Silently, the Healer slipped through the back alley, trying to put distance between him and his charge. There was another- another Arcana, who needed help. Try as he might, he could never resist the compulsion to give aid. It was like trying to hold your own breath, the Page realized. Try as you might, you eventually began to breathe again. He heard a sound, a footstep from behind; quickly turning, he - "Well, well," the voice from the darkness uttered. The Healer backed away slowly, looking for room to run, for anything that might help him. "If it isn't the Healer. As I suspected, you couldn't resist helping - or should I say, couldn't resist trying to help." A figure emerged from the darkness of the alley - tall and solid, yet slender, its voluminous robes hanging from it like a cloak of utter darkness. The High Priestess stepped forth from the shadows, and began to speak again, close to laughing. "And now, Healer, you shall die for being unable to resist your calling. So, Physician - heal thyself!" The dark laughter echoed for a moment, and ended abruptly. ~~~ Arcana Started By: Scott Schimmel Chapter Thirty-Six: Endless Games Written by Eric Trendell, a.k.a. Anthon. ~~~ Two people sat in the empty Hall of the Tower Reversed. No one could see them, but they were there; only one could hear them, but she was not there. It was a lonely existence, to be sure, yet it was an existence. Not that Miyuki cared about it being an existence, of course . . . as far as she was concerned, it wasn't terribly much better than the alternative. Either way, she couldn't do a thing to protect her friends: Hotaru, Sumire, Tetsuya, and little Hanako. Or rather, she amended, couldn't do much. After all, she was able to tell the Ace of Swords that only the Page of Cups could help them. Little enough, it seems, and only possible through Hanako; yet Hanako's flight back to the Queen of Pentacles had closed even that door to her. Strangely, the thought of Hanako brought a smile to her face. Such a person .... someone like that was quite rare, indeed. By necessity, innocence was rare among Arcana. It was painful that she could not do anything other than stay here, with the tower. If she was honest with herself, she knew that she still could not have acted if she had chosen differently. She had lost her vision. She had lost herself. All she did by staying here was prevent there from being another Fortune - after all, how could there be two of the same Arcana at the same time? That restriction only failed to bind the fool; however, few restrictions had ever been capable of binding the Fool. "Well? And of your plans, oh great Tower?" she intoned. "And how, exactly, am I to contact Hanako? How am I to be your link to the world, stuck where none can hear me in a place my fellow Arcana have abandoned as unsafe? How am I to help Sumire - Hotaru - Keisuke- Hanako . . ." Her voice broke, and her composure shattered - she began to sob, bitterly, crying etheral tears that only hit the floor in her own mind. Only once before had she felt this alone - only when her Vision deserted her. Then, too, it was Hanako's fault- Hanako was the one who stole her powers! Unknowingly, but Hana- The Tower's voice jolted her out of her thoughts, a salve to her raw nerves. "Be reasonable," he implored her. "You are Fortune, not I. I cannot tell how the Future will turn out; all that I know is you have a bond with Hanako now, and that she can hear you. I do not know what will happen, or if you can help. All I know is that dead, you cannot help." His statements reinforced her own thoughts, turned them against her. She knew this was the only way for her to aid her friends, and to assure them of the Tower's aid. She knew what she had done had been necessary- and yet she was afraid of what she had done. It was . . .lonely. So lonely here, with just the tower and herself. Even when she had lived in the Tower, it had not been this empty. Perhaps, it was the difference between being alive and dead. Maybe, it was different because before she had her visions, and now she was by herself. Her powerless self- no longer alive, but somehow still Arcana- no longer able to read the future, but somehow still Fortune - no longer able to act, but somehow, able to help her friends. Round and round, her mind turned, like a hamster in its wheel, unable to go anywhere and unwilling to stop running. ~~~ The two Blades sat in silence, their food slowly cooling as they stared. Sumire looked up at Arisa, then back down at her okanamiyaki. Clearing her throat, she started to speak, only to be interrupted by Arisa. "Not one lead. We've been searching for two days now, and not one lead!" Shaking her head, the Knight buried her face in her hands. It seemed impossible - none of the faith healers had any idea who the Page of Cups was, or elicited any sort of response from Sumire's "spider sense". "We've visited twenty herbalists and fifteen temples," Arisa muttered under her breath, "with no luck so far. Somehow, I'm not surprised. Nothing's simple and logical anymore." Arisa looked at the Ace, and nodded. Sumire clapped briefly, and the server approached their