Irwin's Journey 494: Memories of war

Irwin quietly listened to Daubutim ask questions in an almost as emotionless tone as Umbral was answering. They were concise, sharp, and dealt with things that had happened since the Shaidin arrived, and from what Irwin could guess, they were finally close to finished. He knew, because they had finally arrived at what had happened after Umbral had awoken to hunt and kill the Amnathair, which had ended up being Irwin.

'I didn't expect him to request every bit of knowledge Umbral has from the past,' Ambraz grunted, nestled on his shoulders and visibly resonating with annoyance. 

Irwin didn't respond, and he didn't need to. He agreed wholeheartedly and knew Ambraz would sense it. 

Worse, I didn't expect Umbral to agree to it this easily, he thought to himself. 

When Daubutim had arrived, the two had taken a single look at each other and seemed to come to some sort of agreement. Without even introducing him beyond his name, Daubutim had begun asking questions that started from the first moment Umbral could recall, focusing on his people and their habits. 

Irwin had expected Umbral to ignore those, but instead, he'd answered with incredible detail. 

Now, almost a week later, Irwin's otherself back on Scour had reforged cards, eaten multiple meals, and spoken with dozens of people while this part of himself had been sitting here, watching and listening as Daubutim seemed intent on getting the entire history of another species, including a recount of their war with the Guidar. Neither Daubutim nor Umbral had shown even the slightest weariness, barely noticing as Irwin put more food and drink on the table.

"- after which I arrived in Irwin's Smithy and he finally unchained me," Umbral said.

Daubutim stared at him quietly, his eyes balls of silvery lightning. After a short moment, he sighed, took the cup Irwin had given him, and drained it.

"Thank you for being as complete as you were," he said, bowing his head to the other. "I have never spoken with anyone who was able and willing to do so."

Umbral's eyes glittered with a slight joy. "Nobody that wasn't a Librarian, I presume."

Daubutim's eyes glittered as he inclined his head. "Indeed. How did you know I had dealings with them?"

"The way you speak, the way you memorize, it is something only they are capable of," Umbral said. "When I told you they existed back then, you seemed more curious about what I knew instead of surprised by them. I would love to hear your own life story, but I realize this is not something we can do until the Guidar are no more."

Irwin finally found a spot to interject, and after having silently listened for a week, he jumped at it.

"Can we?" he asked. "Destroy the Guidar?"

Umbral turned to him while Daubutim's attention seemed to focus even more.

"That depends on two things," Umbral said slowly. "Can you find a way to unchain their… slaves-"

Umbral's eyes flickered with disgust at the word.

"-in large numbers."

Daubutim's eyes narrowed. "You want to use their army against themselves."

"That is part of it," Umbral said. "I don't know where you are hiding, but I can tell you that more of my people were awoken. If they manage to find your world, they will gut your leadership, and from what I have seen, there is little that you could do to stop them."

"Are you willing to teach some of our people to defend themselves-" Daubutim began, only for the Shaidin to shake his head.

"I need to uphold my deal with Terlo," Umbral said. "That means that after I teach Irwin how to properly use his soulforce, or at least as much as I can, I will be leaving."

"Time here flows much faster than outside," Irwin said. "If we bring some of our people here, training them…" he stopped talking as Umbral again shook his head.

"It has nothing to do with that," Umbral said. "As you heard, my people take promises very seriously. It is what partially led to our downfall."

"So, isn't it time to stop that?" Ambraz grunted, sounding annoyed. "You want to kill those Guidar, right?"

Umbral stared at the Ganvil, his face cold and emotionless, his eyes flickering with a moment of sadness.

"It is something inherent to us, and I can't," he said. "No. I will teach Irwin, but anyone who wants to can watch."

Daubutim leaned forward at that like a hound who had found the scent of prey.

"What will you teach him exactly?"

"How to truly use his aura and soulforce, how to stabilize the latter by creating soulforce constructs," Umbral said. "And how to defend himself from the Guidar that have become Soulscape Hunters."

Soulforce constructs? Irwin thought, his eyebrows rising.

"Will learning how to defend from Soulscape Hunters help against your people?" Daubutim asked.

"Yes, but not enough," Umbral said, cocking his head. "Besides, even if I did teach you, I doubt you would be able to learn how to stop them. As good as I am, the others that survived were the best of my people at the time, the culmination of thousands of generations. It is why the Guidar kept us alive, because even they couldn't properly defend against one of us."

