A/N:

MAJOR EDIT: Upon popular request, tweaked the ending of this chapter to clarify the meaning of a bunch of stuff. A little more explanation to come in the endnote.

Chapter 16: Stars

Sleep didn't come easily to them that night. Ruby was the exception, falling into the mattress and immediately giving up all pretenses of consciousness. Yang was the next, curling protectively around her sister and Weiss and mumbling fitful nonsense into their hair. She still struggled to actually sleep, nervous and alert well past midnight, but eventually the void claimed her as well. Blake wrapped herself around Yang's back, and by the eventual slowing of her breathing Weiss had to assume that she'd fallen asleep as well.

It was comforting to have her girlfriends all cuddled up together, but in the dark, with the celebrations over and the whole world gone silent, there was nothing left to distract her. The memories began running laps through her head, over and over and over, each repetition bringing with it a terrible numb certainty:

She should be dead.

Moreover, Ruby should be dead. Weiss could think of six different ways she could have saved her own life, if she'd had about a half-second more to think, but there was nothing she could have done to protect Ruby from her own self-sacrifice.

And yet there lay the greatest confusion at all; it hadn't been self-sacrifice. Ruby had saved her life, and she'd done it in a way that was so utterly surreal and inexplicable that it had Weiss wondering if she was actually comatose in the Beacon infirmary after all.

Her solace was that she remembered the event with second-by-second clarity. From the moment she saw the threat, to the moment that she found Ruby lying in the mud. But even then that didn't help, because there was a slice of time which just didn't make any sense, no matter how clearly she recalled it.

The light, swirling cold all around her, and the sound of singing…

…A song. A terribly beautiful, terribly powerful, terribly familiar song.

She fidgeted, and realized with a sigh that she wasn't going to be able to get to sleep just yet, no matter how comfortable she was. There was just too much to think about, too much uncertainty. She needed to do something to ground herself.

Her eyes drifted over to the bookshelves, and lit with sudden inspiration.

It was a silly thought, but she'd had a silly week. It was something she hadn't done in a long time, something that would almost certainly end up being pointless in the end, but it might be comforting too. An old forgotten part of her routine.

Quietly as she could to avoid disturbing her sleeping loves, Weiss slipped out of bed and padded across the floor to the bookshelf. There was a box, tucked away on the second-highest shelf, just barely low enough that Weiss could reach it on her tiptoes. She tugged it down, brushing the faint layer of dust off the top, fingers tracing the familiar snowflake insignia engraved in the dark wood.

A voice in her head chided that this was nothing but an irrational, outmoded superstition. But that voice sounded a lot like Jacques, and Weiss had gotten pretty good at ignoring her dear old dad over the last few years.

Resolved, she slipped out of the room without even bothering to put on shoes, and failed to notice two black ears twitch as she eased the door shut.

The school turned most of its lights out shortly after midnight, but Weiss walked confidently down the shadowed halls, purposeful and unhurried. The moonlight was cast in through the windows. All was silent, and long shadows lay across the floor.

All were still, save for Weiss's, and the shadow that behind followed her.

Soon Weiss left the dorms entirely, padding barefoot down the white brick path to one of the school's gardens. She eased the old wrought-iron gate open and walked between the hedges and flower plots. The night turned it all peculiar, the faintest hint of wind rustling through the leaves of thin, decorative trees.

Weiss stopped, turning her head to look up at the sky.

Beacon's light pollution was hardly anything, compared to the faint glow above Vale, off over the bay. But beyond that distant refractive haze, the stars were out in their full panoply. Low in the sky, the moon made shadows of the buildings.

And in their light, Weiss seemed to shine. Her nightgown flowed around her, the silhouette of her body thin beneath it. The stars danced in her eyes.

She was magnificent, so much that Blake finally broke her silence. "Hey."

"Who—!?" Weiss whirled around, nearly dropping her strange wooden box. She squinted into the darkness, then relaxed with a grumpy sigh. "Blake! You scared me!"

"Sorry, sorry," Blake said. She walked over and wrapped Weiss in a loose hug. "I didn't mean to startle you, I just got worried when you slipped out of bed. You doing okay?"

"Yes, I'm alright. I just couldn't sleep yet." Weiss tilted her head to kiss Blake's knuckles. "I… have something I want to do."

"Something involving that box?"

