Irwin's Journey 526: More unchaining

Author note: A quick update on how the re-release is going. Pretty good, but it could be better. If any of you has Kindle Unlimited, it would be amazing if you had a look at the three books on there! For those who enjoy audio books and have Audible, don't forget book 1 is up there to!

Now, enjoy the chapter!

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Irwin looked out across the seemingly endless mountains of Graboul’s Teeth. More mountains kept appearing in the distance as the Nocturna flew close to its top speed away from the giant Oculithar. Greldo, who was at the helm, was having it nimbly move between the peaks, a mere few hundred feet below the Portal Gallery barrier’s highest point. If anyone was around and looking, they would immediately spot them. Luckily, that was highly unlikely, and even if it was, Irwin was pretty sure that getting as far from where they had been was faster.

“Any news?” he asked.

“Not much. Coal has exactly one shadowclone left, and it’s to see the details. Best he can tell is that the Giant Oculithar is still. It’s almost like it lay down, crushing a few mountains as it did,” Greldo said. “No sign of any surviving ships fleeing.”

“Not like we expected anything else,” Irwin said.

He felt a tiny burst of sympathy as he thought about the thousands of Chained that died. They were bound to the Guidar, unable to resist even if they wanted to, and now any chance of them being unchained was gone.

The feelings lasted for only a moment before they were replaced by other things, like worries over the exit portal.

He turned his head, looking at where Ambraz was nestled into the spot at the prow. “Do you think that thing can force open the exit portal?”

“It wouldn’t matter if it could,” Ambraz said. “That thing is way too big to move through, and you are on the otherside, right?”

Irwin nodded. He felt his otherself, now within one of his two giant bodies, on the deck of the Caldera.

“Blade says he’s not sure how long the deck can hold me, though,” he said. “So we need a solution.”

“You also need to think about unchaining all those people in your soulscape,” Greldo said.

Irwin nodded dumbly, knowing his friend was right. He focused on his soulscape, where Daubutim was still trying to get information out of the different people he had locked up. They barely spoke, but Daubutim said he needed to know exactly what the Chained could and couldn’t do, so he could plan around capturing more without Irwin around.

I need to reforge a card that helps others unchain them, he thought.

-- Exit portal near Mudball, Irwin’s Giantself --

Irwin stared at the empty spot in the air before him. A cloud drifted through where he could feel the exit portal’s resonance. He had closed it, from his perspective, hours ago, and the explosive soulforce signature was still slowly fading into one that he knew would eventually be nearly undetectable except by people with heightened senses, like Greldo and him.

“So… how are we ever going to keep this blocked?”

Irwin glanced down and to the side, where Blade stood behind the helm. The other Crathan was looking up at him, even though Irwin stood on the lower deck, one of each of his giant feet resting on the far sides of the deck.

“I don’t know,” he said, turning his attention back to where the Exit Portal had been.

The slight movement caused him to redistribute his weight a little, and a dangerous creak came from the wood of the deck.

“Careful! Please!” Blade whispered.

Irwin just sighed, glaring at the deck. He loved the Caldera, as it was a ship made for him as a gift that had already proved highly useful during the trip. If only it could hold a bit more weight.

The extremely tough, rune-strengthened wood was creaking each time he moved, even just a little. He guessed he had to be happy that he could even stand on it, because otherwise he’d have had to find another way to be where he was now. Still, he needed to figure out what to do in the future. He had four bodies, and he could technically use all of them if he used his Aura Clone skill. The problem was that the two giant ones were currently only really useful in combat. Important, definitely, but also very limited. He couldn’t walk through a city, sit in a chair, or sail on a ship with them.

Whatever. I have two regular bodies, and I can always ask Rindiri to make me a giant ship, he thought, focusing on the real problem.

The potential portal that hovered midair, high above the yellow and orange clouds of Mudball. Usually, he just had a stoneshaper cover them in a mile of rock, but the moon below wasn’t close enough for that. Or for a giant tree. Meaning he needed something else.

‘Any suggestion?’ he asked, focusing on Ambraz.

‘Yes. Ask Rindiri to create a large, stationary bark around it. Then have people stationed on it warn you when anything happens. Remember, if it opens, you still have time before anything can come through. If you just shatter it before that happens…’

‘They are lost in the Primordeal Chaos,’ Irwin filled in.

