Irwin's Journey 504: A new chapter

"It's amazing," Irwin said as he walked back onto the deck of the sleek warship. He put a hand against the side of the main cabin that, like nearly all bigger ships he'd been on, covered the entire backside of the ship like a small house, and felt the heat and power radiate from the Ancestral Copperion flowing through it.

"Those walls are three times as thick as regular warship walls," a youthful-looking Crathan agreed, his hands on his hips as he looked at Irwin with a proud grin. "A layer outside, one inside, and the AC running through special channels in between. Even a regular runic soulforce blast cannon wouldn't do much unless it hit the same spot a few dozen times. Maybe it'd cause a dent!" 

"You did amazing work, Blade," Irwin said, grinning at the descendant of Dagger. "Did you show it to Dagger yet?"

"Oh yeah, she's been nagging nonstop to be allowed to take it out for a tour," Blade said, his grin widening. "Doesn't wanna give in to old age, that one!"

"Don't talk about your grandmother like that," Rindiri called out from the upper deck where she was busy with the helm. "She's ready, Captain, you can move her in!"

Irwin nodded as he turned serious.

"Are you sure you want to come?"

"Blazes, yes," Blade said, his eyes widening. "I've been hearing stories from Grannie for my entire life. If I didn't go now, I'd not be able to live with myself!"

A loud snort came from above, and a moment later, Rindiri stuck her head out. "Don't bother, Captain. That little runt was talking about this five hundred years ago. The only reason I didn't ask you to bring him at the time was because he was still way too young. Now-"

"Young?" Blade snorted, interrupting her as he shook his head. "I'm over five hundred years old, all right? That might be nothing compared to you two ancient runes -no offense- but I've seen about everything Scour has to offer. Been a pilot on every type of ship that flies these Blazing skies, and I wanna see something new!"

Irwin grinned as he spread his soulforce senses around the ship.

"Rindiri?"

"I've got a few final things to do, including getting the captains and crew ready," she said, sliding down the railings beside the stairs, landing smoothly, and jogging to the side of the ship. "Don't forget the supplies down there, and I'll see you in a minute."

Irwin laughed as she jumped over the edge, showing no regard for the over twenty-foot drop. He turned to Blade, examining him for a moment before pulling the ship and Crathan into his soulscape. The reinforced deck vanished from beneath his feet, and he clicked his tongue just as gravity took hold. He appeared on the ground beside the enormous workbenches and massive stacks of supplies that didn't fit in the ship's hull. They ranged from complete replacements for masts, bulkheads, and crates filled with rune-covered wood. He knew that just those crates were worth more than most merchants in Blackglass City would see in their entire lives.

With another wrap and pull, he moved it inside his soulscape within a valley bordering a steep cliff. Above it, the Caldera hung like a sleek promise of violence, while his giantself hung beside it, his head just peeking over the edge of the deck.

Irwin frowned as he sensed just how much of his soulforce he'd already drained moving everything inside. Using his soulscape for non-living entities had become far easier with his new soulcard, but that didn't mean it was for free.

Now let's see how many of those other ships I get in here, he thought. The crew would have to wait untill he reduced the time dilation.

-- Irwin's Soulscape --

"By the council's blazing balls, Granny definitely can't gauge distance," Blade shouted.

Irwin grinned at the tiny man on the deck, raising an eyebrow.

"Both me and my soulshape grew a tiny bit since Dagger was here," he said. 

"A little bit?" Blade sputtered before barking a laugh. "Whatever, I was told you can form buildings in here? Any chance you can create me a dock somewhere on the side of this cliff? Although she is technically finished, there are many more things I can do, and being able to walk around and along her hull would help a lot, both now and if we have to do repairs!"

Irwin looked at the dark cliff and focused a bit. Creating non-living soulforce objects was like a simple derivative of creating soulforce constructs, something he'd learned from Ambraz years ago. Most of the time, Ambraz had been better at it, but ever since he'd been working on the real soulforce constructs, his control over what he could create had grown exponentially.

"I can," he said, as he floated back down to the ground. 

