"You are telling me that the two of you broke and then reforged heartcards without the help of the Chaos Whales!?" Zi'dor exclaimed.

  Ambraz grinned widely as he stared at the other two Ganvils. The three of them sat on the front deck of the Nocturna, exchanging stories. Ambraz had gone last, and although hearing Kesdor retell the horror he'd gone through had dampened his enthusiasm, now that he saw the other two stare at him in utter disbelief, he couldn't help himself.

  "We did," he said, grinning madly. "And the brat's currently trying to come up with a way to do the same for soulcards!"

  "That's not possible!" Kesdor said in his cracked and broken voice. "I still find it hard to believe you can reforge heartcards, but we all know those aren't truly bound to someone yet. But soulcards? They are an integral part of someone's soulscape!"

  Ambraz sensed Zir'dor's soulforce shudder, and he quickly looked at the scarred Ganvil. Luckily, Kes'dor's senses weren't good enough, and he'd not picked up on it, though Ambraz sent a small angry spike of soulforce at Zir'dor to warn him to keep his cool. Kesdor had enough trouble not to have to worry about other Ganvil's reactions to his voice… Knowing he'd never be able to sing again must be hard enough as it is.

  Unless we bind him to someone else, just like Hou'dor, he thought.

  He held back his desire to tell Kesdor that. He'd been talking with the other Ganvil a lot over the last few days, and it was clear to him that he wasn't ready to forget his first smith. No, what he needed first was to return to a place with plenty of other Ganvils, life, and safety. He needed to heal his mind before they could heal his body, and Ambraz wondered just how long that would take. As it was, Ambraz would have to continue to ignore the others' strained and painful soulforce fluctuations, something that made him remember.

  I knew getting this much sensitivity would have its drawbacks, he thought, holding in an annoyed sigh.

  The Ganvil in question, Kesdor, was still focused on him, seemingly willing him to admit reforged soulcards weren't possible, and Ambraz laughed softly.

  "Oh? You don't believe it's possible? Well, let me tell you a little bit about this Fiz'rin brat called Hind," he said before going into a winding tale about how they had found the Fiz'rin with the highly unstable soulcard and how they had caused it to shatter so they could reform it.

  When he finished, he could sense Kesdor's disbelief.

  "Alright, enough of this. How about the idea of making handcards out of ambient soulforce?" Zir'dor asked.

  Ambraz's smile widened as he felt Kesdor's soulforce ripple out.

  Kesdor let out a spluttered curse, and Ambraz pushed away his worries over the other for now.

  He knew he was doing what he'd warned Irwin against, ignoring issues of tomorrow, but he'd started to realize that the brat was on to something. It wasn't useful to worry about everything now. It was much better to live a bit more by the day, as it made for far more good memories to balance out the bad. Not that he'd ever been one to worry a lot…

  "We were close to making one in his soulscape, but we've had to put our practice on hold," he said, humming thoughtfully.

  The kid had been mightily annoyed by that, and Ambraz rolled his eyes at that. As if, with him holding an entire merchant ship and close to a hundred Yuurindi in his soulscape, it wasn't logical that he had to take it easy with pulling together soulforce?

  "I've heard about that before," Kesdor said, drawing Ambraz's attention.

  "You have? Where? When?" he said, feeling a similar spike of surprise from Zir'dor.

  "When Kes and… I-" he visibly held back his grief before continuing. "When we were traveling around the outer fringes beyond Clearsky, we came across this old smith who forged with fire. We'd heard about her having a Ganvil bond, so we decided to pay her a visit. She was one of those cardsmiths consumed by finding a solution to the ambient card problem and had been trying many things. She'd been incredibly excited to talk to us about it, though Kes was very uncomfortable around her."

  Kesdor laughed softly, and although it was filled with pain, Ambraz could sense a tiny sliver of the Ganvil he must have been before.

  "According to that smith, she'd had been trying to create handcards in her soulscape but just didn't have the size or soulforce density to get to that point, so she'd decided to use the power of active volcanoes."

  "Wait, she managed to control ambient soulforce?" Ambraz asked, his eyebrows shooting up. He'd never heard of anyone even remotely managing that, with Irwin probably being the closest.

  "Not exactly," Kesdor said, letting out a snort. "She just remained within the center of the volcano and tried to use the-"

  "What?" Zir'dor roared. "Inside? Not even an Ignizian can stand that heat and soulforce pressure!"

  Kesdor stared at Zir'dor, causing the older Ganvil to deflate.

  "Right. Sorry. Continue."