Weiss nodded. She gestured for Blake to sit with her at one of the stone tables scattered around the garden, and they did so, sliding in close together. "It's… an heirloom," Weiss explained, setting the box on the dry stone. "Winter gave it to me, when she left home. It's one of the last pieces of the Schnee inheritance that holds any weight for me, my semblance excepted."

Blake's eyes widened, as Weiss undid the latch and withdrew a cloth-wrapped rectangle. "Those are…"

"Tarot cards, yes." Weiss slowly unwrapped the deck, laying the cloth out across the table. The fabric was beautifully embroidered, with shimmering silver thread forming the familiar Schnee snowflake. The cards were backed with the same sigil, embossed in silver foil.

Awe filled Blake's chest—just looking at the deck, she could feel its age. "You said your sister was interested in the practice. You never said that it ran in the family."

"The way Winter tells it," Weiss explained, "we Schnees were fortune tellers long before my grandfather made us known as industrialists. He himself used this deck to plan his prospecting expeditions, and he ensured that it was passed down to my mother." She sighed heavily. "But mother never really cared much about the family name, only the privileges that came with it. Winter was the one who found them and taught me their basic use, but I think she really only cared about the practice as a form of rebellion against our parents. She gave me all her materials not long before she left to join the military."

"And you?" Blake asked.

Weiss paused, her face pinching as she struggled with some particularly elusive thought, and for what seemed like the thousandth time—and yet the first—Blake realized just how fucking beautiful Weiss was, shimmering under starlight. Blake had started falling for Weiss a long time ago, but in that moment she realized she might just keep on falling forever.

"I'm not all that certain," Weiss said, drawing Blake back to the present moment. "I've always thought of fortune telling as an amusing diversion and nothing more, but… you actually inspired me to reconsider. Our visit to the temple got me thinking about my own spirituality in a way I haven't in… stars know how long." She chuckled, then. "And the stars would know, I suppose."

Something tickled the back of Blake's memory. "Atlesian faith is predominantly sidereal, right? Star worship?"

Weiss nodded. "It's a bit more complicated than that, but you can think of it loosely in those terms." She carefully took the cards in her hands and began shuffling them with quick, dextrous motions. "The sun, moon, and planets are all considered divine objects as well. Each star, and on a different level each atom, is a note in a single cosmic song. This song—the Cantríon—unites everything. We each play a part in it, creating harmony and dissonance with the rest of the world around us."

Blake's ears perked. "That's actually not too far off from the Kanzakh, even if the metaphors are a little different."

"I noticed the similarities as well," Weiss said. "I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the distant past they split from the same root faith. Regardless… that's part of why I came all the way out here. Atlesian tarot readings are traditionally done at night, and those held under open starlight are considered particularly auspicious."

"That's… fascinating," Blake admitted with full honesty. It wasn't a practice Blake had ever heard of before, but Atlas and Mistral were very different places. Still, it raised a question. "Won't you need a light?" Blake asked. Weiss, as far as she knew, didn't have night vision.

"Not quite," Weiss answered, her lips turning up. "Just watch." She held the deck in front of her and channeled a little of her aura into her hands. As Blake watched in growing astonishment, the sigil on the top card began to glow.

"Dust," Weiss explained as the light cast shadows over her eyes. "The exact mixture is an old Schnee family secret, developed long before even my grandfather's time. It produces a unique spectrum of light which is traditionally said to have esoteric properties."

Blake shivered. She tried to figure out what to call the color, and realized she didn't have a word for it. It was almost blue, and it was almost yellow, but it certainly wasn't any kind of green. Her skin tingled where the light touched. "I'm inclined to believe them," she said. "What… is that?"

Weiss chuckled. "It's a clever trick, actually; the way the crystals are arranged creates an optical illusion that tricks your retinas into sending contradictory signals." Her smile grew, with the eerie snowflakes reflected in her eyes. Like this, she looked… ghostly. Like a phantom out of some faerie tale. It was a side of Weiss Blake had never seen before, one that was as alluring as it was surprising. "I've always thought it was quite beautiful."

"It is. And so are you." Blake's mind caught up with her mouth, and she laughed at her own cheesy line. "Gods, I sound like Yang."

Weiss's expression turned to an affectionate smirk. "That's hardly the worst thing in the world," she said, sliding close and planting a little kiss on Blake's cheek. "Would you cut the cards for me?"

Blake's ears stood up straight as a tremor shot through her. "What!? A-are you sure?"

