Mom was watching me very closely. It kind of made me feel like an exhibit at a zoo or something. Like someone was going to start narrating my every action in a British accent.

And here we see the wild Serafina choosing tea leaves. While she doesn't have the same sweet tooth as her mother she does like fruit flavors.

I think the stress of running all over the place earlier was getting to my head.

I doubted that asking outright would get me what I wanted but I felt there was no harm in trying.

"Is something up?"

She suddenly looked away, like she somehow didn't think she'd be caught.

Didn't she say she was here to learn about something? If it was bad she wouldn't have said that while I was in the room. Could it be curse related? That seemed most likely.

I reached up for the dried watermelon, a compromise between our two tastes. I also grabbed mint and considered grabbing ginger but she was watching me too closely. I ended up grabbing butterfly pea flowers instead. Pranking her wouldn't be that easy.

"Trying to keep your stress levels low," Mom commented. "You never did like caffeine or sugar." She seemed to be deep in thoughts she didn't like. Her eyes narrowed on something in the distance.

Did she think it had something to do with the curse? I always assumed it was just how I was. But the curse has been with me from the day I was born, it was nearly impossible to tell what was and wasn't a side effect.

Perhaps it was time to start thinking what would change once the curse was gone. How much of me was because of the curse? How much would change?

"Does caffeine have any effect on magic?"

"It might. I can't say if it does enough that we need to worry about it."

"I just think mint and butterfly pea is nice."

Mom had a complicated look on her face. I wasn't quite sure what was going on in her head. But I could tell that it was something that upset her.

I passed her the dish of sugar, it was light brown and was cone-shaped. She dropped three cones into her cup before pouring the hot tea over top of it.

I drank mine as it was.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a familiar deck of cards. Her tarot deck. But it wasn't the whole deck, judging from the size of the stack of cards it was just the major arcana.

She shuffled the cards before counting out eleven and handing them to me.

"Let's play a little game, shall we?" She offered with a grin. All trace of her darker thoughts gone.

"Okay, why not?"

We didn't discuss the rules, why would we? We'd played this game before so I knew what I wanted to do. I sorted my card from the smallest number to the biggest on the bottom of the deck.

She sorted her cards before straightening her deck and placing it in front of her.

She placed the top card in front of her.

"Number thirteen, Death."

I did the same with my own card, "Number one, The Magician."

Mom pulled the two cards to her side and left them face up.

Number Twelve, The Hanged Man defeated my Number Five, The Hierophant.

"Does the tea help?" Mom asked as she pulled the cards towards her.

"No more than anything else does. It doesn't make anything worse and I think that's more important."

She hummed as we flipped the next cards.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Number Ten, Wheel of Fortune wasn't enough against my Number Fourteen, Temperance.

"And what of your friends and Towermates? Do they make anything worse?"

"Sometimes, but I think it's worth it. It's a tradeoff I'm willing to make."

We flipped another set of cards. Her Number Nine, The Hermit versus my Number Fifteen, The Devil.

She was still winning over all.

"And how about being Representative? Is that worth it?"

I stopped as I thought about it, my hand hovering over my cards. "I…I don't know."

"But you are Representative."

"Not by choice."

"You can step down by asking Mother and signing some papers."

I flipped over my card, "Maybe. But the others would have to do it. And they don't want to. They want me to do it. They've made that clear."

She flipped over hers.

I had Number Sixteen, The Tower and she had Number Seven, The Chariot.

We were tied.

"Are you doing it because it's what they want, or because it's what you want?"

"I don't know what I want," I admitted, "And at this point it feels rude to make them deal with something that is my problem."

"You think the curse is just your problem?"

"I mean…it's not like it really affects anyone else. I don't think it's fair to force my problems on the others."

I flipped over Number Seventeen, The Star.

She had Number Six, The Lovers.

I grabbed the cards and pulled them into my pile.

"Not fair, huh? Hmm." She took a long sip of her tea.

I straightened the stack of cards I had won. "I want to keep these friends."

"I understand that. We wouldn't want another Ethan situation," Mom's eyes were focused on me.

