Amanises stared at nothing. Her gaze was unfocused and her thoughts were running wild.
'Why did he do that? Amanises thought.
She felt her head begin to hurt as she thought.
'Ugh, in all my years of life why is this what confuses me the most? Ha, I'm not sure what's worse, him denying our friendship or this. Emotions are so hard. Keeping my humanity has been such a challenge it has been better as of late due to interactions with everyone as well as sharing anchors with the other me. But what about when we return? Will I end up like Klein? Maybe it's for the best, having a god who won't break from anything would be better for everyone. No I shouldn't think like that. But if I'm so confused by something as small as what just happened is it wrong to think like that? I'm a full grown woman. Why am I so shaken by something like this?' Amanises was lost in her thoughts.
Gently she traced her lips with her fingers.
'Damn, that fool really threw me off.' Amanises lampooned.
***
The Fool gently tapped the meeting table in Sefirah castle.
'Hmm, that was interesting. I do believe I felt something from that however it didn't seem to have the same effect as when others do it. Is it just my dulled emotions or something else?' The Fool pondered.
***
"Klein, you should come home now. This is insane! You don't have to put your life on the line. What are you even doing this for?" Melissa finally dropped her calm demeanor now that they were no longer in danger.
"I would love to return. More than anything. However I have learnt that I need to keep going along this path in order to protect everyone. Though a part of it is due to selfishness as I want to get revenge on the one who caused the tragedy in Tingen." Klein replied.
Melissa wore a bitter smile as she listened to Klein's words.
"Alright, I guess I can't stop you after all you're an adult." Melissa muttered.
"And you're not so instead of worrying about me, just focus on your future." Klein added.
Benson sighed as he watched the two of them argue. He turned to Hela.
"Why do you do this?" Benson asked.
"I… don't really know. Maybe it's just to get a sense of direction in my life. But I guess another reason is because I have people I care about and I want to accompany them." Hela answered.
"And Klein is one of them?"
"Yeah, well not at first but now that is 100% the case."
"You don't see you two breaking up at some point?"
"No, we have been through too much together and will go through much more. Even if several epochs pass I don't see us splitting up."
"Well that's nice. By the way did you say several epochs?"
"Yeah, once you become an angel you can live several epochs and that's without using the millions of ways to extend your lifespan. So we can essentially live forever." Hela explained.
Benson fell silent for a moment.
"Do you think Klein will remember us after epochs pass?" Benson asked.
"I don't know. Once you reach that level your humanity begins to fade and according to others you begin to feel detached from who you were before. Of course that's why people have anchors so they aren't consumed by divinity, but even then we will likely end up losing ourselves." Hela answered.
Benson nodded.
"Do you think-"
"Don't. This path is one of constant suffering. At the absolute max only advance to sequence 5 and only if there are actual dangers that you may face. Never touch divinity because you can never win against it." Hela interrupted.
"I don't think Melissa will listen." Benson said.
"Well, it's her decision. Whether she touches divinity or breaks in the process is up to her." Hela shrugged.
***
"No." The Fool spoke firmly.
"B-but-" Klein stuttered.
"A no is a no. I don't even understand why you would agree to this." The Fool interrupted.
"I know she's inexperienced but so was everyone else. In fact she's about the same age as Audrey was when she joined the Tarot club." Klein tried to argue.
"I sometimes forget you're not even a demigod yet." The Fool muttered.
"You let Lumina join and she's not even a teenager yet." Klein continued to argue.
"All you would be bringing her is suffering."
"She will do it either way so why not make it easier for her? Didn't she become a beyonder in your universe?"
"Fine." The Fool begrudgingly agreed. "Now leave. My current state is quite unstable."
***
Melissa's vision was filled with grey fog as she found herself seated at a grand table. A young noble woman who looked to be slightly older than herself stood up and bowed to the head of the table.
"Good afternoon Mr Fool~." She greeted in a cheery tone.
"Good afternoon Miss Justice." The Fool replied in a calm manner.
Miss Justice greeted everyone as she went down the table. She made it to the new member and noticed a card floating above her seat.
"Nice to meet you Miss Tower~." Miss Justice said.
Melissa was surprised and looked above her seeing the floating card.
"Haha, Mr Fool looks like you finally updated the new member system. I was beginning to get tired of asking." Justice said.
"Well, I was getting tired of answering so it's a win for both of us." The Fool added.
