Alone in a quiet clearing, Miyamoto Inazuma poured water, which he had just 
gotten from a nearby stream, from an urn into a silver bowl.  As the ripples 
calmed in the water, he made several passes over the water with his hands.  
He then gazed into the bowl for several moments.

"Hmm...it seems that the time has finally come..." he mused aloud to 
himself.  He poured the water from the bowl onto the ground and set the bowl 
down on the table next to the urn.  With hand outstretched towards the two 
items, he chanted a few words, and bowl, urn, and the table on which they 
rested all faded into nothingness.

He then rapped his staff once on the ground, causing the rings on the cap of 
the stave to ring, and vanished instantly from view.

* * *

Arcana
Chapter Thirty-one
Lucid Dreams

started by Scott Schimmel
written by Seiijuro

* * *

Tetsuya managed to calm himself and stop screaming and carrying on so.  He 
took a few deep breaths and considered:  He had spent the half the night 
already wandering about the city, to no avail.  Maybe he had been going 
about this the wrong way.

The Knight of Wands walked down the street to a small tea shop and ordered a 
cup of ginger tea.  The waitress promptly brought him his order and he 
thanked her with a winning smile.  After she left, he took a few sips of the 
tea and then cleared a space on the table and retrieved his tarot cards from 
his bag.

"Maybe I'll have more luck this way..." he mused.  He decided to do a simple 
Cross reading.  He searched quickly though the deck and pulled out the Page 
of Pentacles.  Setting the card down on the table as the Signifacator, he 
concentrated on Hanako and her current whereabouts.

As he laid out each card of the 'shield' he softly chanted, "Fool crosses, 
Hierophant crowns, Hermit is before, Tower reversed is below, Magician is 
behind...what the..." He looked crossly at the cards - so many of the Major 
Arcana in the reading was extremely unusual.

"Looks like little Hanako is a more important factor now than any of us had 
thought..." he mused.  Then he continued the reading, laying out the 'sword' 
of the cross.  "Death answers, the King of Wands strengthens, the Hanged Man 
describes, and the conclusion is Fortune..."

The young bishounen shook his head at the message the cards were implying.  
With nearly all of the cards showing Trumps, this couldn't be an 'ordinary' 
reading.  Keisuke surmised that the cards must have been symbolizing the 
other Arcana surrounding Hanako.  And if that were so...

"Maybe this means that I will find her with Ishido...the Fool does cross 
her...  But if this really represents other Arcana, then who are the Hermit, 
the Hierophant, the Hanged Man, and..."  He swallowed and frowned.  In a 
normal reading, Death would merely indicate a major change.  But if the 
reading represented the other Arcana...

Keisuke jumped up and started towards the door.  Then, remembering his bill, 
he fished a 1000-yen note out of his pocket and left it on the table.  The 
pretty waitress looked like she was coming over to talk to him, but that 
would have to wait for later.  He quickly made his way back to the street 
and raced down the street.  He didn't know where to find the Joker, but if 
anyone knew, it would be Hotaru.

-*- -*- -*-

Natsu woke to the sound of chiming outside of her cell.  She blinked in 
confusion as an old man in a dark robe, carrying a monk's staff, opened the 
door to the cell.  On the other side of the hall from her cell, she could 
see a guard slumped against the wall, asleep.  The monk stepped into the 
cell and closed the door behind him.

She pinched herself to see if she was dreaming.  Sure, in the movies, a 
priest visited condemned prisoners before they were executed.  But 
regardless of her guilt, she had yet to be convicted.  And the guards were 
usually standing vigilant guard in those movies...

The old man chuckled softly.  "No, you are not dreaming just yet, though it 
is about that which brings me here tonight."

She merely blinked.

"But if I am to explain, perhaps I should do it in front of your friend too, 
hmm?  That way, I only have to tell the story once."  He opened the door to 
the cell again.  But, instead of the hallway that she knew was on the other 
side of the door, there was a green field dotted with trees.  He gestured 
that she should precede him through.

Natsu considered protesting, but decided that there was no point.  If this 
was only a dream, whatever was going to happen probably would anyway.  And 
if this was real, resisting might only cause her to kill again.  She stood 
up and stepped through the doorway, shivering slightly as she crossed the 
threshold.

