Irwin hovered high above his soulscape, staring down at where the newest addition bordered his soulforce sea.
He had expected some sort of pyroflux swamp, probably with lots of geysers or vents, and he wasn't disappointed. Stretching from the edges of his musical forest, and even stretching partially inside, lay a swamp of golden bubbling muck. What he hadn't expected, however, was that the pyroflux would seep far into the ground and connect to the pyroflux that he had brought from Igniz and begin mixing with it. Nor that it would push outward in channels that flowed through and below the musical forest, reaching as far as the sections beyond it.
Even the only empty section remaining, the one that would be filled by his seventh soulcard, had flooded in part, and from there, the pyroflux had managed to reach his soulforce sea.
"You are sure it will be fine?" Ambraz grunted.
"Sure? No. But I read up on people with water-typed soulcards, and some have their entire soulscape filled without an issue," Irwin said as he lowered himself to where the pyroflux seemed to flow over the liquid soulforce. "At least they don't mix."
"Well, I guess it won't matter soon anyway," Ambraz said, and Irwin hummed in agreement.
He glanced at the overflowing pyroflux before turning away and flying back to the swamp. Within moments, he saw the first of the wyrms slither through the bog that stretched far and wide.
"It's a bit boring, isn't it?" Ambraz said. "I mean… those geysers are nice, but I had expected something more."
Irwin nodded as he hovered in a patch that was more shallow than the rest. "I agree, so let's see if we can't change that."
Irwin took a deep breath and calmed himself as he focused on the soulforce around him. He had made more Volcano Tree soulforce constructs than any other construct, and as he focused on the solidified resonance he needed, a massive tree began taking shape before and below him. Geysers exploded up around him, causing a thin golden mist to hover around as roots began digging deep into the ground below the muck, and a giant dark red, almost black trunk grew alongside him.
It took him close to an hour to finish, but when he did, one of the biggest Volcano Trees he had made towered over him. A red, orange, and golden yellow canopy spread out to create a large shadow, while the rustling of the leaves in the scalding wind joined the soft plopping of the thick pyroflux muck.
"Well, if you are going to want to make any dent in this area, that will only cost you like a few hundred years at this speed," Ambraz said. "That said, it does look nice."
Irwin nodded, flying up a bit. The single tree looked lonely in the bog, but it instantly broke the monotony.
"Don't need to fill it all," he said. "Just a few dozen clusters and it will eventually spread on its own."
"Ah well, I guess if you do this for a few weeks, you will have gotten used to the new soulcard," Ambraz agreed as he flew around Irwin twice before vanishing.
"I'm going to check on the next cards a bit more, just to be sure."
"Have fun," Irwin said, holding back a snort. The Ganvil had been checking the cards daily for weeks, and he was pretty sure he knew them better than any others by now.
Still, I get how he feels, he thought, moving to a new spot and staring at the muck. That one needs to blend all of the rest, and one mistake…
He sighed, shoved his worry away, and began creating another Volcano Tree soulforce construct.
--
"Dad… did you really slot all of your final handcards?"
"How does it feel?"
"Are you strong enough to beat everyone in the city now?"
"When did you even do this?"
Irwin smiled as his children kept crawling across him, staring at the cards he was holding.
"Yes, I slotted them all, and it feels a little scary," he said, quickly answering some of the questions before turning to Soot, and raising his eyebrow. "It depends on what you mean by beat."
"You know, fight them all in a massive brawl!" Soot exclaimed, causing Ti to sigh and shake her head, while Zan giggled.
Irwin barked a laugh. "I have no idea. If I bring my giant body, I guess I could."
"Kid, there's no way all of the people in this city combined could do anything to you right now," Ambraz grunted. "The only ones who would come close are Greldo, and perhaps all of the teleporters combined could move you somewhere. Beyond that? One good push of your aura and they all go unconscious."
Irwin stared at Soot as he thought about Ambraz's words, and slowly the smile left his face.
"Dad?" Soot asked, suddenly looking worried. "I didn't mean it for real!"
"I know," Irwin said, forcing a smile back on his face.
