Irwin's Journey 418: Incomming

"So you all agree with Irwin's logic?" Lord Bron asked.

Irwin looked around the room, and he saw the four other smiths, Trimdir, Dahlia, Montain, and Esther, deep in thought. The non-smiths that were present, Greldo, Clarish, Lisbeth, and Daubutim, remained quiet.

A week had passed since he and Ambraz had managed to save Undiri's cards, or atleast the one that had been important. The one that would allow them to create a communications card similar to what the ancient Yuurindi had had. 

As he thought about her and her final moments, Irwin's thoughts moved to Rindiri. He was incredibly happy to hear that his long-time crew member, friend, and, in many cases confidant, had decided to stay with the Yuurindi that remained. It was one of the three happy things from that day, the third being that Dinehr had survived and regained most of his mental clarity. The man had been beyond heartbroken, however, and he'd been unwilling to leave the same room as his youngest grandchildren since. 

Irwin's attention was drawn back to the others, and he admonished himself for getting lost in his thoughts. It had been happening a lot over the last week, and he knew it was because he had too much on his mind and wasn't resting enough. Or at all, for that matter. He'd been working nonstop, either with his giantself, his normalself, or both, testing reforges, and other things as his attention was split between the Academy, his family, practicing smithing, and deciding on his third handcard. 

So much required his attention at the moment that it felt like he had less time for things than he had when he'd been traveling through the storm.

Feeling himself get distracted again, he held back a snort.

Fine. Time to sleep.

In his soulscape, his giantself put down the stack of cards he'd been searching through and let out a sigh. A few moments later, he lay down on the bed and was gone as soon as his eyes closed. 

Irwin felt his mind clear up slightly, mostly because he wasn't doing two things at the same time.

"None of us has even heard of cards that can do this," Dahlia said, as she leaned forward, staring at the page of the book. "Besides. Although it's far away, eventually, we can find and get more Template Cards. What we won't find another way to get are these cards, and we need what they can offer sooner rather than later."

"Exactly," Trimdir said. 

Montain and Esther just nodded in agreement.

"Good," Lord Bron said, leaning back and turning to Irwin. "Five?"

"At least five, perhaps six," Irwin said as he scrutinized the Template card in his hand. "We will have to see to be sure."

Lord Bron nodded with gleaming eyes, turning to Daubutim. "So, now we get to figure out the most efficient way to use them."

"Two smiths," Daubutim said calmly, turning to Irwin. "We need to have smiths who have the potential to create more of these cards, but that requires finding smiths who can slot it and who can eventually learn what you can do."

Irwin frowned. He'd been thinking about it for a while now, ever since he'd asked the Teleporter Guild to bring a message to Daubutim, Bron, and some others. The only cards that came to mind for him were the head teachers, but most of those already had a strong direction they were going. The only one that really came to mind was-

“Endil,” Trimdi said.

Irwin nodded slowly. That was the one he'd thought of himself. Young, Galadin, and with only fifteen years of experience, he was already outperforming all other cardsmiths in the Volcano Academy who weren't currently sitting in the room.

"That's a good idea," Esther said in her deep, hazy voice.

"It is," Montain rumbled in agreement with his sister. "Irwin notwithstanding, Endil will be the best smith we have in another few decades. His speed of learning is insane, and he also uses the same musical type of smithing as Irwin. That means Irwin can more easily guide him, which can be seen as he is further along with the new splitting technique than anyone here."

Irwin nodded, though he didn't fully agree. Trimdir was still a few steps ahead of Endil, and if he had to guess, he would likely stay that way. The older Smith didn't just have skill and experience. He had a voracious desire to learn cardsmithing, loving it deeply.

As he heard the others talk in agreement, Irwin felt another problem he wanted to solve float through his mind, asking for his attention. 

His gaze landed on Trimdir, silently looking at the tiny wrinkles around the older man's eyes and his graying hair. Having a heartcard had clearly slowed his aging, but he'd already been in his late forties when Irwin first met him. Even if he filled his soullake and finished his soulcard-

"Irwin?"

Irwin blinked and looked at Daubutim, who looked at him curiously.

"Sorry, I got lost in my mind for a moment," Irwin said, and a smile passed between them.

"You should sleep when we are done here," his friend said calmly. "We have been talking but are unable to decide on another smith who could viably slot the card right now. So, I think we should leave that for now and focus on how to distribute the other cards most efficiently."

"I agree," Irwin said. "I think we should give atleast one to a Yuurindi."

"A logical step," Lord Bron agreed, tapping his chin. 

"But one of those that remain here," Dahlia said, frowning.

