Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt – Book Three: Crowning Card
Reading Eighteen: Changing Tide
So far on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…
Delinquent Liss Decker found herself caught between combatants from a strange alternate world called the Sphere, and afterward found herself with the ability to transform into Tarock, a warrior of awesome powers. Tarock's creator, a mystical immortal being called an Arancum, asked Liss to become a champion for his people, who were being plagued by the reappearance of monstrous beings they call the Mythos. Mainly seeing an escape from her oppressive everyday life, Liss agreed.
Many battles followed, testing Liss's fortitude but also giving her the chance to gain powerful allies such as some of the Arcana, powerful immortal creatures who inspired the Tarot deck, and Ben Corland, her ex-boyfriend who can change into Vaga, a powerful warrior form of his own. However, some Arcana automatically consider Liss a menace because the first Tarock was responsible for the death of one of their number.
After her last battle Liss was able to recover a girl who only refers to herself as Lost, and is the source of the Mythos monsters. She and Ben are on their way to the hideout of the wizard Master Shardak to see if he can recommend a solution. But as Liss has come to expect, things are rarely so simple…
Mila and Felco, the Arcana bound together in an eternal embrace, looked as if they hoped they could break apart and flee the Empress's angered gaze. For minutes that seemed like hours she said nothing, then suddenly Empress Maeve brought down a fist on the armrest of her throne, cracking off the corner and sending it flying toward the other end of the room.
"Wonderful!" she shouted in a rage. "Now thanks to the two of you, we might have another pair of Tarocks on our hands! Fighting with power you gave them! All in the name of proving some point about the power of love!"
"With all due respect," Mila began, "love is the greatest of all things, Empress."
"You've certainly proved that!" Maeve screamed. "I was an idiot to let this happen in the first place! Get out of my sight!" A bolt of violet power jumped from her hand and blasted a hole in the floor in front of the joined Arcana. They locked eyes with the Empress for a second, their expressions completely flat, then drifted out of the throne room. Servants scrambled to open the doors for them, then close them again as soon as Mila and Felco were through so the Empress didn't change her mind about letting them leave intact.
As soon as they were gone, Maeve slumped back in her chair with a sigh. She'd probably just cost herself one of the few allies she still had, but they'd made a foolish choice that had ended with the loss of most of their power and another pair of dangerous renegades on the loose. They hadn't ended her empire's biggest problem, they'd simply created another.
Maeve could only blame herself. If she'd made hunting Tarock down a priority and dealt with that little miscreant while she was still small, it'd allow Maeve to focus on making progress on the fight against the Mythos themselves. Finding the "lost soul" Phythia had said was central to all this.
Instead, the people were getting restless. Fights were even breaking out in the streets and word of looting in the districts near the edge of the wall was trickling constant assaults on the city, along with word that Tarock was still alive even after managing to sneak herself inside their walls, were eroding their faith in the Arcana protecting them. Who knew what damage the news of Ven and Donis's rebelling would do?
At the very least, the farmlands that had survived the attacks—as the Mythos' priority was evidently breaching the wall—were growing crops of an unheard of size. Maeve had no idea why, but wasn't going to question a bit of good news amidst all the bad. Perhaps all the power she'd been unleashing to fend off monsters had given life to the soil. Right now, all that mattered was protecting her people, restoring peace to what remained of her empire, and destroying the threats to it once and for all.
She excused herself from the throne room and returned to her private chambers. It hadn't always been so trying, even when the Mythos had first appeared. She may not have been the warmest of allies toward Solymen and the empire he ruled on the other end of the Sphere, but they were at least cordial.
At least, until the first Tarock, who Maeve had never trusted with so much power, had killed Knight Duric.
Duric. Always foremost among her allies, always the first into a fight and the last to leave. He devoted every waking moment to honing his strength and skill, but he never fought for its own sake. And one night when he'd been leading a detachment of soldiers to clear some Mythos out of the hinterlands, he ran into Tarock. A battle followed, and Duric fell. That was when they'd learned even the Arcana could die. That was when Master Mortis appeared for the first time, only appearing again when another Arcanum fell. It was end of the golden age.
If only Duric had survived. With his influence, the other Arcana would still be in line. They'd be making actual progress against the Mythos incursions. There'd be no Tarock creating new problems of her own. And…and…
…and she wouldn't be all alone in this gigantic palace of hers. Which seemed emptier every day the threat had a chance to get worse.