A quick movement from above made him look back up just in time to see Blade jump across the railing of the ship and turn into a cloud of almost black smoke that flew down to him, landing on his shoulder.

Irwin blinked as he looked at the Crathan standing on his shoulder, hands on his hips, grinning back at him.

"Sorry about this, Capt'n, but this way I can explain what would be best, all right?"

"Did anybody ever tell you that you are very different from Dagger?" Irwin said, lips quirking at the odd behaviour of the shipwright. 

"Oh, all the time! She doesn't agree, of course, but that's fine," Blade said. "Now, Aunty Rin told me you are bringing the first squad of warships in, including their crew?"

Irwin nodded, wondering what Blade had planned.

"Good," Blade said, rubbing his hands. "Those beauties took the last two hundred years of our time to build, and we are getting faster at it, but growing those hulls just takes so long. Besides, hiring four-soulcarded Viridian tree- and woodshapers is expensive, even for us. I would hate for them to be left behind. Now, if we are getting those in here, even if only temporarily, here is what I'd like-"

Irwin's eyebrows slowly rose as Blade kept talking.

-- Scour --

A day after he'd moved all of the Concerta-line warships into his soulscape, Irwin was sitting in his smithy. 

"I wonder what she has planned," he said, humming softly as he leaned back and looked around the smithy that had been his home for dozens of years. 

It had grown on him, and he'd gone as far as to change the layout of the smithy in his soulscape to resemble it. Even then, now that the time of his leaving was closing in, he couldn't help realizing he was going to miss parts of his time on Scour. Not all of it, and definitely not the time-dialation jumps, but his time in the Blackglass Cavern, now populated by tens of thousands of Crathans, spread across dozens of towns, and the small city near the enormous lake? He knew he'd think back to that for a long time. 

"Just be patient," Ambraz rumbled. "I'm sure you are thinking the same thing I am."

Irwin grinned. "Probably a party of some sort."

"Exactly," Ambraz grumbled. "It's been way too long since you used that Soulstrum Guitar for anything but reforging."

After a few minutes, Irwin got up and walked to the side of the smithy where some crates of ore stood, almost forgotten. He continued humming as he pulled them into his soulscape and into his smithy's supply room. During his previous long time living here, he'd created a lot of simple metal items, like pots, pans, and farming utensils, and he'd realized he enjoyed the regular smithing. Having some more supplies couldn't hurt.

He was just pondering if he should go out and find some more raw metal when the door opened and Scintilla moved inside.

Irwin's eyes shot up as he saw her dressed in an ornate, flowing orange dress that wrapped tightly around her athletic and curved body. 

"Glad you approve," Scintilla said, smiling as she did a slow turn before walking towards him. She raised her hands, and a pile of leather and cloth appeared in her hands. "Get dressed in this, and we can go!"

Irwin accepted the clothing, which was a pair of somewhat wide leather pants made of wyrm-hide, a clean shirt, and a fancy orange leather coat that matched Scintilla's dress.

I hate getting dressed up, he thought, keeping his smile on his face and quickly taking off his regular clothes. 

A minute later, Scintilla beamed at him while Ambraz was softly chuckling from his shoulder. 

Irwin sighed, tugging the thick leather coat, which fit perfectly.

"Look in the sides, it's got extra pockets," Scintilla said as she leaned into his side and wrapped her arm around his.

Irwin pulled the coat open, noticing some faint slits in the side, and with some experimenting, he found hand-deep pockets.

"They are for cards," she said, before grinning evilly. "Though I'm afraid you will have to put those in yourself."

Irwin rolled his eyes and let her guide him to the exit of the smithy. The small city square outside was quiet, and as they moved to the restaurant next door, he was having a hard time keeping his soulforce senses closed. If it weren't that Ambraz was actively monitoring it, he'd not have agreed on it on account of it being a bad idea. As it was, he opened the door, and a loud cheering erupted instantly from the dozens of people waiting inside. 

