As soon as Ambraz entered Brazardian's private chambers a bolt of dark metal shot towards him. It was so fast that the shouted 'AM!' almost seemed to be left behind. Then a Ganvil that was the same coloration, and dimensions slammed into him, knocking both of them back out of the chambers and into the wall.

"You piece of rusted cutlery, I've missed you so much!" a slightly larger copy of Ambraz shouted as he pressed the flat side of his anvil body against Ambraz.

"Des, stop pressing me into the wall," Ambraz snapped, but there was little of his usually cool annoyance in his voice. "I've missed you too, but-"

"When Hal died, I thought… I thought…"

Ambraz didn't say anything as he felt his younger sibling shudder. His resonance was fluctuating all over the place, and he was barely attempting to hide his soulforce.

With only a moment's hesitation, Ambraz relaxed his hold on his own, letting it softly echo out around him. He knew that if the kid had been here, he would have asked questions about the sudden song and soulforce ripples.

There was a sense of shocked silence from where Brazardian hung in the room, but he ignored it, save for a slight sense of success. Hanging around Irwin and keeping his own soulforce resonances as calm and quiet as possible had become harder than he'd anticipated when he'd helped the kid choose his new set of cards. The benefit seemed to have been that he'd grown proficient enough in it that even his own Progenitor, who prided himself on his sensitivity, hadn't sensed all of it.

Des didn't show any reaction and still seemed unwilling to let him go. With a grin, Ambraz began softly humming the Neamhnathair Song, or the Chaos Whale Song as Irwin called it. He resonated his soulforce with it and tried to soothe his sibling's emotions.

He wasn't surprised that it only took a short while for Des to back up, his resonance rapidly being reeled back in.

"I'm sorry, Am," he said, his lips curved in a sad smile. "After Hal died, I thought I'd gone from being one of the three to being alone. It… was difficult."

"You've grown," Ambraz said as he hovered forward and slowly stopped humming. "Let's go inside. I think Yirta has been chewing on his tongue to stop from talking."

"No, I haven't!" a slightly deeper, annoyed voice rang from inside the chambers.

Ambraz flew inside, Des close behind him, to find Brazardian perched on his favorite spot at the top back of the room. Books bound in metal hung from hooks on thin threads, dangling from the ceiling. Most were opened, and a single glance told Ambraz they all dealt with war and holding down the inside of a portal world while resisting attempts to close it from the outside.

What…

"Later, Am," Brazardian said, shocking Ambraz slightly.

How did he… never mind, he must be in his stronger period again, Ambraz thought.

Another, slightly ruddy Ganvil was perched on the edge of one of the nearby resting nooks, a half grin on his face.

"So, you decided you'd come back again?" Yirta said.

"I heard you'd been slacking off again," Ambraz replied, moving towards what had always been his preferred resting nook. It was close to the door and nearly opposite Brazardian's.

As soon as he perched down, a ripple of immense power radiated from Brazardian, the soulforce so thick, Ambraz wondered if it would have blinded the kid. The soulforce seemed to hover around them, before creating a barrier around the room that would keep out all potential snoopers- other monarchs included.

"Now, Am, how about you explain what has happened?" Brazardian said.

"Still don't like small talk, do you?" Ambraz said with a snicker. "Fine. I got caught by a diamond-carded old bastard, and I don't mean that lightly. Have you ever heard of Gelwin?"

Ambraz expected a no, but when Brazardian's lips turned into a single thin line, he felt his interest grow.

He waited for a bit, but the infuriating Monarch didn't say anything.

"You have?" he said with a hum. "Well, he was able to lock me in a tiny carded soulrealm which he set up as a training ground for the people of his world."

"Is that so…" Brazardian rumbled, suddenly in a dangerous voice. "I only heard rumors about him, a mysterious Master Librarian that is said to have been around as long as the Library itself."

