Author note: Book 4 is out on Amazon as you probably saw! If any of you have kindle unlimited I would definitely give it a read there as its definitely going to help me and also show you the many things that changed :) Any reviews are also incredibly welcome! https://www.amazon.com/en/dp/B0FBN8C3YQ
Irwin followed Bronwyn through the harbor city of Treanba, cracking his neck, which was slightly stiff. He could sense the soulcarded teleporter behind them vanish, causing a ripple in the ambient soulforce. The man had been unwilling to move any closer to the center of the city because his specific teleportation skill didn’t work well with crowds of people. Still, with Bronwyn’s teleporters all on missions far away, they had to rely on the Teleporter Guild, and this had been the only one able to move them at short notice.
At least this way I get a chance to see the city, Irwin thought, using his soulforce senses to locate his mother.
“So, no idea when Scintilla will wake up?” Bronwyn asked.
“No, which is why I’m returning as soon as we fix things here,” Irwin said. “Still, I don’t expect her to wake up till tonight.”
As he said that, Irwin reached out to Ambraz.
‘No change?’ he asked his bond, who had remained behind to keep an eye on things.
‘She’s still asleep,’ the Ganvil said. ‘Also, there were a few people at the gate asking if you would be filling up any more soullakes. I told them that if you would, it wouldn’t be this week. Worse, I can already feel more people meandering forward. What should I tell them?’
Irwin hummed thoughtfully. He hadn’t planned on doing this consistently, but perhaps he should. He was going to be traveling around with his otherself a lot, and that meant he’d barely have time to reforge anywhere but here. Might just as well combine that with something useful, like boosting as many people to a higher rank.
‘Tell them I’ll be doing it again, but not every day,’ he said. ‘I need to determine how and when, but probably one day a week or something.’
‘Well, if you are doing that, we should definitely combine it with some experimental reforging,’ Ambraz said, before letting out an annoyed groan. ‘There’s more at the door. Good luck with your mother.’
Irwin felt Ambraz’s attention focus on something else, and he found Bronwyn looking at him curiously.
“Ambraz. He told me there are people asking if I will fill more lakes,” Irwin said.
Bronwyn nodded slowly, pulling his beard for a moment. “Will you?”
“Yes, just don’t know when yet,” Irwin said.
“How about you let me come up with that?” Bronwyn said. “I have some ideas.”
“Okay, just no more than once a week,” Irwin said.
Bronwyn kept pulling on the side of his beard. “Do you mind if I use those moments to also bring some of the rangers, guards, and shadewalkers?”
Irwin shrugged. “I don’t mind, just make sure not to only send those. Also, don’t send more than fifty people, or their soullakes won’t be full.”
“What about heartcards?” Bronwyn asked, sounding excited. “As soon as those other cardsmiths return from Exarg, we are going to have a lot of ways to fill soullakes suddenly, and that means the biggest bottleneck will be heartcards.”
“I can make a few per week,” Irwin said as he pondered for a moment. “Depending on the rank, I can create two diamond-ranked or three ruby-ranked cards in a day.”
He knew he could probably do more, but at that rank, it meant he would need to be fully present to do the reforging, and he couldn’t be sure his otherself wasn’t doing something important at the moment.
“I’m not sure if that's a lot or little,” Bronwyn muttered, frowning. “What about the other cardsmiths, like Trimdir? Right now, the Academy is reforging roughly one heartcard per day, sometimes two if they are topaz-ranked.”
“It depends on the types of handcards,” Irwin said. “The problem is that it costs both soulforce and concentration to create a heartcard.”
They fell quiet for a moment as they walked past a group of young men and women, chatting excitedly.
“-to the southern forest towns. I’m telling you, you can get a small house with all you need for just twenty-six soulcards,” a young girl said, sounding annoyed.
“And I told you that means leaving Treanba, and losing the chance to get better cards,” another said, shaking her head. “Why not just wait till they expand beyond the third wall or ask for new settlers for Segrin Island?”
“What? Are you crazy?” a young man exclaimed. “Why would you want to go there? There are supposedly unknown monsters and beasts there.”
“So? They might drop a card!” the second girl said.
“No, they won’t, the first snapped. Didn’t you pay attention during class at all? Eluathar is way too stable for that. It's a good thing cards still come from outside, and that the Volcano Academy somehow seems to get new ones, or we would never be able to get, and-”
The group walked around a corner, and Bronwyn snorted.
