Zan kept her teeth clenched as she felt the three cards move another fraction, now almost fully overlapped. Pain pounded in her head, her body… her whole soulscape, but she was surprised by how easy it was to manage. Much easier than the bouts of fear she sometimes felt or the sense of insecurity.
Pain was way simpler. It hurt, so you grit your teeth until it stopped.
Seconds passed, then there was a sense of something clicking, and a wave of soulforce resonances rippled through her entire being. For a moment, she thought she could remain conscious as she sensed it begin making changes.
"You did great!"
Zan smiled at the tiny silver Ganvil, but as she turned her head, the world seemed to spin, and then everything was black.
--
"I didn't expect that…" Irwin whispered as he carried Zan to the free bed and put her down beside her three siblings. Silv'am was nestled on her chest, face smooth and without lips, deep asleep like Zan was.
Scintilla said nothing as she stood beside him, tears still flowing down her face as she proudly stared at her four children.
Irwin glanced at her, then back at Zan.
She's actually smiling, he thought, shaking his head.
All four had started at the same time, and from there things had gone differently from what he'd expected. He had expected Glow to have the easiest time, and Zan the hardest, with Ti and Soot somewhere in between. He'd been wrong. Both Soot and Ti had struggled far more than the other six, with both coming far closer to failing than he would have expected. He'd had to use as much of his own abilities as he could to help them, and even then, they had dropped unconscious almost immediately after finishing. Glow had shown far less struggle, but the surprise had been Zan. Shaky and afraid as she'd been at the start, from the moment she had started, it had been clear she would be fine.
With her eyes narrow and hard as she stared at the three cards, lips pursed and a slight frown, she had seemed almost angry at the cards for not complying faster. She'd taken the longest, but that was mostly because Irwin had caught her slowing down and observing things a few times. More important was that when she finally finished, he had almost expected her to remain conscious, as she, like Glow, had actually had time to look around.
"We need to find a way to help her with her insecurities and fears," Scintilla said softly. "If we don't, they will hold her back."
Irwin nodded while he felt Ambraz shiver on his shoulder.
"Glad the pain is finally over," Ambraz muttered.
Irwin glanced at his bonded Ganvil and raised an eyebrow.
"I don't recall you being this out of it when I had to do this part," he said.
"Bah. That's because I know you would be fine," Ambraz grunted. "They are still so small and weak!"
Except for my first, their other cards are way more powerful than the ones I had, Irwin thought, but he kept quiet. He could sense that Ambraz had been genuinely worried.
"So, you will give them a fourth card now?" Ambraz asked. "Or more?"
"Only a fourth," Irwin said, and Scintilla nodded in agreement.
"They need to grow slowly," Scintilla said. "A tiny fire that is given too much fuel can become stifled."
Irwin gave her a one-armed hug, and they remained there for a little while before moving to the sitting area. As he slumped into his chair, Irwin realized he was more weary than he had been in a long time.
Doing things yourself is so much easier, he thought.
"How is your control over your heartcard?" Scintilla asked as she took a large mug of spiced Nask. Like many of the Ignitzians and Crathans, she'd quickly gotten a liking for the hot water-drawn root drink.
Irwin focused on the tiny twinkling star that was his heartcard hovering above the soulforce sea.
"It's not at ammolite rank yet," he said, scratching his chin. He could sense his otherself still using the heartcard nonstop, and after checking his children to be sure they wouldn't need any sudden help, joined.
Scintilla rolled her eyes. "I still don't understand how that card is going to go from diamond to ammolite so fast. I thought it was something that took time and effort?"
"It does," Ambraz answered before Irwin could. "But there's a difference between what types of cards are ammolite and if there are already similarly-typed ammolite cards in the soulscape. You see-"
Irwin quietly listened to Ambraz explaining one of the many things they had discovered over the years, and one he guessed was likely common knowledge among the highest ranks of cardsmiths that lived within the Central Worlds.
As he pondered those, he thought about the many things they seemed to be hiding there, from a way to create cards better than a hundred percent using the aura-echo to ammolite-ranked cards and worldcards.
I wonder what else is possible that we don't know, and I wonder why they keep everything to themselves, he thought as his mind drifted around the many things he still had to learn.