Irwin blinked as he saw mostly familiar faces, many old. Rinbus and Nimlarel stood at the head, skin and hair faded and gray, having lost the Crathans' normal lustre over the hundreds of years, while behind them stood a few of their oldest children. Next to them stood Flowrishin, far older, but looking more spry, while Lejinga and Julla stood with them. Surprisingly enough, Lejinga hadn't changed much, looking like an Ignitzian in her prime even though she was now thousands of years old. Behind them stood two of his old students, both brittle with age.

A bit to the side stood two people he hadn't seen in a very long time, 

Salezina Silvzeronvein, thousands of years ago, the Empress of the Oxarites had changed surprisingly little for someone with only three soulcards. One of the few Oxarites present, she stood beside a tall but older Vaidara. One of the last of the original Seven that still lived, Vaidara the Teleporter, looked ancient compared to her friend. She was leaning into Salezina, clearly having trouble standing, while beside her stood the only other living member of the Seven.

"About time you showed up," Hilbarin Deadslate, the previous Emperor of the Oxarite Empire, roared. "Do you have any idea how hard it is for some of us old folk to keep standing this long?"

Irwin grinned back. "You counting yourself among those?" he asked as he walked forward, noticing many more people he'd not seen in a long time, and a few he had. Rindiri and Brecka stood a bit in the back, whispering softly.

Hilbarin stomped forward, his long gray metallic hair and beard perfectly cut, and his eyes brimming with the same power and energy as they had when Irwin first met him. With five soulcards, he was among the strongest present, and he was alone. His heartbond and partner, Lady Sandrihna, had died of old age hundreds of years ago, as had their children. As old as Oxarites could become, even they had limits, and without the proper cards, even the most naturally long-lived of them didn't reach a thousand.

"Me? Blazes no," Hilbarin snorted, slamming his oversized hand into Irwin's shoulder with no effect. "I'm planning on outliving that brat, and perhaps the one after it!"

Irwin knew he meant his grandson, the current Emperor, who he saw wasn't present. He wasn't surprised, as he had only met him a few times while all those present had been those he'd interacted with a lot.

"So," Hilbarin rumbled as he looked around. "We know you're planning to up and disappear on us again for another few centuries, and because we have no idea which of us will still be around when you return, we decided to have a party now. That will save you the embarrassment of having to go to our burial sites a few hundred years from now."

There was a round of laughter while Flowrishin stepped forward.  Klei'co, her bonded Ganvil, sat on her shoulder, radiating a surprising amount of soulforce.

Did he rank up? Irwin thought, feeling no sudden surprise from Ambraz, telling him that his friend already knew.

"What this old ore vein means is that we wanted to give you a proper farewell party this time," Flowrishin said, shaking her head as she glared at Hilbarin. 

Irwin held back a grimace, the well-meaning words somehow hitting harder than Hilbarin's joke.

"Thank you all," he said, looking around at everyone. "I see tables with food and drinks, so how about we all sit down and enjoy the feast Nimlarel and Rinbus prepared for us?"

"Oh, we didn't do much preparing," Rinbus grunted, his voice cracked and old, like metal across a rasp. "Let the young ones do that!"

Nimlarel, still as tall and slender as she'd always been, but with the same long and dulled gray metallic hair, smiled and beckoned for everyone to move.

Irwin felt a tug from his side, and looking down, he saw Scintilla watching him quietly.

"You alright?" she whispered.

"Fine," Irwin said, looking at the people he'd known for decades slowly and carefully walk to their spots, some needing help getting there. "Just fully aware of the amount of time that passed. Still, thank you for organizing this. It can't have been easy."

"Oh, it wasn't that hard," Scintilla said. "Nimlarel and Hilbarin did most of the heavy lifting. Now, come on and let's eat! "

Irwin again let himself be pulled along, moving to the head of the table with Scintilla.

--

Salezina, once Empress, now self-proclaimed desert wanderer, watched Irwin chat animatedly with Flowrishin, their conversation having long since lost everyone, even the other two smiths, as they dove into some minute detail of sideways reforging that none but them understood. 

"He really didn't change, did he?" Vaidara whispered.

Salezina turned to her friend, suddenly acutely aware of how old they both were as she looked at the gray-haired Oxarite that had been her best friend for thousands of years. 

