-The rain pours down upon you, soaking you to the bone as you run along the dark streets, looking for sanctuary from the freezing rain. You turn a corner and the dim light of a candle in a nearby window catches your eye. You barely notice the word 'Open' on a sign nestled on the door before you sprint through, the door setting off the ringing of the small bell as it closes. You are panting, shivering and dripping everywhere. You remove your cloak and place it on the coat rack by the door. You look around as you huddle close to yourself, trying to get even the slightest bit of warmth to course back through your chilled frame.
Glancing around, you are in what would seem to be a family room in an expensive house. The floor is covered completely with an immaculate, velvet carpet. To the left there are two wide chairs with the same velvet cushioning and a small table made of mahogany nestled between them. On the table is a tray holding a tea kettle and two cups on small plates. The chairs face an burning fireplace nestled into the wall, lighting up the room an giving off a warm and homey feel. At the right, all that is noticeable is a curtain that drapes from the ceiling to the floor, blocking whatever is behind it completely from view.-
"Now, what would someone be doing outside in such weather as this? My, fate seems to have smiled upon you for you to have happened along here."
-You look up as you hear a soft, kind voice. A tall, slim figure steps out from behind the curtain, a kind smile on his ghastly white face. His pale features, odd dress, unnaturally coloured hair and piercing gaze had slightly startled you. His gaze was disconcerting, but the serene smile below beckoned you forward, keeping you where you stood.-
"Come now, my friend, sit with me and rest awhile. Have some tea and allow me to tell you a story while you wait for the storm to pass. And mind not the water dripping from you, all will dry in here."
-The man walked over to the small table and grabbed the tray before he walked back past you, heading past the curtain. Hearing a small call for you to follow, you tentatively take your first step towards the obscured area of the room. You push back the curtain enough to enter where the man had left to. In the center of this section of the room is a long table covered in a maroon tablecloth that drapes down to the floor. One chair is nestled on each of the long sides of the table, the man you had met earlier in the far chair. On either end of the table was a candelabra holding five lit candles. The tea tray was on the table to his left and a stack of large cards to his right.-
"Please, have a seat and a hot cup of tea. It will warm you right up."
-Slowly, you make your way to the table and pull out the other chair and sit down. As you are nestled, he slides you over a small plate with one of the cups , steaming and full of tea. You slowly take the cup and sip from it as he moves the tea tray to a small table behind him. Then, he reached for the cards and pulled them in front of him, drawing the first card and laying it face-up in your direction.
"I thought I might share a story to pass your time while you stay here. These cards are Tarot cards. I know you've heard of them, although they aren't really about what is commonly thought of them. They don't tell of your doom, they tell you of how to find one's higher self, thus leading to your own spiritual awakening. Each card has a meaning and will tell of a different chapter you may have already or will go through in your life.This story will be of my life... It is a tale that can be easily interpreted by each of these Majour Arcana. This card, The Fool, is interpreted as either the very beginning or the final end. For me, it represents the beginning. You may want to get comfortable... This story of mine is a long one, indeed.
"The Fool - My story begins as all of the world's creatures do: the Fool. The newly incarnated soul, free from the imprints of the society around him. An infant. Much like anyone's story, my chapter of infancy is a short one. The only difference from any other commoner's chapter, I was born into as the prince of demons."
-As the word 'demons' leaves his mouth, your eyes widen and you are stricken with a feeling of mortal terror. You scoot back in your chair and are about to get out of this place as quickly as you can, but he throws up his hands and speaks before you can move again.-
"Please, please, stay. I am a demon, but I'm not the stereotypical demon you've heard about in stories. I'm not an envoy from the Devil to come corrupt the world and send it into darkness. I should have said the former prince of demons. I've not been aligned with them for a long long time. Now please, come back and allow me to finish my story, the storm is too great for you to leave now."
-With great reluctance, you slightly push your chair forward, sitting yourself precariously on the edge of your chair, ready to flee at a moment's notice. He sighs and pulls out the next card from the stack and lays it on on top of The Fool.-
"The Magician - Being the first true card in the series of Tarots, he represents the beginning of something new: my life as a child. I have already told you I was the prince of the demons. I lived in a wondrous palace in the center of the Underworld, only child to the Emperor and Empress. I had such promise... Growing up with manners and learning how to properly rule. I may have been strict, but I was loved by all that new me, the most beloved prince in the land.
"High Priestess - Granny, as I grew to call her, was a kind old lady who was always there to help with anything I needed. Whenever faced with a problem with family or what I should do concerning the people of the kingdom, I always went to her. Her vast wisdom seemed endless to me as she always was there with an answer to what I should do. Following her great wisdom, it seemed as if it had rubbed off on me as I grew older, learning how to make wise decisions without seeking Granny.
"Empress - My mother. The strength of her mind was surpassed by none in all of the lands. She could think though anything and find the best course of action before starting anything. She was a loving mother, always being there to comfort my injury or to tell me a story at night. The humans have given her a bad name for her deeds, but she was a loving mother to me nonetheless. She always wanted the best for me, making sure I lived a happy life of luxury.
