Irwin's Journey 499: Gardening

Daubutim quickly sorted the papers, moving those detailing Eluathor's exit from the harbor to the side, as he did those detailing the growing expansions of the other continents. Within a minute, he had a half dozen neat stacks to the side of his desk and one larger one in front of him. 

He glanced at the first paper, and with a speed that would have left even the Librarians on Fiverio surprised, he began flipping through the pages, putting them to the side. Even then, it took him a while to read everything, and by then his eyes were pools of red lightning. 

Putting the last paper to the side, he leaned back in his chair, his eyes on the distant wall, burning ever brighter as he began going over the information he'd read. 

Hours crawled by as he felt his mind stagger under the immense amount of information that had been condensed into nothing but reports filled with numbers.

When he finally finished, he got up and walked to the wall beside his desk, forcing himself not to stagger. 

Shelves covered every inch of the left wall, most filled to the brim with books, tomes, or stacks of paper. Daubutim, the man currently responsible for nearly the entirety of a world's safety, let out a weary sigh as he took one of them before walking back to his desk. 

Knowing he was almost done, he opened the book to just over halfway, where part of a page was filled with scribbles and numbers. His mouth opened a fraction when a voice from his distant past scolded him, and he snapped it shut. 

Bad habit, he thought, holding back his desire to mutter something under his breath. He knew it was because of the amount of knowledge he'd just taken to himself, close to fifty years of progress on Scour. It was still digesting, the shorthand written by Rindiri and others unwrapping in his mind. Even with his soulcard allowing him to speed through his mental fugue, juggling this much condensed information was a chore. 

After a few moments, he managed to return his focus to the page, and as he read a line, he frowned.

'Merchant Year [Eluathar] 89 third month second week:  Remaining Yuurindi on Eluathar 701'

A rune-covered pen appeared in his hand, and his hand moved rapidly, more of the nearly perfect letters flowing onto the paper.

'MY 3910 - EF 69: third month fourth week:  Remaining Yuurindi on Eluathar 0'

He didn't even notice how easy the dates he entered flowed from his fingers. It had been years since he'd last even thought about Giard and its years and months. Instead, over the last decade, he'd become accustomed to adding the Merchant Year -MY- to all of his ledgers, followed by Eluathar's own date since their founding.

Still, sometimes when he looked at the year since they had found Eluathar, currently sixty-nine years ago, he felt strange. It felt both too large and too small. Part of him felt like hundreds of years had passed, while another part of him sometimes focused on the perfect memory of when they first set foot here. During those times, it felt as if only a year or two had passed. He knew the reason was his growing age and his ease at recalling every detail, a thing he sometimes worried over. Would this continue as he became older? With his current cards, he would likely live for hundreds of years. How would it feel to have a memory of every second that passed? Would he need to get another card to deal with this? 

Problems for later, he decided, focusing on the line that showed the last of the Yuurindi had finally left. 

A few pages back, the number had been in the thousands, and at the start of the ledger, it had been far higher even. Now, no Yuuridin remained on Eluathar. 

Initially, many had been uncertain, doubting their decision not to move the bulk of their people to the now-closed offshoot world of Yuun. However, with Rindiri and some of the others occasionally returning with Irwin to speak with them, even the most hesitant ones had finally moved to Blackglass to become Crathans. That meant that the only Yuurindi anywhere near Eluathar now lived on Yuun. How many of those had become was hard to say, with both the adjacent world Ciarog, to which one had to travel first, and Yuun itself having a time dilation. Still, Daubutim felt a slight relief that none remained. As much as he liked the individual Yuurindi, the potential for their species to cause untold trouble was too large. He fully understood why many other worlds had denied them entry.

For a moment, he pondered the guardrails he'd put in place around that currently closed exit-portal. They should be enough, but perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to add more runes. He made a mental note to arrange for it, then focused back on the lines still flowing from his pen.

