Greldo jumped forward with worry-filled eyes as Irwin reappeared on the Nocturna.

  "Irwin?"

  "I'm fine. Sorry about that. I had a little problem with my heartcard," Irwin said. "Emotions. But they are under control now."

  "Like with the anger? I thought you had that solved," Greldo asked.

  "I do, but a part of it remains," Irwin said as he shrugged. "Don't worry, I just didn't expect it. It's nowhere near as overpowering as it was."

  "Good," Greldo said, his worry fading. "So… so what do we do? Are we going to the Chaos Whales?"

  "Not yet," Irwin said. "I'm going to try and fill the last bit of my soullake immediately to increase my soulscape stability."

  "Those Chaos Whales won't last much longer," Greldo said, frowning. "Can't we do that after?"

  "No, because I'm going to try bringing the Chaos Whale babies into my soulscape and rush them to safety."

  "I… what?" Greldo exclaimed, eyes widening. "That's impossible even for you… right?"

  "Hopefully not. At least, not for a short while. I'm going to slot at least one card that will allow me to temporarily boost my power, including my soulscape stability. So I'll have to flee after that and make sure I get far enough away."

  "Why? If you can bring them in, I can just take you into the shadowrealm," Greldo said, a relieved grin spreading on his face. "We will be gone before they know what happened," Greldo said.

  Irwin hid a grimace. He'd not even discussed this with Ambraz, probably because they both instinctively knew the answer.

  "I don't think you will be able to move me when I'm that big," he said hesitantly.

  Greldo's smile faded, and he stepped back. His eyes glazed over, slowly lowering to the deck.

  Watching his friend remain still for a minute, then two, Irwin sighed. Greldo's pride was that he could move nearly everything through the shadow realm.

  "My soullake is almost full," Greldo said, looking up. "If you can do what you did before, reforge with the Chaos Whales, it will probably fill up. That will let me slot another few cards… and I have my six prepared. Have had them for a while. They will increase my control over the shadow force even more. I might be able to move you and the Chaos Whales."

  "Are you sure that's the next heartcard you want?" Irwin asked, not surprised that Greldo had them. "Didn't you want to increase the range and abilities of your shadow teleport?"

  "I do… but if you can hold something like baby Chaos Whales in your soulscape, and if I can move you, it would not just help us with this situation. We would be able to move massive amounts of people across vast distances. I can leave my final soulcard for the teleport option."

  Irwin looked at his friend. He knew that if he didn't take two soulcards that focused on teleportation, he'd never become as good as he wanted and be able to teleport from one world to another.

  Unless I purify a set of shadow handcards to have only the teleportation and shadow types!

  Irwin blinked, then crossed his arms as he thought about that option. Right now, he could only purify cards he had a type of affinity with, and that would likely remain a limit. He could try to add a shadow type to one of his cards, but that would make things far more complicated down the road. Besides, he had just figured out the general lines of his next card. That meant either changing those… again or doing it in the distant future. Neither was feasible.

  I'll need to find a smith on Eluthar that has the shadow type and teach them, he decided, hoping there would be some good prospective smiths he could teach.

  "Let's wait and see what happens first," he said. "For that plan, we need the Chaos Whales anyway, so we need to save them first. Besides, I'll need to create some cards first."

  "Which cards?" Greldo asked, looking confused.

  "The ones I'll slot after filling up my soullake," Irwin said.

  "Shouldn't you do that first?"

  Irwin hesitated, then shook his head. "No. My soulscape is still not fully recovered, and if I do this, I'll probably only get one chance. So I'll reforge the cards I need first. Besides, I need you to warn the others what to expect."

  "Alright," Greldo said slowly before shaking his head as if to clear his mind. "Fine. I'll have Coal scout the area and find the safest escape route, then go and warn Gloom," Greldo said. "You just hurry and get ready because I'm not sure how long they can keep up. One of the larger ones has died, and although it took a few Oculithar with it, Coal has spotted more heading their way."

  Irwin hesitated, wanting to point out he wasn't a hundred percent sure he could reforge all things, but Greldo had already tuned out, likely communicating with Coal.

  "Alright, let's reforge some cards," Irwin said, sitting down so he could focus his entire attention on his giant self.

  --

  "Do you think the Captain's alright?" Dagger asked.

  Rindiri kept her attention on the group of Yuurindi, moving back down into the ship so the other group could fill the deck and have some time outside.

  "He is fine," she said. "Why?"

  "It's been half a day already. Usually, he shows up, telling us we will be leaving soon… I think maybe that last group was too much?"

