Irwin's Journey 503: A gift

"-after which she never wanted to talk about you," Rilla said, looking weary as she rubbed her face. "Each time we asked about you, all we got were cold remarks that we shouldn't talk about the Matriarch."

Irwin leaned back, trying to understand what he'd just heard. He had taken a spot at the side of the table, which allowed him to look at both Rindiri and Rilla. 

Rilla's story echoed in his mind for a moment, one of a young girl who'd been uprooted from her quiet life, losing her parents and siblings, and forced to live in an orphanage. 

"So… she's always been like this?" Rindiri asked, frowning. "This isn't something new?"

Rilla shook her head. "I never saw her this angry, but in hindsight, I guess it makes sense. I'm very sorry. If I'd known she would react like this, I'd never have asked you to come and see us."

Irwin saw Rindiri's shoulders slump slightly, her face almost as weary as that of Rilla. Due to it, he saw the slight resemblance to Earilla, and, indirectly, to Rindiri herself—the same tilt in the sharp eyes, and the same slightly pointier jaw.

"You thought it might be something else?" he asked softly, already having an idea what Rindiri might be thinking.

Rindiri sighed without looking up. 

"It could have also been mental degradation due to gene imperfections. Perhaps something left over from when we were Yuurindi," she said slowly. "But those things appear suddenly, and out of the blue."

Irwin nodded, having thought as much. He also had a good idea what Rilla would say, and as he glanced at her, she didn't surprise him.

"She was acting extremely, but… not unlike herself," Rilla said, shooting down the idea. "Before Mother died, she told us how Grandmother acted when her family was threatened. We just saw an example of it."

Irwin saw Rindiri flinch at that, and he leaned forward, elbows on the table.

"This is not your fault," he said, looking at his friend, first mate, and one of the few people who had joined him on what he now considered a horrible mission on Scour. "You asked Earilla to come with us, but she chose to stay behind. She knew how long we would remain behind. There is no way either of you could have guessed that something like this would happen. From what I could find, it happened only six times in the last few hundred years, and this was the only one where the Insectoids fled up."

"I know, Captain," Rindiri said, looking at him with a tired gaze. Still, her eyes were hard, and for a moment Irwin thought back to the first time he'd met her, when she had thought he was trying to hurt Zender. 

She always was protective…

"Can you let me into your soulscape?"

Irwin grimaced as he sensed how the elderly Zai was throwing around boulders in a fit of impotent rage. 

"Are you sure? She's not exactly sound of mind right now…"

"I know," Rindiri said, standing up and rolling her shoulders.  "She is angry. She wants to fight. That's fine. I can do that."

As she spoke, Irwin felt Rindiri's soulforce roll off her in waves, her last soulcard contributing most to it.

"You aren't going to hurt her, are you?" Rilla asked, standing up, worriedly.

"No," Rindiri said.

Irwin hesitated, then pulled her inside, causing her to vanish and leaving only Rilla and him behind. From his otherself, he saw that Zai didn't even question why Rindiri appeared. She shouted and attacked. He kept an eye on things, but within three exchanges it became clear that Rindiri was the more experienced combatant and had the more powerful cards.

Which left him with one question.

He turned to Rilla, who was wringing her hands again.

"They will be fine," he said. "Rindiri is holding back, and I think she wants to try to let her granddaughter work through her anger. I have no idea if it works, but I don't have any better ideas either. We will be leaving again in a few months, and when we return, another five hundred years will have passed."

Rilla sighed. "Most people don't know, but I remember when Grandmother told me that you kept roaming the Portal Gallery. Is it really that great?"

Irwin frowned, leaning back. "She never told you about the Guidar?"

"The bedtime stories?" Rilla asked, surprised. "She and mother told us those when we were young, and grandmother said her own mother told them to her when she was little. Are you saying those are real?"

"Yes," Irwin said as a tiny seed of worry grew in his mind. "When I left, five hundred years ago, people learned about them, and what they represent. This isn't done anymore?"

"Only from stories," Rilla said with a shrug. "About how they send chained armies to do their bidding? I think the Centi were said to be chained once, but I've never seen one of those."

Great, Irwin thought, his fists clenching. Before he left, stories about the Guidar were told in Blackglass schools, so everyone knew about them. Was warned.  If this had turned into nothing but stories, he would have to ensure the validity of them returned.

