Irwin shot upright in his bed, his mind groggy as he tried to understand what had just woke him up. Ambraz let out a string of curses from the ground, having been thrown off his chest.

What was that?

Someone bonked on his door again, a shout coming from outside.

"Smith Irwin! People are returning through the portal!"

They are back! Irwin shot out of bed, grabbed a thin shirt, and rushed down the stairs.

"Coming!"

He sprinted to the door, yanked it open to find a young Viridian with such pale green hair it almost looked white, standing there jumping up and down in excitement. The boy came to his waist and was one of the few children present in the town, having arrived with the refugees.

"Crithann told me to come get you!"

"That's fantastic! I'll go right now!" Irwin said as he grinned at the young Viridian.

The boy nodded excitedly and followed Irwin to the edge of the town before remaining behind.

It took Irwin a minute to reach the edge of the crevice, though that word didn't really do it justice. A stone railing had been built around it, with simple decorative carvings that resembled plants and vines. The winding staircase on each side wasn't finished yet, but it was wide enough for five or six people to walk down together, and it led all the way to the lake that had formed across the roots and base of the heart tree. All the way at the bottom was a new platform. A group of people stood there, with more pouring through the tunnel that bored into the tree and led to the portal.

"Irwin!"

Irwin looked to the side of the group and saw Greldo grinning back up at him.

By Gelwin's beard, I'm glad he's alright, Irwin thought as he sprinted down.

It had been almost a full day since the group had gone in, and he wondered what the portal had been, what had happened, and what had stopped Greldo and the others from returning back.

When he reached the bottom, he saw that a dozen Viridians sat to the side, long gouges, burn marks and slashes across their armor and body. One of them had a thick leafy bandage around his head, covering an eye, and there was no joy in the other one.

Crithann stood to the side, talking with an Ignitzion and the two Viridians that Irwin recognized as the ones that had gone with Greldo and Scintilla.

"Hotstuff!"

A hand grabbed his arm, and Irwin turned to see Scintilla look at him with a wide grin. Her face was wan and hollow, a set of deep scratches covering her cheek.

"Happy to see me?" she asked with a grin.

"Very," Irwin said as he frowned. "Are you alright?"

"Of course! Though, I'd love to have a steambath soon," she said, winking at him.

"I'm sure we can do that later," Irwin said as he noticed Greldo staring at him from the side. Although the big grin was still on his friend's face, the way he looked back told Irwin that there was something wrong. Before he could ask, Greldo minutely shook his head.

A bit of the joy that Irwin felt vanished.

"Thanks for sending so many people to help us," Greldo said as he moved forward. "I hear you reforged hundreds of cards in a day to make it happen?"

Irwin grimaced at the blatant exaggeration and shook his head.

"Not that many, but I'm glad to see there were enough! What happened? Why didn't you guys-"

Greldo shook his head. "Let's talk about this with Crithann. There are more things to discuss."

Irwin blinked, then nodded. They talked for a few minutes before Crithann moved toward them, the Ignitzion following him. He was holding a thick stack of papers.

Irwin was surprised to find that Greldo and Scintilla fell quiet, both giving the other Ignitzion a hard look.

Great… Now I really want to know what happened, Irwin thought.

"Let's go to my place so we can discuss some things," Crithann said. "I've sent for Yogog to join us there."

"Alright," Irwin said.

They moved up quietly, passing more Viridians who were rushing down, many with relieved and happy looks on their face. A short trip through the rapidly expanding town brought them to the central building, a wide tower still under construction. Crithann led them inside and through until they reached a high-ceilinged, spacious room at the back. Most of the ground was black soil with a trickle of water moving in through odd stone pipes that came out of the walls.

I wonder what this is, Irwin thought before following the others to a simple sitting area- no more than a low table and no chairs. Yogog, Ignalia, and Hotzli were sitting there, the first waving at them.

"Alright," Crithann rumbled as he sat on the ground and put his elbows on the table.

"Let me quickly share what I've heard. Three Viridians died as they entered through the portal, finding a massive host of Imps beyond it."

Irwin's face fell as he thought about the Viridians that had come to him with their cards. He'd at least spoken with each of them, and he suddenly wondered who it had been that had died.

"They managed to clear out the direct area around the portal while those already inside came to help at the sound of the battle. One Ignitzion was killed at that time, backstabbed by one of those pale imps."

The Ignitzion that sat at the other side of the table sighed and muttered a name that Irwin didn't catch.

"With the portal secured, they led the wounded and malnourished back while leaving those who could still fight inside to keep the portal entry clear. We haven't found the Linchpin yet-"

Irwin frowned as he heard Crithann stumble over the word but didn't think about it anymore when the other continued.