-*- -*- -*-

Ishido grunted in pain as he tugged at his restraints with his arms.  He 
sighed and wondered what he had done wrong in his little 'interview' with 
Maki.  When she had 'suggested' that he finish the job of killing Hotaru, 
regardless of the fact that she was not the Empress, as first suspected, he 
had put her off for a suitably long time, and then had finally given in.  
The queen of pentacles had seemed to take his acceptance as sincere, but she 
had had Atsuko tie him up anyway.

As he tugged at the ropes experimentally, he considered his position.

As the Fool, it was his place to stand outside of the deck, free from the 
constraints the other Arcana allowed themselves to be fettered with.  By 
remaining outside (or both above and below, in terms of the tarot) of the 
concerns of the other Trumps, it was his 'duty' - as far as such a concept 
can be applied to the Fool - to see to it that the rest of the spread stood 
together.  For or against what, exactly, the Joker could no longer remember. 
  But Ishido was certain that this was the way it was meant to be.

So, how could he see to it that the spread stood as united as possible?  
Maki would suggest that the proper way to accomplish this fact would be to 
kill the Magician, and the other council Arcana who stood against her.  But 
Ishido doubted that that was the best idea.

He stopped fidgeting in the restraints a moment to consider whether this 
sentiment was caused by his newly realized feelings for the Magician.  He 
then resumed his work.  There were many more, and more powerful forces 
standing against the Queen of Pentacles than there were working with her, 
even if he were to count himself on her side.  Of course, that wasn't taking 
the new forces in play into consideration - but though they seemed like they 
were against the Magician's Arcana, they didn't seem like they were working 
for Maki either.

But perhaps the Queen of Pentacles was right.  Perhaps the best way to see 
to a united front on the part of the whole of the Arcana was to prune the 
deck a bit.  And the best way to prove his capabilities in those grounds to 
her was to...

He grinned as the restraints fell away from him.  It was a good thing that 
he hadn't been put in this situation by the Queen's forces in the past.  If 
he had, she might have realized that such simple restrains as ropes would 
hold the unbindable Joker only just longer than the Joker wanted.

He stood up and had to stifle a cry at the pain that lanced up his injured 
leg.  The knight of pentacles had done a good job at bandaging the bullet 
wound up, so he needn't worry about losing too much blood or anything.  But 
that didn't numb the pain any, and apparently Maki had considered the 
withholding of pain medication as suitable punishment for his desertion.  
But that was ok, he considered.  Medication would only dull his wits and 
slow his movements.

He staggered over to the door.  He experimentally twisted the knob and 
pushed the door open.  Apparently they had forgotten to lock it.

How lucky!

-*- -*- -*-

Natsu turned around, but when she did, all she saw was a tree.  No doorway.  
No old man.  She looked around, and was starting to worry, when she heard 
voices.  She started quietly walking, down a path she had not noticed 
before, towards the sounds.

"Sensei, what are you going to teach me today?" came the voice of Hotaru.

"Actually, young Firefly, today I am going to explain a little about myself 
and about your friend Natsu," the old man replied, gesturing towards Natsu 
as she rounded a corner in the path and came into view.

"N...Natsu?" Hotaru asked, confused, as Natsu walked into sight.  "How...how 
did you get into my dreams?"

"Actually..." the old man began, "this particular dream is mine.  I brought 
you both here to try to teach you a few things that will be crucial to you 
in the near future..."

-*- -*- -*-

There was a knocking at the door.  "Excuse me, young mistress..." the butler 
called.

"Come in!" she replied.  After he had entered, she demanded, "What is so 
important that it cannot wait until the morning?"

"I am very sorry, but there is a man at the door and he insists that he must 
speak to you immediately.  He said that this would explain..." He passed a 
card to her.

Maki looked at the card.  The Hierophant.  This means...

"Tell him I will be out in just a moment.  See to it that he has a drink, if 
he so desires..."

The butler nodded and left.  Maki hurriedly dressed and prepared herself to 
make an appearance to her late night visitor.  If this weren't really one of 
the Major Arcana, she would...

