The Arcana Club

Cas led me up to the guest room. I couldn’t sleep though, there was too much going on.

“Can I get a pen and some paper?” I asked, “There’s a lot to figure out.”

“I’ll grab you some,” Xe said, returning a minute or two later with a stack of index cards and a bunch of markers, “Will this work?”

“Sure.” I didn’t want xer to go through more trouble just for me.

I sat on the floor as I wrote everything down.

Mom has Winter, I wrote in blue; if I had multiple colors I may as well code them.

Autumn and Spring possessed their hosts, I wrote in orange, then underlined with green. I grabbed another card. But Winter didn’t.

Nerves is a girl. I wrote in black, just because she was a girl didn’t mean she wasn’t still Nerves. I underlined girl in pink.

That wasn’t really an important detail, but now that the shock wore off I was too excited to keep it out. I didn’t know why, but Nerves as a girl felt truer than any idea of her as a boy.

I probably shouldn’t leave it where other people could read it though.

I crumpled it in my hand and let it burn, holding Autumn’s charm to extinguish it once I was sure it was unrecognizable.

Mom chose to take Winter.

The light brother wants the brides?

The Dark Lady divorced the Light Brother.

Talismans are less powerful/more dangerous without their partner/family.

The Light Brother is less powerful.

Winter doesn’t want her family.

Mom is in danger.

I gathered them all together and headed down the stairs to the kitchen. Maybe someone would be awake to talk to me, and let me have some water or something.

As I reached the last stair. I heard people talking.

“She isn’t safe,” Cindy said.

“I don’t disagree,” her mom began, “But don’t assume everyone else in the group likes us by default. Elise has been friends with all of them much longer, and she looks more like they do. If she accuses us…”

“Summer will explain we didn’t kidnap her,” Cas said.

“Assuming they listen to her,” Jonah said, “And assuming Elise lets her explain anything. We don’t know what amount of cruelty is Winter’s influence, and what was always there.”

Mom wasn’t cruel. Okay, she could be pushy, and put us on the spot more than we’d like, but she loved us, and she did the best for us.

“Summer doesn’t seem like she was abused,” Cindy said.

“I’m not saying she was. I’m saying Elise may have already had some coldness and calculation that Winter is pushing to the fore. I certainly have some traits I try holding back on around you kids.”

“We’ll keep her for the night,” Mrs. Roddenstein agreed, “But after that we’ll have to discuss the best course of action.”

“She’s just a scared kid,” Cindy argued.

“No wielder of a talisman can ever be just anything.”

Their doorbell rang, and my blood ran cold. I moved forward just enough to duck behind a counter. Mom might see if I stayed on the stairs.

“Hey, Mrs. Chastfield,” Cindy answered, “Did Summer leave something here?”

“Summer disappeared, and cctv showed her running out of the grocery store. You’re the closest place from there, so I hoped maybe she ran back here.”

“Haven’t seen her,” Cindy said, “We’ll call you if she shows.”

“I don’t think you understand how important it is I find her,” Mom said.

“I completely understand, Mom and Dad can take the car and help you search the block.”

“Of course,” Jonah said, “Sorry we didn’t offer. We’re a little tired.”

“Lazy bums.” Mom muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

“You know what, Elise,” Cindy said, “I know for a fact you don’t understand the forces you’ve messed with. I don’t know where Summer is, but she made it clear she’s better off away from you.”

Mom was definitely scowling.

“You’ve been putting my daughter in danger.”

And she made no pretense of ignorance anymore.

“You put her in danger the moment you made your deal with that talisman,” Cindy countered.

“You had no right to bring her into all of this.”

“You brought her into this. I just gave her some protection.”

I didn’t want to hear mom trying to argue both Winter’s and her cases. Maybe she wasn’t being completely honest, maybe she chose to wield Winter, but that didn’t make her any safer.

If I wanted to save her, I couldn’t do it alone.

I snuck back up to the guest room, quietly transformed, and we flew into the night.

We watched through the window. River was asleep, which probably meant Mom didn’t tell her I was gone, or that River really didn’t care.

We lifted the window, accidentally melted some of the screen, and climbed in, shaking River awake once we reached her bed.

