The Encounters

So this is how it works.

They turn up.

At a bar.

At a crossroad.

On a beach.

While Cassandra is trying to drink

coffee in peace.

That last one appears to be

particularly effective.

 

They have many names.

Gods. Forces. Principles. Archetypes.

Although names came later.

They've been around for a very

long time.

Long before anyone tried to put them

into a system.

Humans do like a system.

Eventually, humans arranged twenty-

two of them into a rather memorable

collection. The Major Arcana.

We're borrowing the structure.

That's about as important as the

structure gets.

 

Cassandra isn't meeting cards.

She's meeting something much older.

The forces themselves.

The cards simply gave them names.

Useful.

Now we can get on with it.

 

They may not look the way you expect.

Good.

Otherwise this would become tedious

rather quickly.

The old meanings matter.

Very much.

The forms are free to misbehave.

These are not retellings.

They are encounters.

 

The force arrives.

Cassandra arrives.

And then we see what happens

when the two meet.

Neither remains entirely theoretical

after that.

 

They won't come in order.

Cassandra's life has declined to

cooperate with numbering.

They appear when they appear.

Some Cassandra will recognise.

Some may take a little longer.

That's all right.

 

These things rarely introduce

themselves properly.

You may recognise them too.

Or not.

There's no prize.

Although Cassandra might disagree.

I'll be around.

Afterwards, we can talk.

For now - a few have already

found their way to her.