-*- -*- -*-

"Um...not to sound difficult or anything, but who are you?  What is Hotaru 
doing here?  And what do you mean we're in your dream?  You said I wasn't 
dreaming..." Natsu interrupted.

The old man nodded.  "Allow me to answer your questions in reverse.  In 
order to bring you both together to show you what you need to see, and to 
facilitate your abilities to learn what needs to be learned, I had to bring 
you both into the dream world.  So, as my own dreams are the most familiar 
to me, I brought you both here."

"And the reason that I am here is because you are the previous Magician and 
you teach me how to use my powers.  But..." Hotaru said.

"True," the old man agreed.  "However, the full truth that I have not yet 
told you, young firefly, is that I am not merely the previous Magician.  I 
am also the current Hermit."

Hotaru gasped.  "But...but how...how can you be both Magician and Hermit?!?"

"Actually, such is the nature of the Hermit.  When one of the Arcana tire of 
their current role, or when they determine to follow a more contemplative 
path, and they are worthy of the position, with all of it's implied powers 
and restrictions, the cease to truly be their previous Arcana selves, and 
become the Hermit," the Hermit explained.

"But you can use the Magician's powers, so doesn't that mean..." Hotaru 
began.

"It is the nature of the Hermit to retain the memories and powers of his 
former Arcana incarnation.  Also, not unlike the Fool, the Hermit can call 
upon the powers of his more recent incarnations.  For example, because the 
previous Hermit was the Ace of Wands before stepping into the role of the 
Hermit, I too can, to a degree, manifest the powers of that Ace..."

-*- -*- -*-

Ishido hid in the concealing darkness, holding his breath, as footsteps 
receded down the hallway.  When they were only barely audible, he let out 
his breath and began to breathe again.  He had thought that in Maki's room, 
waiting for her to return from wherever it was that she decided to go in the 
middle of the night, he would have had an easy wait.

However, that butler had kept coming in to make sure that the room was the 
right temperature, or to make sure that the pillow was fluffed, or to check 
that the windows hadn't been damaged during that last thunderclap from the 
storm raging outside.  She really had him whipped...

But anyway.  Now that the danger was again gone, the Joker felt the lids of 
his eyes growing heavy.  He tried to fight back sleep yet again, but because 
of his wound, he had been steadily losing that war as the long night 
progressed, and it seemed that he might be about to...

-*- -*- -*-

....lose another battle.

Joker looked around.  The sleepiness had vanished in a moment.  And no 
longer was it raining outside the window.  In fact, no longer was there a 
window.  He found himself in a large wooded plain, a small path clearly 
winding through the vegetation.  He listenend, and thought he could hear 
voices.  He inched up the path towards them...

-*- -*- -*-

Hotaru gasped.  "If that's true, then that means that you have the powers of 
several Arcana.  So why don't you just stop Maki and the Council yourself?"

"Because only those suitable to fulfill the role of the Hermit can take on 
the office.  And one of the restrictions apparent in this role is that the 
Hermit does not interact directly in the politics of the other Arcana.  He 
or she merely leads those in need of guidance.  And, because I was the 
previous incarnate Magician, excluding the Sorcerer, who is unsuitable to be 
the teacher of a newly awakened Magician, it fell to me to teach you.  
However, because I am the Hermit, it also falls to me to guide those in need 
of wisdom, such as your friend, Natsu."

"Guide me to wisdom?  Aren't you a little late?  I already murdered 
someone..." Natsu screamed.

The Hermit nodded sadly.  "I am sorry I was unable to come to you earlier, 
but it was not apparent that my guidance was needed before.  And as for 
*that* situation, you have yet to realize the full story, just as you do not 
yet fully realize exactly who you are.  Hopefully, you will be able to see 
more clearly after you awaken from this dream..."

"Not realize who I am!" Natsu growled, beginning to seethe with anger at her 
apparent helplessness as events unfolded around her.

Hotaru gasped.  Hermit nodded towards Natsu, indicating the glowing aura 
that accompanied her burst of emotion.  "Indeed."  Natsu looked down at her 
glowing hands in surprise.

"You mean you can explain Natsu's powers?" Hotaru asked, hopefully.

