The morning after my sixteenth birthday, the city didn't feel the same. It was subtle at first—the way the sunlight slanted through my window, the hum of distant traffic, even the smell of the air had shifted just a little, like something unseen had settled over everything.
I woke up with a start, heart pounding, the whisper from last night still echoing faintly in my mind. "Remember." The word felt like a key turning in a lock, but the door stayed shut.
The apartment was quiet. June had already left for school, and Mom and Dad were gone too, off to their jobs somewhere in the sprawling maze of the city. For once, the silence wasn't comforting—it pressed down on me like a weight.
I sat on the edge of my bed, the tarot book Kai had given me resting on my desk. I picked it up, flipping through the worn pages again. The Fool's card stared back, the figure leaping into the unknown. I traced the lines with my finger, feeling the faintest pulse beneath the paper—as if the image itself was alive.
Kai's voice came back to me, casual but full of meaning. "The Fool's about beginnings, risks, and fate's wild card."
I wasn't sure what part I was supposed to play in all that. All I knew was that I felt like I was standing on the edge of something huge, and the ground beneath me was shaky.
I threw on a hoodie and jeans and headed out into the city. The streets buzzed with life—cars honking, people rushing, the scent of street food mingling with exhaust fumes. The city was a beast that never slept, and today it felt like it was watching me.
Kai was waiting for me near the corner where we usually met before school. His grin was infectious, but his eyes held a seriousness I wasn't used to.
"Morning," he said, bumping my shoulder. "Ready for another day in the madhouse?"
I shrugged. "Sure. But… can I ask you something?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Shoot."
"Do you ever feel like there's something about you that you just can't remember? Like there's a part of you missing?"
Kai's smile faded. He looked around, lowering his voice. "Yeah," he said. "Sometimes I think I'm not who I'm supposed to be. Like I woke up in the wrong body."
I nodded, relieved that I wasn't alone. "That's how I feel too."
He pulled something out of his backpack—a small, folded piece of paper covered in symbols. "I found this in that shop I told you about. I think it's connected to the tarot. Maybe… the powers?"
I took the paper carefully. The symbols looked ancient, but there was something familiar about them. Something that tugged at the edges of my mind.
School was a blur of noise and movement. Classrooms, lockers, teachers calling out lessons I barely heard. But beneath the surface, I noticed things I hadn't before.
Aldric Vale sat at the center of it all—his presence like a magnet. People gave him space, and yet he seemed to command attention without trying. Walking past him, I felt that same sharp gaze, cutting through me like a blade.
Later, I spotted Sera Vann sitting alone on the steps near the courtyard. She had this aura—dangerous, magnetic. Lust, I'd heard her called, though I didn't know what that meant exactly. When our eyes met, I felt a flicker of heat, like a spark igniting somewhere deep.
The day stretched on, and with every passing hour, the whispers in my head grew louder. "Paths cross. Watch closely." The voice was softer this time, almost like a warning.
After school, Kai and I ducked into a quiet café, the kind with flickering fairy lights and walls covered in books. We poured over the tarot book and the symbols on the paper, piecing together meanings and connections.
"Look at this," Kai said, pointing to a passage about the Major Arcana—the cards that represent powerful archetypes. "They're not just symbols. They're real. Or at least, they were."
"Were?" I asked.
He nodded. "Some say the world's changed, but the power behind these cards never really died. They say people born under these archetypes carry pieces of that power."
I swallowed hard. "You think… I'm one of them?"
Kai looked at me, eyes wide. "I think you're the Fool."
The thought was overwhelming. If it was true, it explained everything—the whispers, the feeling of being out of place, the strange pull toward something I couldn't see.
I felt like I was standing at the edge of a vast ocean, the waves of the past and future crashing all around me, and I couldn't swim.
That night, back home, I sat by my window again, the city lights like stars fallen to earth. I opened the tarot book once more, tracing the image of the Fool. A sudden wave of dizziness washed over me, and the room seemed to tilt.
Images flashed behind my closed eyes—faces I didn't recognize, places I'd never been, battles fought in shadows. A voice whispered in a language I couldn't understand.
When I opened my eyes, the whisper was gone. But the feeling remained—a promise and a threat.
The days that followed were a strange mix of normal and surreal. School, family, friends—and beneath it all, a growing awareness that my life was part of something much bigger.
Kai became my anchor, the one I could trust to listen without judgment. Aldric and Sera hovered at the edges of my world, their powers and intentions unclear.
And me? I was the Fool—reckless, unpredictable, carrying a power I didn't understand but couldn't deny.
One afternoon, as I walked home with June, she tugged on my sleeve. "Eli, do you think people like us really have powers? Like in the stories?"
I smiled down at her. "Maybe. Or maybe it's just about believing in something bigger."
She looked up at me, eyes shining. "I believe in you."
That was the first time I felt like maybe I wasn't alone in this after all.
The threads of my forgotten past were beginning to weave into a new tapestry—a story of gods and sins, virtues and stars, power and fate.
And I was at the center.
The Fool, stepping boldly into the unknown.
The game was far from over.
It had only just begun.