Godrick is far too powerful. Just as soon as we declare war, he already enacted his plan. That plan apparently was to use me as a human meat shield.

  I don’t enjoy BDSM. I just want to put that out there, so the fact that I’m hanging from the chains of the Saint and being forced to fight against Avis just makes the whole thing even worse.

  My body is flung about like a rag doll, each of my limbs moving of their own accord. Well, at the behest of the puppet master.

  The pain on Avis’s face is not what I want to be looking at right now. It’s obvious he’s trying to not instinctively react to my attacks. The part that kills me even more is that I can do nothing about it.

  “Shatter!” Dardania’s voice booms, radiating through the square. Her words lash against the chains, sparks fly but they don’t break. “Dammit!”

  I crane my neck, trying to get a better view of Godrick.

  The chains around my hands and feet don’t reach directly to him. Rather than extending to shackles around his wrist similar to the Death Touched, these chains go directly into the card that is firmly planted on the belt around his waist.

  I clench my eyes shut. Pouring all my energy in the shackles detaining me, picturing electricity rippling across the chains attaching me to the Saint.

  I feel a rush of energy as electricity begins to crackle and runs down the chains.

  “Shit.” The Saint jumps backwards, the chains disintegrate into thin air. The lightning runs wild, lacking its catalyst, and shoots in every direction searching for a ground.

  I slam into the ground, finally free.

  “Are you okay?” Avis asks frantically as he slides into me, checking my wrists to make sure I’m okay. I nod silently.

  I slowly turn, hoping that my attack didn’t cause any more destruction than my previous ones. I quickly scan the square, looking for scorch marks, praying I don’t see it leading to any dead bodies.

  Several scorch marks are on the church and various buildings, but luckily I don’t see any additional dead bodies around them. I exhale a sigh of relief.

  “Look out!” Dardania screams.

  I whip around to see a spike of earth heading straight for my head.

  This is it. This is where I die.

  As my heart starts to race, time seems to slow down. Not to be cliche, but I can practically see my life flashing before my eyes. Every bad decision I’ve ever made, all flashing before my eyes. Why is that what I’m thinking about?

  I clench my eyes shut, squeezing Avis’s hand. You know you ole brute, I think I was falling in love with—

  The ground cracks in half, and just as quickly as the pillar of earth rushed towards me, a giant grater forms in the center of the square pushing me away from the tip of the pillar.

  “What the fuck?” I mutter. I follow the crack back to it’s origins, the steps of the church. Madison hangs against her staff which sits at the mouth of the crevice. She falls to her knees, breathing heavily.

  Godrick looks back to his belt, noticing that again the High Priestess card is missing. He stomps his foot like a petulant child, cracking the stone beneath his foot.

  I slowly scoot back and away from the sharp pointy earth and try to regain my bearings. Madison can barely stand up, Avis is right behind me, and I have no clue where Dardania is. Before I even have time to contemplate my next move, I’m face to face with Godrick with his fist rapidly approaching my face.

  “Gust!” I scream as I swiftly kick my leg up, causing a giant pillar of air to follow in it’s wake. The force of the wind quickly throws us both back backwards and away from one another.

  Saying gust doesn’t actually have any affect, but saying the word allows me to visualize it and manifest it faster. Creating something like lightning is harder, but wind, that’s easy.

  Godrick flips backwards in mid air, landing perfectly on the ground in a super hero pose and slides several feet backwards from the momentum. He doesn’t waste a second and immediately pushes off and darts back towards me.

  His arm is outstretched towards me and my card, and just before he reaches me Avis’s knife is thrust deep into the side of his neck, killing him instantly. Avis jumps back, grabs me by the hand and drags me away from Godrick.

  “It feels like every time we kill him, he revives faster. Shouldn’t it be getting slower?” I ask as Godrick’s body starts to twitch and the blood starts pouring back into his body.

  I quickly look toward The Hermit who is still huddled behind the scaffold next to Tate and Prisha. I need to get over there and ask them how the Wheel of Fortune works. We can’t keep this up all day, and honestly we are even getting lucky that we are able to keep killing him.

  “Stall him!” I scream as I scramble to my feet and sprint towards The Hermit.

  “What, how?” Dardania screams after me. I slide in next to the Hermit and Prisha, my breathing very labored.

  “How does the Wheel of Fortune work?” I wheeze, my lungs are burning and I’m running out of energy. This man is far to powerful for us to keep him at bay much longer.