"Yes?" Weiss gave her a puzzled look.

"It's just," Blake hastened to explain. "The way my mom taught me, only the fortune teller is supposed to touch her cards. It's the same as how some Hunters won't let anyone else touch their weapons—the deck is an extension of yourself, so handling it is… intimate."

"Well Atlesians believe that it's good luck to have a loved one cut your cards before a reading. Winter and I always cut one another's cards when we practiced." Weiss's eyebrow rose, and she gave Blake a sly smile. "Besides; you should know that you're welcome to handle any part of me as intimately as you like."

Blake's heart sprinted in her chest. "I guess Yang's rubbing off on both of us," she teased, glad for the darkness hiding her blush. "In that case…"

She gingerly reached out and took the top third off the deck. The cards felt heavy in her hands, and all levity left her as she put the deck back together with the same care she'd use to handle Weiss's very soul. In a way, that's exactly what you're doing, said a voice in her head which sounded conspicuously like Kali Belladonna.

A smile edged across Blake's face. Then I'll be just that careful, she promised that part of herself.

Weiss took the cards again, but instead of beginning the reading she set them down on the cloth and wrapped her newly-freed hands around her girlfriend's back. Blake's body warmed under the touch, and soon she was pulling Weiss into her lap. They kissed, barest contact quickly rising into passion, and Blake nearly forgot where they were and why.

She caught herself, right before her lips landed on Weiss's neck. "We shouldn't stay out here too long," she said, ignoring the childish little pang in her chest that wished they could continue.

"You're right, unfortunately," Weiss sighed. She sifted off Blake's lap, and Blake leaned on her shoulder as she began to lay out the spread.

First, she set four cards out in a wide diamond, then placed another four cards inward to form a four-spoked cross. She nodded, and took one last card from the middle of the deck and placed it in the empty center spot. "I think that'll do."

Blake peered curiously at the arrangement of glowing snowflakes. "I've never seen a spread like that before."

Weiss gave her a sheepish smile. "Well… so much has been going on lately, it was hard to decide what sort of guidance to seek, so I fell back on the basics. This is an expanded version of the past/present/future spread… focused on myself and on the three people who are most important to me."

Blake felt a warmth spreading through her chest. "So the four spokes…"

"Ruby," Weiss pointed to the top card, then moved her finger clockwise around the outside of the spread. "Myself, you, and Yang. The outer cards represent our current selves, and the inner ring represents our more distant futures. I would have included a layer for the past… but that would make thirteen."

Blake nodded slowly. Arranging an unlucky number of cards for a fortune telling was probably a bad way to go. "And the card in the center?"

"All of us, together."

Blake's smile grew, and she hugged Weiss tighter. "I like it."

"Thank you," Weiss said. "Now… one last thing before we begin."

She took a breath and closed her eyes. "Cantríon," she whispered, as she raised one palm to the sky, stretching her arm as far as she could and splaying her fingers wide. "Ban'taaluch laii da'paal."

Blake shivered, though she wasn't quite sure why. For a moment she thought she saw the cards flash brighter, but when she blinked they were just as they'd been, that same nameless color.

"Now," Weiss said, lowering her hand, "First, our foundations."

One by one, she turned over the outer ring of cards.

For Ruby, the Eight of Swords. For Weiss, the Ace of Wands. For Blake, the Four of Swords. And for Yang, Strength.

The two of them paused for a moment, lost in thought.

"Strength, I get," Blake said. "Kindness, compassion, resilience, and trust. I don't think I could describe Yang better."

"Agreed." Weiss picked up the Strength card, holding it up to inspect the image; the lady and the lion in restful harmony. She set it down in its place. "The rest are… interesting though. I certainly wouldn't have thought to apply the Four of Swords to you."

Blake examined the card. It was a little different from the design she was familiar with, a pair of women sitting and conversing, with four swords idly standing in the earth around them. "I think I get it," Blake said. "I've had a rough life, but the past few years… I've felt safe. Beacon's become my home, and you've become my family." Her eyes settled on another detail, a heavy cloud hanging in the sky above the women. "But the Four of Swords can also mean the calm before a storm." She thought back to earlier, to all the revelations and changes that this year had started off with. "Maybe it's saying to enjoy this peace while we can."

Weiss gave her a skeptical eyebrow. " Peace isn't how I'd describe the last few days," she said.

