Irwin's Journey 518: Ancestral Memories

Irwin finished the last of the Ignitzian prepared meal, humming happily.

“It’s not like you haven’t had any in a while,” Scintilla muttered, elbowing him. “I just lack some of the spices! There were none on Scour, and most of those we brought to Eluathar are used up.”

Irwin leaned sideways, wrapping Scintilla in a one-armed embrace.

“I know, and this is a good reason to bring some from here if we can buy them,” he said, giving her a quick kiss.

“I am really going to need to get used to this,” Greldo muttered from across the table.

Irwin’s grin widened as he stared at his friend. Both Greldo and Dahlia had been stunned when they saw Scintilla’s new form, and even more so when they heard she had a second body or that Irwin could create cardseeds for it.

Greldo snorted and got up, waving towards the lounge area. “I’ll clean this later. Let’s finally get to the good part!”

Irwin felt his excitement grow. By what he’d sensed from Ambraz, he knew that what they had for him was special, and he was highly curious. That said, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on a new, fresh template card or show Greldo the cards he’d found.

Sitting down on the couch beside Scintilla, he looked at Greldo expectantly.

“We could do our cards first,” Greldo said slowly. “But I have the distinct feeling you didn’t show Dahlia everything.”

“Oh, he didn’t,” Dahlia said. “I’m not sure what he held back, but probably the best ones.”

“I did,” Irwin agreed. “So, who starts?”

“You,” Ambraz rumbled as he dropped from the rafters and landed on Irwin’s shoulder. “Trust me, kid. After we get the card they have for us, we won’t have time or interest for anything else for a while.”

Irwin stared at the Ganvil, letting out a long, exaggerated sigh. “Right, well, thanks for making me ever more curious.”

“You are welcome, now hurry up.”

Greldo laughed softly, while Irwin focused on the small hidden room he’d created deep below the ground in his soulscape. It held all the special cards and items he’d found over the years. It had been a long time since he’d really checked what was in there, not since early during their second stay on Scour, and as he focused on it, he realized there were more cards than he recalled. As he drew the shadow teleport to his hand, he also noticed one other, and he blinked in surprise.

Anthem of the Havoc Tempest, he thought, staring stupidly at the card. He’d wanted to give it to Daubutim, and somehow, had forgotten. His otherself, who had been asleep on Eluathar, shivered awake, and a moment later, the card vanished.

‘Yeah, perhaps I should take a complete inventory of this place tomorrow,’ Irwin thought, as he saw the two cards still wrapped in a barrier.

‘Kid. Not. Now!’

Irwin grinned and returned his focus to the others, who were watching him curiously.

“All right,” he said, raising a card in his hand.

A surprised exclamation came from Juul’rish, seated on Dahlia’s shoulder, and Dahlia’s eyes widened.

“What-”

“This!” Irwin said, interrupting her. “-is a shadow teleport card. We will need to use the template card on it, because we will need more than one, but-”

“You found one!” Greldo exclaimed, on his feet and staring at the card with eyes that gleamed brightly. “It looks like a portal? How does it work?!”

“This one will need to be remade,” Irwin said. “But I’m hoping to make one that will allow you and other shadewalkers to create a portal on two locations that are connected.”

Dahlia whistled. “It’s only amethyst rank now, so we can really do a lot with it.”

Greldo put down a thin stack of three cards on the table, and Irwin’s eyebrows shot up as he saw they were template cards.

“I almost don’t wanna give you the other card now,” Greldo said, staring at the teleport card. “I just know I’m going to have to wait till you get around to working on the shadow teleport.”

Irwin snorted. “No matter what card you have, it shouldn’t take me more than a few days. After that, I’ll work on yours.”

Greldo slumped back in the chair, eyes locked on the card.

“Right,” Dahlia said, nudging him. “Mudball might not have as high a time dilation as Scour, but we have plenty of time for both. Now, I think we have let Irwin wait long enough?”

“Yes, fine,” Greldo grumbled, before sighing and perking up. “You are right.”