  “Every time the power is used, the wheel turns. Your placement on the wheel dictates whether that fate is a negative or positive one. Eventually the wheel will turn downwards and crush you. In my experience, the fate dealt once it crushes you is the equal and opposite reaction to the positive. In this case, I can’t even fathom what it would do to him.”

  “How long does it take?”

  “Unclear. None of us ever quite knew how long it took the wheel to complete a full cycle. All we can do is keep trying and hope that it finally turns in our favor.” The Hermit lowers their head, “I understand that this hasn’t been helpful and for that I’m sorry.”

  “Of course it has.” I force a smile, which I will admit hurts my face after being punched in it by that mad man who calls himself a Saint.

  “Madison!” Dardania screams as she tries to climb over the rubble and rush to Madison’s side.

  Godrick grabs her staff, snaps it in two, and throws it to either side of himself. Madison stares at the broken pieces of her staff, her mouth agape. It’s clear that she is trying to let out a scream, but nothing comes out. She slowly raises her hand to cover her mouth.

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  Godrick again holds up the High Priestess card again, smiles, and places it in an empty slot on his belt.

  “Inexplicably, The High Priestess card returns to Madison.” Prisha whispers, her voice hoarse. She winces as the words come out of her mouth. This is the first time that I’ve noticed that she is drenched in sweat and her long white braid looks as though it’s about to come undone.

  She’s been doing this the whole time. Making sure that we continue to hold our cards, and in a way that defies all logic. I am continuously astounded by everyone around me.

  Godrick slowly spins around, now standing face to face with Dardania and Avis. Dardania’s hand is trembling, Avis reaches over and takes it in his own hand. She smiles without looking away from Godrick.

  He slowly starts walking towards him.

  “Kneel.” Dardania commands. Every surface her voice touches vibrates slightly. Godrick pauses for a single instant, but continues walking towards them with a smirk on his face.

  “Kneel.” Dardania commands, her voice louder and more demanding than before.

  “Kneel!” She screams for a third time, her face red, tears in her eyes, her voice hoarse. Her voice reverberates through the square, bouncing off of every surface.

  Godrick freezes and instantly drops to his knees.

  The square grows silent, so quiet you could hear someone breathe across the square. One by one all the bystanders at the edge of the square all kneel.

  “What the—” I stand up and slowly spin around to see every single person within earshot of the square now on their knees facing towards Dardania.

  “Dee?” Avis stares at the crowd gobsmacked.

  “Who are you?” Godrick asks, his voice equally incensed and inquisitive. Godrick fights through the command and slowly pushes himself to his feet.

  He does so with great effort though, the muscles in his entire body become tense, his skin grows flush, and sweat begins to form on his face. He lets out an exhale of relief when he finally makes it back to his feet.

  “What are the chances that several members of your party have power that someday will rival that of the Major Arcana? Should that be an act of fate or merely a coincidence?” Godrick wonders as he cocks his head to the side while he observes Dardania.

  “Yeah, don’t really give a damn what you think.” Avis spits back, pushing his sister behind him. She looks like she doesn’t have much fight left in her either.

  “For now, I suppose that doesn’t matter. Instead I need to take out the insolent fool who keeps getting in my way.” Godrick slowly turns his head until it lands on Prisha.

  Oh no, he figured out she was the one stopping him.

  I blink and he is standing in front of Prisha. Faster than the eye can see, he grabs her by the throat and drags her off the ground.

  “The Fool, I should have known.”

  The Hermit, moving with one single fluid motion, grabs a card from Godrick’s belt, spins around him, and swiftly stabs him directly in his temple.

  Godrick’s eyes widen and he drops Prisha, he’s dead again.

  Prisha begins coughing hysterically. I rush to her side.

  “Are you okay?” I examine her throat which doesn’t look crushed as far as I can tell. She nods but doesn’t verbally respond.

  “The Fool.” The Hermit slowly begins circling Godrick’s dead body which is taking longer to come back this time. “I guess I was the Fool in the end, to think that I believed you wouldn’t stoop as low as to use this card. I suppose that is my greatest flaw, that I somehow believe that there is good in everyone.”

  “What does The Fool do?” I ask.

  “Lucias was The Fool, the fool who knew too little but he dreamed big. He is the single entity that brought us together. Just like its originator, he who holds The Fool can bring the Major Arcana together again. In other words, if you hold this card, you can use multiple of them at the same time. As he lays here on death’s door, he will have to abandon the other cards in order to choose the Wheel of Fortune. He no longer has the protection of all of them.”

