cartomancy

Last night was her first night back in her old bedroom, boxes of her things surrounding her at the table where she parked her wheelchair. She hadn't gotten far before she pulled out an old deck of cards -- not the ones Warren had brought to her at the hospital, no. These were special; they were from her grand-mère. They were worn and experienced, the first deck of cards with which she ever learned her powers. She smiled softly as the old familiar smell came back to her, fanning the cards out and reminiscing over adventures with that eccentric woman. She will have to write her tomorrow, let her know that she is out of the hospital. She had received a phone call to verify that she was awake, but that had been made from a local shop her grand-mère had frequented.

She didn't think about it before she started shuffling the cards, maintaining a level of mental clarity as she arranged the cards in the spread. The first card was the Queen of Swords, followed by the Queen of Wands and then the Queen of Pentacles, her brow furrowing as the pulled the Queen of cups and then… another Queen? Five queens? That wasn't possible. Marie-Ange flipped a sixth card, a duplicate queen. Six -- six queens. There were only supposed to be four in a deck. Only four, Marie-Ange thought, running her fingers over the images as she tried to figure out an explanation.

( The familiar burning tugged at the edge of her consciousness before a vision flooded her senses. )