Melissa looked around the table to find Klein and saw him at the other end of the table. She also noticed his girlfriend Hela as well as the child who saved them known as the empress, the Star who sat across from her also looked oddly familiar.
"Mr Fool, since it seems we are taking family recommendations, may I request adding my dear son and godfather of Miss Empress to the table." The Hierophant said in a polite tone.
"Not happening, now let's move on." The Fool bluntly answered.
"Is Mr Fool playing favourites?" Adam joked.
"Yes, now let's move on."
Melissa was taken aback at how rude the Hierophant was being given the fact The Fool was a god, but she was also surprised at The Fool's oddly casual responses. But taking in the reactions of the others it didn't seem to be out of the ordinary.
'Actually, the short conversation with Miss Justice also seemed quite casual.' Melissa thought.
"Her majesty has a few diary pages she wants translated." The Hermit said.
'Diary pages?' Melissa thought, confused.
"Has she finally stopped crying from when we sent all those pages?" The Fool asked.
"No, it's just she's hoping there will be something to redeem him." The Hermit replied.
"So if these are bad should we send them?" The Fool asked.
"Umm, I guess we should because it's better to have her know then worry about what she doesn't. Though she did say that she had trust in the pages she picked."
The Fool read through the pages one by one.
"She has some good intuition. It's for once not one of those entries. Instead it's him complaining and also one where he's extremely depressed." The Fool said.
The pages floated around the table as everyone read through them. Melissa read the pages and quickly realised this was the diary of emperor Roselle.
'I can't believe they translated this. There must be so many secrets hidden in these pages. I wonder if I can ask for copies of the ones translated before. But what do they mean by those entries?' Melissa thought.
"Mr Fool, I was wondering if we could get snacks during the exchange segments as since we have a lot more people now they are taking quite a while." The Empress said.
The others nodded agreeing with the idea.
'What is this? I thought this was a secret organisation meeting but it feels like a sleepover.' Melissa lampooned.
The Fool waved "his" hand as bowls of snacks appeared along the table. Melissa didn't recognise any of them however the others began chatting about the selection and moving some of the bowls around the table based on what everyone liked.
Melissa's area ended up with a bowl of sweet chili chips and chocolate chip cookies. There was also sweet iced tea.
'These are interesting, I haven't heard of most of these snacks though I did end up with some more familiar options.' Melissa thought.
She took a cookie and bit in to it.
'These are very high quality. Probably very expensive as Miss Justice looks to be enjoying these snacks as well.' Melissa glanced across the table.
They began to do some exchanges as Melissa watched to see how everything was done. Eventually she gained the confidence to speak up.
"Does anyone have an umm? Potion formula I can buy?"
"What sequence? The Hanged man asked.
"Umm, the first one."
'Does she have any idea what she is doing? She's more clueless than Miss Justice when she joined. I wonder if she even knows what a beyonder is. So probably easy to swindl- I mean… yeah I mean scam.' Alger thought.
"I have 7 sequence 9 formulas. I have sailor, spectator, seer, apprentice, marauder, hunter and assassin." The Hanged man said.
Melissa turned to Klein.
"Don't pick any of them. None really suit you." The World said.
"Umm, I'll have a look at some more options first." The Tower said.
The Hanged man nodded.
'Hmm, it seems she knows Mr World. Looks like I won't be able to scam her.' Alger thought.
"If you agree to become my angel I can give you formulas and ingredients for free." The Hierophant said.
Suddenly a piano fell from the sky crashing on the Hierophant. The other chairs moved to avoid it.
"Which god do you believe in?" The High priestess asked.
"Umm, I believed in the Evernight goddess." Melissa answered.
"Believed?" The High priestess said curiously.
"Yeah, I assumed everyone here believes in Mr Fool."
"That clown doesn't care who you believe in. Anyway as a fellow believer in the goddess I'll give you a formula for free." The High priestess said cheerfully.
"Hey I didn't get that?" The Star said.
"Oh, shut up I was doing you a favour by preventing you from spreading your poetry. You know I was getting close to smiting you. Also it was a sequence 6 formula those don't grow on trees and didn't I get you that promotion." The High priestess responded.
'I?' Melissa wondered who this lady was. 'Hmm, given she is also a believer and also can smite people. Is she an angel of the goddess? Maybe I should go to church more.'
Melissa looked at the list which appeared before her. Reading through the descriptions she immediately found one that suited her.