"Emperor - My father. The authority this man possessed was so great, anyone would do anything he said without a second thought, keeping the structure and stability of his kingdom tightly together under his strict rule. He was a strong man and always wanted the best for me but didn't want me to be pampered all my life. He wanted me to grow to be a man, to be strong and stand up for myself. I always wanted to be like him... Strong, respected and powerful.
"Hierophant - Being the male counterpart to Granny, I called him Gramps. He was the old man that kept me on the right path to keep with our family traditions. Despite the many times I had tried, and failed, to be a rebellious young one like most children grow to be, he was the one that always kept me stable. When all got to hard for me to handle, he was there to assure me that all wasn't for naught, as I would soon take over in my father's place as king.
"Lovers - Ah... My old love... I had fallen for a human, I'll leave the gender to your imagination, on a trip to the Surface Realm with Granny. We had met and fallen for each other instantly... We both knew that our love was forbidden but we couldn't help ourselves. We were madly in love and couldn't keep from each other. I would constantly sneak away from the palace to be with them constantly. We couldn't stand being away from each other for long... It pained the both of us.
"Chariot - My family had found out of our affair. They let me off with a warning, stating that if I promised to never see the human again, they would look the other way. But I couldn't... I was happy... I forced myself away from my family, continuing to be with my love. I was determined to be with them forever... No matter what I had to do. I kept my eyes on that goal and never gave up, my willpower never faltering.
"Justice - My father had caught wind of my constant meetings with my love and... true to his word, Justice was served. He had found my love and brought them to our palace... In the form of public execution... He had discarded my love... The same should have happened to me but... He wouldn't kill his own child and sentenced me to exile, stripping me of my title of Prince and banishing me to the Surface Realm.
"Hermit - As I wandered alone and helpless through the Surface Realm, I had thought on my past... learning how there was no other path for the choices and actions I had made. In an attempt to put the past behind me, I had began moving forward on my path again. Despite the slow speed I was taking and the lack of knowing where or what I was heading towards, I kept walking my path forward to my future.
"Fortune - As I walked down my unknowing path, my life and current situation came crashing down upon me. I was unsure of what to feel. Many emotions were cascaded over me. I felt waves of anger and rage at my parents for what they had done, of remorse and sorrow for my late love and of hopefulness and optimism for the better days to come. My world was falling down around me, then it rebuilt itself. My emotions were on a roller coaster that I could barely find any way to keep up with.
"Strength - Through all of this, through all of the crazy emotions my body threw at myself, there was one good thing that came from it. Strength. After my emotions stopped running, I had found in the anger and sorrow and hopefulness a strength within myself to face the hardships before me. It was a strength that gave me the ability to keep calm even as my mind ran over my past again and again. I had not once shed another tear after I had found it within myself to stay strong, even in such a state of emotional duress.
"Hanged Man - And around this time, the thought occurred to me: I wasn't at the palace anymore. I didn't need to be someone my parents wanted me to be; I could finally be myself. I could do what I wanted, be who I wanted to be without fear of punishment from their strict rules. This changing of my perspective on my new life had donned on me so suddenly that I wasn't sure what it was at first. When I found out, though, I realized that my life had only begun. Then... I realized one more thing... I wasn't at the palace anymore... I didn't know what was expected of me. I didn't know what I was supposed to do anymore. I was scared... It was as if I was just a mere infant thrown into the middle of the world with no one to follow. I was stuck there... Hanging.
"Death - This realization had brought about the death of my former life. Sending the me that was the proper and honourable being I was shaped into by my mother, my father, Granny and Gramps down into the endless abyss. I was free. I was free from the chains that bound my in place back then. Finally... For the first time in forever, I was completely free. This freedom... It was perfect. My old life was dead, nothing was left for me to worry about. This freedom from my past cleared away my pain and allowed me to look forward into my future. Without the strain from my past, I was able to look only towards my new life. My new beginning in this land.
"Temperance - I may have been free, but I was indeed in the Surface Realm, the land of the humans. Now, I had no idea what to expect here considering that the only time I was here was when I was with my old love and this was a completely foreign area to me. I will admit, such a feeling was overwhelming to me and I did happen to panic because I wasn't sure how well humans reacted to a demon. As I continued my travels, looking for somewhere to call home, I had adopted an outfit much like the one you see on me now. Most were frightened by my looks and I hadn't an ample excuse for why I looked as I did, leading me to search for a... consume, per se, to make me seem more human. I had adopted this outfit to make my appearance seem as a costume. I took on an alias of some form of performer, that being a good enough reason for people not to question my looks.