"- so as soon as the others are healthy, everyone capable will return to find it so we can close the portal."

Crithann stopped for a moment as if to give all of them time to work through what he'd just said.

"Now, if that was all of it, things would be fine," he said. "Sadly, Greldo found out something we need to discuss."

As he spoke, he placed the stack of papers on the table, gesturing at Greldo.

"Right… so, I scouted the insides of the portal," Greldo said as he looked around, looking slightly uncomfortable. "I found this massive black cube, the size of a very large building. Inside… well, inside there were cages with what looked to be Smiths."

"What?" Yogog snapped as he pushed himself up, staring at Greldo in shock. "They were in cages?"

Greldo grimaced, and everyone listened in stunned silence as he quickly recounted what had happened. Irwin and the others took a look at some of the papers, but he could make heads nor tails of the odd scribbles on them.

"I.. understand you couldn't help them," Yogog grunted as he glared at the stone table below his hands. "I just wish… No. Thank you for at least getting the papers."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, and Irwin saw Greldo sighed sadly.

"Those papers are worth more than you can possibly understand," the Ignitzion woman muttered.

Yogog looked at her with a frown ." What do you mean, Lasvirish?"

"Those papers have some information on the smiths that were abducted and a little bit about why."

"Wait? Someone can read these?" Irwin asked as he raised the paper he still held.

"Yes. It's a language from the old world of the Imps," Lasvirish said, her voice cold.

Irwin looked at her and frowned. He could sense Greldo and Scintilla's annoyance at her, but he had no idea what was causing it. Still, for now, he needed to figure out what was going on.

"You can read it? How?" he asked.

"Imparious, which was their world, shattered almost a hundred years ago. Many of the beings living on it managed to reach the portal gallery and eventually found refuge on other fire worlds. They ended up sharing worlds with Ignitzions," she said. "I'm from one of those, and we use both [PGL], Ignitz and Impish there."

[PGL]? Irwin frowned before he recalled it was the language most beings in the Portal Gallery spoke.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"So, what do they say?" he asked.

"They describe the smiths captured, including their rank and some of the cards they have. There are names of worlds behind them, though if that's because of where they are from or where they should be taken, I don't know," Lasvirish said.

"Who? Who would dare to anger the Smiths guild?" Yogog asked, his voice laden with anger.

"There's no clarity on that," Crithann said as he crossed his arms. "But there's one bit of paper that speaks of a quota to be made and another that says that they are getting impatient."

"And probably nothing about who these they are?" Irwin asked as he looked at the paper with a frown.

"No."

"We need to get out of here and warn the Smiths guilds," Yogog snapped.

"Which is going to be a problem," Crithann said. "Another group arrived early this morning. They had gone to the Portal Gallery exit and said there is an army of Imps fortifying it."

"Can they just do this?" Irwin asked, shaking his head. "Won't someone on the other side figure out what is going on and sen-" he stopped, then tossed the paper on the table in disgust. "Time dilation."

"Exactly," Crithann said. "With the way time flows differently here, we could have a hundred-year war before anyone would even notice on the other side."

"And, if we do manage to get someone outside, just asking for help and waiting for it to arrive would mean it wouldn't be here until years have passed," Irwin muttered as he pushed himself away from the table and began passing through the room.

There was no response from the others, but when he took a look, he noticed that everyone seemed deep in thought.

Well, at least we have time here, he thought. It wasn't like he had to worry about Giard. At least not for a long time. As he kept pacing, some of the others began softly talking amongst themselves until Greldo's cut through the chatter.

"Isn't there some way to teleport to another world?"

Irwin looked up, unsure. Was something like that doable?

"No. You can teleport across a world, but that's it," Scintilla answered as she sighed. "We've never managed to teleport inside the Portal Gallery nor between words. The only things that can do that are portals."

There was a round of weary sighs, but Irwin noticed that Crithann hadn't joined but was instead looking at his hands.

"Crithann?" he asked.

The towering Viridian looked up and held Irwin's gaze for a while before nodding.

"There are legends in my world that speak of a time when there was a race of beings capable of traveling between worlds without using the portal gallery. There are also… very rare, single-use cards that allow this. They are called Derlin cards."

Irwin swallowed as he recalled the rabbit that had let him choose a card from the massive book. His hand unconsciously moved to his hand, which held the hammer card. As he did, he suddenly remembered something. Wasn't that card a growth card? Would it become better with usage? So… he'd used it a lot in the last few months. Would it have grown? And what did that even mean? Was it going to turn into the next rank?

A soft, barely perceivable whisper came from his shoulder.

"Don't talk about it."

