Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

Irwin hummed along as he listened to Teacher Narios play a slew of instruments. Some he began shaking his head almost as fast as it started, and as time progressed, Teacher Narios began nodding along, a knowing smile appearing on his face. He stopped after a while, putting back the instrument that he had placed against his shoulder to draw a stick with hair across. The sound had reminded Irwin faintly of the whales but then very high. Even then, it had the haunting quality they had.

"Alright, I think I've got an idea of what you like," Narios said.

"Well, I enjoyed that one," Irwin said hesitantly as he pointed at a larger version of the saxhorn, which had produced a way deeper sound. "It's just… not exactly right."

"That's because you seem to enjoy percussion and low tones," Narios said as he walked to the other side of the wall. I think you would do well with those-" he waved at multiple sets of drums, "-but just in case, let's try a few others."

Curious, Irwin followed him, noticing that there was slightly more dust in this area.

Narios removed a long-necked string instrument from the wall, humming softly. Irwin had seen similar ones before, though all with a much shorter neck. Lutes, if he recalled.

"So, let's try this one," he said.

Irwin's eyes widened as he heard a deep, thrumming sound, not dissimilar to what the rangers could make with their bow. It began to go even lower, and he nodded along. It was nice, just…

'How are you going to use that while you smith those Galadin notes?" Ambraz whispered in his soulscape.

I have no idea, Irwin thought, even though he knew Ambraz couldn't hear it.

"So, this is a bass lute, "Narios said as he put it down, then walked to another table.

Irwin expected him to grab a long metal instrument from it, but instead, he removed a small stool from below the table and flipped open the front to reveal a set of gleaming, silvery metal keys.

"Right, let's see if I still know how to do this," Narios said absently as he placed his fingers on the keys.

Irwin was about to ask what would happen when a set of notes, some sharp and clear, others deep and brooding, came from the table. He had no idea what was making it, but each time Narios pressed the keys, another note seemed to come out.

As Irwin watched, Narios seemed to become absorbed, his fingers dancing across the keys as a beautifully haunting song came from the table, no instrument. Soulforce ripples and eddies began flowing along around Narios and the instrument, few at first but rapidly increasing in number. A richness began coming to the tones, and Irwin realized his soulcard had very softly begun resonating with the song.

Irwin gazed in rapt attention, his mind following along with the song, and as it did, he recognized pieces, keys, notes, until-

This is it! This is like those sheets!

'This is from the Galadin sheets! Or close!' Ambraz shouted excitedly in his soulscape at the same time.

Time seemed to pass both too fast and too slow, and when Narios stopped, Irwin almost didn't notice. It was as if the music continued on in his head, slowly changing to match the music he'd learned but had been unable to sing.

"So… this one then?" Narios asked, jolting him awake.

Irwin looked back and was about to agree when he stopped. Besides the beautify of the song, it fit the music sheets he had, but… how was he ever going to-

'Choose it. I've got an idea on how to use it while smithing,' Ambraz said, sounding incredibly excited.

"Yes, this one! What is it called?" Irwin asked.

"A piano. It's really old, just like many of these instruments, and if you want to practice this, you are going to need to find a carded version, or better yet, make your own," Narios said. "There's only three in this entire world, and except for this one, the others are privately owned."

How do you even start making one of these? Irwin thought, but he held back his question. Ambraz seemed to have an idea.

Narios had gotten up, waving him closer, and Irwin hesitated before sitting on the small chair. It creaked dangerously, and he frowned. He would have to get something better if he had to sit on this all the time.

"Alright, this works by hitting metal strings of different types with tiny hammers," Narios said, causing Irwin to raise an eyebrow. "I'll show you later. Now, just put your index fingers on the keys with the marks, and then the other ones follow naturally."

Irwin did as the other said, then pressed one of the notes. A clear sound came, which he had to agree, sounded like something hitting something else.