He sighed, then focused on Blade. “I’m going to have to focus on something else for a bit. I’ll keep myself standing like this, just… don’t make any sudden movements?”

Blade paled as the implications seemed to become clear to him.

“Sure. Don’t stay away too long?”

“I’ll do my best,” Irwin said.

He moved himself back to Eluathar and into the kitchen. Looking up, he saw that some more people had joined Scintill and his mother. Bronwyn, Dahlia, Rindiri, and Hilbarin sat around the large table. He could sense and hear his children chattering somewhere nearby, probably playing some game.

“Finally,” Hilbarin said, leaning back. The chair, meant for Irwin’s own weight, didn’t as much as creak under his weight. “Now, please tell us you got away safe?”

Despite everything, Irwin couldn’t prevent a snorted laugh from escaping.

“We are safe,” he said, before remembering the major part of the fleet of Chained.

“But?” Bronwyn asked, knowing him far too well.

Irwin sighed and quickly brought everyone up to speed.

“I can make one,” Rindiri said, her eyes unfocused, her hands resting on the table, moving in jerky patterns. “I would require way more Ancestral Copperion than any single ship has, but… Yes.”

She got up and turned to Irwin.

“I’m going to need to head back to Scour for a while. I’m sure Daubutim can make an exception and move me there and back. I should be back in… well, soon for all you, but it might take a while to get my solution here. I will have to split it up, as none of the others can move it all in one go.”

“Are you sure you are okay with heading back there?” Irwin asked, worriedly. “Even with the time-dilation stable at around forty, years will have passed.”

“It’s fine,” Rindiri said, looking at Hilbarin. “Do you want to-”

“Nope! Not even if I get paid for it,” Hilbarin said, shaking his head. “I’m more than happy to let them solve their own problems! I’m more interested in getting back to the Nocturna if that’s okay?”

Rindiri shrugged, then walked to the door. “I’ll get you a solution for that closed Exit Portal,” she said. “I’ll also see if I can create a bigger ship. I’ve been mostly holding off because I was thinking about the crew, but I just realized: If I just make you a giant-sized ship, with a ton of Ancestral Copperion, even if to you it's a small ship, for everyone else it would be a giant battleship.”

Rindiri’s eyes glossed over again as she spoke, and at the last part, she was turning around already, leaving the door, the final bit of her story echoing back to them through the hallway.

“Right, did anybody notice just how scary she can be?” Hilbarin asked.

Nobody answered, and after a few moments, Dahlia leaned forward.

“I’m almost done with teaching what I’ve learned at the Academy. If you are moving Hilbarin back, I want to join you. I need to keep an eye on Greldo before he causes any problem.”

Irwin was about to agree when Dahlia kept talking.

“Before that, I need your help. I think I am this close-” she held her fingers a tiny bit apart. “-to creating a shadowtype cardseed, but something is blocking me.”

“We can do that after we are done here,” Irwin said, looking around. “Anyone else?”

“What are you going to do with the Chained after you free them?” Bronwyn asked. “Are you going to head to that world you left the first ones you ever unchained?”

Irwin shook his head. He had discussed this with Daubutim a while ago, and they had decided it wasn’t a good move.

“No, what we need are ships and crew,” he said. “Although we can’t trust all of the current ones, Daubutim wants to move them all to Scour, give those who want Crathan cards. Those will be allowed to return, and will be the base of the crew for those ships.”

“What if none of them want to change, or after they do, they don’t want to return?” Scintilla asked.

“Then it's best we leave them on Scour,” Irwin said. “Having more Crathans is a good thing, and in the end, we will have the ships. Besides, Daubutim has been talking with them a lot, and from what he has gathered, it is highly likely that many will want to return. Some for vengeance, others for a future.”

“When are you unchaining them?” his mother asked, frowning slightly. “I can’t imagine how horrible it must be to be enslaved like that.”

“We are still moving away from that big Oculithar,” Irwin said. “Our goal is to find another portal. With my senses far better, if there’s any, we will find it.”

“There’s something you should keep an eye on,” Hilbarin said, rubbing his chin. “Just because they are all chained now, doesn’t mean they are good people. It’s possible that some will misbehave after they are unchained.”

Irwin grimaced. “Daubutim said the same thing, so we are aware. It’s why I will keep them in my soulscape for a while so I can keep an eye on them. It’s also one of the reasons to bring them to Scour. Over there, they can cause far less harm.”

