LONG AFTER WE all make introductions, I can’t stop staring at Rosa. She is dressed and styled like she’s stepping into a music video, or maybe even one of the coven’s drag shows. Everything about her seems elongated: false eyelashes, flowing hair extensions, and acrylic gel nails painted forest green with golden stars. She must be in her forties, but it’s impossible to tell with the expertly applied makeup contouring her face. She wears a fitted white jumpsuit printed with green palm leaves and gold strappy-sandal heels, which match her full sleeve of gold bangles and pentacle pendant necklace.

Rosa obviously fully embraces the glamorous and generous Queen of Pentacles gig, but if that’s true, I also have to remember to beware the Queen’s potential reversal: spinning webs and being lured by material wealth. I’ve already been deceived once today—the thought of Anwar still flashes fury and misery into my veins. I know if I stop too long to think about what he has done, I’ll fall deep down into a well of anxiety. So I just try to focus on the present moment, one foot in front of the other.

“You all figured this out in the hour I was gone?” Rosa exclaims, once she is fully filled in. “You chosen children, always making mother proud!”

Rosa smiles and it’s like her sunshine beams directly on each of us. She then strides toward the chalkboard, taking point. As she moves I get a whiff of perfume, citrus and golden honey.

“But let me tell you, this queen started searching for her King of Pentacles while most of you were still on playgrounds,” Rosa continues. “So gather round. I have a story to tell, now that I know how far you’ve come.”

Just before, Chase had us focused on tarot history.

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Just before, Chase had us focused on tarot symbols.

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“I think our new friend Apollo has the right idea,” Rosa begins, causing Chase to actually blush. “The artist who made this puzzle believed the tarot carries its history with it in every variation of its cards, just like every specific deck carries the history of those who read it. So maybe ‘the artist’s story’ can be found in the tarot’s own herstory?”

Rosa pauses, flipping her hair for dramatic effect before continuing.

“The origins of tarot cards date back as early as the fourteenth century, but the period we probably care most about is the nineteenth century, when artists started creating their own decks. I have a feeling the artist’s story we’re looking for has to do with the infamous Rider-Waite deck. Perilli was obsessed with the organization it came from: the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.”

“Who were they?” I ask. It really is fascinating how each Corner seems to possess a different layer of Perillian knowledge, probably also by design.