"They were fools," Ambraz grunted, drawing all their attention. "Why would you keep someone around who is powerful enough to kill you if they get free?"

"Because, until now, nobody was able to break their strongest chains," Umbral said. "It is the only reason I will remain here to train Irwin."

"Are there any other ways to prevent your people from either finding us or stopping them when they do?" Daubutim asked, leaning forward. 

Umbral let out a sigh. "Irwin himself can probably stop one of them, but if they send all three, even he will fail. There used to be rune masters who could create intricate traps that might be able to catch one of us, but again… there are three."

Daubutim crossed his arms, his eyes flickering around.

Irwin hummed as he thought about what he'd just heard, and a sudden idea popped into his head.

"So… you have to leave to help Terlo defend that world," he said. "Can't you bring some people with you and teach them there?"

Daubutim's eyes snapped to Umbral.

"I can," Umbral said slowly. "But what use is this? Unless you are hiding in that branch, and I was under the impression you are on this one, how will you ever bring them back in time? It is a trip of hundreds of years by ship. Will you ask Terlo to bring you back and risk him learning where your homeworld is?"

Irwin felt Daubutim's eyes land on him, and he knew exactly what his friend wanted.

"I might be able to help with that," Irwin said slowly as his mind went over the cards he already had. 

He had clones that worked like his own, and although he couldn't create a cardseed that would give someone the amount of soulforce and the size of a soulscape they needed, there were ways around that. 

'If we can create the six correct diamond heartcards, fill the soullake of the person who slots them, make sure they are a Crathan, and get something like the growth surge card…' he sent to Ambraz. 'They could use that skill, boost their soulscape to the right size to increase their soulforce, and then move people back and forth.'

Ambraz hummed, the vibrations radiating through his shoulder.

'It will take a lot of time to fill the soullakes, even for you,' Ambraz said. 'But you are right. We just need to find someone who would be willing to do it, whom we trust enough with that much power. We also need to make sure their soulscape is impenetrable like yours.'

Irwin focused on Daubutim. "Who?"

Daubutim's eyes glittered, and Irwin knew they would be in for another long session of planning.

--

Umbral walked further up the hill, staring at where he knew the barrier of Irwin's soulscape had to be. Even after having been walking for close to an hour, he still saw no sign of it, and looking up only showed the black, red, and gold-edged clouds that lazily flowed through the air.

He could have used his abilities to move faster, but he knew the Smith still hadn't fully recovered from how easily he could navigate his soulscape. It was best not to agitate him as he spoke with his friend. Having him allow him to examine his soulscape was probably the most he could have hoped for.

Even if it isn't alone, he thought, glancing back and up where the giant-sized version of the Smith was slowly floating after him.

It took him a few minutes longer to reach the top of the hill, and he slowly spun around. The enormous mountain range on one side blocked what lay beyond from his view, but as he saw the soullake, he knew that whatever lay behind it wouldn't be the soulscape barrier because he could see far further along the other sides. 

So, these soulcarded somehow split their soulscape up into sections and fill each section independently, he thought, staring at an empty wasteland that bordered a sprawling forest. He could sense even from here that the trees weren't soulforce constructs or true trees, but extensions of that part of the Smith's soulscape, and closer to the rocks he was standing on than a real tree. 

"How far are we from the soulscape boundary?" he asked, looking up at the giant hovering behind him.

"At the speed you are going now, you will need a few days," a deep, rumbling voice responded.

So, at a minimum, a hundred miles to each side, and potentially triple that, Umbral thought. He felt a stab of disbelief. It's bigger than anything besides what I hear Yilda had.

His eyes landed on the enormous volcano that covered an entire section by itself; some of the foothills flowing down were easily as enormous as the hillside he stood on now. The soulforce he sensed from that was different from the rest, and matched what he'd sensed from some of the other Crathans.

So, that's the soulcard that allowed an entire species to exist, he thought, still struggling to understand how a soulscape could not be a single cohesive entity. He ignored that and tried to find what allowed it to function in the first place, searching for the differences he knew had to be there compared to what his own people attempted long ago.

It's pure… even with the different patterns it encapsulates, each part flows into the next, creating something that is a coherent thing, he thought, comparing what he saw with his own soulscape. Even his, which had been lauded as being top of his age group, lacked something compared to what he was looking at it. 