"Devil - As I continued on through my life in the Surface Realm, I had noticed something within myself... It had seemed to be a... void, in a sense. Part of me felt as though it was missing and it made me feel odd. I began feeling desire... lust. They were both feelings I hadn't had no previous exposure to. Then started my second downfall. I seemed to crave the feeling of another body... When I was intimate with someone else, the hole I felt had become filled... temporarily. Soon... The feeling of the hole being filled even temporarily took over. All I wanted was to bed another. Each and every morning, my first thought was either about where I would search for a partner for the night, or who would be my partner. I was consumed. I was so happy to finally have the void filled that I couldn't stop. Each night, it was with someone different, never going back to the same person twice. I had tried that once, but the void was still there when I did. I was moving from town to town always searching for a new partner. I could barely go a single night without feeling the need to bed another. Each moment I was alone, the void only seemed to grow to immense proportions. Fearing what may happen if it grew to big, I filled it every chance I got.
"Tower - Now... As I continued along that path, I had wound up going many places. One of those places happened to be much like this room we are in now. I was trying to... You know... But, as I spent more time there, I had noticed cards such as these that I am showing you. I had shown interest in them, having heard of such things as Tarot Cards, but not knowing what they meant. That kind person had then given me a reading... I drew one card and it was the Fool. Hearing that explanation and that I could draw as many as I deemed necessary, I kept drawing. Somehow, I had drawn all of the cards in order. All the way from Fool to Tower... and it donned on me how exact my life was to the cards. At that moment, I felt a change. My new knowledge of the cards, my whole mindset and view of the world changed. All tied into the cards. This realization... It was the most incredulous feeling I had ever felt. How the world could have been centered around 22 cards was just... incredibly hard to believe. I mean, how could each life of every creature on this planet already be dictated and planned according to the tarot cards? Yet... My life had followed the cards that I drew so perfectly... How could I not have believed? And then... I realized that since my life followed the tarots so well... I was kind of wary about the next. I knew nothing of the tarot cards at that time, so I had a reason to be worried about what fate again had in store for me.
"Star - As I had realized this, mountains of questions for the person before me. The oracle calmed me and told me of how the cards told the lives of people and how it was their job to show explain to me cycle, to explain why my life happened as it did. Then, as a way for me to see the cycle and see the rest of my path for myself, I was given the tarot cards.
"Moon - After the cards were in my possession, I was confused and even frightened.. Everything seemed so different to me, it was all so mysterious and... even frightening to me. It was as if I was looking at everything in a new life. When I saw anything going on around me, it brought my back to one of the cards. I had occasionally seen something that had me asking myself 'Is this really destiny?' but I could always pin one action I saw from others down onto one of the cards in my possession.
"Sun - A frightening and mysterious realization indeed, but from this I felt... joy. I can't for the life of me give you a reason why I felt the way I did, but I felt happy. Inside myself... In my soul, I felt a joy I hadn't felt since childhood. I felt as though I was in perfect control over everything now and that nothing could rain down on me that would ruin my life or my feelings because I knew that all of this was just part of my cycle. A cycle that would go up and down, make me sad and make me happy but it was MY cycle. Although mine wasn't always the happiest, it was still my own cycle.
"Judgement - Ah yes... I remember this time of my life well. After I had felt the joy and realization of my path, I knew what was to come next. Judgement. This... This was a majour struggle in my life. It was the time for me to remember the pain of my past, of my banishment and of my lost love. It was my time to remember... and to forgive. It was incredibly hard for me to do so... How easy would it be for you if your parents had killed your love and banished you? Nothing about it was easy... It took a very long time... In fact, it took me years before I was able to finally come to terms with what had been done... Although I knew I was never aloud to see my parents again, I had forgiven them. Because I realized that if they hadn't done what they had done... I never would have made it this far down my path. And now, in this point in my life, I actually thank them.
"World - The final chapter... With my new-found closure in my life, I realized that my cycle had been complete. Long gone were the days of my past and now all I had in front of me was my future. I knew there would be more ups and downs, but I was rejoicing in the completion of my cycle. The end had arrived, yet, it was only the beginning. I had many more cycles to go through before my complete life cycle came to a close and I can't wait for each one to happen.
"The Fool - My new journey was to begin. I was brand new into the world... I looked on with wide eyes, taking in each and every piece of the world around me. I knew nothing about the strange and new world around me. I wasn't afraid, far from it, my friend. I was happy to start my cycle again anew. I've accepted the fact that my life is to be continuous cycles over again, this acceptance of myself and of the world has brought me excitement and anticipation about what is soon to be in my life.
"That's my story. Believe it or not, the choice is yours. You can choose to believe the tale I have told you, or you can believe that I am a crazy psycho, it honestly matters not."
-As his story went on, you found yourself relaxing back into you chair, becoming more and more involved and interested with what he said. As he laid the next card on top of the last and spoke about his life, it only proved that his life was tied into the cards, just like he said. As you sit there in awe at the total realization, he began to re-stack and shuffle the cards, laying them all out in a random order on the table.-
"Now, if you did or even if you didn't believe me, perhaps you will believe when you draw yourself. Pick a card. Whichever card speaks to you."