Blake smiled sheepishly. "True. Very true."

Weiss leaned into Blake, taking a deep breath as she switched her focus. "And then we have Ruby's card."

The Eight of Swords, bearing the image of a woman blindfolded and bound against a fence of blades, barefoot and ragged. Self-doubt. Isolation. Imprisonment.

"It is pretty ominous," Blake admitted. "And confusing."

"I agree. Ruby certainly doesn't seem like she feels trapped." Weiss reached out and picked up the card, holding it up to inspect it. "If anything, she seems happier and more open than ever."

Blake's heart warmed at the thought, but then a troubling thought slipped into her mind. "Actually… I can think of one way it might fit."

"Oh?"

Blake took a breath, condensing thoughts that'd been percolating in the back of her mind for the past few days into a coherent statement. "Well, bluntly? I don't think she's ready for a sexual relationship."

Weiss stiffened. "Ah. About earlier, with Yang, in the shower, I—"

Blake squeezed her shoulder before she could work herself up. "It's okay," she said. "Yang and I talked about it already. We should all come back to that another time, but I'm not mad at you, or at her. And I don't think Ruby is either. If anything… I think we just need to take things a little more slowly."

Weiss nodded, slowly relaxing again. "Thank you," she said, turning her attention back to Ruby's card. "That makes sense." She ran a hand nervously through her hair. "I… I don't know. I feel guilty sometimes. Being older, more certain about what I want… I don't want to hurt her by asking too much too fast."

"I know what you mean," Blake sighed as a familiar braid of anxiety and guilt wrapped around her chest. There was a part of her that remembered the last relationship she'd been a part of. A part which had recognized, even back when she was a lovestruck fourteen-year old, that there was something uncomfortable in being kissed by a boy four years older than her.

Still, it was different. The age gap was smaller, and more importantly Ruby wasn't nearly as young as Blake had been. Blake smiled, her heart full of the brave girl she loved, and she the guilt ebbed away. "I think we can trust her to come to us when she's ready," she said, planting a soft kiss on Weiss's cheek. "

"You're right, of course," Weiss said, a warm smile slipping across her face. She picked up the last revealed card: the Ace of Wands, an image of a spectral hand holding a living wooden staff. "So what does this mean?"

Blake scratched her chin thoughtfully. "Well… aces are associated with beginnings and potential. Wands are associated with fire, willpower, aura… you've still got parts of your semblance you haven't mastered, and you're also beginning to explore your spirituality. Like all of us, you're still learning and growing as a person. I think it makes sense."

Weiss shook her head slowly. "I'm not so sure… I don't know why, but I have the funniest feeling about it. Like it means something more."

"Like what?"

Weiss didn't speak for a moment, turning the card back and forth to examine the lines. Her eyes shimmered eerily in their light. "I don't know," she said, setting it back down. "But… let's not stay out here all night."

She proceeded to flip the next ring of cards; their futures. The Page of Cups for Ruby, the Magician for Weiss, and the Queen of Swords for Yang, inverted so that it was upside-down.

But their eyes were stuck on the last card, the one in Blake's spoke.

Number thirteen of the Major Arcana. Death.

Blake laughed nervously, a pit forming in her stomach as she eyed the skeletal knight. "Well, at least it's not the Tower?"

Weiss suppressed a chuckle. "It just means an ending," she reassured gently. "Or a transformation. We've all been through plenty of both."

"I know," Blake sighed. "Change always comes." She eyed the Four of Swords warily. "So I guess I am in the calm before the storm."

"A reasonable interpretation," Weiss agreed. "What about the others?"

"I'm not sure." Blake's eyes swept the goblet-bearing Page and the Queen on her throne. "How do you tend to read court cards?"

"I've usually interpreted them as people," Weiss said. "It's odd though. The Page of Cups fits Ruby in a lot of ways—she's young, curious, intuitive, clever… but it's strange to interpret a Page as someone's future."

A strange little memory popped into Blake's head, from the night after their visit to the museum. Ruby never did get around to explaining who she'd been texting, or why their conversation seemed to have such a huge impact on her. "Each of these arms already represents a person. Maybe the Page is someone else entirely?"

Weiss hummed thoughtfully. "Like who?"

"I'm not sure." Blake pondered for a moment. "We're about to meet a bunch of new freshmen on Monday, or it could be a person we already know. Either way it's probably someone more connected to Ruby than to us."

