With a familiar jarring sensation, the world was ripped away, replaced by a wide, purple corridor and the sense of falling. Irwin looked around, noting the tube-like barriers around him were so dense that he couldn't see anything behind it. He guessed there was space, but who knew for sure? This portal was connecting two worlds that, if he would have to guess, were much further apart than anything he had moved between yet.

"I wonder how long this will take…" Irwin muttered before continuing louder. "Any ideas?"

There was no response, and it took him a few moments to realize that Ambraz wasn't with him. With the realization came a slightly sinking feeling. This would be the first time he'd go anywhere far without Ambraz ever since he'd found the Anvil.

It's just a few hours, he thought as he stared ahead and absently began tapping his hammer against his leg.

Still, as he shot forward, he felt a twinge of loneliness.

"Well, let's just see how long this takes," he said, raising the hammer and unsummoning it.

--

"Thank you."

Greldo looked at Monique, stuffing her mouth, seeming famished. They were in the mess hall of the ship, the large female sitting at the table. He could smell she hadn't been able to shower or clean for a good while, and everything about her showed she'd probably been wearing the exact same clothes for weeks.

"When is the last time that you had something to eat?" he asked.

Monique stopped with some cooked rations mid-way to her mouth and frowned. "Five days ago," she finally said." But there were only some rations before that."

Ouch, Greldo thought. He had a lot of experience with being hungry, but five days was a long period.

"Well, don't eat more than is on the table," he said as he prepared to turn and leave. "It will make you feel sick."

"I won't, but… Can you tell me what happened?" she asked hastily. "I was going to talk with Irwin on Fiverio, but then he was gone."

Greldo looked at her, noting the worry and confusion. Combined with her obvious disheveled state, she didn't look much at all like the boisterous smith that he recalled from their travels to and stays at Scour. He felt a slight bit of sympathy as he realized what she'd probably gone through to get here.

Why did she follow him, he suddenly thought. Focusing on what he could hear around him, he saw everyone was still up on the deck, chatting.

"We had to leave on a mission," he said. "How about you tell me why you followed us all the way to the edge of the known Portal Gallery and beyond?"

Monique flinched, and she looked at the table.

"I'd prefer talking with Irwin about that," he said.

Greldo frowned as he recalled how she'd been chasing Irwin on their return trip and how little his friend was interested.

"I bet you would," he said, unable to keep his hilarity from oozing through. It lasted for only a few moments before it was replaced by a cold rasp. "But we are here for important reasons, and Irwin has already been pretty clear he isn't interested in you… Just because he's too much of a nice guy to blow you off, perhaps you got the wrong picture?"

He expected some form of angry rebuttal or denial, but Monique's shoulders just sagged.

"I know," she said. "I don't want anything like that, it's just-"

"You want him to join your family for some reason," Greldo interrupted her. "Something to do with the safety of your family?"

"How-" Monique began as she stared at him in surprise.

Greldo saw how she caught herself and clamped her mouth shut. He wanted nothing more than to tap his ears and smirk, but the fewer people knew about his hearing, the longer he could use it to keep listening in on things. So he merely shrugged. "I'm not wrong."

Monique took a deep breath, then shook her head.

"No, you're not," she said.

"Then I suggest you just tell me what's going on and what you want," Greldo said.

Monique looked at him for a bit, and he could almost see the way she thought about him change. It went from a 'he's just someone unimportant' to 'wait… who are you?' look. He'd seen it many times before, mainly when he was younger, but it never stopped amusing him.

"I… Alright," Monique said. "Because of what's happening to the smiths, all of us were told to remain on-world, while the high-rank smiths like Tensor had to return to the main guild. The charter's stockpile of cards was drying up, and thus, the work we could do. I am responsible for my family's income, and without it, the family wouldn't be able to pay for all of us to remain free citizens. Things became really bad, and-"

I already know all of that, Greldo thought, slightly annoyed.

Still, he kept quiet, listening to Monique continue on about how bad things were going for her family. Apparently, they were an important branch of a much larger noble family in a rich world. They had left because of some feud, hoping to find a place to settle. When she finally finished, Greldo wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry.

You make it sound like your life has been so hard, he thought as he held back an annoyed snort. What had she really gone through? Left her home world at fifteen, came here, found out she had talent as a smith, and had a great life ever since.

"Alright," he said, raising an eyebrow. "And what does all that have to do with the fact that you want to talk to Irwin? You do realize he isn't going to join your family in some sort of serf position… right? If you don't, then let me help you out of that dream right here and now."

He was surprised that she kept quiet even though he saw her eyes flare up in anger.

