The Arcana Club

“That seems like a bad plan,” River said.

“Do you have a better one?” I asked.

She took a minute.

“Have you tried asking Mom nicely?”

“Threatened me in a grocery store.”

“Still worth trying.”

“Fine, when that doesn’t work, we go with my plan.”

“The bad one?”

“Yes,” I admitted, “The only one we have.”

The door to the house opened.

“Try plan A. Now!” River ordered in a whisper.

“Not where she can ground me!”

“Then go now!”

I ran out the window, calling Summer as quietly as possible on the way down.

By the time I returned to the Roddenstein’s guestroom, Cindy was sitting on the bed, glaring at the window.

“What were you thinking?” she asked, “We were worried the forces of light had kidnapped you while your mom was distracting us!”

“I thought it would be smart to not be here while you argued with her.”

“Okay,” Cindy didn’t seem any happier, “Where did you go then?”

“Back home.”

“What!” Cindy mouthed, clearly trying not to yell.

“I explained things to River.”

“Why would you do that? We don’t know if River can be trusted.”

“You didn’t know if we could be trusted.”

“You were getting the talismans regardless. You’re chosen. River’s just normal.”

“If I’m a mystic, and mom’s a mystic, couldn’t River be one too?”

“Yes, but you aren’t a mystic without a talisman, because a mystic without a Talisman is normal.”

“Unless you’re Cas.”

Cindy looked angrier at that comment.

“If I didn’t involve Cas, xe’d get in trouble somehow, just like River’s going to be since she knows now. What if she joins the forces of light because your mom’s with them? Just because she’s your sister doesn’t mean she’ll choose you over your mom.”

“It’s not a choice between us. I need her help to save mom.”

Cindy’s expression fell as she shook her head.

“Your mom chose this. She can’t be saved because there’s no danger to her. In fact it would be significantly more dangerous to help us now.”

“Would you say that if it was your mom?”

“My mom wouldn’t be stupid enough to make that choice in the first place.”

I scowled.

“Everyone can be stupid sometimes.”

“If your mom hasn’t backed out after being told to hurt you, why would you bother saving her?”

“She wouldn’t hurt me. That’s why she needs saving.”

Cindy sighed.

“I’m tired, and you’re safe for now. Just go to sleep.”

“Maybe I can explain if I show you my notes.”

“We can look at them in the morning. Go to bed.”

Cindy left the room. I detransformed, only just realizing I’d forgotten to.

“Nice to know you’re on my side,” I told Summer.

Winter needs to be saved from herself.

I fell asleep the moment I got the covers on me.

I came down the stairs that morning trying to avoid eye-contact with the Roddensteins after my argument with Cindy.

“Summer!” Mrs. Roddenstein waved me down to the breakfast table, “Jonah made pancakes. Get them while they’re hot!”

I didn’t see any pancakes on the table, or on the kitchen counter.

“They’re in the oven to keep warm,” Cas explained, catching my confusion.

“Thanks.”

“There’s bacon in the microwave, too.”

“And eggs in the skillet,” Cindy added, “Hope you don’t mind scrambled.”

“Scrambled is fine.”

I grabbed a small helping of the food, staring at it.

“Feel free to take as much as you want, we can always make more.”

I grabbed the rest of the eggs in the skillet, another pancake, and two more strips of bacon before sitting at the table.

“You should show us your notes or whatever it is you’ve put together after you get dressed,” Cindy said.

“I didn’t bring extra clothes,” I realized, noticing, finally, that I was still in yesterday’s clothes, too.

“We’ll get you some of Cindy’s old clothes,” Mrs. Roddenstein said.

“You don’t need to—”

“Bet you forgot your toothbrush, too,” Mr. Roddenstein said, “You’ll have to borrow one of the spares from our big pack. Cas can lend you some of xer toothpaste. Xe always keeps backups.”

“I’ve got a travel-size one I haven’t touched.”

“You don’t have to be so generous. I know I’m intruding.”

“Generosity isn’t necessarily a sacrifice, Summer,” Mr. Roddenstein said, “It would be more of an imposition if you didn’t accept it.”

“That’s code for ‘don’t stink up our house while you’re here.’” Cindy explained.

“Oh.”

I sniffed my arm. I couldn’t smell anything, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

“So you took notes?” Cas asked, changing the subject. “On what?”

“On everything going on,” I said, “I couldn’t sleep.”

“That’s great,” Cas said, “I’m terrible at taking notes.”

“You’re nine,” Cindy said, “You’ve got time to improve.”

“But will I?” Cas looked up at a dramatic angle.

“How am I supposed to know?” Cindy asked, “That’s up to you.”

Cas groaned. I laughed a bit.

Cindy gave a mock bow.

“Glad we could entertain you this morning, host of the sisters.”

I didn’t interact much more as I finished my breakfast. Once I was done, Mrs. Roddenstein ordered Cas to take me to brush my teeth, and told Cindy to help her find something I could wear.

