Irwin's Journey 472: Portal Webs

"Ten times as much soulforce as you have now?" Amburaz said slowly. "You are sure he said that?"

Irwin nodded as he sat at the edge of the pyroflux lake, legs inside the hot liquid, as he watched the massive group of fire elemental snakes congregated in the distance. The Ghulnithair had been waiting for him when he rose from the depths, and their new leader, Moulinduadh, had told him to wait before leaving. 

That was at least half an hour ago.

"They seem to be done," he said, watching all of the small fire snakes dash away through the pyroflux, quickly dispersing. Within moments, only a group of five equally large Ghulnithair remained, with one swimming towards him. 

'Let's see what Moulinduadh has to say,' Irwin muttered, recognizing her from the large, smooth black patches on her skin that created a mottled appearance on the side of her head.

He rose to his feet, and as she began towering over him, he momentarily pondered changing into his giant self. Then he shook the feeling away.

"Crathanathair. As much as we understand that there was no other option for Preganrúadh, we now have to live without our forbears, and this brings us great pain," the large fire snake rumbled as she towered over him. "Still… we know it was what Preg wanted, and by the end, there was no other thing we could do. Igg had just become too powerful and sick."

Irwin waited, wondering why she was telling him this. 

Moulinduadh let out a sigh that made it feel like a strong wind blew into his face. A wind that smelled of volcanoes and lava.

"We will respect Preg's final wishes and leave you the ability to use his and Igg's old cave as your own for as long as you remain on Scour. Though I hope you will not remain for now. We need time to grieve and prefer to do so without the presence of others."

"I was not planning on staying," Irwin said, honestly. "I have other things to do."

Moulinduadh lowered her head slightly. "That is good, and even if it is not needed, I thank you for it. My sisters and I asked Preg many times to end Igg when he still could… a selfish, and loathsome request, we know, but one born from a fear of losing both our elders. Now they are gone, and we must fully grasp that we have lost the last of our old homeworld. We also need to plan for the potential incursion of one of the Insectoid Titans. Although Preg believed we would be fine, I fear that one of the reasons those never bothered us was because of his and Igg's presence. Now that they are gone, it is possible that we will no longer have it as easy."

Irwin frowned, thinking back to the immense Insectoid he'd fought in the Oxarite Empire. Looking down, he stretched out his soulforce senses, letting them flow as far down as he could, trying to sense anything similar. 

"There are none down here. Neither are there any of their Queens," Moulinduadh said, and Irwin quickly realized she was right. "However, they come up from the depths, on occasion."

'It wouldn't be a bad idea to kill another of those,' Ambraz said, sounding excited. 'Who knows what kind of other cards they could drop?'

Irwin hesitated, then hummed in agreement with Ambraz. 

"If you sense one coming, send a teleporter to me," he said. "I will help fight it."

Moulinduadh was quiet, her head lowering further, all six of her eyes narrowing as they focused on him.

"You would help us? Why?"

"For one, I need more of their cards," Irwin said. "I'm searching for parts of my next heartcard. Also, I can drain them of their soulforce to increase the speed at which my soullake fills."

Moulinduadh backed up a few feet, her eyes widening.

"I heard rumors," she whispered, before shaking her cart-sized head. "A Devouring Flame… I have only heard legends of those."

"You know of my flame?" Irwin asked, leaning forward curiously.

He'd learned some things about it over the years, but most of it came from soulskilled and was cloaked in fear and legend.

Moulinduadh watched him quietly before cocking her head. "You don't know your own skills?"

"I know most of them," Irwin said with a shrug. "But the Devouring Flame isn't something I was able to find much information on. Nor any other versions."

"I see… From what I know of it, it's a mutated Origin Flame, and only appears on fire elemental worlds," Moulinduadh said calmly. "I haven't seen one, but I know the Ignizians also have legends about them."

"I know," Irwin said, slightly disillusioned. He'd hoped to find more information about his very first card, but again, he only heard the same things. 

"Although I don't know much more about the flame, I do know there are more Devouring skills," Moulinduadh said, seeming to detect his disappointment. "Perhaps it helps if you search for Devouring Shadows, or Devouring Stream."

Irwin blinked, feeling a wave of confusion from Ambraz.

"There are other types of Devouring…" he said, cocking his head.

"Yes, though again I only have knowledge from legends and stories," Moulinduadh said. "I think you can likely find more if you go to The Library."

Not likely, Irwin thought. Gelwin's warning was the first thing he thought about.

"I will see what I can do," he said. 

'Kid… how does she know about The Library?'

Irwin froze in his tracks, slowly glancing up at the giant fire elemental snake.

"Moulinduadh, what do you know of The Library?"