"That's…part of it. I think."

"You think?"

"I don't know how I feel about what happened with Ethan anymore."

"That's allowed, feelings are complicated."

Her next card was Number Four, The Emperor. Mine was Number Eighteen, The Moon.

I tapped my finger on the top of my deck of cards. One, three, pause, two.

Mom blinked and tilted her head, "Did Vivian teach you that?"

"What?"

She knocked on the table, once, thrice, long pause, twice.

Dragon Tower rumbled around us. A distant unseen voice chuckled.

"Welcome to Dragon Tower," I repeated as I showed her my next card. Number Nineteen, The Sun.

"Was that an Echo?" Mom asked with a hint of delight in her voice.

"Yeah. Usually there's also something we can see but I think you got the attention of Dragon Tower. It…responds? I guess? To that knock pattern."

"The Hearth Legacy at work," Mom didn't sound amazed or impressed. It was closer to resigned. She set down Number Three, The Empress.

I set the cards aside.

My second to last card was Number Twenty, Judgement. Mom's was Number Two, The High Priestess.

"So it responds to you," Mom mumbled and leaned back in her chair.

"Not just me, I've seen it respond to Jarec and I'm pretty sure it talks to the others too."

"Does it talk to Mother?"

"Not that I know of? I can't hear it most of the time and she's never said anything about it to me. She's seen Echoes though."

"Have you ever asked it to show you something specific? Can it do that?'

"Umm…I'm not sure. I mean…it's smart enough to talk, probably if we asked nicely?"

She hummed thoughtfully.

She was probably thinking up some kind of plan, but I didn't see any harm in answering her questions. She wouldn't have enough time here in the Tower to really do anything with that information.

I showed my last card, Number Twenty One, The World.

Which meant her card was The Fool. Number Zero.

And according to our rules she won this matchup.

"And with that, you've won," Mom announced as she shuffled her cards and put them back in her pocket.

I did win the game, but a small part of me wondered if she had somehow cheated/let me win. I hadn't seen her use magic, but that didn't mean she hadn't used sleight of hand at some point.

She finished off her tea and stood up with a big stretch. "We don't have anywhere we need to be yet, do we?"

I shook my head, the other Towers would still be busy with greeting their parents and such. We basically had free time until they were done.

"Perfect. Because there's something I want you to see," Mom had this very determined look on her face. I wouldn't call it grim, but it was clear she wasn't happy about whatever it was.

"Already up to something, sister?"

Mom grinned and winked at me before facing Ruby and Jarec who were both coming down the stairs. Jarec wasn't even trying to hide that he was staring at my mother.

She waved. "Is that my nephew? I've heard so much about you! Serafina's so happy to have family her own age. She loves your little paper creation and finds you so easy to talk to. She was also so relieved about how you handled those Pegasus kids."

I took a breath to steel myself.

But now Jarec was glancing between us both. This was a look I was more familiar with. I could see the gears and calculations running through his head as he tried to figure out how Mom and I could be so different.

"I…I think I feel the same way?" Jarec responded. He sounded so confused it came out closer to a question than a statement.

Mom clapped, "You two can come too, if you want."

"Given that you really shouldn't be wondering off on your own, I'll insist," Ruby's statement might have been a reprimand, but she was smiling as she said it.

"I'm not a kid, I'm a mother now! And I'm older than you."

Ruby leaned towards Jarec to stage-whisper to him, "By less than half a year."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Somewhere on school grounds. A very…special place. One that I think you need to see, all things considered."

Ruby's face did something odd before she shook her head and settled on something more neutral. Did she know what Mom was talking about?

"Is this about what you told me earlier?" Ruby asked.

"It is," Mom nodded.

Ruby looked between Mom and her son a few times. "Then yes, Jarec and I will come with the two of you. If you and Serafina are going to be spending more time with the coven, it might be better to get this over with."

Mom nodded again, that look on her face becoming more serious.

Jarec looked at me again, there was a hint of pleading in his eyes.

But I didn't know what was happening either. I shrugged at him. Whatever it was, we were going to find out soon enough anyway.

My left wrist itched.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.