Irwin put the shadow card on the table, leaning forward as his friend theatrically pulled a card from his pocket. He knew the card had actually been pulled from the shadow realm because he hadn’t sensed it before. Now he did, and he frowned. It was strong and odd. The resonance was also somewhat familiar.

“Now,” Greldo said. “Please don’t run away and start working the minute you see it, please!”

Irwin frowned as Greldo slowly turned the card over so he could see it. It was a topaz-ranked card depicting a shape that was slightly fish-like but different. It took Irwin an entire second to realise what he was looking at, and then it was he who was standing on his feet, staring at the card.

“That… that…” he muttered.

“Is it a chaos whale summon?” Greldo said, grinning like a madman. “Why, yes, it is.”

Irwin reached out slowly, taking the card as he examined it. The amount of soulforce within it was above average, as expected, but the main thing was that the resonance song felt incredibly familiar. Even without working on it, he could already sense parts and beats from the many Chaos Whale songs he’d heard over the course of his life.

“Where did you get this?” he asked, and he felt a stab of worry.

“Yeah, that part of the story isn’t too good,” Greldo rumbled, his joy fading and replaced with barely concealed anger. “Remember those first Chained we came across? Those you unchained?”

Irwin nodded slowly, his eyebrows lowering. “These came from Chaos Whale hunters?” he asked, his voice lowering.

“Yes, they did. We found a ship with those Girdaim, and they weren’t the nice kind, like Zeek. These were those Faithfull he told us about,” Greldo said, staring at the table as he seemingly recalled something. “They are all dead, but sadly not before they killed a lot of Chaos Whales.”

Irwin grunted as he sat back, the card in his hand, suddenly giving him a very double feeling. Then he noticed Dahlia and Greldo share a worried look.

“There is more?”

“Yes,” Greldo said. “We found Chaos Whale eyes in their ships, and it seems they were eating those.”

Irwin’s jaw tightened, the sound of metal gnashing against metal echoing through the room. His mind flowed back to the many Chaos Whales he’d come across, from the time they had saved him long ago, as he sailed through that storm, to the times he had seen Zan sing with them.

“Calm down, Hot Stuff,” Scintilla said, putting a hand on his own, which had clenched into a fist. “They are dead, and we now know they do this. It will help us decide how to act when we ever come across more of them. Besides, you can move more Chaos Whales in your soulscape, right? We will search for them, and you can move those we find to Eluathar.”

Irwin took a few deep breaths, but it still took him a while to calm down. When he did, he nodded at Scintilla.

“You are right,” he said, focusing on the card in his hand.

He was still incredibly excited by it, but his excitement was now mixed with a slight disgust at the price.

‘Kid, don’t worry. We will reforge that into the best card we can possibly make for our next heartcard, and use it to take revenge,’ Ambraz said.

Irwin nodded slowly before Ambraz’s words registered. ‘You think we should use this as the base of the next?’

‘Yes, definitely. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but Chaos Whales have something called Biome Adaptability. Before you ask, no, I didn’t come up with that name. It’s something I learned from Flowrishin back on Scour. Viridians have something similar, but without all the external changes. It’s why they can live on many worlds and look so different,’ Ambraz said, his voice excited. ‘I’ve been thinking about it for hours now, and I think they are the basis of many of the giant beings we’ve seen. Probably including some of those Earth Titans. Remember how some resembled fish?’

Irwin nodded, staring absently at the card. A part of him was aware that the others had looked at him for a bit before they had begun asking Scintilla about their time on Scour.

‘So, I think we should reforge it in such a way that it adapts to your soulscape! Think about it, if we do that, it would naturally bridge different parts of your soulscape, and although it probably won’t be a fix-it-all, it should help us greatly!’

Irwin’s eyes widened as he pictured a Chaos Whale roaming his soulscape, which somehow embodied it. What would that even look like?

‘How do you suggest we reforge it?’ he asked, trying to scan the card.

