“Amelia, this isn’t your fault,” Cleo says, speaking through clenched teeth. “I wasn’t exactly a fan of Anwar, but I didn’t think he’d do something like this.”

“How could he…” Amelia tries. “Anwar obviously knew he was going to do this last night. He wrote this letter sometime before today. And he still…”

“Why leave the letter at all?” Cleo asks, their words practically quaking.

“Because no one wants to think of themself as a bad person,” I answer. “Even when they’re doing something they know is terrible. This letter is a justification. It’s a window in the cell where Anwar belongs.”

Cleo opens their mouth to say something else, but pauses a moment before doing so.

“Maybe this is a sign or something,” Cleo finally offers. “This trip stopped being fun the second Logan left, if I’m being honest. Maybe we let it go and cut our losses?”

Amelia sighs, seeming to actually consider Cleo’s suggestion.

Well, I won’t entertain it for one second. The only thing that feels more unbearable than our current situation is the idea of quitting while we’re behind.

“Amelia, you have every right to feel discouraged and frozen. Trust me, I understand,” I begin.

“But Anwar did leave us clear tools for a solution. Can we really walk away when we still have a chance to recover the deck, this missing piece Gran Flo left us?”

Click here

“But think about what Gran Flo would say. If we’re at the part of the journey that’s the hardest, then we’re also about to learn more than ever before.”

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“Just think about The Hanged Man in the Major Arcana journey,” I continue. When all else fails, Amelia and I have always relied on the tarot to make sense of the senseless. “It’s the place where trials come to test our strength and knowledge.”

“Yeah, but then we also have to think about The Hanged Man’s reversal,” Amelia counters. “Needing to be right. Embracing old ways. Feeling the universe owes you something.”

Listening to Amelia’s argument, my rusted brain begins to stir. All of a sudden it feels good to have some seeds of motivation planted in me again.

“Sure, but what did Gran Flo always say about trust?” I counter right back. “If you can’t trust a person, then you can at least trust in understanding their motivations. If you can figure out what someone wants, then they become predictable. I don’t think we can close ourselves off from possibility because someone did us wrong. That just means we learn to be smarter for next time.”

Amelia raises one eyebrow at me. I can’t blame her—this must sound hypocritical coming from me, human-sized off-switch I’ve become.

“If nothing else, we can try to turn this betrayal into wisdom?” I try. “Besides, if we know now we can’t trust any new people on this trip—hell, if we know we can’t even trust our own emotions—then maybe that’s the exact mindset we need to get the deck back and find the King of Pentacles?”