Irwin blinked, looking at Ambraz and noting the Anvil's lips were a thin line. What shouldn't he talk about? That he'd found a Derlin card? Or that he'd gotten the hammer card like that?

He didn't ask, but as he looked up, he saw Greldo look at him, then turn his eyes at Ambraz and raise an eyebrow. Irwin shrugged, trying to give him a -let's talk about it later- look. He must have succeeded, as Greldo just looked back to the discussion that was going on.

It took Irwin a few moments to realize the others had dropped the talk about teleporting and portals and were instead trying to come up with a way to just defeat the Imps.

"If we want to have any bloody chance, we first need to get back into contact with Cinder Grove," Yogog said, getting a round of agreements.

"We will also need to close the portal and make sure no others are anywhere close," Crithann rumbled.

"I'll head out," Yogog said with a dangerous grin.

Irwin instantly saw that Crithann didn't agree, and he understood why.

"Yogog, if you head out and they catch you, we will have one less smith," Irwin said as he looked at what was technically still his senior.

"What are you talking about, kid? They have no chance of capturing me, not with-"

"He is right," Ignalia said as she crossed her arms and looked at Yogog. "I'm here to be your guard and keep you safe, but I'm not sure I can with all that is going on."

"What? So I'm just supposed to stay here and hide?" Yogog snapped as he got up angrily.

"Not hide," Irwin said as he sat back. A plan was brewing in his mind, and he walked back to the table, standing in front of the shorter bald smith. "Reforging all those cards worked to get our friends back. Why don't we expand on the idea?"

"What? And create hundreds of cards?" Yogog snapped. "We aren't all monsters like you! I was barely able to stand after working like that for a few days. Normal smiths need time in between reforges!"

Irwin frowned. "Perhaps, but we don't have to do it in a few days this time."

Yogog stared at him, then looked around. Irwin saw that the others were all staring at them, and he suddenly realized something. Something he should have realized way earlier. Smiths were almost treated like nobility. He barely came here, and Crithann had treated him as an equal, even though he had multiple soulcards. The villagers had been afraid to come and talk with him, and even now, nearly everyone treated him really well.

They are actually waiting for us to decide what to do?

Taking a deep breath as a sudden weight rested itself on his shoulders, he looked back at Yogog. The set jaw, the glint in his eyes. Everything seemed to indicate Yogog wanted to head out. Should he just… let him?

"If you go out, you will be the target of attacks," Irwin said as his mind began spinning. "We have no idea how they even know where the smiths are," he added slowly, mostly thinking out loud than going somewhere with it. "That means that any group going there with you would be at greater risk. What we really need is to figure out what is going on there while strengthening our forces here."

As he spoke, he saw Yogog's face go from annoyed to stubborn to quiet.

"Fine," Yogog said as he sat back down with an angry snarl. "But if we find any portals I can enter around here, I'm going to go inside and tear it apart!"

Irwin swallowed at the intense anger, and he quickly nodded. Then he sat back down, turning to the others and noticing them all looking at him. Greldo and Scintilla grinned while Crithann nodded to himself.

Lasvirish sniffed, then crossed her arms. "Fine, now that that's settled, who is going to find out what's going on?"

"Me," Ignalia said calmly, turning to Lasvirish. "And I'll be taking four of our sisters along."

Lasvirish blinked, then her eyes narrowed. "What makes you think you can just do that? They are part of my group."

Hotzli let out a hazy giggle while Scintilla covered her mouth with her hand to hold back hers. The reactions seemed to confuse Lasvirish.

Ignalia rose and uncovered her arm. Eight small sword tattoos and the beginning of a ninth sat there.

"Eight…" Lasvirish whispered.

Irwin saw a flash of annoyance and irritation before Lasvirish bowed.

"I am sorry for acting out, elder sister. I didn't know you had eight swords."

I really need to figure out what those swords actually mean, Irwin thought. He knew it had something to do with rank, but from seven to eight seemed to mark a major change.

"It is fine. I have heard that there is another elder sister here?"

Lasvirish nodded. "Yes, but she has only gotten hers a few months ago."

"Alright, let's go and see her. We need to find out who I need to bring," Ignalia said before turning to a grinning Hotzli. "You take care of this beautiful fool for me?"

Irwin blinked, not having heard her call Yogog that before, but Hotzli just made a weird gesture with her hand, looking like she wasn't surprised at all.

"He'll be safe with me! See if you can bring Balarn back?"

Ignalia nodded. She waved in greeting, locking eyes with Irwin for a few moments, then turned and left with Lasvirish.