  Rindiri grimaced as she recalled the group of over two thousand survivors they had found on their last stop. Huddled in a barricaded building, they had been trying to hide from the Addled that were roaming the small harbor.

  "He might just be taking a longer break," she said.

  "I guess…" Dagger muttered, not sounding too convinced.

  "For now, can you check on Dinehr and Undiri?" Rindiri said.

  Dagger's entire demeanor changed, and she nodded with a wide smile.

  "I'll be back in a bit!" she said as she ran away.

  Rindiri watched her dodge through the crowd of people on the lower deck before vanishing into one of the doors leading down.

  Should I talk to her about Dowa?

  She hesitated, worrying about her old second in command, then shook her head. Dowa and Dagger might have genes that didn't match, but if neither of the ancient Yuurindi spoke up about it…

  Just leave them, she thought to herself before looking around the only quiet space on the Bigbelly. The area around the helm. With so many Yuurindi crowding the ship, she was grateful that she had at least a reasonably clear area to herself.

  I wonder how long he can keep this up, she thought, looking at the distant shape of the Nocturna. There was no sign of Irwin or Greldo on the deck, so they were probably still resting, and-

  The constant chatter began dying down as a soft but beautiful melody caused the sails to vibrate.

  Rindiri focused on the Nocturna, her eyes widening. She'd been with Irwin for a long time now, and she knew one thing. The last few months, he'd done most of his reforging inside his soulscape, and although they could sometimes hear it, most of the time, it was way softer than this, and only when they were closer to where he was.

  So what did this mean? Was he reforging on the Nocturna?

  Before she could think about it more, Gloom appeared beside her, stepping out of the shadow.

  "Greldo just called me over," the lanky True Nyzir said as he looked at her. "Irwin is doing something important, and we might be staying here for a full day. He said that Irwin needs everyone's help with something. As far as I understand it, it will involve moving them into his soulscape, but it will only be for a short while. After that, they will have to move out again as he does something else."

  Rindiri held back a curse. Although she had no idea what the Captain was planning, she did know what it would mean for her. She'd have to tell everyone they would be cooped up here for even longer, something nobody would be happy about. Especially not her. Nobody would say anything about it, but it would likely cause more tension on some of the other ships.

  What could he need everyone's help with inside his soulscape?

  "Did he say anything else?" she asked.

  "No," Gloom said. "Just to warn people that things might get a bit loud."

  Rindiri's hands stopped moving over the helm, and she held Gloom's gaze. They had both been around Irwin's reforging, and if he said, it might get loud…

  "Alright, warn the other ships. I'll prepare," she said.

  Gloom nodded, stepped back into the shadows, and vanished.

  I wonder if this means he finished his third soulcard? Rindiri thought, staring at the distant Nocturna for another moment, wondering if she shouldn't have noticed something like that.

  --

  Irwin lowered his hammer, staring at the card atop Ambraz's back. A bright red glow slowly set around the edges while the image of two gauntlets wreathed in flame cleared up slightly. He could now make out two almost hammer-like symbols that were etched in the back of each glove.

  Just looking at the card made his first soulcard resonate happily, but something was… not completely right with it. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

  "Now, the next step is going to be crucial," Ambraz rumbled. "You need to make it a hundred percent, and I won't be able to assist more than the minimum. At the same time, you need to keep the metal as firesteel. This one has the tendency to evolve, so make sure it can't!"

  "You are sure we should slot this one?" Irwin asked, still feeling a slight uncertainty.

  "Yes. It is perfect as the core of your next heartcard. It is more compatible with your current cards than nearly all of the cards we have found. If you slot it as the first card in your hand, it will allow you to slot the growth card after, followed by the doubling card. The type-combination will be fantastic and increase the ease of reforging your next heartcard considerably!"

  Irwin nodded, knowing Ambraz was probably right, but still not sure. Ambraz had been trying to explain it to him a dozen times over the last few hours. Instead, he waited for a moment, clearing his mind and readying himself for what was to come.

  He'd reforged the other two cards already, one at ruby-rank, the other at diamond. So far, he'd only made one small mistake, causing the diamond-ranked doubling card to reach only ninety-five percent. It wasn't a big enough problem to worry about, as it would only increase the difficulty of forging his heartcard by a small margin. Still, he couldn't allow himself to make a similar mistake again. Not with this card that he had to get to Ammolite.

  Let's just see what Ambraz is seeing in this card that I'm not, he decided, closing his eyes. It didn't take him long to regain his focus, the lingering joy of reforging cards for hours pushing away his uncertainty.

  "Let's begin," he said, feeling a growing excitement at what was coming up soon. He had forged a card to Diamond a few times now, but up to Ammolite?

