Irwin's Journey 426: Instant chatterbox

Irwin stood beside Daubutim with his arms crossed as they watched Jolnir and Sira examine one of the infected guards: a young woman with short dark hair and a small, jagged scar on her chin.

"Do you sense that?"

"What do you… oh! Yes! There. It's like dust particles!"

"Yes, let's try and move them."

Jolnir and Sira were talking excitedly, both their hands outstretched.

"Where is Zeek?" Irwin asked softly.

"He's with Doomblade and Basil," Daubutim replied. "Do you have enough cards for more healers?"

"I do," Irwin said. "But I need a bit of time to recover."

Daubutim glanced at him, a tiny glimmer of worry in his eyes.

"You are fine?"

"I am," Irwin said.

He let his mind flow over his soulscape, sensing Ambraz, the only one left after he'd ejected the Ruby's Revenge a short while ago. The boundary barriers felt stretched, while the amount of ambient soulforce felt far too high. His largeself was flying around, high in the air, watching the occasional pockets of ambient soulforce coalesce into drops and rain down on the muddy land below. Tiny puddles and streams of soulforce were everywhere, some connected and leading to what looked like a tiny river that had snaked its way to his soullake.  

"When I let Rachias back out, it felt really odd," he said, glancing at Daubutim. "It was as if he left a large amount of soulforce behind that just spread out. My soulscape is slowly changing it into my own, but the process is slow. It needs time to settle."

"How long?" Daubutim asked.

"Not sure. Ambraz says that when he starts, he will be draining part of it away, and that should help."

Daubutim's eyes glittered at that, and he looked at the healers who were still softly muttering. They seemed to be doing something, but all Irwin felt and sensed was the horrid, out-of-tune soulforce resonance.

"How much progress did you make with creating a card seed?"

Irwin grimaced. "None. I've been too busy with all the other things. The few times I tried, I just couldn't get that spark."

"You should talk with Endil when you return," Daubutim said.

Endil? 

Irwin looked at his friend, but Daubutim had focused on the two healers who had begun talking excitedly as a blob of blood appeared above the guard's hand.

"I've got it all," Jolnir almost shouted. "Keep pulling it out."

"I am," Sira replied, her face one of absolute focus. "But they are resisting."

Irwin saw the guard's face turn even paler, her outstretched hand shaking softly while the other was clasped tightly into a fist. The glob of blood hovering over her hand was rippling, and the sense of horrible dissonance within was rapidly growing. So much so that Irwin had to dampen his senses even more as he felt his stomach start to rebel.

Minutes ticked by until Sira stepped back, the blood orb following her. Irwin didn't see anything but a rough sphere of blood, but his senses were screaming at him that he should destroy it. 

Sira turned to them, her eyes wide. "What do we do with this?"

Daubutim didn't respond, but his eyes flared up, and a four-foot-tall, blood-red raven appeared beside him. He put a hand on the beautiful head.

"Twyll, what do you… ah."

Daubutim grimaced as he stroked the raven's head, whose feathers were ruffled now. Its black, lightning-filled eyes were glaring daggers at the orb of blood.

"I am sorry, but we need to be sure," Daubutim whispered. "Just bide with it for a moment."

The raven rolled its eyes but remained where it was, and Daubutim stepped forward.

"Zeek said that the Oculithar spores are susceptible to a few things," Daubutim said, walking forward. "One of them being lightning."

He put his hands on either side of the orb and frowned.

"I think I can sense them now. Tiny and horrible," he said, looking at Sira. "Hold the orb. Don't let it shatter."

Sira nodded while Jolnir stepped beside her and raised a hand beside his sister's.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Tiny bolts of jagged lightning, too many to count, rippled between Daubutim's hands, striking the blood and causing it to glow brightly. It lasted only a few seconds, but when Daubutim stepped back, Irwin knew it had worked. The horrid resonance in the soulforce was gone, and as he let his senses grow stronger again, he couldn't detect anything from either the blood or the guard.

"It's gone," Sira said, her eyes wide as she looked at Daubutim. "My Lord, that lightning… it is blood typed?"

