The room was quiet and still. The oaken table was prepared, with simple chairs surrounding an uncut deck. Thin, gauzy cloth separated the readers from the small horde of coven initiates who watched their every move, mostly to look like they knew what they were doing.
Jing-Jing's body tensed for a moment as the aroma of lemon and almond reached her nostrils. There was a flash of light, and then that light resided within her eyes. A fan is, almost immediately, placed over her face to disguise the glowing crescent moons which appear on her cheeks.
"Oh. You- you summoned me again! I was… starting to think you'd…"
There was a long moment of silence.
"Thank you for volunteering, Jing-Jing." Celena said quickly, her voice slipping out in a whisper designed to make you forget she existed. "I was starting to get some pretty nasty dysphoria for a bit."
"You're telling me." Tobe complained.
"Alright, now we can- who are all those people?" Celena asked.
"What, my twenty to fifty background ninja?" Tobe asked.
"No the- the ones in the white robes."
"Ohh. That's our coven." Tobe said proudly. "They do magic and stuff."
"You didn't tell me there'd be an audience!" Celena cringed. "I- could you all turn around, please?"
Gradually, the lesser coven initiates milled about until Celena's stage fright dissipated to functional levels.
"Okay, okay. I just need to get back into it…" Celena muttered to herself.
"Oh Celena the Shy, Great-great… third… cousin once removed or… something." Tom said. "We call upon you now to ask of you to, you know, tell us the future and stuff."
"Wait, we're related?" Celena asked.
"Oh yeah, your dad is related to my great-grandpa Relicor."
"Wait, my mom killed my-" Celena shrank back. "Ooohhhhhh."
"Yeaaaaahhh, uhhhhh…" Tom trails off into an awkward silence.
The two of them stared at each other.
Tobe scratched the back of his head. "Uh, are we going to start the reading or-"
"Yes, yes!" Celena said, snatching up her cards like a lifesaver and shuffling wildly. "Ok let's see, what do I-"
"Can you tell us where Star is?" Tom asked.
"You asked me that last time." Celena replied.
"Well, yeah, but can't you tell us where she is?"
"I- I can't give you a street address!" Celena protested. "The cards are vague. And mysterious."
"You said that last time." Tobe complained.
"Sorry."
Tom shrugged. "I don't really… care about anything else."
"You could tell us if our time travel sensei made it back ok!" Tobe suggested.
Celena stared.
"I'll… just do a general reading. How about that?"
Before anyone could complain Celena laid down the first card. It depicted a moon, though not Earth's moon, hanging in a sky of purple clouds.
"The Full Moon." Celena intoned. "Modified by… the Hydra. Typically, the Moon is a sign of perception. Something dangerous in truth being beautiful, an unexpected potential from an idle action, or a need to reconsider what you think you know. However, the Hydra is a sign of both incredible effort and duplicity, which, paired with the Moon, means it is actually the Moon Card we must reconsider, for its normal reading is disingenuous. It is the underlying truth of the card we must consider- The Moon, or something within its sphere, is the Problem you face."
"Werewolves!" Tobe declared authoritatively.
"I think they live in forests, generally." Celena replied.
"What?"
"What?"
Tom looked between the two of them, the awkward mood still lingering. He grinned awkwardly, and forced a smile.
"So! Uh, where are your two friends, anyway? The clown and the stick guy?"
"Huh?" Tobe asked. "I dunno."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I do not know, demon boy! Living their lives, possibly performing some light housework. Do you keep tabs on Marco every moment of every day?"
"Not anymore." Tom grumbled defensively. "And I dunno, I guess I just thought that-"
"Oh what, you thought what?"
"You guys… I didn't realize you really spent much time apart."
"Pfft! As if we were some rigid, inseparable being incapable of standing alone. Ridiculous! Isn't that right, nameless ninja mooks?"
The twenty to fifty nameless ninja mooks nodded in agreement before returning to the background.
Having used the distraction to move forward, Celena drew the next card, the gentle sound of paper on paper cutting the brief silence.
"Death, for the Past" she said. "With the sign of the Demon."
"Oh god!" Tom said. "Am- am I going to die? No, please, there's so many things I haven't had to say yet!"
"Relax." Tobe patted Tom on the shoulder. "Death isn't death, it's just change or something."
