Daakr walked through the room, watching Smildigan inspect the card. She'd been too busy and unwilling to inspect it in the last few days, and it had taken a ton of promises to finally get her to examine it.

  He knew it did what Irwin had told him, but that was about it. Like any decent merchant, he was able to get a card read pretty easily. The problem was that it just gave him a general overview. If he wanted the details, things got way more difficult. In Dimwacht, that meant either Puntara, who had bound the only carded with the ability to get a complete readout, or Smildigan.

  In his case, especially after the stunt he'd pulled, that meant Smildigan.

  "Stop pacing!" the other Granitian snapped, glaring up at him with burning silver eyes.

  Daakr stopped where he stood, putting his hands behind his back, giving her his most winning smile. The smooth-faced woman didn't even bother to react, but focused back on the card as she had for the last few minutes.

  Ten minutes of trying to stop himself from pacing later, Smildigan grunted and put the card back.

  "Well, you were right. This was made by a diamond-rank smith, but it wasn't that Brecca girl," she said, her eyes gleaming softly. "It's somewhere between ninety-five and ninety-eight percent, and it does exactly as is written here."

  Daakr felt a slight worry fade from his mind. With Irwin and the Bigbelly preparing to leave, he'd pushed as hard as he could to have Smildigan read it so he could act if the card held some flaw. Knowing it didn't, and added atop the stagger three-thousand pounds of purified Ancestral Coperion that Irwin's smith had managed to make in two and a half days, even if he ignored the food, he knew he'd made a fantastic deal. Now, he could trade the purified Ancestral Coperion all over the place instead of having to go to Granvox and sell all of the raw ore for far less.

  Still, he was curious about one thing.

  "So, who reforged it then?" he asked.

  The grin on Smildigan's face widened, and Daakr frowned.

  "Your hunch that it was someone on the ship proved correct," she said.

  Daakr nodded, wishing Smildigan would just tell him.

  "So….?" he asked.

  "This card," she said, holding the berry bush card up. "Was reforged by… Irwin."

  Daakr stared at her, and for a few seconds, he thought she was trying to pull his leg. Then, tiny little things he'd noticed began clicking together, and his eyebrows began crawling up.

  He almost ran out to see if he could still catch The Bigbelly, but then he stopped. Irwin had taken a lot of measures to keep his occupation a secret, and if Daakr went and ruined that… any goodwill he'd gotten with the smith -diamond-rank smith!- would be void.

  "Well," he muttered, shaking his head. "I didn't expect that."

  Smildigan laughed, examining the card again. "It's a great card, probably made by someone who uses either singing, music, or another one of the sound-pattern reforging techniques. My advice? Keep this guy as your friend. Even if I finally reach diamond-rank, it will take me a long time to be able to do this."

  Daakr nodded before looking at Smildigan.

  "I think we should just keep this little bit of news to ourselves," he said. "I'll make sure one of my cousins gets this card and explains the same to her."

  "Sure," Smildigan said as she almost reluctantly handed the card back. "Just make sure you send me some of these berries as soon as they are ready."

  "Of course," Daakr said. "Now, would you be willing to have dinner with me?"

  Smildigan looked at him for a moment before snorting.

  "You just never give up, do you?"

  "Never," Daakr said, picturing how she would react to a real meal.

  As he led her away, his thoughts drifted to Irwin, who would likely be disembarked by now. He hoped the smith would come back in the future.

  --

  A week after they had left Dimwacht, Greldo stood behind the helm as The Nocturna raced through the shadowrealm.

  Except for Irwin's smaller self and Gloom, everyone else was inside, which was good because he'd found that over the course of long travels at this speed, everyone was a burden to his ability. If he'd had to be honest, his friend was the heaviest of all, and it would have been better if he'd been able to hide out in his own soulscape. His mere presence was like an enormous ball chained to him. When they had left, it had been easy to pull it along, but now, only a week later, he was already starting to feel Irwin's soulforce presence weighing him down.

  "So?" he asked, glancing to the side where Irwin stood, looking into the shadowy storm behind them.

  "Nothing… I've been scanning for days, but either whoever is following us stopped, or I can only sense something when we leave the storm," Irwin said. "Still no luck with Coal?"

  Greldo sighed. He believed Irwin when he said he'd felt something, but having Coal constantly trail behind them in a sort of large net was another drain on him. It was a good thing that their current destination was only another few days away, or he would have had to take a long rest.

  "None," he said, glancing at the only other person on the deck. "Gloom?"

