Better not be another dead end, Irwin thought, as he glared ahead.
He barely noticed or cared that he was plummeting down towards the rocky ground, a few hundred feet below. All that mattered was the end of the branch far in the distance. It was a side-branch that, if he’d follow it back for a day, would lead him to the root of the Dimarintsia River. Well, a day now that he knew the route. It was a day that had cost him three because he kept getting lost in the maze of corridors.
Dozens of pathways towards the south, east, west, and north came together in the area behind him. It was one of the reasons Daubutim had picked the world. The only issue was that the most up-to-date map he’d had had been from before the storm, and Basil had moved in from the other side.
Irwin felt the powerful presence of Scariander far in the distance, beyond the corner.
Hoping he wouldn’t find another dead end, he clicked his tongue and shot forward.
He reappeared at the end of the corridor minutes later, looking left and seeing a widening in the branch and a distant glowing spot that was an Exit Portal. The shape of a Chaos Whale moved around it, while the ruins of what had been a small harbor lay crumbling below. A small distance away was a small fleet of a dozen or so battle ships. Irwin instantly recognized them. Made in Scour, they carried people from Eluathar.
Basil was right about the harbor, he thought absently, as a part of him turned into an Aura Clone and warned the others. Three more zips across the soundwaves later, and he appeared on the back of Scariander.
“Well, that took you long enough,” Basil said, grinning widely as he walked forward.
Irwin rolled his eyes, then matched the man’s grin as they locked arms for a moment. It was a custom that had taken him some getting used to, but it seemed to have become common practice over the last few years.
“It’s great to see you again, Irwin,” Basil said as he looked down. “Isn’t that right?”
A deep, rumbling song rose, followed by a soulforce resonance.
“Yes, at least someone to converse with instead of you, slow-wit.”
“Hah, you say that now, but let me remind you of that when we get back, and the younger ones keep pestering you when you want your rest,” Basil said, letting out a deep laugh.
Irwin grinned.
Can I come out to talk with Basil? Luath rumbled to him.
Yes, it’s safe, Irwin replied.
He’d barely finished when Luath appeared alongside. The younger Chaos Whale was longer, darker, and with burning red highlights compared to the old and battle-scarred Scariander, but Irwin was surprised that Scariander’s soulforce presence was actually slightly stronger. It wasn’t something that would remain like that, as Luath had a lot of growing to do, but it was odd because most other older Chaos Whales hadn’t been this powerful.
I wonder if it's because he has somehow bonded with Basil, Irwin thought as the two Chaos Whales began softly singing and chatting.
“So, are you ready to go in? I have to warn you, it’s cold in there,” Basil said as he shivered.
“I’ll bring Daubutim to the fleet quickly and then head out,” Irwin said.
“Great,” Basil hummed. “Now, can you let me and Scariander see that new city you are building in your soulscape? I mean… who even does that?!”
Irwin grinned as he sent a quick heads-up to Luath.
“Sure,” he said. “Ready?”
“Yes!”
Irwin snorted as he moved Scariander and Basil into his soulscape, while Luath jumped in himself. Falling down, something that had become second nature to him by now, he clicked his tongue and reappeared on the deck of one of the nearby ships.
Ten minutes later, with Daubutim discussing things with the small fleet, Irwin stood on the small sloop that hung before the Exit Portal.
Check the world, see if I can find a way to the heat below, and start bringing in the Frozir, Irwin thought as he rubbed his chin.
The sound of metal grating across metal reminded him that he’d have to shave again soon.
I wonder how long it will take to create a new world with all the resources we have now, he thought, taking a deep breath and jumping forward, through the portal.
--
Greldo woke with a start as his entire body seemed to heat up. A shockwave ran through the shadowrealm around him, seemingly originating from himself.
What-
His thought was cut short as he reappeared inside his soulscape, above his soulscape. A shadow storm was roaring around him, while his third soulcard, Scion of the Naicht, hung there shaking and shivering.
What is going on? Greldo thought, just as Coal appeared beside him.
“What do you mean, you tried to wake me?” he shouted as he looked around. His soulforce was a hot mess, and it almost felt like what happened when one of his heartcards had turned into a soulcard.