  His grip tightened around the handle of his hammer, and he smiled as he struck down on the card. The translucent image seemed to hop out of the card, appearing above the card as it always did. There were no signs of smudges or tiny pinpricks of light left. Those he'd fixed in the previous steps. All that was left for the next step was the card's own desire to keep growing, a need for soulforce, and his own ability to keep the resonance in check, not allowing it to tear the card to pieces.

  However, unlike with the other cards he'd done, this time, he didn't need to force the card anywhere. All he had to do was keep it from changing one part, and as he struck down a second time, his voice growing louder as he sang, he felt his first soulcard resonating more powerfully than it had in a long time. It almost seemed as excited as he was.

  Ten strikes in, Irwin was smiling so wide his face would have heard had it not been so strong. The sound of his soulstrum guitar was blasting away from him, and he didn't bother containing it as he usually did. Even if this card was the perfect card for him to reforge with ease, he was already feeling the strain of preventing it from changing a part of the melody that he wanted it to keep. Two more strikes in, the card was almost a fish trying to slip past him in its joy to reach the water.

  Calm down already, Irwint thought, slowing down his striking as he felt the card's almost overwhelming desire to change something about itself. He'd not felt anything like it before, and if this had been any other time, he'd have let it move forward as it wanted. A part of him wondered if it was because he'd let it move so freely before if he'd somehow created a basis for it, and now his previous groundwork was making it difficult to keep the card's resonance in check.

  “What… is… that… card… doing?!” Ambraz growled, sounding as strained as Irwin felt.

  He also had no way of answering as he continued to sing the wordless song, slowing his hammering down even more as he struggled with the card. Part of its resonance just wanted to change, and as he kept it from doing so, he began feeling a tiny inconsistency grow in the rest of the pattern.

  We are only halfway through, how-

  Irwin clamped down on the card as its resonance seemed to slip left and right chaotically, causing the song to change in pitch rapidly. His giantself was trying to keep up, changing the song to match as one of its fingers slipped over a snare to follow the howling sound.

  I'm losing it!

  As thunder thought in his mind, Irwin felt the beautiful song he'd been building, the crescendo he'd been aiming for, crack and slip.

  He moved instinctively, changing his song and allowing the card's song to flow sideways. As soon as he did, the resistance vanished, and the resonance turned excited. The tiny inconsistencies that had been growing quickly vanished as the song almost exploded outward, and Irwin felt the card change as he worked on it. He didn't even bother holding it back anymore. The only thing he could do was follow it, and now, no longer resisting, he felt it…

  A soft, smooth resonance, hidden below that of his first soulcard, and the sound of his own singing and the card.

  His heartcard… a tiny part of it was changing the resonance, interfering with what he'd been doing, and as soon as he noticed it, he couldn't unsee it. Tiny shivers, soft beats. An occasional increase in pitch so minute he'd not even noticed. But now he did.

  What are you doing?! Irwin mentally shouted at his own heartcard.

  There was no response, and he continued reforging the card, holding back his annoyance as he tried to work with the changes his heartcard was suggesting.

  No longer holding it back, the card's reforging flowed forward into an explosive part, the sounds he had to make with his soulstrum guitar unlike any he'd done before- loud, raging, and almost angry, before finally, the song slowed into a drawling… deep and echoing coda. It felt like something that had been pent up had finally released itself, but as the song changed into a mellow, soothing song of growth, the promise of more raging fire lay below the surface.

  As the card flashed from red to diamond, Irwin lowered his hammer. He was out of breath, his throat sore, which hadn't happened in a long time, and he was confused.

  "What-" he croaked, feeling something scratch in the back of his throat. He coughed a few times, slowly feeling his voice return.

  "What just happened?" he grunted, picking up the card. It felt… odd. His first soulcard hummed contentedly, but his heartcard was actually vibrating- sending out waves of approval nearly as powerful.

  He focused on the card, and suddenly, he sensed it. Whatever had felt odd about it was gone, and he felt a growing excitement to slot the card as soon as he could.

  "That bloody heartcard of yours interfered," Ambraz said, sighing wearily. "I… don't know if we should continue."

  Irwin examined the card. Although it wasn't what he'd expected, it still felt incredibly right.

  "No, no. I think we should," he said. "The worst thing that could happen is that we don't end up using it, but… I have a good feeling about it."

  He almost expected Ambraz to laugh at that, seeing as he was the one who'd been so uncertain initially, but the Ganvil was quiet for a while before sighing.