"Now, the thing I started with when learning this-"

Irwin quietly listened to Narios explain, and soon, he was pressing notes in certain orders, trying to find them on touch, as Narios said.

Time seemed to rush past, and just as Irwin felt like he was getting the hang of it, Narios shouted from the podium.

"Alright, that's the end of this course day! Thank you all for coming. Now, why don't you go and welcome our new two friends?"

Irwin was standing beside the Piano, feeling annoyed that he had to stop. Between his massive endurance, his desire to learn how to manipulate the ambient soulforce like Narios was, and his desire to play the Galadin music sheets, he thought about asking Narios if he could remain here.

"This was so awesome," Skylar whispered excitedly. "Why didn't I just come here earlier? I should have known there were other instruments!"

Irwin looked up, noting -somewhat jealously- that Skylar was cradling the saxhorn.

"Narios said I could take this to my room to practice every night," Skylar said.

Irwin hummed, then glanced at the piano. It wasn't that big, and he could probably just carry it… but could it fit the door? Wait, would Narios even let him-

"So, you two are first years?" a young woman asked. She had shoulder-length, silvery hair and a bright smile.

"Yes," Skylar replied.

Irwin saw that most of the other students had gathered around them. There were a few Ignitzions, a Viridian with pale green leaves showing how young he was, and half a dozen humans.

"Everybody tries that at the start," one of the humans -a youthful man with a nearly bald head- said, looking at the saxhorn in Skylar's grip. "Sadly, so far, none of us had the knack for it."

"Well, I heard him play, Edward, and he was better at the end of this lesson than you were after a month," one of the Ignitzions said with a grin.

Edward sighed, nodding wistfully. "Yes, let's hope he can learn it. It would be great if we have someone to play with the rest of us!"

"Yeah, but… tall and hot, are you sure you want to play that piano?" the Ignitizion said, turning her gaze to Irwin. "I know it sounds awesome, but you can't even practice at home."

Irwin couldn't hold back a half grin as her words reminded him of Scintilla.

"I was just thinking about that," he said. As he responded, he absently thought that he'd been thinking about her a lot lately. After they were done here, he should really see if he could find her. Perhaps create a card that would allow her to withstand the cold better.

Narios had come down to them and was nodding thoughtfully.

"You can come here and practice whenever you want," he said. "I'm nearly always here."

"Thanks, I will," Irwin said.

But I'd rather practice where you can't see me, he thought.

'Make him show you how the Piano works,' Ambraz said. 'Open it up or something!'

Does he want to make one himself? Irwin wondered, suddenly getting excited. Was that an option? He glanced at the wooden piano, wondering if he couldn't just make one out of metal.

"Could you show me how it works?" he asked, looking up at Narios.

"Sure, I did say I would, didn't I?" Narios said.

Irwin nodded, turning to Skylar. "Just head back. I'll probably return to my room after this," he said, knowing that Skylar would likely want to head to The Tappestery.

"We will come along," the young Viridian said, nodding at Skylar. "It's good to have new people here!"

The others quickly agreed, and soon, only Irwin and Narios were left in the classroom.

"Now, let's show you how this beauty works," Narios said as he walked away.

Irwin followed him curiously.

--

The day was almost over when Irwin finally returned to his own quarters.

He sat down at the table, tapping the top absently. "So… now what?" he said.

"Now, come join me in your soulscape," Ambraz said, sounding extremely smug.

Irwin frowned as he walked to his bed, lay down, and closed his eyes. A moment later, he hung in his soulscape, the soothing hot wind rippling around his soulforce shape while the clouds of steam drifted lazily across.

"Over here," Ambraz shouted from a part of the mountain as far from where You'gyn was asleep as could be.

Irwin zipped down, and as he did, he noticed something: a square, familiar object.

His speed increased, and then he appeared beside a piano. It was made from a dark metal somewhat similar to Ambraz's, and although there were some differences between the one he'd played and this one, it looked roughly identical.

"You… you built one!" he shouted in utter disbelief.