"The Guidar are currently attacking the Portal Gallery we live in, and have taken over a substantial amount of it," he said.

Rilla paled, then she shook her head. "But the exit portal has a large army around it, right? So there's no way they can actually come here." 

Irwin sighed. "The army the Guidar has is built from across an entire main branch. Just the part attacking our Langost branch is larger than all the forces we have. The only reason we are not being overrun is that Portal Gallery branches are enormous, and that the Guidar have split their forces. Even then, they have already taken over a large portion of it."

Rilla stared at him, then shuddered. "But our time dilation makes it so we are safe, right? If they come here, it won't be for a long time? Thousands of years?"

"The time-dilation on Scour is slowly stabilizing," Irwin said, feeling sorry for the Crathan woman who was suddenly learning that the stories she thought were nothing but that were true, but only the start of the trouble. "Right now, if I don't speed it up, the time dilation is slightly unstable but won't go over five hundred to one. It will stabilize more until it stops at about two hundred to one, at which point it will probably remain like that unless someone changes it."

"Can't you stay here? Keep the time dilation like now so…" Rilla's voice trailed off, and Irwin waited as she slowly worked through what was happening.

"You can't, can you," she muttered after a while, looking at him. "It would mean you would have to stay here. But why does our time dilation have to stabilize? If you just leave it unstable, to us, time outside would be almost unmoving. We could live safely here."

Irwin had been asked the same question many times in the past.

"You could, as could your children, and likely a dozen or a hundred generations after," he said. "But eventually the Guidar would come here, and the people who live here would be unable to defend themselves. Worse, without Scour's time dilation, we have very little chance to stop them, but to use it, it needs to stabilize more so we can actually move things between Scour and Eluathar."

Rilla stared at him, her eyes flickering with a dozen thoughts. Her mouth opened, then closed, and eventually she leaned back, looking conflicted.

"How long will it take for them to reach us?"

"Somewhere between a thousand and ten thousand years," Irwin said.

"And if you don't leave?" Rilla whispered, a slight relief showing on her face.

Irwin sensed Scour's time dilation. It wasn't nearly as unstable as it had been, with all the portals that had been closed. Even if he left, it would likely only become a bit stronger.

"Maybe twice that long," he said.

Rilla nodded. "But you won't stay? If you don't roam the Portal Gallery when you leave, what do you do?"

Irwin grimaced. "Well, normally I go to Eluathar, the place your great-grandmother's brother still lives at."

Rilla's eyes widened. "We have family there?"

"Yes," Irwin said. "Zender, who I guess would be your great-great-uncle. He has-"

For the next short while, he told Rilla about Zender and Earilla, slowly drifting off to stories from when the two had been with him on his ship as they travelled the Portal Gallery, and as he did, he felt himself grow sad. When he finished, he was staring at the table, lost in memories, while Rilla was pouring them a glass of water.

"Thank you for telling me this," she said as she put it in front of him. "I almost wish I could go and see them for myself, but I guess if I do that, everyone I know and love here will have grown old or died when I return."

Irwin hummed, thinking for a bit before answering. "I can take you along and keep the time dilation one-to-one for a day or two. It wouldn't be long, but I'm sure Zender would love to meet you. I'm sure he is going to be very upset when he hears his sister died."

"It's so hard to believe that for him it has been only a few months," Rilla said, sitting back down. 

They were quiet for a while, and eventually she looked up. "How are Grandmother and the Matriarch?"

Irwin had been trying to ignore what was happening in his soulscape, but he had been kept abreast by his otherselves' memories. 

"They fought, then talked for a bit, then fought again, and now they are talking again," he said, explaining what his otherself had witnessed. "Your Grandmother blames Rindiri for leaving her family."

"Would it have changed anything if she'd been there?" Rilla asked softly.

Irwin thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Rindiri ages very slowly due to her last soulcard, and she would have stayed in blackglass, working on ships. It's her great passion. So, she would have had to go there as soon as she heard, but…"

"But she wouldn't have been strong enough to stop the overflowing portal," Rilla said, seemingly understanding. 

"No, but I think she would have probably forced Earilla to leave before things got this dangerous," Irwin said.

"And if you had been there?" Rilla asked.

"I can only be in one place at the same time," Irwin said. "Had I been here, I'm sure fewer people would have died, but it would still have been a disaster. Before you ask, yes, I'm sure your Grandmother knows this. The problem is, she has grudges that go back over a hundred years."