"Probably so. And then the inverted Queen of Swords. The only inversion in the whole spread so far. Intelligence, independence, directness are all traits I'd assign to Yang…"

"…But the inversion clouds the meaning," Blake finished. Her eyes narrowed as she recalled another memory—that strange bird from the forest. "Again, what if the Queen isn't Yang at all?"

"You seem a bit more certain this time. Do you have a guess?"

"Raven."

"…Oh stars."

Blake nodded, her mouth going dry at the implication. She didn't know much about the woman—not that Yang knew much herself—but what she did know was easily stretched to fit. "Yang's been trying to contact her for years, but she's never had the chance to search Mistral."

"I see." Weiss's left hand tightened into a fist, and Blake lay hers gently atop it. Their eyes met, and exchanged matching feelings.

They'd never exactly talked about it, but… Blake had a few things she'd like to say to Raven Branwen about family, given the chance. It seemed Weiss felt similarly.

In the end, it was only a possibility, but it felt a little too right for Blake to dismiss it.

"Lastly…" Weiss hummed, squeezing Blake's hand and finally tearing her eyes away from the Queen. "The Magician."

Potential, agency, and creativity. A man with one hand pointed towards the earth, and the other held a scepter towards the sky—which in this depiction was speckled with eerily glowing stars. Before him all four minor arcana were laid out. A cup, a sword, a pentacle, and a wand. Water, air, earth, and fire.

The symbolism seemed almost obvious, especially in connection with the Ace of Wands. "So you're going to become powerful," Blake said, frowning. "That's… it?"

"I suppose?" Weiss sounded uncertain. "It's oddly straightforward, given the other cards in the spread. Not that I mind becoming a stronger huntress, but that can't be my whole future, can it?"

"Maybe we could add a card, for clarification?" Blake suggested.

Weiss considered for a moment. "That's not typically something I'd do… but if you think it's alright I suppose we can give it a shot." She drew another card from the deck and lay it below the Magician, before turning it over.

It was another unfamiliar design, but Blake supposed that made sense. If the objects of the sky were sacred in Atlas, it only made sense that their cards would take a different form. Still, she recognized the image instantly.

The image was of a woman, kneeling on a beach under an open sky. Above her, lines of light cast down from the heavens; a meteor shower, falling brightly towards her bowed head. Below the image, a number stood out in eerie light: Twenty.

Judgement. Symbolizing metamorphosis, ascension, choice, and change, but not the gentle kind. It was the penultimate card of the Major Arcana, second only to The World, number twenty-one, in power.

Weiss blinked, turning slowly to look at Blake. "Well. That escalated quickly."

"Wait," Blake said, eyes widening as one last piece of the puzzle asserted itself. "That's—"

"That's the card you assigned me, back at the Museum," Weiss confirmed. She frowned, then reached out and pulled another card. She set it next to Yang's cards, and flipped it.

Another unfamiliar design, and another which Blake still recognized instantly. A circle of fire, surrounded by concentric broken rings. The outside of the frame was full of flowers, and suddenly the nameless color had a name; gold. Purest gold. It bore the number nineteen.

The Sun. Joy, warmth, vitality, good fortune, protection. A perfect card for Yang. So perfect, they'd already named it once before.

"No…" Weiss muttered. She grabbed the deck and shuffled it frantically, before pulling another card and setting it with Ruby's. "Please, please don't—"

Blake wasn't even surprised this time. The image on the card was of a cloaked figure standing on a cliff, leaning on their walking stick while looking out at a lush valley. Above the valley, a single point of blinding light burned in the sky, to guide the pilgrim to their destination.

Seventeen.

The Star. Hope, renewal, faith, futurity, destiny.

Blake gripped Weiss's arm, her ears folding back. "Weiss? What's happening?""

Wordlessly, Weiss placed one last card by Blake's. She flipped it over.

This was the most different. The shattered hung low over a dark lake, its eerie purple light reflecting perfectly off the ripples in the water where a tiger swam purposefully along the surface, its eyes locked ahead to some hidden goal. Eighteen.

The Moon. Secrets, fear, illusion, but also hidden truths, purpose, and quiet passion. Blake felt a shiver run up her spine.

Four of the five celestial arcana. The very same ones they'd assigned each other, a few days ago.

Weiss started shaking, her hands balled to fists, and Blake realized why.