Eventually, as the number of ships, cards, metals, and many other less important resources that Scour was providing them was written down with full detail, he reached one of the things that always managed to draw his full attention.

'Crathan population on Scour: 102,219'

Who would have thought that he'd be the first of a new species that grew this fast, Daubutim thought, pausing at the number. A memory of another book on his shelf flashed through his mind. It held a detailed recounting of what he knew of the Amnathair, and now the Crathanathair. He would need to update its entry, as the Crathan population had finally passed a hundred thousand. A large milestone.

The distraction lasted for only a moment, but as he refocused, he felt the struggle. It wasn't the first time over the last few days, and he knew it was time for a longer rest. Even his soulcard was having trouble helping him fight through his still-present mental issues.

He won't be back for a week, so it should be fine, he thought.

Daubutim quickly wrote down the remainder of the information before glossing over everything. It was only a fraction of what he had read, but it was what was most important to preserve for history. Satisfied, he closed the book and carefully placed it back on the shelf.

He looked up to see Lisbeth sitting at the small corner table, sipping from a steaming cup of Nask as she read in a smaller book.

Somehow, seeing the steam finally allowed the slightly pungent but not unpleasant smell to penetrate the fog in his mind.

A cup of Nask would do me good, he thought. 

The herb-like hot drink was something many people had begun drinking during the cold winter months that plagued these parts of Eluathar. Especially in his own city of Treanba, where the winter winds blew from the sea, increasing the discomfort, the drink had grown rapidly in popularity.

"You need a break," Lisbeth said, locking eyes with him and lowering her book. Like him, she'd barely aged over the last few years. The power of having a body-improvement soulcard helped to keep her looking just shy of thirty, even though she was actually closing in on a hundred, as was he.

Daubutim walked through one of the most well-guarded rooms on Eluathar and sat down before him.

"You are right," he agreed.

"You can't try to keep up with every detail that is happening on Scour. Time there moves so fast that each time Irwin returns, he brings you decades of notes."

"They are condensed now," Daubutim said, pouring himself a cup of Nask. "Not as bad as the first few."

"This might just be worse. Condensed, nobody but you can read and understand it," Lisbeth countered, her beautiful dark eyebrows lowering. "At least with the larger amount before, some of us could help."

"It wasn't fast enough," Daubutim said, taking a sip and enjoying the herbal, slightly earthy drink. "We need to do it like this so I can actually act on the information.

"Act?" Lisbeth asked, reaching out and stroking his hand. "With how Irwin is increasing the time dilation, what can we do? At this pace, somewhere next year, we will be seeing the first of Rindiri's ships that actually work here. At the same time, Irwin will be bringing Crathans here."

Daubutim took a small sip before putting his cup back down. "The first batch of Atharians will be moving to Scour next time," he said, the short list of things to arrange appearing in his mind. "Based on the last reports, we can focus on those who will likely have a predisposition to cardsmithing and runes. At the same time, I have been able to create a short list of ten people who will get the first set of body double cards that Irwin has left me."

Lisbeth leaned back, for all intents and purposes showing little reaction, unless one knew what to look for, which Daubutim did. They had been together for a long time now, and he knew when his heartbond was stunned.

"I thought we weren't going to move any Galladin away from Eluathar unless they became Crathans?" she asked.

"We weren't initially," Daubutim said. "But the strength of the current Crathan army is already so much that unless Slaudi brings over half of his fleet there, he will not be able to break their defences. Even more, if he moves now, another few hundred years will have passed on Scour before they even arrive."

"So little?" Lisbeth asked, the confusion now evident. It lasted for only a moment, then her eyes widened. "He is planning on leaving!?"

"Yes," Daubutim said, picking up his cup and staring into the liquid for a moment. "His last experiments show that even if he leaves, Scour's time dilation will remain stable at about a hundred to one."

"I thought it would take much longer for the closing of portals to influence Scour's stability?" Lisbeth asked, now leaning forward, both curious and happy.

