Irwin felt himself pushed out of the shadowrealm, and instantly, he knew there was something wrong. The soulforce resonance all around him was jumbled, and Numilli and all the other people behind the barrier had no soulforce signature… or heat signature for that matter. Were they not real? Images? He didn't know, but what he did know was that a powerful stream of soulforce was flowing in from above and into the barrier.
It took him only a moment of tracing it to realize it came from the World Portal, which confused him.
Why hadn't he sensed that before?
They are moving!
Seeing people without a soulforce pattern move shocked him out of his confusion about the soulforce flow, and he walked forward.
"Numilli?" he asked.
The people behind the barrier responded oddly, everyone stepping back but suddenly staring at him, while Numilli stepped forward. Her face was emotionless for a moment, then she began rapidly blinking.
"I… Wait, I'm the clone? Who woke me up?" she exclaimed in a hollow, echoing voice. Her gaze flicked about before landing on Irwin. "You!"
Irwin watched Numilli take a step back, and as she did, he saw the others behind her all step back in a single line. Something about her was wrong… beyond the obvious, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Listen, I just needed the card to prevent that thing from taking over completely," Numilli said, waving her hands in front of her as if trying to defend herself. She seemed to step back again when her eyes widened, and she shook her head. "Wait. Why am I even worried? It's not like you can do anything to me."
"Numilli, what is going on? Why are you here?" Irwin asked as he took another step forward, seeing a long line of tiny runes that circled the barrier on both sides. "Tiscian said you had gone through a world portal far beyond Igniz."
"I did?" Numilli asked, rubbing her face. "Wait, how do you know Tiscian?"
"Numilli… why are you here?" Irwin said. "And what did you mean when you said that you are a clone?"
"I am here because I had to get that thing out of my soulscape," Numilli said, her voice rising as she waved her hands around. "Do you have any idea how horrible it was being forced to do things I didn't want to? It kept taking over my mind whenever it felt like, and…"
Numilli shook her head, frowning.
"That is weird, I don't remember? Why not? Is it because I am the clone… My soulscape is also gone..."
Numilli frowned as she lifted her hands, and Irwin immediately realized what had been bothering him.
"My handcards are gone… Well, I guess that makes sense," Numilli said, and her eyes widened. "So, that means it worked, just the other way around!"
"Do you have any idea what she is talking about?" Greldo whispered.
Irwin shook his head.
"Numilli. What is happening?"
"What? I succeeded!" she said, smiling and doing a happy dance, before stopping and cocking her head. "Well. Not exactly, because it was supposed to be me in my body with my soulscape, and that thing in here… but I guess as long as I am free, who cares!"
Her eyes locked on Irwin's, glistening.
"You are a cardsmith! Can you help me get new handcards? Also, are you still with Scintilla? If not, I know exactly how to pay you for it!"
"Numilli, do you even know how much time has passed?" Irwin asked, ignoring the question.
"Nope. Don't care," Numilli said with a wide smile. "I am free, that thing is gone, and-"
"What thing?" Irwin asked.
"Didn't I tell you before? When I was young, I found a dying Earth Titan. I waited till it was dead to try and take the heartcard, and… well, it might not have been completely dead. I don't really recall most of what came after, but when I woke up, I was somewhere else, and the Earth Titan's mind was in my soulscape. It wanted me to do things, like go into The Library. Every time I did, I would wake up later with some time missing… Then, at some point, it told me it needed me to get another Earth Titan soulskill, but that was really difficult, and-"
Irwin quietly listened to Numilli chatter on about how she'd constantly failed, the thing getting angrier and angrier, until the time when she met Irwin. By then, he had noticed multiple things. One, Numilli had changed a lot since he last saw her. She wasn't acting as childlike as she had, and she also seemed able to keep her thoughts centered.
"Right, and after that, you left," Irwin said, when she finally fell quiet.
"Well, not exactly," Numilli said. "After getting that second soulskill part, the Earth Titan fell asleep for a few months. So, I knew where it wanted me to go, but it had also prepared all these things-"
She waved her hand around, causing Irwin to frown.
"Wait, it made these things?"
"Well, no, not exactly," Numilli said happily. "Technically, these were made by those Yilda Worshippers, but that doesn't really matter, now does it? That thing had learned of them and wanted me to go through a World Portal. According to what it had thought, that would separate us."
So, the Earth Titan wanted to be split from her, Irwin thought, listening to her.
"Anyway, because of what it did, my soullake filled and I had room for another card. I took some of those it managed to gather, a clone card, and slotted it together with some others. I would have preferred making them into a heartcard, but I didn't have the time. Still, I created that clone and it… me? Her?"
Numilli frowned, then shook her head.
