A Fool’s Journey?

From Lira:

After I remembered HFM Gwyneth’s collection of tarot cards, I couldn’t get divination off my mind. So I did what any self-respecting Chimerical Librarian would do: I looked it up on the internet. Cross-checking with terms like “sorcery” and “wizard”, I came up with quite a lot of pictures of different printings of tarot decks, and a number of prominent images of icosahedra. I’m still having a hard time understanding why wizards and sorcerers all over the internet seem obsessed with this 20-sided shape, particularly as the traditional tarot card pack has a 21-card Major Arcana, but maybe it’s difficult to make a henicosahedron, or maybe since the die is numbered 1-20, the 0-numbered Fool card somehow falls outside of the icosahedron’s range.

Strangely enough, it seems that my fae nature affords me more power than I’d previously realised. The moment I started focusing intently on tarot cards, it was as if they were everywhere, floating around me, stuck in my hair, even inked on my skin, along with some strange symbols I still don’t quite understand.

In any case, I left the music room with images of tarot cards and icosahedra in my mind, and on my body, and I ended up in a shopping street that seemed to cater to all things wizardly. I tried to mimic the sort of dress I saw on the female wizards I found on the internet. I’m glad that as a librarian I don’t have to bare so much flesh, but maybe it’s important for the wizard(ess?) to get in touch with her physical body and relate it to her surroundings in order to find the right answers to her questions.

Once I had some supplies, I had to find a way back to the library and acquire an unused study. They were very kind to me when they found out what I was attempting to do—I think I picked up notes of pity as well, but I wasn’t going to argue when they offered me a study of my own for a moon-length’s time, on HFM’s credit. I suspect she’ll be none too pleased when she finds out I’ve been doing this. I wonder if they’ve even noticed I didn’t come back.

I unpacked most of the stuff: the icosahedral lamp I found cast appropriately mystical lights on the walls as it rotated, and the study came with a lovely magical circle already etched into the floor (I coloured it myself). I lit some candles, put up some posters for reference, and looked up how to find things using cards and wizardry.

The “Find Object” spell I found first of all was going to be useless to me: it said first of all that I had to belong to a school of Divination, which I do not. And secondly, I was shocked to find that it apparently only works on objects that are within a thousand feet of me! What good was that going to do? I was a bit peeved. And then there was some additional bs about it not working if there was even a sliver of lead in between me and the thing I was searching for. Obviously, I was going to have to improvise.

So, I guess this means I have a conundrum. Now, it’s in my nature to research and solve problems, but I’m also meant to work within parameters. So I had to find a way to put that location spell out of my mind and come up with another way to find my way home. Otherwise, it might take me uncountable numbers of short hops, only to places with no lead, and what if I had to come back to the library to research something else? I’d be stuck in a loop of having to follow the rules of locating things via magic, but also none of this has seemed to need anything more than directed thought and a good visual imagination. Or at least that’s how it feels to me.

I headed over to one of the tables where I’d set out some cards in what seems to be the most popular divinatory layout, the “Celtic Cross”.

I guess, if I’m going to find my way home, or at least find my Queen, through divination, I’d better try and understand what all these cards mean. Every deck seems to come with a little booklet, but the meanings they list are all a bit murky, and there’s always something in the book about using your divine energy to find out what they really mean, and sometimes the meanings aren’t what’s written—and frankly, some of the booklets disagree on which card means what and that does my head in.

As a created being, do I even have divine energy?

I guess we’ll find out in the weeks to come; I only have a month to figure this out, or I’ll have to rack up some more debt in HFM’s name.

*Chronicles & Legends’ Oracles Oasis is coming soon!*

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