etraya | UN: ScielCandide

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UN: ScielCandide | Video

[The camera is fixed on a table, upon which sits a neat stack of cards –– black with gold foil in the shape of a sun and moon bisecting each other. The user’s hands pass over the deck and spreads it wide into an arc. Her hands are tanned, with two rings on her ring finger and one on her index finger, and she has so many colourful braided bracelets that some wind around her palm.

Her voice is pleasant, playful, French, a little theatrical:]

Bonsoir, mes amies!

Tonight and tonight only, I will tell your fortune with a single card. Tell me your name, and if you would like to hear about love, money, health or the soul.

If it moves you, you must repay me with an amusing anecdote about yourself.

Ready to play?

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[Sciel pauses, and there's the smile again, helplessly amused.]

Every card has a context. Why do you want the cards to tell you bad things?

[He fidgets. Does he want to hear bad things?]

So I can be prepared. Something bad happened to me back home. I don't want it to happen again.

What happened?

[He can't look at her.

Get your chin up, he hears Pope say and he tries.]

My commander burned me. Killed me. He thought I was lying to him.

[There's a little pinch to her brow, concern. How terrible.]

Things like that don't happen twice, nor can the cards warn you of someone coming to attack you. But they could help guide you through the process, if you wanted.

[He feels cold. Scrubs a hand over his face.]

Okay. Yeah. What's that look like?

I can teach you how to do a reading. What all the cards mean is going to take some effort and practice on your art –– it's more than you'll memorize today –– but you could turn to the cards any time you had a question or felt unsure about what you needed to do.

[He desperately craves direction. He always has. He's just tired of getting that direction from people who want to hurt him.]

Yeah! Yes. I want that.

[He hands the card deck back to her.]

What do I do?

[She takes the deck and shuffles it; she riffles and bridges them, so fast it's almost a sleight of hand.]

Shuffle, then fan. [She does so, spreading out the cards on the grass between them in one smooth arc. The foil glints in the sunlight.] You can get a more layered reading by pulling multiple cards, but it's easiest to pull one.

Think of your question for them.

[The question is the same one he's asked himself before starting anything new: will I be any good at it?]

What's the best reading you ever got?

Draw one card and flip it towards you, rotating up. [She gestures; a swipe from navel to throat. He gets the second best:] The cards told me my husband was going to propose, so I went ahead and registered us to be married so I could surprise him, too. We had a good laugh about it.

Really? [An honest to God grin this time. That's a hell of a proposal story.] I guess I can give up on sneaking up on you. They can be that specific?

[A wry smile.]

Sometimes. Two of Cups, The Lovers, and the Four of Wands. The union of two forces, a decision about a relationship, and a happy marriage.

[Well the last two are things he doubts will ever apply to him, but two of cups he commits to memory. He needs allies. He needs to know that his brother is making wise choices in his alliances, too.]

What was his name? You don't have to answer that, I just... Names matter.

Pierre.

[It always feels so good to say his name.]

Would you like to draw?

[Pierre. He nods slightly; where he's from learning a name is a gift. Sciel is more open than anyone he's met in years, but that doesn't diminish the fact that she chose to share with him.]

Yeah. Can I draw for a question you ask?

If you want to read for me, sure.

[He takes the deck and shuffles it--not as artfully as she had, but with a steady determination.]

Okay, ask.

[She considers what her question should be for a moment.]

What risks am I afraid to take?

That's a three card question. Draw three.

[He at least would want a more complex answer if he were asking]

[She draws, selecting them and turning them over one by one –– the Ace of Swords, the Ace of Cups, the Page of Cups. She can’t hide the amusement on her face, her nose scrunched from the half-grimace-half-smile.]

Ooh. They’re really chatty today. What do you think they mean, looking at the pictures?

[A godlike hand clutching a sword thrust through a crown covered in laurels, another hand holding a cup with fountains and a white dove bursting from its basin, and a finely dressed man holding a cup with a fish in it.]

[He studies them but they're inscrutable to him.]

Well, Ace is a powerful thing in poker, right? And this one, the Ace of Swords, makes me think of victory. You stab someone through the head you've pretty much won.

And this one... the bird is going free. But the fish makes me sad. Makes me think of captivity.

Good enough guesses. You’re right about victory, but it’s less about combat and more about a breakthrough. The Ace of Swords is about a new focus and intensity, and with it, new plans.

[Her finger moves to the Ace of Cups.]

This one… the cup is overflowing. It’s an invitation to drink to the fullest after a long period of sadness. The bird brings us inspiration to try a new beginning. All of the Aces are about new beginnings, actually.

And this…

[She smiles.]

The fish is a surprise. The boy doesn’t know what to do with this surprise. The card is a message that something new is coming. The Cups are all about love and family, you know.

[Cups are family and love. Okay. He can remember that.]

A fish is a shitty gift, though. Hope whatever new coming your way is better than that.

If cups are love and family, what are swords?

If I don’t take the risk, nothing will come to me at all.

[She shrugs, smiles.]

Intellect and logic. And they’re powerful about it. They demand we are truthful with ourselves.

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