"Yes," Daubutim said, turning to the raven and putting his hand on its head. "Twyll, what do you sense now?" 

Twyll cocked its head, hopping forward.

Irwin felt the raven. Its soulforce started moving around in intricate patterns and waves that he could barely follow. The song that came from it was like a distant, soft whisper. 

It lasted for a good few minutes, and when it was done, Daubutim nodded.

"Twyll says she can't sense anything wrong," he said, stroking the raven a few times.

"Thank you," he whispered softly, and the raven cawed before vanishing.

Irwin watched the entire interaction with a slight wistful recollection of how Daubutim had thought of the raven initially. It had reminded him so much of his father's, and he'd seemed almost unwilling to interact with it.

His friend turned to him, eyes focused and clear. 

"It was clear you could sense them before, but what about now? Can you sense anything?"

Realizing Daubutim was trying to determine all ways to sense the Oculithar spore, Irwin walked forward, opening his senses to the fullest. It meant the distant dissonance from the other infected came into focus, but he ignored it as best he could, focusing on the blood.

"Nothing," he finally said. 

A shuddering breath came from the guard, and her shoulders slumped down slightly.

"Alright. I'll ask Zeek to come and check," Daubutim said before turning to Jolnir and Sira. "How are you feeling? Can you do more?"

"Definitely, Lord Daubutim," Jolnir said, while Sira nodded in agreement. "It was mostly so hard because we didn't know what to do yet. If we practice a few more times, we should be able to move much faster."

"Good," Daubutim said, turning to Irwin. "Can you wait till Basil is here?"

"Of course," Irwin said. "I don't think Greldo has returned with Dahlia and Trimdir yet."

"They haven't," Daubutim agreed, turning to the guard. "As soon as Zeek confirms you are clear, you may head to the southern barracks. However, remain there. We are going to be observing everyone for a few more weeks just to be sure."

"Yes, My Lord," the young guard said, relief in her eyes.

Half an hour later, Basil, Zeek, and Doomblade arrived. A group of guards followed behind them, rugged and experienced. Irwin immediately sensed that each one had atleast a heartcard, with two even having a soulcard.

Doomblade was grumbling in annoyance, and as soon as he saw Irwin, he stomped forward. 

"Ten! I'd not even noticed, but ten of my remaining one-horns are infected! Did you manage to find a cure?"

Irwin saw Basil roll his eyes behind the Galub's back as he began directing the guards to strategic positions in the room.

"That depends on what Zeek finds," Irwin said as he watched Poldixuz, the robed lizard man, walk forward. His eyes were still as glossy as before, showing that Zeek was still in control. 

The crystalline lifeform was pulsing softly, the tentacles moving uneasily as he closed in on the blood orb still hovering in the air. He walked around it before moving to the guard. As he walked around her, Irwin saw the guard's eyes narrow, her shoulders tense under the scrutiny.

A minute later, Zeek turned back, its single eye focused solely on Irwin.

"Impressive. I don't detect even a single spore remaining. It is hard to believe you were able to create skills in such a short amount of time. If there are more like you here, I understand why the Guidar are so eager to get their hands on you."

"Is there any chance you are mistaken?" Daubutim asked.

"No. Though it is up to you if you believe me."

Daubutim turned to Basil. 

"Take control of the Southern Barracks. I'll be sending everyone who is cured there."

"Yes, my Lord," Basil said before beckoning the guard to follow him. "Doomblade, you come to."

The Galub snorted, glancing at the two healers, Irwin and, finally, Daubutim.

"You are going to cure everyone here and then, my Galubs?"

“Yes,” Daubutim said.

Doomblade held his gaze for a long, almost tense moment before snorting.

"Good," the Galub said.

Irwin saw his gaze lingering on the healers before he turned and followed a waiting Basil out of the room.

As soon as they were gone, Dautubim looked at Irwin.

"Greldo should be returning soon. You can head to the exit portal room and wait for him now."

Irwin hesitated as he glanced at Zeek, then at the guards spread throughout the room. He hesitated, then pulled his other, regular-sized body out of his soulscape. He ignored the slight shock that ran through the guards as he felt a slight headache at having his mind split up. 