Moulinduadh looked at him for a moment, then four of her eyes closed, only two remaining focused on Irwin. 

"In honor of Preg, you may call me Mouli, like my sisters do," she said calmly. "And to answer your question, it is in my hereditary memories."

"Your… how old is the library?" Irwin asked, somewhat stunned.

"I don't know," Mouli said. "But at a minimum, older than all of my memories. The oldest I have are somewhat vague, but they imply that the Library was already there for as long as my ancestors knew."

Irwin felt a slight shock run through Ambraz.

'Ambraz?'

'Kid… From what I know, the Library was supposedly built during the Galladin time period, but Mouli's memories are likely a great deal older than that. Ask her if she knows how big it is. Does it spread beyond our area of the Portal Gallery?'

Irwin quickly relayed the question, and the massive fire snake lowered her head until it was horizontal with the pyroflux lake.

"It is everywhere," she said calmly. "We, the Ghulnithair, do not originate from this Portal Web and came here when it was much smaller and unstable. The Library was known even in the previous Portal Web we called home."

"Portal Web?" Irwin asked, more than a little confused.

"What you call the Portal Gallery is just one of an unknown number of Portal Webs that exist in the Primordeal Chaos," Mouli said calmly. "They can be as small as a single main branch of a few interconnected worlds, or like massive structures similar to the Portal Gallery, that seem to go on forever. I don't know much more, because I am now delving into the deepest and oldest of my memories."

Irwin took a deep breath as a dozen things seemingly clicked in his mind.

"How do you move between them?" he asked, already having a good idea how.

"With World Portals," she said softly. "Immense portals that connect the different Portal Webs and seemingly randomly appear between different Portal Webs, closing after a certain while."

'That's what those memories were about,' Irwin whispered to Ambraz. 'That massive portal that appeared in the Titan's civilisation!'

"What was your original Portal Web like?" Irwin asked.

"I don't know, but it is the same one the Amnathair and some other species fled from," she said.

"Fled?"

Mouli sighed, shaking her head. "I know what you want to know, but I know little about this. The memories from before my species' arrival here are short flashes. What I can tell you is that the Amnathair closed the World Portal after we arrived here. I don't know how, but whatever haunted them and my ancestors and many others never found us."

I hope it's not the Guidar, Irwin thought, as he absently looked into the pyroflux, pondering about what he'd just learned.

"Crathanathair-" Mouli began, only for Irwin to wave his hand around.

"Just call me Irwin, please."

"Very well. Irwin, I hope I have answered your questions to your satisfaction, but… I wish you to leave for now. You are welcome to return in a few months, but we need to grieve."

Irwin blinked, then quickly shook himself away.

"Thank you for telling me these things," he said, taking a step back. "I'll probably be busy for a while after this, but if you need my help, let me know."

Mouli rose, blowing her head while closing her eyes momentarily.

Irwin mimicked her gesture as best he could before turning around and walking away. Ambraz and he remained quiet until they reached the long, sloping circular path that led back up. By then, Irwin had sensed Ambraz was starting to worry about something, and he wasn't surprised when his friend began talking.

'Kid… I think we just learned more about the Portal Gallery than even Brazardian and the other Monarchs combined. We need to find a moment to contact Granvox or return there to talk to him about this,' Ambraz said. 'Knowing this, those Guidar might be from another Portal Web. If they are, we need to keep an eye out for those world portals. Who knows how they work? Brazardian can send messages to the central branches.'

Irwin nodded, thinking about their own way to send messages across the Portal Gallery. He hadn't thought about the Yuurindi for a while, but as his thoughts flitted across all the things he'd just learned, connecting them with the many other things he already knew, he wondered if there was a way to contact Gelwin. Perhaps the ancient Galladin knew more about this?

'There's something else we need to talk about,' Ambraz said, drawing his attention back. 'You know how we talked about the ridiculous amount of Ancestral Coperion that has to be within Scour's core for all of those time dilation things happening? Well, I've been thinking… It is far too dangerous to leave all of it here. Say we close all the portals and the Ancestral Coperion eventually drains, who is to say people will remember and continue doing that? Perhaps after a few hundred years, or a thousand years, portals will just start appearing again, and the entire cycle will restart."

Irwin frowned. 'So what? You want to take it?' 

'Don't make it sound so bad,' Ambraz snorted. 'They don't do anything with it, and it's only causing them trouble. It's likely the reason behind all of the Oculithar coming here.'

Irwin snorted, knowing the first part wasn't true. Scour utilized both its time dilation and the large number of cards that dropped from the creatures that emerged from the portals to have a higher than average number of handcarded. That said, the latter was true, and it gave him an idea. What if they could use the Ancestral Coperion to somehow bait the Oculithar that had managed to remain within the Portal Gallery corridors? If he could wipe them all out, it would save untold numbers of lives. 