  “Madison.” Prisha scuttles to her feet and stumbles towards Madison to try and heal her. Though I fear her pain is more mental than physical.

  “Is he dead for real this time?” Dardania asks as they approach us.

  “No,” The Hermit answers, “he will soon return just as he has done countless times before. We should merely not be in his presence when he does.”

  * * * * *

  And that is how we beat the Order of the Saint.

  I wish I could say that, but alas not even close. Before we even made it out of the square, Godrick had come back from the dead and disappeared into thin air.

  “We got lucky.” Dardania concludes as she cleans up Avis’s wounds. We are all sitting around the dining room table at the hideout, doing our best to recover from our fight.

  Tate did their best to heal us, but there is a limit to how much they can heal at one time. Madison and I were at the top of the list, and unfortunately Avis and Dardania will have to heal the old fashioned way, over time.

  “Why did he run?” Madison asks as she stares out the window, never once turning towards the rest of us.

  “Without this he no longer had the ability to use multiple of the Arcana.” The Hermit holds up the Fool card, “Without all of them, he is unable to fight you in his current state.”

  “I’m… I’m sorry, what?” Dardania stops cleaning the cut on Avis’s face and turns toward the Hermit, “Not able to fight us? He more than held his own, I would say he absolutely obliterated us.”

  Avis winces in pain. Dardania turns her attention back to her brother and immediately apologies. She was putting too much pressure on his wound while she was talking.

  The siblings probably got off the easiest, which isn’t saying much. They suffered no internal injuries or breaks, mostly just cuts and bruises. They weren’t the target of the Saint, so he never actually laid a finger on either of them.

  I know injuries aren’t sexy, but there is a cut going down the side of Avis’s face that could, well, you know. I should stop getting distracted by the handsome man sitting next to me and focus on what The Hermit has to say.

  “The Touched, until he fully reabsorbs them, he will not be at full strength.”

  “Reabsorbs them?” Prisha stares at The Hermit, dumbfounded as the rest of us.

  “Yes,” The Hermit begins, “The Touched are former Saints.”

  “They’re the bodies that he jumps into and destroys. Well, he claims to have destroyed. That was clearly a lie.” I shake my head. I don’t know why I’m surprised. This man has lied to me several times now, at this point I clearly can’t trust anything he says.

  “Correct. Centuries ago, Godrick chose a host whom had the ability to create a copy of themselves. Granted these copies were extremely flawed compared to the original, but with time and power, Godrick was able to perfect the skill. Eventually he recreated the personalities he destroyed and gave them their own bodies. They become the Touched.”

  “So this guys just walking around with countless powers?” The only thing that comes to mind are the super villains seen in countless stories where the villain has the ability to steal power, combine them, or just stack them. Each of them was terrifying and only lost due to plot armor for the main character, I can’t even fathom going up against someone like that.

  “Not entirely. While he does house multiple power sets, he isn’t an encyclopedia of magic. Not every host had power to begin with. While it is common for people of this world to be able to accomplish basic magic, the skills we see in this room are quite rare.” The Hermit sits down at the table opposite of us to begin their lecture on magic.

  “Most people are able to manipulate small levels of magic, allowing them to easily manipulate the base elements for small practical uses. Unfortunately there are some, like your friend Tate here, who don’t have the ability to manipulate energy and have to resort to other means to do so, like tools, magical circles, and runes.

  “For the masses, that is generally where it stops. The ability to learn specialized magic or to even have an innate skill is exceedingly rare. On occasion someone with an extraordinary mind is able to surpass their natural limits and learn complex and specialized magic.

  “My hypothesis is that The Touched represent the majority of his hosts that were gifted with the ability to use powerful magic, which is why there are only six of them.” The Hermit places the Fool card on the table, but continues to hold their hand on top of it.

  “So, what you’re saying it, we are in fact special.” Dardania inquires, with an upward twitch on her lips.

  “Indeed. The skills you and Prisha possess are quite rare and your use of them is indeed masterful. Tate even in their lack of magic use is quite rare to be able to combine magic in such a way, I would describe it as genius.

  “For now though, let us all rest, and bid farewell to the Fool.” The Hermit gently pushes the card to the center of the table. We all stare silently at the Major Arcana card that started all of this and watch it slowly fade into nothingness.

  “What happened to it?” I question as I reach for the empty spot on the table.

  “It will return to your world until it finds a suitable host and at that time, it will return to Tabathia once again. Until then, let us rest.”

  The Hermit stands up and silently walks out of the room. The rest of us sit at the table in silence, left to stew in our own thoughts.