“They have no idea how right they are,” he said. “If you hadn’t figured out how to make those cardseeds, we’d be in trouble. Which reminds me, you said Flowrishin is able to create different ones from you, right? Is she going to move here in the future? We could really use more vegetation, water, and air-typed cards. Those we have all lack the shaping abilities, and the treeshapers have been grumbling for a while now.”
Irwin hummed as he scanned his massive collection of cards, knowing only a dangerously small section actually dealt with anything that wasn’t fire, heat, or metal.
I need to figure out how to make a cardseed based on my steam, he thought. Especially if I might lose that part in the future when I get a worldcard.
“I think so,” he said, humming thoughtfully. “What about the cards I gave you? Are those all used up, or…?”
“No, I have some left,” Bronwyn said, sighing softly. “But not for long, and I’m mainly holding in reserve. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, but our numbers are just growing too fast. Especially in the towns, you will find that there are twice as many children under ten as adults, and it's only increasing. This is good because it means more people, and we need those, but… well, we need more cardsmiths that can make cardseeds. I know what you told me, and how difficult it is, but if there are a thousand children born a day, but we only get ten or twenty new cards per day…”
Irwin frowned.
“What about the cards that drop on that insect world? Ciarog?”
Bronwyn barked a laugh. “The drop rate is about one in a thousand, and we have cleared out a safe zone around the portal. Hunting further inland in that jungle is just too dangerous for most groups, and it will take years for the city around the exit portal to be big enough to give us the foothold we need. Decades, even if those things keep attacking.”
Irwin frowned as he thought about the enormous number of cards he still had.
“I’ll share some more cards with you, which should help for a while,” he said. “The Crathan Smiths will arrive tomorrow, and from what I’ve seen, most of the three hundred can make at least one type of cardseed. The issue is that most of those are nearly identical, and many cause body-changing effects.”
“Three hundred? That’s great,” Bronwyn said, eyes widening. “Are you going to send more cardsmiths there, or…?”
“Yes, but to go there, they need to be either Crathans or nearly as strong,” Irwin said. “Trimdir has found some cardsmiths that are willing to do that, and we are also going to have some with the right body doubles use this to be able to go there, but we are probably going to only get a few more attempts. Exarg said the time dilation is slowing exponentially.”
Bronwyn was about to answer when they walked out of the street and onto the square that bordered Daubutim’s manor, and stopped. In front of them was a sprawling, busy market. People were shouting out prices, mostly for low amounts of soulshards, while thousands milled around.
“It’s really getting busy here ever since they are allowing people to sail around and find new lands,” Bronwyn muttered.
The two of them stopped talking, and as they walked forward, they caused a slight ripple as many people stepped out of the way.
Irwin scanned ahead, sensing his mother in the building, together with a few other soulforce signatures.
“Stop frowning,” Bronwyn said, glancing at his brother. “I’m sure it will be fine.”
Irwin sniffed to show what he thought of that, only to get a nose-full of something spicy that made his stomach rumble. Eyebrows up, he looked around and across the heads until he saw a small wagon with an open side, parallel to the path they were moving through. Two Ignitzians stood in the front, smiling widely as they helped people, while an older woman stood in the back. A trickle of smoke came from the back of the wagon.
“I didn’t eat yet,” he said, ignoring his brother's snorted laughter.
“Well, I guess we can’t see Mom with a rumbling stomach,” Bronwyn muttered, following him.
I wonder how they are able to live so comfortably in this cold, Irwin thought as he watched the two smiling Ignitzians help the customers.
It took only a few moments for them to get to the front of the line, and Irwin saw the Ignitzian’s eyes widen as she saw him.
“Important clients,” she said, smiling widely. “What would you like?”
Irwin looked at the pictures and texts on the wooden panel behind her, noticing that most dealt with local and Giardian cooking. The two Ignitzian dishes that were there were both barely hot or spicy.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any Cindering Stew or Volcano Bread?”
Two Ignitzians suddenly focused fully on him, while Irwin saw the older woman behind them look up in surprise.
“We might have a bit left, but probably not enough for someone of your size,” one of the Ignitzians said slowly. “But if you want to, we can make you some Cindering Stew, and it would be ready in an hour or two.”