  "As I was saying, she was just trying to forge the ambient soulforce as it was there, but she had made little headway. The best she could do was form a few soulforce resonances, but even if she'd been able to crystalize those, it would have been a five percent handcard."

  "In other words, it would have shattered right after forging," Ambraz said, humming thoughtfully.

  "Another useless attempt," Zir'dor said, sighing loudly. "Why don't they just understand that it's never going to be possible!"

  Ambraz barely heard his complaint as he pondered what he'd just heard. "What was her name, and what happened to her?" he asked absently.

  "Oh, she was an Onyxian called Jebrada, and from what we heard, she got herself and her Ganvil blown up a few years later when the volcano erupted," Kesdor said.

  "Foolish," Zir'dor said.

  "Right, right," Ambraz muttered.

  So, she'd been able to form at least some resonance within the ambient soulforce… that meant she had manipulated it, just not by pulling it or condensing it together. She'd simply found a spot with enough condensed soulforce and-

  That's it!

  Ambraz blurred up, ignoring the surprised shouts from the other two Ganvils as he rushed to Irwin's cabin, where his smaller self was probably still flipping through the cards they'd gotten.

  Why didn't I think of this before? he thought, ignoring Nisziz's startled curse as he flitted a few inches from her face through the door that led deeper into the ship.

  A moment later, he flew through one of the small Ganvil-sized tunnels and burst into Irwin's room.

  "Kid! The shield!" he said, landing on Irwin's chest with enough force that it would have likely killed any less sturdy being. "If we can shrink it and reforge lots of heartcards, we can increase the ambient soulforce based on the types of cards! We just have to find enough people with the same type of heartcard, so there aren't too many different types, and then we just start forging a card! As soon as you form the base of the card, the ambient soulforce should… might… Whatever - it could start pulling itself together! Just like when we reforge a handcard upward, it pulls in the surrounding ambient soulforce!"

  "We talked about this before, right?" Irwin said. "The shield can't hold that much-"

  "Hou'dor's can't! But I'm rank five now, and my shield is more powerful than his by a large amount," Ambraz shouted. "Besides, I can use your ridiculous soulforce to increase its strength!"

  Ambraz finally saw the light he'd expected to start burning in his bonded smith's eyes as a wide grin spread across his metallic face.

  "Exactly," he said, unable to keep a smug grin from his face. "Before, this would have been impossible because you need to reforge the heartcards by yourself, as I'll be holding the shield."

  "But what about the soulforce? We were using the chaos-whale soulforce before, and although I can generate enough to reforge some heartcards if you start using my soulforce to hold that barrier…"

  "Who says we aren't going to have a Chaos Whale to help us?" Ambraz said. "We can't really do this now, with all those people in your soulscape, so we will have to wait till we reach home. But when we do…"

  Irwin's grin widened to match his own, and Ambraz felt a sudden burst of affection for his bonded smith. It went beyond what he already felt due to their soulforce being in near-perfect sync, being more like what he felt for his younger brothers, Des'braz and Yirta'braz.

  As he grinned at the kid, he felt their resonance move even closer, a few of the remaining tiny inconsistencies in their resonance disappearing. Immediately, he felt the slow but constant trickle of purified soulforce increase by a bit.

  A bit more till we are one-of-soulforce, he thought, wondering what Brazardion would think if he learned how far along they already were. Probably disbelief and annoyance. He couldn't wait to tell his Progenitor and sense his turbulence!

  Irwin didn't seem to notice what was happening, his eyes flitting about as his face turned from a grin to one of intense focus and back.

  "I can't wait to try," he finally said. "But that means we need to try something…"

  "What?" Ambraz asked, wondering what his bond had come up with now.

  "Well, you wanted to hunt those Accenti, right?" Irwin said, looking at him.

  "Yes?"

  "Well, there's a big chance that they are hunting Chaos Whales like the others we found… how about we bring all those Chaos Whales along?"

  Ambraz felt his mind buzz at the prospect. "That's a great idea," he exclaimed, flitting back in the air and buzzing around the room. "If we are lucky, we will find some of those smaller ones, and-"

  "Ambraz?"

  "Yeah?"

  Ambraz looked at Irwin, sitting up, his face slack, before he slowly turned to him.

  "Do you think I can move one of those chaos whales into my soulscape?"

  Ambraz's first idea was to say no, but then he thought about Irwin's massive soulscape, more stable than any he'd read or heard about, and he hesitated. Irwin would have to eject the ship and the other people, and it couldn't last too long…

  I'd have to help him keep it stable…

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ambraz only realized he'd stopped paying attention as he slammed into the wall with a loud crash. He bounced back, leaving a small, splintered crack in the panel, but he barely cared.