"Of course," Daubutim agreed, turning to Irwin. "You know them best. Who-"

"Elliara, if she wants to," Irwin said instantly. "Although she doesn't have a very high gene perfection, she has stabilized greatly over the years, and I'm sure she will want children. She is trustworthy and calm and has a clear mind."

"Good. One of us should talk with her and Rindiri then," Daubutim said. "That leaves another two cards if we hold one for a smith. Suggestions?"

"It should be a race that can make a lot of children but also live long," Dahlia said.

Greldo, who'd been quietly sitting beside her, let out a grin. "Define a lot? Irwin already has six!"

Dahlia elbowed him, which caused him to let out a soft laugh, which she ignored. She angled her head up to stare at the group of Ganvils, looking down at them from their perches. With each smith present having a bond, that meant five Ganvils, who had been sitting around the card Irwin and Ambraz had created.

"Juul, any idea what can be done with it yet?" she asked.

The silver Ganvil whistled, creating a high flute-like sound that Irwin had heard Ambraz make. 

I wonder if they couldn't just use that to recreate the sound of a flute, he thought.

"A lot, but we don't have a comprehensive list yet," Juul'rish answered in her high -for a Ganvil at least- feminine voice. "We should be able to recreate the communication ability it had before, though it might have some small differences. Beyond that, we could instead focus on allowing someone to look through the eyes of one of their offspring. There are the default additions of some minor to normal body improvements, though focusing on that would come with a cost."

"We can't make it, so you can use it without the familial ties," Ambraz rumbled. "If that is what you are all hoping. That is too much a core part of the card."

"Definitely not that," Juul'rish added while the other Ganvils rumbled in agreement.

"What about reducing the drain?" Clarish asked. "From what I got, it's not unlike teleporting, where using the ability drains most of the user's soulforce?"

"We should be able to make it more optimal than the one Undiri had," Ambraz said. "The problem is, these will never be cards that have a low cost. Having a ton of soulforce would definitely help offset that."

"What we really need is a Yuurindi smith," Montain muttered.

The others looked at him, some in understanding, others curious.

"Think about it, right?" Montain said. "Smiths usually slot cards to improve their soulforce sensitivity and capacity, so they will already have-"

"They have very low soulforce sensitivity, though," Esther interrupted him.

"I know, but perhaps we can help with that with cards?" Montain asked. "They are going to be changed already, right?"

Instantly, an awkward silence filled the room, and Irwin sighed. 

The decision of Rindiri and a group of Yuurindi to remain here but accept body morphing cards, as Undiri had suggested, had caused some problems. One was that the Yuurindi who were preparing to leave felt it would make the others be less, and a few had actively tried to oppose the idea. Yuurindi, on the whole, didn't approve of body-changing and morphing cards, especially not those that changed someone's species. Although they didn't much care what other species did, as soon as one of the other Yuurindi changed what they were, a few of the Yuurindi became… combative. 

Zender and Earilla had both found that out the hard way.

"Well, that might not be a bad idea," Tridir grunted. "But we would still have to find some that gain a high enough soulforce resonance, train them… it will take time."

"Well, we have some time, right?" Montain asked, looking at Lord Bron.

"We do, but-"

Irwin quietly listened to the discussion that moved from Yuurindi to the idea of creating a card that allowed someone to have a lot of children towards other species that did so normally.

"What about the Ignitzians?" Greldo asked, leaning back on the couch.

Irwin nodded slowly as the others hummed thoughtfully.

Ignitzians could have between five and twenty embers, and even without soulcards, they could become older than many other species. The problem was that normally, the embers were slow to grow into adults. However, Irwin knew firsthand that this could be sped up if the embers were taken into the soulscape of one of their parents. Especially if that parent was someone with a massive soulscape. He also knew that the limiting factor for Ignitzians to have another group of children was that their coreflame had to regenerate. But he had one of those, and he knew he could increase its power with other cards. 

For a moment, he thought about slotting one of the cards himself, then he pushed the idea away. He might still do so in the future, but he couldn't do everything himself. Not always. He did wonder when one of the others would suggest it. He hesitated for another moment before shaking his head. He was already spread too thin. Besides, did that mean he'd have to go and tell Scintilla they would need to have as many children as they could?

Irwin shivered.

"The one who slots it has to want to have a lot of offspring," he muttered.

"That is the main issue, isn't it?" Dahlia said with a frown. "We know that Yuurindi have a tendency to have a lot of children, but none of the other species really have that. We aren't just looking for someone who could slot it, but also someone who would want that many children…"

"Ugh!" Esther said, shaking her head. "Imagine having this card and just being tasked with creating more and more children."

