09-07 DnD Weekly Challenge; Tarot Read

The desk of Talindra Olirie-Livonia was an unpredictable place. At times, it was neat to the extent that the lines of writing on the stacked papers in her working tray lined up perfectly. At others, not even a bare square inch of the table was clear. It changed whenever the mood struck her, and as a high eladrin, it struck her frequently.

Now, it was mostly clear, bar from the tarot gifted by a friend years before. It was an oddity; a human item gifted from a stray traveller perhaps a century earlier. None of the figures or scenes were of the feywild. For a human deck, it was strangely proficient at looking far into the future. 

When she had been pregnant, she had kept drawing twos and concluded she would have two children. Down to earth as he was (for an eladrin), her husband, Promachos, dear Prom, chuckled at the idea and gently dismissed that she would have twins. But when they had another child, accidentally, barely 2 decades later, Tali knew she had been right.

She'd used the cards as some guidance for what to name her children. 

With her first pregnancy, she had seen his calm and empathic nature (and been proven entirely correct since), and knew her child needed a name that reflected him; she picked a favourite philosopher for that. Sotion.

With her second, she saw guilt and disgust, and she wanted a reminder that great things can come even from what feels like a mistake, naming her child after the elfin mother of the centaurs according to a local myth. Philyra.

She'd used them when she met Prom, and the cards had nothing to show but glowing praise for him. The cards warned him of his doubt, with the high priestess, but she knew she needed someone to keep her grounded, and she agreed with her cards in totality.

She'd been reading them before every expedition into the wilds for years now. Sotion, at 32 years, would be old enough to keep Philyra safe too, but she liked to check for sure, in any case.

As she shuffled the cards, her cat walked casually to the door of the room, and Tali looked through her eyes, checking for any curious 7 year olds who might interrupt. 

She pulled first for her husband, and a frown quickly knitted itself onto her forehead. The tower always kept returning recently, but now death fell out of the deck alongside. A change, and not for the better.

She shuffled the deck again, and feline eyes scanned the hall.

She pulled for herself next. 

Her draw was okay, her usual cup formation, until, again, the tower, and death. She drew her last card; the nine of wands. A change, for the worse, and a retreat from the world. She paused a moment, not knowing if she should, sure this was against what her patron had taught, and drew again, and shuddered.

She shuffled the deck again, and from the lack of complaint from the cat, she took all as clear. Hopefully it still would be for a while to come.

The cards pulled up for Sotion were strange. There was no flow to them, and the meanings made no sense. Why would he need to find a group with the four of cups? Or temperance to accept change? Or the knight of pentacles? As she drew the seventh card, death, she sighed. As her hand reached for the eighth card, no further cards tugged at her mind, and her fingers withdrew instead. She couldn't complete the reading. Clearly she'd done something wrong.

She checked through the cat again, and there was no one coming as she reshuffled.

She drew, pulling out mostly minor arcana. This seemed more like her son. Calm, nothing overly heightened, although there were a few indications of problems soon. That shouldn't be a surprise with change coming to both his parents, however.

She reshuffled again, pulling out the cards for Philyra instead. Her little problem child, energetic even for an eladrin. Already, she seemed to have inherited more of her mother's unpredictable emotions than her father's calm. Hopefully, she would mellow out later in life.

Tali drew her cards.

The inverted five of pentacles was obvious; who could have a warlock for a mother and not draw that occasionally? The ace of wands had to be Prom's influence. The two of cups was interesting; a lover. Seven of wands - peculiar how closely that human resembled a summer eladrin, wasn't it? - knight of swords, inverted eight of wands; recklessness. If Lyra was a handful now, her as a summer eladrin was a dreadful thought. Three of swords; heartbreak. Five of cups; mourning. Nine of wands; retreat, transformation.

It looked like Lyra might have her first crush, and she was going to rush in and ruin things. Retreat, from an eladrin, was rarely a positive sign, particularly after emotional turmoil. Perhaps she ought to have a conversation with her daughter about it before whatever change was coming.

A loud meow from outside the door alerted her to a visitor, and then loud purring; not someone to worry about, but Talindra still jumped in her seat. 

"Hi, Orthra! Hey! I love you too!" And a childish laugh came from the hall. The door opened with a click as Tali hastily tried to tuck her cards away. Philyra was standing there, cuddling the cat with her cheek smushed up against the white fur of her familiar's stomach, smiling. 

"Philyra? I thought you had gone to play with your classmates?"

"I did! But look what I worked out how to do!"

Philyra took a single step, and was suddenly no longer in the doorway, but sitting with her knees tucked under her chin on the opposite chair. 

A flurry of flower petals and a surprised ginger and white cat fell to the floor.

"Are you playing cards? Don't you need someone to play with? Can I play?"

"That's very impressive, Lyra! I'm very proud of you managing that already."

Lyra smiled widely at her mother, pushing her glasses up her nose. One tooth was missing, only fallen out last week, during a failed attempt at a fey step. 

Talindra really was impressed by the quick progress, and a deep swell of pride grew in her chest, even if it would make safe cooking an extreme challenge for the foreseeable future. 

Talindra tried to regain her composure from seeing her daughter fey step successfully, but a second too slow, as Lyra was already reaching for a card. 

It fell. It was face up when Lyra pulled it, but it turned in the air, momentarily its inverse, before falling right-way-up. 

Talindra was deeply grateful that the tutors still had a few years before they would touch on teaching foreign languages to the eladrin children. By no chance was the Devil a good card for a child to draw. 

Her thoughts flew back to her patron, but she said nothing, simply putting the Devil aside, trying to act calmly around it.

"Oh heavens, how did that get there?" 

She shuffled the cards, but used sleight of hand this time to take out those she saw which would have positive meanings, so she could ensure her daughter would be in a good mood for the upcoming chat. 

"Ah, the empress. Others around you will need your caring nature. And strength!" Admittedly, when she pulled it out of the deck it was inverted, but as this was a fake draw, that surely couldn't mean anything. "One day you'll be in control of your emotions, and in the mean-time, you mustn't ever let them take control over you. And the moon; you need to learn to look through the deception around you, even when it's from within yourself." Tali's gaze slid back to look at the devil card again. Lyra's eyes were wide in wonder at her mother somehow only pulling out major cards for her. Her fingers reached out to them, resting on the wolf for strength, and the wolf on the moon. 

"Do they mean anything?"

"I wouldn't think anything of it, although, perhaps you ought to stay away from the Brokenstone Vale in future." Tali glanced over at the Devil again, and a horrible thought dawned - but no, it landed inverted first, surely this thought was wrong. "Do you see how the woman is fighting the wolf in strength? And that she's winning?" Lyra nodded. "I'm sure if you ever have a conflict against one, you'll win. But in all likelihood, it only refers to you needing to fight an internal battle. I shouldn't worry about those wolves."

She felt bad for lying, but how were you meant to break it to your child that one day some other force would almost entirely dominate their future?

The familiar took the opportunity to jump onto the table, and nudged her cards again. Tali knew the five of pentacles had already been fulfilled, and that Orthra wanted her to tell the truth.

"Now, the cards had something we should talk about, my sweet summer-child."