In a Mistralian tarot reading, this would be incredibly significant. The Major Arcana, all of them from zero, The Fool, to The World at twenty-one, were powerful cards. And the celestial arcana stood at the top of that hierarchy, powerful symbols with far less ambiguity than the preceding cards.

But Atlesian spirituality was sidereal. These weren't just powerful images, they were sacred ones. This wasn't just an incredibly unlikely series of coincidences lining up; from an Atlesian perspective, this was as good as a divine message.

Weiss stood and slammed her hands on the table, bracketing the spread. "Why, why are you telling me this!" she demanded. "What do you want?"

She glared up at the sky, at stars which burned and spun in her eyes. "I almost died today!" she shouted "I almost watched a woman I love die today! I don't want power, I don't want destiny, I want a void-damned break!"

"Weiss!" Blake grabbed her arm.

She was cold. Ice cold. Colder than any human being should ever be, with frost spreading out across her skin.

But she was still Weiss, and Blake tugged her back down to the bench. "Hey, look at me."

Weiss did, her anger quickly giving way to what was really under it, and the eerie cold warmed away as soon as it'd come. The lights in her eyes gave way to tears and she clutched at Blake and cried.

Blake held her tight, and that seemed to help a little.

"Do… you want to talk about that?" Blake asked, once Weiss's sobs subsided.

Weiss shook her head roughly. "I'm just so tired," she deflected. Blake's mouth twitched into a frown, but she let it drop as Weiss reached for the last card, the one in the center that represented Team RWBY together. "Let's just get this done and go back to bed."

She picked up the card with shaking fingers, and turned it over.

A young woman in traveling clothes, laughing joyously as she danced along the edge of a cliff. A dog followed at her heels, barking merrily. Number zero.

The Fool. Youth, inexperience, infinite potential. The Major Arcana could be seen as a journey, a divine progression from birth to enlightenment. In that progression, the Fool was the beginning.

After a moment's pause, Weiss raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Is that so? You give me a bloody heart attack and this is all you have to follow it up with?"

Blake let an uncertain smile slip, now that the tension had broken. "I can't say I disagree with it though," she said. "We're all young, and we've all got a lot of learning and growing left to do." She ran her hand through Weiss's hair. "I think the cards are saying that we shouldn't worry. We might fall off some cliffs and make some silly mistakes. We might even hurt each other. But, we'll continue to change, and heal, and…" she paused long enough to realize how cheesy she was going to sound, and decided she didn't give a shit, "The celestial arcana are a set. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Four in a row. Whatever happens, we're going to be together until the end."

Weiss nodded, sniffling into Blake's yukata. "Okay," she said. She pulled back, sitting on her own and staring at her knees. "Would you… gather the cards and put them away? I don't think I can do it."

"Of course," Blake said.

She found herself gazing one last time over the spread, memorizing the layout, before gently picking up each card and shuffling them back into Weiss's deck. Once done, she took the cloth and carefully wrapped it around the cards, then set them in the box and closed it.

When she looked up, she found Weiss staring up at the sky again, lost in some unknowable contemplation as the stars gazed down like a billion silver eyes.

"I'm scared, Blake," she said.

"Me too, Weiss. I love you."

"I love you too. Let's go back to our girlfriends?"

"Yeah."

A/N:

WHOOP

Sorry for the delay on this one, quarantine has been a surprisingly busy time and I've generally just kinda been thrown off my everything with how it's destroyed my schedule. But hey, at least we're here!

There've been a lot of good poly-fics coming out lately, and I'm deeply grateful to all the other writers doing the Good Work. Particular shoutout to ImperialAxis and Hester_Of_Ravenswood, who (I think) both started pollination fics since the quarantine. Keep it up friends!

Thanks to Sgt. Chrysalis, SeventeenFables, juniorthib, shockfactor for the look-over! I don't think FriendOfYggdrasil actually got to this one, but thanks to them too for being a generally radical person.

And thank you all for reading! Mask up and stay well, I'll see you again soon!

EDIT: So I said this in the comments, but I learned tarot reading from my mother. Shortly after posting this, I hit upon the realization that not only do most of my readers not have that background, but that some of the specific tarot symbolism used here is unique to my family's style. So I went in and did my best to clarify everything because good GOD, you literally would have had to read my mind to get some of this meaning. Big oops on my part, and I apologize for the ensuing confusion.