The lingering fury beneath his metal exterior was strong enough to cause a soulforce ripple, and Ambraz stared at him for a moment. He knew his Progenitor cared for him, as he did for all his offspring, but he wasn't one to say it out loud. Feeling the boiling anger made Ambraz feel even happier for being back, even if it was only for a relatively short time.

"Well, not that old I think," Ambraz snorted. "But from what I've heard, he is definitely older than Gynerigon."

"So, how did you escape?" Des asked, perched nearby and leaning out to watch him. "And why does your soulforce feel so weird!?"

Ambraz couldn't hold back a grin as he remembered. The fact that he was in a place with only Ganvils he trusted made it even better.

"Well, perhaps it's time for a story!"

A pained moan came from Brazardian, making him only more happy to draw everything out, adding as much detail as he could possibly come up with.

Though he would leave out a few bits… he knew what would come later, and he couldn't help but want to see Brazardian's face when he found out.

--

It took longer than Ambraz had expected, but when he finished with 'And so, we sailed back to Granvox, leaving behind the cold bodies of the pirates,' even Brazardian had stopped letting out annoyed hums at the drawn-out story.

"A rank six world," he said thoughtfully. "You are certain that nobody managed to find it after you left?"

"Certainty is hard in the Portal Gallery," Ambraz said with a snort. "But with Daubutim there, I find it hard to believe they won't be able to take care of anything below a full-scale assault."

"You seem really impressed by this Daubutim," Brazardian said. "With what you told us, would he not make for a good smith? I know his first card will hold him back somewhat, but if he focuses on it from now on…"

"Probably," Ambraz said. "But he never showed an interest."

"A shame," Brazardian said. "Still… it is good you came when you did."

Ambraz felt his good mood dampen as he heard the deep worry and noticed all three Ganvil's soulforce resonances dampen.

"What has happened?" he asked. "More smiths being abducted?"

"That hasn't stopped yet. No, there is something brewing on the far ends of the main branches," Brazardian said. "The Ganvils that I send there to keep us informed have been dying. One of them managed to relay a soul resonance message hidden on a card and sent through the merchant network."

"Great, that couldn't have been very informative," Ambraz grunted. "What did it say?"

"Prepare for war," Brazardian said, sounding weary.

"Dammit," Ambraz said.

"It's too coincidental for it not to have anything to do with the Smiths Guild's problems," Brazardian said. "Gynerigon and the rest of us have been buying small worlds, mostly rank one and two, as far along the outer branches as we could. So far, nobody else seems to know what is going on, and none of our allies have even heard a rumor about it."

"Let me guess, they don't believe it?" Ambraz snorted.

"Even Gynerigon doesn't believe that what is happening on the outer edges of branches decades or more from us could affect us," Des snapped angrily.

"He is right," Brazardian said. "The only reason the others are even acting is because of the rules we set after Dréimire shattered. If it was up to the others, we would merely continue all our efforts into growing."

Ambraz knew he meant the other Monarchs, and he snorted, not surprised. "Great. So what is your plan?"

Brazardian was quiet for a while. When he finally spoke, his voice was thick with anger.

"The Smiths Guild or one of the other Monarchs know more than they are letting on. Des can fill you in later, but I fear there is no way I can gather a large group of rank zeros to go with you without drawing far too much attention. The best I can do is get you those rank zeros and ones that were planning on setting out, but that won't be more than a hundred."

Ambraz barely held back an angry shout. Instead, he grunted, glaring at the ground.

"We need way more! We can get our own world!"

"I know, and I trust you. That's why I will make them myself," Brazardian said, his voice calm.

Ambraz was stunned, and he knew his soulforce was swirling around like mad, but he couldn't help it.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"What would two or three Ganvils do?"

"If I don't focus on quality but quantity, I can create close to a hundred rank zeros," Brazardian said calmly. "Most of those will never get to rank four, but a few might. They will be able to create more pure ones when they all reach high enough rank, especially in the world you are talking about, and with enough time, high ranks will appear."

Ambaz felt the same stunned fluctuations from his siblings as he felt, as they all stared at the rank seven World Anvil.