"Irwin has been increasing the time-dilation every time he was here," Daubutim said, smiling at her. "The last time he was here, over six hundred years passed on Scour."

Lisbeth froze, and Daubutim knew she was calculating what that meant. Although not as fast as him, he wasn't surprised when her eyes widened within a few moments as realisation set in.

"How stable is the Crathan empire?" she asked worriedly. "If he isn't there most of the time, or even less than a year per five hundred…"

"Very stable," Daubutim said, his smile turning into a weary smirk. "The natural lifespan of Crathans, even those born that way, is close to a thousand years old. It helps stabilize their councils a lot. Besides, after Irwin leaves, we will have at least ten others who can move there."

"Because the time dilation difference won't be so strong," Lisbeth said, her surprise slowly turning into something calculating. "What will happen to the time dilation as more portals are closed?"

"It will likely stabilize eventually," Daubutom said. "From what Rinbus found, there are diamond-rank portals deep in the world core, surrounded by such large hives that it makes no sense to try and close them. The eventual time dilation will likely stabilize somewhere around fifty to one."

"I wish we could keep the time-dilation as fast as it is now," Lisbeth said, ruefully. "It would give us the ability to gain armies almost instantly."

Daubutim didn't disagree, but he also didn't say what they both knew. If they did that, the chances of the stable leadership on Scour remaining, and with it the wish to help others by sending large numbers of warriors to help, would be very small. Not to mention, they still had no way to move such vast numbers of people.

"When is he going to leave?" Lisbeth asked after a while.

Daubutim drained his cup before answering.

"He is going to be here one more time… Then, when he returns to Scour, he will set out."

"Does that mean he managed to create those constructs?"

Daubutim heard the utter disbelief in her voice, and he couldn't blame her. Ever since Irwin had returned with the knowledge a few months ago, they had both been trying to learn it, and it just felt utterly impossible. 

"He has had years instead of months," he said. 

"Tssss, I don't think I'd be able to get anywhere even if I had centuries," Lisbeth muttered. "I can't even feel the things I'm supposed to."

"Neither can I, but I have heard that both Trimdir and a few of the other smiths have been able to take the first step. It seems that, like with cardsmithing, a minimum amount of soulforce sensitivity is required," Daubutim said.

The two sat together in silence for a few minutes, both thinking. Finally, it was Lisbeth who broke the silence.

"Do you think this is how things are in the Central Core?" she asked. 

Daubutim poured both of them a new cup of Nask before answering.

"You mean, if all of the people in the Core branches know about Soulforce Constructs, if their armies are made near instant on worlds with incredible time-dilation, and if they have cardsmiths able to make cardseeds from mere soulforce?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Not all, but I think from what Umbral shared with Irwin that it is safe to assume they know some of those things. It explains how they are able to withstand the Guidar armies. Imagine if we had a thousand years, or ten thousand years, to prepare? The armies we have now would not even be an expedition force, and just how many soulcarded would we have? Millions?"

Daubutim felt a wave of excitement at the idea of having a sprawling empire with Eluathar at its center, able to defend itself from all opposing forces. 

"If that's the case, why aren't they just helping the fringe branches like us?" Lisbeth asked, something Daubutim knew many people had been starting to ask.

"Distance for one," he said. "Look at how hard it is for us to move just within our own branch. The Center is so incredibly far from us, I don't even know exactly how long it would take to get there. I know that from us to the edges of The Wandering Verge takes hundreds of years with normal ships. It's possible that without teleportation, it's not doable. Perhaps they don't even know much about us? Or if they do, and they could come here… perhaps they don't care?"

Lisbeth grimaced. "It makes sense," she muttered. "We know that the branches next to us are being overrun… even with far greater power, do we dare risk going there to help?"