“Glad you didn’t forget about that,” Hilbarin muttered, before leaning forward. “Right, one more question. When are you finally finishing your next heartcard?”

Irwin stared at his right hand, still empty.

“I’m still not a hundred percent sure on what to slot,” he said. “I’m leaning towards simple cards that increase what’s already there, but it might be the last card I can decide myself.”

“What? Why do you think that?” Bronwyn asked.

“Because I think the Titan Sliver asked me to hold two options open because I need something to succeed in getting the best Worldcard there is.”

A moment of quiet hung over the table, then Bronwyn whistled.

“I wonder how strong a Worldcarded really is,” he said. “I mean, I know what you told us, but still. Look at the difference between the handcards and soulcards people have. Even at the same rank, they aren’t all equal. There are handcards that are more dangerous than some soulcards!”

“It’s safe to assume that not all worldcards are the same either,” Scintilla said, leaning back. “Besides the obvious difference of most locking you to a single world.”

“About that,” Hilbarin said. “Five soulcards were the requirement, right?”

“Five soulcards, some of which boost the soulscape's stability and size,” Irwin said.

“Right, right. But, five, that means anyone with a ruby-rank first soulcard can become one? They just need one of those body doubles to make sure they can still roam around the Portal Gallery instead of being locked to some dead world after?”

“Something like that,” Irwin said, looking at the ancient emperor. The man had five soulcards, with his hands filled with six handcards, but none of them dealt with soulscape improvements. “Why?”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at that,” Hilbarin said, raising his hands. “Any chance you can help me fix these and get five soulforce improvement ones and a body double?”

“I can, but I’m not sure if five cards will even be enough,” Irwin said, honestly. “From what I know, my own soulforce before my last soulcard wasn’t even enough.”

“I… what?” Hilbarin asked, his eyes narrowing. “You are joking, right?”

Irwin shook his head, and Hilbarin leaned back with a weary sigh.

“Well, then I’ll just have to hope you figure out a way to fix people’s soulcards while creating a Worldcard,” he decided.

I don’t think it will be that easy, Irwin thought, though he was hoping it would.

A few hours later, he was standing in his own smithy, watching Dahlia strike the concentrated soulforce in a quick pattern. He knew she didn’t work with the music path, but even then, there was a steady rhythm to her strikes that he could sense was very close to perfect.

Very close, but not completely.

At some point, the overlapping and interfering soulforce resonances that, in his ears, sounded like a beautiful song, clashed, creating a tiny discrepancy that oscillated outward, it took only a few moments before the initially beautiful and harmonious song turned into a chaotic mess.

As the glowing soulforce within the barrier rippled before exploding, Irwin knew that she’d been right.

She is almost there, he thought. Now, I just need to find out if I can help her fix it.

He knew it would be easier said than done. Her reforging was based on patterns and analysis, and he had long since found that although the final result was the same, changing how someone got there was inherently difficult.

Dahlia almost growled as she stepped back, glaring at the barrier behind which the soulforce was rapidly returning to its chaotic normalcy.

“You did really well,” Juul’rish said.

“Not good enough,” Dahlia said, turning to Irwin with hope in her eyes. “Please tell me that Trimdir was right, and that there’s a flaw in my striking pattern.”

“There is,” Irwin said, walking forward and summoning a hammer. He gently tapped it on Juul’rish, who didn’t seem bothered, recreating the exact same pattern Dahlia had. The same strength behind the strikes, the same speed between the hits, the same overall structure.

“Here-” he said, as he tapped twice hard, then a little slower, “-and here, you are off. At least, that’s if you are trying to do what it seems you are. I know you can’t hear the soulforce, but the second strike of the first is too fast, causing the resonance of the first strike and the second to clash. Then, when you strike again, you cause this slight clashing to grow exponentially. From that point, all strikes cause the cascading failure.”

Dahlia hummed, and a glowing diagram appeared above Juul’rish.

“That just doesn’t make sense,” she muttered, poking at a section of the diagram which, to Irwin, looked like squiggly lines and complex combinations of numbers. “If I do that, the numbers after this make no more sense, and none of the calculations are right.”

“Which part is the exact final hit?” Irwin asked, scratching his head as he looked at the diagrams.

