While he’d never seen creatures of this sort in person, Fitz didn’t really doubt that somewhere, beings like this could maybe exist. Some of the similarly strange things he saw in dreams were too intricate, too vivid to not be real - never mind he fact that they sometimes came true afterword. Still, if these were very powerful magical beings, Fitz supposed that it was probably very interesting to interact with them. Though, from Asra’s comments, perhaps some of them were a little more troublesome than pleasant to talk to. Some of these did give off kind of a scary sort of feeling, when he looked at them too close. But it was that second comment that caught his attention. “The-ey talk to you? Even from, from fa-ar away?”
But the question caught him off guard, and all at once he looked a bit like he’d been confronted with an exam he hadn’t studied for. Rather than panic outwardly any further than that, pale eyes drifted back down to study the cards a second time. Which one caught his eye? His attention first drifted over to the figure with the long skull - he’d seen things like that, in visions. With that, he moved on - there was another, with a wolf-headed figure standing in water in front of the moon. “Um…” he hesitated a moment, then pointed, “M… M-maybe this one? I-I don’t know.”
“All the time, actually.” It wasn’t until he’d mentioned it that he realized how odd that surely sounded. Asra was so used to communing with the Arcana that it had become second nature, conversation flowing as easily as it did on the porch of Fitz’s quaint forest home. To him they barely seemed like all-powerful entities anymore—they were friends and mentors, constant companions to his thoughts. “I can hear them through the cards. When I tell fortunes I ask them for guidance and advice; they’re the ones who answer. Back home it’s gotten me quite a reputation.”
Those instincts kicked in now as Fitz examined the array of cards. “There’s no wrong answer,” he assured, catching the flash of nerves in his companion’s eyes and trying not to give away his curiosity too obviously in his own. Generally people sought his fortunes to ask him questions, but when he was able, this was his favorite question to ask of others. The cards had powerful meanings; he could tell a lot about a person from the card that spoke to them most.
Asra was the picture of patience as Fitz considered, not wanting to pressure or sway him. Not everyone’s connection was as profound as Asra’s own; it could take time for the call of a card to be heard, much less acknowledged. When Fitz finally did point to a card he offered a smile as he separated it from the deck, handing it to the other to examine more closely.
“The Moon is a light in the darkness, a revealer of the unknown. Sometimes the shadows it casts are distorted, and may make you doubt yourself, but no matter what’s blocking your path, the Moon will always guide you in the end. It means to follow your inner voice, to trust your intuition.” Idle hands took to shuffling the cards in his lap as he spoke. “You do remind me of them. The Moon is soft-spoken and mysterious, but they’re sincere and pleasant to talk to.” Violet eyes glimmered as he studied Fitz’s features. “It’s subtler than the Sun, but if you look closely, the Moon still shines just as bright.”