It did leave a rather large problem.

"How do I even get it and bring all of that with me? Besides it being inside the planet, which means I'll have to find it, even if I speed the time dilation to as normal as I can, moving that much matter into my soulscape is going to take decades or longer."

"How? Simple. You don't find it," Ambraz said. "Brecka should. Create a Projections heartcard for her and have her and Nimlarel teleport around the depths. She can easily draw in large amounts of Ancestral Coperion, then return here and have you bring it into your soulscape."

Irwin blinked, then shook his head. "What if she wants an Aura card?"

"Just ask her," Ambraz grunted. "If she would rather want an Aura card, well… find someone else? Perhaps Rinbus wants one. Otherwise, we will have to find another way."

Irwin shook his head, but as he pondered that part, he couldn't stop thinking about what Ambraz had suggested. It stuck with him all the way up the slope, and he didn't even bother to use his soundwave movement. Instead, he took the time to ponder things, and when he reached the top, he decided Ambraz was right. At a minimum, he could ask, and even if he wasn't going to bring it all away, having the Ancestral Copperion deep in the bowels of Scour made it more dangerous than having it somewhere it could be moved away or out in case of emergency. 

Or used, he thought as he walked toward Blademother Nilish.

--

"So… there are other Portal Galleries?" Brecka asked, sounding highly curious.

"They call them Portal Webs, apparently, but yes," Irwin agreed.

"I wonder if we could explore one, and what's different about them," Brecka said, sipping from her drink, her eyes gleaming with interest.

"There might be no portal corridors, or very few," Irwin said, leaning back and watching her. "But before we continue, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. Have you decided what your next heartcard should be?"

Brecka shook her head. "Not really. I wouldn't mind being able to teleport or having a better movement technique. Then again, something like stone or metal shaping seems interesting, or-"

Irwin listened as she listed a few things, mostly high control and movement abilities. He nodded and hummed.

"Have you thought about an Aura or Projection card?"

"Like what you have?" Brecka asked, looking interested. "I thought those were really rare?!"

"They are," Irwin agreed. "But I have a projection card that I could reforge to fit you."

Brecka frowned, cocking her head. "But you have an Aura card…"

"I do," Irwin said. "Because it combines well with my large soulsource."

Brecka leaned back, frowning slightly. "Do you need that for it?"

"Not necessarily," Irwin said, before he began explaining what both cards did and what made them special.

"So… do you want me to take a projection card?" Brecka asked.

"It's your choice," Irwin said immediately, raising a hand. "If you don't want it, I'll find someone else."

"No, I didn't mean it like that," Brecka muttered. "It's just… why?"

Irwin sighed as he looked at the others watching him before turning to Rinbus and giving him a nod.

Soulforce flowed out of the Accenti, rippling around them and quickly muffling all of the sounds that had managed to reach them before. 

"So, remember when I told you about the reason behind the time dilation issues?" Irwin began, before he quickly brought the others up to speed on his and Ambraz's idea.

"I'll help," Brecka said instantly, crossing her arms. "You don't-"

Irwin leaned forward, shaking his head as he interrupted her. "You shouldn't choose this just because of this. It's true that it will help me, but you can't undo this choice, and there are others who could help."

Brecka's eyebrows lowered, and she was about to speak when Rinbus spoke.

"Let me do it," he said. "If you can get me one of those cards, I can absorb it and add it to my own. Combined with my shadewalking, I can start collecting it on my own, and I can easily bring it to you."

"Your soulscape isn't large enough to bring a lot," Brecka said with a snort. "It would mean you would have to go back and forth way more often."

"Perhaps, but I can move much faster than you," Rinbus said calmly. "Besides, your soulforce is much stronger than mine. That means an Aura card would be way more suited to you than me."

Irwin leaned back, letting them continue for a while as he slowly began to realise that he agreed with Rinbus. His reasoning was sound, and there was the added benefit that he was much better at moving around unseen. Besides, he had the distinct feeling Brecka would only do it because she thought he wanted it, which was a problem in itself he would need to deal with soon. 

"Enough," he finally said, interrupting an ever deeper argument. "Brecka, you can have the next Projection card if you still want it, but Rinbus is right. He will get the first one, and you can either have the next, if you still want it, or an Aura card."

Brecka snorted, crossed her arms, and leaned back like Irwin had moments before.

"Fine," she muttered.

The ease with which she gave up told Irwin all he had to know, and he turned to Rinbus.

"How long would it take you to absorb the card?"

"A month or two," Rinbus said as his eyes gleamed. 

"Then let's get started right away," Irwin said.

--

A day later, the four of them said their goodbyes to Nilish.

