Irwin's Journey 513: New targets

Almost there, Irwin thought as he shot through the sound waves. Ten minutes of traveling later, he appeared back in the Portal Gallery, in a narrow corridor. One look told him that neither the Caldera nor any other similarly-sized ship would have been able to move through. Adding to the size and the lack of any ground below, he felt like he was shooting through a crystal tube instead of a part of the Portal Gallery.

The last of the three Simlari Outposts was up ahead, and he hoped the narrow corridor meant they would find something else.

No ships this time, please, he thought.

A few minutes later, he burst out into a large, short corridor that was almost like a not-completely-spherical bubble. It had only two other entrances, both as narrow as the one he came through, and miraculously had managed to keep its bedrock foundation. 

Sadly, the ruins of a small stone and wooden harbor on the bedrock showed they likely were too late again.

Dammit, Irwin thought, shooting closer and landing on the edge of the stony foundations. 

"It's going to get even harder to have the Unchained Accenti and others fit in if all we find are corpses," he said, glaring at the distant buildings. 

He wasn't looking forward to the next part. If it were anything like the Cloudysky and Greensky, he'd find no survivors in the buildings. That meant opening the closed portal and checking inside. 

'Kid… there's something different about this one,' Ambraz muttered as they closed in on the ruined harbor. 

Irwin looked ahead at the destroyed buildings, roofs that had collapsed, and walls with holes in them. 

'It looks like the others? Larger perhaps,' he said.

'There's something about the way these buildings are damaged,' Ambraz muttered. 'It's really weird. There's also none that has completely collapsed.'

Irwin frowned as he closed in on the nearest building, trying to see what Ambraz was talking about. To him, the destruction looked like that of the other, smaller harbors. Perhaps no entire buildings were crumbling, but that could just be a coincidence?

They continued through the city, and slowly Irwin realized Ambraz was right. Something was different.

"Where are all the bodies?" he said softly, looking around another main square. There had been a lot of resistance in both of the other small outposts, and he'd found the remains of hundreds of defenders even in the smaller of the two. Now? None.

He continued walking around while his otherself asked Skylar for his opinion. The Simlari was as confused as he was.

'Perhaps they surrendered?' Ambraz opted.

Irwin didn't answer as he arrived at the central building. It looked as damaged as the rest, but as he closed in, he noticed that, except for some superficial scarring on the walls, it seemed fine. Debris piled up against its side seemed not to belong to the building, and as he gazed at the gated door, blown apart, his eyes widened.

'It's as if whoever did this didn't want to permanently damage anything,' he said, looking back and reassessing the buildings. 'Look, none of the buildings with caved roofs or broken walls will impact any others. They are either smaller than those next to it, or far enough away that even if they collapsed, they wouldn't take anything with them.'

'That's it,' Ambraz exclaimed, appearing on his shoulder.

"They did this themselves," the Ganvil said, flying around. "I'm almost sure of it! I think they made it look like the place was either abandoned or already lost, in the hopes of tricking the Chained. Think about it, they would have to send shadewalkers or others here to check. No way ships can move through those narrow corridors. Those that did would likely look around, report back to whoever is in charge, and… leave?"

"Perhaps," Irwin said, as he walked into the central building from where he felt the resonance of the closed portal. "But that doesn't mean those Chained didn't open the portal anyway."

"I doubt it," Ambraz grunted. "They have to deal with thousands of worlds, some of which are resisting pretty hard. Opening it would mean getting a sizeable force here, opening the portal, then going in. Remember, the other two? The portal is probably in mid-air, with no ground in sight. There aren't that many people with cards that allow them to fly."

"They could send in a shadewalker," Irwin said, still not convinced. 

Still, as they walked farther into the building, finding neither bodies nor any damage, he was starting to wonder. As they reached a large, empty room where he felt the closed portal, he stopped.

"What…?" he exclaimed, staring at a board hung on the wall.

"Don't enter. Soulforce disease has run rampant. Outpost abandoned in the name of the Etherlord."

There was a merchant date that was from a year ago. 

"Okay, I'm sure now," Ambraz said. "Think about it! Why are those buildings if there's some disease? Also, soulforce diseases haven't happened for thousands of years."

Irwin stared at the board, then at the spot where the portal was. "Let's ask Skylar," he said. "Because with all that's been happening, this feels like a risk not worth taking."