"I didn't… know you could do that," Des said. "Why don't you and the others ever do that?"

"Because we are creating enough rank zero as we are now," Brazardian said. "What our people need are potential rank sevens and eights. In a thousand years, only two of the hundreds of rank sixes reached rank seven. It's a cut-off point that is nearly impossible to pass, let alone rank eight, but we need more! If we ever want to reach the peak of our people, having a mere three above rank six will not do. That is why we have been working tirelessly to perfect our resonances in the hopes that one of our Progenies manages to break through to rank seven."

The younger Ganvils were quiet. Each knew that Hestolgron and Brazardian had been the last two to manage, and both of them were anomalies created from the collective purified soulforce. So far, none had managed after them, and the fear was that the bottleneck wasn't the Ganvils but their smiths.

Ambraz felt a tiny bit of hope in the back of his mind as he thought about Irwin and how he'd surprised him time and again. He was the first one to speak.

"Although that will be a great boost, I think we need to find a way to get more rank zeros or ones," he said. "Perhaps by claiming that we will bring them to one of our other worlds? Or… Wait. Wasn't Gynerigon going to purchase a world for Syn'gen?"

“Yes,” Brazardian said. "Like I said, we have been searching for worlds, but it's hard to find one."

"I know of another," Ambraz said, and he quickly told the story of the overrun Terullian world they had found. "We could explain that you sent me out to find and purchase a world and that I returned because I did. Then, we would be able to bring a great many rank zeroes away from here and take them to our real goal?"

"Yes. That might work," Brazardian said. "But you are wrong too, we wouldn't just say we would. There are a few rank fives, close to ranking up. Even a world like that, as dangerous and unstable as you describe, will stabilize with one or two world anvils. If whatever is happening does come here, having another world far away will be of great benefit."

Brazardian's voice petered off before booming out with pressure.

"Leave. Go and talk. Introduce your bonded smith to your siblings. I need to plan and think."

Ambraz and the others flew up, knowing the World Anvil well enough that it wasn't a request but an order.

Just as they flew out, Brazardian spoke up again.

"Am'braz, return in an hour with Irwin. I will test him."

Ambraz's flight turned slightly chaotic, then he rushed after the others.

I'd hoped he had forgotten, he thought. You can do it, kid. I believe in you.

--

Irwin lay on the low, hard bed, staring up at the ceiling. He'd finished the food that Los'malder had brought him and had enjoyed the silent quiet. As he lay there, he felt the stable and strong resonance of the world around him. He knew this was only a rank three world, but even then, it felt far more stable than the others he'd been to. Well, from what he could recall.

I really wish I'd had these cards back on Fiverio, he thought. That was the only other rank three world he had been to, and back then he hadn't even known about the ambient soulforce of the world or its resonance.

A soft flutter was all the warning he got when a Ganvil flew into the room to hover above him. For one moment, he thought it was Ambraz, then he felt the difference in its soulforce and noticed that the coloration of its soulforce was duller than Ambraz's sharp purple-tinted black.

"Hey! I'm Des! So you're Am'braz's bond? You look really different from what I'd thought! Aren't you supposed to be-"

Another Ganvil, Ambraz this time, shot into the room, collided with Des, and knocked him into a wall, cutting his words off.

"Des, you rust-for-brain. No talking," Ambraz snapped. "I told you this is something we will discuss with Brazardian!"

"Right, right. Sorry," the nearly identical Ganvil said before flying back.

Irwin had gotten up and was watching a third Ganvil shoot inside.

"You two can't just go that fast!" he snapped, sounding angry.

"Enough," Ambraz hissed. "You two are making me look bad!"

Before Irwin could even say anything, Ambraz flew up, hovering before Los'malder.

"Good job, you can go now! We have things to discuss," Ambraz said.

Los'malder seemed stunned for a bit, then flew up to the exit. "If you need me again, Lord Am'braz, I'll be waiting in the servants' chambers," he said before rushing off.