"That's right." Celena agreed even as she shuffled. "Though the demon is a somewhat worrying intensifier, it doesn't mean you Tom, and it's almost certainly not a signifier of actual death and destruction. It just means there was a major change in the past. It should be fine, as long as you don't have the Septarian next." Celena said, flipping over the Septarian next.
"Oh."
"Howwww… bad are we talking here?" Tom asked carefully.
Celena stared at the card intensely. It featured an angry lizard on a log, with what looked like a fancy top hat perched on its head. "Sign of the Hydra, tied again to the Moon's power. The Septarian is strong emotion, especially… anger. Passion, fury, uncertainty and that which is unknown. The taboo, and it's breaking."
"I uh… I know Tom might've overreacted before," Jing-Jing said carefully, "But that sounds really-"
"Bad, yes. It is very bad." Celena replied. "The Septarian in the Present with Death in the Past is a harbinger of great destruction. Someone with the great desire for death and destruction is prepared to shift the paradigm, and the form of the threat you face is… unknown, beyond what the cards have so far said. And it is called the Present, not the Future." She continued. "It comes soon."
"Can we… have the Path please?" Tom asked.
Celena flipped a final card, and showed a monarch in repose, smirking.
"The King. With the sign of the Deadhorse. The King is kindness and compassion. The Deadhorse, meanwhile, is a sign of leadership and wisdom, as well as following the rules. That's… hmm. You'll get advice from a traditional source of authority? You could work with authority? Or maybe you'll need to help people, and the best way to do that is to lead with wisdom and stability."
"That's really unhelpful." Tom pointed out.
"I'm sorry!" Celena yelled. "The cards are being really uncooperative today. It's usually much clearer than this."
"Actually we uh… we haven't figured out most of your other riddles either." Tobe noted.
"Oh." Celena deflated. "I'm turning into my mother. Well, uh, I guess I'll… I was going to- oh, nevermind, I'll just go."
"Woah woah hey, hold on." Tobe said. "You… uh… Jing-Jing, help?"
Jing-Jing's forehead scrunched uncomfortably. "It's really hard to talk to someone in my own head, honey."
"But she's saaaaaad!" Tobe complained. "Make it better, please?"
Jing-Jing sighed. "Celena? Are you still there? Tobe didn't mean to make you feel bad."
"I-I'm… It's fine. I'm not sad." Celena sniffed.
"You've been a real help!" Jing-Jing said, spreading her arms out to console a person who didn't exist. "Honestly, sometimes I wish we could keep you around more. You'd be better than that other ghost we have-"
Jing-Jing's body jolted up as if electrified. "Do you mean it?"
"...Yes?"
"OkayIwasactuallygoingtoaskifIcouldstaybecause-" Celena took a breath. "Ok, I… I'd like to do more to help you find Star. E-especially if it means I get to do research again. I haven't been able to learn more in so long! All I do is stand around with the other Queens."
"...other queens?" Tom asked.
"Yes." Celena replied. "There's eight of them, and they all stare at me. I- I don't know if I missed something before I got there, or if they can even talk-"
"Can you talk in there?" Jing-Jing asked.
"I-I don't know! At first I was too nervous to say anything, and by the time I realized none of them were going to, it was too awkward! We'd already been staring at each other for like, five minutes! Anyway it was way too bright for a long time and now it's really, really dark, and I'd like to do something else now, please. I-I can show you what you need to do to anchor me?"
The group was interrupted by what sounded like a cheese grater being run over a violin. Celena turned to see a spectral, haunting form hovering in the hall outside the room, staring at them with malice and possibly indigestion.
"Cuuurssee you, Celena the Ancient Queennnnnnn…" Malifishmertz intoned, slowly floating backwards. A moment later he slammed into the wall behind him with a dull thud.
"Ow! Oh, what the heck, how does that even work? I'm incorporeal!"
"I should go." Celena said very quickly.
"Wait!" Tom exclaimed. Celena stopped to stare at him, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Can't… can't you tell us anything about Star at all?"
Celena looked at the cards as she faded.
"You won't find her until the tide goes out." She replied even as the color faded from Jing-Jing's eyes. There isn't enough time."
===
You have received a cryptic warning.
Stabilize Haunting Occult action unlocked!
Malifishmirtz is very upset at the possibility of being replaced by a cooler, younger, nicer, and generally superior ghost wizard. He takes a -5 Opinion penalty until the end of next turn.