Irwin examined the options that were there, thought about Scintilla waking up later, and the need for food for him and the children, and made a decision.
“Can you get me enough for ten people?”
“I…” the Ignitzians shared a look, but before they could say something, the older woman spoke up.
“I can, but I’m going to have to ask you to pay in advance, my lord,” she said.
As she spoke, a trail of smoke trickled from between her lips, while her eyes seemed to burn from the inside like tiny embers.
Body changing card, Irwin thought, wondering what kind she had. He could sense that it was atleast Topaz-ranked, which was surprisingly high for a cook.
“How much would it be, including three portions of Leafwrapped Charbull?” he asked, deciding he would need something to eat now.
“Seven shards should do,” the older woman said, before hesitating as she examined him. “Or a topaz-ranked card…?”
Irwin blinked at the request, noticing the suddenly stunned surprise of both the Ignitzians and some of the people nearby. Scanning her again, he sensed the woman had a single handslot free.
“What kind of card are you looking for?” he asked, curious both why she actually asked for something like that, which was worth way more than seven shards, and what she wanted.
“A smoke card that allows me to control the smoke,” the woman said, eyes glistening hopefully. “Also, if you have one, it will allow me to cook several special Ignitzian dishes that I can’t right now. In exchange, I’m willing to make you anything you need for the next year!”
Anything? Irwin thought, hearing the snort from his brother.
“She’s right, my lord,” one of the Ignitzians said quickly. “There’s nobody on Eluathar right now who has all the skills needed to make any of the Darksmoked Grill recipes, and if you like spicy…”
Irwin had just been ready to hand over the soulshards when she spoke, and his stomach rumbled loud enough to be heard a hundred feet away.
Darksmoked Grill….
He scanned his library, already knowing he had dozens of cards that dealt with smoke. After a slight hesitation, he summoned one and held it up.
“We can do that, but I’ll need some guarantee that you don’t just run.”
“Run from Irwin Roddington?” the old woman asked, raising an eyebrow.
The people around them fell quiet suddenly before they began whispering excitedly.
“I don’t think that's a very safe thing to do,” the old woman continued.
But you still want me to pay you in advance, Irwin thought, his lips curling up.
“How about this?” he said, holding out seven soulforce shards. “I can pay you in shards in advance, or you can get the card after I get the food later today.”
“The card,” the woman said instantly, eyes glistening. “When will you return?”
Irwin cocked his head, realizing he might have done exactly what she’d expected.
“Probably in two or three hours,” he said, hoping that whatever he had to do would be done by then.
“I’ll have it done in two hours,” the woman said, giving him a quick nod. “Thank you. I’m sure all Ignitzians in Treanba will be thanking you for a long time!”
“Definitely,” one of the Ignitzians said, her eyes gleaming. “I haven’t had anything Darksmoked in over forty years!”
The other was quickly wrapping up some other things before handing a package of steaming wraps to Irwin. He smiled and was about to leave when Bronwyn cleared his throat.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I’d also like something…”
The Ignitzians glanced at the four portions of meat in Irwin’s hands, then quickly focused on Bronwyn.
“Of course! What would you like?”
A few minutes later, Irwin and Bronwyn walked towards the gate, both chewing on a wrap.
“You seriously just bought food for a topaz-ranked card,” Bronwyn said around a mouthful of Charbull Meat.
As Irwin bit down on his own, he realized it was about time that he found some charbulls to move into his soulscape so he could create soulforce constructs out of them.
And some birds, and other things, he decided as he hummed, letting Bronwyn talk with the guards who asked them what they were there for.
He finished his last bite just as they walked into a large room where he saw his mother, Lady Lisbeth Coulwater, and her and Daubutim’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Ludica. The girl, or young woman, was wearing the leather armor of a ranger, talking with her mother while his own mother, Esmee, was looking at him and Bronwyn entered. Her eyes instantly narrowed, and she crossed her arms.
“Mother,” Bronwyn said. “How are you? Is our sister fine?”
“Bronwyn, I told you, I don’t know if it's a boy or a girl yet,” Esmee said, though her narrowed eyes turned soft as she put a hand on her stomach.
“Now, don’t try to distract me. I’ve just had to explain to a dozen scared people that the wave of soulforce that locked down half of the mansion was not some dangerous unknown enemy, but just one of my sons being curious. Please tell me that I was right?”