"Which is probably what the Chained thought," Ambraz said, sounding almost excited.

Irwin didn't respond, but listened in on the conversation between his auraclone and Skylar.

--

"Yes, it's possible," Skylar said, sounding almost as excited as Ambraz was. "I've read stories about situations like this, which means there are likely others who have to. There's actually a famous legend that deals with how we managed to survive one of the wars, eons ago, in a similar way."

The Simlari began pacing the deck, his eyes flickering around.

"There's also the fact that they definitely haven't had any contact with the Etherlord. They also lack a Central Register," Skylar said as he turned to Irwin. "Let me check! Please! There were close to a hundred thousand of my people there. If you can…" he trailed off as he looked around. 

They were standing on the deck alone, the rest of his crew had moved into a house Irwin had created on the opposite side of where the Accenti were. 

"I don't think you can store a hundred thousand people in here," he muttered, grimacing. "Can you?"

Irwin cocked his head, looking around and prodding his soulscape. There was barely any sense of instability from the people who were there now, though he did feel the presence of the ships as a slight weight, almost like he had some metal in a pocket.

I had a few thousand people in here before, he pondered, recalling how he'd been able to move those around for weeks. That had been before his new soulcard finished, and before he'd learned to create soulforce constructs. Both had greatly increased his stability, but the question was… had it increased by a fifty times?

"Irwin?"

Irwin looked up to see Skylar watch him, eyes wide, a look of disbelief written on his face. "You aren't sure?"

"I'm not," Irwin said, looking around. "I've moved around five thousand people before. Since then, I've become a lot stronger."

"Please! If you can, that would be great! Granvox has plenty of space, and I'm sure they would be willing to harbor my people," Skylar said. 

Irwin didn't respond, prodding his soulscape and imagining holding that many people in it. It should feel far-fetched, but for some reason it didn't. Besides, with how big his soulscape now was, he had more than enough space. There was one big problem, though.

"What about food? I brought a lot as I expected to have to rescue people, but this many people will be a problem."

Skylar blinked, then shook his head. "Let me go there. I'm sure that they will have plenty of food."

'Just do it, kid. You might have to take some breaks in between here and Mudball, but even then, it should be possible. Also, you could even leave them there. It's much less likely for that place to be found, because it's not on any maps.'

Irwin looked around his soulscape, then sighed. He'd fully expected to save people. Thousands even. But an entire outpost?

If we leave them there, there's a risk that the Guidar finds them, he thought.

"Fine," he agreed. "Are you sure it's safe for you to check inside?"

"Definitely," Skylar said. "My people would never put up barriers that prevent our own people. Most likely, the portal is high up, potentially with strong winds or a pocket without air around it. None of those things will bother me."

Irwin nodded, pulling his friend out of his soulscape and into the room where he was standing. At the same time, he felt Ambraz moving back in.

'I'll start creating more towns,' the Ganvil said. 

'Make sure to keep them far from the Accenti,' Irwin replied. He hesitated, then formed a new auraclone near the building the Accenti were living in so he could warn them.

I hope Greldo isn't going to be too shocked, he thought, as he focused on the portal and began opening it. 

--

Skylar appeared mid-air, and he instantly knew he'd been right. Breathing was impossible, while the air all around him shimmered, the telltale signs of a zero-oxygen bubble. Around the bubble, wind streaked past, moving particles horizontally.

They actually managed to create a wind funnel? Impressive, he thought, before examining his surroundings.

Deep gray clouds hung high above, while there was no sign of the planet's ground anywhere. Far in the distance, he saw the shape of a skyisland, small compared to those on his homeworld, but bigger than he'd expected. 

Dozens of tiny dots were racing from it towards him, likely guards. He floated on the air currents out of the bubble, which, like the skyisland, was larger than he'd have imagined the carded on this small world could have created.

As he regained the ability to breathe, he waited quietly for the guards to arrive, which didn't take too long. One, a small woman with dark-blue hair as long as she was, had pulled ahead of the others. 

Two soulcards, perhaps three, Skylar thought, trying to gauge her strength.

"Don't move! Who are you?" the woman shouted, stopping a few dozen feet from him, her control of the winds clearly great as she was barely moved by the hurricane-level winds. Her hair made her look far bigger than she was, as it spread out around her, moved by something that wasn't the wind.