  "Fine. But if I spent my purified soulforce to help make it into an Ammolite card, I won't be able to do that again for at least a year."

  Irwin looked at the Ganvil, hearing a slightly sad undertone, and he finally, truly, listened to what Ambraz had said.

  "Wait. You said that, but what does it mean for you to use your purified soulforce? If you do this, does it mean you won't be able to create more Ganvils either?"

  "Not for a while," Ambraz grunted. "I've been saving a lot, but I am only a rank five. Even as strong a rank five as I am, my capacity to hold purified soulforce beyond what I can absorb is much more limited than that of a rank six."

  Irwin hesitated, then looked at the new card. His first soulcard and his current heartcard were almost singing with joy. Whatever else would happen, slotting that would definitely be a good thing. He just knew it. Besides, he was doing this because he needed to get stronger so they could save those baby Chaos Whales.

  Still…

  Was it worth setting Ambraz's ability to create his own children back that much?

  "Brat, stop looking that worried. It looks like you need to go to the bathroom," Ambraz snapped. "We are going to reforge this card. What is a year of purified soulforce compared to our entire life? Besides, it will probably be easier than what you just did because I'll be smoothing out most of the issues. But just follow along with your heartcard's changes. Working against yourself isn't really advisable at the level we are reforging now."

  Irwin wanted to disagree, but he couldn't. He glanced at Ambraz, then at the card, then pictured the chaos whales.

  "Alright. Let's take a quick rest and continue," he said.

  --

  Greldo gingerly stepped out of the shadowrealm, ready to dash back in if the deafening, painfully loud song erupted again. Nothing happened, and he picked up Irwin's final remark.

  Yeah, you take a rest, he thought, stepping back in the shadowrealm and rushing to the ships of their growing fleet.

  Thousands of people were crowding the decks, watching the distant Nocturna, many looking almost terrified. Greldo couldn't blame them. The song, both in tone and volume, had been frightening.

  "He is going to take a small break, then continue," he said, appearing beside Rindiri.

  Gloom stood to the side, and he glanced at the Nyzir, glad he didn't start groveling.

  "Go and warn the other ships."

  "Yes, Lord," Gloom said, vanishing in the shadows.

  Ugh, Greldo thought, shaking his head.

  "What kind of card was that?" Rindiri asked.

  "No idea… but I think he is preparing things for his next heartcard," Greldo muttered.

  "It sounded like something exploding, ripping things apart," Dagger whispered from the side.

  Greldo nodded.

  They quietly waited, and barely five minutes later, Greldo's soft ears picked up the start of another song.

  "Here we go again," he muttered. "I think we should probably move the Cardsmiths Academy into a really distant area when we return…"

  Nobody replied as the song became loud enough for them to hear it.

  Greldo stepped back into the shadowrealm, so his ears wouldn't be broken. A few minutes in, when the sound became loud enough to be audible as deep in the shadowrealm as he was, he felt Coal's consciousness brush against his. Focusing on it, he felt his mood drop.

  Great. So, half of the older Chaos Whales are already dead. If this continues, it won't matter if Irwin succeeds. There won't be any Chaos Whales left to save.

  --

  Ambraz wasn't sure how he felt as the purified soulforce he'd bottled up poured out of him like a constant surge. It was flowing around the card, slowing down its resonance and allowing him to easily smooth out any wrinkle in the resonance. Even then, he was not able to interfere with the odd direction the card was going. Instead, the complex resonance scheme he was looking at only allowed him to assist. As soon as he'd attempted to gently force it in a direction, it had almost shattered.

  We need to figure out why this is happening, he thought, knowing it was a lost cause. The exuberance he'd felt from his smith when the card had reached diamond had been clear. Whatever had changed had made it something Irwin wanted.

  Trying to ignore the loss of so much saved wealth, he watched Irwin, and he couldn't help but smile at his bonded smith's progress. His strikes were smooth and always on the right spot, while his resonance, singing, and playing were as close to perfect as he'd seen. There were tiny mistakes, little inconsistencies, but nothing he couldn't help with… especially now. Besides, he knew he'd never have been able to even spot them had he not focused on his own soulforce sensitivity.

  I wonder if Brazardian would even sense these, he pondered as he watched in excitement.

  He couldn't wait to return to Eluathar and show the others. They wouldn't believe their eyes if the kid reforged a diamond-ranked heartcard like this. Yes, it was the perfect card for him, but even then! How many Smiths could reliably reforge diamond rank cards? He didn't even know any.

  As the card they were reforging began crystallizing, Ambraz slowed down the flow of purified soulforce. A few moments later, the card set into its final form, and he stopped it completely.