He turned to Glow, who had asked the final questions. "I slotted them this evening, after I was sure I had fully integrated my sixth soulcard."
"So, what do they do?" Glow asked, causing all but Ti and Zan to lean forward with glittering eyes.
Irwin hummed before raising his hand and causing a large firesteel shield to appear in it.
"The first one allows me to summon this shield, which allows me to block everything as long as I have soulforce."
"Which means always," Flux said with a grin.
"But you could just block things with your hammer, right?" Mia asked, cocking her head. "Or is this because of the worldcard again?"
"All of these six cards are because of the worldcard," Irwin said as he made the shield vanish and held up his hands with the backs outward so they could see the images. He hummed softly as he thought about what he'd learned over the last few years.
"It's interesting, you know?" he said, smiling at his children. "The first cards you get are very important, but back when I was young, we didn't even know about heartcards. People just slotted whatever they found that was strong and which would not be rejected by the other cards. It's why those old people sometimes come to me for their heartcards. It's because the cards they have don't mesh well, and turning them into a heartcard is very hard. Now we know why it's so important that the cards mesh well, so we choose handcards that resonate. This means that the best set of handcards isn't necessarily the most diverse or powerful. You know this, right?"
His children nodded, though Irwin saw Soot frown.
"Well, beyond Eluathar, most people don't learn how important it is that your eventual soulcards also resonate properly. So, they just create the strongest heartcards and soulcards they can, shoving everything together. Part of this is because, like back on Giard, they know they will probably never get more than a single soulcard in their entire life, if they are lucky."
"People on Eluathar can get them, though, right?" Flux said, frowning.
"Yes, but that is because some cardsmiths can now create cardseeds, and because we can sing with the Chaos Whales to fill soullakes," Irwin said. "We don't know of any other part of the Portal Gallery where they have this."
"That's so sad," Zan said, while Silv'am hummed in agreement. "Do you think that sometime in the future everyone will be able to get the cards they want?"
"No," Irwin said, smiling sadly. "There will probably never be enough cardsmiths, let alone those who can make cardseeds. Even if there were, how many Chaos Whales do you know of?"
"Not enough," Zan said, crossing her arms and letting out an angry puff.
Irwin laughed. "Exactly."
"Dad, what did you mean when you said it was interesting?" Ti asked.
Irwin hummed. "Well, now that we know worldcards are a thing, those of us who have the potential to make one now need to change how we decide what soulcards we make. If you don't, you will get the same issue I had, in that you will have to use the full breadth of a few of them to fix choices from the past. That's what I meant by interesting. If you know only of handcards, you choose the best for the situation and get a strong but disjointed mess. Think that soulcards are the highest, and you get the same, but at a much larger scale."
"Do you think there's something beyond worldcards?" Ti asked, eyes gleaming.
"I don't know," Irwin said. "If there is, we have no knowledge about it, and they didn't know about it in the time of Exarg, so perhaps not. But do you remember our lessons about soulskills versus soulcards?"
"Yes, soulskills focus only on one or two things," Ti said. "Where soulcards can do many things."
"Exactly," Irwin said as he glanced at his hands. "Perhaps the reason they do only a few things is because of the goal they are moving towards."
"Dad, is that why you told us to choose fewer types than most people do?" Soot asked.
"Yes," Irwin said. "I don't know which of you will become worldcarded, but I want to be sure that you have a stable foundation for if you do."
"So, what do the other cards do?" Mia asked, pointing at his hands. "Or are they all boring?"
"Boring? No," Irwin said as he focused on one of his cards.
A soft, hummed song began emanating through the room, seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
His children looked around, then back at him, though Soot just rolled his eyes.
"A card to make music? Can't you already do that?"
Irwin laughed as he nodded. "Yes, but this one allows me to project sound through my aura."
"Wait, so you could talk anywhere you can reach with your aura?" Soot asked, eyes suddenly going wide and glittering.
"I could," Irwin said, making his voice come from the other side of the room. "But I guess you are right, a few of them are a bit boring."
As he said that, Irwin saw Ti roll her eyes, and he knew she didn't agree.
