"So I could ask, what's the best way for us to learn magic? Is Sadde the reincarnation of Clow Reed? Will we find the other guardian beast?"

"Yes-or-no questions will have more complicated answers, and more complicated questions will have vague answers... For example," he says, and gestures at the Through, which floats towards him. "The Through represents the improvement of an unexpected situation, in general. This may be either yes or no, or something else, depending on what you ask."

"Who thinks they'll be good at asking questions to the cards?"

"You're not going to try it? I guess it's me and the sorcerers." 

"I abstain. I think Sadde is good at this sort of thing."

"Well, what kinds of spreads can we do with ten cards?"

"You can do the single-card spread, or the three-card spread. The single-card you ask a simple question, and it gives you some answer you have to interpret. The three-card spread divides the answer in three parts, and it depends on the sort of question you ask. If you don't ask it any question then it tells you things about the past, the present, and the future."

"Okay, let's start with the one-card, then, and ask whether I'm Clow's reincarnation. What should we do?"

"You have to get into a card meditation, and then shuffle the cards with your left hand. You have to divide the deck in two, then revert it, many times, until you feel like the answer is there. Then you set the deck down, and use your right hand to put the top card in front of you, face down. Then you turn it face up."

"Card meditation?"

"I'm pretty sure I've done that before. Is that the usual meditation, Kero? I'm pretty good at it now. If you give me the question, I'll ask it." 

"Yeah, it's the same one."

"Just ask whether I'm Clow's reincarnation, whatever that says will be revealing, probably."

So he does his usual thing.

Key, become staff. 

Quiet the mind, think of only the cards in his hands...

Is Sadde the reincaration of Clow Reed?

He shuffles. He places the deck on the table. He flips the top card. 

It is The Windy, upside down. "When the Windy is reversed," Kero explains, "that indicates a lack of control over emotions, lashing out at people, or failing to progress, misunderstanding your goal, not being able to complete something..."

And at the same time, Scott gains an understanding of a single concept: incompleteness. Not because of a failure to finish something, but a deliberate lack of the whole.

"It seems like you're not...the whole picture? Like he left something out. Kero, is there a reason he would only partly reincarnate? Was there stuff he didn't want to pass on?"

"How do you partly reincarnate?"

"He could still be out there, hibernating or something? Or maybe he didn't give Sadde all his magic, because he needed it to do something else?"

"If he reincarnated it was magic he invented... I don't know how it works."

"Well I have zero memories and as far as I know didn't start out any more magical than the average sorcerer."

Back to meditation then.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.

Is Clow Reed still out there?

The Fly, right side up. "The Fly means a challenge, or a chance to overcome something, especially in human relations."

But the challenge is not his.

"Kero, can Sadde and Alistair learn to meditate? I guess it'll be easier for Alistair because he has the bow?"

"Yes, any sorcerer can, and it's easier when you perform magic with an artifact."

"Why?"