‘Well, right now it's a very generic Chaos Whale summon, but we want to focus on the soulforce aspects, the resonance aspects, and most definitely its ability to generate more soulforce from singing. I don’t know if it’s possible, but imagine that you double or even triple the amount of purified soulforce you generate from singing?!’

Irwin nodded, absently getting up and getting ready to leave for his soulscape, only for something to pull his arm.

He looked down to see Scintilla smile up at him, shaking her head.

“Before you go and forget about the rest of us for the foreseeable future, can you give us any idea how long you will be busy? Also, are you going to have to move people out of your soulscape and onto Mudball?”

Irwin blinked, then looked up to see Greldo and Dahlia smile at him.

“I don’t know exactly how long,” he said slowly, quickly thinking about what they had asked. “And I’ll probably need to move people out of my soulscape.”

“Which means we will have some of those Unchained here, which might cause issues,” Greldo grunted. “There aren’t too many, so I think I’ll just keep them in the shadow realm for a while.”

“That might be for the best,” Irwin said, feeling himself constantly being drawn to the card.

To his slight annoyance, it took almost an hour to get everyone out of his soulscape and situated before he was finally back in his soulscape. Empty for the first time, he felt a dual sense of loss and freedom. With only his Soulforce Constructs still roaming around, there were very few soulforce resonance fluctuations, and he realized he might miss it if it were a constant quiet.

I think it's a good idea to focus on creating more Soulforce Constructs, he decided as he stood in his smithy.

“Can you show me the card?”

“Sure, but there’s not much about it yet,” Ambraz grunted.

Irwin nodded as he put a booklet on the back of the Ganvil. A flash and moment later, he picked it up, flipping to the final page.

Card: Neamhnathair

Type: Summon, Neamhnathair, [???], Topaz

Owner: -

The wielder of this card can summon a Neamhnathair. Warning! This Neamhnathair is [???] until it [???].

Passive: Increase soulforce sensitivity

Active:  Summon a Neamhnathair [???]

Irwin sniffed and glared at the question marks and warnings.

“Well, that’s just annoying,” he said.

“I know, but I think it probably has to do with what I told you about,” Ambraz said. “Something to do with Biome Adaptability.”

Irwin nodded, still staring at the card’s description.

“Enough worrying and pondering,” Ambraz said. “Duplicate the card a single time, and let's get to work!”

Irwin pushed the booklet aside and took the new template card he’d brought with him, placing the Chaos Whale card on it. It took a few moments, then there were two, and his grin turned into a grimace.

“Okay, we can only copy this card six or seven times before this one is empty,” he said, prodding the template card and sensing just how much soulforce stability the card has lost from the single duplication.

“That’s fine,” Ambraz grunted. “We probably only need a few attempts, and after that, we only need to finish the ones.”

Irwin was about to ask what he meant when he came up with the answer.

“Zan,” he said, suddenly smiling widely.

“Exactly! That kid has as much potential as you did, if not more, and she loves the Chaos Whales.”

Irwin hummed thoughtfully as he pondered the idea.

“We should wait for her first soulcard to be finished before giving it to her,” he said. “Otherwise her entire self might be determined by the Chaos Whale.”

Ambraz was quiet for a bit, then sighed. “Right, like with Greldo?”

Irwin nodded as he thought of his friend. Although he’d finally managed to find his own self by focusing on his shadewalker part, for a long time, he’d been defined by his relationship with Coal.

“It might be better eitherway,” Ambraz said, his mood improving again. “She’s a gifted smith, and her first soulcard should have a hammer part. If we add the Chaos Whale, it would become too complex and perhaps unstable.”

Irwin nodded, then focused on the copied card, putting it on Ambraz’s back.

So, how to do this, he thought, sensing the card’s resonance. It was new, but had many familiar parts, some of which he recalled from the whales' songs.

“Strike it and let's see what we get,” Ambraz grunted.

Irwin hesitated for only a moment before summoning his hammer and hitting the card. The soulforce resonance rippled outward, and as he listened, searching for patterns, something in his mind jolted.