  "Ambraz, are you-"

  "I'm fine! We need to try it," Ambraz shouted, rolling over and flying back in the air. "If you can do that, even if for only a few hours, who is to say what that might do for filling your soulscape?"

  The loveable brat was staring up at him with wide eyes, and he couldn't help but smirk. How could someone this talented, powerful, and easy to anger still look this in awe?

  "It might hurt a bit," he said, hovering before Irwin's face.

  The kid snorted back. "As if pain has ever stopped us before."

  "Well, I recall a certain little brat who wasn't sure he should reforge his cards because it hurt," Ambraz said, making a tutting sound afterward.

  Irwin stared at him, seeming to try and come up with a good retort and failing.

  Deciding he'd had his fun, Ambraz landed on his shoulder, humming happily.

  "So, let's go and ask Greldo how long till we reach our first stop," he said.

  "We did that yesterday," Irwin said, glancing at him, his lip quirking up. "You know he doesn't like that."

  "Exactly!" Ambraz said.

  --

  Irwin looked over the helm he was holding, staring at the shadow-storm-filled world ahead of them.

  It had been a bit more than two weeks since they had left Suderfuix, and he'd spent most of it theorizing with Ambraz on what they could do when they found a chaos whale. Now, they were closing in on their first stop, Dimwacht. At least that's what Rindiri had told him. She had prepared multiple routes from Suderfuix to Eluathar, and the one they had taken would have Dimwacht as the first stop. It was also the default stop for nearly anyone going to and from Suderfuix in this direction. The route was roughly parallel to the Dismartintsia River, and before the storm, there were three routes leading from it to the river.

  Still, as fast as they were going, his desire to see family seemed to be growing exponentially as they moved toward them.

  "Ambraz, Zir'dor, ready?" he asked, looking at the two Ganvils on the deck ahead of him, both in their massive size.

  "The shield is up," Zir'dor responded, while Ambraz merely snorted.

  "Alright. Grell, you can move us back out," he said, looking at his friend, who was standing at the prow.

  His face was a bit haggard and pale from moving the Nocturna through the shadowrealm at a speed Irwin still had a hard time believing. Gloom stood a few steps away, looking at Greldo with evident worry, and Irwin wondered how he was doing. They hadn't practiced for at least a few weeks now, and he decided to remedy that when they had time.

  Greldo muttered something he didn't catch before waving at him. A moment later, the raging storm that had been dampened by the shadowrealm roared to life around them. Ice shards the size of doors slammed into the sparkling barrier around them, and Irwin felt the ship being flung to the side by the powerful winds.

  It took him a few moments to regain control, and when he did, he saw that Greldo had vanished, probably resting in his shadow pocket.

  Gloom remained at the front, his head constantly turning around as he searched for any shadowwalkers that might be trailing them. Irwin didn't think it likely, and Greldo had scoffed at the idea that anyone could keep up with him, but you could never know.

  "Captain, we need to go a bit more to the left," Rindiri said, pointing to the side of the ship.

  Irwin turned the helm, struggling against the storm and trying to get his direction straight. Although he was fairly good at it, it didn't surprise him that Rindiri had a better sense of direction than he did.

  "How long till we reach Dimwacht?" Youritz asked.

  "A few hours," Rindiri said.

  "Soon," Irwin said at the same time.

  The two of them shared a look while Youritz just nodded. "Alright. Could you let me into your soulscape, please, so I can prepare the rest?"

  Irwin focused on the Yuurindi's soulforce resonance and pulled him inside. There was barely any resistance, though when he felt another bit of pressure on his soulscape, he grimaced. He could keep the ship and the Yuurindi in there for at least another month, but it was starting to become slightly painful.

  "Are you sure we can bring more of my people?" Rindiri asked.

  Dagger, who had been leaning on the railing, staring into the storm, turned rigid before looking over her shoulder.

  "It should be fine," Irwin said. "We just need to make sure we don't stay in the storm for longer than three weeks."

  "That might be difficult, Captain," Rindiri said. "There are at least two stretches that might take us a month…"

  "If we have no other choice, we will use Bigbelly to travel through those parts," he said. "It might add a few months to our journey, but it will be fine."

  He didn't add that he'd try everything in his power to prevent that option, as it would mean they would arrive at Eluathar even later than they already were going to.

  It's fine, he tried to reassure himself. There's no reason to believe Daubutim can't handle things.