Rilla remained quiet for a bit before looking around the room. "I'll tell the others about what you told me. How many of us could go to meet Zender?"

Irwin did a quick calculation based on his new soulscape stability and power.

"Ten, maybe eleven if they aren't too powerful," he said. "Any more and it will drain too much soulforce, leaving me too little soulforce to speed up the time dilation after you return."

Rilla got up, bowing slightly to him. "Thank you. I'll tell the others, and if any want to, I'll let you know. I need to have some time to think about all this now, if you don't mind. You are welcome to stay in this room, or I can guide you outside now?"

Irwin got up, sensing the still ongoing chat between Zai and Rindiri. "I'll head back home now and bring your Grandmother back when she is ready."

Rilla only nodded, her gaze far off as she guided him out of the house. The children had returned to playing, but when Irwin appeared in the courtyard, Berjin came running over immediately.

"Is Grandmother alright?" he asked, his gaze switching between Irwin and his mother.

"She will be fine," Irwin said, lowering himself to his haunches so he could look the boy almost straight in the eyes. "They are currently talking about a lot of things, but when they are done, I'll be sure to bring her back. Alright?"

Berjin hesitated before answering. "I guess," he muttered. 

"How about this?" Irwin said. "When I return with her, you can ask me some questions again?"

Berjin's face lit up instantly. "That would be great! Perhaps you can tell me how I can increase my soulforce senses like you said?!"

"I'm sure I can do that," Irwin said as he got back up.

He nodded at Rilla, smiled at the kids, then clicked his tongue and shot away across the soundwaves.

Thought I wonder just how long this is going to take, he thought, sensing how Zai had initiated another fight with Rindiri.

--

It took almost two days before Zai and Rindiri were done. Two days in which Irwin's otherself watched them go from long talks to bouts of fighting initiated by Zai. Two days in which neither of the women slept. 

When it finally ended, it wasn't because Zai had stopped being angry with Rindiri but because both had finally grown tired.

"You will leave again soon?" Zai said, her voice ragged from the shouting she'd done, as she glared at Rindiri across a rocky hill. Her clothes were torn to shreds, and she had dried-up blood and dark bruises across every exposed part of her skin. 

"A few months to a year," Rindiri said, voice and eyes cool. She looked a lot better than Zai, but even her clothes were torn, and she had her own share of bruising.

"And you won't come back?"

"We will be back a final time," Rindiri said. "But we will be leaving soon after."

"And then you won't come back?"

"No."

"Good," Zai said, glaring at her for a bit longer. "I hate what you did. Family always comes first!"

Irwin almost expected her to charge again, but instead, the elderly woman took a deep breath and let out a strangled growl.

"I can't think of anything else to throw at you. Smith, let me out of here, I'm done."

Irwin hovered above them, staring down at her with mild annoyance. Although he couldn't fully blame her, and having heard her story made him sympathise with her, he didn't like the way she expressed herself. 

"Rindiri?" he asked, looking at the other woman, noticing she was still observing Zai quietly.

"Zai, I'm sorry you had to go through everything you did," she finally said.

Irwin expected something else, as he saw her hesitate, but then she looked at him and nodded.

"I'm done too, Captain."

Irwin sighed as the part of him that was on Scour rushed back to the teleporter tower in the depths of the cavern. 

-- Scour --

Irwin appeared on the outskirts of the teleporter tower, standing in a dead-end road that led to a large warehouse. There was nobody around, though he could see the milling masses in the distance, heading to and from the teleporters that would bring them across Scour -though most would be heading for Blackglass City straight up on the surface.

Here we go, he thought, as he pulled Rindiri and Zai out of his soulscape and opposite him, as he prepared to separate them if he had to.

Zai looked around, then shook her head in clear disgust. "Great, so I have to make my own way back. Should have known." She glared at Rindiri, then at Irwin, before snorting. "You two must think I'm some crazed old woman. Perhaps you are right. I'm not stupid, I know you probably had no other choice, or thought you didn't. The problem is, from all I've seen, everyone just revered you. No pushback, no nothing. Even Mother never said anything but good things about you. Even at the end, she said everything would be okay… Well, it wasn't, and I blame you for not being there."

With a final snort, she turned and stomped away, eventually vanishing in the milling mass beyond.

"Captain, I think I'm going to head back," Rindiri said, looking at the road. "You said you were done with Scour, and I didn't really understand what you meant before. I do now."