Lost took a slow walk along the row of tents with Liss next to her. She was looking a lot healthier and more energetic than when Liss had saved her from the basement of Marvel Land. It had only been a little while, but already the face peeking out of her black hood was almost unrecognizable, flashing a smile at everything she saw. She didn't look anything like the source of an army of monsters, and even though she'd told herself again and again to be careful of Lost so close to one of the big cities, Liss was relaxing around her.
"Let's not go too far," Liss said, a little warningly. "We don't want Ben to have to spend all day looking for us when he gets back."
A bunch of children ran past, laughing and slapping at each other with toy swords. One of them hit Lost in the shin, then another saw what his friend was doing and ran over and hit her two. Liss stepped forward to chase them away but Lost placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. The children looked up at the two of them, flashed ragged grins missing several baby teeth apiece, and ran after their friends.
"They were only playing," Lost said.
"They still shouldn't go hitting strangers," Liss replied.
"I appreciate all you've done for me, but I don't think you need to go out of your way to protect me from children with fake weapons," Lost said with a smile.
Liss sighed. "Okay, okay." She didn't like being told to change her behavior, but those were just kids with toy swords. Not somebody among the many people who were looking for a real fight with her.
"Doesn't it fill you with life?" Lost asked, spreading her arms wide and looking up at the sky.
"I guess," Liss said. As she thought more about it though, she figured somebody like herself, who'd never had someone who was a bigger problem than a nasty vice principal breathing down her neck, might've learned to take the little things for granted. A cloudless day like that day, even if it was the weird yellow of day that close to the bottom of the Sphere, or a cool breeze like the one picking up that always made her feel more alert without even realizing it. "Yeah…yeah I guess it kind of does."
"That's good to hear," Lost smiled, and sucked in a deep breath before sighing happily. "Come to think of, imagine if those children knew they were that close to Tarock herself. Do you think they'd try to form themselves into an army for you, or run away screaming?"
"I'm not looking for fans," Liss said. "I'm looking to prove I can handle anything that comes my way."
"Oh?" Lost asked, her smile dimming. "But, you came to save me when I reached you. If you wanted to prove your strength, there was one there overseeing the others. I haven't felt one as powerful as him before. Warlock, he called himself."
"You were abused and in trouble," Liss replied.
Lost held her head in her hands for a second and turned to Liss. "I don't understand. If you fight to prove your strength, why did you come to save me and not stay to fight Warlock? I saw you fighting the other monsters, you handled them with ease. What does fighting them prove? Did you prove yourself when you killed the shug-hoth…?"
Liss caught her before she fell to the ground, overwhelmed by the conflicting ideas in her head. "Look, never mind," Liss said. "As soon as Ben gets back we'll go see Shardak. Maybe he can figure out how to stop you from having to make any more monsters."
A heavyset woman came up to them and looked Lost over. "She doesn't look well, maybe you'd better her let her lie down," she suggested, and tried to Lost up by the shoulders.
But then Liss's arm tingled with cold. "Get away from her," Liss said in no uncertain terms and pulled Lost away.
A shining black layer formed over the woman's eyes for the barest fraction of a second, but Liss didn't miss it. "I'm only trying to help your friend. She looks like she's been through quite an ordeal." The cold on Liss's arm intensified, turning into a painful itch as if something was growing on her skin. She fastened the Fate Driver around her waist.
All of a sudden the woman jumped fifteen feet straight backward. Her eyes turned a blazing red and an ugly smirk formed on her lips. Three men appeared from the rows of tents and gathered around her. "Never could fool you, Tarock," the woman said in the White Lady's voice. "You and I are so alike, after all…"
The cluster of people suddenly started to emit black slime from their skin, and in less than a second they were completely coated. Lost screamed and scrambled backward. The people flowed together and took the shape of a rider on horseback, and Liss remembered the monster she'd fought on Halloween. Would it be another Headless Horseman?
The mass of slime solidified into a grisly monster, indeed with the shape of a horse and a rider grafted to its back, but with no skin and all muscle and fiber exposed. Stringy gray hair hung from the rider's head, and the horse's was only a bleached skull with a single blood-red, baseball-sized eye lodged in it. The arms of the human portion were twice as long as they should've been, and his hands big enough to crush a person's skull.