  Time passed slowly, but eventually, Rindiri alerted him that they would be leaving the storm shortly.

  "Alright, I'm going to send you all into my soulscape," Irwin said, raising his voice. "Grell, are you ready?"

  His friend appeared, looking only marginally less tired than a few hours earlier.

  "I am," he said, managing a grin as he took over at the helm. "This is going to be pretty awesome."

  "Isn't everything we do?" Irwin retorted as he closed his eyes and began pulling everyone around him into his soulscape.

  A few moments later, only he, Ambraz, and Greldo remained on the ship.

  "Alright, I'll see you in a minute," he said, moving to the railing.

  Staring at the distant storm, he waited till Zir'dor told his otherself the barrier was up, something he didn't have to as it was very apparent due to the odd resonance it generated within Irwin's soulscape.

  "Here we go," he mumbled, clicking his tongue and shooting forward through the small bubble of calm around The Nocturna, through the barrier, and into the storm.

  As soon as he appeared, the sound went from loud to deafening, and he didn't dare hesitate a moment. Pulling the Bigbelly out of his soulscape was far easier than pushing it in, and the deck appeared a few feet below him. Immediately, the sound was dampened by the barrier, and a moment later, Greldo and Ambraz appeared beside him.

  A quick look around showed that Rindiri was secure behind the helm, keeping the Bigbelly on a proper course, while most of the Yuurindi were spread out on the spacious deck, looking at him.

  "Awesome and all that, but I'm going to sleep now," Greldo said, waving at him and walking through a crowd of awed Yuurindi. Irwin knew that his friend had the Nocturna in his shadowrealm, something he said barely strained him, meaning they were now fully reliant on the large merchant ship.

  Ambraz shot towards the aft of the ship, and Irwin knew he was going to help Zir'dor power the barrier.

  "Alright," he said, looking around. "All, remember the plan. From now on, we are the crew of the Bigbelly, a small-time merchant group led by me. You are all part of my crew because I can't pay for a regular crew, and you are all willing to work for the bare minimum."

  There was a round of soft laughter, and Irwin was glad to see that many of the Yuurindi seemed to feel comfortable around him. Still, there were a few who seemed to laugh because they felt they had to. Nisziz, Klatzi, and Brecca also stood off to the side as if they weren't all part of the same crew, which Irwin could understand, but it was something he had to fix as fast as possible. They were going to be traveling together for a year, living, fighting, and depending on each other.

  He decided it might help if they had a party to celebrate reaching their first stop after dinner. Now that they weren't in his soulscape and he didn't have to use his giantself to interact with them, he could actually mingle a bit.

  "Alright! Rindiri, after we arrive, and assuming nothing odd happens, you, Dagger, Nisziz, Youritz, and Fuchsi are going into the city to find out how many resources we can get here. As we discussed, figure out if they have enough cards here to trade, and if not, find raw materials. Cloth, metal, rock, food, anything that we could use to trade on our next jumps."

  Rindiri nodded at him, though Irwin knew she'd already known all of this. It was, however, her suggestion for him to repeat it again to help the others realize that he was the captain.

  "Alright! Everyone, get to your posts, and let's put up a good show," Irwin said.

  The Yuurindi began running around, many scrambling up the ropes and the sails, starting to clean the already pristine pale material.

  Irwin moved to the upper deck before standing a short distance from Rindiri, looking at the storm.

  It took only five minutes for him to see a gap in the raging, lightning- and ice-filled cloud cover, and moments later, they sailed through the barrier and into the suddenly quiet Portal Gallery behind it.

  A few miles away, the rocky ground suddenly rose into a massive plateau with a large city sprawled across it. Compared to Suderfuix or Dismarintsia, it was small, but if Irwin ignored those two outliers, he knew it was one of the largest port cities he'd seen. Unlike Suderfuix, it didn't have a lot of vegetation; instead, the buildings seemed mostly made of rock. Not odd, Irwin decided, seeing as it was one of the preferred outposts for Granitians and Onyxians.

  According to what Rindiri had told him, the world of Dimwacht had been founded by a merchant family that had long since died out, and the Merchant Guild had been taken over by a group of local merchants called The Basalt Concord.

  Seven monstrous towers stood at exact intervals around the city, each with large square holes inside them, and they had barely moved toward the city for a few minutes when two ships rushed out of the two nearest towers.

  "Here comes our welcome committee," Rindiri said.

  Irwin nodded, focusing on the ships and trying to determine the power of those aboard.