“This is the resonance of my soulcards, and this is the hit,” Dahlia said, pointing at a dense set of numbers with a symbol that Irwin understood was the hammer strike. “These determine how hard I hit, these are the angle, this is the exact moment, and-”

She continued for a while, Irwin long since lost and focusing on a few numbers she had said were the moment to strike.

“I don’t know why changing this a little causes so many issues,” he finally said, shrugging. “But Trimdir is right. You are at over ninety-seven percent of the song. Do you want me to try and do that part and show what it should sound like?”

“What use would that be?” Dahlia asked, her shoulders slumping. “You will probably change the way the soulcards resonate. Besides, your soulcards aren’t anything like mine. I might not even be able to resonate with them as strongly as you do. No, I’ll just trust you that the strike is off—” she said, whipping her hand out and causing everything from the diagram to vanish. “—and I’ll put it a bit slower.”

As she spoke, numbers began forming at the strike as she hummed and muttered. “It just doesn’t make any sense. If I do it slower, these have the risk of going below the line, which shouldn’t be possible.”

Irwin listened to her for a while, trying to come up with something to help with. An hour later, Dahlia glared at the diagram that had formed.

“It's horrible and makes no sense,” she muttered. “It will not reach a good conclusion, but perhaps if I try this, you can tell me where the song goes wrong.”

Irwin just stepped back and watched as she began hammering and reforging. It took almost an hour for her to reach the same spot.

Let’s see, Irwin thought, leaning forward.

The soulforce resonance remained stable, and he could feel it move towards the final dimension of complexity. Just like with his own, the complexity was exponential, with every final step as difficult as all others.

Then, as Dahlia struck down, he instantly knew it was wrong. Too fast, too hard, too much of everything. The entire soulforce structure warped instantly.

Dahlia apparently realized this time, as she just snorted and stepped away, looking at the soulforce burning within the barrier that Juul’rish was holding up.

“You needed a moment of silence there,” Irwin said, knowing he was right. “Yes on the soulforce resonances, but no on the hammer. It feels like an… interlude is the best word I can come up with.”

“Silence? No striking?” Dahlia asked, her eyebrows shooting up. “Well… that would fix this part-”

The diagrams returned, and she began rapidly changing numbers and parts.

Irwin watched it, not even offering to help, as he barely understood what she was doing.

I am so glad I have my own style, he thought.

Half a day and three attempts later, Dahlia had reached an estimated ninety-eight percent of completion. She was happy but tired as they stood outside Irwin’s house.

“I’ll return in two days,” Dahlia said. “Do you need me to tell Trimdir anything?”

“Just tell him I’m fine, but won’t be back for a while,” Irwin replied. “He can find me here if it's important.”

“I’ll tell him, and Irwin? Thank you for your help,” Dahlia said, waving as she walked away.

“No problem. Just get to the shadow cardseed, so you and Greldo can get more cards,” Irwin said.

Dahlia laughed before vanishing into the city, while Irwin headed back. He knew it was almost time to unchain the Accenti, which meant he needed some rest.

“Dad! Do you want to help Silv’am and me with our reforging?” Zan asked as she almost tackled him in the hallway.

Irwin held back a weary sigh, instead putting a wide smile on his face.

“Yes, we can do that! But I only have an hour, alright?”

Zan’s smile widened, while the tiny Ganvil flitted around her head excitedly. They sprinted back towards the smithy, and Irwin followed after them.

I guess my other self will just have to sleep, he decided.

-- Deep inside the Graboul Mountains --

Irwin yawned as he got up, feeling his neck pop twice. A quick check showed that his giantself was still lying still on the ground of the moon, far below the exitportal. Blade and the Caldera hovered there, and he could sense Hilbarin and Brecka talking on the deck.

Still closed, that’s good, he thought, turning his attention to the part of him that was on Eluathar. It had gotten to bed at some point while he was asleep, and he smiled as those memories told him just how happy Zan had been with managing a topaz-rank reforge. It hadn’t been perfect, but that barely mattered at her age.

He walked through the hallways of The Nocturna and onto the deck, finding Greldo behind the helm. His friend looked only slightly tired. The mountains still continued ahead, as they had for the day they had been traveling at full speed.

“No sign of any Oculithar, shadow or otherwise,” Greldo said. “I didn’t sense any portals, but…”

Irwin let his soulforce senses roam free, spreading them out as far as they could. A few minutes later, he shrugged.