Coal sent him images of him trying to wake him, only for Greldo to remain unresponsive while his shadowrealm was pulsing all around him.
“Great,” Greldo thought as he struggled to remain where he was while the storm increased in power. Dark clouds were spinning around his soullake, while choppy waves were moving across the liquid soulforce.
Within a minute, the storm was so loud that he could barely hear himself think, and he needed Coal’s help to remain where he was. His soulcard suddenly flashed brightly, and he felt his other three soulcards appear. They began circling it while pressure began building from all of them.
Coal let out a startled yelp unlike any he’d ever done before and vanished as Greldo’s first soulcard began shaking and shivering.
What? Coal!?
Greldo tried to summon his friend and failed, just as a long blade of darkness appeared above the central card. It glowed a deep red that matched his and coal’s eyes, then slowly began darkening and changing as a purple hue kept flashing across it before vanishing.
A sudden sharp pain made Greldo clutch his chest as he felt something rip away. It lasted only a moment, then it was replaced, and as it did, something in his mind was rearranged.
Did my third soulcard suddenly become my first?
He barely had time to ponder it when the other three soulcards vanished, and his new main soulcard began glowing with a light that was at times a dark, maroon red, and at times purple. Tiny shadow rips appeared around it, and Greldo was suddenly fully aware of his shadowrealm pocket. A constant stream of shadow-typed soulforce flowed through some of the holes, while the stormlike soulforce from his soulforce escaped through others.
What in Yilda’s name is going on?! Greldo thought as he felt a sense of something building grow.
It lasted for mere moments, then the sword pulsed a single, final time, grew by a foot, and vanished. The storm, however, didn’t, and it began building to a frenzy that dwarfed what Greldo had sensed when his heartcards had turned to soulcards. Part of him, the part that wasn’t struggling to remain in the center and not be flung into the barriers around his soulscape, remembered what Irwin had told him long ago about his own soulcard moments.
Then even that part of him was pulled into focus.
For what felt like forever, he hung there, unable to see anything except for the enormous storm, while he felt his soulscape crack and rip.
There seemed to be no end to it, and then there was. With a suddenness that left him jarring, the holes vanished, the flows in and out stopped, and the storm of shadowy clouds came to a slow halt. As they drifted apart, Greldo looked around in awe at what had once been his small, roughly a mile-wide soulscape. The barriers were far away now, and below him, his soullake had gone from a small lake that could be found within forests, to something that would take hours to sail across. The water was dark, while clouds of the same color drifted around. The land below had been rearranged, and the empty, barren patches had turned into a murky swamp.
Greldo swallowed as he felt Coal’s presence reappear, then his friend appeared beside him. A single look at him told him something had changed. Their bond was still there, but it wasn’t the main connection to his soulscape anymore.
Yeah, I don’t know either, he answered Coal’s worried question.
A slight movement made him look to the side, and he blinked as he saw one of the small fish that usually roamed his shadow pocket shoot out of a cloud to plop down in his soullake. As it did, he suddenly realized there were far more. All around him, tiny fish, snakes, and reptiles were moving around as if they had done so for a long time.
Coal suddenly shot away, and Greldo blinked at the message his friend sent him.
What is in here now?
He shot after Coal, surprised when he sensed just how much like moving through the shadowrealm his soulscape had become, only to stop when he reached the section of his soulscape that had been his newest and the section that had given him the sliver of the shadowrealm. A massive rock seemed to be sinking into a swampy region, while he saw the edges had overflowed, and were likely what had caused the rest of his soulscape to look more like a swamp than anything else.
A long claw moved out of the rock, snapped at him with what he swore was happiness, before the entire thing sank into the dark bog.
“That was the smaller one…” Greldo muttered as Coal began dashing around his soulscape, hundreds of clones appearing and searching. A minute later, Greldo let out a relieved sigh. The giant one didn’t seem to be here.
“Right, so let me get this straight,” Greldo muttered to himself as much as to Coal. “That change Gloom spoke about caused my soulcards to rearrange, my soulscape to grow ten times over or more, and the things that were in my shadowpocket to also appear here?”
Coal snorted, plumes of hot and burning ash shooting from his nostrils.
“Great. So what does that even mean?” Greldo asked, summoning his sword, which he was glad to say hadn’t actually grown a foot. That would have left it highly unwieldy.