"So… someone wants to tell me what those swords do?" Greldo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's to show how far we are from becoming sword masters," Scintilla said excitedly as she bared her own arm. "See? I have seven, just like Hotzli and Lasvirish. To be allowed outside, we need five, and to be a personal guard, you need seven!"

"And getting your eight is difficult?" Greldo asked.

"Very," Hotzli said as she smiled warmly. "Up to seven, you can gain by getting a high enough spot in the local swords tournaments or challenging tournament victors. But eight? For eight, you need to win a regional tournament and succeed in the eight-tower challenge!"

Irwin shared a look with Greldo before smiling at them. "How about you explain this to us later?"

He turned to Crithann. "What do you think of my plan of trying to reforge more cards to help us get stronger?"

Crithann stared back at him quietly. After a few moments, Irwin felt his smile falter. He felt a soft rumble go through the chair, becoming louder while the table shook. He looked around worriedly, only to see Yogog look at Crithann wild-eyed. Looking back, he finally realized what was happening. Crithann was laughing even though his face was barely moving.

The odd rumbling lasted for over a minute before Crithann let out a sigh.

"I think it's a great plan," he said. "Though I'm starting to wonder if by the end of this, we don't all owe you a life debt."

Not sure what a life debt was, Irwin quickly shook his head. "No need for that! I'm planning to stay on Scour for a while. I need to get much stronger, and that's going to be hard with all these disturbances!"

"The highest quality metal is forged under high pressure," Crithann said. "Don't worry. I'll help you with your plan and teach you all I know of the way of the hammer."

Irwin flinched, wondering if that meant even more strenuous training. Still, he couldn't say the results weren't great.

They continued talking for a while longer before they all left.

The next day, Ignalia left with a group of four other Ignitzions.

Three days later, Greldo and Scintilla, and everyone able to, went back into the portal. Irwin was slightly worried and suggested waiting for more people to be able to enter but Greldo had convinced him it wasn't needed.

His friend had proven to be right.

A day after entering, they returned en masse, and a short while after, the portal closed with a dull thud.

"There was some kind of weird gem hidden away," Greldo said as he followed Irwin. "We smashed it, and the entire world began rumbling!"

Coal, walking behind them, snorted.

"Well, I'm glad that's over. Did you manage to look at that odd cube room?"

"It was empty. No papers, no Imps, no nothing," Greldo muttered. "Worse, both portals were gone too."

Irwin blinked in shock as he walked deeper into the town. The wall had been moved a good distance away, and by now, dozens of two and three-story buildings had been built. The plan was to encircle the entire heart tree, but for now, they had the space they needed.

"I wonder how long it will take before we get news from Cinder Grove," Greldo said.

"No idea, but the scouts found another group of refugees from nearby towns. Crithann has begun sending out groups to clear out imps and see if there's another portal. There should be, with the amount of Imps around."

Greldo didn't respond, and they continued on for a while until he finally did.

"You know? All of this is starting to remind me of back on Giard… portals spawning, monsters coming. Walled towns."

Irwin looked around, and after hesitating for a few moments, he shook his head.

"It's not completely the same," he said.

"How's that?" Greldo asked.

"Back on Giard, we didn't have a surplus of cards or smiths to make them stronger," Irwin said as he grinned. "Don't worry. We are going to beat these Imp raiders away, figure out what they want, then beat those they that were mentioned in the papers!"

Greldo blinked, then barked a laugh.

"Look, who's suddenly sure of himself!"

"What do you mean, suddenly?" Irwin retorted, slapping his friend on the shoulder as they headed to the smithy.

--

Daubutim watched Indoutor stare at him in shock.

“Gelwin? As in the Gelwin?”

Daubutim nodded.

"Are you joking with me? That's… fantastic! So he is going to send us back? Did he say when?"

"No, but probably soon. He said you need to make sure the peninsula isn't overrun by portal demons."

Indoutor began pacing and wringing his hands.

"Good. I'd almost ruled out the idea of going back, but if the world can't really shatter…"

Daubutim watched the wide smile grow on his cousin's face, and he held back his own sadness.

I wish I could go back, he thought as he thought about his father and brothers. They were still somewhere in a portal for all he knew.

"And what about you?" Indoutor asked.

"I'm going to have to figure out a way to get rid of Uxin'tar," Daubutim said as he looked at his cousin.

"Well, that's not going to be easy. Do you have any ideas?"

Daubutim nodded slowly. "Yes… father once told me an interesting story, and I think it might work very well in this situation."

"Uncle Doldingen?" Indoutor said. "Well, then I'll toast to Uxin'tar's demise when I return."

Daubutim didn't respond, watching his cousin return to his joyful pacing.

I hope it will be that easy, he thought.