  "A couple of two-soulcarded," he said, not all that surprised that there wasn't even a single three-soulcarded.

  The further away from the two largest cities they went, the less powerful the guards would be, and although he knew he'd likely come across at least a few three or even four-carded, those would become the exception to the rule. Most people in the Langost branch either took their entire life to fill up one or two soulcards, and those were rarely combat-abled.

  Sweeping his senses further out and around, he blinked as he sensed something odd halfway between them and the incoming ships. It was like a blip, and as he tried to find it again, there was no sign of it.

  "Captain?"

  Irwin looked up to see Dagger staring at him from a few feet away. He'd not even heard her approach.

  "Is something wrong?"

  "I thought I sensed something," Irwin said as he looked around. "Before we left Suderfuix, there was something odd too…"

  Was something or someone following them? But that was… It would mean someone could keep up with Greldo while also sensing him in the shadowrealm!

  "If there's anyone trailing us, I'll see if I can find them," Dagger said softly as she moved beside him. "It must be some really speedy shadewalker or some teleporter that can somehow track us."

  Irwin stared at her, stunned that she didn't even ask him if he was sure.

  "What?" Dagger asked, raising an eyebrow. "Capt- I mean, First Mate Rindiri told us a whole lot about the things you've done, and between that and you just casually pulling an entire merchant ship inside your soulscape? Yeah… better safe than sorry, no?"

  "Exactly," Irwin said, still surprised at how quickly she was to accept it. "Just make sure to be careful."

  "Oh, don't worry," Dagger said, her eyes gleaming. "I'm pretty good at these things."

  "Captain! They are here!"

  Irwin turned away from Dagger and looked up to see that the ships were now only a few hundred yards from them, already slowing down. They angled in such a way that they would block the Bigbelly, a clear sign they wanted them to stop.

  "Slow down, and let's see what they want," Irwin ordered.

  A few minutes later, they were hovering before the two much smaller scoutships, and Irwin watched as two figures flew towards them. One was a Granitian, the other a longhaired human, and both had two soulcards. From how many details he felt and their weak pressure, he guessed they were probably Amethyst or perhaps Topaz, but no higher.

  The two moved straight towards where he, Rindiri, and Dagger stood, hovering above the deck.

  "Permission to come aboard?" the longhaired woman asked.

  "Permission granted," Irwin said, noticing dark scales around the corners of her eyes and a pair of equally dark bracelets around her forearms.

  Carded items. Armor of some sort?

  The two figures lowered themselves, and as they thudded on the deck, Irwin saw the sturdy wood bend beneath the weight of the Granitian. It was a man with sleet gray skin, with brown smudges that Irwin was pretty sure weren't dirt, and silver eyes burning so bright he knew the man's soullake was definitely full—definitely a two-soulcarded Amethyst.

  "I'm Head Guard Lablen," the woman said. "Would you do me the honor of telling me your name, esteemed one?"

  Irwin almost gaped at her, barely keeping his face placid. Esteemed one? What was going on now?

  "Irwin of Giard's Rangers," he said. "An explorer's guild gone merchant guild."

  "Explorers," the Granitian rumbled, his voice like a small landslide of pebbles. "Thank the Earth."

  "What my friend here means is, you wouldn't happen to be selling or trading cards, would you? Water and plant-related?"

  Irwin frowned. "That depends on exactly what you are looking for and what you have to trade."

  "Stone, metal, and fire cards," the Granitian said, stepping forward.

  Lablen looked at the back of the Granitian's head, sighed, and stepped back as if to motion for the Granitian to take over. The man didn't even seem to notice.

  "My name is Daakr, one of the merchants of the Basalt Concord," he said, holding out his hand to Irwin.

  Irwin shook the man's surprisingly gentle grip.

  "I was just taking in some reports at Tower Six when your ship came in, so I decided to tag along with the guards," he said before turning to the woman, Lablen.

  "Seeing as they are obviously not brigands or pirates, I think we should bring them to Tower Six," he said. "I'm sure we can make a deal that is mutually beneficial."

  Irwin quickly glanced at Rindiri, who shrugged.

  "Fine, Head Merchant Daakr, but I take it you will explain this to the other towers?" Lablen said, sounding tired.

  "Of course! Now, why don't you head back to your ship and prepare these good merchants a place to dock?"

  Lablen nodded before turning to Irwin. "Welcome to Dimwacht, esteemed one. I hope we meet again."

  Before Irwin could even say anything, she floated up and away, shooting back to her ship, leaving him staring at her rapidly shrinking form.

  What was that?

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