The next thing he knew, a flood of memories washed over him, dragging him down. The last thing he managed to realise was that they were ancestral memories, then everything went dark.

--

The young Amnathair ran across the desolate landscape, dodging massive chunks of falling debris as the volcano behind him kept exploding. He held the two younglings close to his chest, protecting them from the chaos that surrounded him. Shockwaves slammed into his back, almost causing him to stumble. A nearby boulder shattered under a pressure wave, three main parts thudding on the ground while shrapnel pelted everything in the vicinity.

This world will not last!

The thought came unbidden and was mixed with a great pain. It was the world his father had sent him to, the only one he and the other younglings knew. Now, as the great Oculithar cracked the Exit Portal Corridor, sending waves of primordial soulforce into the world, it would shatter from the pressure. His growing phase was far from ready, and he could only pray the elders were waiting on the other side.

He looked ahead, at the Peligren Tower, the marker that designated the Exit Portal’s location. There had been a rundown town around it before, but now it was gone.

He reached the portal, a wide area that kept open by the runes he and the others had drawn, noticing nobody had remained. The primordial soulforce washed out of it, fighting against the ordered soulforce of the material universe. It wouldn’t win, couldn’t win, but that didn’t mean the battle between the powerful forces wouldn’t shatter the portal and the planet before their struggle finished.

“Will we survive going through?” a muted shout came from his chest.

The Amnathair looked down at his youngest sibling, a girl who had only just started her first true growing phase. She was too small and weak to fight even the weakest of their enemies, but her mind was sharp. She was also right.

“I don’t know,” he shouted back, feeling the tiny obfuscation of the truth push against his sense of self. “Probably not,” he added, feeling the tension loosen.

“Where are the Neamh?” she asked. “They could guide us?”

“All have left,” he answered.

“Perhaps one remained in the corridor?”

The Amnathair took a deep breath, staring at the portal. He could have left hours ago, but he’d sensed his siblings. Alone and distant, and without help. He’d made his choice. Now he would live or die with it.

“Close your eyes,” he rumbled, stepping forward.

A rumbling call made him stumble and stop, as the deep vibration seemed to resonate throughout the ground. Pebbles danced up and down, their rapid jittering barely audible above the distant explosions.

Did a Neamh remain? he thought, looking around with a sudden hope.

His eyes were drawn to a different type of explosion on one of the nearer mountain walls, and as he watched, it spread outward. Lava surged forth, and with it came an enormous, scarred Neamhnathair. It had changed long ago, its dark skin more like molten lava, its head slightly more predatory, and its eyes glowing golden. The curved row of four tiny eyes above its main one showed it was an elder, and it let out a deep resonating hum that was audible even through the constant eruptions.

“There’s still one!”

The Amnathair sighed, shaking his head.

“This one has already morphed to match this world, and the ebbs of the great realm,” he rumbled. “It can’t leave. If it tries, it will be killed by the primordial soulforce.”

Still, as he spoke, the giant behemoth came flying towards them. Its movements seemed slow and ponderous, yet they carried it forward at a speed few could match without teleporting.

The song increased in complexity as it reached the Amnathair, an odd sense of connection joining it.

The young Amnathair felt the song's meaning, and it shocked him.

Will help. Go in. I will protect.

“It will kill you,” he shouted back.

Song will continue. Promised. No choice.

The Amnathair jerked. The Neamh had promised? Promised who? When? Then he saw a smaller Neamh, so small he could have wrapped his arms around it, hidden within the shadow of the behemoth. He’d thought it nothing but a darker smudge.

A young one that hasn’t morphed yet? How?!

He wanted to ask, but the Neamhnathair ignored him. It circled the portal and began singing loudly. The deep rumbling hum held more detail than could be described, and slowly a swirl of soulforce began surrounding the portal. Within moments, it was ripped open to a size that dwarfed what it had been, and without waiting, the singing behemoth shot forward and inside, dragging the tiny young Neamh with it.

Follow!