At some point, his thoughts moved to the time when he was on Exarg's world. He and Ambraz had been experimenting with the above hundred percent cards during one of the long windows of boredom. They had quickly found that, although they were more stable than the regular perfect cards, they had a drawback. The higher above a hundred percent a card was, the more they would limit the flexibility of the card types a heartcard could have, in exchange for increased power and capacity. The rigidity was so much that he couldn't even use one because it would make the song impossible.
But that was because he'd not planned for it from the start. What if he had? What if he made one for his children?
Ideas and concepts of soulforce resonances and songs began drifting around as they sometimes did, and Irwin hummed softly.
"Kid?!"
A thud on his head accompanied the shout, and Irwin jerked up, realizing he'd been so completely lost in his thoughts that he might as well have been sleeping. Faint images and ideas of how to change one of the final three cards for his kids to make them above a hundred percent drifted away, and he scrambled to have his otherself ponder them while he focused on the room.
"Sorry, I almost fell asleep," he said, seeing Scintilla was smiling at him, while Ambraz muttered in annoyance.
"I think it's time to move the kids back home," Scintilla said. "Flagrian might not need them tomorrow, but their classes start again the day after."
"All right," Irwin said, pushing her and the children back into the real world, where his body was waiting for them.
"Right, now what were you pondering?" Ambraz asked as he flitted about. "I know it had something to do with smithing…"
"I was thinking about redoing one of each of the three cards we had made for them and making it above a hundred percent," Irwin said.
"Kid, you do remember what we found out about those cards?" Ambraz asked, slightly worried.
"A bit hard to forget," Irwin said as he thought. "But I wonder if we can't do the last card. By then, the heartcard's concept is done, so we know the limit of the above hundred percent card we should add."
"With what use? It's just a percentage or two of improvement," Ambraz said. "And there's no saying how much harder it would make any subsequent worldcard. It might even be the reason we have never heard of it."
"If it's only negative, why would some unknown factor spread out card measurement tablets that are capable of exploding an entire city when they detect one?" Irwin asked, though, as he spoke, he realized something. It just wasn't worth the risk.
"I… have no idea," Ambraz grunted. "But it's not worth it. Just find someone with a few cards that will never get to worldcarded and try it with them if you want."
Irwin shook his head, and he shoved the idea away.
"I do wonder though," he said, staring at the wall. "Perhaps, when I finish my worldcard, depending on how many bodies I'll have left… perhaps we should go and set out towards the Wandering Verge, and from there into the Tangled Core. If we bring some of those devices, we can make a card and then follow that soulforce signature to its source."
"After we deal with half a Portal Gallery of Guidar and ships…?" Ambraz asked, snorting softly.
Irwin sighed as he looked at the distant wall, covered in cards and books.
"I wonder if we will ever actually be able to deal with them," he said.
"Are you still on about that?" Ambraz grunted. "Yes, there are a lot of them, but think about what we know about a worldcarded. You should be able to clear out minor branches by yourself!"
"Yes, but if it was this easy, why didn't Yilda deal with them?" Irwin asked with a weary sigh, as this was a discussion he, Ambraz, and many others had already had a few times. "She did something to the world portals that we still don't fully understand, not even with the information from Numili, but that didn't really help us. Did it? It just locked the Guidar in our Portal Web."
As he said that, Irwin wondered how Greldo's clone and the others were doing. He'd actively resisted asking too much, telling Greldo to only say if they needed help, as he already had too many things on his mind.
Ambraz was quiet, then let out a weary sigh.
"I know, and you are right," he grunted. "Which is why I hope Daubutim will return soon. Did you hear anything from him about his clone?"
"No, he is still in the library," Irwin said as he pondered what to do.
After a minute, he unsummoned his aura clones, which reduced the strain on his mind, and took over his giant body on Mudball.
Let's go and see how far the next batch of template cards is, he thought.
--
Daubutim calmly walked through the final part of what had been a ten-mile-long corridor filled with pale-skinned books. Each had a narrow slit on the back.
