Page 37 of Found in Obscurity

The Owner’s smile got impossibly wider as he removed his cane and opened the silk pouch. He gestured to the revealed deck. The cards were beautiful, of course. Matte black background with intricate metallic artwork in all the colors of the rainbow.

And then they began to shuffle and move under the influence of The Owner’s twitching fingers, like he was a puppeteer making them dance in front of him.

Lorin could taste the magic in the air, ancient and commanding.

“Your fate is in your own hands,” The Owner said. “I make the cards move, but you choose your own paths to walk. The truth you seek is in your heart, but you must state your intention out loud, otherwise the cards will not speak.”

Lorin felt his fingers tremble and Kit nosed worriedly at his stomach. He closed his eyes and pulled at all his uncertainties, having nothing else to lose. “I’m lost. I’ve always been lost. I don’t know what road to choose.”

“Reach out.”

Lorin did, only opening his eyes once his fingertips touched the cool surface of the card. It hummed under the pads of his fingers. The rest of the cards melted away into the ether like they were nothing.

“Interesting,” The Owner said, even though the card wasn’t face up.

Lorin snatched his hand back, shaking his head, filled with sudden and inexplicable fear. “I don’t want to see.”

The Owner looked at him from beneath heavy, commanding brows. “Once a card is drawn, it cannot be undrawn.”

Lorin had known that before he agreed, but he still trembled in his seat, watching The Owner’s pointer finger slowly turn over, and with it, the card.

“The Hermit. Upright.”

The anticlimax was enough to send Lorin’s vision spinning. He’d been expecting an omen. Something to tell him that his fate was to be the same as his parents’.

“All the answers you seek are within yourself.”

“How can they be when I don’t know them?! I asked for guidance.”

The Owner flicked the card up into his hand in one smooth movement before presenting him with it.

“Not every answer is easy to reach. You must first confront everything you’re hiding from. Search your soul. Reflect. You’re already in the right place. Stop seeking answers from others, they don’t hold the key. Only you do. Then the path will open up.”

He held the card out and Lorin took it with shaky hands.

The Owner smiled, then got up and left as silently as he’d appeared, leaving Lorin shell-shocked and no closer to understanding anything than before.

Kit

Lorin was asleep. The books he’d been given were lying on the floor next to the sofa. The familiar one was open to the last page Lorin had been reading before falling asleep.

He had given up on the other one hours ago, clearly getting frustrated as time passed and he got nowhere near figuring anything out. Kit empathized. From the glances he’d taken in the Magic Shop, there always seemed to be blank pages staring back at him. It seemed like the book The Owner had suggested contained very little information at all. But Kit also felt decidedly happy when Lorin switched his attention to the familiar-themed book.

He needed Lorin to start figuring things out. He needed him to realize Kit was more than just his fox familiar and find a way to help him.

He had bounced up the stairs a couple more times since the mirror incident, trying his hardest to figure out just how he’d shifted, but it was useless. He had no idea what he had done, or even if he’d done anything to begin with.

One moment he’d been there, and then he just wasn’t again.

He hopped off the sofa, making sure not to wake Lorin up, and started pawing through the book again. The pages rustled in the silence of the night. Lorin snuffled in his sleep and Kit paused to make sure he settled back down before continuing.

There had to besomethingin this gigantic book about shifter familiars. There just had to be a way to give Lorin a hint, steer him in the right direction.

He flipped page after page, his fox shape making it harder to read. Words weren’t as easy in this form. They seemed too long and scattered to make any sort of real sense. But Kit didn’t need to read the book, he just needed to find the right chapter, the right passage to show Lorin.

He was halfway through the book before something got his attention. There was a photo of a man in mid-shift from eagle to human, landing next to a woman in a long dark green robe.

A witch, Kit was fairly certain.