"So, that brings us back to Yuurindi?" Greldo muttered, sounding annoyed.

Irwin was about to agree when he noticed that Daubutim had been quiet for a while now. His friend's eyes were red storms of lightning. 

"Daubutim, you have an idea?" he asked.

Daubutim's eyes flashed even redder, then they dimmed as he focused on Irwin.

"Perhaps," he said before turning his attention to the Ganvils, who had resumed their examination of the card.

"You said it has to be offspring," he said slowly. "I presume that's because there needs to be some sort of strong connection, like with blood-type cards?"

"That's a good analogy," Ambraz said. "The original one was likely based fully on gene inheritance, while this one was changed by Irwin's soulforce and feels like that, but with a strong hint of fire resonance."

"What would happen if someone could clone themselves?" Daubutim asked. "Would those count?"

Irwin blinked, then leaned forward.

"You are thinking about the true clone card," he said. "The second life one."

“Yes,” Daubutim said. "You are purifying cards. What if you slot that true clone card? Does that mean you will be able to create more? And could you purify those?"

Irwin leaned back, stunned by how he'd forgotten about that card. At one point, he'd wanted to slot it to fix his size issue but eventually dismissed the idea out of fear of making himself weaker- spreading his third heartcard out over too many things. Luckily, his size issues were solved by the Titan's Sliver and his third heartcard. After that, he hadn't thought about it a lot. Only when he was determining what cards to give his family and friends had he come across it, dismissing it as he wanted to duplicate it before he did. He probably should have realized it at the time, but he'd been so busy that he'd not really given it much thought.  

And I was even stupidly flipping through those stacks of cards for a card to add, he thought, as he realized the options the card might give him. Ambraz seemed to have the exact same idea.

'Kid… if you slot that one, we could use it together with Surging Growth as the basis of your next heartcard! It would.. No, it might resonate enough with your third soulcard and allow you to have both your souls out at the same time! Or the ability to create more of the Volcano Titan Gauntlets!'

Irwin licked his lips. 

'It's too powerful to use the template card on anyway,' Ambraz continued, seemingly becoming even more excited. 'But if you slot it, you will be able to recreate something similar! All we need is a way to create those card seeds!'

Irwin almost got up to slot the card then and there, barely holding back his own excitement. Instead, he focused on Daubutim.

"Very likely," he said, hearing the excitement in his own voice. "What do you have in mind?"

"First, two questions. If you slot that, can you create more of those clone cards?" Daubutim said. "And, say you give one of those to someone, and that one-" he pointed at the one the Ganvils were crowding around. "Could that person talk with his clones no matter the distance?"

"I don't know a lot about clone cards, but you can already talk with them, can't you?" Greldo asked.

"What? No…” Montain said, frowning. "Besides, from what I know, if your true clone moves too far from your own self, it splits off and gets its own soulscape. It will be weaker than the main self, but if that happens, they can't merge back together either."

"No, no," Ambraz rumbled. "That only happens with certain types of true clone cards. There are also those that split off right away, while there are some that dissipate when you move too far away."

Irwin quickly raised his hand as he sensed the other smiths leaning forward, ready to join in, cutting them off. 

"We can discuss this later," he said, turning to Daubutim, understanding what his friend was getting at. "If I slot it, I'll probably be able to create more. I will need to sacrifice another card with the clone-type to get a cardseed, but that doesn't have to be a true clone one. So yes. I'd be able to create more. If we can talk with them, it will depend on how we create these clones, but Ambraz and I will start experimenting as soon as I've slotted that true clone card. Perhaps we can integrate them together, and-"

"Shadow clones," Greldo said, leaning forward.

Irwin blinked, turning to his friend.

"Imagine if I could get the shadow clones' ability Coal has, but without the distance limit? I could send them out everywhere and talk with them to learn what is going on."

Lord Bron whistled, his eyes locking on Irwin's. "Is something like that possible?"

"I don't know yet," Irwin said as he got up and reached for the communications card. "But I'm going to find out. For now, I'll clone this one four times. That will give us the ability to hand one to Endil and one to Yuurindi and have one ready if we can find another person. I'll keep the last one for future duplications."

Nobody disagreed, and a few minutes later, Irwin held two of the four cards. Daubutim had another one, and Trimdir had the last one.

"I'll talk with Rindiri," Daubutim said. "Trimdir will discuss things with Endil."

They discussed for a short while longer, finally ending with a round of goodbyes. A few moments later, Irwin, Greldo, and Dahlia stepped out of the shadows near Irwin's house.