"I am Nuckelavee, the death from the sea!" the White Lady's voice spoke from the rider's mouth. "Let all who dare face me wither!" Then both rider and horse opened their mouths wide and wisps of black mist drifted out. Any grass it touched turned brown and wilted immediately, and people who were looking out at what was going on clutched their throats and fell over gasping for breath.
Looked like this was a good monster to keep at a distance, and that meant one thing.
"Cups Suit!" As soon as her yellow armor had formed Tarock waved her hand in front of her belt and summoned her Sea Hand. Then with her other hand she tapped the Royal Core.
"Coronation! Page of Cups!" Power flowed from the crystal and formed into a likeness of a young boy in a long yellow coat. In his hands was a chalice that gave off soft white fumes, and as it touched the blackness Nuckelavee was spewing, started to push it backward. Seeing that, Nuckelavee reared up and cried out angrily before charging Tarock.
"Calamity! Jaws of Frost!" Ice sprayed from Tarock's fingers, forming a wall between her and Nuckelavee. Around it the fumes from the Page's cup continued to billow out and push back Nuckelavee's poisonous breath. The monster reared back to keep from colliding with the frigid wall and battered his hooves against it. Large chunks fell off from the first blow and it was obvious it wouldn't hold for long. Needing to keep Page safe to keep the poison smoke form doing any more damage, Tarock jumped high into the air and prepared her next attack.
"Woe! Aqua Burst!" called out the Fate Driver just as a compressed water ball shot from Tarock's fingertips. Nuckelavee recoiled and Tarock's attack blew a hole in the ground. When Tarock landed Nuckelavee wheeled around and galloped toward her. But as he did the itching on Tarock's arm got even worse, and she started to get angry. The White Lady thought they were so much alike, did she? Myabe it was time to really show her who she was messing with.
At a thought the Rend Brace jumped onto Tarock's wrist. "Calmaity! Tethys Cutter!" A blade of watery power formed at the top of the bracelet and she slashed at Nuckelavee with all her might. The monster jumped over it and Tarock's slash ripped through some tents and sent people nearby scurrying for safety. Nuckelavee landed a few feet away and swiped at Tarock with his front hooves, catching her on the side of the head. Tarock stumbled away but recovered a second later and slashed with the Tethys Cutter again, catching Nuckelavee in the raw flesh of its side. A gout of blue ichor fountained up from the wound and before Nuckelavee could get away she shot a spray of ice from her fingers and froze his rear legs to the ground.
Then Tarock jumped onto Nuckelavee's back between his head and the rider and punched the rider in the face as hard as she could. "Think I'm like you, huh?" she snapped and punched again. His head jerked back and his hair splayed out behind him. The itch on Tarock's arm was burning now, and all she could feel was an urge to shut that miserable bitch up. Her fist flashed out but then Nuckelavee spewed a cloud of black smoke right into her face.
She screamed and tumbled off. The black fog burned at her chest armor and mask.. Tarock concentrated more on Page, ordering him to come closer, and held her face near the soothing mist pouring from the cup in his hands. Meanwhile Nuckelavee shook his skinless body and broke free of the ice Tarock had formed around his legs. He turned and galloped straight through a row of tents collapsing them, trampling anyone trying to hide inside or snatching them with his long arms and hurling them away.
After a few seconds Tarock recovered enough to look around for where her enemy had gone. His breath had actually melted tiny holes all over the lenses to her mask, and while the burning from the attack had stopped the rage she felt to put down that monster had only gotten stronger. She chased after Nuckelavee and jumped high, slicing with the Tethys cutter into his back. Blue ichor spurted from the wound again, but Nuckelavee didn't stop his wild charge. Tarock jumped again and sprayed ice from her fingers and formed a wall in front of the monster.
"Suck on this!" Tarock yelled and fired off an Aqua Burst sphere at Nuckelavee's back. It slammed into him and lifted him off the ground and he fell a few feet away, landing with a disgusting splat as his body hit the ground.
"Dire Fate! Frost Gatling!" the Fate Driver called out, Tarock bracing herself for the force of her attack. But Nuckelavee managed to scramble to its hooves, reared back and then stamped down on the ground with enough force to shake it. Again he rose, and again he pounded the ground, dark streams of power traveling through his exposed veins and into the earth. Cracks spread out from where his hoof stamped a third time and from them poured the same evil black fog as his breath.