The short distraction had helped Irwin regain his composure, and he was now looking at the three Ganvils hovering before him.

"Kid, these are Des'braz, and Yirta'braz, who I told you about," Ambraz said. "You can just call them Des and Yirta."

"Hey!" Yirta said, sounding annoyed. "That's only for siblings and bonded smiths!"

"He is my bonded smith," Ambraz snapped.

"Only if he finished Brazardian's test," Yirta said, sulky.

"Nice to meet you," Irwin said before focusing on Ambraz. "What test?"

"Nothing you have to worry about," Ambraz said quickly. "Just some annoying thing Brazardian has come up with."

Right, Irwin thought as he glanced at the other Ganvils. Ambraz hadn't mentioned anything about a test, and that either meant it was nothing, or it was and there was little he could do right now. In any case, he trusted him enough to decide to just see what would happen.

"It's not annoying," Yirta said, while Irwin saw Des grin and land in a small alcove. "It's horrible! Just because the smith I found wasn't able to create a hundred percent card on demand, Brazardian said he wasn't good enough!"

"Well… the fact that he actually managed to destabilize the card and have it blow up might have had something to do with that," Des said.

"He was asked to reforge an elemental multiple-typed topaz card towards its least favored path! That's something used in the Guild's high-grade exams!"

"Yes…" Des said slowly. "But you knew it would be something like that."

"Can you two stop it?" Ambraz snapped before landing on Irwin's shoulder. "Besides, Irwin will be fine. He's almost as good as I am, so there's nothing to worry about."

There was a moment's silence, then Des and Yirta burst out laughing. Des actually fell out of the alcove causing a crack to appear in the stone table he hit.

"You still dare say that out loud?" Yirta said in between bursts of laughter. "Where's your shame?"

"Shame is for those who took a year to resonate their soul in a way to assist a smith," Ambraz said, sounding aloof. "Or for those who couldn't memorize the basic set of card types!"

The other two Ganvils fell quiet, and Des snorted.

"You were only a bit faster than me," he said.

"Yes," Ambraz said before his fake mockery left his voice, and he continued in a more serious tone. "Des, why have you not found a smith yet?"

"Brazardian stopped allowing us off-world after what happened to Hal," Des said sadly. "He did try to attract a few high-profile, young smiths in training with a tournament, and then that whole smith abduction thing started. Now there's only some mediocre smiths here and no chance for more to come."

Ambraz was quiet for a bit before Irwin felt his attention focus on him.

"What do you think about Endil?"

Irwin blinked, then focused on Des. He could feel that Ambraz was serious, so he scanned the Ganvil, looking and listening to his soul-resonance. It was instantly clear that his resonance was stronger and much clearer than that of Yirta beside him, but there was a slight discrepancy with Ambraz.

"I think they would match nicely," he said after a while. "But that means we are going to need to make some better cards for Endil."

"Who's Endil?" Des and Yirta asked at the same time.

"Someone you will meet in the near future," Ambraz said, sounding smug again. "He's probably almost as good as Irwin."

Irwin grinned as he saw Des ready a rebuttal.

For the next while, he sat on the bed, listening and talking with Ambraz's siblings, learning that there were far more, but those were all off-world. Those who were rank six were stabilizing rank three and four worlds, while the others were searching for opportunities to grow to rank six.

Finally, a soft flutter came, followed by Los'malder reappearing.

"Sorry for bothering you," he said, sounding slightly nervous. "But Brazardian has requested Am'braz and Irwin's presence."

Irwin felt a slight bit of worry grow. Although he didn't think anything bad could happen, he still wondered what a rank seven world anvil would even look like. Ambraz had said that it would take hundreds of years to reach that level, so it had to be something.

"Alright, the two of you go and meet the other people of our crew," Ambraz told his siblings. "Tell them we should be back later tonight so we can go out in the city and eat."

"You are… sure he will be fine?" Yirta asked, sounding slightly worried.