"Well, yes," Ambraz said, hovering nearby with a massive grin. "This is going to be great practice, you know!"

Irwin barely listened, hovering before the black metal piano and sitting his soulforce shape down. He'd never really paid much attention to what he looked like inside his soulscape, but he knew that ever since he became a soulcarded, he looked roughly as he did in the real world. Just… slightly transparent and floaty?

There was no chair, but he didn't need one, hovering at the right height as he looked at the keys. They were made of a pale metal, and he pressed one.

The sound that came was almost identical to what he had just played, and eyes growing wide, he let his finger run along the length of the keys. Then he looked up at Ambraz.

"How?"

"You think I'm just some handsome Ganvil or something?" Ambraz said with a snort. "While you were practicing, I was scanning it, finding out how it worked. That's why I had you play it while that hood was open. The sound might have been different, but it gave me a chance to check the thickness, make, and resonance of those wires inside."

Irwin nodded, then frowned.

"So, you said you had an idea for playing the piano while smithing. What did you mean?"

Ambraz landed atop the piano, grinning widely.

"So glad you asked! First, you need to make a carded version of one, which will probably cost a month of trial and error, that is, if you can even find enough cards that could potentially become one. Then we will reforge it as high as it will go, and you will slot it. Then you use it as the basis of your next heartcard, which means you can summon it in here and play it without anyone hearing!"

Irwin cocked his head. Although all of that sounded good, how was that supposed to help him?

"Slotting that will leave you with three more cards," Ambraz continued, becoming excited again. "Seeing as you already have two cards that deal with soulforce resonance, and hopefully soon a piano that can deal with resonance, I know the perfect three to fill that up! It will be pretty expensive to get one, but I'm sure Brazardian will be able to help, and if not, you will just have to make one."

"One what?" Irwin asked.

"A mental cloning card," Ambraz said. "It will allow you to split your focus across two things as long as one of the things is one of your other cards. It's mostly used by fighters who use two weapons at the same time or increase their reaction speed, but there's no reason you can't use one for the piano."

"So I could use the mental cloning card to play the piano in here while reforging outside," Irwin said thoughtfully. "Are you sure I can be in here and outside at the same time?"

"Yes," Ambraz said before snorting. "One of my elder siblings who doesn't live here anymore has a smith who does that. He uses the diagram way of smithing, using a mental cloning card to check what he is doing in real-time from his soulscape, to change course as he works."

Irwin couldn't stop grinning as he imagined playing the piano in his soulscape while smithing.

"Alright, so that leaves me two more cards," he said. "I still want that short-range teleport."

"Yes, which means you need to make another rare and difficult card," Ambraz said, flying up and around. "There's a way to teleport along soundwaves. Those are actually nothing but resonances or vibrations, and they would match very well with your card."

Irwin hummed as he began counting in his mind.

"You do know that we will need at least another diamond rank soulcard, right?" he said.

"Of course," Ambraz said. "What you need to do is get a quartz ranked string instrument card with growth. You will probably be practicing with it non-stop, so that means it's going to become better just like your hammer did."

"Well… we had purperion to help with that," Irwin said, though even as he said it, he couldn't hold back his growing enthusiasm. If he could get the cards, Ambraz said, his new heartcard could be ready before he left!

"Yes, which is the hardest part," Ambraz said. "Luckily, you don't have to reforge the cards into a heartcard after slotting them all. It would be suboptimal having to use the card in the real world, but it just means you can't play the Galadin music there."

"Do you think there's anyone that would recognize it? That sounds… unlikely?"

"Just as unlikely as everything else with Beardyface, some ancient enemy that is chasing your people, and smiths that go missing all the time?" Ambraz said with a scowl.

Irwin hesitated, then nodded. Ambraz was right.

I wonder what happened to Gelwin? he thought before focusing on the piano.

"I'm going to practice a bit," he said.

