Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

"Ready?" Irwin whispered.

"Go," Daubutim replied.

The burly boy stepped through the door opening, his club in one hand and a shield in the other, sweat dripping off his face. The shield was similar to the one Rachel had used, with only a few differences, the most interesting being that it was much larger.

Irwin followed behind Daubutim, flame ready. A wall of vegetation sat in the room, and they waited and watched. After a few seconds of nothing but distant rumblings, Irwin turned around.

"It's safe."

Twintin said nothing as she stepped into the room, not even looking at him. Fear and anger had been warring on her face ever since she'd awoken and found that Rachel had been killed. She'd barely spoken to them after that, just sitting huddled in a corner, arms around her legs.

Greldo followed her into the room before turning and keeping watch behind.

Twintin's hand gave off a blue glow, and the vegetation began withering. She glared at it with such hate that Irwin shivered. Still, he was ready to move if a silvery vine appeared.

It took a short while to clear the room up to the staircase, and they didn't encounter any of the dangerous silvery vines. The normal ones had all stayed away initially, only charging when they reached the hole from which their roots grew. Twintin had quickly ended them.

"I wonder if the staircase goes all the way up this time," Greldo whispered.

"Let's hope so," Irwin said softly.

This was the third building they had cleared since Twintin woke up and eventually calmed down. The first one's staircase had been a crumbled mess after the first floor. It was also the last one they could reach while moving through the shadows.

I wish Ambraz was willing to scout around, he thought, taking a glimpse at the Anvil on his shoulder. It had been adamant that nothing would be able to get it to fly around on its own. If it was due to fear or inability, Irwin couldn't say, but he wondered if Ambraz was afraid of becoming stuck here.

The next floor was filled with more plants, but they only had to clear a little bit to reach the next staircase.

"Looks good," Greldo said.

Twintin sniffed, turning to Daubutim. "If we don't find anything this time, can we finally leave?" she asked, glaring at the boy.

"No," Daubutim said emotionlessly before moving up the stairs.

Twintin didn't respond, but the look in her eyes as she watched Daubutim walk away made the hairs on Irwin's arm rise.

It's a good thing she can't use that card on one of us, he thought as he recalled the moment Twintin had awoken. I still don't understand why she thinks it's our fault.

As he followed Twintin, he saw her fists were clenched so hard her knuckles were white.

The stairs on the next few floors remained useful, and after climbing a dozen, they finally reached the end. A patch of light sat below the staircase, showing that above would be either the roof or a destroyed floor. A quick look showed the sky at the top of the final staircase.

"I'll go check," Irwin said as he saw the others hesitate at the edge of the bright patch of light. "Make sure you drink."

He got a grunted reply from Greldo and silence from the others. Twintin glared at him, and Irwin grimaced as he stepped into the burning sunlight. He'd tried talking with her, but she wouldn't listen, which worried him.

The staircase led up to the roof, and as he stepped out of the small building, he looked around in wonder. Their building was far from the tallest around, but as impressive as the horizon of structures was, what instantly drew his attention was a set of three towering monstrosities that seemed to reach for the sun.

He walked on the edge, making sure to stay far enough away so he wouldn't be flung off if another rumble caused the buildings to sway. Besides, the whole roof felt fragile, with all of the crumbling corners and cracks in the wall.

"Hey, look! There's someone on that building over there," Ambraz said, and Irwin spun around.

The tiny Anvil hovered a few feet away. Next to theirs was a building that was a story lower, and he saw a blackened shape huddled next to the stairs leading down.

It was hard to see what it was, but he thought he saw a glimmer on the ground next to it.

"Can you see what that is?" Irwin asked, trying to get a better look.

"Sure, I should be able to go that far," Ambraz chimed happily as he whisked away.

That far? Irwin thought with a frown. Did that mean Ambraz couldn't go further? Was that why he wasn't willing to scout? Because he couldn't?

He pushed the question away as he saw the Anvil reach the other roof, slowing down. When nothing jumped forward, Ambraz lowered until reaching the shiny thing. Irwin saw him do something, then he turned and came rushing back with something dangling from his mouth.

Irwin started getting a bad premonition as he closed in.

When Ambraz reached him, he held out his hand in dismay. Olban's odd amulet, the golden locket with the eye on its front, dropped onto it.

"We found what's left of Olban," Ambraz said, sounding slightly sad.