"I would like the savant please." Melissa said.
"Alright," the High priestess turned to The Fool. "Give it to her."
"Weren't you supposed to do that?" The Fool asked.
"I don't have the formula."
"Alright but you got to pay for it."
"Why? Wasn't it meant to be free?" The High priestess complained.
"Yeah, for her. You got to pay for it." The Fool replied.
"It's only sequence 9." She argued.
"Yeah and that's 200 pounds I'm missing out on if I give it for free." The Fool stated.
'200 pounds.' Melissa's head began to hurt hearing the price.
"Oh, can you also throw in the ingredients?" The High priestess asked shamelessly.
"500 pounds." The Fool bluntly stated.
'500 pounds.' Melissa felt her head about to explode.
She had heard the prices from the other exchanges but she assumed they were for some high level stuff. Why was enhanced memory 500 pounds? Melissa quickly did the math.
'I could buy a lifetime's supply of bread with that money!' Melissa screamed inwardly.
"I'll get Amani to give you a kiss." The High priestess said with a dead pan expression.
Everyone flicked their heads between the two of them. Melissa noticed this seemed to be a surprise to the others as well. The Magician summoned some paper as well as a pen and frantically started writing.
"... 500 pounds." The Fool managed to utter some words.
"Broke ass god." The High priestess clicked her tongue.
"You're the one trying to bargain 500 pounds down to a kiss." The Fool retorted.
"Yeah, from a goddess. Do you know how many human sacrifices people would make for that?" The High priestess fired back.
"Did someone try to do that?" The Fool asked.
"..." The High priestess was lost in thought for a moment. "I didn't accept it."
"How many?" The Fool asked curiously.
"34. That number was meant to be symbolic of my birthday though as there were 22 regular people and 12 beyonders. So it could be more." She answered.
"Yeah that makes sense." The Fool nodded.
"So are you accepting the offer?"
"I want to start by saying you're not talking about yourself. Also the price is now 600 pounds." The Fool responded.
"Broke ass god."
***
Melissa sat on the very comfortable seats in the karaoke room holding a glass of something. She stared at her drink and thought about the meeting that just happened.
'Why was that conversation between gods… so childish?' Melissa was thoroughly confused.
"Umm, nice to see you again." Leonard said to Melissa.
"Oh, umm hi." Melissa said back.
"Surprised by the meeting I guess."
"Yes, is it always like that?" Melissa asked.
"It takes some getting used to. By the way, they sent me to tell you they picked a song for you to sing."
"I can't sing though."
"Can't be worse than Alger. I never heard it myself but the others talk about it like it's a horror story."
"I guess it can't hurt." Melissa shrugged and walked to the microphone.
"Apparently when Alger sings it does." Leonard joked.
***
"Why did you say that?" Eternal Darkness Amanises looked as if she was going to cry at any moment.
"You two need to get more comfortable with each other. By the way I know it was embarrassing but you two acted especially weird. It wasn't like I was actually going to go through with it." Evernight replied.
"Umm, right, yeah."
"You're acting weird. What happened?"
"..."
"You kissed on that date didn't you?"
"He started it."
"Stop acting like a child."
"Alright… but what should I do?"
"Start by having an actual conversation with him." Evernight stated.
"Yeah you're right. But…" Eternal Darkness sighed.
"What's the problem?"
"He's even more unstable than before."
"How did that happen?"
"I don't know. It was definitely something during that fight though." Eternal Darkness answered.
***
"Big brother Lumian wants to ask if you noticed it." Lumina said to Adam.
"Yes. However at my current level it's not something I can fix. Actually even as a pillar I probably wouldn't be able to fix it. I could most definitely suppress it for a little while but it's not something I can fix." Adam replied.
"He wants to ask what we can do."
"All we can do is help him to the best of our ability." Adam answered.
Lumina went back to playing with Amon. Adam sat down and thought to himself. He looked down at his shadow in it reflected another him however something was different.
"They haven't noticed. Maybe because you're weak from me taking over." Adam muttered to the shadow.
"Have you discovered the humanity you were searching for?" The shadow asked.
"Not yet but I think I'm getting closer. Perhaps in the next world."
"I don't see it happening, at least not for a while." The shadow then returned to its slumber.
***
Skits because I felt like it. (These ones are Canon.)