A soft creaking came from one ahead of him, and he stopped walking, holding his breath as he calmed himself as much as he could. On his shoulder, he sensed the red-raven Twyll go completely still. The slit on the back of a book, a few dozen feet ahead of him, and near the end of the corridor, opened. A deep yellow peeked out from between the leather eyelids, and as the slit opened fully, a muddled and veined eye looked around. The pitch-black pupil shrank a few times, but as it passed over Daubutim, it continued on without care.
The eye continued looking for a while before the slit closed.
Daubutim waited for another ten seconds before slowly walking forward. He reached the end of the hallway and made sure not to touch the doorframe in any way as he stepped through into another corridor. This one seemed far more normal, with a regular assortment of old musty tomes.
A soft, smooth laughter echoed from his pocket, and Daubutim resisted the shiver he felt at the sound.
"I will recall that corridor," the voice said after the laughter stopped. "I wonder how wide those slits can actually go."
Daubutim didn't answer but continued walking, though he knew the voice would not let him off.
"Toy…" the voice said softly. "If you turn left at the next intersection, you will find what you are searching for."
Daubutim almost froze in his steps. He had been walking for sixty-seven days, two hours, and seventeen minutes now, eating nothing but the scraps he came across when the ancient monster guided him through what had been busy areas only a few years earlier. Due to their deal, he could ask nothing of it, because he had two questions left of the three. Asking all three meant he had to do one thing for the thing locked in the book… A thing it hadn't been willing to explain, and had gotten upset when he asked even twice.
Continuing ahead, the laughter came again.
"I have to say, you are very interesting. Far more than that dusty one. Perhaps I should have offered you five questions as I did him. Ah well… choices made, suffer I must."
Silence returned as Daubutim walked towards the distant crossing in the Library, one of the innumerable numbers he guessed existed. His mind went back to the moment, months ago, when he had found the ancient book and had made the deal.
There was no other choice, he told himself, and although he knew it was true, he still shivered at the recollection of picking up the book and feeling it riffle through his surface thoughts. Surface thoughts… he'd not even really know what that meant until he'd been made painfully aware of them.
Carry him until he asked three questions, at which point he was to do a single thing for the nameless being.
"You have yet to make a mistake, toy," the voice whispered. "How different you are from the others. I am starting to regret the bargain from my end. Perhaps…”
Daubutim clenched his teeth as he held back his desire to try and edge the ancient thing on. It had done something similar when they first started talking, trying to lure him into saying more than he should.
I wonder why he is limited to these games, he thought. Is it because he is inside that book? Or is there some sort of soulforce skill in play?
Five steps from the intersection, the oily voice let out a weary sigh.
"Ahhh, fine. I see there is no way to trick you into asking anything. Two in a few thousand years. What are the odds? Fine. I wish to amend our deal, because you will not speak, and after having dealt with Gelwin for some millennia, I have no desire to be left on a shelf for god knows how long," the black book said, its voice as oily as always but somehow conveying a weary anger.
Daubutim didn't speak, but stopped walking, curious what the thing would offer. He didn't expect he would take it, as he already got what he needed with it leading him to the place he was searching for, namely the reason for the blockade on the Library.
"Toy, I need someone to do something for me, be it you or someone else. So, I want to make you a changed deal. I will either answer four more of your questions or help you gain information from four prisoners, and in exchange, you will take me out of the Library and leave me on any populated world."
Not in a million years, Daubutim thought. He didn't bother reacting, but continued walking to the intersection.
"Come now, this is a great deal, especially for you," the black book said, sounding almost amused. "You wish to deal with the Guidar, yes? Well, like I offered Gelwin, I can turn their mind's knowledge into a book for you to read."
Daubutim didn't react, but he accelerated his thoughts up until time slowed to a crawl, giving him minutes instead of moments as he stepped out of the hallway and into a vast chamber. Part of that was to think about what the black book had said, the rest to check what he was walking into.
If Gelwin didn't dare deal with you, while having more knowledge of what you are, why would I risk more than I have already? Daubutim thought as he pondered and then rejected his desire to know exactly what the Guidar knew. They had plans, and as dangerous as the Guidar were, who was to say what this book was? If it wanted to be brought out of the Library, there had to be a reason. One he didn't care to find out.
Having made up his mind, he focused on where he now was.
One of the main rooms, he knew instantly as he recognized the type of area.
