The Arcana Club

“Excuse me.”

I tried to look professional as I stepped toward the librarian’s desk.

“Yes?” the librarian asked.

I heavily considered running away, but I wasn’t going to find what I was looking for without a little help.

“Do you have any books with talismans and transformations into different forms?”

“You’ll want to check out the Manga section. Anything that says ‘Magical Girl’ is your best bet.”

“Manga?” I asked.

“If you prefer western media,” the librarian continued, “We also have the first season of Tarot and Gamble on DVD. I think they even called their transformation wands talismans in that.”

Hadn’t Cas mentioned the name Tarot? This was my best shot.

“Thank you!”

I bowed, unsure what else to do.

“She wouldn’t have chosen this!” Tarot insisted, holding his unconscious girlfriend in his arms.

“I love her too,” Gamble said, he was definitely the smarter of the brothers, “But you’re letting your emotions blind you to the truth. She hosted the Light Brother. She’s dangerous.”

River grabbed some of my popcorn.

“We’re borrowing this again so I can watch the start of the series.”

“Sshh!”

I was not missing out on this show, not this close to the end.

“Hal?” Julia asked, finally waking up, “What happened?”

“You were possessed,” Tarot said, “You’re fine now.”

The camera switched so we just saw her hand on his face.

“You look strange,” she said, clearly exhausted.

Then the shot showed Gamble’s back, as bright light showed around the couple and they disappeared.

“No!!” I screamed along with Gamble as “To be continued…” appeared on the bottom of the screen.

“Was that bad?” River asked.

“That was the big bad, teleporting the hero away!” The light couldn’t be anybody else.

“What are you waiting for, turn on the next episode!”

“It’ll play after the credits. I hit play all.”

“So the light brother guy was only pretending to be the girlfriend?” River asked.

“Or Julia’s in on it. We’ve seen her sneaking around this whole time. I almost thought she was Winter that one time.”

I really had. In some ways finding out she was Chiaro had been vindicating. The cloak of light apparently hid well enough that his host was a woman, but Julia couldn’t hide being suspicious.

“So why does the card guy—Tarot, was it?—Why does he like his partner’s girlfriend?” River asked. She’d really only started watching on the current episode.

“Tarot’s the guy who got kidnapped: Henry Woe, Julia’s been his girlfriend since episode one, and they knew each other growing up. Johnathan Woe, AKA Gamble, is Henry’s brother, and also knew Julia growing up. He sees her as a sister.”

“Okay… Does Gamble have a girlfriend?”

“Here’s where it gets fun.” I may or my not have looked a lot up on Wikipedia, “They planned on Pestilence, who has the powers of all the horsemen of the apocalypse, to be a woman, but executives made them choose between having her be a woman, and having her be black, so Pestilence is a black man. However, they didn’t change any of the writing in his episode, where he flirted with Gamble the whole time, and blew a kiss on his way out. And then in a later episode, John confirmed they were still in contact.”

“So he has a boyfriend?” River asked.

I nodded.

“He was supposed to show up again as a regular in the next season,” I babbled, “Even got as far as deciding his sister had taken over with the horsemen because executives didn’t want Gamble flirting with a man, but the show was canceled before the season happened.”

“Wait so this is the last season?”

I nodded.

“Last disc, too.”

The credits stopped, but instead of the next episode, the menu reappeared.

“No,” River said as I checked the episode selection against what I watched.

“That’s it.”

The series was over. I knew whoever worked on it had to know about the talismans, especially since there was a reference to the four horsemen as the brides, for just a moment. Hopefully some of it was at least informative.

I ran to the computer, opening Wikipedia.

“What are you doing?” River asked.

I typed in the name of the show, skimming the page for any extra content.

“There is nothing else except what the show creators have said.”

I silently read through the character profiles, catching some interesting words.

“Gamble was series co-creator Jameson Woe’s favorite character. ‘He was a bit of a self-insert really. I kind of get what it’s like to feel like a secondary brother. Part of why I worked to make him save Hal so often, because I needed to help my brother out of trouble like that.’”

There was no possible way. He even had the same surname as the main characters.

I clicked on the link to his page.

“I was reading that,” River objected.

“Spoilers.”

“Jameson Woe is a British animator and writer, famous for co-creating the Tarot & Gamble series.”

The royal family Cas mentioned was from Britain. Tarot was the big name among the talismans.

“If Tarot’s the son of a god…”

Then the real Tarot was once the son of Talisman.

None of that was important to me though.

“What about someone being a demigod?” River asked, “Nevermind, don’t spoil it, I’m definitely watching the series.”

“Even after that ending?”

“I need more of these characters, Summer, and I can’t look at fanfic until I’ve watched the whole series.”

“Okay, but borrow it on your own card, I’m not getting late fees because you’re procrastinating on it.”

“Or I can look it up on youtube.”

I gasped.

“That will look ugly.”

When I mentioned the series to the team, I don’t know what I expected, but definitely not Cas and Cindy having the entire series at their house, premium editions. Apparently, they were unofficial payment from Jameson Woe for using some of their family history with Pestilence.

Thus it turned into a watch party/sleepover at the Roddensteins, a name I had not expected from Cas and Cindy.

“Roddenstein?” Nerves asked for the fifth time.

“That’s not the mystic family name,” Cindy said, “But the name was a dealbreaker for our great grandfather.”