"So, is that what we will also have?" Soot asked. "Interesting first cards and boring final ones?"
"They aren't boring," Ti snapped, putting her hands on her hips. "They strengthen what you already have and make sure the different types blend well."
"But they don't do anything new…" Soot said leadingly, the corners of his lips turning up.
"Alright, why don't you all go and play outside?" Irwin said, not interested in having them start fighting inside. "I think Flagrian gave you all a few new moves to practice?"
Mia, Flux, and Glow were up and running for the door before he finished, while Zan let out a soft groan of annoyance.
"Which part of the cards will stay this time?" Soot asked as he got up, ignoring Ti's glare.
"Most of what deals with aura, soulforce, and sound will stay," Irwin said. "The shield will remain, though, like with my gauntlets, they won't be the core of the heartcard."
"Well, I can't wait to see what a worldcard does," Soot said as he turned and ran after the others.
A moment later, Irwin was left with Ti and Zan, both clearly not interested in going out.
"Do you really think there might be something beyond worldcards?" Ti asked.
Irwin hummed, then shook his head. "I don't know, but I have been thinking about what happened to Yilda and the other worldcarded. Someone with a soulcard can live hundreds, or if the soulcard is strong, thousands of years. Someone with multiple health issues who deals with body improvement can live even longer, and at some point, it's just the boredom that gets to them. So, that means that someone with a worldcard should live at least that long, right? So… where are they? Did they all get killed? If so, by whom or what?"
Zan frowned, but Irwin saw Ti's eyes narrow, and she began slowly nodding.
"You think that what comes after might be why they aren't here anymore," she said.
"Exactly," Irwin said. "Yilda was a worldcarded for a very long time, and after she broke free, she roamed the Portal Gallery for a few hundred years before suddenly vanishing."
Ti nodded as she crossed her arms. "There have to be other people who thought about this," she said after a while.
"I agree, which is why Daubutim has been searching for hints for me for the last few weeks," Irwin said.
The door of the smithy was shoved open, and Soot poked his head back inside. "Are you two joining or what?"
"Go," Irwin said as he got up and pushed his two daughters towards the door. "I'm going to talk with Greldo."
"Are you going to play music with Skylar again tonight?" Zan asked, looking at him accusingly. "You promised I could come with!"
"You can, as soon as you are this big," Irwin said, holding up his hand roughly a head-height above her current stature.
"No fair!" Zan exclaimed while Ti smiled beside her.
"Well, perhaps if you go and play nice with your brothers and sisters, I'll change my mind," Irwin said, wiggling his eyebrows.
Zan frowned, then turned around and rushed for the door, dragging Ti with her.
"You could have told them what you can do with your aura now," Ambraz said.
"I could, but they would have wanted to see, and that's too dangerous," Irwin said. "Now, let's go and see how Greldo is doing."
A short walk to the building on the other side of the large courtyard later, he saw the door of Greldo's home open up before he even reached it. His friend walked out, slamming the door shut before moving towards him.
"You heard me coming?" Irwin asked.
Greldo flicked his ears without answering and motioned towards the gate. "Let's go and have a drink."
--
"So, Tiscian wants to go and see what is going on?" Irwin asked, as he leaned back in his chair, listening to the soft chatter of the restaurant around them. "Are you sure it's safe?"
"It should be," Greldo agreed. "What we know is that some Guidar fleet took over two of the worlds near the Dismartintsia River. They are supposed to have over ten ships, and according to one of the merchants that managed to flee in time, there is some powerful guy that crushed half the defending fleet before they even had a chance to resist."
"How long till you get there?" Irwin asked.
"Two months at the best, if we don't come across any more Shadow Oculithar," Greldo said.
"Did you find many of those?" Irwin asked, surprised.
"Mostly small ones, and they seem to be attracted to my shadow sliver," Greldo said. "Not that it matters a lot. Between Coal, Gloom, that weird Squid I told you about, and the three new crabs I found, they get killed before they can do any harm. Sometimes I feel like a cleaner that's moving around."
Irwin snorted while Greldo motioned at him.
"What about you? Last card almost done?"