Instead, he walked out of the room while his one-armed walked to a corner and sat down. Daubutim was watching him curiously, and Irwin shrugged.

"Just let me know if you need anything," he said before closing his eyes and leaning back. 

He let a tiny fraction of himself remain, just enough to sense if anything would go wrong or if he was called.

I'm starting to see why Greldo wants the ability to create his own shadow clones now, he thought.

--

"I'll be back soon."

"Alright… And you are sure I can't-"

"No, this is something we have to do alone."

Irwin watched quietly as Juul'rish spoke with Dahlia. The two had come together with Trimdir and Hou'dor, and he'd explained what Ambraz was planning. Their reactions had been… different. 

She actually looks worried, Irwin thought, watching Dahlia nervously talk with her bonded Ganvil. He'd spent a lot of time with Dahlia during their travels, and he'd never seen her this out of it. 

He shared a look with Greldo, but his friend just shrugged. He clearly knew what was going on but clearly not intent on providing an explanation.

Trimdir stood nearby, quietly waiting, Hou'dor on his shoulder. 

It took Juul'rish a minute to calm down Dahlia, and before she flew in front of Irwin.

"I'm ready," she said.

You might be, but Dahlia looks very much not ready, Irwin thought.

Hou'dor rumbled something to Trimdir and flew over to hang beside her.

Irwin nodded and pulled both Ganvils into his soulscape.

Dahlia let out a weary sigh, and Irwin saw her share a worried look with Greldo.

Okay, something is definitely up, he thought. 

Before he could ask what was wrong, Trimdir walked towards them.

"Let's go and have a drink. Hou said this would take a while."

"Good idea," Irwin said. "I could do with some quiet time."

Greldo put an arm on a glassy-eyed Dahlia and slowly guided her along.

It didn't take them too long to reach the house Scintilla and the kids had lived in, and soon, they found themselves around the kitchen table with some drinks.

"So, how did it go with those blood cards?" Trimdir asked.

Irwin pulled his eyes from Dahlia, who was staring into her cup.

"Good," he said. "They have started cleansing all the infected."

"About that," Greldo said, leaning forward. "I thought it was a plague created by a card?"

"That's what it looked like," Irwin said before frowning. "It still does, really. It's hard to explain, but the dissonance those spores create matches many carded plagues we know."

Greldo frowned, but he remained quiet.

"There's something else we need to talk about," Trimdir said. "Now that we have found a cure, we should share it with the other infected worlds."

Irwin turned to his old master and friend. He was right, and it was something he'd been pondering for a while now.

"I know, and there are three ways we could do that," he said. "The slow way is that we sent a ship to start alerting every world they can come across, but we will either need to create a lot of cards for them or send healers with the ship. I don't think most worlds will have heartcarded or soulcarded healers that deal with blood."

As he spoke, he saw that Dahlia was also paying attention again.

"The second way would be connecting our central registrar crystal-"

"Greeny," Greldo said with a grin.

"... Yes, Greeny," Irwin agreed. "To the other soulcrystals. That would allow us to rapidly spread the knowledge, however…"

"However, that means the other worlds on our branch, and likely those beyond, will be made aware of Eluathar," Dahlia said. "Merely connecting will be enough for the other Central Registrars to detect that it is a rank six world. That is going to cause an enormous disturbance, and as they will also have a rough idea of where we are, people will start heading here."

"Sounds like a great plan," Greldo grunted.

"Which leaves the third way," Irwin said. "The Yuurindi that will stay here will get one of the communication cards. If we ask them to give it to someone who has a lot of offspring, we can spread the news like that."

Nobody responded as they all quietly sipped from their drinks. As he thought about it, Irwin suddenly felt a disturbance in his soulscape, and focusing on his otherself, he realized the Ganvils had started.

He moved more of his focus into his giantself.

"I think we should do both the first and second option," Trimdir said, drawing his attention back to the conversation."

"I agree," Dahlia said. "Also, I think we shouldn't send cards, but-"

Irwin absently listened to their conversation as more and more of his attention moved to his soulscape.