The Amnathair didn’t hesitate but jumped in. The world turned dark, and then he was tumbling down a funnel of chaos. Primordial Soulforce surged forward, originating from a distant rip in the exit portal barrier. Beyond it, one of the Primordeal Oculithar hung, wrapped around the barrier, and was trying to force open the rip.

A wave of pure terror flowed through the corridor, which would have caused any mortal to die on the spot. As it was, the Amnathair felt the younglings cryout and go still, while his own mind turned to chaos. The last thing he sensed was the large Neahm slowing and flying above it, the younger one landing on his back.

--

Irwin shuddered as the dream faded, his mind trying to comprehend what he’d seen. There had been no names, only rough indications of who or what, but one thing was clear. The song he was hearing from the card, still lying on Ambraz’s back, held elements of the song he’d just heard. It wasn’t the same, but something about the cadence, the emotions, and the meaning matched with what he’d seen.

“Kid… you alright? What just happened?”

Irwin took a deep breath, quickly checking how the card was doing. From what he could tell, little time had passed, far less than it felt to him.

“I just had an Ancestral Memory,” he said. “I saw one of the Amnathair, and it was fleeing a world. Something called a Primordeal Oculithar was cracking the Exit Portal corridor, and apparently, that would cause the world to explode. I think they were saved by a Chaos Whale, together with a young one, and the song of this card…? It is very much like what that Chaos Whale sang.”

“Right, that probably triggered the memory,” Ambraz said. “Well, we don’t have any time to deal with that now. We need to continue forging. I’ve held this card stable, but if we don’t continue now, it will eventually destabilize and break.”

Irwin nodded, focusing on the song, and this time he recognized even more of it.

“It’s got something to do with stabilizing,” he said, trying to decipher what he was hearing. “Just like that first song, long ago. Back in the storm. But it’s split. As if it wants to go in two directions…”

He stopped talking, his focus fully on the card’s resonance.

It’s both stabilizing and harmonizing, he thought. But there’s something else. There are a few little inconsistencies mixed in. As if it wasn’t sure what it had to be, or do? Was this a card belonging to a young one?

The thought angered him, but not enough to snap him out of his sudden focus. Lost in his own world, he began humming, picking out a part of the song that he recognized, while his smaller self appeared nearby, on a table, soulstrum guitar in hand.

A tiny part of him sensed how all of his focus moved to what he was doing, that he had stopped mid-conversation with his mother back on Eluathar, and how he hadn’t even heard one of Ambraz’s questions.

He ignored all of it as he brought the hammer down.

No, like that. Resonate like this, he thought, humming the direction he sensed the card could go in.

Within a few moments, he was fully absorbed, and any conscious thought had fled in favor of the reforging.

--

I should have seen this coming, Ambraz thought, as he lent his force and stability to the song Irwin was creating.

Even after all the years they had been together, his bonded smith still managed to surprise him, and this was one of those times.

It’s like he knows what the card should be, which is impossible!

The stability of the card, which had not been bad to begin with, increased rapidly, while a single coherent melody began emerging. Strike after strike, the card changed, and when Ambraz sensed the card settle with a final, deep, resonating rumble, he sighed.

A hundred percent Emerald. I wonder if he’s ever going to manage to do this with ammolite, he thought as he watched Irwin step away, eyes unfocused.

“What is it like now?” Irwin whispered, putting a book on Ambraz's back.

There really was a benefit to when he could see this himself, Ambraz thought, forcing himself to focus on his skill. It cost a slight bit of purified soulforce, but that hardly mattered. He had just gained an immense amount of purified soulforce from the reforge. Easily three compared to what a regular card would have given, and that was already far more than what the others gained from their bonded smiths.

Closing in on another batch rank zeros, he thought, watching Irwin pick up the paper. He knew exactly what it said.

Card: Neamhnathair

Type: Summon, Neamhnathair, [???], Emerald, Reforged by Irwin Roddington

Owner: -

The wielder of this card can summon a Neamhnathair. Warning! This Neamhnathair is [???] until it [???].