"Thanks," Irwin said, looking at Greldo. "Can you come find me in a few days? Trimdir and I need to check on the Aurorium in the mines."

"Are you going to try creating a card with it?" Dahlia asked, raising her eyebrows.

"We might, but until we find out how to create a cardseed, they will be of less use than using our own soulforce," Irwin said.

"For you," she said, rolling her eyes. "The rest of us can barely scrape together enough to create one Quartz card. That's one for one, and if we fail, it's a card wasted. How far are you with creating more soulforce expansion cards?"

"Not far," Irwin said with a sigh. "It's not one of my soulcard's main types, and it's also somewhat fragmented. It will probably take a while, but the cards we have with a seed that is similar enough are rapidly running out."

Dahlia grimaced, then shrugged. "Well, I guess it's good to see you, even though you have limits."

"Yeah, well," Greldo muttered. "I, for one, wouldn't have minded if he had none. That way, life would have been a whole lot easier."

They shared a round of laughter before Irwin looked at his friends.

"Are you two coming, or…?"

"No. I'm going to show Dahlia around Treanba," Greldo said, putting an arm around the tall female smith. "There are a couple of really nice restaurants in the harbor."

Irwin saw them share an intimate look, and he felt a surge of happiness for Greldo.

"Well, have fun then," he said. "I'll shout at Coal's shadowclone if I need anything. Assuming you still have one running around here?"

Greldo grinned. "One near your kids, one in the smithy, and one inside your office in the Academy."

Irwin grinned, shaking his head. He raised his hand just as Greldo and Dahlia vanished into the shadows.

"Food first, then let's go and see what we do with that body double card," he said.

--

Doomblade grunted as he stomped through the Galub District. 

"He didn't even come and see me," he grunted.

"I told you, he is busy," Basil said.

The large Galub glared at the warrior walking beside him. "So? He could have come and seen me! It's a good thing my mind cleared up more. What if I'd grown bored again?"

"You said you didn't have that problem anymore," Basil snapped.

"No, well, sometimes I regret that," the Galub grunted. "So, when are we going on the offensive?"

"We won't," Basil said.

The annoyance in his voice was thick, but Doomblade didn't care. Instead, he snorted.

"So, we are just going to sit here and wait till they attack us?"

"No. I told you this before! We are scouting to make sure we don't get attacked," Basil said, sounding exasperated. "We have scouts near the Glacial Sections and more dotted around the distant borders from where they might come. There's no way we are ready for a war against those Guidar. We need more crew for the ships we have, more ships in total, more knowledge of runes, more cards, more warriors… more of everything!"

Doomblade snorted.

"I told you! Give me and my people a world, and we can multiply! We'll become an army before you know it!"

"In a few years?" Basil asked. "And in such a way that we don't have to worry that you are going to attack us first?"

"We won't attack you," Doomblade said, looking at the warrior and smirking. 

Basil held his gaze and then glared ahead, clearly not believing him. Doomblade didn't really blame him. He wasn't sure about it himself, after all.

"Whatever," he said. "Can I come hunt Oculithar again?"

"Yes. We will leave later today," Basil said, raising his hand. "But don't you annoy Scariander again, alright? Last time, he almost threw you off to walk back."

Doomblade barked a laugh. "It's just too funny how he talks with images and emotions!"

"Which is why you showed him images comparing him to little fishes that you eat?" 

Doomblade laughed again, louder this time. "Why not? I bet those Chaos Whales taste really great."

As they reached the end of the Galub District, Doomblade saw the squad of four-horns standing guard on the edge. They were there mostly to keep the two and one horns out of the other districts, as those were stupid enough to start problems. 

"Emperor," one of them said, bowing. "Will you be heading out again?"

"Yes! Make sure nothing bad happens," Doomblade snapped. 

"I will, my-"

A deep bellowing horn blow caused the Galub to stop talking while all of them spun around, their eyes searching the skies. 

"Blood and gore," Doomblade snarled as he saw a small cloud of dozens of white-sailed ships head towards them. "I thought you said you had scouted out?"

"We do," Basil growled. "Stop whining and let's go!"

Doomblade let out a whooping laughter, turning to the four-horns. "Keep the young ones safe!"

He didn't wait for an answer as he ran after Basil, his anticipation growing.

"Think they are friendly?" he shouted.

"Do they look friendly?"

"I hope not!" Doomblade replied, his eyes growing bloodshot.

--

Hours after a long meal with his family, Irwin was standing in the private smithy that bordered his own home. It still had a forge area, even though he didn't really need the heat, and there were even some normal anvils. None of that was needed, but it just felt right.