"You will come when you are ready to expand, right?" the blademother said, grinning at Irwin.

"I will send Nimlarel to get some of your bladesisters as soon as we have established," Irwin said. 

"Good," Nilish exclaimed, her grin widening. "So, do you know which city you are going to first?"

Irwin nodded, stepping back to the others and putting his hand on Nimlarel's shoulder.

"You will hear about it soon," he said, grinning at Nilish's annoyed outcry.

--

The hot, dry breath of the Silvershell Desert blew silvery sandgrains against the walls that surrounded Silverleaf City. Like a faint rain on a world that never had one, the sand ticked on the sloped roofs and through the narrow streets as the desert storm finally abated.

"About time," Rubini croaked as she pushed her handwoven shelter wall up, feeling the weight of the sand shift down.  She pushed herself up, looking around the small dunes of sand that had piled up against the walls of the narrow alleyway she called home. 

A few other bulges in the sand began moving, sand flowing down, glistening in the returning sunlight.

"Big sis, did you manage to sleep?"

Rubini smiled as she heard the soft, squeaky voice from beside her, and she quickly helped the smaller girl with her own cover.

Julla smiled as she used her single hand to wipe the sand from her face while juggling the woven cover with her wrist-stump.

"I slept," Rubini said, trying to hide how tired she was. "Let's go, we need to hurry."

"Good! So, are we going to check what I told you about before the storm?" Julla asked, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

"I… sure," Rubini said, hiding a grimace behind a cough. "But only quickly, alright? We need to check if any of the Wyrm Hunters have returned and are seeking cleaners. If we don't get food or some soulshards before tonight, we have to sleep hungry again."

"Don't worry," Julla said, already walking to the exit of the alleyway. "Your eyes are unmatched! They will definitely pick you!"

Rubini shook her head as she followed the younger girl, looking at her as she darted ahead of her. Julla was already ten, but thin and scrawny, and her skin was dull instead of shiny. The scars hidden beneath her old, oversized Wyrm Leather jerkin spread across her left arm and wrist.

We need more food and a better card, Rubini thought, speeding up and walking beside Julla.

"So, tell me again what you saw?"

"A really big Oxarite," she said. "But she has almost black skin and dark and red hair that's actually burning! I think she must have some really awesome cards!"

"Yes…" Rubini said, grinning. "I remember that part, but why do you want to find her and talk to her?"

She faintly recalled a jumbling, convoluted story about getting cards, but the storm had almost been upon them, and she'd not been able to really hear more than the gist.

"She was talking with those Derwood punks, asking them if they were interested in earning cards! They are looking to start a new Smiths Guild!"

Rubini almost stumbled, suddenly recalling one of the Gleitown survivors telling her something similar a few weeks ago. She'd done it off as a joke or a lie.

"Julla… you know that it's probably a scam, right? Just like the time those hunters were suddenly looking for apprentices. None of the people they brought along into the desert returned. They eventually got caught for having used them as bait for one of those giant Wyrms…"

"I know, but it's not like that," Julla said, her eyes becoming downcast. "I watched her talk with them, then followed her back to where she lived. It's in the new Silverslope District, and it's a really big place! It must have cost tens of thousands of soulshards!"

Well, at least that's in the direction of the blood-letting and skinning areas, Rubini thought.

She didn't really believe the story would pan out, as it never did, but they didn't have enough alternatives not to at the very least give it a try.

"Fine, let's go and see what we can find out," she muttered, speeding up slightly.

Julla let out a happy whoop as the two jogged through the still-empty streets. It would take a while before everyone was back out and about, which was exactly why she had wanted to hurry out. If they could reach the cleaning area outside the city fast, they would likely be one of those chosen to help. And that would mean enough food tonight!

It took them a while to reach the new district, though new was debatable. It had been built a few years ago when rumors of a small Burrow in the nearby Grove started spreading. It had even been true, and hope had grown in the entire city and the surroundings that they would finally see a large influx of cards. Sadly, it had only taken the hunters three years to clear it out and find that there weren't any corridors into the depths. Rumors later circulated that one of the merchants had lost a caravan filled with insectoids. Although Rubini had never learned the truth of the matter, a few of the merchants had disappeared mysteriously shortly after.

"It's that one," Julla said excitedly.

She pointed at a two-story, sprawling compound that looked like it had recently been cleaned up and gotten some stoneshaping done to it. The front appeared to have been intended as an inn or a large shop, and currently, the door was open. As they approached, a few young Virididians came dashing out, looking highly excited as they chattered to each other.

Well, at least there are others there, Rubini thought, feeling a bit of her wariness fade while excitement grew.

She watched the Viridians disappear towards the merchants' district, seemingly with a very specific goal.

"Let's go inside," she said, her own curiosity growing.