  "Nothing, Lord Greldo," the Elder Nyzir said.

  Greldo didn't react to the title. He'd found that as soon as Gloom had to do a lot of things and became absentminded, he would call him Lord. That said, it was still a whole lot better than the other sappy titles he'd had tossed at his head before Irwin had begun helping Gloom withstand whatever pressure he felt.

  Can't wait till this heartcard is done, Greldo thought.

  With some luck, that would help him with his control. Still, as he glanced around, watching a few of the larger schools of fish swimming nearby, seemingly unperturbed by their speed, as they went about what Greldo could only think of as a natural order, sometimes attacked by larger, predatory fish, he couldn't help but be happy about the current state of his cards. Besides having yet to find any shadewalker that even pressured him, he was able to do things like carry entire ships through the shadowrealm and teleport across vast distances as long as he was by himself.

  Now, if only Irwin figures out a way to reforge soulcards, he thought.

  He felt a pang at that. Years ago, he'd decided to go with a Ruby rank first heartcard, thinking filling it would be a chore. Now, all these years later, he'd found that as long as he stuck around Irwin, just the collateral of that filled his soullake faster than what he'd been led to believe would happen. If he'd known back then, he might not have been so fast to let that other smith reforge Coal to a ruby heartcard. If he'd waited for Irwin to improve, his friend could have increased it to Diamond... Or perhaps even higher. Now, his first heartcard, and thus the, what did Irwin call it? Default base size and power of his soulscape? Where locked at Ruby rank?

  Perhaps if that hadn't been the case, he'd have been able to use his newest heartcard better instead of feeling his soulscape strain whenever he tried to use the heartcard to its fullest.

  "How long do you plan to stay at the next stop?" he asked, trying to distract himself.

  "A day at most. Unless there's something really worthwhile, I don't expect our full cargo to be useful at this first stop," Irwin said. "Still, let's hope they have food because I want to get as much of that."

  "You are going to put it in your soulscape then?" Greldo asked, still awed by how much Irwin could actually stuff in there. Even a tenth of that would have unbalanced him and caused a splitting headache.

  "Yes. I think we made a mistake when we left Suderfuix. I should have brought as much food as they could spare."

  Greldo nodded. "Yeah, we should have thought about that. Even if Dimwacht was the exception in this part of the mainbranch, further out, food shortage will probably be a larger problem."

  "Well, there should be plenty of food in the first stops along the trip," Irwin said. "Let's hope that our ninth stop needs food. That way, we have a bigger chance of bartering for what we need."

  Greldo looked up, trying to recall what the night stop would be.

  "Oh, the shipbuilder's harbor," he said, feeling his own excitement growing. "You really think we can get the secret to creating sails?"

  "No idea, but we need to try," Irwin said. "Even if we buy or trade for every sail we come across, we are never going to get enough to create a large enough navy."

  "Well… from what we have heard, the most powerful navies aren't even that large," Greldo said. "It's just a ton of four-soulcarded warriors with the perfect cards stuffed onto those Portal Guardian class ships."

  Irwin grinned. "Just, huh? Well, a Portal Guardian class ship takes special wood we don't have, special skills to make we don't have, and sails that are said to cost even those specialized in it decades to produce. Not to speak of the runes within them and those four-soulcarded warriors you just glossed over."

  "True, true," Greldo said. "But we have this really good smith who can create cards to trade for a lot of those things! I'll just have to lock him into his smithy so he can get us what we need!"

  "Lock him in, huh?" Irwin said, barking a laugh. "Sure, that sounds like a reasonable thing to do."

  "Right?" Greldo said with a grin.

  They continued their banter for a while longer till Irwin said he needed to go practice again.

  "Okay, don't break a fingernail," Greldo said, laughing as Irwin made a rude gesture.

  Humming happily, Greldo wondered if the next stop would be another world with no food.

  It wasn't. Nor were their next four stops.

  --

  Irwin groaned as he glared at the smaller harbor city fading in the distance. His head was throbbing from the shouted conversation he'd had only half an hour before. At one point, he'd actually thought the harbor's leaders would attack him.

  "Are you okay, captain?" Rindiri asked from the side, where she was guiding the Bigbelly toward the barrier.

  "I'm starting to get sick and tired of answering the same questions every time," Irwin said, realizing even the storm ahead looked more pleasing than the idea of having to explain about the Guidar again.

  "Did they want you to stay and talk with the different world leaders again?" Rindiri asked.