"I thought as much," Ambraz said. "I'll go and have a chat with some card merchants I know and see if I can find us any cards that we can use."

"Alright," Irwin said, grinning widely as he pressed the keys, listening to the sound.

He didn't notice when Ambraz left, nor when You'gyn woke and perched on a nearby rock, watching him. Making full use of his greatly increased endurance, he simply played until-

"KID! Snap out of it!"

Irwin jerked away from the keys in surprise, Ambraz a few inches from his face.

"What?" he said, looking around, almost confused to see he was still in his soulscape.

"It's time for class! You only have a few minutes!" Ambraz shouted. "Don't tell me you have been in here all night?"

Irwin moved away from the piano, noticing You'gyn grinning at him.

"What? What time is it?" he said.

"Morning! You need to get up and head to your next course!"

Irwin nodded, trying to clear his head. The piano's sound seemed to linger in his mind as he stepped back into his body, just as Ambraz scolded You'gyn to go back to slumbering.

Irwin jumped out of bed, his stomach rumbling angrily.

"You will have to eat after," Ambraz said. "Also, I've got a few cards that you need to pick up after classes!"

"Great, what did you find?! Music ones?" Irwin asked, running out of his room.

"You will find out later," Ambraz shouted as he flew after him.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of learning, another theory class on Types causing him to scribble dozens of names in his small book. Skylar was there but absent of mind, constantly staring out into the distance.

When they walked out of the class, Skylar waved as he walked away. "Will see you tonight," he shouted before vanishing into the throng.

"Is he in love or something?"

Irwin started, seeing Roubi look at where Skylar had vanished.

"No, he started playing a musical instrument," Irwin said.

"Really? I thought he didn't want to play the Violin!" Roubi shouted in surprise.

"Well, it's not really a violin," Irwin said.

"Tell us all about it during our walk to your first second-year metal purifying class," Pasilha said, grabbing his arm and pulling him along.

"Yeah! Me too!" Roubi shouted, grabbing his other arm.

Irwin blinked, hesitating if he should free himself. Then he sighed, shook his head, and stomped forward.

I need to get to Scintilla. Perhaps with her around the others will leave me alone, Irwin thought.

--

"Alright," the bald, red-bearded man shouted. "I want you all to start by grabbing a crate of Luras Iron and finding a free spot. Seeing as the principal decided to annoy me today by sending me one of the first years, I won't have the time to check you all. So, get ready, and I'll check when I have time. And remember! No Ganvil help."

Irwin stood to the side, getting a supportive thumbs up from Roube before she ran to a large warehouse. A hustle happened as the others followed along.

"Alright, you're Irwin?" the bald teacher asked, grinning widely and holding out his hand.

"Yes," Irwin said, grabbing the teacher's surprisingly large hand.

"I'm Larambi Xrous, but just call me Teacher Larambi," the man said, squeezing his grip.

Irwin squeezed back, and Larambi's eyes widened minutely.

"Good, at least you have a strong grip," he said. "One soulcard, something with metal and strength. I approve."

He released Irwin's hand, crossing his arms before his ripped chest.

"Now, follow me. I heard that you purified a whole crate of Rincian Iron on your first day, and that's why you are now here. Impressive, but I wanna see your skill for myself."

Irwin walked along with Larambi, who was heading towards an anvil that stood apart from the others. A large open crate stood beside it.

"Most cardsmiths think metal purifying is but a curiosity, needed at the start to be forgotten after. They are wrong. Purifying is the best way to improve your control over external soulforce, no matter what others say. You just have to keep increasing the difficulty of what you purify!"

Irwin nodded along, knowing that Trimdir would definitely approve of Larambi's word.

"The problem is to get enough of the difficult metals," Larambi said as he stopped before the anvil. "That's why from the second to the third year, there is a difficult trial and another, worse one from third to fourth. Only the very best can join the final group, as there's just not enough raw materials for them to practice. My current group consists of a few fourth years and one-fifth year, which is more than I had last year! I might actually have two fourth years next year, which would be a record!"