Why couldn't she just have accepted that heartcard, a tiny part of her thought before being shoved down. 

It was the thought that had dominated her for a long time, ever since Vaidara's aging grew faster. 

"He didn't," she agreed, glancing around the table. "Neither did Hilbarin."

"He is going to be the last," Vaidara agreed, smiling as she stared at the burly Oxarite who sat close to Irwin, laughing as he joked with Scintilla. Although his hair was the same gray as that of the other elderly Oxarites and Crathans in the room, his movements and stature hadn't diminished. Instead, he seemed to radiate a sense of being immovable like a mountain.

Salezina nodded, not looking up, her mind drifting back in time, something it had done a lot lately. 

She probably would have been lost in her memories if Vaidara hadn't shocked her out of it.

"You should go with them."

Salezina almost hurt her neck as she turned to look at her closest friend, confident, and heartbond. Vaidara was looking at her with a faint smile, her eyes clear -something they weren't always- as she continued.

"You are going to live for at least another four thousand years, maybe more," the elderly teleporter said. "If you stay here, you will see me and all the others eventually die. Is that what you want? To be the only one alive? You might even outlive Hilbarin… and then what?"

Salezina felt the old, deeply buried anger try to pop up its ugly head, and she crushed it with centuries of practice. Still, it was harder than it should have been.

"You can't seriously mean I should leave you here alone?" she whispered. "To die alone?!"

"I'm not alone," Vaidara said back, her eyes glistening. "Flowrishin is going to live here, take over smithing for Blackglass when Irwin leaves. She invited me to stay when I talked to her a few years ago."

Salezina just stared at her, not sure what to say. Her first reaction was to say she was crazy, that she couldn't be serious, but at the same time, she couldn't help but think about the next hundred years. Vaidara would perhaps live that much longer, perhaps not even. And then what? She opened her mouth, closed it again before looking around the table.

A hundred years from now, Rinbus, Nimlarel, and all but a few of those now present would be gone. Only she, Hilbarin, and Flowrishin would likely still live. Besides, she'd wandered every desert on Scour, traveled for years through the Endless Sands, searching for lands beyond, only to find that she eventually reached the Equator Grove again, having circumvented the world. 

"I can't just leave you here," she muttered, feeling more conflicted than she had in her entire life. 

"You can, and you must," Vaidara replied softly, her gaze drifting off and going distant. "The last few months, I've been thinking about those first years after Hilbarin took over from you. Do you remember how free we felt? Able to wander where we wanted, far from the Empire, where nobody knew us. Walking the markets, exploring distant lands. Everything was so new, even for me! I told you before, but teleporting around had made the world feel so, so tiny. But walking around, those year-long trips into the desert? They were amazing!"

Salezina felt a stab of longing as she recalled those days, so long ago. Those memories had burned into her mind, while many years after seemed to have just blurred together into a mass, with only a few moments jumping out like tiny gems.

"Go with them. Explore this Portal Gallery we have heard so much about," Vaidara whispered. "Relive those feelings."

"Come with me?" Salezina said, staring at Vaidara and wishing she didn't already know the answer.

"Ah, my love, I'm far too old for that," Vaidara whispered. "You know this to be true. There are days when I wake up and my mind is filled with fog, thoughts coming slow and difficult, memories seemingly like distant rays of light, ungraspable."

Salezina felt a stab of pain, and she reached out, holding Vaidara's hand as the shadow of her friend stared off into the distance, her eyes unfocused. After a few moments, it became clear she was lost in memories, and Salezina sighed. She looked up to see Nimlarel looking at her, eyes filled with sympathy. 

Salezina smiled back when a soft melody flowed from the head of the table. There, Irwin had summoned his Soulstrum Guitar, and a moment later, he began humming and singing a beautiful song, assisted by his Ganvil. Salezina leaned back slightly, holding Vaidara's hand as she listened and pondered what to do next.

