The cards I pulled aren't regular cards. These are special Tarot cards. I found them on one of the shelves, but I forgot which section. I took permission to have them, and since then—I have cherished these cards.
I shuffle the deck and spread the cards on the table. "There are only 3 cards that have an image," I said. Then I add, "If you choose anything besides blank cards, you lose."
There are only 3 cards that have an image:
The Magician
The Nun
The Blessings
The other twenty-three cards are blank white. I start shuffling the cards, and I say, "Magic is something you just don't learn. You feel it." I flip the cards so none of us can see.
I spread the cards again. This time it's flipped, and none of us know what he's going to pick. "Magic is also a game of tricks. If you're not a trickster, you can't do magic properly."
He thinks for a minute, then picks a card. "Not all magic is about tricks. A lot of it is about how you use it. Magic is just a tool, and you are the user."
He's not taking a look at the card he picked, he's just staring at my eyes. "That's The Nun," I say. He looks at the card he got.
"It is The Nun." He puts the card on the table. I flip the remaining cards on the table. The second card is The Magician and the tenth card is The Blessing. They are arranged as if they were just unboxed.
"Now what's magic?" I ask. The cards fly back to my palms unshuffled, except The Nun. "That card suits you."
He blushes as he looks at the card again. The person on the card resembles his appearance. "It's... magical."
Then I place my right hand above the card in his hands and wave my hands toward myself. The card vanishes from his hand, neither is it in my hand.
I reach my hands near his ear and pull out the card from his hair. "That's the trickster part of magic," I say, as I grab The Magician card from my deck and scratch my nail on it. The scratching made some dust from my nails and I blew them.
The blown dust becomes a fire that is burning mid-air without any fuel source. I burn the Nun card on that fire. The fire goes off. "That's the elemental control side of magic."
I tear a piece of tablecloth and dip it in my cup of tea. When I lift it from the cup, it's The Nun card again. "That's alchemy."
I set the cards again and place them in a hat. I flip it and the cards are gone. "That's conjuring."
I check the time on my Lorex, my favorite watch. "It's almost late in the morning," I say as I stand up. "I'm afraid you have to leave, I must head back to my family's den," I said, because I don't want another scolding from my mother. I'd definitely get a scolding father at night, I should head back there quick before anything shucks.
"Is... is it okay if I visit here more often?" Alastor made a request I'd never thought anyone would ever make here. "I'm very astonished by your request. But, feel free to visit here any time you'd like. It's open for everyone every day."
"Thank you very much, Mr..?" He stops, I haven't introduced myself at all.
"My peanut manners, I am Sherman, Sherman Sparrow. The caretaker and librarian of this Watch Tower." I offer my hand for a shake. He tucked the book under his left armpit and shook my hand warmly with both of his hands.
He leaves the monument of wisdom, and before he left, he warmly smiled and waved at me.
He left. I tap the ground with my cane twice, a portal opens beneath me and I fall down, I land on my bed. My clothes change to my regular clothes. A black T-shirt and white cross-striped sweatpants. My hair becomes messy again. I place my right elbow above my forehead. I don't know why I do this, but I like it.
And I'm still smiling, because that's the only expression I can do.
With a flick of my hand, I grab the deck of those tarot cards again. The Nun looks just like Escario. I look at the Magician card and the Blessings card. These two are faceless, but they don't have any figures.
"It's just you here," I say. I don't know much about these cards. But, I know he has some sort of importance in my life.
I grab the box where I found these cards for the first time.
I read the small note that is written on the box made from tin.
"May these Tarots guide your introduction to your sunrise, prosperity and sunset."
I clap and all of these disappear from my room. It's clean and tidy like how it's supposed to be. I open the curtains and the windows. VENTILATION IS IMPORTANT!!!!
I head over to a steam heater at the corner of my room.
This big chonky boy eats coal and boils water quickly, making steam and turning my room into a sauna with a bed.
I would definitely not let this thing turn on for more than five minutes, or I'll become one of Momos.
I walk over to my school desk and pick the physics book. I open the chapter our professor lectured about.
(Ignore from this part, It's only random babbles to fill the word count)
(Start reading after you see chapter end of this nonsense book, Or where sherman says flutterfly instead of f word.)
————————————————————
〔Page 213〕
||The Aether Clockwork Conundrum||
In the year 1887 A.S.E. (Aetherian Standard Era), aboard the airship Celestia Nocturne, a crew of sky-engineers must calibrate the Gyro-Chronometer, a device that predicts stellar positions using an elaborate system of gears, vacuum-tubes, and aether-pressure regulators. The machine works based on the rotation of Neptunium-9, a hypothetical gear-planet orbiting a brown dwarf in a binary system 40 light-years from Earth.
The gear-planet Neptunium-9 has the following properties:
Rotational period: 37 hours
Orbital eccentricity: e = 0.24
Semi-major axis: a = 0.8 AU
The brown dwarf orbits a yellow star in a circular orbit at: 3.2 AU
Mass of the brown dwarf: M_b = 0.05 M☉
Mass of the yellow star: M_y = 1.0 M☉
Meanwhile, the Gyro-chronometer contains a brass arm calibrated to track solar tidal drag and aether wind resistance, based on the following:
Aether wind torque: τ(t) = τ₀ · sin(ωt)
Torque amplitude: τ₀ = 15 N·m
Angular frequency: ω = 2π / (88 days)
Energy loss is proportional to: θ′²
Moment of inertia of the escapement wheel: I = 0.12 kg·m²
Calculate the orbital period of Neptunium-9 around its brown dwarf star using Kepler's Third Law.
Determine the precession angle per orbit of Neptunium-9 due to perturbative forces from the yellow star.
Find the damping coefficient b required to maintain steady oscillations of the escapement wheel under the aether wind torque.
If the aether wind causes angular resonance, at what natural frequency would resonance occur? Propose a steampunk-era solution to avoid mechanical overload.
||Chapter End||
————————————————————
"HOW THE FFF…FUTTERFLY CAN ANYONE EVEN UNDERSTAND THIS???" I fall on my knees, I'm so hopeless.
I would definitely have a stroke if I look at that book a second more. I leave my room immediately, the lunch should be almost done, well no…
It's mushroom soup for lunch, I hate it. It's not good at all. Fried or charcoaled is far better. But, beggars can't be choosers. I eat it all from the bowl without a word. My sister, Mirana. She's in her early twenties. She's also our history professor. She's a prodigy and somehow got into college when she was ten or eleven?
And here's my mother, she always looks at me with high expectations. To her eyes, Marina is everything, I'm just a filler to fill an empty spot.
My father, who's at work right now. He's a pretty interesting man… Uhh… actually, not me alone, even Marina never heard him speak. We think that he's mute, but mother said that father does talk.
Excuse me, what? How did that grumpy man even get together with this beautiful woman who's my mother?
Silent Rizz!!!
Ahem!
I head back to my room. I'm grounded, shucks. I fall back on my bed. I grab the television remote and turn on the television. It's black and white, but it shows clearer than what the eyes can see.
We're currently heading over to Feldoroscow Mountain port, God Kyrgerys will reveal another piece of his creation.
"Kyrgerys, the God of Steam and Machinery." I mutter, I'm definitely not excited to see that metal cranker. But, seeing it won't harm me, no?
You'll see Kyrgerys and other gods. Once I become a god, I'll take every single one of the corrupted gods.
Building all these fancy slums of junk while the streets are filled with beggars, cries and hunger.
I grit my teeth, I truly despise them. How can everyone still have faith in these Bloodsuckers?
I'm smiling, my blood is boiling from anger. Yet, I'm smiling.