"No, I've understood that," she said, though not very convincingly. "I- I… I want to ask Irwin if he can allow me and my family a place in this new rank-six world," she blurted before quickly waving her hands around. "It wouldn't be without benefit for him! I'm sure he will be forming his own charter here soon, and to make that official, he would need more smiths! I can help, and two of my cousins have talent and will definitely become quartz-rank smiths in a few years!"

Greldo looked at her, slightly annoyed that she'd somehow implied that Irwin was a smith. Luckily, he didn't hear anyone nearby, and Brinni was still high on the top sail with her sister, chatting about the future.

"I'll talk with him about it," he said, definitely sure that he wasn't going to promise anything on the spot. Who knew what Irwin felt about her being around? Maybe he had his own ideas and didn't want to have Monique around as a smith. "If you want to increase your chances of a positive outcome, I suggest you leave him alone until he comes and finds you."

"I will," Monique said, slumping down slightly. "Do you think he will talk with me?"

How should I know? Greldo thought angrily, but he just shrugged and kept his face placid. "No idea. You will find out soon enough. For now, just make yourself useful and stay out of his way, and who knows? Now, I'm going to have to get some work done, and I suggest you apply the same to me."

Instead of turning and walking away, he calmly waited to see if she had anything to add.

Monique looked up, her eyes gleaming angrily, but she just nodded. "I'll do my best."

"Good, I'll make sure Rindiri comes up with something for you to do," Greldo said as he turned and walked away.

Great, now we have Bendi and Monique, he thought. It felt like they were starting to collect annoying people.

--

The end of the purple corridor finally appeared before Irwin, and he let out a sigh of relief. He had no idea how long the trip took, but it had definitely taken an hour.

If this isn't some other time thing, we will have to leave soon, he thought just as he reached the end of the portal corridor.

Just as he hit the ending, he wondered if he could get someone to find out if his family was still alive and alright. Then the world changed to a blinding white, and he suddenly stumbled out onto a dusty wooden floor inside a spacious, torch-lit room.

Daubutim stood a few steps before him, staring at a bearded figure dressed in ancient garments that lay on a wooden table surrounded by chairs. Bookcases filled with moldy books stood behind it, with a dark, unlit ornate fireplace in the middle. The walls around it were a dull gray, and Irwin instantly recognized the stone even if he hadn't seen it in years.

We are back at the sorcerer towers, he thought as he looked around.

The room continued to the side, where a short staircase led up to a waist-high stone platform with a door in the center wall. It was closed, and a glimmering blue barrier covered it.

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Daubutim moved, and Irwin turned to see his friend focus on the figure on the table.

"Gelwin?"

There was a shiver that ran through the figure, and then a dry cough came from the figure as a plume of dust erupted. As the dust began settling, the figure began coughing, dry hacking sounds that caused the figure to shake on the table.

What is going on? Irwin thought as he shared a surprised look with Daubutim.

They walked closer to the table as the figure stirred, slowly rising, accompanied by dry cracking and plopping.

"No matter how many times I do this, I'll never get used to it," a rough, ancient voice whispered as Irwin saw two pale, gray eyes stare at him before shifting to Daubutim. "Ah, you have arrived, young Daubutim. Good. Give me a few moments to get my bearings."

That's Gelwin? Irwin thought as he stared at the tangled slate-gray beard that covered the entire chest of the figure, slowly flowing down as he sat on the edge of the table. He looked at Daubutim, shaking his head in confusion.

Daubutim nodded before focusing on the body. "Take your time, Gelwin," he said.

"No need to look at me like that, boys. I won't break apart just yet," Gelwin said as he lowered himself from the table and cracked his back and arms before hobbling to the nearest chair and slowly lowering himself inside. "Besides, if you two are here, that means I'll soon be spared this painful exercise in the near future."

Gelwin gestured at two other chairs, and Irwin walked towards one, the idea of sitting down somehow seeming very pleasant. Daubutim had told him that Gelwin was old, but this looked like he was as old as the world and had been sleeping for… well, forever?

"So," Gelwin said. "You are Irwin. I'm glad we can finally meet, young man. I am incredibly impressed with what you have managed to accomplish in the last few years."

Irwin looked back at the pale eyes, not completely sure what to say. "Are you Gelwin? I thought you were on Fiverio?"

Gelwin smiled. "I presume there is little harm anymore in explaining that little titbit. One of my soulcards has the ability to create a physical copy of myself that is linked to my soullake. It's how I'm holding this-" he waved his hand around, "-world together. Had I not been here, it would have shattered over a hundred years ago."

"So… your mind can be two places at the same time?" Irwin asked.

"Not exactly, but those details I'll keep to myself," Gelwin said before turning to Daubutim. "My young friend, you seem different from the last time I saw you on Fiverio. Did you manage to locate a card to alleviate your condition?"

