Tarot Reading

[Noth Squadron]

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Four was never the type to have dreams. The best he had was a black void, making sleeping somehow more boring than being awake. Boredom was his main driving force. It was a sin that boredom was even an emotion that could be felt, in his eyes. A punishment for winning seemed stupid. He'd terrorized people, towns, and cities in the name of scraping the decay of boredom off of his skin, and finally the universe had thrown him a bone. A single dream, over and over again.

He was there again, in that damp room. Glyphs and runes were carved into the stone floors and walls. Two torches burned with green fire, flanking a stairway down into the abyss. In front of all of it, that man sat. A giant brute of a man, clearly a Rheinlander, seemed to have never missed a gym day in his life. Nikolaus Strauss. The Devil in real life. Their still-in-progress card game remained on the table, one played with ghostly tarot cards. "Hello, bastard." Four's voice seemed to be smothered in the room. Strauss's, however, echoed in ways that seemed to amplify it.
"Back again, Shi?"
"I never left", Four said as he took the seat across from Strauss. There were two other chairs, but he'd never seen the players. In front of him, Strauss had seven cards in hand, and four played on the table: The Magician, the Two of Wands, and the Eight and Knight of Cups. The one to his left had fourteen cards in hand, left face down on the table, none of them in play. He'd tried to look at those cards previously, but there was something that stopped him. It also gave him a massive headache when he woke up. The one to his right had played three cards, and held nine in hand: The Hermit, Temperance, and Death. Between all of them, the Sun, the Moon, the Star, and the World rested.

Finally, Four. He had played the Five of Swords and the Knight of Wands. He'd figured out some of the rules to this game. The cards had meanings, and what he did in reality changed what he had to play in the dream. He was certain that the objective was to win the World. He was certain that he was losing. And damned if he was going to lose. Four had two cards in hand. A third one materialized as he walked up. He had two strange cards, ones that he'd never seen in any of the tarot card decks he'd looked up, and another Five of Swords appeared in his hand. He had had six of them, before. Discouragement seemed to vaporize them.

"So, why doesn't Lefty play?", Four asked, cocking his head to the player with no cards on the table.
"Butterflies flit about, working towards a distant objective, but never choosing one path."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"She doesn't like commitment."
"And how is commitment supposed to help in this game?"
"It's what keeps your cards alive."

Would have been nice to know that sooner. So, why would you not commit? To keep your hand hidden, maybe. And risk your cards dying. Very well, let's change the game a bit. Four looked up to Strauss, a smile crossing his face as his heartbeat picked up. Strauss met his smile in kind, and a soft rattle picked up. "You think you know everything, you son of a bitch?"
"Oh, on the contrary. I know that I know nothing." Strauss's smile seemed to grow wider. Four was used to that. Strauss never seemed to stop smiling.

So Four played one of the cards he'd been holding on to. It had the image of a demon holding up crossed swords on it, screaming out a war cry while covered in wounds. At the bottom, the card gave it's name: "Blades". Not swords, but blades. He had no idea what it meant. He had no clue how he'd got it. Or, "earned" it. And while Strauss's smile didn't flinch, that nasty rattle stopped instantly. Silence came over the both of them, and today Four was the one to break it. Laughing. "Ha ha! Didn't see that coming, did ya?"

The rattle picked up again, so faint you could almost swear it wasn't there. More importantly, Strauss began speaking with other people's voices. "Impressive. You play a mean game of Fate, oh Cartomancer mine."
Four leaned over the table with a nasty snarl. "You scared, prick?"
"Hardly. I'm impressed that you're capable of opening your mind in such a way. Or, should I say "closing" it?"
"When I win, I'm taking the whole pot, understand? I'm killing you. Hell I might kill these other two as well."
"Is that so? Even when Death is so clearly on the table, just out of reach? What would you do if they weren't scared? What if they didn't run? What if they want you to kill them? What if they want you to try?"
Four wiggled the card he hadn't played yet in front of Strauss's face, showing him that he still had a trick up his sleeve, despite not knowing how to use it. "Then they'll die heroes."

Another Five of Swords materialized in his hands, and Four played it without hesitation. Then, he turned his back on the game, and stepped out into the black void. A little bit of rest before he went hunting people again.

The Gardener smiled. A new Arcana met the playing field, by sheer human tenacity. However to play this game of Life and Death, of Fate and Destiny. Of What is and What is Not?

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