Umbral turned to the mountain range, examining it and sensing the difference between it and the volcano.

"Your third soulcard is more stable and better than both of your others by a large margin," he said, not looking up. "When you reach the point of becoming worldcarded, I would suggest focusing on it, unless you can create even better ones for your final three."

"What makes you say so?" the rumbling voice asked, echoing through the foothills.

"You will learn as we practice," Umbral answered. "For now, I need to explain soulforce, aura, and soulforce constructs to you. Your soulscape has more stability than it should, likely due to its size. Can you tell me how deep this-" he stomped on the ground. "-goes?"

"As deep as it goes far," Irwin replied. "My soulscape is completely spherical."

Umbral felt the sense of disbelief he'd felt ever since walking out of the house grow even stronger, and he held back from shaking his head. 

If we had someone like this back then, he thought, wondering what a Shaidin with a potential like this could have accomplished. Then his eyes flickered back to the odd way the entire soulscape was cut up into chunks, and he sighed. This is why it's even possible. None of us could have been this powerful because we lack the soulskill he has.

"You said that the first heartcard determines the number of soulcards someone can attain?" he asked, glancing around. 

"Yes," Irwin replied. "Though, if someone has only a single one, I can break it and recreate it into something higher."

"But this isn't possible if there's more than one?" Umbral asked, barely believing someone could recreate an entire soulscape. 

"I can only break the last one with a guarantee of success," Irwin answered. "I have yet to try breaking more than one, but theoretically it might be possible. If someone is very weak, perhaps with an Amethyst or Topaz-ranked soulscape, I can probably manage. Anything beyond, and I can't control the dissonance. It would cause their soulscape to explode, causing them to die."

A topaz-ranked soulscape is weak, Umbral thought, still struggling slightly with the way ranks were designated in this new era of carded beings. Topaz-ranked, or his people's version of it, had been the bulk of their forces, and Umbral's youngest sister had been one. This had been no reason for shame, yet in this new day and age, it was seen as weak.

It is like they gave up control for pure power, Umbral pondered, still looking around. Does this mean they can't learn as much finesse as we had?

"Very well," he said, walking to a nearby boulder and taking a seat on it, folding his legs. "Before we continue, I need to show you my own soulscape. It is the only way to explain exactly what your first step of learning will be."

There was a slight flash, and a moment later, a bluish aura-clone appeared beside him.

"Daubutim has headed back," the Smith spoke, sitting down on a boulder opposite him. "Can I move in with my aura-clone?"

"That will be fine," Umbral said. "Just make sure you keep your soulforce within your clone, or it will dissipate in my soulscape."

The Smith nodded, and Umbral reached out with his soulforce, wrapping the clone within it.

How can he create such a stable clone while having barely any control over the rest of his aura? Umbral thought, pulling softly on the other. For a moment, it felt like he was pulling on a mountain, then the resistance faded, and he merely felt like he had to move something humongous.

As they appeared in his own soulscape, he felt like a landslide had crashed into the pond that was his soulforce, ripples spreading outward. His soulforce drained at a pace that left him momentarily gasping for breath.

I should have taught him how to control his own soulforce before moving him in, Umbral thought as he shivered. 

It took almost half a minute for him to regain himself, and by that time, Irwin was walking along the murals, examining them closely.

"Now, before we continue outside, make sure you pull your soulforce closer into your clone," Umbral said, sensing how Irwin's soulforce spread around him in a cloud.

--

Irwin looked away from a mural that showed a valley with houses carved and dug out of the sides, beautiful winding paths moving through the grass that covered the hills. It felt cozy and dangerous at the same time. As his eyes passed across the cave they were in, he frowned. The place was like a mix of something an animal might dig out and a dug-out cave-home.

Focusing on his soulforce, he tried to pull it tightly around himself, as if he was trying to draw in a lot of air and holding his breath at the same time. When he felt like he was close to bursting, he stopped and looked up, only to see Umbral look back. His face looked placid, but his eyes showed a flicker of weary resignation.

"That will have to do for now," Umbral said. "Try and keep it like this, and follow me."

Irwin shrugged, wondering why he even had to do this. He followed the Shaidin through corridors, a cozy living room, and something that resembled an indoor garden of mushrooms and grass. The last room they passed was a training cave with what looked like wooden training dummies that gently swayed in a non-existent wind. Walking through the final tunnel, they exited onto the side of a hill, very near the top. 