--

Irwin woke slowly, the after-haze of the party, where Hilbarin and Brecka had attempted and failed to get him drunk, still a slight buzz in his head. He felt Ambraz in the smithy, talking with Klei'co, while Flowrishin slept in one of the guestrooms. Her soulforce signature showed she was still fast asleep, as was Scintilla, who lay curled up beside him. 

She's gonna have one hell of a headache when she wakes up, Irwin thought as he hesitated whether he should stay.

The choice was made for him when the conversations his otherself was having with Dagger and the few Captains he'd already moved into his soulscape flowed into his mind. Fully awake now, he pushed himself up and snuck out of the bed. Scintilla just murmured something before rolling over. 

Irwin walked down into the smithy, probing his soulforce and feeling that it had mostly refilled. He should be able to speed up the time dilation and move in all those he had to without much issue. The enormous amount of soulforce the Ancestral Coperion in his soulscape held would be enough to refill it so he could speed up the time dilation a final time.

As he walked into the room, he caught a few snippets of Ambraz's conversation with Klei'co.

"-sure?" 

"Definitely. All you have to do is push a little more, and she will accept the heartcard," Klei'co said. 

She will? Irwin thought as he walked toward the two Ganvils sitting in front of the dimly glowing forge.

"Good, then we need to do that before we leave," Ambraz said, while Irwin felt his attention move to him. "Kid, Klei'co just told me that Flowrishin is very close to making her second soulseed, and apparently, it's got her annoyed enough that she's contemplating accepting the heartcard reforge we discussed."

Irwin sat down on a nearby chair, summoning a flask of water from his soulscape.

"The tangle growth one?" he asked, curious why Flowrishin hadn't told him during the party. 

"Yes," Klei'co said. "We almost succeeded a few weeks ago, and from what we both can determine, it shouldn't be more than a year or two at most."

"But I thought she'd been adamant that she didn't want to have another reforge," Irwin asked, leaning forward. "What changed?"

"During our previous near-success, she says she sensed something, some underlying thing to do with vegetation cards. She thinks that if she can figure it out, she might be able to make far more vegetation-based cardseeds," Klei'co said, sounding proud. 

"Is that what helped you reach rank four?" Irwin asked. 

"It is," Klei'co said, his pride growing. "I'm now the highest-ranked of Ambraz's original rank zeros!"

"You are the highest, even if we include my progeny," Ambraz grunted. "Though those have only lived for a year at most."

"Perhaps you should rename him Klei'am," Irwin said jokingly, only for both Ganvils to go deadly quiet. 

"That… is not a bad idea," Ambraz said softly, while Irwin saw that Klei'co had frozen nearly solid. 

"It's not appropriate," Klei'co said, but Irwin could hear the desire in his voice. 

"It's been done before," Ambraz hummed. "Yes. I like it. Even though you are technically not a progeny, I will allow you to call yourself Klei'am if you want. When I reach Granvox, I'll make sure it's recorded there."

The smaller Ganvil seemed to shudder before flying up and zipping around the smithy once before leaving with a final "I need to tell Flowrishin!" shout.

Irwin hummed as he looked at Ambraz. "Was this really something that's been done before?" he asked.

"Yes, but that was back when our old homeworld still existed," Ambraz said, sounding slightly smug. "But don't tell him that. He is already more proficient than half of the other Progeny I know."

Irwin grinned, relaxing in his seat as he wondered how late the others would wake up.

"So, that means we need to reforge her heartcard today?" he asked.

"Yes," Ambraz said. "Best to do it before she changes her mind again. Also, is it normal for those old Viridians to be this fickle? It's like leaves in the wind!"

Irwin burst out laughing, wondering what Flowrishin would say about this. Still, as he thought about remaking her heartcard so it would be far stronger and allow her to live for a much longer time, he felt a slight weight slip from his shoulders. 

--

Salezina stood on the other side of the square, silently staring at the smithy. The wave of soulforce flowing out of it, combined with the beautiful, almost haunting song, had her fidgeting, something she rarely did when she was young, let alone now. 

It's been going on for close to an hour; it should be… as if her thoughts were heard, the song ended with a final crescendo. 

"Incredible, isn't it?"