"Let's just say me. So, I headed there because it was a recently found world portal, and the Yilda Followers didn't know each other very well. Then, before they left, I hid in here."
"What are those?" Irwin asked, pointing at the figures still standing behind her, showing no reaction.
"These? They are runic mindclones," Numilli said. "They work like anchors or stabilizers for whoever moves through the World Portal. Seeing as that they are still here, and the barrier is still up, I guess they haven't reached it yet. No surprise, from what I managed to learn from them, they suspected it to last close to a hundred years."
"Runic mindclones?" Greldo muttered, mirroring what Irwin was thinking about.
"Ah, yes, they said it's a great secret of those that worship Yilda," Numilli said as she moved to the barrier and frowned.
"You are not a runic mindclone?" Irwin asked, staring at her, and still not sensing a soulforce signature.
"No, no! I snuck my clone in here when they all left," Numilli said, though Irwin saw her frown.
"Why would you want to be in here?" Greldo asked.
"I.. needed to have a safe place… to hide…"
"Didn't you say you thought the Earth Titan would be in here?" Irwin asked softly, seeing a horrid realization grow in Numilli's eyes.
"Oh no…" she whispered, looking around, then down at her hands. "Did I go through the portal? But, why am I in here then?"
Irwin sighed, slowly realizing what was going on and why he wasn't sensing a soulforce resonance from any of them.
Numilli seemed to come to the same conclusion, because she looked up at him, eyes wide and fearful.
"I am not me… I am the runic mindclone," she whispered, horrified.
"Why did those Yilda loons want to go through the World Portal?" Greldo asked.
Numilli's eyes were unfocused as she stared at the ground. "They believe that one of the portals leads to Yilda's World. They think she is somehow unable to come through here, but the Earth Titan… it said it wasn't like that. It said that if Yilda was really beyond soulskill, her world would likely not be here…" The Ignizian's voice petered off as she spoke, clearly not fully there.
"Why am I conscious if I am a runic mindclone?" she muttered, looking up at Irwin, her eyes like simmering coals.
"I don't know," Irwin said, staring at her.
Seeing the fear grow in her eyes, he felt a sudden sense of sympathy. He had no idea how it would feel to be controlled by something more powerful and trying for years to find a way out, only to realize now that your final attempt hadn't worked.
Irwin hesitated, then spun up an Aura Clone near where Scintilla, Tiscian, and Flagrian were training within Soulscape City, explaining what was happening.
"I…" Numilli softly, seeming ready to collapse.
"Would you like to talk with Tiscian and Scintilla?" Irwin asked.
Numilli looked around, then at him, clearly slightly confused.
"I would… but how?" she said, her voice just barely over a whisper now.
Irwin moved Scintilla and Tiscian from his soulscape into the room where they were standing.
"Numilli!" Tiscian shouted, running to the barrier only to stop a few inches away.
"Aunty Tiscian…? How?" Numilli asked, walking forward, eyes wide.
Scintilla walked to Irwin, giving him a quick hug before looking at Numilli.
"I really thought you were joking," she whispered. "I never thought I'd see her again, let alone… like this."
"Is there no way we can get her out of there?" Tiscian asked, turning to Irwin. "Can't you move her into your soulscape?"
Irwin sighed as he looked at Numilli, still sensing no soulforce signature.
"There is nothing to move," he said softly.
"It's fine, Tisci," Numilli said, standing in front of the barrier, hands dangling by her sides. "At least I can talk to you again without that thing constantly influencing my mind. I am sorry for what happened last time we spoke…"
"It's fine," Tiscian said, sounding angrier than Irwin had heard her. "It wasn't your fault, and-"
"But it was," Numilli said, her shoulders sinking down. "It was I who tried to absorb the Earth Titan's unfinished heartcard. We had been told by many people never to do that with anyone who hadn't been dead for a long time, but I thought I knew better… thought if I was just careful."
Tiscian's hands clasped into fists, then she sighed. "So, that thing is gone?"
Numilli nodded. "It left with my body and my soulscape, either through this world portal or another one it was heading towards."
"If she's not really here, what is she?" Scintilla asked, causing Tiscian to look around.
Irwin stared at the barrier, the massive inflow of soulforce, the runes, and the figures behind it. "I don't know. We need someone who knows more about runes to-"
"Kimohn might know," Greldo said, interrupting him. "Can you get him over here?"
Irwin nodded, thinking about the lanky noble that Greldo had brought with him. Kimohn Liemon had been incredibly excited to talk with the Eluather Rune Guild, and he had been working hard to create a new Runic Guild building in Soulscape City.
Another Aura Clone and a quick explanation later, four more people appeared as the Runeforgers that had been with Kimohn had been incredibly interested to come along.