Tarock gasped and fired off a barrage of icicles but they melted as soon as they touched the black cloud. It was pouring out thicker and faster than when he breathed it himself and people were already keeling over unable to breathe. There was no way Page's power could resist that.
Nuckelavee pounded the ground and the cracks spread even farther. Tarock crouched and somersaulted backward through the air without even thinking of what she was doing. She stopped against the trunk of a tree, her hands and feet sticking to the trunk.
She pressed her one hand against the Royal Core while she aimed the Sea Hand at Nuckelavee. "Coronation! Ace of Cups!" said the Fate Driver with more force than Tarock thought she'd ever heard. Page turned into a cluster of small wisps of light that flew to surround Tarock's Sea Hand and formed into a rectangular cannon barrel, the image of a bearded man with a trident engraved on the side in gold.
"Ace High! Crash Tide!" Tarock only had a second to prepare herself before a huge burst of power arcing out like a tidal wave ripped from her weapon, pushing the tree she was clinging to back at an angle. It washed over Nuckelavee and the dark clouds he'd created, tearing the monster apart and flattening a column of tents before slamming into the wall of the city and knocking some sizable rocks free from it.
And Tarock laughed. That stupid bitch thought these pathetic monsters of hers were a threat? Let her send them all. This was what would happen.
Again without even thinking Tarock pushed off the tree, flipped through the air and landed on her feet. She found Lost standing and staring at her nearby. "You all right?" Tarock asked.
Lost nodded numbly. "How did you stick to the tree like that?" she asked. "That armor looks so heavy…"
"I don't know," Liss admitted, but so what? She could stick to walls too? Great, when were extra powers a bad thing?
But she was coming down from a combat high she didn't remember ever feeling in any of her other battles, and saw how many people were staring at her, not many of them like they were about to ask for an autograph. Near the wall she could see a few prone forms who looked like they'd been blown around by the force of the attack that killed Nuckelavee. Others rushed over and tended to them, but cast accusing glances at Tarock as they did.
"We better go," she told Lost then held out a Wild Card that morphed into a moth and flew into the sky. "Find Ben, he's going to need to catch up to us," she said before taking Lost by the hand and heading away from Avalon.
For the sixth time Paige went to get water for a pot of coffee. Angelo tried to rub some clarity back into his eyes as he watched go. It was well into a Saturday morning and the second portion of kung-fu class would be starting soon, but he'd agreed to stay up and hope for some word from Liss would come in and calm her older sister's mind.
He'd accepted that Liss's role as a hero would take her away unexpectedly sometimes (although that didn't mean he planned to pay her for classes she missed). Paige Decker, however, had come by his home the night before asking if he knew anything about a massive "light show" coming from the old amusement park on the edge of town. She was sure her sister was involved somehow, which was probably true, but was also convinced something terrible had happened to Liss and it seemed only word from Liss herself would change her mind.
Paige's hand was quivering as she poured water into the top of the coffeemaker and reset the pot. Angelo wondered how much of that was the caffeine shakes and how much was simple worry.
He flipped on the TV just to have some noise in the room, and surfed channels until he found the morning news. The ticker on the bottom had a message just starting to disappear reading "—PLOSION AT ABANDONED AMUSEMENT PARK," while above it a man with a slightly doughy face, wearing glasses and a blue business suit that probably cost more than the building Angelo lived in was standing in what looked like a war zone. On one cheek was taped a gauze pad with the edges of a very large, very dark bruise peeking out around it. There was a massive hole in the ground behind him and people were even picking up hunks of concrete and jagged metal as they recorded.
Underneath the man's face was a name bar: "Carl Stanford, Silver Light Industrial." Stanford turned to a microphone and said, "I'm personally shocked to find out what was going on underneath this park, but I'm glad that Tarock and her partner…I'm sorry, what was his name, Vaga? That they were around and found out what was going on here in time to stop it before anyone was hurt.
"However, I want to assure everyone that this event has only reaffirmed my belief in the value of this community. There may be dangers here, but if it can also produce heroes like that, then it more than deserves our support. The project to get this park running again is still on," he finished, flashing a blindingly white smile.