Rolling hills of dark-red, pale-tipped grass surrounded them, while the soulscape barrier was hard to see behind a slight fuzzy mist.

'His soulforce is almost… solid,' Ambraz whispered, sounding surprised.

Irwin frowned, only now realizing that his friend was right. Where in all other soulscapes he had ever been, including his own, the soulforce flowed around like banks of mist; barely any existed in the Umbral's. Instead, the stones, grass, and sand that were everywhere almost burned from the inside out. 

Irwin was about to ask if that was what Umbral wanted to show him when he saw a small cloud of flying insects move from one bush to another. His first instinct was to think they were real creatures brought here by Umbral, then he sensed the same dense soulforce that was in every other part around him within them. 

'Those are made of soulforce!'

'... That's… impossible,' Ambraz said.

Before either could say more, a bird flitted from the tall grass, dashed through the cloud, and snatched two of the insects out of the air before vanishing back in the grass.

"I see you have already found what I wanted to show you," Umbral said calmly.

Irwin turned to the Shaidin, who was observing him, arms crossed behind his back.

"What are those? Summons?" Irwin asked.

"Those are the soulforce constructs I mentioned," Umbral said. "And learning how to create the simplest ones will be the first step for you to learn how to actually use the power you have managed to gain."

Irwin stared at the insects, trying to understand what the other meant.

"You made those?" he finally asked, looking at Umbral in disbelief. Although he'd made tens of thousands of cards, some that could summon creatures and items, and could pull hammers from the empty air just with his soulforce, he'd never even imagined someone could create things from mere soulforce.

If he can do that, could he create cards? he thought.

"I did, and I'm going to show you how in a moment," Umbral said, moving to a stone bench that stood to the side. "Before I do, however, you need to hear some of the theory behind it."

The Shaidin gestured at another nearby bench, and Irwin dropped into it, feeling his excitement grow. Ambraz had been right; who knew what he might learn that could improve his smithing? 

"Soulforce can be manipulated within your soulscape but not outside," Umbral said.

Irwin frowned. Had the other never seen someone reforge a card?

The Shaidin either didn't notice his confusion or didn't see a reason to ask about it.

"This manipulation is like the example with juggling. It is easy to move it with brute force-" 

Umbral waved his hand to the side, causing a mass of soulforce to rush from the side of the hill as if it was flowing out, flowing down the hill, and into the grass, where it caused the grass to almost lie flat. The gust lasted only a moment before it, and the soulforce vanished, seemingly absorbed in the grass and the soil below.

"-but it's far harder to move it with finesse."

Umbral raised the same hand, and Irwin saw how soulforce again flowed from the ground below him, rapidly condensing above his hand. It wasn't a great deal, but it was compressed so tightly that he could barely believe what he was seeing. It was as if Umbral did what Irwin required: a barrier, a hammer, and tens of minutes to accomplish. The tightly condensed soulforce sparkled like light on water, but without the water, as it began moving in exquisite patterns. It started slowly, something Irwin could easily comprehend, but as the pattern seemed to finish, it repeated faster… and faster, until it swirled through the air above Umbral's hand so fast he could barely keep track. It suddenly exploded with a slight brightness, and Umbral lowered his hand. Where before there had been specks of brilliantly compressed soulforce, now hung a few tiny insects. The soft buzzing of their wings sped up as they zipped away and into the nearby grass.

Irwin stared dumbly at the grass they had vanished in, absently sensing Ambraz's complete and utter disbelief, which mirrored his own. Then, he slowly turned to Umbral, who was quietly watching him.

"This was the simplest of patterns I know, one to create Tumblings," he said. "They are what we call the bottom of the food chain, and they are so simple that you don't really create individual ones, but a few, depending on your ability. Before I was chained, I could create a cloud of up to a few hundred, though some of the masters who focused on this could have created thousands with a sway of their hand."

Irwin shook his head in disbelief. "Was this something everyone was able to do long ago?" he asked.

"No," Umbral said. "It was something you require at least a certain level of control and power to do. Before the Guidar wiped them out, there were some other species that had learned this, though there were both larger and smaller differences in how they accomplished it. My people used patterns based on intensity and movement, but I know there were others who did it differently."

"Music?" Irwin blurted as a great deal of things began clicking.