He didn't, however, recognize which it was, but it had many similarities to the Fiverio portal. There were hallways leading away from a central dais on which an empty doorframe stood. Before the war, it had likely been a nice, table and chair-filled space with people quietly reading. Now, ripped-apart books lay strewn, mixed with torn paper, all covered in sprays of blood. Unlike the other rooms he'd been in, there was no sign of any bodies, but beyond that, it looked exactly like the smaller rooms he had been to.
Finding no immediate danger, he quickly scanned for food, as he was running low again. He saw a large crystal cylinder that he knew held water, and beside it stood a few tables. Sadly, the bottoms were open, and even from here he could see the food that had sat beside it was gone.
A soft tick from the far side of the room drew his attention, and he only just saw a shadowy blur move from one shadow to another. It was fast enough that even as slow as time was moving for him, he'd only just caught it.
Nyzir? No. Bigger.
Daubutim was already moving as his mind spun up potential enemies. His sword appeared in his hand, while Twyll shot into the sky like a blur of feathery red lightning.
Two steps sideways, he saw the shadowy blur move again, and this time he caught some details.
An Accenti of some kind?
He waited for the figure to appear in the lowest region of the room, where there was more room before acting. A trigger of his movement skill later, and the world changed to a frozen gray while he moved like lightning. He reached the figure, now nearly frozen in space, and he saw the purple eyes and purple hair, together with long bleeding gashes across a narrow face.
Kill or capture.
The moment passed, and Daubutim slammed the pommel of his sword against the side of the figure's head. It was knocked sideways, eyes rolling up, and then the movement returned to normal.
"Oh, another toy? Interesting!"
Daubutim felt his mouth go dry as a wave of overbearing soulforce pressure flowed from the book in his pocket towards the downed figure. Only Irwin had ever shown him anything similar, and he stumbled before he caught himself, stepped towards the figure, and put the tip of his blade on the pale jugular. The pressure stopped immediately, and a tremor came from his pocket.
"Our deal does not extend to others."
Daubutim's mind spun around, trying to see if that could be seen as a question, finding none and deciding he couldn't let the figure die. It was the first living thing he'd found, and he needed information.
"My victory, my toy," he said, keeping his voice emotionless.
A ripple of surprise moved across the soulforce pressure, then it faded as fast as it had come, while an almost exultant laughter followed.
"Very well! Show me how you toy, little mortal."
Daubutim shivered, then un-summoned his sword and knelt beside the Accenti. He put his hand on the man's neck and pulled the much lighter man up before looking around. He quickly found a table that wasn't completely destroyed, walked there, and put the man atop it before taking a step back.
Now what, he thought, staring at the unconscious man and guessing it would be a few minutes to hours before he woke. He was no stranger to torture, but he had never had to use it against innocents, and the chained Accenti before him was most likely that. An innocent unlucky bystander in this war of the Guidar. If only Irwin or one of the other cardsmiths could have managed to create a card to break the chains.
An image was pushed towards him from Twyll, but at the same time, a voice reverberated through the room.
"Hey! Don't hurt him!"
Daubutim spun around, sword returning in his hand, to see a tall woman running across the room towards him. With a salt-and-pepper beard and pale gray hair, she was clearly not an Accenti.
"He is only unconscious," Daubutim shouted as he stepped back.
"He better be," the woman exclaimed as she stopped beside the table, quickly fussing over the man and finding the growing bruise on the side of his head.
"He attacked me," Daubutim said calmly.
The woman grunted as she turned to him, and her gaze dropped to his pocket.
"Not surprising if you are carrying something as vile as a Zragh on you."
"Ohhhh my," the black book drawled. "I haven't seen this many mortals in one place for eons, let alone one with actual brains."
"Are you… A Zragh'al? Are you insane? How did you even find it?" the woman hissed, stepping back, removing a chained amulet from below her jacket. Covered in tiny runes, Daubutim sensed powerful soulforce waves fluctuating from it, and an annoyed hiss came from the black book.
Zragh is some sort of book or soulforce spirit, and a Zragh'al is a stronger version, Daubutim pondered, glancing at his pocket. Now that he knew the name, he could find more knowledge about it.