Salezina spun around in shock at the voice, only to see Hilbarin stand behind her, leaning against the wall, a smug grin on his face.

"How did you get there without me hearing you?" Salezina snapped, angry at herself for having missed whatever slight cues the massive man must have made.

"Practice," Hilbarin said, pushing himself from the wall and walking beside her, eyes locked on the large smithy nestled beside the even larger restaurant. "So, she convinced you?"

Shock ran through the former Empress as she watched her successor, and now also former Emperor. 

"She told me a couple of years ago," Hilbarin said, his eyes narrowing. "I had asked her if she ever pondered heading out of the Exit Portal with a ship to see what really lay beyond. We talked for hours after…"

"I'm still not sure, but I need to ask if he'd even let me first," Salezina said, sniffing at the towering man who had once been at her beck and call. "Why are you even here? Checking up on me?"

"No. Look, they are coming out," Hilbarin said as he walked forward.

Salezina frowned at his back, only now noticing he was wearing a dark metal armor below his wide robe, one that she'd not seen before. It was form-fitting like only a carded armor could be, and seemed to move with him as he walked. 

Whatever, she thought, wondering why, even after such a long time, some people still managed to get under her skin. 

She jogged after him before walking side by side toward the smithy, where Irwin and Flowrishin were walking outside. 

"What are you two skulking about out here?" the old Viridian asked, leafy eyebrows raised.

No… not that old anymore, Salezina realized as she noticed the orange was far less pronounced, there was no more brown, and she even saw bright yellow and a few green leaves in her long, thick leaf hair. Irwin stood beside her, watching them curiously.

"If I wanted to, would you take me along to Eluathar?" she asked, staring at him.

The towering smith, large even by the standards of Oxarites and his own Crathan species, nodded, seemingly unsurprised.

"Dammit. Did she seriously tell everyone?" Salezina muttered.

"No, I think she didn't tell a few of the helpers at the restaurant," Hilbarin replied, an insufferable smirk on his face.

"Great. Well, what are you here for then? Don't tell me…" Salezina stopped as things suddenly clicked, and she glanced at Irwin, who was focused on Hilbarin, seeming far more curious now.

"I'm going to take you up on your offer," Hilbarin said, pointing at Irwin. "I agree with this airhead over here. It's about time for something new and exciting before these bones of mine rust shut."

“Air… head…” Salezina hissed.

"What offer?" Irwin asked at the same time, eyebrows raised.

"The one you gave me a couple of thousand years ago, when I asked to see the Portal Gallery," Hilbarin said, sounding as smug as he looked. "Don't tell me you forgot? For you, it wasn't even that long!"

"I… of course you can come," Irwin said, while Salezina stared at Hilbarin.

"What about the Oxarite Empire?" she asked, feeling an ancient twitch of worry for the place she'd tried to protect for so long.

"Bah! Those brats will take good care of it. I haven't done anything substantial for at least four hundred years," Hilbarin grunted. "I made sure there are a couple of them that have the strength needed to deal with about everything I could come up with. They will be fine."

Salezina stared at him, then at Flowrishin. "Don't tell me you are also coming?"

"Not yet," the Viridian, who was far older than even she was, said. "I'm going to practice here and see if I can finish my second, and perhaps even a third cardseed. But perhaps when you return… I will think about it. It's not like I will have to hurry to make a decision."

"Even now, I find it hard to believe how lackluster you Viridians deal with time," Hilbarin said. 

Salezina ignored him, turning to Irwin.

"If I want to come, when do I need to tell you?" 

"I'll be leaving as soon as Scintilla and Brecka return," Irwin said. 

Salezina felt a stab at that. "From the Shipwrights Guildtower?"

"Yes."

Salezina hesitated before slowly nodding. "I'll go and talk with Vaidara. If I decide to come, I'll be there."

She didn't wait to see their reactions, but turned and walked away, feeling a tightness in her gut. 

Get a grip. You are too old to act like this, she told herself. But as she walked away, she couldn't help but fear she already knew the choice she would make, and it would be something she'd likely regret for the rest of her life.