"I'm making the last heartcard either tomorrow or the day after," Irwin said.
"Damn… so, soon we will have a ton of fleets that are removing the final Chained from the Langost Branch, and the most powerful cardsmith in the Portal Gallery. Why does it feel like something bad is going to happen soon?"
"Please don't say that," Irwin said. "We have those Shadow Oculithar, and no idea what is happening in the adjacent branches. The only news we got was that the Tweelak Branch is still resisting, and that news is years old."
"Which reminds me," Greldo said. "Did you finally decide what you will do when you get your worldcard? Did you want to head straight for the Guidar, or help the Tweelak Branch?"
"I want to see what the worldcard does first," Irwin said, before shrugging. "If we help the Tweelak Branch and go out from there, we will save more people, but also alert the Guidar of my presence. The thing is, we don't know-"
Irwin continued for a while, explaining his worries.
"- and I can only be in one or two places at the same time," he ended.
"Well, I guess you are right. Let's wait to see what you can do as a worldcarded," Greldo said. "Who knows, maybe we are worrying for nothing."
I doubt that, Irwin thought.
The topic moved to things less worrisome, like Soot's constant questions on shadewalking, and for the rest of the afternoon, they ate, drank, and had fun before ending the evening at Skylar's bar.
"I am going to do some hunting with Coal before it's time to sleep," Greldo said as he walked towards the edge of the city. "Good luck tomorrow."
"Don't scare the rangers," Irwin said with a wave.
"Kid, I found two little things we need to make sure we can deal with," Ambraz said. "One is in the first melody, the other is a weird rhythm error we might get if-"
Irwin listened to Ambraz, knowing he was definitely not going to bed any time soon.
--
"Are you ready?" Trimdir asked, watching his old student.
"Yes. Just a bit… worried," Irwin replied, his molten metal-like eyes narrowing.
"It will be fine," Trimdir said, wondering what the rest of them had to feel if even Irwin was worried.
Still, if he somehow fails, it would explain why there are no other worldcarded around, he thought.
Irwin walked to the center of the room, and Trimdir moved to stand beside Dahlia, Endil, and Flowrishin.
"Did you notice how smooth his current set of handcards is?" Endil whispered. "It's like they flow together."
"I did," Trimdir said, while Flowrishin nodded.
"If this is the minimum requirement to get a worldcard, we are going to need to change a lot of the things that we teach," she said softly.
Trimdir didn't respond as he saw Irwin signal the surrounding Ganvils to erect the barrier.
"Good luck, Dad!" Zan shouted just as the barrier appeared.
Trimdir watched the giant smith wave at his daughter with a smile before focusing on Ambraz.
"I wonder how many people ever saw someone reforge their seventh heartcard," Endil said softly.
"None in the last few thousand years," Dahlia said, while Flowrishin smiled. "In all my eons, I have never seen it. The best I've seen until now was the sixth."
As did we all, Trimdir thought, as he recalled the previous reforging they had come together for, only a few months ago.
How things had changed.
Long ago, he hadn't even known cards could be changed. Now, someone was going to create their final heartcard off a full set…!
"Why are you laughing?"
Trimdir looked at Endil and realized he had been laughing.
"I just realized that we have all seen a fullhand, and even two, and we are now going to see a full soulscape."
"I am more curious to see what happens when he makes his worldcard," Dahlia said.
The three fell quiet as the first strike fell on the six floating cards, and Irwin's surrounding Aura Clones began playing the soulstrum guitars. Above him, Luath flew, casting a shadow across half the area while his deep voice caused the leaves on the distant trees to shudder.
"He has another summon among them," Endil whispered. "I wonder if that means his worldcard will have a summon part beyond Luath."
None of the older cardsmiths answered, and soon the chattering of the others, Irwin's family and friends, quieted as a calm, complex song resonated around them.
Time flowed slowly as Trimdir listened and tried to learn from what was being done in front of him. The smooth, perfectly timed hits, the complex weave of music, so unlike his own preferred smithing style, and thousands of minute soulforce pushes and pulls to create a pattern more complex even than the previous.