  Irwin groaned. "Yes, and they seemed to think we should stay there and give them all our cards and food."

  "Oh, one of those," Dagger said, sounding surprisingly pleased.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Irwin glanced at her, but she just grinned at a few of the Yuurindi clambering around the sails.

  "I guess I won another bet," she said happily.

  What, they are betting on the worlds we encounter now? Irwin thought, glaring at Dagger, who still happily ignored him.

  "Well, atleast we managed to get some more food," Greldo said as he appeared beside Irwin. "I actually found an Ignitzian place that had enough stock to want to trade."

  Irwin felt a bit of his annoyance fade at the prospect of some proper hot food.

  "Let's go and taste some," he said, waving at Rindiri.

  "You can do that," Greldo said as he followed him. "It's one of those Volcano things. Way too hot for me."

  Irwin's mood increased even more at that.

  An hour later, he, Greldo, Nisziz, Klatzi, and Brecca were sitting in the mess.

  The other three had come running as soon as they heard Greldo had found Ignitzian food, and they held a small feast.

  "No, it's not the hottest, but it's close," Klatzi said, grinning at Brecca. "I can't wait to have you taste some Everburning Peppers and Volcanic Honey!"

  Brecca hummed happily as she took another sip of the spicy liquor.

  "Big brother, do you think we can find some of those things in Urlar?" she asked.

  Irwin rubbed his chin, barely even noticing how she called him anymore. Over the course of the last few weeks, he'd found himself slowly getting accustomed to it, and with his own feelings guaranteeing him it was as it should be, he'd just given up. How he'd explain it to his mother and brother would be a problem for the future.

  Humming thoughtfully, he pondered her question as he gazed at the empty plate that stood before him. The idea of getting some Volcanic Honey to bring for Scintilla made him grin at her happy response.

  "Well, there's bound to be more people there, as it's one of the largest cities," he pondered out loud, more to himself than to Brecca. "There should be some."

  "I can't wait to see that place," Greldo said, leaning back. "I mean, something called The Elder Shipyard has to be pretty incredible."

  Irwin nodded as he absently decided not to take a third helping. They had a lot of food, but not enough for him to indulge every day, and he'd already had more than six regular-sized people could.

  "Are you still planning to trade for sails?" Greldo asked, taking a sip from his drink.

  "Definitely," Irwin said. "Even if we find out how to make them, it will probably take a long time to get enough cards and train the people."

  "I agree, Captain," Nisziz said as she took a sip of her own drink. "Also, don't forget to get some more of this. We are running low."

  Irwin grinned as she wondered how Teacher Parka would react when she found out that he'd cleaned out nearly her entire bar. The soulshards he'd left as payment probably wouldn't appease her much.

  Well, if I ever see her again, I'll find a way to repay her, he thought, taking a sip of his own drink and relishing the sensation.

  "Did they say anything about The Plague?" Greldo asked as he waved behind him as if to indicate the place they had just left.

  Irwin felt his good mood dampen again. "No," he said. "But I didn't get much chance to ask them. I think, next time, I'll start with asking some questions about that before telling them about the Guidar."

  "Let's hope we don't come across any more worlds that have it," Greldo said. "We don't have enough food to keep trading it away."

  Irwin nodded. He was about to say something when Klatzi leaned forward, staring at him. She seemed to hesitate, and he motioned her to continue.

  "Captain, I was thinking about how you keep explaining about the war and the Guidar. What if you just create informational papers? You can just write the details on it and hand them to those in charge?"

  There was a moment of silence around the table, then Greldo barked a laugh.

  "Yeah, why don't you?"

  "Because I didn't think about it," Irwin said as he rolled his eyes at his friend.

  He turned and smiled at Klatzi. "That is a great idea. There should be plenty of writing materials left from the previous captain."

  "Ah! Make sure you let one of them write it," Greldo said. "Your handwriting is horrible!"

  Irwin wanted to disagree on principle, but he knew his friend was right. Although they had both learned to read and write, neither of them had really bothered to become proficient.

  "I'll do it," Nisziz said. "I used to write a lot of letters for Blademother Tiscian."

  "That would be awesome," Irwin said, as he felt some of his annoyance fade.

  Sadly, before he could even bask in the knowledge that he'd be done with these talks, Niszis continued.

  "The leaders of the bigger cities will probably still either come to you for more information or send others to do so."

  Irwin groaned as his previous hope was cut short before he could even enjoy it.

  Well, it should still make it easier, he thought, ignoring Greldo's soft laughter.