He was staring at the booklet in his hand, which described the true clone, or second life card, as it had been called by Lord Harborth.

Card: Emnon Body Split

Type: True Clone, Emerald, Reforged by Irwin Roddington

Owner: -

The wielder of this card will have their body split into two. As long as either of the two bodies remains, the other will reform. Beware: having both bodies out will cause stress on the wielder's mind as it will temporarily be split into two.

Passive: A true clone of the wielder's body

"Why does it hold so much soulforce… It's only emerald rank," he grunted. "Even a full template card couldn't copy this!"

"Wait until we reforge it to diamond," Ambraz said with a happy hum. "Though, just so you know. Don't try to move it along anything but its desired path."

Irwin frowned at that.

"Why?"

"Because if we make even the slightest mistake, we will lose the ability it has," Ambraz said. "Remember the analogy we spoke about long ago, with how reforging is like a forest?"

"Of course," Irwin said. "The cards want to move along their preferred path or paths, but there are other paths, less trodden. If we can find one that reaches an end, we can use it to reforge a card along it. I think you said that many paths are dead ends, leaving a card stuck at emerald or ruby rank?"

"Well, any card with the True Clone type is more like a mole that is digging below the forest," Ambraz said. "There's no real path besides the one it makes. If we try to influence it, the card will most likely reach an instant dead end or, worse, become unstable and explode. Even the dead-end will be troubled because a card that's a dead end will cause massive issues when we reforge the heartcard."

"I've never heard about these," Irwin said, rubbing his chin. "Let me guess, it was part of the later years I didn't follow?"

"That's about right," Ambraz said.

Irwin sighed as he examined the card. "From what I can sense, it will likely get very little if we reforge it…"

"Oh, that's hard to say. It will likely just increase its soulforce capacity, which should influence your own capacity after you slot it.

Irwin hummed as he tapped the card. "What would happen if someone slots it and then unslots it?"

"Death."

Irwin blinked before staring at Ambraz stupidly. "What?"

"Unslotting this card would result in death to the wielder," Ambraz said calmly. "This card gives you an instant body. There are others that only create one after your current one is dead, but recreating one in the spot you died."

"Well, let's see what we can do then," Irwin said as he put the paper away, gave the rarest card he had ever seen, or held another glance before putting it on Ambraz's surface. "I take it. Is there no chance we can break it?"

"Only if we go beyond diamond," Ambraz said. 

Irwin had expected the answer and rolled his shoulders.

"Let's get on with it then."

--

Scintilla hummed happily as she moved through the house. The runes were keeping it at a blistering temperature, which was not something she required anymore but something she preferred nonetheless. She could hear her little embers rushing through the house, probably playing another game of tag. 

Esmee was probably outside in the garden, chatting with Carla. 

I'll join them later, Scintilla thought as she cocked her head and listened to the distant singing of Irwin.

He'd been working hard the last few hours, having returned from the Academy in a rush, muttering something about his next card.

I wonder what it's going to be this time, she pondered. Probably something insane.

She summoned Leafbrand, smiling at the beautiful sword. Her soullake was rapidly filling up, and Irwin had promised to help her fill it soon. Just the idea of hearing him sing and reforge with the Chaos Whales made her smile with anticipation. She fully expected her soulcard to be amazing, but she was also curious about the handcards Irwin had found her. She'd asked him to get her some that would allow her more control over her fire, not unlike what he had. If there was going to be a war, she needed to prepare for it, and she didn't want to risk being too weak to protect her kids.

A soft thud came from outside, followed by a worried shout. "Master Smith Irwin?!"

He better not hear that, Scintilla thought, grinning as she remembered Irwin's scowl the first time someone called him that. It was only marginally less fearsome than when someone had called him lord.

She used a flame dash to rush through the house and, a moment later, appeared at the front door. Pulling it open, she saw a tall, gangly man whom she knew was one of the teleporters. 

"What's wrong?" she asked, her joy fading rapidly, replaced by worry. "What happened?"

"Is Master Smith Irwin here?" the man asked, looking behind her. "Lord Basil asked me to bring him as fast as I can."

Scintilla sniffed. "He's busy with a card. If you disturb him now, he will probably take your head off."

She felt slightly guilty as the man paled, but not enough to correct her great exaggeration. He still hadn't answered her questions, instead ignoring them.

"A fleet is heading to the exit portal harbor! Lord Basil told me to get the Master Smith!"

Scintilla paled.

"Stay here, I'll get him if I can."

She turned and slammed the door closed, rushing through the house. 

We haven't been back for more than half a year!