“You are right,” Irwin said, spreading his soulforce senses outward and finding a room nearby with two dozen people. “I take it those are the people over there, and they would like to ask some questions?”
“Yes,” Lysbeth said, sighing. “I’m glad to hear Esmee was right, though it does make me wonder… exactly what did you do?”
“I spread my soulforce senses to see how Mother was doing,” Irwin said. “But to get this far, I had to boost it with my Aura. I hadn’t expected this to do what it did.”
“So, just by looking, you cause everyone with less than a few handcards to faint, and anyone below a soulcard to be frozen in place,” Lysbeth said, cocking her head and pulling her own ear, as she thought. “I take it Daubutim knows you can do this?”
Irwin hesitated, then shrugged. “He knows part of what I can do with my Aura, but even I didn’t know exactly what would happen in this case.”
“Then you should probably tell him,” Lysbeth said, leaning back. “On that matter, did he say when he would return?”
“He is currently in the harbor, setting up the new fleet and talking with Basil,” Irwin said.
Lysbeth nodded, while her daughter, Ludica, put her hands on her hips.
“Mother, can I go to the-”
“No,” Lysbeth said. “You need to show you can move through the second level of the Shadow Gauntlet first. If you can do that, I’ll let you go to the Harbor.”
“Wait, if I succeed, I can go to Father?” Ludica asked, locking eyes with her mother.
“Of course.”
Ludica continued looking at her mother for a few more moments before turning on her heels and rushing for the door.
“Nice to see you, Uncle Irwin, Uncle Bronwyn,” she shouted as she ran past them, leaving the door open as she vanished into the shadows.
“Shadow Gauntlet?” Irwin asked curiously, wondering what it was. He didn’t recall Greldo mentioning it, but then again, Lysbeth had largely taken over the Shadewalker Guild.
“It’s a practice floor within the Shadow Guild’s training tower,” Lysbeth said. “I had it made a few years ago, and anyone who wants to do missions beyond the city needs to be able to clear the first level. The second level allows Guild members to take missions across the Verdant Isle, and the third level allows them to take any missions on Eluathar. Normally, the fourth level is required to go off-world, but Ludica isn’t actually going to take a mission. “
“What is the highest level, and can I send some of my rangers to try it?” Bronwyn asked, sounding curious.
“The highest level is level nine, but so far, only a single person managed to clear level seven,” Lysbeth said, shaking her head.
“Who was that?” Irwin and Bronwyn asked as one.
“Who do you think?” Lysbeth asked, smiling. “Greldo is the one who came up with some of the ideas, and so far, he is the only one who can clear level seven. Eight and nine weren’t ready when he was here last. Beyond that, only Gloom was able to do rank six, though I expected Dahlia to get far now that she has a high rank shadow soulcard. I can do five, as can eleven others. Before you ask, going from level four to five requires the shadewalker to move deeper into the shadowrealm to actually be able to even enter the level. Most of our shadewalkers aren’t able to do that yet. Beyond that, it requires a power over the shadowrealm that one only gets with a strong soulcard fully dedicated to shadowwalking or shadowshaping. I don’t have to remind you how hard those are to get. Beyond you, there are only two other cardsmiths that can create emerald or ruby-rank shadow-typed heartcards, and those are constantly busy.”
Irwin opened his mouth to ask who those were when his mother cleared her throat, not unlike Bronwyn had a short while before.
“Before you go get lost in card talk,” she said. “I have good news. Everything shows the baby is fine, and when you changed my cards or the way my body changed, it didn’t cause any problems.”
Irwin smiled, holding back from saying that he’d not expected anything like it.
“That’s great to hear,” he said. “So, when will she be born?”
“It’s not guaranteed to be a girl,” his mother said calmly, shaking her head. “Six more months. Now, do you think you can explain to those people that nothing dangerous has happened?”
Irwin let out a breath and nodded.
“I’ll take care of that right away. After that, I want to tell you about the other things that happened, pick up some food, and head back before Scintilla wakes up.”
“Wakes up… Did you create her new heartcard?” his mother asked.
“I did,” Irwin said.
“So, she is going to look like you now,” his mother said, nodding slowly. “You do know that most of your children will likely follow her in the future, right?”
“I know,” Irwin said, feeling slightly sad at that. “They will have to wait until they are adults, but when they are, it's their own choice.”
It was quiet in the room for a moment, then his mother looked back up.
