yinyangwizard | Is This Your Card?

For the most part, Abe no Seimei's project to develop a Japanese reinterpretation of the Tarot has been going smoothly. He has developed very specific concepts (even sketches) for most of the cards, and general ideas for the rest that a certain artist of his acquaintance can help to flesh out.

There is, however, one card that is prompting much wracking of brains, ripping of paper, agitated pacing, and chain-smoking. Seimei has considered getting around the problem by leaving the card out of his deck entirely, but that's not really an option. When it comes to magic, one must commit fully or not at all.

So Seimei has devoted considerable time and energy to researching this card in the Milliways library. He has broadened the scope of his research beyond books on the Tarot - even the most obscure and esoteric ones - and is now hunting for references to the card's imagery and meaning in prophetic visions.

At some point he realizes he is very far back in the library, past some kind of event horizon where said library loses its coherence and becomes tangled up with other libraries in other realities and times. The air is thick with magic which doesn't flow so much as swirl around in eddies and whirlpools. Seimei can feel the books watching him, and suspects that they may be planning an ambush of some kind.

While he is all in favor of doggedly pursuing knowledge, he is beginning to think that he may have pursued too doggedly and too far.