He makes it look easy, he thought, wondering if Irwin would need any help again, as he had with the previous card.
Almost an hour later, the song began winding down, and the brightly burning and newly formed heartcard sank back into Irwin's chest.
"I didn't notice a single error, and he didn't seem troubled at any moment," Endil said. "He must have succeeded… right?"
Trimdir didn't answer, watching the face of his most successful apprentice, looking for any tell. Irwin's face was emotionless, and for a moment Trimdir worried- then a massive smile spread across Irwin's face.
The barrier faded as he turned towards them, opening his mouth to say something. Before he could, a joyous shout interrupted him as Zan sprinted forward, closely followed by the others.
"That was amazing, Dad!"
Trimdir watched Scintilla walk towards them, giving Irwin a hug and a kiss, and he couldn't help but feel a tiny pang as he recalled his long-dead first wife.
I wonder what she would have said about all of this, he thought.
"Are you alright?" a soft voice asked, drawing him out of his dark moment.
Trimdir smiled at Esmee as she walked beside him, wrapping her strong arm around his waist.
"I am fine," he said, leaning in to give her a quick kiss. "Just thinking about long dead things."
Esmee squeezed him, likely knowing what his mind had conjured up, as both of them had their own nightmares.
"Let's go and have a family feast," he said, knowing she always liked those. "This feels like the proper occasion."
A few hours later, a loud chatter rang through the big kitchen as twice as many people as should have crowded around the table, eating and drinking and chatting.
Irwin, sitting at the far end, had pushed his chair back to the wall, quietly watching the others. Scintilla was draped across his lap, their combined weight actually managing to cause the massive chair to creak and groan on occasion.
"The kids need to go to bed soon," he whispered as he saw Zan cuddle up against Ti, eyes almost closed.
"A few more minutes are fine," Scintilla said as she sighed happily. "You are sure everything is alright?"
Irwin snorted and nodded. "I told you, the card became exactly like I had planned. Now it's just waiting for it to become Ammolite, which will probably take another few months again."
"Good," Scintilla said as she pushed herself up and away before reaching out to pull him up. "Let's go and put the kids in bed."
Irwin nodded, and he did his best to remain present as he helped with the winding down of the impromptu party. When he finally lay in bed and Scintilla had fallen asleep, he moved into his soulscape, beside his new heartcard.
"Kid, you should have told them," Ambraz grunted as he landed on his shoulder.
"And what? Make them worry?" Irwin asked, as he looked at the heartcard that hovered before him. "Did you manage to find anything?"
"No. It's exactly as we planned it, and the resonance is perfect," Ambraz said, making a booklet appear before Irwin, who took it out of the air and flipped it open.
Card: Cacophony of Aura and Soul
Type: Heartcard, Aura, Soulforce, Summon, Ammolite, Forged by Irwin Roddington
Owner: Irwin Roddington
A card teetering on the edge of explosive screaming and pure calm, it allows the wielder to project the full might of their soulforce across their aura. !Warning: the card is in flux.
Passive: Massively increased fire resistance
Passive: Greatly increased strength and endurance
Passive: Greatly increases aura control
Passive: Aura pressure increased [Soulforce]
Passive: Greatly increases soulforce stability
Active: Summon Shield of Cacophony
Active: Project sound across aura
Dammit…
"So, any idea what is happening?" he asked, staring at his final card. The resonance he sensed was exactly as it should be, so why was the result not what they had expected?
"No. It is perfect, and yet…"
Ambraz let out a disgusted grunt.
Irwin watched it for a while as an idea formed.
"What if it will only work after it turns into the soulcard…" he blurted out, feeling his hair stand on end.
Ambraz was quiet, but Irwin felt the worry from his friend through their connection.
"Kid. If that is wrong, and you try it, there is no going back."
"I know," Irwin said, staring at the heartcard. "But unless we can find a mistake that we haven't noticed yet…"
"We have time. Lots of time. Let's just examine it for a while," Ambraz exclaimed.
Irwin nodded, but as he stared at the heartcard, he had the unsettling feeling that they weren't going to find anything.