table. "Check, please." As the busboy cleared their table, Arisa pulled a deck of cards from her belt and began to shuffle. Clearing her mind, she flipped over the first card. "The Page of Cups reversed? That's unexpected . . ." Her eyes narrowed in thought, then opened wide. "Come on- I've got an idea." Sumire stood, picking up the check as she did so. As she paid the bill, she asked, "And this idea is?" Arisa grinned for a moment, then replied, "We're going to wander aimlessly, and see if that doesn't work." She stepped out the door, and the Ace followed her out, utterly confused. Sumire paused for a moment outside the restaurant, as her face took on a look of utter shock and disbelief. "Arisa, have you . . . have you gone completely insane? That's totally illogical. How could we find the Page that way? We don't work on hunches; that's not how our powers work." Arisa looked at Sumire, and her smile flashed again, briefly. "We don't; but the Page does. We are looking for the Page of Cups, after all. The Page of Cups represents Compassion and Healing." Pausing for a moment, Arisa continued, "The Page also represents Intuition. Coming?" Sumire followed the Knight, still shaking her head. It was a very strange idea; but it might just work. ~~~ The boy twisted, shaking in his sleep. He couldn't . . . but he had to. He hated her, but he didn't. He served himself; no, he served the Queen of Pentacles; no, he served the High Priestess. "No," he thought, "I don't. I don't . . . Why would I hate the Magician? What has she ever done to me?" Images flashed through his mind, one faster than the next. - Himself, with a knife, striking at a young blond-haired girl, and - Attacking Hotaru with his knife, aiming to - Stabbing through the closet door - Fire, called from the Magician's hands, striking him in the chest - The boy left Hotaru's house, and - Falling down, down, down . . . falling towards his watery grave, and - For one second, he had a coherent thought . . . /I am sorry, Firefly. There was nothing I could do. Her will was simply too powerful ... protect yourself, Firefly. / Then darkness enveloped him, and he fell back into a deep slumber. He had lost. The High Priestess had won. ~~~ The High Priestess chose that moment to indulge in a laugh of his own. The Page was a disappointment. He could have been useful. The Fool, however, was a stunning success. Entering the room, he roughly shook the boy awake. He rose, staring at her, then looked back down at him. Bowing slightly, he managed to say, "High Priestess?" He looked at the Fool, then turned away. "You know what you have to do, Fool. Now, go and do it." Joker rose and dressed. When he picked up his knife he stopped for a moment, studying his reflection in the mirror of its blade. He could have sworn there was something there, something beyond just his image. His hand shook, and he slowly placed the knife in his jacket, hiding it. Stepping to the door, he grabbed hold of the bronze handle, and twisted. The door opened. The Fool turned back to the Priestess. "Yes, I understand what you want. I owe you, so I'll do it. Besides, I owe her one, for driving me away." He knew what he must do. He had to kill the Firefly. ~~~ And somewhere, Temperance stood before a fighting game in an arcade, thinking. /If only the others would take from my example, maybe we wouldn't have to kill one another./ Yet they did not change, and he could not. Somebody had to survive. Somebody had to live. Somebody had to know their history. /I wonder when that gaijin boy - Chris, I believe- will return? Chris understood that sometimes, there wasn't anything you could do other than wait. He understood./ Temperance turned back to the fighting game. After all, he had plenty of time. An eternity, stretching before him, fulfilling his purpose. Remembering. (Author's Notes) Whee! =) Ok, this has been my first writing for Improfanfic. Ever. It's been a great deal of fun for me. Much harder than I ever expected, but fun. That said... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for putting you all through this. I know this is horrible- my writing is pathetic. Thanks to Illyria for the extension. I appreciate it - next time, my part will be much longer and have had prereaders. I only wished I had remembered how hard it is to write on command . . . =) 1. I didn't kill the Page of Cups. The timing of the second conversation is variable; either Sumire and Arisa get there in time to stop the High Priestess, or they don't. I tried to write the Priestess's thoughts so future authors can go either way. 2. Yes, I know that acting on intuition is highly out of character for the two Blades. I simply figured it was a way to bring in another aspect of the Page of Cups. =) 3. Yah, the High Priestess is also intuition. This could make for an interesting segment next time . . . it would be fun to see what someone else does w/ it, or to try it myself. I simply ran out of time, and out of ideas. Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry that it's so short. -Anthon, a.k.a. Eric Trendell. "I've got my horse, my sword, and my good friends. What else could I need?"