Wind control that special, or… hair control? 

Skylar raised his hand in the gesture of peace.

"I am Cardsmith Skylar," he said. "We are on our way to Granvox and were checking on the different outposts."

"Prove it. Show me your ranking tablet," the woman said, as the first of the slower warriors reached her.

Skylar floated his hair from behind his back, taking the locket attached to the back and holding it up.

"Lady Zephyria, he is who he says he is," an older man with gray, stormy hair and silver eyes said. He floated up beside the woman, eyes locked on Skylar. "Cardsmith Skylar, I am Straahl. Perhaps you remember me? I met you when I visited your Master, Cardsmith Aurella."

Skylar examined the old man, but nothing about him seemed familiar. The name Straahl didn't ring a bell either. That said, many people had visited his late Master, as she had been both a cardsmith and a member of a powerful skyfamily. It was impossible for him to remember them all.

"I am afraid I don't recall," he said. "Also… Master Aurella died two years ago."

The man's face fell, and he sighed. "It saddens me to hear that, young man. Your Master was one of the few of our generation still alive. With her gone, there are but a few of us left."

If he is as old as Master, I should know him, Skylar thought, trying to place the man's face. 

"Straahl, we are not here to talk about the olden days," the woman said, though Skylar saw that her initial weariness had faded a lot. "Cardsmith Skylar, if you are here, does that mean the war is over? Have the Chained been pushed back?"

Skylar shook his head, realizing just how little the people of this outpost knew of what was really going on.

"No, and by now, Clearsky has likely enacted the Hurricane Lockdown," he said. "We have lost a great deal of our fleet, and you are the only outpost we found that hadn't been overrun yet."

A horrified look came across all of the guards, including Lady Zephyria and Straahl. 

"We are doomed," one of the guards whispered, causing the guards to burst out in worried conversation.

"Quiet," Lady Zephyria shouted, her voice rising in pitch. "Cardsmith Skylar, I think it would be best if you follow me to the city so we can talk. We know little of what has been happening, and perhaps you can bring some hope in these stormy times."

Skylar nodded, knowing it would likely take some time before he managed to convince the people here to come with them. If they even would. As he followed Lady Zephyria towards the city, he realized just how much they had accomplished here. If they left it all, that meant leaving what they had needed a hundred years or more to create, to hide out somewhere until the war was over, and then hope things would still be here.

I'm glad I told Irwin that this might take a while, he thought.

--

Irwin sighed as he stared at the portal, wondering again if he shouldn't just go and check. It had been two days since Skylar had gone in, and he was starting to get worried.

A few minutes later, as he was pacing through the room, the portal flared up, and Skylar appeared out of it. He looked weary, eyes sunken and face pale, but he smiled as he saw Irwin.

"Glad you didn't leave without me," he said. 

"I was this close," Irwin replied, holding his fingers close together. "So, how did it go?"

Skylar sighed. "Not very good. Most won't be coming. Besides not believing that you can even safely move them, they prefer their chances here. They believe they can keep the Chained at bay with the defenses they have put in place, and they are also building a new skyisland on the other side of the portal, behind a few maelstroms. They are planning to leave their current city, similarly destroyed on the outside, and hide."

Irwin sighed, quickly signaling Ambraz to stop building more towns. He'd barely done so when the Ganvil appeared on his shoulder.

"You are kidding?! They aren't coming?" 

"Some are," Skylar said, smiling again. "Lady Zephyria had me explain what I was planning to the whole city, which was a rather interesting experience. A bit like when we played in the bars on Granvox, but with less cheering. About twelve thousand people, mostly those with families on other worlds, merchants, and those not happy with Lady Zephyria, decided to leave."

Skylar's smile turned sour as he shook his head. "I think Lady Zephyria actually took advantage of the situation to get rid of a whole lot of people she preferred to be rid of."

"Troublesome people?" Irwin asked, wondering if he was about to be handed over a bunch of misfits.

"No," Skylar said, shaking his head. "Just people who disagreed with how she has been doing things since she became the outpost's leader. Anyway, they are gathering beyond the portal. Everyone will be carrying as much food as they can, and they will have a few barges filled with personal items. I wasn't sure how much they could bring, so I told them only to bring the essentials."