"Yes. There is no way Brazardian would not approve of him," Ambraz said, not a hint of his usual arrogance.

"I can't wait to meet Endil," Des muttered as he and Yirta flew after Los'malder.

"Alright, let's go," Ambraz said, landing on Irwin's shoulder. "And don't worry. Just do what you always do, and there's only one person going to be shocked, and it won't be either of us."

Irwin nodded as he let Ambraz guide him out of his new quarters and back to the long staircase leading up.

As they continued, he quickly found that between the length of the stairs and the increasing heat, it wasn't a place anyone could just go. When he saw the ending in the distance, he also started feeling an oppressive soulforce, and the closer he got, the more he felt it wrap around him.

It started as a nuisance, but as he closed the final distance, it felt like he was carrying a massive load of unpurified metal.

"Is this part of the test?" he asked, grunting with effort.

"Yeah, though he is being way harsher than he should," Ambraz hissed.

Irwin felt Ambraz trying to help him push against the pressure, but even together, they could barely keep the foreign resonance from nearly flattening his soulcard.

Either he doesn't like me, or Ambraz told way too grand stories, Irwin thought, fists clenched and pushing against his knee as he pushed himself further up.

The last ten steps felt like he was being squished by the whole mountain, and when he finally took the final step onto a long, spacious platform, he was breathing like a bellow. The pressure disappeared immediately, but it didn't help much. It had been a long time since he'd last felt this weary, almost as if he'd been running nonstop for a week. Hands on his knees, he took a few deep breaths before looking up and freezing.

A Ganvil the size of a house sat atop a pillar across from the platform. Even though the pillar was lower than the platform, the pursed, etched lips were above him. Irwin barely noticed the beautifully decorated artwork on the walls and the carvings on the ceiling and ground.

"So, Irwin. Let's see if you are actually worthy of bonding with one of my Progyny," a voice boomed out around him. At the same time, a deep and beautiful song resonated from Brazardian as his soulforce washed across the grand chamber. Powerful waves of soulforce surged from him chaoticly, and Irwin swallowed.

How many soulcards would I need to be that powerful? he thought.

"Move closer, and we will see how well you were trained," Brazardian said.

A wave of soulforce burst from him, encompassing the room and reminding him of Lord Bron's ability.

"How many card types are able to hide a card's true rank?" Brazardian asked.

Irwin blinked, staring stupidly at the massive Ganvil.

"What?" he muttered.

"How many card types are able to hide a card's true rank?"

Irwin grimaced as his eardrums shuddered from the shout. Was the test supposed to be questions? He'd expected some form of smithing or perhaps a check of his personality. But this? He quickly dug through his mind, trying to recall all the different ones he'd seen. There was hidden, mimic, and set, but he knew he was missing some.

"Four," he said hesitantly.

"Wrong. How many basic elemental types are there?"

What the…

Irwin was about to ask what this test was supposed to be when he noticed Ambraz quietly sitting on his shoulder, seemingly completely unconcerned.

Fine, let's play along then, he thought, wondering what was going on.

"Eight," he said, pretty sure he remembered that from the many shops he'd been in.

"Wrong!" Brazardian snapped, sounding slightly angry. "What is the best metal to refine to improve a smith's progress?"

"Purperion," Irwin said instinctively.

There was a moment of silence, and then Brazardian snorted angrily. "If you could find it. Am, you said he was trained!"

"I said he was trained on his own world and a little bit on Fiverion," Ambraz said, still showing no sign of worry.

Brazardian let out a dangerous growl before continuing to ask Irwin questions, which he all failed.

As he shrugged at the last question, he was starting to get worried again. Ambraz seemed calm, but Brazardian felt like he was going to explode at any moment.

"Am… this is not being trained! These questions are supposed to be EASY!"

"So?" Ambraz snapped. "Who cares about these stupid things? Would you rather have a smith who knows all those tedious things, or one who can actually smith?"

Brazardian's oppressive soulforce retreated slightly.

"Fine. Bring him here."