***
(The adventures of Lumian and Amon part 1 not sure if there will be a part 2)
Lumina held hands with Amon as they walked around the city. A newspaper boy runs around advertising.
"Bayam destroyed by mysterious fires! Also Fors Wall announces a new book!"
"I wonder who caused that." Lumina said sarcastically.
Amon held a newspaper in his hand. He let out a chuckle.
"It's a shame Mr Fool doesn't let me in to those meetings. I would have loved to see the inspiration for this. But he seems to have a grudge against me from his previous world. But I'm a completely different person, I'm even looking after my dear god-daughter. Well at least he was nice enough to give my sequence 1 characteristics back." Amon said.
"Can you buy me Fors's new book when it comes out?" Lumina asked.
"No, I will be responsible and not buy you the book."
"But you will steal it for me."
"You know me too well. I still don't think you should be reading those books. However, since when did I care about what you should and shouldn't do? Also I'm still doing a better job than Aurore as I won't let you drink at 13."
"Big sis Aurore says she's going to kick your ass." Lumina reported.
"Oh, I'm just a poor king of angels. What can I do against a great old one? Poor me." Amon acted dramatically.
***
(The book)
"Miss Wall. I don't think the church is going to be happy with your new novel." The publisher said.
"I already got it approved." Fors said.
"By who?"
"The pope. Said it was a revelation from the goddess."
"By the way aren't you a believer in the goddess of steam and machinery?" Her publisher asked.
"Well after the pope of the Church of Evernight approved my novel I think I might convert."
"I don't see how they approved this."
"That's blasphemy, this book was an order from the goddess. Also I changed the names… slightly." Fors replied.
Meanwhile in the Evernight divine kingdom.
"Hahahahaha." Evernight was rolling on the ground.
"This feels wrong." Eternal Darkness said.
"Have you read what she wrote for the Church of the Fool in your world? Plus we get a split of the profits." Evernight said.
"You do realise that the only people who will know it's about me are the people closely related to the Tarot club right? Everyone else will think it's about you."
Evernight sat up and looked to be in deep thought.
"Worth it." Evernight said.
"Really?"
"100%."
Branches and plant life emerged in the divine kingdom and a woman with voluptuous features entered.
"I was told about the book." Lilith said.
"I'll get you early access. By the way, who told you?" Evernight said.
"Klein. He was tired of you all so he went to complain to me. It's a shame I wish you two would visit more often. It's so boring being left in my realm all alone. I don't get to be a part of the little club meetings." Lilith said.
"Hmm, we're running out of cards. I wouldn't mind you replacing that vampire but Klein's pretty adamant about not replacing members. You could be strength I guess, it would sell the disguise of Omebella because of her relation to the giant king." Evernight pondered.
"Great, I'll see you at the next meeting. I already got approval by the way. I just wanted to tell you beforehand."
***
Fors finally relaxed after a full night of writing. Xio looked over the manuscript and was visibly disgusted.
"What's wrong?" Fors asked.
"You do know I'm a believer in the goddess right?" Xio said.
"I got it approved by the pope."
"You got approved for a romance novel. Not… whatever this is."
"It's my style, they should understand that."
"Do you really think any high ranking member of the Church actually reads your novels?"
"The goddess does. "She" gave the revelation so she must know what "she's" talking about. If you think otherwise then I will report you to the church for heresy or whatever." Fors said smugly.
Xio grabbed a book and hit Fors over the head.
"Ow, what-"
Bang. Xio hit her again.
"This is abuse!" Fors yelled before being smacked on the head again. "Ow."
Xio turned and left the room. Fors went back to writing her manuscript when she realised. Xio took it.
"Xio! Give it back my publishers will kill me if I don't finish that!" Fors ran to chase after Xio.
Notes:Adam approached Lilith during the after party of the meeting.
"It's been a while." Adam said.
Lilith who had just come back from her duet with Amon looked at Adam with an inquisitive expression.
"Quite the presentation earlier though we didn't really need it. So what do you need?"
"It's more for formalities. By the way, when was Amon added?"
"I don't know, maybe he convinced Lumina to complain for him. But that's beside the point." Lilith responded.
"I guess. Did you perhaps convince that sanguine to send a recommendation?"
"No, I was invited by Zhou. Anyway, what do you want?"
"I simply wanted to talk to a fellow survivor." Adam had a relaxed smile on his face.
"What do you need?" Lilith clicked her tongue.
Adam's smile shrunk slightly.