"Hear that? Liss is movin' up in the world," Angelo said, trying to give Paige a reassuring smile.
"If it went so well, why hasn't there been any sign of her since then?" was Paige's immediate reply.
Then there was an explosion that shook plaster dust from the ceiling.
Paige was up and running for the front door before Angelo could stop her. She pushed on it even though all that could be seen through the glass was a huge cloud of dust. As some of it billowed in she thought better of it and let the door swing closed again. A hulking shape went flying through the air by the building and then something flew after it before the dust cleared.
Again Paige shoved the door open and peered into the street, where a gang of fighters in shiny black armor were hacking at a gray-skinned, one-eyed monster who wielded a metal ball on a chain at them. One of the black-armored figures was knocked into the air by a throw of the Cyclops's weapon, but even as they faded into thin air another jumped at the monster's back and dug their dagger into his flesh.
The monster roared out in pain and struggled against the blade but this gave the other armored attackers the chance to bring their own weapons to bear, cleaving the Cyclops into four pieces that immediately started dissolving into blue smoke. As soon as it had faded away and left nothing but a blue stain on the asphalt, the figures in black armor flickered away until only one was left. Slowly Paige approached them when suddenly Angelo jumped inbetween them, a sawed off shotgun in his hands.
"What the hell do you think you're doing back here?" he demanded, fixing his gaze on the armored figure.
The armor flickered away, leaving a weary-looking woman. "You," she said quietly, pointing at Angelo. "You're Tarock's ally."
"And you are the farthest thing from that last time I checked," he retorted. He repeated, "What the hell do you think you're doing here?"
"I'd appreciate it if you'd lower that weapon around my wife," said a voice above, and a figure in shining white armor with bright blue lenses in his mask landed beside the woman. The armor faded and left a man with a weary smile on his face where he'd stood. "But I won't make threats to assure it."
Paige looked back and forth between Angelo and the strange people who wore armor like her sister's and fought monsters just like she did. Yet, they'd obviously met Angelo before, and he was plenty suspicious of them from it. What was going on?
She stepped out from behind Angelo and asked the two, "You two know my crazy little sister?"
"Know her?" Angelo spat. "They tried to kill her!"
"Tarock?" the man asked, then sighed. "Not personally. She…showed mercy on Nema and myself after a battle, though, and we've decided to try and repay her."
" 'Showed you mercy'? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Paige demanded.
The woman, Nema, answered her. "What Lurian meant was we were given our powers to try to kill Tarock, because there are those where we come from who see her as a threat. The last time we fought, Tarock had the chance to kill us but she left without doing so."
"But when was that?" Paige interrupted. "Where's my sister?"
Nema sighed and looked at the ground. "That, we don't know. She left in such a hurry, though…she probably had a purpose in mind. An urgent one, I would think."
A helpless moan escaped her lips and Paige held her face in her hands. Lurian reached out to pat her shoulder and stopped when Angelo cocked his gun menacingly, then gently touched Paige on the shoulder all the same. "I wouldn't worry so much, ma'am," he said softly. "Your sister's a fine warrior. Whoever taught her should be proud."
"It was him," Paige answered, indicating Angelo with one hand. Lurian looked up at Angelo, even with the gun still clutched in his hands, and smiled.
"Well, sir, please allow me to extend my compliments to your skills," Lurian said. After another second Angelo lowered his gun.
"That's…big of you," he said. "Considering how we met."
"As I said," Nema interjected, "we're here to lend our help while Tarock's away. Judging by that character we just caught, you look like you could use it."
Paige took a breath, sounding for just a second like she was holding something in. "Well, until my sister has the decency to come back and let us know she's okay, having some of her friends around to keep an eye on things sounds like a good idea."
"Friends," Nema said, rolling the word around in her mouth. A small smile formed on her lips as Angelo heard her say it and gave her a quizzical look. "That has a nice sound to it…"
"All right ladies, dinner is served!" Ben called out to them even though they were only a few feet away. He held a juicy shish kebob in each hand and offered them to Liss and Lost as they came over. Liss looked down at the one held out to her hesitantly for a second while Lost grabbed hers and bit deeply into a hunk of meat. She took another eager bite and moaned as her teeth hit the stick.