Irwin looked up in surprise. Ambraz hadn't shown any reaction when Rachel had died. Had he somehow bonded with the boy when he wasn't looking?

"Too bad he didn't drop his card," Ambraz said with a weary sigh. "I double-checked, don't worry."

Right.

Irwin held back a rude remark as he inspected the amulet. Round and with hinges on the sides, it seemed meant to open, but as he tried, he couldn't find the trick to it. There was no keyhole anywhere, no button, no little latch.

"Oh, don't bother opening that. Yilda's lockets don't open. People have been trying for as long as they have been around," Ambraz said.

"You know what this is?" Irwin asked, looking up in surprise.

"What? Of course! There's a lot of those stupid things drifting around. Some are bracelets, other's earrings, but most are lockets like that."

Irwin looked at the locket. Olban and the sorcerer had made a big deal out of it, and it didn't seem like a stupid thing.

"Who's Yilda?" he asked.

"Nobody knows," Ambraz said, sounding bored. "Probably some legendary overpowered soulcarded crafter. Her stuff has been around forever, but nobody really knows what it does or what it's for. There's a library somewhere on Ten'ur Dihlan dedicated to collecting her artifacts, but from what I've heard, nobody knows what they do."

"Tenner Dillan?" Irwin said, stumbling over the odd pronunciation.

"Ten'ur Dihlan," Ambraz corrected him, landing on his shoulder. "It's not important. It's one of the few worlds without known coordinates, and to get there, you need an invitation. Then, someone has to come pick you up with a Diamond rank teleportation or gate card. I don't expect either of us to ever be important enough to warrant an invitation."

"Diamond?" Irwin muttered.

Ambraz grunted. "Keep up, kid. Diamond is what you call Legendary. Remember?"

"Where is here anyway? And where are you from?" Irwin asked, ignoring the Anvil. It was a question that had been playing through his mind for a while.

"Here? I have no clue. The Smith's Guild entourage I was with got ambushed during an investigation of a semi-stabilized shardworld, and that stupid sorcerer found me. He must have taken me here through a portal, which, now that you mention it, means that the shardworld I was on was connected to two worlds. Weird," Ambraz muttered, petering off.

Irwin was about to ask why it was weird when Ambraz snorted loudly.

"Not that it matters. Either way, at first, beardyface was super hyped when he caught me. He seemed to think I was some legendary solidified card remnant -an artifact he called me- but he seemed annoyed when he found out I was a living being. He just stuffed me into that tiny world as a power source. The gall of that beardy!"

Irwin was pondering who the sorcerer that had found Ambraz could be when he recalled something Lady Yrinta had told him. Wasn't Gelwin the one who created those practice portals?

"That … beardy. Do you recall what his name was?" he asked, getting a dreadful premonition.

"What? Name? Yes, something like Glehn or Gwin," Ambraz said with a snort.

"Gelwin?"

"That's it! Wait, you know him?"

Irwin blinked. That meant Ambraz had been in there for hundreds of years! Legend said Gelwin had vanished over two hundred years ago after saving the peninsula from a legendary portal.

"Do you know how long you were locked up?" Irwin asked, licking his lips.

"Well... I could guess. Like eighty or ninety years?" Ambraz muttered.

Irwin stared at the Anvil but didn't even see him. That couldn't be right! If that was right, that meant Gelwin was still…

That can't be right!

"Irwin, you still here? Did you fall asleep?"

Greldo's worry snapped Irwin out of the confused state he'd drifted into, and he looked around.

Let's just figure this out after, he thought, shivering. His first priority should be to find the Linchpin and close this portal.

"I'm fine, still searching," he said as he looked around.

A lot of buildings had crumbled or toppled, more of them the further away he looked, but those tallest towers seemed impervious to the shaking of the earth. They were the most obvious targets, and he looked down to see if they could even reach them. The first thing he saw were large packs of dogs roaming the sunfilled streets. Still, with all the shadows, he quickly found a few shadowy routes that led to them.

He stared at them for a while, trying to memorize them before looking at the hounds.

They seemed small from up here, and he wondered what they were doing. Did they need food? Perhaps they fought and ate the silvery vines or each other?

When he couldn't find anything that stood out as much as the towers, he headed back to the stairs before an idea made him stop and almost groan.

"Ambraz, do you have any idea where the Linchpin could be here?" he asked, kicking himself for not thinking of it sooner.