"Greldo! This is incredible," Kimohn explained as he ran to the edge of the barrier, knelt down, and almost pressed his nose up to the runes. "Each of these is way more complex than anything I have seen, and there are at least a hundred different ones in really sophisticated patterns! This is amazing! Galing, check this!"
The other three Runeforgers had been slightly less exuberant, looking around worriedly, but now one of them walked forward and knelt beside Kimohn, letting out a whistle of appreciation. The other two joined them, and moments later, the four were rapidly talking and making notes.
Numilli, Tiscian, and now Scintilla had moved further to the side, talking quickly, with Numilli clearly trying to keep her hope at bay.
"Do you think she's got a chance?" Greldo whispered.
Irwin looked at his friend, hesitated, then shook his head.
"I am not sure, but there's no soulforce signature, or even any resonance that would suggest she's actually there. Unless it is somehow inside those runes, or the barrier is blocking it, I don't see how it's possible."
"I was afraid of that," Greldo said.
The two continued watching quietly as the three Ignizian talked and the Runeshapers ran around the barrier getting more hyped as they found overarching structures within the runic patterns.
Irwin lost track of time at some point, which was fine as he just let more of himself drift to where his otherself was hard at work in his Eluathar home smithy. Between experimenting with cards for his next heartcard, working on the future cards for his kids, and a card to potentially hand to Tang if or when he'd managed to fix his current card, more of his mental power was never unwanted.
As he did that, what remained beside a now snoozing Greldo wondered for the umpteenth time how things would be when he did become a worldcarded. Would he lose the mental power he now had when he used both of his selves together? Or would he be able to pull both into the body, not in his soulscape when it finally happened… could he even do that, or would part of him be required as some sort of sacrifice?
He was snapped out of his ponderings when someone nearby cleared their throat.
Irwin looked up to see Kimohn look at him with raised eyebrows.
"Cardsmith Irwin! We have figured out part of what happened and why Numilli can actually think and act. Whatever that Earth Titan she keeps referring to actually was, it clearly knew what it was doing because it forced her into the runic patterns. It's incredible to see it, but she's essentially in that barrier! The details are really sketchy, and we will need… decades or more to figure it out, but these runes could be used for many other things, though not at this scale. I don't know exactly what is powering this, but…" He shrugged.
Irwin stared at the inflow of soulforce and hummed.
"It is somehow draining soulforce from the World Portal," he said. "A lot too."
"OH! That would explain so much," Kimohn said, while the other three Runeshapers began chattering together a few steps away.
Kimohn began pacing around, rubbing his hand and grinning. "Greldo, I am so happy I was able to come with you. This is… amazing! They used runes to draw soulforce from a portal! If we can copy this, we might be able to create barriers around exit portals!"
"On both sides," one of the other runeshapers called out excitedly. "All we need to find out is if we can do this without destabilizing the portals."
"What? That would be even more amazing," another runeshaper said. "If that works, we can create runic patterns to drain away portals to shardworlds instead of having to go inside to close them. Imagine how useful that would be!"
"Calm down," Kimohn shouted, though his eyes were glittering as much as the others. He seemed ready to say something when Tiscian walked forward, her eyes narrow.
"All of this is really nice, but do you know if there is a way to get Numilli out of there?"
Kimohn scratched his head, while the other three took a step back, looking worried.
"Well, I don't know," Kimohn said. "The thing is, what makes up what she is is somehow running on the soulforce that's in the barrier. There's probably not really anything of her behind it. See how those other figures are positioned? If they walk forward again, she has no spot. So, I guess to get her out, we would have to somehow move her pattern into something… I have no idea where to even start with that. A single one of these runes is already way beyond what I can do, and the only reason I even understand any of it is because of the context of the pattern."
Tiscian glanced at the other three Runeshapers, who shook their heads.
"What does that mean? She is stuck here?"
"Yes, until the World Portal closes," Kimohn said, smiling sadly.
"That could be thousands of years," Numilli cried out.
Tiscian looked at Irwin.
"Do you have any ideas?"
Irwin hesitated, staring at the barrier. It felt like an oddly thin layer of soulforce, constantly filled by the inflow, and as he focused on it more, he sensed it pulsing. That was all, though. He didn't sense any patterns or signatures.
"I don't sense her in there," he finally said, as he pondered things. "Perhaps, if I could sense her soulforce signature, I could do something… but I wouldn't know what."
"Well, at least she can go back to sleep, or whatever she was doing before?" Greldo asked, his voice causing Tiscian to turn back to the barrier.
"I'll try," Numilli muttered, not looking too happy.
A few minutes passed, then Numilli frowned, her eyes growing hazy before turning almost dead.