Liss took hers and had a bite too. She was halfway done chewing it when she noticed the look in Ben's eye as he watched her, curious and yet nervous about what she'd have to say about it. She swallowed, took a bite out of a vegetable she couldn't identify but that had a sharp garlic-like taste and let it go down her throat too before she said anything. "This is pretty good, Ben," Liss told him. "I didn't have you figured for the cooking type."
A cocky smirk covered his face at that. "Guess we're both full of surprises, huh? My dad only cares about being able to grill steak. I learned how to make this other stuff just so we'd have something else when we had a barbecue."
"That's impressive!" Lost gushed. Ben smiled, and Lost stopped herself. "Is it?" she asked Liss.
"There aren't a lot of guys who are into cooking back where we're from," Liss answered. "They think it's too much work, I guess."
"Let's not forget who here was planning on living off campfire hotdogs and spam," Ben smirked.
"I would've done fine!" Liss snapped.
"Sure you would've," Ben said and turned over a slice of meat on the small grill he'd picked up while he was shopping. "But that doesn't mean you have to, does it? I mean, you're proving how strong you are with all the monsters you beat…does that mean you have to eat nothing but crappy food the whole time you're out camping too?"
"It doesn't matter as long as I'm strong enough to kick some ass," Liss replied in a neutral tone, but then took another big bite.
Ben turned the meat over again. "You didn't answer my question," he reminded her. "Just because you could've been okay eating that stuff doesn't mean you have to punish yourself with it. That's not really part of proving how tough you are like the rest of this, is it?"
Lost set down her skewer and said, without thinking to wipe the sauce off her lips, "Ben's right, isn't he? Even if you have to fight the monsters, that's no reason you shouldn't be allowed refresh yourself after you do, is there?"
At both of them ganging up on her with their questions Liss scowled, but swallowed her food and wiped her mouth. "Maybe not," she finally said.
And Ben laughed. Long, loud. After a moment Lost joined in too, but cast a sidelong glance at Liss like she wasn't sure she should be. But Liss smiled just a little, and seeing that Ben suddenly said, "You know, since you found out something about me tonight, maybe I should get to find out something about you, Liss."
"Like what?" she asked in reply.
"Well," Ben said, paused for a minute in thought, then answered, "how about what do you want to do after this is all over?"
"Are you asking me out?" Liss replied, incredulously.
Ben laughed again. "No!" he said, but his laugh died away as he looked her in the eye. "No. I meant…I meant, you're doing this to show how strong you are, right? What about after we get to Shardak and he tells us how to make it so Lost doesn't make anymore monsters? Are you gonna start your own country or go back home and be a sword-swinging vigilante or what?"
Liss didn't answer the question for a long time, looking off into the distance while she pondered an answer to that question. She looked back at Ben and answered, "Well, first I'm gonna make sure Sensei doesn't have anything else to show me. Then maybe I'll find someplace to start my own school. And I can teach people how to fight. After I spend a couple weeks making them do chores so I know they're committed."
That answer made Ben's jaw go slack for a second, but then he grinned. "Wow. That…I really wasn't expecting an answer like that. You want to run a kung fu school? That's really awesome, actually."
"It is!" Lost agreed. "You'd teach others how to fight properly so they can protect their people? That's…is 'commendable' the right word? I think it is."
"It's just an idea," Liss said dismissively.
Ben perked an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? If I wanted to, would you teach me?"
"Pffft! I'm not taking just anybody who walks past me. I want people who are serious," Liss answered him.
"Oh yeah? If that's just an idea, sounds like you got it all figured out," Ben said with a teasing smirk on his face. He picked up a fork and flipped the side of meat on the grill over one last time. "Okay ladies, main course is served!"
For the rest of the night, Liss noticed he and Lost seemed a little different around her. A little more relaxed, their eyes held a slight glimmer of…could it have been respect?
It was late the next day when the sound of a powerful engine roaring up disturbed Master Shardak from the unsettling spectacle he'd seen in the image played in the air before him. A bird's shriek with a metallic twang to it followed, and Shardak hurriedly hid the card.
Not to his surprise Liss Decker and Ben Corland walked through the hidden entrance to his cave, but behind them was an emaciated girl in a ragged black cloak. Shardak was unable to hold in a gasp of shock at a power he could feel radiating from her being. A tremor passed from the bottom to top of his insubstantial being, and he gasped out and needed a few seconds to reform himself before he could face them.