-- Irwin's Soulscape --

"You are sure you want to do the bulk first?" Hou'dor asked.

"Of course, I'm sure," Ambraz said with a snort. "I've never done this before, so it's best to use a quarter of my purified soulforce to create the first batch."

"It's not like I have done this before," Juul'rish said.

"That's what we have the old guy for," Ambraz said, his metallic mouth forming a wide grin.

"Old? You do remember we are roughly the same age, right?" Hou'dor exclaimed.

"I don't count the years I was imprisoned," Ambraz disagreed happily. "Now, I've got the ability. Tell me what to expect."

Hou'dor let out a weary sigh.

"After you trigger it, it should show the pattern you need to weave. As you weave it into the chunk of Whispersteel, you will be able to create access points. Create two, one for me and one for Juul. Make sure to only use the purified soulforce for it. After it's done, the ability will start pulling soulforce in. Feed it the mix of purified soulforce and Irwin's ambient soulforce, but whatever you do, don't use more than half."

Ambraz was quiet while Juul'rish let out a soft tsk.

"When did you learn all of this?" she asked.

"All rank fives learn it when reaching that rank," Hou'dor said. "Either way. The amount of Whispersteel you have here should allow you to create about forty. You are absolutely sure you have enough soulforce?"

"Plenty," Ambraz said. 

"Good, because if you fall short, the entire pattern will dissolve, causing the metal and the purified soulforce to be destroyed."

"Remind me why we can't use a smaller piece?" Ambraz asked, annoyed.

"Because this is the minimum amount you can use," Hou'dor said, the corner of his metallic lip curling up. "The only way to use less is to use only your own purified soulforce."

"Fine, then, let's get this started," Ambraz said, trying to suppress the feeling that was growing.

Nervousness.

Something he hadn't experienced like this since long before beardy face had captured him. 

Come on, get yourself together! It's just creating fifty young, new Ganvils! You've done harder things.

He stretched his perception outward, flowing around the surrounding trees. The constant mix of songs from the nearby trees and the presence of Irwin's giantself leaning with his back against a nearby tree slowly calmed him. 

"Let's do this," he said, triggering his ability.

--

Irwin watched and listened with a slight awe as the ambient soulforce that suffused the sprawling forrest of trees that signified his second soulcard flowed towards the trio of Ganvils. They stood in their largest forms around a chunk of Whispersteel that, by comparison, looked small.

He could sense from Ambraz's growing excitement that he was doing something, but at first, he couldn't sense anything. Yet, as seconds, then minutes passed, he began sensing something. A pure, almost crystal clear single tone that resonated through the chunk of Whispersteel.

The sensation increased until it finally began turning into something that resembled soulforce. Well, it resembled soulforce as water resembled liquid metal. It moved but different, more sluggish, and as it continued concentrating, the pressure and intensity coming from it grew exponentially. 

Irwin had sensed it before, mostly when Ambraz had used large amounts of it, but never as powerful as now. 

Around the trio of Ganvils, a whirlpool of ambient soulforce -his soulforce- was swirling, speeding up, and condensing into a rapidly moving ring.

Ten minutes later, Irwin felt it hard to even look at either, and he had to dull his senses as far as he could, but even then, there was no sign of it ending.

Minutes finally turned to hours when the beginnings of a beautiful, soft song came from the chunk of Whispersteel. It started like the metal, as a whisper, but soon it began louder, more complex. Intricate little details, melodies, and rhythms began moving within the song as if not one or ten but dozens of instruments were playing at the same time. The same instrument. Perfectly tuned and with a sound like a tiny version of his soulstrum guitar.

What… is he doing? 

Irwin leaned forward, faintly realizing he was holding his breath. 

The music continued to become more complex, and just when Irwin thought it couldn't continue without turning into a chaotic mess, the ring of highly condensed soulforce shrank rapidly, passing over the Ganvils before shrinking to surround the Whispersteel. Still spinning, beams of soulforce flailed from the ring like tiny tornadoes that latched onto the Whispersteel. As soon as they touched the surface, Irwin had the feeling the soulforce exploded.