Daubutim cocked his head at that. "That depends on the consequences. If we could send a fraction of our power to help them, knowing that even with all of the Guidar's forces that then might come from there to hear, is no issue… yes. But if we don't know? Probably not."

They were quiet for a long while, until again Lisbeth broke the silence.

"Do you think this is how our ancestors felt?" she asked, looking into the distance without seeming to see anything.

"The Galladin at their height were a power that was mighty even in The Center," Daubutim said. "But during their war? When they were being pushed back and had yet to unlock this-" he stared at the cardslots in his hand. "-soulskill? Yes. I can imagine that two of them were sitting somewhere, like we are, wondering about these things."

"I'd love to talk with Gelwin about these things," Lisbeth said, pushing herself up. "But for now, let's go and have some food and then sleep. You do realise it's three in the morning, right?"

Daubutim blinked as he looked at the window. A dark, cloudy night showed behind the thick, rune-reinforced crystal sheet. He got up and followed Lisbeth, taking her hand as they closed the door behind them, before wandering through the hallways.

Yes… talking with Gelwin would be great, he thought, wondering what had happened to the ancient Galladin. The last they knew was that he had warned Irwin to stay far away from any library. 

--

Irwin hovered within his soulscape, an enormous condensed mass of soulforce hanging before him. The sound of two Soulstrum Guitars, humming from both his auraclones and himself, and a deeper one from Ambraz, caused the soulforce to seemingly harden and condense ever more until there was a massive flash.

Irwin floated back, looking at a tree roughly the same size as he was, with beautiful golden and orange leaves that stood out starkly against the nearly black bark. Knowing he had little time, he floated it down to the edge of the lake below and into a hole that he'd prepared. It thudded down wetly, and Irwin pulled the muddy earth around it, sensing the liquid soulforce from his soullake throughout the soil.

With a relieved sigh, he landed beside it, padding the thick trunk of the soulforce construct. Although he knew it wasn't anything more than that, everything from the way it swayed, felt, and even smelled was like the Volcano Trees he knew from the real world. 

"Finally done," he muttered, looking around the rest of the lake edge where dozens of similar trees swayed in the soft, hot breeze. 

"You could have stopped after two," Ambraz said, landing on his shoulder.

"And wait for a thousand years till they have expanded around?" Irwin asked. He shook his head. "No. According to the information Umbral left us, this should be enough to multiply into the amount we need in under a hundred years."

"I hope so," Ambraz said, sounding annoyed. "Does this mean you are finally done with creating soulforce constructs and we can get back to reforging cards?"

"We have reforged cardseeds every week!" Irwin exclaimed in mock disbelief, knowing full well what Ambraz meant.

"The same seed… over and over and over," Ambraz replied, almost shouting. "The last time we tried something new, or a real reforge, was nearly four years ago!"

"True," Irwin said, slowly hovering up in the air and looking around his soulscape. "But it was worth it."

Except for the small patch of Volcano Trees, there were hundreds of smaller plants, bushes, and vines that grew at the bottom of the foothills. Most were nestled near the tiny lakes of Pyroflux, all connected by small rivers and creeks. His grin changed to a slight grimace as he recalled how hard it had been to create Pyroflux from soulforce. The construct had been harder than vegetation and the wyrms, though he had no idea why. According to Umbral's explanation and patterns, it shouldn't have been all that bad.

"Do you sense the stability, though?" Irwin said. 

He focused on the soulforce flowing through his soulscape. Most was still unbound, moving like fogbanks and clouds, but with the new trees, he'd finally managed to reach around a percent of bound soulforce. Most was in the Lava Wyrms, as he'd called them, that now dug from the depths of his soulscape all the way to the soil right beneath his feet. Their small offspring weren't even the size of a regular finger and had an odd liking to the Pyroflux. Because of them, the soil had become less hard and compact, which helped the vegetation.

Due to this, the presence of all of the non-native materials he'd brought into his soulscape over the years had been completely balanced out, and he knew that if he could manage to recreate what he'd seen in Umbral's soulscape, he would be able to move far more in.