Cindy’s sleeves were long on me, and I had to wear a belt to keep the jeans up, but at least I looked kind of cool in all-black.

After I finished admiring myself, I grabbed my notes and headed down to the table.

“They’re certainly colorful,” Cindy commented immediately.

I shrugged.

“It felt colorful.”

She grabbed a few of the pieces.

“I feel better about my note-taking skills now,” Cas said.

“What does that mean?”

“I have no idea what’s going on here.”

I took the notes, stacking them into piles.

“These are connected,” I pointed at most of the piles before moving to the largest one, “These are individual things.”

Cindy and Cas each grabbed a pile.

“So this is why you think she can be saved,” Cindy spread out her pile, focusing on the line that lead from “Talismans are less powerful/more dangerous without their partner/family.” to “Mom is in danger.”

“It’s possible,” Cas said, “Spirits are known to have an influence on their wielders and vice-versa. A less stable one may affect its host more, but that doesn’t mean it can be reversed.”

“It’s still worth trying,” I insisted.

Cindy grimaced.

“You can at least pretend you think it’s a possibility,” I requested.

“I know it’s possible,” she said, “But I wouldn’t get our hopes up on appealing to Winter’s conscience. She’s stubborn, and as the oldest, she has more influence on the other sisters than they do on her. If only one of them chose to join the light brother, it would be her.”

“But that’s how Scuro was saved, through Summer.”

“I did see that.” Cas pointed at the card, “But it’s just conjecture. A human could confuse light and fire, but the Dark Lady? Even if she’s changed sides, she’s still the Light Brother’s partner.”

“But—”

“We’re not saying it’s impossible, but we don’t want to be unrealistic.”

“We transform with the use of spirits to gain powers. I’m not sure unrealistic is possible to reach.”

“We’re not crazier than Mages,” Cas said, “Or Empowereds for that matter, or any other type of superhuman hiding like we are.”

“You think there could be even more types of superhumans?” I asked.

“Focus,” Cindy ordered, “Okay, if you’re right that Winter and your mom can be saved, how are you going to do it?”

“A duel,” I said, “I think they can be saved, but I’d like to separate them first.”

“Even with the other three sisters combined,” Cindy warned, “You still might not be a match for her. She’s one of the oldest talismans ever, as in Death may be the only one older than her. That’s a lot of time to accumulate strength.”

“You have the oldest talisman?”

“Yeah, yeah, great honor and duty,” Cindy waved the info away.

“And if this goes well, you’ll have the second oldest talisman,” Cas said, “To have all the brides and all the sisters so close together is unprecedented. Normally you’d be on different continents. Normally the sisters wouldn’t be so concentrated on one host.”

Cindy took a deep breath.

“If you’re going to beat her. You need to train.”

“And we should let everyone else know what we know.”

“I told Nerves. We had a phone call.”

“Do you think he would tell his mom?”

I cringed, not sure if I should correct them about Nerves’ gender or not. I shook my head though. Nerves didn’t tell her mom much of anything.

I made the sand lift off the ground, then made it fall, adding a few more grains each time. For some reason I thought training would be more majestic.

“Take a break,” Cindy ordered.

I sat on the bench. Nerves was sitting there too, nursing a bruise. We sat in silence for a moment.

“I understand why you didn’t tell me,” I started, “I don’t think I’m good with secrets, and it seems like you haven’t told your mom, so you couldn’t risk me—”

“I should have told you,” she said. It was weird how much it made sense for her to be a girl. It wasn’t like she dressed in a very girly way.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I kept getting mad that you didn’t know, but I think I just wanted you to know without having to tell you.”

“But I’m bad at paying attention.”

“Sorry for saying that,” Nerves said.

“Sorry for calling you a traitor in the game. Turns out I’m the one connected the real-life Winter, and no one’s thought I could be a traitor.”

“Why would you run away from home if you were a traitor?”

“To invade the group and destroy it from within.”

Nerves laughed.

“You could never.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

We hadn’t talked like this in a awhile.

“So we’re friends again?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, “Friends again.”

We hugged.

“Now I know we can take her on!”

“Kids,” Mrs. Roddenstein interrupted. “You should get food.”

“By the way,” I asked, “How did you get your mom to bring you here?”

“We said we wanted to prepare something for when we found you, and be there in case you ran to the Roddensteins.”

“Did everyone say that?” I asked.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Emmy confirmed.

“Is there a problem with that?” Van asked, “You sound worried.”

“Mom knows who we are, and is suspicious of the Roddensteins. If they tell her you’re all coming here for me—”

As if mentioning her was all the power needed, Mom kicked open the door.

“Kidnapping is a serious offense,” she said.

“Mom, what are you doing?” River asked from behind.

“I’m getting your sister back by any means necessary,” she glared daggers into me, “Winter!”

“Summer!” I yelled back.