"Maybe in one of those big towers, but I'd say there's a bigger chance that it’s absorbed by the strongest of those hounds. It could also be below ground with one of those silver vines," Ambraz said slowly as if contemplating his options.

Irwin nodded and took one more look at the shadowy routes they could take before heading down the stairs.

Below, Greldo peeked around the corner, his face partially red from the overexposure to the sun.

"I'm fine. Go back in the shadows," Irwin called as he hurried back down. He suddenly felt bad for having worried the other.

When he reached the group, he found Twintin glaring at Daubutim, who either didn't notice or was ignoring her.

Now what happened, Irwin wondered, but a quick shake of Greldo's head kept him from asking.

"So, did you find anything?" Greldo asked.

Irwin cringed as he remembered Olban, and he carefully pulled out the odd locket amulet.

"Olban made it to the roof somehow, but the sun still got him," he said softly.

"Ah," Greldo said as he stared at the amulet with sad curiosity.

"How did you…" Then his gaze went to Ambraz, and he just nodded.

"There are three, much bigger buildings that way," Irwin said as he pointed toward one of the walls.

He thought for a moment about what Ambraz had told him about the other options, then kept it to himself. If the Linchpin wasn't in the building, they would have to find either a monstrous hound or some deeply burrowed plant. Neither was likely to work out for them.

Here's hoping that there's nothing horrible in that building, he thought.

"Alright. How far are they? Can we reach them without alerting the hounds?" Greldo asked.

Daubutim looked up, seeming interested, while Twintin was coldly staring at him, making him uncomfortable.

"Yeah, there are a few shadowy paths that lead to them. Still, we will have to be careful. There are hounds everywhere," Irwin said.

"What if we get lost and can't find the portal again?" Twintin asked with a soft and shaky voice.

Irwin saw her anger fade, her eyes wide and her face pale as she looked at him, seemingly terrified.

"We will mark the sides of the buildings," Irwin said as he raised his flame. "That way, we can always find the way back!"

He tried to sound as sure of himself as he could, even though he wasn't.

"But the surge hasn't happened, and it has been half a day," Twintin said. "If we wait till night, we can just as well go out and.." she stopped as another soft rumbling came from outside.

It rapidly increased in intensity, and Twintin screamed as she huddled on the ground. Large splits ripped into the walls, then something massive crashed into the ground, knocking Irwin and the others on their ass. This time, the earthquakes lasted for a whole minute, and when they stopped, the sound of distant buildings crumbling came from all around them.

Irwin and the others stood in the center of the room, looking around until everything calmed down a bit.

"It's always like this," Ambraz said from Irwin's shoulder. "There's this saying from one of the worlds I was in. 'It's bad luck tempting fate, for she's a fickle one!' Always liked that saying!"

That felt like way more than just a single building, Irwin thought, ignoring Ambraz.

He ran back up the stairs to the roof and looked around. In the distance, a towering column of dust was rising into the air. A nearby building had been toppled over, taking dozens of others around it with it, while a single one remained standing, swaying dangerously.

Irwin's hair rose as a deep growl echoed up from even closer. He stumbled forward, remaining far from the edge, and looked down. Below, the dust had filled the streets, but he saw something large move through it.

"What…" he began, then faltered.

A gust of wind blew a section of the dust away, revealing a hound so large that it made the others nearby look like tiny puppies. It was padding across the still-rolling rubble of the toppled buildings, chewing on something long and silvery. More importantly, it was moving partially through the shadow, seeming fine.

That answers that question, Irwin thought as the blood drained from his face. "How likely is it that the Linchpin is inside that?" he asked.

"Oh… I'd say almost guaranteed," Ambraz whispered. "I'm starting to think the girl might be right."

Irwin watched the massive hound for a few moments longer, then turned and sprinted back down the stairs.

"We need to get out of here," he said. "Let's head to the portal and hope there are no hounds blocking our way."

"But-"

Irwin shook his head as he interrupted Daubutim. "A massive hound just toppled one of the buildings, and Ambraz says the Linchpin is probably inside it. There is no way we can kill that."

There was a moment of shocked silence as everyone watched him in disbelief. Then Greldo stepped forward.

"He's right. Let's get out of here!"

Twintin didn't wait for them to change their minds and began running down the staircase. Irwin had expected some kind of I told you so, but there was nothing.

Daubutim, however, was frowning as he followed them, staring at his club and shield.