“Nothing. Then again, it’s not like there are that many to begin with,” he said. “I’m going to unchain them.”

Greldo let out a small yawn but nodded. “Fine. I’ll keep going for a while longer.”

Irwin moved into his soulscape, taking over the final body still within it, the giant one that was lying in the smithy’s upstairs bedroom. Getting up, a second time in a few minutes, he felt the vast difference between his two bodies. Although both were strong, his giant forms held a physical power that dwarfed the normal ones.

Three bodies all across the Soulscape, he thought, sensing the slight pressure it was causing. It wasn’t anything like when he’d been on Scour during the maximum time dilation, but he also knew that if he hadn’t finished his previous soulcard, he’d likely have been unable to keep it up as long as he had.

“Kid, I’ve got a few more suggestions for your next three cards,” Ambraz shouted from the smithy downstairs.

Irwin walked down, and as he did, he sensed Daubutim still wandering the prison hallway he’d made. His friend seemed to be moving between two cells, and he quickly made an Aura Clone to warn him. A moment later, as he reached the actual smithing area, where Ambraz was sitting on a small table on the cardshelf, Daubutim appeared nearby.

“It would be useful if we could do this beyond just your soulscape,” Daubutim said as he moved to a nearby chair and almost slumped down. “I think I need to sleep a bit.”

Irwin watched his friend close his eyes and, a moment later, slump down, his breathing turning slow.

“Kid, what do you think of these?” Ambraz said, floating a page with the names and explanations of three cards forward.

Irwin hummed as he read them, immediately realizing what Ambraz was going for. All three cards were amethyst-ranked, two of which increased soulforce, while the final one was a rather simple fire-typed growth card called Fire Wick.

“Not bad,” he agreed, sensing the resonances of the cards. Even unorganized, they had a high overlap with the three cards he already had, and although none did anything special now, it didn’t mean he couldn’t give them something. “Let's reforge them after we unchain everyone in my soulscape.”

“You are going to do them all in one go again?” Ambraz asked, shooting up and landing on his shoulder.

“It worked fine the last time,” Irwin said. “Though, we really need to find a card that can do this.”

--

Captain Baksi leaned back in the cell, wondering if the dangerous man with the lightning-riddled eyes would return. She’d seen many powerful people in her time, including multiple Guidar, but that man had scared her. Something in his eyes and how he spoke. Calm, appearing to remember everything she’d told him to the tiniest details.

Then again, if he doesn’t return, I might just go crazy in here, she thought.

From what he had said, she’d only been here for a day, but she was already bored out of her mind. She was used to doing things all the time, not just sitting here and-

A tremor ran through her entire being, seemingly originating from her soulscape. Her mind stalled as she felt a wave of pressure settle on her, pushing on her soulscape. Squeezing it in what? An attempt to shatter it?

Rattling and cracking ripped all around her, and she heard a distant scream of fear. She recognized Hunbik’s voice and fully understood the sentiment.

Something is trying to destroy the chains?!

She shivered at the mere thought, recalling the legends about those who had tried. Mind destroyed at best, living with a ruptured soulscape at worst. Endless pain. There were some who believed it was possible, even among her own people, but she remembered her grandfather's warnings.

Another crack, and she could feel the chain binding her start to crumble and crack.

“Stop it!” she screamed, jumping up from the bed and running to the single hole in the wall. “You are going to get us killed, or worse!”

There was no response except for an increase in the wave of fore slamming down on her. It seemed to go on and on, never ending, only increasing. At first, it felt like it was not just the chain but also her soulscape that was being crushed, then one of the chains just gave way.

Baksi slumped to the ground, expecting a wave of pain, only to sense space. A reduction in the constant pressure she’d learned to live with, the laws that told her what she could and couldn’t do. Could and couldn’t say. Could and couldn’t think.

Maybe grandfather was wrong?

A loud shattering sound seemed to answer her, and she felt the other chains, those that had so long bound her, vanish. For a moment, the fear returned, then she felt something flit through her soulscape and out. A tiny white spark rushed out of her hand, then up through the ground.

“What?”

There was no answer, nor did she want one. Her mind, clear of any external influences, began humming softly. Pondering things it had always wanted to. Thinking hateful things about the Guidar, and trying to find ways to break free.

“I am free?” she whispered.