"Hey…hey!" Liss said. "Are you okay?"
"I'll be all right," the old wizard's ghostly visage answered. "What…who is this?"
Lost flinched at the question. "I am…Lost. That is all I know."
"She's the source of the monsters, apparently," Liss explained. "Sometimes she pukes up this black stuff that turns into the new Mythos. I sorta hoped maybe you could check her out, and try to find out how to stop that from happening anymore."
Shardak stared past them at Lost, opening his mouth a few times to speak, but not managing to find any words. He could see the girl, almost the same age as his reluctant choice of envoys, but there was a palpable feeling coming off of her. Of a churning power just waiting to be unleashed.
"Very well," Shardak said. After bracing himself as well as he could, Shardak, his transparent hands trembling, raised them and a screen of energy flowed out from his fingers and down the tunnel to the mouth of the cave. Liss and Ben felt only a tingle from where they kept their cards, but a second later the cave erupted in a burning white light flashing out from Lost's body.
She screamed and fell to her knees, and as she did a sensation of cold so sharp it seemed to rip right to the soul engulfed Liss's body. Liss stumbled and met Lost's eyes for just a second and then she wasn't looking at Lost anymore; she could only see a bubbling, shifting mass of blackness that stretched out of sight. But somewhere near the middle of that blackness there was a single glimmering ribbon of white light reaching upwards into the skies.
There was no sign of what the ribbon connected to, but Liss could feel a powerful emanation from the other side. Commanding her to rise up and fight, to destroy all but her own kind or those it deemed useful. There was no vocal command. It was like a wordless impulse from the brain to move or look at something. From a brain a thousand times louder and stronger than Liss's own, reaching out for her…
Icy fingers started to prod and jab at Liss's mind, working their way inside to grab a stranglehold she knew she could never break. She jerked and contorted, trying to flee from the ribbon of light, trying to escape before it engulfed her completely.
The next thing Liss knew, she was looking up at the ceiling of Shardak's cave. It took a second before the tears pooling in her eyes flowed away and the ringing in her ears cleared. "What just happened?" Liss gasped out.
"Beats the hell out of me!" Ben said, looking at her with apprehension. He was standing on the far side of the cave, and only approached her slowly when it seemed he was assured whatever had just happened had passed. Quietly he explained, "Shardak did his thing with the light, Lost started glowing for a second then you looked her in the eyes and started screaming bloody murder about making somebody let you go, then you were twisting around until you hit your head on the wall and fell down. Do you remember anything, Liss?"
"I don't know," Liss whispered, the sensations already fading from her memory, like the times she woke up in the middle of a dream and the last thing she saw was already dissolving too quickly for her to recall anything at all about it. "I just looked Lost in the eye and for a second I thought someone else was there, I think."
"You don't have to pretend you don't remember so you look tough, Liss," Ben said gently. "We're here to help each other out."
"I don't remember," Liss said, harder, "But I can guess who it was."
Lost choked and knelt down to cradle Liss supportively in her arms. "You heard the White Lady. That's what you call her, isn't it? I'm sorry, I had no idea she could do that to anyone else." Liss, who was mostly recovered from her shock by then, gave Lost a confused look. "I'm sorry, isn't this the right thing to do?" Lost asked.
Shardak cleared his ethereal throat to get their attention. "I saw what was behind this girl's façade as well, and I must say…I've no conception of the nature of the power she carries."
"WHAT?" Liss demanded, rage boiling up in her to hear that after what she'd just been through, Shardak would have no answers for them.
"It's all right!" Lost said suddenly, more forcefully than she'd probably meant to because when Liss looked up at her she averted her eyes. "It's all right," she repeated. "There probably isn't anyone else out there who vomits up monsters."
"She is neither human, nor Mythos, nor Arcanum," Shardak went on. "She is the source of the Mythos, that much is clear, and because of that she is connected to this White Lady who's able to control what form the Mythos take and then control the Mythos themselves once they've taken form. But as to how this connection be broken, I do not know."
"Great," Liss groaned.
Shardak held up a spectral finger sternly. "However," he added, "I am not the only Arcana with unique knowledge. There's another, who knows even deeper secrets. He is called the Inverted Sage.
