The Arcana Club

“No,” Cindy said.

“She promised,” I begged.

“And you actually believe her?” Nerves asked, “She’s possessing someone.”

“I don’t think Death would let Cindy be possessed,” I said, “If Autumn wanted to possess one of us, she wouldn’t have chosen the one with four talismans already.”

“I’m still a potential target though,” Cas said, “And I don’t have any talisman.”

“I think we should give her a chance,” Emmy said.

“And wouldn’t it be cool to have wind powers?” Van asked.

“Not to mention they’d lose their eavesdropper,” I said.

“Like she can’t communicate with the others through dreams,” Cindy said, “I know how the sisters work.”

“Then you know Summer won’t work properly unless she reunites with the others,” I said. “Or is that not why you’ve been telling us to avoid transformation?”

Cindy didn’t say anything.

“All of them are risky to transform without familiarity,” Cas said, “But yours is the most dangerous.”

“Well, I transformed to talk to Autumn, and I’m fine,” I showed off my burnless arms.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Cindy said, “Let’s go to what sounds like an ambush because a follower of the light-brother made a promise. All of them broke their promises to Talisman, or did we forget to explain that?”

“I thought you didn’t trust Talisman either.”

Cindy scowled.

“It looks like Summer, Emmy, and I are for the meeting,” Van said, “While Cindy, Cas, and Nerves are against it. Why are you on their side, Nerves?”

“Their side?” Nerves asked, “I don’t want to see Summer hurt, and I don’t trust Autumn to keep her word.”

“I do,” I said, “And the worst that happens is a fight. Didn’t we handle that the first time we went out?” I made a pleading face in Cindy’s direction.

“Fine,” she said, “But Princess has to listen in.”

“What?” Nerves asked.

“Use a bird or something.”

“Why can’t someone else listen?” Nerves asked.

“Because you’re the least conspicuous,” Cindy said.

“In that outfit?” Nerves asked.

“You’ll be out of the way.”

I nodded at the bird in the tree as we went toward the bench where I’d met Autumn before. Cindy and I started untransformed to be less obvious.

We looked around for where Autumn might be, finding nothing.

“She stood us up,” Cindy said.

“Give her time.”

“It’s going to be an ambush.” Cindy’s hand was in her pocket around her key chain.

As Cindy prepared for a fight, I closed my eyes and let out a breath to steady and open my mind.

“Autumn,” I whispered.

The wind picked up around us, slightly lifting Cindy’s skirt.

“Death,” Cindy said, turning to the same cloaked warrior I last saw in a fight with Winter.

The wind picked up further. Despite the high temperatures, I tightened myself against the chill.

“Summer,” I said. Feeling myself burn into the same look we wore to meet with Autumn, again blowing up into full flame with the help of the wind.

As the wind kept fanning our flames, some force guided us to look up.

“She’s up there!” we shouted as we pointed.

“It’s a test,” Death yelled back, “She’s actually defected!”

“Told you so!”

We both stood there for a moment.

“Well,” Death said, “Go get her.”

“She wanted you!”

“You’re her sister.”

We ran to the bench and jumped, flying toward the talisman in the air. Just as our fingers brushed it, we were thrown hard to the ground.

“Oww.”

“Guess we should try now!” Death yelled.

They flew up, untouched by the wind.

“Calm!” they ordered.

We scrambled away as they fell where we’d landed before.

“There has to be a chance to get you for the test to work!” Death yelled.

We thought through what Autumn spoke of to us. She didn’t want to be a check on the list to defeat Winter. She was a sister, a force to be reckoned with all her own. She deserved respect.

We closed our eyes, opening ourselves up with a breath. We were bad listeners, but we could try.

“What do you want, Autumn?” we whispered.

We heard the wind, feeling ourselves be pulled up.

Come alone, the winds whispered back.

I felt my guardian flames dissipate, leaving just me. I didn’t look, trusting Autumn and her winds to take me where she wanted, only opening my eyes once it didn’t feel like I was moving up. Autumn’s talisman was within reach.

“Do you want to help me?” I asked, focusing hard on keeping myself from reaching out to grab it.

The talisman didn’t respond, and the urge to grab it got worse, but a lack of answer wasn’t somehow a yes. I wasn’t there to persuade her, I was there to listen.

As if she could hear my thoughts, the talisman moved to where Summer’s talisman was held, clipping right next to it.