This is new, he thought as he traced an odd symbol that was now etched in the pommel. It looked a bit like Coal’s head, but slightly more angular.
“Well… We will just have to ask Irwin about it when we see him,” he decided, taking a look around and noticing a small snake with leathery wings appear out of nowhere, and chase one of the insects that were slowly forming clouds above the murky waters.
At least I still have some dry land left, he thought as he looked at the area that was bound to Coal’s soulcard and looked more like a volcanic region of black rock. Where it bordered the swamp, small fungi and plants seemed to be growing.
Yeah, Greldo thought to Coal. You are right, I guess I won’t have to learn how to make those soulforce constructs.
He snorted, then stepped out of his soulscape and into his shadowpocket. He’d expected to appear back in his and Dahlia’s bedroom, but, instead, he hung high in the air, not unlike he’d just had. Below him, his shadowrealm spread out into the depths, the two previously seemingly large sections of land now like tiny islands. All around, shadowy life moved around, and as he watched, more and more seemed to enter from the surrounding shadowrealm.
Besides that, something else had changed. A clear border now existed between his pocket and the rest, a shimmering barrier that almost looked like the ones that surrounded his soulscape, but where a dark red and purple. They didn’t seem to block any of the life from moving through, but he could now feel a much clearer difference between what was inside his pocket and what lay beyond.
“Lord Greldo!”
Gloom’s shout made Greldo look to the side where Gloom was flying up, eyes gleaming widely.
“Congratulations on your rank increase!”
Greldo noticed that the two snake-women were remaining below, standing on the edge of the land, but staring up at him with what he could only describe as awe.
“Gloom, what happened to me?” Greldo asked, glaring at the elder Nyzir.
“My Lord, I know little about soulcards, but if you had been creating a soulskill, I would have said that the part that determines you are a Scion has become the center of your soulforce. It also grew by a rank, and you are now able to truly become a Shadow Lord.”
Right, just like I thought…
A shout came from the mansion, which seemed almost tiny now, and he saw Dahlia waving at him.
“I’ll find you later,” he said as he began moving down. “For now, I need to talk with Dahlia.”
--
Dahlia stared at Greldo as he appeared before her, for a moment startled by the changes. His eyes, when not silver during having a heartcard, had always been a burning red like those of Coal. Now they were a darker red, and as he moved, they gleamed with a purple hue that distracted her. Besides that, he’d grown a bit, while his skin seemed slightly tanner than when they had gone to bed only hours before.
She had woken with him gone and the entire mansion shaking while a thunderous storm had rippled around it. It had lasted for hours, and halfway through, Gloom and the two snake-women had run into the house. They had been soaking wet, and only Coal had seemed calm.
That was ten minutes ago, when Gloom had suddenly shot through the shadowrealm and out with a shout of ‘he is done’.
“What happened?”
“I just asked Gloom the same thing,” Greldo said, giving her a quick hug.
He smells different, Dahlia thought, while at the same time feeling an odd desire to keep him close.
“You became stronger. Did the thing Gloom said would happen, happen?”
Greldo nodded as he walked to the nearby couch and lay down, then frowned as he couldn’t get his legs completely over it.
“Yes. I think my soulcards rearrange themselves.”
“That’s impossible,” Dahlia said instantly, before staring at him and sensing the changed pressure from his soulcards. Due to her diamond-rank soulcard, she had always sensed a discrepancy between her and his ruby-rank card. It hadn’t been as big as it should have been, likely due to who had made him the card, but now? The difference was still there, but it had changed around. Now she could feel his pressure, not unlike what she felt when beside her Grandfather or Irwin.
“Your soulcard became Ammolite,” she whispered, sitting down with a thud, staring at him in utter disbelief.
Irwin had been one thing, but at least he’d gone the route already trodden, and she could understand that. But this? How was it even possible?
“So, that’s what I’m feeling,” Greldo muttered.
“That’s impossible! Your first card was ruby! It can’t have just grown two ranks,” Dahlia exclaimed, wanting nothing more than to examine him, his cards, and his soulscape.
“Yeah, well, Coal isn’t the one that got upgraded,” Greldo said, and she heard a slight sadness in his voice.
