Chapter 129: Onward, or else
Two days after Ignalia returned and five days after Greldo and the others had gone through, the temporary portal closed. A wave of sadness coursed through the town as nearly everyone had loved ones who were now locked away in a portal.
Irwin glared at the wall ahead of him. Questions had been bubbling through his mind, and he looked at the stack of twelve cards. Each was emerald-ranked.
"Can heartcarded enter through portals?" he asked, turning to Ambraz, who was sitting on his shoulder like some tiny anvil ornament.
"What? Of course, they can!"
"But not through every portal," Irwin said.
Ambraz's mouth opened and closed. "It depends on the quality of their heartcard. If it's a Ruby rank, and the smith that combined the cards was skilled enough, they can enter into Ruby portals."
Irwin frowned, then nodded. Over the last few months, he'd learned a lot about heartcards. After combining all cards in their hands, carded needed to find a Card Smith to combine them together into a single card. This card would be placed in the heart slot. However, what many people didn't know was that the quality of the resulting heart card depended on two things. The highest rank of any of the handcards, which most people knew, but also the ability of the Cardsmith to reforge the heartcard. Due to a heartcard having far more effects than any regular card, it was incredibly difficult for all leakages to be closed and every black blotch of potential to be used. But this was the only way to get a card of the same rank as the highest rank of the handcards. According to what Ambraz and Crithann had told him, many heartcarded had topaz or emerald rank heartcards."
"Don't get your hopes up, kid! The chances of you finding someone here with a Ruby heart card are really small. Besides, remember what I told you. Many don't want to share the quality of their heartcard."
Irwin sighed.
"We will just have to see," he said as he picked up the cards. "And you are absolutely sure we can't reforge one of these cards to Ruby Rank?"
"Not happening. The step from Emerald to Ruby is one of the three major hurdles for any cardsmith to overcome. The first is getting your first card reforged. The second is going from Emerald to Ruby, and the last is reforging a heartcard."
"What about soulcards?" Irwin asked.