  --

  Another week passed with the only notable moment a short stop in a small section of the Portal Gallery.

  "That is one hell of a city," Greldo whispered.

  Irwin agreed as he looked at the enormous amalgamation of stone and wood that rose in the distance. Unlike the other cities they had seen, this seemed a single construct, with large open areas on some sides and ships everywhere.

  Unlike the other cities they had gone to, where, at a minimum, two ships would set out to greet them, there was only a single one this time. Not that it would matter much.

  "That's a Portal Guardian class ship," Rindiri said in awe. "What is it doing here?"

  Irwin shook his head, not knowing how to answer that as he watched the enormous combat ship slowly drift towards them. As large as the Bigbelly was, it was still a small merchant ship, and as they stopped before the Portal Guardian class ship, they looked like a tiny skiff.

  "There's probably a thousand people on that," Irwin said as he scanned the soulforce resonances. "Atleast a dozen three-soulcarded, and over a hundred at two."

  "Are you kidding me? Why do they have that many people on a ship right now?" Greldo asked, sounding slightly worried.

  "Perhaps we should turn back?" Dagger asked.

  "If we want to do that, we should probably do it now," Greldo said. "There are about a hundred shadewalkers surrounding us, and three pretty strong ones are almost here."

  "How strong?" Irwin asked.

  "No more powerful than me," Gloom said as he appeared beside them. "But they are forcing me out of the shadowrealm."

  "Oh… that's what they are doing?" Greldo said, his eyes gleaming dangerously.

  Irwin turned and glared at his friend. "Don't!"

  "What?" Greldo asked. "I wasn't planning on doing anything."

  Irwin snorted. "Let's try not to antagonize the people with the big ship."

  "Well, fine," Greldo muttered. "Just be ready to pull everything into your soulscape if we have to. I'm pretty sure I can still get us two out of here even if they all try and stop me."

  Irwin nodded, looking around. With his soulforce sensitivity to the maximum, he noticed tiny fluctuations in the ambient soulforce all around the ship's barrier.

  "Yeah, those are their shadewalkers," Greldo said, crossing his arms smugly.

  Irwin frowned, turning to his friend. "Where are the three strong ones?"

  "They are knocking on the barrier," Greldo said. "Think I should let them in?"

  "You blocked them?" Irwin asked, annoyed.

  "Well, they didn't ask nicely," Gredo complained.

  Irwin sighed and nodded. "Let them in."

  Greldo smirked, and a moment later, Irwin saw three soulforce fluctuations rush toward them.

  Three figures appeared on the deck ten paces from them, all wearing dark leather armor. Two had facemasks that only showed their eyes, which were locked onto Gloom. The third figure was a woman with long, purple hair that was so dark that it was almost black, tied in a ponytail behind her head. Tiny scales covered the sides of her face, highlighting her almost pink eyes, an oddity that Irwin had started noticing more in these regions of the Portal Gallery.

  "Remove your shield, Nyzir!" one of the facemasks snapped.

  "Quiet," the woman said, her voice emotionless and icy, raising her hand.

  "But Captain, that Nyzir-"

  "Isn't doing anything. Do you need to return planetside for retraining, Argin?" the woman said, her eyes locked onto Greldo. "Are you too blind to see who is the center of this… oddity in the shadowrealm is? Look who these fish are circling!"

  "You are going to make me blush. I'm Greldo, and this is my Captain," Greldo said, pointing a thumb to Irwin."

  The pink-eyed captain glanced at Irwin, holding his gaze.

  Irwin frowned at the slight challenge in the razor-like sharpness of the pink eyes. Lowering his head, he slowly released some of the pressure from his soulcards, causing the ambient soulforce around him to begin to vibrate and pulse. If she wanted to see what he had, he would oblige.

  As the seconds ticked on and the pressure went from what could be seen as normal for someone with two soulcards to ten times that, her pink eyes widened while the black scales seemed to go pale. Irwin continued increasing the soulforce pressure until both masked shadewalkers took a stumbling step back.

  Then he stopped and raised an eyebrow.

  "Would you like me to continue?"

  "No. I see my initial reception of you might have been somewhat lacking," the pink-eyed captain said.

  Irwin was actually impressed by how little additional stress she showed as he held the pressure. Deciding he'd made his point, he pulled it back while Greldo grinned loudly.

  "Nice, how he does that, isn't it? Really fluid."

  This time, the pink-eyed captain only glanced at him for a split second before returning her eyes to Irwin.