“Well, if you can get those people off our back, I would love to hear what happened in Scour.”
“As would I,” Lysbeth added.
Irwin shared a look with Bronwyn.
“I’ll join you,” his brother said. “Can’t let you deal with annoying people on your own, now can I?”
“They aren’t annoying,” Lysbeth said. “They were afraid and worried.”
“We will be nice,” Bronwyn said as he pulled Irwin along.
Hopefully this won’t take too long, Irwin thought as he followed Bronwyn.
--
Dahlia focused on the mass of chaotic soulforce within the barrier, sensing the patterns and structure forming, and the minute changes with each strike.
Come on, come on… Remember what Flowrishin told you, she thought.
She barely noticed how Juul'rish kept up the barrier, or how the few soulforce constructs she’d managed to make stabilized the flow of the soulforce she was using. All she knew was that she’d just passed a point she hadn’t been able to in all the years she’d been trying to create the cardseed.
Three strikes later, and so close to completing what she had been working on for ages, she felt something shift. As she struck down, she felt the pattern angle slightly into a direction that would cause it to fail. It wasn’t because she’d made a mistake in the strike but because the direction had always been marginally flawed.
She hesitated, feeling the soulforce pattern within the chaotic cloud ripple, before stepping back.
“Again,” she said, before the soulforce within the barrier even had time to turn unruly.
Juul’rish didn’t complain, but pulled the entire barrier towards her mouth, created a small opening, and sucked in all of what was there. It took only a few moments, and when she was done, she grinned.
“Can’t wait to show Ambraz that trick,” she said, while a new barrier appeared.
“I’m sure he will be incredibly impressed,” Dahlia said absently.
“Oh, he will be,” Juul’rish piped as Dahlia put a card in the barrier and shattered it.
Dahlia turned to the side where a translucent pattern hung in the air, more complex than any regular card and close to what a heartcard at diamond rank would need. She pointed her finger at nearly the end, moving the tiny thread up by a fraction.
“Zero point four changing to this part…” she muttered, before summoning her hammer and moving back to Juul’rish and striking down.
The first half of the process went fast, as she had done it tens of thousands of times, if not more, but as she passed that halfway point, the complexity began increasing exponentially.
It took twenty minutes to reach that point, then over two hours to reach the point she had failed all but the previous time.
As she reached the complex pattern, the number of changes she had to make doubled, then tripled, and she felt the issue she’d had for ages bubble up- an inability to keep up with the required changes. For a split second, she worried she’d fail as always, then the training she’d done with Flowrishin on Scour kicked in, and she did something she had never heard of a smith do… she unsummoned her hammer and clapping her hands in a very specific pattern very rapidly. The ripples in the soulforce were tiny compared to what she usually did, but before anything could weaken, she resummoned her hammer and slammed it on the anvil. It was like flooding the tiny ripples with power, and she could sense the pattern building up in a single shove.
A few more claps and slams later, she reached the point she’d failed before. This time, however, as she struck down, she felt the pattern settle, and a wide grin formed as she realized what was about to happen.
She laughed as she clapped the final pattern before striking down and causing the soulforce ripple to be filled with power, and in the core of the barrier, filled with chaotic storm, a flickering purple light began burning, drawing in the soulforce.
“We did,” Juul’rish exclaimed, as a stable single pattern hung in a barrier.
“No time to party yet,” Dahlia said, smiling crazily. “Let’s make the first card!”
Juul’rish let out a cry of joy as Dahlia struck again, and the following reforge went as smoothly as she could have hoped.
Close to half an hour later, she picked up a quartz-ranked card that showed a tiny pillar that showed a shadow that seemed to bend in a way that didn’t match the shape of the pillar. She narrowed her eyes, allowing her to see a simplified version of what the card could do.
Card: Bend Shadow
Type: Quartz, Shadow, Forged by Dahlia den Valarn
Owner: -
The owner of this card is at home in the shadows, hard to see, and with the ability to bend those shadows in slight curves.
Passive: Harder to see when standing within a shadow
Active: Slightly bends a shadow the wielder touches
“It’s amazing,” Juul’rish whispered. “We can reforge it to have both shadow manipulation and shadewalking!”
“What is amazing?”
Dahlia looked up to see Greldo standing to the side, eyebrows raised. “Don’t tell me, you-”
“I succeeded!”