"I have," Daubutim said. "Are you the same Gelwin I spoke with before?"

Gelwin laughed softly as he waved his hands around in an uncertain gesture.

Irwin could see the ancient sorcerer's movements were slowly returning to something that he guessed was normal for someone of that age. Slow, but no longer accompanied by creaking bones and shivering stops.

"Yes and no," Gelwin said, before sighing. "Let us say that I have the same memories, but that is where the similarities end. Still, you may think of me as the same if that makes things easier for you. Now, we have more important things to speak about than my old cards."

Daubutim's eye became a buzzing storm of red lightning, but Irwin was pretty sure that even his friend's prodigious mind wasn't going to figure out what Gelwin's hints meant. He watched the sorcerer for a few moments before deciding he wasn't interested in waiting and listening. Who knew how long they had been in the portal?

"So… now that we have the temporary portal up and a world, what do we do?" Irwin asked. "Are we going to bring everyone to this tower somehow?"

Gelwin smiled. "Now, that would probably not be the most efficient way of saving everyone," he said. "No. After you tell me the details about the world you have found, I will explain our next steps. Daubutim, I think this would be best suited to your specific skill set. If you would be so kind?"

Daubutim nodded. "We have located a rank six world two days and three hours from the sixth eastern branch from the furthest northern known area in the maps you provided."

Irwin watched Gelwin, expecting some kind of surprised reaction, but the ancient sorcerer merely smiled and nodded. Daubutim then began explaining everything they had come across, including the ship that had followed them and the fact that Monique was there. When he finished, Gelwin was nodding slowly.

"Not what I had anticipated," he said, tapping on the chair's armrest.

Irwin and Daubutim quietly waited as the ancient sorcerer seemed to ponder what he'd heard. Finally, he looked up, focusing on Daubutim.

"I'll make some inquiries into this Monique and her family, but for now, make sure that none of them have any reason or way to leave. If need be, just promise them an adjacent world, though make sure you explain that you are to be the final factor in which world this will be," he said before turning to Irwin.

"Now, Irwin Roddington. Last I heard, you had a Ganvil, but I didn't notice it anywhere. Has something happened?"

"Ambraz is blocking the portal so nothing can come through," Irwin said. "We expected this to take a short while…?"

"Initially, it will, though mostly due to young Daubutim's fine memory," Gelwin said before turning to Daubutim. "Young friend, please go to that wall and find me the book Midway-points seventeen: Giard - Clour Peninsula."

Initially? Irwin thought as he watched Daubutim get up and move to the indicated bookshelf.

"Irwin, how far has your smithing progressed?"

Irwin looked back to see Gelwin examine him curiously.

"I've gotten my Emerald-rank plate," Irwin said.

"So I have heard, but these rank plates don't really paint the full picture, I'm afraid," Gelwin said. "What is the highest rank card that you can reforge at one hundred percent with certainty?"

Irwin blinked, then nodded as he understood where Gelwin was going.

"Probably Topaz," he said. "I can reforge emerald cards to ninety percent every time, and sideways reforge ruby."

Though I wonder what percentage Daubutim's actually became, he thought as he realized he'd forgotten to ask Ambraz.

"Good, then by the ancient standards, you are a topaz-rank cardsmith," Gelwin said. "Which is very good with how little time and preparation you had. Taking these into account, even long ago, you would have been among the better students. Still, and excuse me if this isn't necessary, but make sure you don't get complacent. Any three-year student of card-reforging back then would have had more knowledge and likely more skill than you."

"They had schools just for card-reforging in the Galadin empire?" Irwin asked, feeling his curiosity peaked. How fantastic would it have been to have no stress and just focus on card-reforging in a school with others?"

"Of course," Gelwin said, his eyes sparkling. "There are still schools that teach card-reforging, even to this day. However, those are in main branches so far from us that it would take you years to reach them even with the fastest of the current day ships."

"There are none in the smithing guild?" Irwin asked. He'd never expected to find a school that dealt with smithing, but now, knowing they existed but would likely always be out of reach, he felt slightly sad.

"Those are the ones I was speaking about," Gelwin said. "Sadly, the Langost branch is a relatively new and distant branch seen by many as a backwater filled with upstarts. The best schooling you could get would be inside the Smith's Guild chapter within the harbor city of Dimarintsia. It's still a journey of months unless you have a teleporter capable of going there."

Daubutim returned, handing a thick book to Gelwin, who accepted it and placed it on his lap. "Thank you."

"How do you know all of this?" Daubutim asked.