Passive: Increase soulforce sensitivity

Passive: Increased soulscape stability

Active:  Summon a Neamhnathair [???]

“I had expected more,” Irwin muttered.

Ambraz let out a deep, weary sigh. “What more did you expect? Do you feel how much stronger the card has gotten?”

“Yes, but there are still all those question marks.”

“Because neither I nor any of my own ancestral memories knows half of those resonances,” Ambraz said dryly. “My skill can only show those. Remember?”

“I know,” Irwin said, removing the booklet and putting the emerald card back down.

“Good thinking,” Ambraz said, feeling his excitement build. “Let’s get this thing all the way up to diamond!”

“Ruby for now,” Irwin said, causing Ambraz’s excitement to fade somewhat.

“Why?”

“Do you think we can get this to a hundred percent diamond? It also doesn’t have a growth element.”

Ambraz was quiet, knowing the kid was right.

“Well, we don’t really need it to be diamond or ammolite,” he muttered. “And we have plenty of growth cards. I’m sure we can use one of those when we get six cards.”

Still, as he spoke, Ambraz couldn’t help but be curious what an Ammolite Chaos Whale card would be like.

“But, kid, I think we can use two or three of those template card copies to try and get one as high as it can go, right?”

Ambraz felt Irwin’s emotional state change as hesitance turned to curiosity, then to resolve.

“Fine, we can try two or three times. But let’s keep this one at Ruby if we get a successful hundred percent one.”

Ambraz felt his own desire to see what they could do resonate with Irwin’s in a way he had seen grow over the last few decades. It wasn’t as powerful as what Brazardian had once told him had been the case with his bonded smith, but he could already feel the direction it was going in.

“Good! Then let’s get this to Ruby and see what happens!”

--

“How much longer do you think he is going to be in there?” Greldo asked, taking a bite of food. “It’s been over four days already!”

He and Scintilla were sitting across from each other in his kitchen, sharing the third meal they had in a few days now.

“You know how he gets when he is focused,” Scintilla said, grinning at him. “Besides, it’s not like you don’t have enough to do.”

“Yes,” Greldo muttered, almost saying what he was thinking, that he really had hoped Irwin would return soon to help him with the Shadow Teleport card. “But having to deal with all the complaints is tedious. I don’t understand how Koudi even manages.”

“She has patience,” Scintilla said, before shivering. “But I agree. I wouldn’t want to do that either.”

Greldo prodded his food, debating whether to take another bite.

“Think he is going to reforge it up to diamond and slot it?”

“He might,” Scintilla said. “What about Dahlia? I haven’t seen her in days.”

“Same story. She’s locked in her smithy, working on some of those shadow cards that Irwin gave her,” Greldo said. “I tried asking her how it was going yesterday, and she didn’t even see I was there.”

He was about to continue when he heard the door to Irwin’s room open on the floor above.

“Oh! I think he’s done,” he said, turning toward the staircase.

Irwin came stomping down the stairs, his eyes gleaming.

Greldo’s eyes shot to his hand, and he was almost surprised to see it was still empty.

“What? No cards?”

“Oh, they are ready,” Irwin said, walking to the table and giving Scintilla a quick kiss as he sat down beside her. “I just need to decide which one I’ll slot. Ambraz is working on two plans forward.”

“Which one? You made multiple?” Greldo asked, raising his eyebrow. “What plans are we talking about?”

“The plan for my fifth heartcard,” Irwin said. “However, for that one, I still need to reforge one more card and see if it gives me what I need.”

“Which is?” Greldo asked, curiously.

“The ability to blend heat and soulforce,” Irwin said, reaching out and grabbing a knife before spearing a piece of meat on it. “Based on that, I’ll know which of the Chaos Whale summons I’ll slot.”

Greldo let out a weary sigh. “And the shadow teleport?”

“I’ll do that tomorrow,” Irwin said, grinning up. “Why? Impatient?”

“Not at all.”

“Yes, he is,” Scintilla said at the same time.