"Let's talk afterwards."
"Why?"
"You'll find out."
***
"Klein." Eternal Darkness Amanises walked up to The Fool.
"Ha what is it? If it's about the book, don't worry I won't show up to the book signing." The Fool joked.
"We need to have a proper conversation." Amanises said in a serious tone.
***
"That's a stupid plan. I thought you were meant to be the smart one." Lilith said.
"It's the only one that has a chance of working." Adam replied.
"And it also has a larger chance of killing us all."
"Yes, but I was never a gambler. So I should have quite a bit of luck saved up." Adam joked.
"Ha, since when did you switch pathways?" Lilith let out a small laugh. "Anyway, why did you want to talk here?"
"It's pretty simple. I didn't want "him" to hear."
"Yeah, it makes sense. Though a bit rude to call Klein a "he"."
"But not incorrect. At this point "he" has almost no humanity. By the way, make sure to leave the others in the dark." Adam responded.
"Ok. I guess staking my life on this is better than dying helplessly."
***
Adam returned to the garden of Eden and immediately began putting his plan in to motion.
"Have you perhaps grown a soft spot for these people?" His shadow asked.
"I'm not sure. Though I do hope I have, even if it is for selfish reasons." Adam replied.
"There is nothing wrong with that."
"I know."
***
Lumina walked around Trier. She noticed several strange looks from people passing by and a few people beginning to follow her.
'How annoying.' She thought.
Ever since reaching sequence 6 walking in public had become especially irritating.
'I'm 10 years old for god's sake.'
She turned down an alley as the people followed her, she was already gone.
"How is my favourite god-daughter doing?" Amon asked in a playful manner.
"Fine. Some people were following me but it wasn't any trouble. None of them were even mid sequence. Didn't even bother fighting them." She replied.
"Ah, my god-daughter has grown so much. I still remember when you just became a witch, you would beat up anyone who even looked in your direction." Amon recounted.
"Well I guess I am more mature now." Lumina boasted.
"Maturity is good and all but that shouldn't stop you from having fun. So let's go pull some pranks."
"Yeah and let's get a drink afterwards big brother Lumian said it is what you're meant to do when celebrating."
"Let's wait until you're older."
"Alright, fine."
***
Klein looked had finished making preparations for his new persona. His digestion of his potion had been slowed recently but due to Adam's help it should be done by the time he would be ready to kill Ince Zangwill.
He stared at his face in the mirror which greatly resembled Dunn Smith.
"Captain." He whispered.
Suddenly the door opened as Hela entered.
"Wow, nice disguise. Anyway I just came here to say goodbye."
"Yeah, see you." Klein said with a hint of sadness in his voice.
Hela smiled and gave Klein a peck on the cheek. Klein's face was noticeably disappointed however Hele walked off smiling. As she was about to close the door she spoke.
"I'll give you a proper one when I'm back."
***
"Hey Mr Hierophant. I just wanted to ask if you're ok with a few of us hunting one of your oracles." Fors asked.
"Sure why not. I can always replace them. I'll manipulate the true creator to send a divine revelation." Adam replied.
"Oh, thanks."
"By the way how's the novel going?" Adam asked.
"It's been challenging. Especially after my roommate burned the manuscript. After that I completely lost my train of thought."
"I could hypnotise you so you're extremely motivated to finish the novel."
"Really? Alright, after I hunt the oracle, let's do that." Fors shouted.
The rest of the Tarot club looked at Mr Fool since the other Amanises was in ghost form.
"By the way Mr Fool, how is your review of Xio going?" Audrey asked.
"Oh she's approved, it's just she hasn't changed my honorific name so she hasn't accepted the membership. Well she also doesn't know about it so maybe during the hunt tell her." The Fool replied.
The Temperance who had recently reached sequence 3 sent a message to everyone. Her sentence appeared in illusory text in front of the members.
"Shouldn't we all attack some other evil organisations? It has been a while since the Tarot club had done something like that."
***
"Miss Audrey, I'm surprised you were invited as well." Xio said.
"Guess they knew I was a secret beyonder. This gathering host must know quite a lot." Audrey replied.
"Oh, Xio we actually have one more person joining us." Fors mentioned.
A cloaked woman walked over. Her face was covered by a mask however the bottom half was exposed revealing an extremely pale complexion and long light gold hair fell down to her waist.
"What can I call you?" Xio asked.