Irwin watched Rindiri walk away, head up but with a slight slump in her shoulders. He remained there for a few minutes after she'd vanished into the crowd, his soulforce senses making sure both she and Zai teleported away without issue. When they were gone, he put his hands on his hips, glaring at the nearby wall.

I hate time-dilation, he thought, before clicking his tongue and shooting back to his smithy.

--

The last few months flew by, and Irwin even added a few because he wasn't ready to leave yet. However, eventually he had brought in all the Ancestral Copperion his new soulscape size could hold, and had created all the cards the Crathan Council would need for the next time skip.

Ambraz was still with the other Ganvils, deciding which would be coming with them, likely returning either that evening or the day after. 

With Scintilla and Brecka looking around for more Crathans that were willing to move to Eluathar, he was on his own, heading back to Blackglass. 

Rindiri had asked if he could come over and move something into his soulscape. 

I hope she's alright, he thought.

He had barely spoken to her over the last few months, both of them too busy with the final things, but the two times he had, he'd heard she'd had dinner with Zai a month after their fight. Apparently, it had been a tense situation in which Zai had told her that she didn't want any of her family to go to Eluathar. Her family, however, had refused to listen, and now she had tried to guilt-trip Rindiri into agreeing not to take any. This had gone as well as Irwin would have expected, and he guessed he should be happy that they hadn't destroyed the restaurant.

I wonder what this place will look like when I return, he wondered, examining the city as he passed it. Long ago, it had been new; now the oldest parts were close to a thousand years old and looked like any other city he had been to. Except that most people were Crathans and looked like him. 

It's a good thing there's a lot of them in Eluathar now, he thought, knowing it would still take some getting used to, living in a place where only a few thousand people were the same. Still, it beat being the only one. 

The entrance to the Shipwright Guild was busy as it always was, and he slowed down to allow a group of three merchants to pass in front, chatting excitedly about their two new airships. The central hall was a bustling mess, but as he walked in, an excited-looking attendant rushed towards him.

"Cardsmith Irwin? Please follow me!"

Irwin saw a few people nearby look up in surprise, but he was already walking away.

"The Guildmistress is waiting for you on the fourth floor," the man said as he kept glancing over his shoulder. "It's a bit of a maze in here, so please follow me."

Irwin smiled as he sensed Rindiri far above, her soulforce resonance like a beacon. Although he could have moved there much faster, he decided against it and instead walked after the man, taking a look at the different enormous chambers they passed. Some were large enough to hold an entire village with ships in different states of being finished, either lying, hanging, or even hovering within it. 

It's incredible how much they have improved over the years, Irwin thought as he looked at a sleek scouting vessel that wouldn't have looked bad within the Portal Gallery. He knew that not all of them could be taken there because they lacked the sturdiness required and the internal heating. Their sails were also a weak point, as the dense soulforce on Scour allowed for much less efficient ones than would work in the Portal Gallery. That said, he also knew that didn't count for all the ships being built here, and as they reached the fourth floor, passing a set of guards that openly stared at him, he grinned. 

The fourth floor consisted of three major hangers, two of which were used for creating the large cargo haulers that, except for the sails, were able to move across the portal gallery. He could see both as they walked across the balcony, away from the staircase, but the third one was hidden behind a wall. He only knew that because he could sense Rindiri and almost a hundred others behind it, all moving about rapidly. 

They stopped at a nondescript wall that seemed like all others, and the attendant smiled at him.

"This is one of the better-kept secrets here," he said as he put his hands on the wall, causing some runes to glow on them. The outlining of a tall, double door appeared before singing open. 

"I'll leave you here," the man said. "The person in the next room will help you further, but I'm only allowed up to here."

"Thank you," Irwin said, getting a quick bow in return before the man walked away.

Irwin stepped through the door and into another hallway with two doors and a staircase. A desk sat at the end, and behind it sat a woman working on the runes in front of her. Irwin was surprised to detect four soulcards in her, weak ones, but still.

"Ah, Guildmaster Irwin," she said as she looked up. "Please walk away from the door so it can close."

Irwin did as she asked, sensing the soulforce and how the runes did something to the door. A moment later, the same runes seemed to do something to the doors in front of him.

"The Guildmistress is through that door," the woman said, smiling as she pointed at one of them.