"If you live to be as old as I have, you pick up some things," Gelwin said with a wide smile. "In my case, I picked up a curious streak to want to know everything about anything. So, long ago, I created an extensive spy network. Sadly, over a millennia ago, my interest in seeing the same things occur but with different players waned, and I stopped looking after it. When the portals started appearing on Giard, I began revitalizing what had managed to survive without my constant oversight, regaining control from proxies I had left. Still, it is far from what it once was."

How could anything even be left after a thousand years, Irwin thought, wondering if it was being run by people who were also thousands of years old?

"How come you are this old?" he asked. "Is it because you have soulcards?"

"Ah, young friend, if only it were that easy," Gelwin said with a soft laugh. "No, because if having soulcards would be enough, there would be far more ancient beings wandering the Portal Gallery than there currently are."

"You create new, younger bodies with your soulcard?" Daubutim asked, leaning forward with a single eye crackling with lightning.

Gelwin's eyebrows rose, causing his creased face to flatten slightly, while massive valleys appeared on his forehead. "Your new card serves you well, Daubutim. You are closer than many with that educated guess. Now, let us see where I put those midway-points. It has been so long ago that I don't recall."

Irwin watched as Gelwin flipped open the book and began leafing through the yellowish, thick pages. It took him a surprisingly short time to flip through some of the pages before he found what he searched.

"There we go, the closest waypoints to Degonda, Esterdon, and Malorin. By my current knowledge, over eighty percent of the remaining population is in either of those first two cities."

"Malorin?" Irwin exclaimed at hearing the name. He leaned forward, barely believing what he heard. "Is it still there? It shouldn't have had anywhere near the amount of defense to, to-"

Irwin stopped, talking, unable to articulate through his shock. He had long since repressed any deep thoughts about Malorin and his family, but now that he was back on Giard, everything came flooding back. Memories long buried about when he'd found Megah, the little girl that he knew from the Rat District, who had said there was a surge and Malorin had been under attack. Portals opening in the Gloomforest and…

They stayed behind, Irwin thought, his fingers unconsciously tightening around the armrests. Could they have survived?

"I have no idea, young friend," Gelwin said softly and with deep sadness. "All I know is that every small town between the larger cities has been wiped away. Still, there is a tiny possibility that Malorin, being far from the regular populated areas and with the Gloomforest nearby, might have somehow survived."

Irwin knew it was far from likely, especially with what he now recalled. He felt his emotions roil, and he knew he had to contain them- somehow. Scrambling for something, anything, a soft, deep humm suddenly came from his side. Irwin blinked as Daubutum hummed the soothing sound of the Whale song, and very slowly, he felt his grip on himself return. Taking a deep breath, then another, he closed his eyes and joined in with Daubutim.

At some point, he didn't know when a raspy old voice began singing a song in a language he couldn't understand. Finally, as he regained his calm and clarity, Irwin opened his eyes to see Gelwin, eyes vacant, singing as they hummed. Although he couldn't understand the words, Irwin could feel the sadness in the song, and although he felt better, he continued humming.

Finally, after what had to have been nearly ten minutes, Gelwin's voice softened, and he ended with a one-line sentence. Then his eyes sharpened, and he looked at Irwin and Daubutim.

"I see you have met the Neamhnathair, the Chaos Whales they call them now," he said. "Long ago, it was said that those that met them would be the better for it. Let's hope that this is a sign that things will look up for what remains of our people."

Irwin nodded. He felt a tiny bit of the worry that had almost overrun him deep inside, but now it was manageable. Still, he wanted to act.

"What do we do now?" he asked. "You said we will be able to return in a bit, so what can we do?"

"Now, young Daubutim will need to read and memorize these ten pages," Gelwin said as he took the open book and put it on the table before gently pushing it toward Daubutim. "Start there, and memorize the next ten pages. You will find it to be far more difficult than anything you have learned before."

Irwin frowned, looking at the book. What could possibly be difficult for his friend to learn?

Daubutim's creased brow showed he thought the same, but as he took the book and began reading, Irwin saw his eye instantly flare up with a mass of lightning. It almost seemed ready to burst out. After a few moments, Daubutim looked up.

"Why does it feel like something is resisting me?" he asked.

"Because those runes are meant to be read by those with soulskills," Gelwin said. "Others can learn them, but normally, it would take months for each page. If you can't learn them within a day, you can remain here to learn them, and Irwin can head back to arrange for the rest, but it would be best if you learn them sooner."

Daubutim nodded as he focused back on the book, his jaw set.

"Why would it be better?" Irwin asked softly.

"Because each day, thousands of people die," Gelwin said with a deep sadness. "And those runes are needed to change the other end of the portal to connect to the midway-points I've created. The sooner you can head back and connect it to the first one, the sooner you can start bringing over people."

Irwin grimaced as he looked at Daubutim. Veins were throbbing on his forehead, and he wished he could help.

You can do it, he thought.