"Careful there, little mortal. If I have to, I will defend myself," the book hissed.
Daubutim saw the woman's eyes narrow, but she kept the amulet up.
The soulforce pressure from the black book began growing again, and the woman took another step back, muttering something.
"Put that filthy thing away, or I will take both of you as toys," the book said, voice rising in temper.
The woman hesitated, then shoved the amulet back behind her jacket in annoyance.
"Great, as if we don't have enough problems," she grunted, turning to Daubutim. "How did you even get in here? Did you somehow travel from another connection room?"
"Yes," Daubutim said.
"Ah, that's why you took the Zragh with you," the woman said, taking a deep breath before picking up the Accenti. "I am sorry that he attacked you. We have managed to snap most of his chains, but some still exist, and he managed to escape. Let me get you some food in compensation, because you must be hungry."
Daubutim followed the woman from a safe distance, moving through the destroyed corridors and preparing for them to change as he walked in. Instead, nothing like that happened.
"If you are wondering about the changing corridors, don't worry. We managed to stabilize the soulforce guiding runes that prevent the Library from taking over."
"I see," Daubutim said. "If I may ask, who are you?"
"I was one of the guards here, and right now I am the strongest Soulcarded remaining after the rest of this guy's friends nearly wiped all of us out," the woman said.
It didn't escape Daubutim that she didn't offer her name, and he prepared himself in case she proved a problem.
Seven minutes and ten seconds later, they walked through a corridor into a cleared-out room with a door on the opposite end.
Daubutim hummed as he waited in the middle of the room, watching her knock on the door. The door opened a moment later, and a man in the clothing of a librarian looked out. His eyes narrowed as they went to Daubutim, then to his pocket before widening. He glanced at the woman who was passing, who must have signaled something because he turned to glance at Daubutim, beckoning him over quickly.
Daubutim hesitated for only a moment before walking forward. He kept looking around, but saw nothing. Only when he was a few steps from the door did he see a set of runes across the doorpost. Runes he recognized from the hallway where he'd found the Zragh'al.
"What? No-"
Daubutim sped forward, triggering all his pent-up soulforce to move like a bolt of red lightning that crossed the door. A deafening screech echoed from his pocket, followed by a wave of soulforce pressure.
"Quickly, hand me the book," the Librarian said, hands outstretched.
Daubutim snatched the book out of his pocket and handed it over, still paying close attention to everything around him.
The man held the book before him as he began rapidly talking in a language Daubutim hadn't heard before, and as he spoke, tiny blue runes lit up around him before circling around to encompass the book. It lasted only a few moments, then the pressure vanished, and the book stopped shaking.
"Bah, a Zragh'al out of the closed-off section," the Librarian said, looking up at Daubutim. "One I don't even recognize. I'll lock it away right now, before it somehow influences something. You are a guard?"
"No, I am Apprentice Librarian Daubutim Coulwater, student under the third-rank librarian Purntou Lesseron."
"Purntou… He is from the Fiverion Branch," the Librarian hissed, eyes narrowing. "You will have to prove this later, and also explain how you can possibly be here. There is no way to move from Fiverion all the way here."
"That is fine," Daubutim said as he walked along with the Librarian, who had begun walking towards a distant corridor.
A quick look around showed that the gilded and rune-covered library chambers he was in now were likely ordinarily only for higher-ranking librarians. Now, however, they were filled with dozens of people, many of whom looked tired and stressed.
"Before that, could you explain why we can't use our soulscape from within the Library right now?" Daubutim asked.
The Librarian raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "You can enter from where we are now. The limits are only everywhere with broken runes due to the war."
Daubutim hid his sudden shock and instantly reached out to his otherself. The reaction that came made him trigger his soulcard, and time froze all around him as they began communicating. For him, it lasted almost ten minutes, but when he stopped, his foot had only just landed back on the ground.
"The guard just now said that you have Chained here?"
"Apprentice, which part of me having to put this monstrous thing away did you not understand?" the Librarian snapped.
Daubutim glanced at the Librarian and stopped, letting him walk away into the distance. He quickly looked around until he saw another librarian.
Let's get the chained out of here, and clear the Library, he thought, knowing that after that he would finally be able to do what he came here for. Read.