"So metal purifying doesn't belong to the mandatory courses after the second year?" Irwin asked, curious.

"No. I wish it could be, but, well," Larambi shrugged.

As he spoke, the burly smith grabbed a chunk of metal from the crate, examined it, then nodded and handed it to Irwin.

"Alright! Purify this for me. You may use your own hammer or fist if you are strong enough."

Irwin took the metal and inspected it. Just like Trimdir had taught him, he didn't start right away but tapped it a bit, trying to figure out if there was something wrong with it. It wasn't anything odd, and he'd purified similar metals hundreds if not more times. Larambi merely watched him, and when Irwin put the metal on the old and worn but massively sturdy anvil, he stepped aside.

Irwin put the metal down and summoned his hammer while holding the chunk on one side. Then he began tapping and hitting the metal. Long ago, when he'd first started purifying, he'd wondered why it worked the way it did and what was actually purified. Now, he could sense how his soulforce and the ambient soulforce did something with the metal, causing the weaker elements to be forcefully pushed to the outsides of the metal. The impurities had created a thin layer on the outside, cracking, shattering, and scattering out like speckles and clouds of filthy dust as he continued hitting.

Without really paying attention, he got into the flow, summoning his flame around his hammer and heating it and the ore up to expedite the process. Humming happily, he worked the metal until it was barely half the size it had been before, flat and dully glowing. He grabbed it and was about to chuck it to the side to grab the next one when a soft laugh came from the side.

"They said you weren't trained," Larambi said, arms crossed and raising his red eyebrows. "Either they are ill-informed, or you lied…?"

Irwin shook his head. "I am untrained in most things dealing with cards," he said. "But I've had some training and lots of practice with purifying metal. I told that to the first-year purifying teacher."

Larambi grinned and nodded. "Good, good. Alright, just purify the rest of that while I get you something else to work on."

Irwin watched him walk away, somewhat surprised, then shrugged. It had been a while since he'd purified metal, and he still enjoyed the simple practice. Tossing the done piece to the side, he grabbed another and continued working, humming as he did.

It didn't take him too long to finish a large portion of the ore, and as he looked up, he found Larambi standing there, holding three large chunks of different colored material.

"Alright, let's see just what you can do. These are the second-year final tests. If you can do them, you can attend the third-year class next week, which is already much smaller.

Irwin accepted the first of the pieces, and he grinned. "Firesteel," he said, humming contently as he inspected it before placing it on the anvil.

Half an hour later, he handed it to a grinning Larambi.

"I'd love to meet your teacher sometime," he said. "He did a good job."

"I will tell him next time I see him," Irwin said.

He knew it wasn't just Trimdir's teaching that was showing. Part of it was his long time purifying the purperion, which was a material so much more difficult that it made most of the other things easy.

"Alright, now this one," Larambi said.

Irwin accepted the Frostiron. He had very little experience with the metal, making the process less fluid and longer, but when he finished, Larambi was nodding.

"Good enough. Now this."

As he handed Irwin the next chunk, Ambraz, who had been quiet all the time, flew forward.

"Are you crazy? Don't let him purify Gneisian Ore without me! That's a waste! Where did you even get that?"

Larambi hummed, then nodded.

"You can be the anvil; just don't help him. Simply absorb the soulforce that comes free. Nothing else."

Ambraz didn't hesitate, and a moment later, he stood beside the normal anvil, slightly bigger and shining black.

Irwin had been slowly examining the dense and heavy chunk of ore. It was half the size of the previous one but ten times as heavy.

"I've never handled this before," he said, looking up.

"Neither have any of the others that want to go to the third year," Larambi said. "It's the first real obstacle to being able to join the third years."

Irwin nodded, examining the metal before placing it on Ambraz.

'Take it slow and steady! Even if you fail, this will have so much energy it will push me towards rank four! I bet Brazardian has something to do with this…"