“AAAh!” She slammed us with her pillow, which caught fire.

She paused to look at us.

“AAAh!” She slammed us with the flaming pillow.

“River, it’s me.”

“AAAh!” We grabbed the pillow this time, extinguishing it.

“You’re going to set the house on fire.”

“Why did you run away?”

So she did know. Maybe we’d be better off without her help.

“You knew I was missing and you went to sleep?”

“Mom said I should stay at the house in case you came here.”

“And you went to sleep?”

“I got tired. Why are you a fire person?”

“Why didn’t you just sleep on the couch?”

She shrugged.

“Why are you a fire person?”

I sighed, this was why I came here.

“Mom made a deal and got caught up with an evil talisman, teaming up with other talismans that got caught up with him, so my friends and I got recruited by wielders of good talismans to save the world from her. We succeeded in getting the other two talismans, but mom has the nastiest of the three, and I might not be able to take her on even with power from the other two.”

River stared blankly.

“What?”

“Also she threatened me in a grocery store, and that’s why I ran.”

“What?”

“Tarot and Gamble is sort of real.”

“Is this a dream? Can I turn this into a basketball game or something.”

“You think you’re having a lucid dream and your first thought is basketball?”

“Magic basketball?”

I just stared at her.

“How do I even know you’re my sister? Shapeshifters exist, maybe this is just the weirdest prank of my life.”

“Should I set something on fire?” I offered.

“Just tell me something I’ve told Summer, and only Summer.”

“How would I know what you’ve only told me, I’m pretty sure you talk more to Kei and Lei more than you talk to me.”

“Then at least try.” She held her pillow threateningly.

“Hitting me with the pillow’s going to hurt you more than me.”

“Don’t care.”

I tried to think of something, but every fact about my sister had gone from my head.

“Most of the Tarot and Gamble fanfic you found,” I eked out, “Was too mature for you.”

We watched for a reaction.

She hit us with the pillow. It caught fire.

“Why did you do that again?”

“Your fact wasn’t good enough.”

“I’m sorry I don’t think about you enough to come up with River facts on command. Can you come up with a Summer fact?”

“You like books.”

We grabbed her pillow and extinguished it, throwing it behind us.

“Everyone knows that.”

“Does everyone know you kept wetting the bed when you were eight because you didn’t want to pause your chapters.”

“You peed yourself on the bench because you didn’t want to risk not being there if the coach called you.”

“There’s a fact,” River said, suddenly placated.

I finally detransformed.

“So you believe me?”

“What did you say about Tarot and Gamble?”

“It’s sort of real.”

“Sort of.”

“The talismans and the transformation stuff is real, the events are not.”

“Okay, and what did you say about mom.”

“She made a deal with a shifty talisman that is my talisman’s ‘sister’.”

River imitated my air quotes as a question.

“They’re called the sisters, they call each other sister, but they weren’t actually related in their original lives.”

“Original lives?”

“This isn’t relevant.”

“It is to me. How long have you known about all this?”

“Since May.”

“It’s September. You’ve kept this—Oh my god, Cindy’s one, isn’t she? That’s why she hangs out with you guys.”

I nodded.

“So it’s you and all your friends, Cindy, and her kid sibling who follows you around?”

“Cas doesn’t have a talisman.”

“Then why do you let xer follow you around?”

“Xe knows more than any of us do.”

“Okay, so you’re one of these talisman people—”

“Mystics.”

“And so is mom. Is dad one?”

I shrugged.

“Does dad even know?”

I shrugged.

“Why didn’t I get one?”

“Well I thought you did have one at first?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I thought it was the one mom has. There were three of them all together, so I thought it might be you, Kei, and Lei.”

River looked offended.

“You and mom have the same eyes,” I justified.

“You thought I was a bad guy?”

“It seemed more believable than mom being one, and again, three of them to match your group of three.”

River sustained a several minute long glare.

“You could have been possessed,” I offered.

“And who are the other two?” River asked, ignoring my placation.

“I have them for now.” I presented the keychain, held back enough that she couldn’t grab it from me.

“Then what do you need me for?”