the Viridians there, along with enough body double cards,” Flowrishin said slowly. “I’ve thought about your plan, and I think we can help and that this is the best way. There are many powerful Viridian warriors both here and across our worlds."