He groaned, turning around as even his muted senses were overloaded.

Could have bloody warned… me…

His thoughts faded as he felt a flash of something happening in his soulscape. It lasted for a split second, but when it was gone, he felt them…

Forty-nine new, tiny beings had just appeared inside his soulscape.

First, there had been him and the three Ganvils. Now, there were dozens of new little lifeforms.

Looking up, he saw that the soulforce had vanished, leaving the three giant Ganvils and a cloud of tiny ones that hovered before them. For a moment, everything was quiet, then a cacophony of high-pitched girl voices began piping questions like a flute orchestra.

"Where are we?"

"This isn't Granvox!"

"Are you our progenitor?"

"That's nonsense! There are three of them, and we are clearly not Progeny."

"Says who?"

"She's right! Don't you feel we are different?"

"Really?"

Irwin blinked, his mouth falling open. Although the voices sounded somewhat young, they didn't sound at all like children, let alone babies. Worse, a few seemed to be annoyed about being… well… created."

"Alright, pipe down," Ambraz roared, his voice sounding weary but proud. "Hou'dor and Juul'rish here will explain all your questions, but I'll answer the more important ones now. No, you are not Progeny, though you aren't normal Collective Ones either. You were made by a combination of my purified soulforce, the help of these two, and the soulforce of my cardsmith, the one sitting against the tree."

"Really?"

"Impossible!"

"My memories clearly tell me there's no way a single carded can generate enough soulforce for that!"

"Liar!"

Irwin barely managed to close his gaping mouth as a cloud of small Ganvils, probably as big as the tip of his regular-sized hand's thumb, zipped towards him and began spinning around his head. They began shouting questions, some rather cute, while others sounded highly irritated.

"Enough! Get back here, you!" Ambraz snapped, and Irwin was almost surprised when the cloud of tiny beings zipped back to the much larger Ganvil.

"Now, if you are nice and listen to your seniors, you might be able to bind a cardsmith of your own," he said. "But you need to sit down and be quiet. All of you are experiencing soulforce overload, and if you don't learn how to control it, you might explode."

Irwin had no idea if that was true, and neither did the tiny Ganvils as they suddenly thudded down around Juul'rish, suddenly quiet.

"Good! Now, I need to explain something to Irwin and-"

"You are not leaving us here with them," Hou'dor growled softly.

"-Hou'dor, who knows exactly how all this works, will explain things to you," Ambraz continued, ignoring Hou'dors pleas. Then he turned into a smaller version and rushed to Irwin, landing on his shoulder with enough force to leave a bruise.

"Get us out of here!"

Irwin blinked, but as a cacophony of voices began shouting questions, he quickly scrambled up and shot into the air, quickly flying away. 

"What is going on?" he whispered, somewhat worried. "Did you make some mistake?"

"Mistake? Of course not! The problem is that Hou'dor didn't explain exactly how much soulforce I should put in, and I might have put in a bit too much at the end," Ambraz grumbled. "They will have calmed down in an hour or so."

"Wait, wait," Irwin said, shaking his head. "How come they can talk like that? They sounded as if they already knew… well… everything?!"

"What did you expect?" Ambraz exclaimed. "I told you before, right? Ganvils have ancestral memories."

"Yes!" Irwin shouted. "But you didn't tell me they were born adults!"

"They aren't adults," Ambraz replied, calmer now. "They are only rank zero, but… well, I'm rank five, but I already have more purified soulforce capacity than any rank six I know. So, I guess just like with Progeny, their ancestral memories are just a bit stronger than average."

"A bit? A bit?!" Irwin exclaimed. "This isn't at all like what I'd expected!"

"Well, sorry about that," Ambraz said a wide grin on his face. "Atleast I know how to make that Progeny for Zan now."

Irwin blinked. "Do you still have enough purified soulforce?"

"Yes. I'm going to make two."

Irwin blinked, cocking his head. "What?"

"One from Silzerion for Zan and one from Aurorium."

Irwin blinked, then his eyes widened. "What?!"