Excerpt: Parallel Fortune (WT)

"I got something for you," Sera said as she burst into my studio and slid past me. She spun as she got around me, and I turned to face her. Her hair was back, haphazardly you might say, and her cheeks were flushed. She took quick breaths.

"Well, what is it?" I asked, curious.

From behind her back she pulled a bit of folded cloth, brown and dingy. She unfolded it, once piece at a time, until I saw what was inside- something like a deck of playing cards, but larger than I'd ever seen.

"It's called a tarot deck, I think. According to the documentation it's an instrument used to sort of, predict the future."

I raised my eyebrows, unconvinced. "Where did it come from?"

"The excavation I was on, on Dao. I found it." She held it out to me, cradling it with both hands. "Here. It's yours. It's the only one of its kind, as far as I know."

I remember looking at her, locking eyes, and saying thank you. It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to tell her it was the most considerate thing anyone had ever done for me.

Once I had my hands around those giant cards, I was engrossed, taking in every color and drawing as I slowly shuffled through them. They were dusty and fairly tattered, some bent corners and wear on the edges. Sera was patient, giving me time to really look them over them thoroughly.

"I wonder what they mean," I said finally.

"Funny you should ask," Sera said. "I had these translated for you. I think they are instructions or something."

She handed me some scraps of paper with handwritten notes scrawled on them. I didn't recognize the language.

"What is this?"

"I think it's Ketchian, or some form of it."

I waved the notes around. "They certainly wouldn't let you keep the originals like this. And the cards."

She smiled and dipped her hips. "They don't know they exist."