"I can help you find him, but I warn you now, do not be short with him. Who you are or what powers you have matter nothing to him," Shradak said gravely. "If there is anyone who can provide answers to this, it will be him. But if you fail to show respect, you will not receive them."
"Seriously?" Ben asked. "Look, maybe we're not model citizens back home, but we're not going to walk into this guy's house and wreck all his shit if we want his help."
Shardak gave Ben a sharp look but it passed too quickly for the others to notice. He produced a green Moth Wild Card from thin air and held it out to Liss. "Activate this card and it will lead you to the Inverted Sage."
"Thanks, Shardak," Liss said, her voice betraying how shaken she still was by what she'd seen in Lost's eyes. The three of them started to walk away when Shardak called out.
"Just a moment, young man," the old wizard said. Ben looked over his shoulder at Shardak's somber face, then back at Liss, who just shrugged and kept going, eager to get to the next step on their journey. Ben went back to Shardak, who waited until the others were out of sight before he produced another Wild Card.
Ben regarded the wizard curiously, but also suspiciously. "What's that?" he asked. Shardak replied by dropping the card into the palm of his hand and letting the video it had recorded project in front of Ben: Tarock's fight with the Nuckelavee the day before, when she jumped and clung to the trunk of the tree as if her hands and feet could stick to the rough surface. Then she powered herself up and fired a giant tidal wave from her hand that obliterated the monster but sent people flying from the force of the attack.
"You've known her for some time, yes?" Shardak asked, his expression grave. "Is this something she would normally do?"
"Pffft…What? Kill monsters?" Ben replied as if it was the dumbest question he'd ever heard.
"No!" Shardak snapped, giving Ben a sharp look. "Unleashing a powerful attack when there were people in the area who could've been caught in it."
"Maybe she didn't have a choice," Ben said defensively. "You gotta move fast, think fast to be able to win with these things."
Again Shardak gave him a point glance. "I learned a few things about battling monsters myself, and this is not reassuring. I knew Liss was hardly an optimal choice-"
"Hey…" Ben interrupted warningly.
"—but this could destroy everything," Shardak went on, paying no attention to Ben's warning. He turned to face Ben again. "I'm very worried, young man. Tarock never had the power to stick to objects like that, and the fact that when I tried to scan the girl, Liss also reacted and so strongly at that…" He sighed, and conjured a small case out of nowhere. "Please, go with Liss, watch her, keep her from harming anyone else even if she does not mean to. And above all ask the Inverted Sage what the meaning of her behavior might be…"
"You're not kidding, are you?" Ben asked.
"No," Shardak said and sighed, sounding extremely hopeless. "Once I could command the elements and see centuries into the future. Beasts would obey my every instruction, and the greatest of kings called me friend and advisor. Now, my influence no longer reaches beyond this cave. I hoped I could provide a new champion, but I may have created a force for destruction...Perhaps it can yet be saved, though. Use these to monitor her, find out the truth. They can even enhance the powers of your Warder."
He passed the case to Ben, who opened it. Inside were stacks of new Wild Cards; one with the image of a turtle, and one with a seahorse? Another one had a kind of bug with a long pitchfork-like horn on its head.
Ben closed the case and gave Shardak an uncertain look. "You really think something's wrong with Liss? Can't we just take her belt away until we're sure?"
Shardak sighed and shook his spectral head. "The Fate Driver bonds with its user until their final day, precisely to keep it from being stolen. We were thinking we'd have control over the choice of candidates, of course…And anyway, if she's been compromised she's hardly going to give up the source of her powers. Please, Ben. We wanted to give the Sphere a hero, but I fear what we might have allowed to come into existence instead"
Slowly, Ben nodded. He put the case away and turned to walk out, but as he did he said over one shoulder, "Liss isn't a monster. You know that, right?" Then he walked out without stopping.
After he was gone, Shardak murmured, "The question is, do you know it?"
Next time on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…
(A monster forms from a pool of black slime and Ben changes to fight)
Ben: I'll fight. I have to…
(Tarock in Swords Form cuts down a group of faceless Changeling Mythos)
Lost: My friends have so much power, but can they really defeat all of the monsters…?
(Tarock faces down a monster in a cave with a group of human captives, locking eyes with it and it looking strangely intently)
Narrator: Your fate is in your hands.