  Beside her, the two masked men stepped forward, showing a remarkable amount of resilience. One of them was staring daggers at Irwin, but he ignored it.

  "My name is Captain Hyrmine Nath'reag of the Ophiydez tribe, but please call me Hyrmine. My apologies for my lack of manners. We have been under a lot of stress, and we were expecting to be sent into battle," she said. "When you appeared, surrounded by… an anomaly in the shadowrealm, we didn't know what to think."

  "Battle with what?" Irwin asked, his surprise pushing away his slight annoyance at the reception.

  "Oculithar," Captain Hyrmine said, glancing at the barrier behind them. "They have been circling us for the last few months, and the large one actually cracked the barrier twice to allow smaller ones inside."

  Startled hisses came from the sail above them, showing the Yuurindi had been listening in, but Irwin ignored all of it.

  He focused his full attention on scanning the barrier with his soulforce sensitivity, trying to notice anything in the storm behind it. He didn't sense one of the massive tentacled monstrosities, but with the constant raging soulforce beyond, he wasn't sure if he would have been able to make it out even if it was there.

  We just passed through there, he thought, shivering as he realized he'd barely paid any attention.

  With three Ganvils, he wasn't really worried about small Oculithar. But one that could crack the barrier around this section of the Portal Gallery?

  After a few seconds of finding nothing, he focused back on Captain Hymrine.

  "Well, we aren't an Oculithar, and we didn't see one when we passed through," he said.

  Captain Hyrmine seemed relieved to hear that.

  "Did it actually wrap around this entire section?" Irwin asked, guessing that this section had to be atleast a hundred miles long, half as wide, and a few miles high. An Oculithar that big would be similar to the one he'd seen long ago in the exit portal corridor.

  "Yes, but only barely," Captain Hyrmine said. "If it had been just a bit bigger, it would have probably been able to put more force into it and crush us out of existence."

  Irwin looked at her, wondering what it would do to you if there was a constant threat of death by Oculithar looming over you. Why hadn't they retreated into the world? He only now noticed the slight bags under the Captain's eyes and the weariness she exuded.

  "Then, I think we can forget about the little mistake just now," he said. "Oculithar are not to be trifled with. My name is Irwin, and this is my second in command, Greldo."

  Captain Hyrmine let out a relieved sigh, and as she smiled, Irwin realized she was actually very pretty- in a snake-like way. Her lips were a bit too thin and pale, and her face delicate and very symmetrical.

  "Thank you very much," she said. "Now, I take it you are here to do business? It's been a few months since the last merchant ship managed to reach us."

  "Others have been here?" Irwin asked, surprised at that.

  From what he'd been told, no merchants had gone to the other portal harbor cities they had been to.

  Captain Hyrmine seemed to notice his surprise as she smiled.

  "As one of the few places that is able to create ships that can travel through this storm, many merchants have sought us out. We've actually been doing remarkably well the last year if the local merchant's guild is to be believed."

  Irwin was surprised by that, but it also meant they should have plenty of resources.

  "That sounds great," he said. "Can we just head to one of the docks?"

  "Of course. Just pick any that is free, though make sure not to accidentally use those meant for the tribes," Captain Hymrine said. "Those are the ones with the large symbols above the entrances."

  Irwin looked at the enormous building and noticed that some of the smaller entrances had colorful symbols and decorations.

  "Thanks for the heads-up," he said.

  "You're welcome. Now, I'll have to return to my ship in case the Oculithar returns. Still, I hope that you have arrived here safely and that it has finally left us. If you have time for a drink, you can find me in the Sinnewed Sister in a few hours when my shift is over."

  Irwin was surprised by the offer but smiled. "I'll remember it."

  "Enough of a break for you two," Captain Hymrine said, waving at the other two.

  Irwin noticed her gaze flickering to Greldo before she faded into the shadows together with the other. A flash of soulforce jitters shot up and away, heading back to the ship.

  As soon as they arrived, the enormous Portal Guardian class ship turned and floated back to the top of the tower.

  "Let's go," Irwin said.

  The Bigbelly went forward, but they barely crossed half the distance when a deafening horn sound came from the city.

  For one moment, Irwin thought that they were going to get attacked, but then he saw the Portal Guardian feer-of-course and rushed to the far left. One look over showed why.

  Blue trails of lightning, hundreds of feet thick, began wrapping around the barrier surrounding this section.

  "Dammit…" Greldo whispered. "That thing actually moves partially through the shadowrealm."

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