"Numilli?" Tiscian called out, sounding worried.
Numilli shivered, shook her head, then looked up. "That feels really scary. It's not at all like sleeping… but more like being squished."
"At least you don't have to experience the time," Tiscian said, before turning to Kimohn. "Can you try to find out how to get her out of there?"
"Well… if we had more information on how these runes worked? Which does what?" Kimohn said, glancing at the runes. "That would probably help. Without that? As I said, I don't know what I am looking at. We could get more Runeshapers here, but I doubt anyone will be able to understand this except by spending hundreds of years analyzing them."
Tiscian nodded, then turned back to Numilli and Scintilla.
Irwin watched them whisper for a while before turning to Kimohn.
"How can she be in there?" he asked softly, his mind moving to Luath and Coal. "Is it like how some beings are in a card? Like summons?"
"I don't know," Kimohn said, frowning at the barrier. "The runes are incredibly complex, so I am not a hundred percent sure they moved her there or are actually also keeping her there. You know more about soulforce patterns than I do. I mean, how does it work for a summon card?"
Irwin didn't respond, pondering the question for a while.
"Did you get that question?" he finally asked Ambraz, who had been partially paying attention while still in his soulscape's smithy.
"Yes, and don't bother asking me these difficult questions. I don't know how consciousness arises from a card or from slotting a card. Isn't it enough that we are still working on the proper cards for your eventual worldcards, which involves finding three sets of cards that together create the pattern we aren't even sure about? Or that you are still working on your cardseeds? Or perhaps you forgot that we have found a way to get beyond a hundred percent card, which means it's not a hundred percent, and that someone has been hiding that? Oh… and let's not forget that Tang needs to be helped, and our current most likely solution involves figuring out if we can recreate what Greldo did, but with something hot? UGH!"
Irwin grinned as he sensed Ambraz fly through the library shelf before cocking his head.
"A cardseed…. If we can get her complete soulforce signature, perhaps we can use that while creating a summon card?"
Ambraz groaned even louder, and Irwin felt him pull back.
"Just go bother Tiscian, she looks like she wants something," Ambraz said before their connection became blurry.
Irwin looked up to find Tiscian walking towards him.
"If I were to find a crew, would you give me one of Rindiri's new ships so I can search for more Yilda Worshippers?"
Irwin stared at her, slightly surprised by her request, before noticing the horrified-looking Numilli in the barrier. He didn't have to ask why. It was clear as day. She was going to search for information on the runes.
"Of course," he said, glancing at Scintilla, who was nodding.
"Thank you," Tiscian said, holding his gaze. "What if I ask some of the Crathan Guards to join me?"
Irwin opened his mouth to agree before hesitating.
"I won't need more than four or five," Tiscian said quickly.
Irwin nodded slowly. "That's fine."
"Thank you," Tiscian said, turning back to look at Numilli. "Blademaiden, return to sleep and stay like that until I return or until someone wakes you."
"But, Aunty-"
"That's an order."
Numilli stared at Tiscian for a full minute before grimacing and stepping back.
"Thank you," she said before looking at the ground. A short while later, her eyes grew fuzzy before turning into an almost dead and flat look.
"Could you send me back to Soulscape City?" Tiscian asked.
"Are you sure this is smart?" Scintilla asked, walking forward.
"No, but I can't leave her locked like that. It's a horrific fate I'd not wish on any of my enemies, and definitely not on her."
Irwin moved Tiscian and Scintilla back before the argument he saw brewing could ignite, then he turned to Kimohn.
"We would like to return here," the noble said quickly. "Could you bring one of the body doubled guards so we can start putting up defenses and research places?"
"That might not be a bad idea," Irwin said as he looked around, then back up.
If he put multiple guards here, all with a body in his soulscape, he could get information as soon as it came and help if he had to.
"I'll bring you back so you can start planning," he said.
"This is going to be great!" Kimohn said, turning to the others. "I can't wait to tell-"
Irwin moved them away, leaving him and Greldo there. He looked at his friend to see him staring at the barrier with a contemplative look,
"Grel?"
"I am thinking… Can you help me with my next five cards and then reforge all of them into a heartcard?" Greldo asked, looking up. "I'm going to slot a body double together with the shadow clone, and I want the ability to do what you do with your Aura Clones, but also have one body that I can leave here."
"Of course," Irwin said immediately.
"Good… because I think I want to send one of my bodies with Tiscian."
"What? Why?" Irwin asked.
"So I can find more Shadowrealm Chunks," Greldo said. "She is going to be moving all around, but I want to have a break… but I also want more of those chunks of land."
Irwin hesitated for only a moment before nodding.
"Then I guess we had better get started," he said.