"I can explain, in part at least, Natsu's origins, as well as some of the 
limitations of her powers.  More than that, however, you must discover on 
your own."

"You mean, you can tell me about my parents?  About where I came from?" 
Natsu asked.

"Quite so.  You have realized, by now, in your dreams, that your parentage 
is rather...shall we say, unusual, no?"

"I had this dream...  My father said that he and my mother couldn't live 
here or something..." Natsu struggled to remember her dream in detail.  
However, with the more recent events, she found it difficult to concentrate 
on the memory.

"That is true, yes.  Your parents are from a different world.  For sake of 
ease of explanation, let us call them, for the moment, elves, and the land 
they come from, Arcadia, after the legends of the westerners.  Our world and 
that of Arcadia are rather distant and transit to or from either to the 
other is extremely difficult.  The two worlds are, in fact, only connected 
by the world of dreams."

Hermit looked at Hotaru, his pupil, expectantly.  "Um, so to get from one to 
the other...you have to cross through dreams?"

"Yes, very good.  And because the ability to do this is rather rare, it is 
not a feat commonly accomplished.  However, somehow, both of your parents 
managed to make the crossing.  Or more precisely, they were called here."

"By whom?" Natsu asked.

"That is one of the reasons that I am explaining to both of you and the same 
time.  The one that called over Natsu's parents was the Sorcerer, the last 
incarnation of the Magician prior to Hotaru."

Both of the girls gasped.  A minute passed while they digested the 
information, both girls looking down, lost in thought.

Natsu looked up.  "But Father said that they couldn't exist in this 
world..." she said, changing the subject.

"Yes.  The elves cannot exist in our world in their original forms for more 
than a short time.  However, Sorcerer worked around this problem by forcing 
the spirits of the two elves into human forms.  However, these forms were 
relatively unstable as well, as this facet of the Magician's powers tends to 
degenerate over time.  So, when the Sorcerer was killed when Tower created 
the Tower Reversed, he could no longer recharge the effects, so your parents 
could only maintain their human guises for a scant few years."

"But if Natsu is their daughter, how does she..." Hotaru began, and trailed 
off.

"How is it that she maintains her human form?  It is because she was born as 
a human, not an elf.  So she possess a human body.  It is only in her spirit 
that she retains the legacy of her parents.  This is why she can manifest 
her powers more fully here in the dream worlds - because her spirit is her 
dominant aspect, thus her 'elven' nature can surface more easily.  And why 
she manifests her powers so seldom in the 'real world' - because the world 
itself resists this manifestation, so it takes a great need for the powers 
to surface."

Natsu was sure that her head must be twisting right off of her head, it was 
spinning so much.  "So because my parents were elves, I have a strong 
spirit..."

"It is as difficult a concept to digest as it is to explain, I am sure.  
However, I am certain that, with a little contemplation on the subject, you 
will more fully understand.  Just keep in mind that your parents are not 
really elves, like the faeries of legend.  They are simply people who exist 
on a different, but not terribly dissimilar, world from ours."

Miyamoto Inazuma, the Hermit, pulled an hourglass out of the voluminous 
folds of his robes.  Almost all of the sand was in the bottom half of the 
glass.  "Unfortunately, there is no more time this night for explaining.  
Events are beginning to occur more often, and more violently, so time grows 
short.  For now, it is necessary that you both awaken..." he said, and 
gestured sharply at both of them, who promptly vanished from the Hermit's 
dream, leaving him in the familiar solitude.

Except for...  Hermit looked into the brush.

Ishido almost jumped in alarm, but instead, closed his dream eyes and forced 
himself to...


-*- -*- -*-


....wake up.

He looked around.  The settings were again familiar, and the storm was again 
raging outside of the windows in the room.  What a strange dream...

"Don't forget, the fate of the entire spread may now lie in Justice's 
balance..." a voice said from behind him.

Ishido whirled around, almost overbalancing because of his injury, only to 
discover that no one was there.

~~Hello~~ he whispered.  ~~Is anyone there~~

The emptiness of the room was revealed by a stroke of lightning outside the 
windows.

The whole room vibrated with the sharp report of the accompanying 
thunderclap.