"I take it I'll have to go inside to pick them up?" Irwin asked.

"That would be the easiest," Skylar agreed.

"There isn't any time dilation, right? To me, you were gone for two days."

"That matches," Skylar said, rubbing his eyes. "Two long days. Lady Zephyria tried to get every bit of information out of me that she could, including who you were and how you could possibly bring that many people into your soulscape. I just told her that it was your speciality, and that all of your soulcards deal with soulscape increases."

Not entirely untrue, Irwin thought.

"Fine, how long until they are ready?"

"The first ones are already waiting outside, so we can start right away," Skylar said.

"Ugh, only twelve thousand? Fine, I'll remove some of the towns I've made," Ambraz grumbled, disappearing.

'Leave them,' Irwin sent after him. 'There is no saying how many more people we will come across.'

He felt Ambraz grumble something, before muttering something about at least finishing them then.

"Right, let's get those people into my soulscape," Irwin said, walking to the exit portal.

It took two more days, far longer than Irwin had wanted, until they were finally done. By the end, a few more stragglers had decided to leave, and he now had just under thirteen thousand souls in his soulscape, most of them Simlari. They were spread across a dozen towns on the far side of his soullake, away from his own smithy and the Accenti with the orders not to wander around too much. Not that they could, as the stifling heat caused many to be locked within the barrier-covered towns.

A short conversation with Lady Zephyria later, he and Skylar were shooting through the exit portal corridor. The barrier around it was a pale gray, while enormous clouds of chaotic soulforce lit up the primal space beyond.

"You could have gone into my soulscape," Irwin said, looking at his friend.

"True, but I've seen about enough of my own kind for a while," Skylar said, before laughing. "I'm starting to understand why my Master lived so far from civilization. Besides, I wanted to ask you some things…"

Irwin raised an eyebrow.

"You aren't a Fiz'rin… but I've never heard of Crathans."

Irwin froze, and Skylar quickly continued talking.

"It's because of Blade. His soulforce isn't as strong as yours or Rindiri's, so one of my cards gives me the ability to see information about people's cards. His soulcard is typed as Cratahan, and because he looks like you, I just assumed… is it a secret?"

His card can do that? Irwin thought, suddenly slightly worried. He took a deep breath, wondering what he should do. 

'Just tell him you are from a new world that hasn't been integrated yet,' Ambraz snorted. 'It's technically true, and many people already know. Just don't tell him about Eluathar.'

Irwin snorted, then shrugged.

"Yes, I'm a Crathan," Irwin said, raising his hand to prevent Skylar's questions. His friend closed his mouth and made a 'go on' motion. "We… found our Exit Portal shortly before the storm hit. I was one of the first to travel the Portal Gallery, under the guise of being a Fiz'rin. We are… similar to them. Both of our species are Firesteel elementals."

"That's amazing! I've never heard of a species that managed to open its own Exit Portal and not be instantly discovered," Skylar said. He opened his mouth before hesitating and smirking. "I guess asking which part of the Langost Branch your world is in won't get me anywhere?"

"Not with a war going on," Irwin said. "Let's say my people are preparing for the war to reach them."

"It hasn't yet?" Skylar exclaimed, making Irwin groan as he realized he probably could have reframed that better.

"No, we are a bit far out," he said. 

"Are all the people from your homeworld, Crathan?" Skylar asked curiously.

"No," Irwin said, shaking his head as Skylar began asking more questions. "And I can't tell you anything more. Not yet. There's a chance we will connect to the Central Registrar in the near future. When that happens, I can tell you more."

"When that happens, show me your world!" Skylar exclaimed. "I can't wait to see what kind of place has cardsmiths like you. There are others, right?"

"Oh yes," Irwin said, before smirking. "We also have a cardsmith academy called the Volcano Academy."

"Seriously? Why didn't you go there?" Skylar said, raising an eyebrow. "You knew barely anything when I first met you. Good at smithing, bad at theory."

"Yeah, I left before I could go there," Irwin said, realizing that most of what he'd said was true, if looked at from a certain point of view.

Skylar laughed, then raised his hands, causing a beautiful instrument made of metal to appear. 

Irwin blinked at the sudden sight of Skylar's saxhorn.

"Don't look so surprised! I've been wanting to jam ever since seeing you again, but we just never had the time for it. No, we have half an hour or so remaining," Skylar said, before playing a simple but beautiful tune. 