"Hela."
***
In the beyonder gathering they had spilt off to explore individually in order to protect their identities. However Hela, Fors and Xio circled around before meeting up.
"Just follow the plan." Hela told the other two.
Audrey turned invisible and headed to her position. Fors moved towards the direction of Mr X. Hela slowly gathered spirits to prepare for an attack.
Lewis Wein scanned the beyonder gathering. He didn't understand why the lord had sent a revelation to send an invitation to those three people; however, it was the will of god and he was in no position to question it. He tried to look for the special guests however one had disappeared, another was simply walking around looking at stalls and the last was seemingly gathering spirits for an attack. He had no clue about who they were going to attack however given the strength of the guest they must be at least sequence 5. Mr X prepared to assist in case of an emergency.
"I came, I saw, I recorded."
An illusory book appeared in front of Fors as she selected a spell. Beforehand she had obtained several abilities in order to prepare for this battle. A storm of lightning suddenly struck at Mr X who was about to blink away.
"Seal." Audrey appeared holding a charm engraved with The Fool's sacred emblem.
The gathering space had suddenly lost connection to the spirit world. Lewis barely realised in time as he switched tactics. He used a recorded ability to evade as best he could however he still suffered major damage.
As he began to recover from his confusion, spirits began attacking. His mind suddenly fell in to confusion as a psychic attack struck him. The guests who were mostly low sequence beyonders realised what happened and suddenly fell in to a panic.
Hela made sure Mr X was dead as she fired death knell blowing off his head. Audrey and Fors appeared as they each dropped the card representing them on the corpse. Fors took the characteristic and Hela took his artifact.
***
The churches and military were in a sudden panic as several secret organisations were attacked all at once by seemingly the same organisation. Tarot cards were left at the scene and from some eye witnesses they seemed to correspond to the members who participated.
An oracle of the Aurora order was killed by the Magician, Justice and Death.
A sequence 3 saint alongside many other members including several sequence 5's of the rose school of thought were killed by Temperance, the Devil, the Moon and the World.
A sequence 4 saint of the Moses Ascetic order was killed by the Hermit and Hanged man.
Several hideouts have been reported to the churches and military by the Tower and Star.
The Demoness of blue and Demoness of brown were killed by the Empress and the Lovers.
A sequence 2 angel of the Secret order alongside several saints were killed by the Hierophant.
Two sequence 2 angels of the Numinous Episcopate were killed by the High Priestess.
A separate attack on the Rose school of thought where Suah was killed by Strength.
The Tarot club possesses at least 16 members with at least 4 angels. Most of whom seem to be sequence 1. Death is suspected to be involved in the death of Qilangos however the event that has just taken place makes it seem otherwise.
The Tarot club seems to believe in The Fool. A charm was found at the scene where the oracle was killed. It had a pupil-less eye and contorted lines representing secrecy and change. This is suspected to be the sacred emblem of The Fool.
Most organisations have declared the Tarot club as an evil organisation and are looking for members however the churches of Evernight and Earth Mother have remained silent regarding the matter.
***
Meanwhile in Sefirah castle an emergency meeting took place.
"Guys I got the report." Leonard summoned it for everyone to see.
"Ha, only sequence 1 I'm feeling a bit offended." Amanises said.
"I mean who would expect two deities to descend and kill some random angels." Lilith responded.
"I'm feeling a little degraded on the report because they think I'm only sequence 2." Amon said.
"Well, you should have killed some more saints." Adam replied.
"I don't see how killing some saints made them think you're sequence 1. And for the record I killed two angels, they just don't know about it yet."
"Which one?" Adam asked.
"The purple one. I decided to turn "her" into an avatar because Lumina was wearing purple."
"I feel kind of weird being here as I didn't really do anything." Melissa said.
"It's fine you're only sequence 9." Klein comforted her.
"Anyway, with all that done, let's have a celebration." The Fool popped open a bottle of champagne.
"By the way I feel like we forgot something." Fors said.
"Yeah, I think we did." Hela muttered.
"Oh, shit we forgot Xio." Audrey shouted.
Everyone suddenly gasped looking at Audrey.
"What?" She asked, confused.
"Audrey, you just swore." Fors pointed out.
Audrey looked lost in thought for a moment.
"Oh, I did. Well at least my parents aren't here. By the way how much alcohol does it take for a god to lose memories."