“Is he alright?”
The giant hound appeared beside her as if called, sniffing her hair before pushing his warm head against her hand.
He seems the same… she thought, until Coal turned his eyes on her and she froze.
“You two have different eyes,” she muttered.
“My soulcard order has changed. The Scathnaight blade? It’s now my first card somehow, and it went from diamond to ammolite,” Greldo said, as the long blade appeared in his hand.
Dahlia felt pressure push down on her instantly, and she had to resist the desire to kneel. Instinctively, she summoned her own dagger, and the pressure vanished.
“Are you alright?”
Dahlia blinked, noticing that Greldo had moved before her without noticing it, a hand on her shoulder.
How long was I zoned out?
“I’m… fine,” she muttered, shaking her head. She saw the worry in his eyes, which didn’t diminish. “When you summoned your blade, I think I felt what Gloom feels.”
“Ugh! Please don’t call me Lord,” Greldo grunted, and she saw the deep-seated disgust and fear flicker through his eyes. “When you summoned the dagger, you stopped answering me, and there are all these things moving around.”
What things?
Dahlia looked around to find a dozen tiny shadowrealm serpents flying around them. Their tiny leathery wings allowed them to glide around, and two had nestled on her shoulder. She reached out, and one of them flew up and away while the other rubbed its jaw against her finger before flitting away.
Another rub from the other side showed Juul’rish, pressing against her neck.
“You had me worried,” the tiny silver ganvil whispered.
“I’m sorry, I-”
Dahlia fell quiet as a dizzying amount of memories flooded her mind. The last thing she saw was Greldo’s eyes widen with worry, then she passed out.
--
“Dahlia? Dahlia!?”
Greldo felt his worry grow as he looked at the woman he loved, with whom he’d shared more things than he’d ever expected. She was unresponsive, lying on the couch, while he felt her soulforce ripple around oddly.
“It’s… okay,” Juul’rish piped, flying up to land on Dahlia’s head.
“What is happening?” Greldo asked.
“She’s back!”
“Who is… Dahlia’s other body?”
“Yes! She is working through the memories now.”
How many memories did she get if she fell unconscious? Greldo thought as he stared at Dahlia worriedly.
“I am going to talk with her other shape. She’s talking with Irwin now.”
“Wait, I-”
Greldo closed his mouth with a snap because Juul’rish was gone, leaving him alone with an unconscious Dahlia.
“Great. First, I wake up like that, and then this happens,” he muttered, picking Dahlia up and moving both of them to their bedroom, where he carefully placed her on the bed. Pulling some blankets over her, he pulled a chair close and sat down, rubbing his head.
Would almost think she planned it like this, he pondered.
--
Irwin watched Dahlia pace across the ship that he’d summoned beyond the gas giant. Her eyes were focused on something he couldn’t see, then she suddenly looked up as a silvery Ganvil appeared.
“Juul! I have missed you,” Dahlia said, walking forward with a smile.
“Did you not use the memory condensing skill?” Juul’rish piped. “Your other self just fell unconscious!”
“Ah, I am sorry,” Dahlia said, scratching her nose before shrugging. “I did, but even with that, it was a long time.”
“How long were you there?” Irwin asked. “How powerful is the time dilation?”
“Uh, the time dilation is almost gone. Maybe one in twenty?” Dahlia said, wiggling her hand around. “Exarg said it was dropping exponentially at some point a few hundred years ago. He refused to let anyone out because each time we did, there was a noticeable dip.”
“Did you really condense your memories?” Juul’rish asked softly. “You sound odd.”
“I… Fine. I still need to do one more, but I’ve been putting it off,” Dahlia said, throwing her hands in the air. “I need to make sure I explain what I did with the shadow cards to Irwin, or if I lose it, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“What do you mean?” Irwin asked.
Dahlia walked over, staring up at his giant form that covered nearly the entire deck of the large ship.
“It took me nearly all of the time I was there, but I figured it out,” she said excitedly. “Look!”
Irwin caught a card tossed his way, and he frowned at it. It was a ruby-rank shadow card with an image that looked like a… sun? He wasn’t sure.