"There's no way you can beat it with those," Irwin said.

They reached the lower floor without much trouble, but when they headed to the exit, Twintin yelped as she came to a sliding halt. The others moved next to her to find a pack of hounds in front of the door. Because of the buildings that had crashed, the sun had now reached the edge of the building, and there was no way out.

"We should have left when we could," Twintin cried as she fell to her knees.

Nobody replied, and Irwin sighed as he looked around.

"Let's clear this room completely so we don't get ambushed and wait it out. We'll leave as soon as it becomes dark enough for the hounds to leave."

Twintin didn't respond, sobbing softly, and Irwin gritted his teeth. For a moment, he wished Rachel had survived instead. At least she wouldn't have broken down like this. Then he shook his head. He didn't want any of them to die. Not really.

Not even if it means your secret will be safe?, a tiny voice whispered in his mind.

"Twintin, let's go," he said, holding in his temper.

She didn't respond, and he raised his voice as he snapped her name.

Twintin shook as if hit, but this time, she scrambled up, wiping her tears away and glaring at him.

"You're a bully," she hissed. "I thought you were nice, but I was wrong!"

Irwin suddenly felt very, very tired.

"I'm not a bully," he said as he looked at her. "But we need to clear this room if we are to survive here till night. Do you want those silver vines to find us?"

It was a low blow, and he regretted it as her face contorted in panic. Still, she needed to move!

"Fine," Twintin whispered, turning to the plants.

They continued clearing the room, finding and dispatching a second root system that was hidden in a corner. Nobody suggested checking for silver vines, and instead, they sat down at the opposite end of the room.

Time slowly passed, and Irwin was relieved when the hounds finally moved away from the entrance. Sadly, his relief was short-lived as a shadow fell across it.

He licked his suddenly dry lips as he thought of the massive hound. Seconds passed, but nothing happened, and he slowly got up, realizing it was slowly going dark.

How come it's so fast this time? he thought.

"Let's go see," he said, unable to keep a shiver out of his voice.

He snuck to the entrance, Greldo right behind him. He didn't bother asking the others. Daubutim had been staring dully at the wall, only answering with a short yes or no, while Twintin hadn't spoken at all.

The shadows had returned to cover the entrance, and the hounds had pulled away. They paced through the area in the distance, in front of the street they had to go through to reach the portal.

Irwin scanned the area, Greldo beside him doing the same.

"It's growing dark faster this time. We just have to wait for that street to go dark, and then we can head back to the portal," Greldo said.

"Yeah," Irwin said as he took a look over his shoulder.

The other two were still not showing any interest, and he frowned.

"I'm starting to worry about what will happen when we exit the portal."

Greldo leaned against the door entrance, wiping some sweat from his face. "Because of the hounds and the vines... or because of Daubutim?" he whispered.

"Both," Irwin said. "But more so about Twintin. She blames us for what happened with Rachel."

"It's not our fault," Greldo whispered softly. "She was the one that walked away, and even if we had gone along, it would have just resulted in all our deaths."

Irwin nodded, though he wondered if they might not have been able to do something if they had left back then. Or perhaps Rachel would have been able to block the attack better had she and Twintin not been the only ones there. He didn't speak about his worries, instead looking outside.

"When you were on the roof, she tried to get Daubutim to leave with her."

Irwin blinked in surprise. Then he shook his head. "How was she even going to get to the portal?"

Greldo didn't answer, and Irwin resisted looking at the girl. She was glaring at the wall.

"He said he wouldn't leave us here," Greldo whispered.

Irwin nodded, suddenly feeling a lot better about Daubutim.

They remained at the entrance, quietly staring outside, both lost in their own thoughts.

Movement in a wide street to the right caused them both to look over, and as one, they stilled and held their breath.

A giant hound was padding forward, followed by a dozen smaller ones barely coming to its chest. Everywhere it passed, the other hounds backed up and lowered their heads.

Don't come here, don't come here, Irwin thought as he watched the hound reach the corner, praying for it to go anywhere but forward.

The hound slowed and looked around. Irwin saw its glowing red eyes passing over the entrances of the nearby building as if scanning for something. Feeling his hair stand on end, he didn't think but stepped back, pulling Greldo with him. Then he gazed at the entrance, still holding his breath.

Nothing happened, and as quietly as he could, he breathed out.

A dull growl echoed across the square as the sound of soft padded feet headed towards them.