  Barely a fifth left, he thought, shaking his head.

  He had hoped it wouldn't take this much, but it was an Ammolite card. He should have known. Brazardian would probably scream in rage if he learned what I had done.

  The greatest waste Ambraz had ever heard of, and he had done it. Others would have required hundreds of years to accumulate this amount of purified soulforce, and he'd just…

  Whatever. It's not like it's useless, he snapped at himself.

  As the card crystallized, he scanned it, and he realized what the heartcard had done.

  Well, I guess I've got a pretty good idea what his soulcard will be, then, he thought, wondering why the kid always managed to create such weird things.

  "So, I think it's time for you to try and fill the final bit of your soullake," he said, interrupting Irwin, who was asking why things had been this easy. Ambraz held back his groan.

  Yeah. Easy. I'll have to wait till I'm rank seven before I tell this story to anyone, or I might not survive the backlash, Ambraz decided.

  --

  "Alright, show me what it became," Irwin said, putting his booklet on Ambraz.

  "Sure," his bonded Ganvil replied, sounding slightly depressed. Still, the joy he felt from Ambraz told him a different story.

  It must be something good, or I wouldn't have found it this clearly, Irwin thought as he watched the booklet light up.

  Card: Volcano Titan's Gauntlets

  Type: Ammolite, Reforged by Irwin Roddington

  Owner: -

  The wielder of this card gains the ability to summon a pair of Volcano Titan gauntlets that cover the wielder's hands and lower arms. Reforged by the [?????], they allow the wielder to damage even the sturdiest of beings.

  Passive: While worn, the wielder's fists are impervious to slashing and piercing damage.

  Passive: Greatly increased grip strength

  Passive: Intricate control over the flames that surround the gauntlets

  Active: Summon the Volcano Titan's Gauntlets

  [????]: ?????

  Irwin stared at the text, his eyes locked on the name before drifting to the question marks.

  "Reforged by the what?" he muttered. "I reforged them, right?"

  "Don't worry about it," Ambraz said with a snort. "Though you are right. I think you need to slot these."

  Irwin glanced at Ambraz, frowning.

  "You know what it means?"

  "I have an idea, but it's not important right now. What is important is that you fill up the remainder of your soulscape!"

  Irwin narrowed his eyes, then snorted. "Fine, keep your secrets."

  A soft thud came from the side as Greldo appeared.

  "So, done making a racket?"

  Irwin grinned as he raised his card. "Oh, definitely. Did you-"

  "Tell everyone to prepare? I did. They are waiting for you to pull the fleet back into your soulscape. How ready are you?"

  Irwin hummed as he focused on his soulscape, and as he did, his other self glanced down at his soullake.

  "What…" both of his selves said in unison.

  "Kid?"

  Irwin just shook his head as he felt Ambraz jump into his soulscape. All he could do was look at his soullake, filled almost to the brim. A constant stream of condensed soulforce fell from his titan heartcard, almost like a small waterfall. The heartcard itself was resonating so loud that it caused the air around it to be fuzzy.

  "It's… almost full," Ambraz grunted, a wave of disbelief coming from him. It almost immediately changed to anger. "That's what happened!"

  Irwin's giantself looked at Ambraz, trying to understand why he was suddenly sputtering angrily.

  "Ambraz?"

  The Ganvil let out a snorted laugh.

  "Never mind! I just figured out how it feels when someone or something uses your hard-won purified soulforce for their own goals!"

  Irwin frowned. "Explain?"

  "Ugh… I really don't want to, but fine. Your heartcard definitely has a bit of a mind of its own. Either that or that Titan has some influence remaining. It somehow siphoned off some or all of the purified soulforce I was using and used it to start filling your soullake."

  "Is that even possible?" Irwin muttered before shaking his head and looking at his soullake. What was he even asking? Clearly, it was, as he was staring at the result.

  "Almost full, but not completely," he said. "A percentage left?"

  "Something like that," Ambraz grunted.

  "Can you fill up the rest?" Irwin asked.

  "I wouldn't know how to! I can't just feed it in here, you know? Ganvils tried that in the past—Brazardian being one of them. It just doesn't work like that."

  Irwin shrugged, noticing how the downpour of liquid soulforce was already quickly reducing.

  "Well, let's see if we can fill the rest with our original plan," he said.

  His smaller self looked at Greldo, who had been staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

  "Let's go," Irwin said, stepping forward.

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  Common = Quartz, Uncommon = Amethyst, Rare = Topaz, Very Rare = Emerald, Epic = Ruby, Legendary = Diamond, Mythical = Ammolite