Perhaps even some Chaos Whales.

"Yes, but another soulcard would have increased it far more," Ambraz said. "Please tell me we are going to be focusing on that now?"

Irwin turned back to his soullake, which was like a tiny sea in the middle of his soulscape. It had long since filled almost to the brim, mostly thanks to the absurd amount of soulforce within the Ancestreal Copperion that existed within Blackglass Cavern. Although he'd only been here for a few dozen years, Rinbus and Nimlarel had continued moving all the Ancestral Copperion they found, increasing the already impressive amount to absurd proportions. By now, Irwin knew that even if he wanted to, he couldn't move all of it within his soulscape, and from what Rinbus had been able to estimate, there was so much more closer to the core, that the idea he'd once had, to move a lot away, was nothing but a pipedream. 

That said, he'd not minded moving as he thought would help within his soulscape, and now an enormous subterranean lake of Ancestral Copperion flowed below the surface. Channels moved up to the Volcano that dominated his third soulcards area, but he knew that, as incredible as it would sound to most, he was slowly reaching a size limit. One that was easiest to solve by doing what Ambraz said.

"We are going to do it in two days," he said.

"I mean, it's really time, and- … Wait, what?" Ambraz asked in surprise.

"You are right," Irwin said. "We are going to be leaving after the next trip to Eluathar, meaning now is the time to do it."

"Wait, wait! Don't just say it like I haven't been bugging you about it for years," Ambraz shouted, flying around his head. "Does that mean you have finally decided on what your next soulcard will be?"

Irwin sighed, staring out across his soulscape. 

"Yes," he said. "But I'm basing myself on our worst outcome…"

Ambraz was quiet for a while, then sighed. "I… agree. From all we have learned of Worldcards, the risk is too great, and waiting till you find the Amnathair sliver means moving there as you are now. As strong as that is, having a fourth soulcard and a fifth heartcard will make it far safer."

Irwin sighed as he teleported himself into his house, something that had become marginally easier with the addition of the soulforce constructs and their stability.

One of the walls of his giant smithy was covered in large papers filled with types and words. Two hung in the middle, with multiple arranged around them.

"Fire and heat," he read, staring at one of the papers. It held all types related to those two types across his current soulcards and heartcard.  Then he glanced at the second. "And soulforce and soulscape. These will have to be the core. They match well, and their resonances are something that is blended into me."

Ambraz didn't say anything while Irwin glanced at the other papers, some closer to those central two, others further. His gaze drifted to one of them, the one that dealt with his many sound-based abilities. Ranging from moving across the soundwaves, the resistance he had to those attacks, and many other parts, it clashed with the other two. Closer, but still far, were the Aura abilities he had gained only recently, and even closer were the different summons he had, all split on a loose paper. Although many of his abilities had been gained from cards bound to one of them, like with his hammer, he wasn't sure if he would need all of them for his worldcard, mostly because they all had a distinct type and resonance.

Mixed in between, like tiny blocks of glue, were the many body improvement elements he had.  He knew that the reason he could even harbor all the elements he had as smoothly as he did was because of those. Without them, he would have likely been unable to even slot the cards of his fourth heartcard.

"We very likely can't merge it all into worldcard," he said, glancing at a paper to the side that held his steam ability. Although adjacent to his other heat and fire abilities, it was still far enough away that it was another dissonance factor.

"Kid… all of this only matters if you are even able to change and manipulate the process when it is created."

"I know," Irwin said, as he crossed his arms. "Which is why the next card we make is going to blend two of these areas."

"Which are you going to work on?" Ambraz asked curiously.

Irwin hesitated, then looked at the paper with Aura skills. A plain white paper appeared on the wall between it and the paper that held his soulforce and soulscape types. 

"This one," he muttered. "We are going to try to create a heartcard that can bridge Soulforce and Aura."