Irwin didn't hesitate, but summoned his soulstrum guitar, and within minutes they were playing one of the many songs they had played that felt to Irwin like ages ago.

I can get used to this, he thought, as his fingers flew across the strings. 

--

Days passed, with Irwin doing three things simultaneously. Part of him was enjoying spending time with his children, learning to play the odd game that had been spreading across Eluathar like wildfire, and teaching them smithing. Another part of him was flying across the Portal Gallery, rushing towards Greldo as fast as he could. The final part of him?

"Please tell me he didn't," Irwin said, leaning his giant head against the table as Ambraz rushed into the room, Pur'am contained in a barrier being dragged with him.

"Oh, come on! It wasn't like that guy was using the card," the purple Ganvil cried out in consternation. "He'd left it on the table! Probably forgot he had it!"

"He was about to give it to his son as a present," Ambraz snarled, glaring at his Progeny in a way that made Irwin wonder if he was about to lose it.

He quickly reached out, grabbed the barrier, and pulled it close.

"Pur'am, remember what I told you last time?" he asked.

"Ughhhh, please, don't make me stay with her again! She keeps making me do things," Pur'am exclaimed. "It was just one card!"

"One card today," Irwin said, sighing. "That's the sixth in a week…"

"So? I'm hungry!" Pur'am exclaimed. "If you would just feed me the cards you are hiding, which I know you are!"

"I'm not going to feed you a single card for the next week," Irwin said, wrapping the barrier with another of his own. "You are going to be with Brecka for a week, inside this barrier, and listen to her lecture you."

Pur'am let out a horrified shriek, which Irwin ignored as he moved the barrier and Ganvil across his soulscape to Brecka, having already warned her with an auraclone.

As he watched at the table for a moment, he sighed. "Fine, what kind of growth card was it?"

"Nothing special," Ambraz grumbled, sarcastically. "Just a pair of lightning-typed bracelets that allowed the kid to complete his full armor."

Irwin groaned. 

Great, and again no time to work on my own new cards, he thought with a sigh.

"Fine. I'll head there and see if I can create him something similar or better. But Ambraz, we need to find your kid a cardsmith. He needs to get purified soulforce in another way than his eating every growth card he can find. How did he even find this one?"

"I think he can smell them," Ambraz muttered. "From what I've been able to gather, it's similar to how you can hear and see the soulforce. He seems to be able to smell and taste it. Let's hope there's a cardsmith on Granvox who will align with him."

Irwin didn't respond, hoping his friend was right.

Half a day of diplomacy, which almost failed, and the reforging of both a handcard and a heartcard later, he returned to his smithy.

Slumping in the massive chair, which groaned under his immense weight, he floated the cursed healing card before him.

"So, tell me again what you said yesterday?"

"Right, let's do something fun," Ambraz said, hovering up. "So, I don't think we can remove the curse and have it keep the healing. What we can do is change the card so it increases the amount of heat it spreads, while removing the damage it does. Right now, the curse has two components. One makes it heat up the wielder, while the other takes heat and changes it to damage. For you, that means it's the worst card. But I think we can move the additional part of the course into the heating element. Let it heat far, far more, which would be bad for nearly everyone, but remove the damage part."

"How sure are you?" Irwin asked, looking at the card.

"Sure enough, we don't have to wait and see if Greldo found more template cards," Ambraz said. "Besides, like I told you, it just isn't good enough for that!"

If I can use my heat to heal others, and increase my own heat while doing it, which will help me with my kinetic energy? It might not help my smithing, but it will be great during the war, Irwin thought, but he didn't say that out loud.

"Is there any way that we can increase the healing with more heat? Double dip into my flame?"

"We can try, but we will have to reforge it sideways a few times for me to get a feel for it," Ambraz said. 

Irwin focused on his other two selves before nodding slowly.

"The kids will go to bed in an hour or so. Let's try after that," he said.

"Great! Oh, and if we fail, don't worry too much. I'm sure we can find something similar in Brazardian's vault," Ambraz said, sounding excited. "Now, let me prepare the resonance song."

Irwin watched the Ganvil as it began flying through the room in the Ganvil equivalent of pacing, humming snippets.

That's if Granvox is still safe when we get there, he thought.