“Thank you,” I said, gently falling back as the air carried me down.

Nerves grabbed me in a hug as soon as I landed.

“That was crazy!” he yelled, “How did you do that? Why did you detransform?”

“She told me to come alone!” I yelled back, still unprepared for winds so calm after the incident.

“We can get the others,” Emmy said, “We can stop them individually.”

“Winter and Spring will not be so simple,” Autumn said through me. It was a little less natural than with Summer, but I was glad not to deny her voice.

“That was simple?” Van asked, “The other two are going to be so cool.”

“How did you do that anyways?” Nerves asked.

“I listened,” I said, “Maybe I’m better at it than I thought.”

He hugged me again.

I hid in my room, holding both talismans, one in each hand.

“How does this work?” I whispered. I needed to talk to them. I had so many questions burning in my mind, but Autumn probably did too, not to mention defecting couldn’t be as simple as burning the light side away.

I felt a gust of air like I was standing in front of a fan. In so many words, it felt like some kind of invitation, but I wasn’t sure what it was for.

Hello, sister, Summer said, Why didn’t you want me to get you?

I shrank, as if that would somehow make them less likely to notice the person whose head they were in.

I needed to test the child. You promised better treatment, but could she deliver?

“I can,” I said.

Of course you can, Autumn’s voice in my head sounded like wind that made the day cooler without blowing everything off the table, But there was no way for me to know that before the test.

I forgot how much of a trickster you were, Summer said.

“Of course,” I said, “She’s Halloween time.”

And the wind, Autumn said, the wind is a mischievous force.

I didn’t disagree.

“Who was your host before?” I asked. Reunions were nice, but we needed information.

She has no connection to Summer and Spring’s hosts. We are kept separate. We only unite when the light brother advises, or in the unseen dreaming.

So they lost each other as much as Summer had lost them.

“That’s terrible,” Summer and I both said.

Winter seems to prefer it, but Spring has attached herself to the light brother.

I nodded. That had seemed to pop up more than once.

“Isn’t he taken?” I asked.

His love has abandoned him, Autumn said, Spring is nearly as powerful, possibly more so.

And she doesn’t have her sisters beside her, Summer added.

Then she was who we needed to save next. I remembered River talking about her and Lei confronting Kei after her boyfriend pushed her to break off ties to them. I assume they were successful in getting her to end it, since they were still best friends.

“Then we’ll get you to her.”

This wasn’t going to be easy. I definitely needed my friends before I tried.

“It doesn’t ordinarily work like that,” Cas reiterated, “Normally, Autumn would say nothing, at least nothing you can hear.”

“Well it would be weird if she shut up after that whole gauntlet of trust and listening.”

“But are you comfortable?” Cas asked, “She isn’t imposing her will on you, is she?”

I shrugged.

“I mean she asks me for stuff, and she has opinions, but otherwise I’m fine. Summer’s chattier now, too, so they can have conversations without me.”

“So which one are we handling next?” Nerves asked, “Winter right? She comes right after Autumn.”

“No,” we three said together, “Spring is in greater need of rescue.”

“Not that Spring is easy,” Cindy said, “She’s the earth, but she’s also life. Even with fire and air under your command, she’ll be difficult to stop.”

“So we have to fight her,” I concluded.

“Who said you had to fight her?” Cas asked, “You convinced Autumn.”

“Spring’s more dedicated to the cause,” I quoted, “She’s plants, and plants need light. The light-brother’s represented by a sun too.”

I paused after that. Chiaro was also represented by a sun?

“Not always,” Cindy said, “The talismans change form all the time. The light-brother is sometimes a sun, yes, but he’s also been a diamond, or a lantern. Though without Scuro, he may be a sun purely because that’s Spring’s expectation.”

“That’s our angle,” Nerves said, “He can’t possibly care about her like that.”

“We don’t even know if she wants him to care about her ‘like that’” I countered, “She’s new beginnings, and we’re who she’s always been with.”

Autumn added, “The light-brother offers a new world order. What do we have to match that?”

Nobody had a good answer, or any answer for that matter. We were flailing. Spring wouldn’t come willingly. That much was obvious.

“Well,” Cas said, “Summer’s going to be more stable with Autumn beside her, and she’s best suited to fight Spring between all of us. Why don’t we try training.”

“What!?”

“Why haven’t we been doing that this whole time?” Nerves asked.