"Yes, there was one powerful empire of beings who used that," Umbral said with a nod. "It is likely they were the precursors of the Galadin."

Irwin stared at him, his mind rushing over those simple words. How was he surprised by this? He should have known there were those before the Galadin.

"If the Galadin were capable of this," he said slowly. "Why did they not use such power to beat the Guidar?"

As he said those words, Irwin already knew the answer.

"Because control doesn't equal power," he answered himself.

"Indeed," Umbral said with a weary smile. "Guidar grow stronger as they age, but even the younger ones have a base power that rivals the strongest of most other species. Combined with their ability to rip soulskills out of others to use for their own, the only reason any other species even has a chance is because they are barely able to reproduce. Every death takes their entire species years to replace. It is why they usually destroy and permanently close any exit portal that leads to powerful time dilation worlds like Scour."

Irwin stared dully out across the hills, and after a few moments, Umbral continued.

"The best of the Guidar can rival me in control and have far more power," he said. "It is only my people's ability to hide ourselves even from them that has allowed us to kill as many of them as we have. By our calculations, by the end of the war, we had reduced their total population by half… Sadly, by that time, fewer than a hundred of our own still lived."

'Ask him how many Guidar exist?' Ambraz asked.

Irwin relayed the question, and Umbral's eyes flickered with annoyance.

"More than they had before our war," he said. "Although they procreate slowly, they have had an immense amount of time since then. It doesn't matter either way. You asked why the Galadin didn't use this? They did. The issue was that their strength was far weaker than ours. It is why they changed themselves, sacrificing their species' purity by mingling with others. When they finally managed to stand toe to toe with the Guidar, not a single one of the ancient Galladin remained. It was the price they paid for strength, and one my people would have gladly paid. Sadly, we were never able to find the path, not even with Yilda's knowledge."

Irwin's thoughts had been swirling about Galladin and Shaidin when the name was spoken. 

Yilda!?

He shuddered and leaned forward.

"You know of Yilda?"

Umbral's eyes became vacant as he looked into the distance, and it lasted for nearly a full minute before he returned.

"In the last years of our war with them, my people found another of the Guidar's core regions. It was an enormous city built around a type five exit portal. The density of the soulforce around it had built over the millennia to something you likely couldn't fathom. There, in the final room beside the Exit Portal, we found a place guarded by the largest force of Guidar we had confronted till then. The losses we sustained that day? They were partially responsible for our eventual demise."

Irwin felt his skin crawl as he saw the red irises focus on him, shrinking to dots.

"But it could have been worse. Within hours of arriving, we were losing. The Guidar that were there were more powerful than most we had found, and there weren't just ten or a hundred. Thousands had gathered there, likely as a trap, and they had created a barrier to keep us inside. They would have wiped us out if one of our most powerful warriors hadn't managed to find one of the power sources and break it… It was a final gambit, and we had hoped we could break free after. Sadly, it was but one of over a hundred, and the barrier weakened only a tiny fraction. For us, it was not enough, but as soon as the barrier weakened, the Guidar panicked."

Umbral's lips curled up in a horrendous grin as his eyes gleamed.

"The place was a prison, and the one held within it broke free. I still can't completely grasp what happened at the time, but Yilda somehow pierced through the barrier, and the tide turned instantly. She was like a tidal wave of fury. Unthinking, unstoppable. Moving at a speed our fastest couldn't copy, using a force unlike any I had or have ever seen. Some of the elders later said that she must have been building her soulforce over untold eons and used it to pierce the barrier. I don't know how much of that is true. She vanished after helping us kill every Guidar present. Later, we learned that she moved across the Portal Gallery like a surge, hunting Guidar where she could. She also did something to all of the known World Portals, destabilizing them in a way not unlike how the Exit Portals are. Nobody knows what she did, but what we do know is that ever since, the Guidar were unable to move through any of them. Since then, they were locked here…"

Very slowly, Umbral's face turned emotionless again, the sparkle in his eyes fading until only the previous coldness returned.

"What happened to her?" Irwin asked softly.

"We don't know," Umbral said. "We tried to find her. Ask her for help with the war… But she vanished shortly after. Some feared she'd been recaptured, but I have no idea how even the Guidar would be able to do so."

Irwin put his chin on his hands, elbows on his knees, as he looked at the ground, thinking about what he'd just heard.