Irwin nodded at her and walked forward, and as he pushed open the door, a hubbub of sound, shouting, and soulforce resonance flooded out. His eyes widened as he walked forward, onto the balcony, and looked down into the enormous hangar filled with nearly a dozen warships, all hovering before him. Each one reminded him of his Concerto, but then bigger, and he sensed an impressive number of runes across nearly every part of them.

Rindiri stood on the deck of one of them, tinkering with something in the main mast, and Irwin used one of the many soundwaves present, shooting across it to land on the deck beside her.

"Are you preparing for a war or something?" Irwin joked, grinning as his old first mate looked up in surprise, her silver-hued volcano eyes widening.

"Captain! You are early," Rindiri said as she waved her hands across a few runes that were embedded in the main mast, causing them to flicker before vanishing. "Yes, these are the Concerto-line of warships. They are pretty good, and I was hoping you could bring them all into your soulscape?"

This is just pretty good? Irwin thought, knowing full well they would likely be among the top ships they had available on Eluathar.

He whistled, looking around when he noticed something else. There were seven Cratans on each ship, double-checking sails, runes, or steering wheels, all looking like they were ready for a trip.

"Including the crew?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, walking to the railing, which gave them a clear view of two of the other ships. "When I last left, I gave them a rough estimate for when we would return and asked them to find a hundred adventurous souls who would be willing to leave Scour. I'd expected it to be difficult, but they found way more crew than we needed. The ones you see here are the actual sailors, while there's also another large group waiting on a floor above. If possible, can you bring them all?"

Irwin unleashed his soulforce senses, letting it roam the massive hangar and across those present before spreading it up and sensing those on the floor above. Most had a single soulcard and some cards, but there were two on each ship that had two soulcards, with a single one having a surprising three.

Close to two hundred soulcarded warriors and eleven warships, he thought, feeling a slight joy at that. It wasn't nearly as many as they would need to fight against the Guidar, but added to the hundreds he'd brought before, and the thousands of Yuurindi that had changed but remained on Eluathar, it was a good start. Besides, he had a feeling Scintilla and Brecka would be finding many more, although he wasn't sure he could move them all in a single go.

I guess I might have to move back and forth a few times, he thought, before focusing on Rindiri.

"Yes, but I'll have to start now, and it will take a few weeks to move them all in," he said. 

"Great," Rindiri said. "I'll have them gathered so I can tell them, and you can start whenever you are ready. For now, I need to show you something else."

Irwin saw her eyes start to glitter, and he wondered what was going on as she walked to the side of the ship.

"This way," she said, jumping over the side towards the nearby wooden construction that doubled as a temporary dock. The sturdy wood barely reacted to her landing, but as Irwin copied, the entire structure creaked and swayed slightly, causing a few of the people on it to yelp in surprise.

Rindiri didn't react, rushing along it towards the far end of the hangar. The space was so enormous that it actually took them ten minutes to reach it. Walking down the final staircase, Irwin realized there was a smaller area walled off to the side. He sensed a single person on the other side, a two-soulcarded Crathan that somehow felt sharp and solid and something that made him frown.

Why is there Ancestral Copperion in there?

"Do you remember Dagger?" Rindiri asked as she reached a door and pushed it open, before stopping and blocking the entrance.

"Of course," Irwin said. "Your second in command back when you were searching for your people."

"Exactly," Rindiri said. "She and Dowa, the grandson of our final elders, eventually had a family. Many of their members are part of my trusted people, and one of them, Blade, has been helping me with something special. Seeing as we are going to be leaving soon, at least to us, and you will probably require moments of rest, I thought we probably needed something to rest on."

Irwin raised his eyebrows at both the name and Rindiri's sudden growing excitement. Before he could ask what was going on, however, Rindiri walked into the room. His curiosity growing, Irwin followed her and stopped when he saw what lay behind. 

A warship unlike any he had seen, with sails like smoke and a hull of dark red wood, and innumerable tiny runes across nearly all of its hull hung a few feet above the ground. It was longer than those behind him, but also sleeker, more like a sword than a hammer. Each part of it gave him an impression of stability, and as he focused his senses on it, he could feel the massive amount of Ancestral Copperion hidden within its hull and flowing down the hollow parts of the ship, causing it to thrum with energy. 

"I know you usually call ships something music-related," Rindiri said, but I took the liberty of naming this one. "This is Caldera, and she is my gift to you."