“The mystic family name is nowhere near as unique,” Cas said, “But the origins are more inspirational.”

“What are—” Van started.

“Slavery,” Cindy answered, “Our ancestor got out of slavery, aggressively. We used to be the Freemans, but then great-grandma Lenore had to fall for a German refugee.”

This was the first time I’d thought about that. I almost felt embarrassed by how white the rest of our group was.

“It’s actually a very sweet story,” Cas said, “It was apparently really difficult to get married considering miscegenation laws at the time. Our family lived in New Mexico until dad had to move here.”

“Oh, he had to move here for work?” I said. I knew families like that.

“The Lord’s work,” Cindy derided.

“He’s a pastor?” Emmy asked.

“Lord of the Unseen.”

“Oh,” the room said. Talisman had her dad move here.

“When did you move here?” Van asked.

“Never,” Cas answered, “Dad met mom here.”

Cindy clapped her hands.

“Are we going to watch this self-bastardization of our culture or not?”

“We are,” we all confirmed.

The first episode went by without much comment. I watched everyone’s reactions, hoping for some excitement. Emmy checked out immediately, probably because there weren’t any animals. Nerves seemed to be searching for something on the screen. Van was rocking with questions they didn’t want to share. Cas and Cindy were watching the others like I was.

It started on two brothers, the Woes, who individually, then together, see a dark monster that nobody else seems to be aware of. They talk about it while visiting their parents, which leads to their parents sitting them down for a talk they wanted to avoid.

John and Hal are part of a family of Mystics, people who use talismans to transform. Their parents give them their old talismans, Tarot for Hal, Gamble for John, and a mission to kick butt, which they proceed to do.

“Julia’s suspicious,” Nerves said after we finished the second episode, “She’s probably not staying the whole season.”

“She stays the whole series,” Cas said.

“Oh? I assumed she was going to turn on them next episode.”

“There’s time,” I said, trying to stay neutral.

“So Cas, how much of that is accurate?” Van asked.

“So the dark lady had disappeared at this point, so she definitely wouldn’t have been a villain, the real brothers Woe aren’t white, and I don’t think Julia was based on a real person.”

“But the abilities are accurate?” Emmy asked.

“Yeah, mostly. Tarot’s summons are a little less vulnerable, and Gamble has more tricks than the show ever got to, and it never explained that Vera was Tarot’s previous wielder, so even the wikis assume it was the dad.”

“Tarot’s wielder was a woman?” I asked. I assumed the king was a man.

“In World War II yeah,” Cindy said, “Female Tarot, Male Gamble. Then both of them were male, and now we’re at their preferred genders, so Male Tarot, Female Gamble.”

“So their kids are wielders?”

“Their kids are our parents’ age,” Cas said, “But yeah, they’re the current wielders. Not sure how long it will last though.”

“How long what will last?”

“Family legacy. We’re the longest one by far, started in the early 1800s, but talismans have been made for thousands of years. Most families branch out too much from dividing who wields what talisman in a group among siblings. Eventually there’s nobody compatible with the family talisman and it’s all over.”

“But we keep it one person at a time,” Cindy said, “With occasional extra talismans in the mix. That means the eldest of the family has four spirits to test compatibility with and at least three to assist, always.”

“What if the eldest isn’t compatible with any of them?”

“Passes on to the next kid. Next episode?”

“Sure.”

“You know that one’s based on your Aunt Truth,” Mrs. Roddenstein said, pointing out Pestilence onscreen, “She and Jameson dated for a bit.”

“How did Cindy get the talisman then?” I asked.

“I turned ten. I spoke with each of the brides. Death saw something in me. I work to prove that respect.”

“How old are you now?” I asked.

“I’m 16.”

“6 years, and you’re still struggling to stay transformed?”

There wasn’t much hope for any of us then.

“You’re struggling to stay transformed?” Mrs. Roddenstein asked.

“For one moment.” Cindy pulled her legs up on the couch, “The Eldest Sister asked about blindly following Talisman, which she kind of had a point about, but Death didn’t buy it because she’s still devoted to the guy or something—”

“Cinderella.”

Despite Mrs. Roddenstein’s tone, we all snickered at Cindy’s full name.

“It won’t happen again, trust me.”

Her mother shook her head.

“It cannot.”

The show was long forgotten for Cindy.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s not like I told you it was a big deal. Tonight was supposed to be about learning things.”

“What about blindly following Talisman?” Nerves asked.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to just follow some guy because he made the talismans.” Cindy stretched her legs out again, “I think there should be accountability. If there were, the light-brother wouldn’t have so much luck bringing people to his cause. They’d notice pretty quickly he doesn’t actually want leadership questioned, he wants to be the unquestioned leadership.”

“Maybe that’s why Talisman asked you to lead this,” Cas offered.

“Ha! Summer saw what happened with Death when asked about it. Talisman just needed a warm body to keep the light-brother from getting a hold here.”

“So you don’t think we should trust Talisman the way you’re telling us to trust you?” Emmy asked, “Because we’re supposed to just do as you say, not ask questions.”

Emmy had a point.

“Fine,” Cindy said, “No questions in the middle of a fight, but in times like this, question me all you like.”

She put her hand in the middle of the group. We all put our hands over it.

“I don’t know what to do after this,” Cindy admitted, “I don’t play sports.”