“I think, but don’t pin me to this,” Dahlia said as she looked around, her voice dropping. “I think the shadowrealm was created by worldcarded. I think what happened when their world shattered is that somehow it bled into the Portal Gallery.”
Irwin frowned, staring at the card, then at Dahlia.
“I see… and what does this have to do with any of that?” he asked, his voice causing a rumble through the ship as he raised the card.
“Right, it means that reforging some of the shadow-typed cards works best in the shadowrealm! It’s why I made myself one of those shadowrealm-sliver cards, like Greldo-” she waved her hand around, though there was no card in it, as her silvery eyes showed she was clearly building a heartcard. “But the thing is, it had to be my shadowrealm sliver. If it were Greldo’s, it didn’t work. I think it's similar to why you can do some reforges in your soulcard. Also, can you memorize this, please?”
She summoned an anvil from her soulscape, put it on the deck, placed a card on it, and in a single smooth motion struck it. The sound that came out resonated oddly, but she didn’t stop as she continued striking it. It was evident she had done the exact same pattern many, many times, and Irwin frowned as he listened to the song she was weaving. It was complex, but not too much, and perfect, but there was something else…
“You will have to do it again,” he said as he summoned his Tablatures and flipped it open to an empty page.
Dahlia just grabbed the card misforge, looked at it as if realizing something, then looked at Juul’rish, who had been hovering and watching, lips in a thin stripe.
“Now you remember me,” she muttered, still changing into a working size and opening her mouth.
Dahlia stared at her, then tossed the shivering and shaking card into her mouth.
“Sorry, I have just been doing this so long… I’ll. As soon as Irwin has the song memorized, I’ll combine my memories.”
“That might be for the best,” Juul’rish muttered.
Dahlia nodded, pulled another card from her soulscape, and began again.
This time, Irwin recorded the entire pattern until she finished. As soon as she did, Dahlia scratched her head, then looked at Juul’rish and sat down on the spot, closing her eyes.
I am going to have to remember to combine my memories in time, he thought as he watched Dahlia sit there.
Was that how he’d been before he had done so? He couldn’t recall.
Time flew by as he checked the card and listened to the song. A few hours later, Dahlia let out a groan as she cracked her neck and got up.
“By Yilda, now I understand why you forget things,” she muttered, pushing herself up.
“Are you feeling better now?” Irwin asked.
“I do, but I think my otherself will probably be out for a while, so I need to see Greldo,” Dahlia said.
Irwin was glad to see that she was back to her normal calmness, and Juul’rish landed on her shoulder.
“How many memories did you combine?” he asked.
“Close to a thousand years,” Dahlia said as she put a hand up and stroked Juul’rish. “I’m happy to say I remember the important things… or at least I think I do.”
She was quiet for a bit, then looked up at Irwin.
“Scintilla told me that you lived for thousands of years and combined a great many memories…”
Irwin sighed as he thought about the oddly condensed section of his memories, where he knew it had been long but remembered only some parts.
“Yes. I did,” he said.
“Did it become worse after a while? Or is it always this pleasant?”
Irwin thought back to the last time he’d awakened from condensing his memories, trying to recall how he’d felt. Mostly relieved.
“I didn’t notice any lasting problems,” he said. “But I do know I am glad I’ve learned this, and I will be teaching all my children and anyone else who needs to.”
Dahlia stared at him, then her gaze drifted off as if she was pondering something. After a minute, she sighed.
“I am glad to hear that. It is time for me to go to Greldo. Also, from the confusing few memories I got from my otherself, it seems something happened to his soulcards and soulscape.”
“He is alright?” Irwin asked, suddenly worried.
“Fine. It seems his soulcard order was changed,” Dahlia said, shaking her head and clearly not believing it. “Also, his third soulcard, that sword, became Ammolite-ranked.”
Irwin opened his mouth to say that was impossible, stopped, and frowned.
“He is also done, so we will be heading back with a slight detour,” Dahlia said.
“Wouldn’t it be… better…” Irwin sighed, staring at the spot where Dahlia had just been. “To bring them here,” he ended lamely.
He got up, the ship swaying dangerously as he looked around. The gas giant was below, Mudball far in the distance, and he sensed his otherself still working hard on Zarkon.
Guess I’ll move back and help get the kids to bed, he thought.