***
The moment Fors returned from Sefirah castle she noticed someone in her room. However due to her current intoxicated state she didn't immediately recognise who it was.
"Hey kid, you know robbing people isn't very…" Fors suddenly felt sick before shortly after throwing up on the floor.
"Fors!" Xio shouted.
Fors gained some clarity when she heard Xio's voice.
"Oh, Xio, sorry I went drinking with friends and abandoned you in the chaos. Please forgive me."
"You know," Xio paused for a moment. "Your bounty is 25,000 pounds and that's just the Loen kingdom I heard the churches are offering even more."
Fors suddenly felt herself sober up.
"Well, he was a bad guy in my defence. All I did was kill a heretic for the goddess." Fors said smiling.
"Well I guess they don't know it was you. Also you really committed to converting to the goddess. But you still got some explaining to do. By the way the entire world seems to be after you. I didn't get to see the whole report due to my low rank however since I was a witness I managed to see your part of this whole event. So which one were you?"
"I'm the Magician." Fors answered.
"I guess it fits. Keep going."
"So basically the Tarot club is an organisation directly connected to Mr Fool. So turning me in is akin to offending a god," Fors then muttered something barely audible. "Though I'm not sure if he would save me after I said I would eat him. Hopefully he forgot about that."
"I wasn't actually planning on turning you in!" Xio then mumbled something quietly. "Your bounty isn't high enough for that. Also the guy was evil so it's reasonable."
"Anyway we are by all means good. Just because our god isn't orthodox doesn't mean we are evil. Also we are secretly allied with two of the churches."
"I guess that makes sense," Xio then froze. "What did you just say?"
"We aren't evil?" Fors said, seemingly confused.
"You know which part I'm talking about!"
"Oh, yeah. Sorry I'm still a bit drunk. We are allied with the Evernight goddess and Earth Mother."
Xio suddenly fainted in shock. Fors, who was too drunk and tired to think properly, decided going to bed was a good idea and to deal with this tomorrow.
***
Xio woke up the next day feeling as if the previous day was just a fever dream. She sat up and realised Fors left her on the floor.
'I'm definitely claiming your bounty now.' She thought, mildly annoyed.
***
Later that day Fors explained everything and convinced Xio to join the Tarot club. Later that day the gathering took place.
"Good afternoon Mr Fool~." Miss Justice said as usual.
"Good afternoon Miss Justice." The Fool replied.
Audrey greeted the rest of the Tarot club and reached Xio.
"Good afternoon Xio. Wait sorry I meant Miss Judgement."
Audrey was still suffering from a horrible hangover due to yesterday's events.
"Good afternoon Miss Justice. I'm sorry but do you know me?" Xio asked.
"Yes. You will see who I am later."Justice replied.
"Mr Fool, you should stop delaying the meeting." The High priestess spoke up.
"I'm still preparing. After all, things need to be perfect for me and Amanises's second date." The Fool replied playfully.
"You know usually it's meant to be the first date you try your best."
"Well better late than never."
Xio was incredibly confused.
'Who is someone a god would date? Maybe another god. Wait, that novel Fors was writing. Was that actually real!' Xio shivered at the thought.
"Umm, I am wondering if anyone has the sequence 7 formula for the arbiter pathway." Xio managed to speak up.
"I got it." The Fool said.
"Umm, I'm not sure what I can trade for it."
"Money is fine."
Xio was surprised at the fact The Fool asked for money however the others didn't seem surprised.
"How much?"
"I'll give you a discount so 500 pounds." The Fool answered.
The High priestess suddenly slammed the table.
"You goddamn scammer! Why does she get a discount but I don't?" She exclaimed.
"Because I feel like it." The Fool
***
Xio stared in to space after that meeting she was visibly shaking as she processed the events that took place. Fors walked in to the room with a cup of coffee.
"How was it?" Fors asked before taking a sip.
"Can I quit?"
"No, that's the number 2 rule in the Tarot club."
"You know it feels like I just joined a cult." Xio said.
"Congratulations, you finally got it. Maybe you aren't so brainless after all."
Xio frowned before pouncing on Fors.
***
"Amani, glad you could join me." The Fool said gleefully.
"Well you're the one who can summon me and I asked for this meeting so I can't really miss it." Amanises replied.
"Well, I have an amazing day planned so I hope we can have some fun." The Fool reached out "his" hand.
She took "his" hand as The Fool began their "date".
Notes: