Felix smiles. "That was just our medallions."

"An artifact, then? I don't suppose you have spares?"

They look at each other.

"We don't... do you know how critters work?"

"Critters?"

Felix turns into a griffin with a red mane and red wings. "Yes, like us. We are griffins, there are many others mythical creatures. The medallions have a spell that allows us to shapeshift."

"...when you say you 'are' griffins..."

"Some of our human ancestors had a magic accident that turned them into half-lion half-eagle beings," Fenris waves at Felix, "and they had to live with that for generations until someone invented the medallions so we could change between shapes," Fenris turns into a bipedal griffin form.

"...and these magic accidents made other creatures, too?"

"Yeah, what sort of other creatures?"

"Yes. Some creatures claim that they are naturally occurring one way or another, but the vast majority was likely a result of someone's spellcasting going wrong. There are all sorts of creatures, pegasi, gorgons, harpies, centaurs, nixies, manticores but apparently no unicorns or vampires. Also, dragons and sphinxes killed each other centuries ago."

"Why did they?"

"No one is certain. Popular lore states it was jealousy of the sphinxes' power."

"Different critters have different powers? Which? What are yours?"

"Not all creatures have different powers, but all have some sort of magical affinity even when they are not sorcerers. We have elemental powers but they are a separate thing."

"Separate things? And not all critters are sorcerers, but they can do magic? How?" Pause. "And why did you never tell us this?" he asks Kero.

"You never asked."

"Illusion, I ask you to create a giant water drop near my head!" Temple asks the card. If they are going to descend into the anime madness, they will go all the way.

Felix laughs.

"Well, there are different sorts of 'can do magic'. Medallions are a sort of magic, and allow me to change my shape in limited ways." He gives himself claws. "Some critters have straightforward magical powers, like the bugbears' ability to track magical beings and create scary illusions. Some have affinities to cast certain kinds of spells, making them cheaper and easier to do, like centaurs who have an affinity for divination when they perform sorcery spells or rune circles."

"Explain those last two again? We know we can spend mana to cast spells and create like scrolls charged with magic. And then there are the cards."

"The spells and scrolls are sorcery. The cards are artifacts that can be created with either sorcery or runes. Runes are magical symbols that you can draw in complex and precise patterns to get certain effects; they use ambient mana instead of your own mana, so anyone can use them. The caveat is that they are more likely to fail explosively if you make a mistake."

(The Illusion provides him with the requested teardrop.)

"Wait, so literally anyone can do magic if they learn these runes? And was Clow the greatest magician of all time, or just greatest sorcerer, or were those reports greatly exaggerated? Was he a critter? ...are we?"

"Honestly I wish you could tell us more about Clow. What we know as fact is that he was the greatest sorcerer of all time, combined Western and Eastern magic, created the Cards, lived about three centuries and then vanished mysteriously. Besides that there are all sorts of crazy stories that he was the last sphinx or dragon - he was born after the war - or an entirely new being. Some say that he created the medallions. Some say that he created the runes too."

"Ah, we didn't mention it but the medallion effect is hereditary. Critter children of people with medallions are born human-shaped, then later in life they get a medallion and are forever bound to it. If they lose it they are stuck in critter shape. But the secret of medallion making is lost and they can be expensive so sometimes entire generations go without anyone knowing they are critters. Clow descended from two clans who should've been composed of mostly true humans, but that was centuries ago."

"We don't know a whole lot more about Clow, either. He created the Cards, and Kero, and the Book and the Staff, and Temple's the cardcaptor, but that's all. I take from this that it's basically impossible to find out someone's a critter without the appropriate medallion?"

"Pretty much. Ah, wouldn't Kero know?"

"Know what?"

"If Clow was some sort of critter."

"Oh, he was a Sphinx."

"And you didn't—Kero, you could mention things when things related to them are brought up, you don't need to wait until someone asks."

"I kinda wasn't really paying attention."

Fenris frowns. "What are you paying attention to then?"

"...I'm kinda hungry."

...

"He eats a lot for someone of that size. Sadde, sorry for bothering you, but do you have anything?"

"Yeah I should have something." He gets up and goes to the kitchen.

Kero follows, grinning.

And since the apartment is small they can still carry on with the conversation.

"So... what can you tell us about yourselves?"

"Mom's not magical, I live only with her, have an affinity for shapeshifting magic, not as far as I know a critter, met Temple when he was experimenting with magic."

"Yup, similar story except my mom is magical and so is my dad. I can't believe I didn't ask about this before, but we are apprehensive of you because my dad warned her that his clan would capture me if they had the chance."

"Capture you?"

"To drain my magic."

"That isn't really something that sorcerer clans do to other sorcerers. Some used to hunt critters to harness their parts for magic, but I am not entirely sure that actually works and doing so would risk the peace between the clans and Avalons."

"Avalons?"

He returns from the kitchen, having appeased Kero with pie.

"So I might be a critter then? I guess my dad wouldn't want to explain magical beasts and where to find them to my mom."

Felix chuckles. "Avalons are places where critters gather and build communities where they can be themselves without fear. And you might well be a critter, both of you actually, we could check."

"I thought you'd said it wasn't possible to check?"

"Not without a medallion and I was proposing to do that."

"Of course, false negatives are a thing. Or you could be a natural shapeshifter."

"If anyone'd be a natural shapeshifter it'd be me. What's that? And can you just—use any medallions or would we have to touch every medallion ever to figure it out? And wouldn't we then be stuck in that form unless we could, like, acquire the medallions somehow?"

"What's what? False negatives? Medallions are species specific, so we can tell when you are critter by binding to the right one, but maybe your species' medallion is not available, obscure or destroyed."

"Medallions are sold in specific shops on Avalons and they are bound to you for life. You show that you have the money, ask the shopkeeper to try some out and if one sticks you buy it. Avalons are self-ruled by a council and if there is some issue they can be called, and the issues tend to be resolved such that you are allowed to keep the medallion, given it's useless to anyone else."

"That's cool, I kinda wanna test some medallions. Also, I meant to ask what natural shapeshifters are."

"There are critters that are naturally capable of changing shape, sometimes any shape or a limited set. Off the top of my head I remember Pookas and Totems being capable of such."

"Oh. I'm probably not that."

"Some have to be old enough before they get the power, or have special ways to trigger the transformation. But most of those start out in the critter form."

Temple, who has been quiet this whole while, finally speaks up. "So... any chance I could get in contact with my dad?"

"...it kinda makes me wonder why he said the sorcerer clan would want to drain your magic, though. I did say it sounded weirdly suspicious."

"It is very suspicious. Do you know if he belonged to the Graynorth clan? They are sort of isolationist and paranoid, which might factor into whatever was the reason why he did it. But I doubt the situation is literally draining you of your magic. That capability would make the clan a much bigger problem."

"A common form of sorcery training is feeding mana to foci to make your own mana capacity grow larger. But calling that draining magic would be misleading, at best."

Temple nods. "I am going to need to tell this to my mom," Temple says hugging his knees.

"Do you need a hug?" Felix asks.

Temple nods. Felix hugs him.

Sadde sighs. "What else can you tell us about this Graynorth clan?"

"Not much, they are somewhat territorial and keep to themselves. Allegedly artifact makers, but don't trade with other clans. Believed to use magic to help their mundane business behind the scenes, but what that means is unknown and might just be a rumour. Are very suspicious of other sorcerers and make it clear they don't want Avalons or critters in their territory."

"...can they even control whether there are critters in their territory? Sounds not very feasible."

"They must have some way to do it. At least for critters with medallions. Those can be detected."

"Really? How? And why do they not want critters around?"

Felix shrugs. "They aren't forthcoming with their reasons and much less their methods. We are pretty sure that they haven't noticed us or the cards, but we are kind of on the edge of their claimed territory."

"How absurd. Do you have a map of their territory or something?"

"Also, what exactly do they do with trespassers?"

"We actually do," Fenris tells Sadde, pulling a paper map from his pocket. "They are centered in a small village over here," he points. "These concentric circles show how likely it is that you are going to get their attention for being obviously magical in their vicinity."

Their city is half inside the outermost circle: low chance of showing up unless someone tries to permanently settle there.

To Temple he adds, "it depends, if you are anywhere except the innermost circle they tend to let you go with a warning the first time, threaten you the second time, put a mild curse the third time and escalate from there. They allegedly burned down someone's attempt to create an Avalon a couple of decades ago."

"How charming," he sighs. "But at least we're far away—except we are in fact permanently settled here."

"Maybe my dad is involved?"

"That was what I was thinking, yeah."

"There is that at least- wait how about you two? How come you haven't been found yet?"

"Our masks, they keep us undetectable until someone sees our face or figures our identities out."

"Can't they find you right now, though? Since you're not wearing them?"

"No, they are protecting us even when we don't wear them, or otherwise we wouldn't be able to eat."

"Well, our place is outside their range."

"So... why wear them at all?"

"They have to be nearby," Fenris points at his mask hanging from his belt. "and they come with handy anti-removal and anti-scrying wards, so you can't just look what is under it."

"But if someone tried to scry you right now they'd be able to do it?"

"No. Someone could use a see-through-objects spell to spy on us through your walls, but I think removing our masks was a good symbolic gesture."

"It was a trade off. It's unlikely they would get that close without us noticing."

"Huh. And if they just saw you without a mask randomly on the street that wouldn't be enough?"

"No, you have to connect the mask with whoever is behind it. I could've come talk to you two pretending that we'd never met and that wouldn't dispel the effect."

"Albeit, in that case it wouldn't block scrying completely, but only so you couldn't figure out we are the masked ones by scrying and finding the blind spot."

"I see. That's an interesting artifact, where'd you get it? And by the way how do you make artifacts with sorcery?"

"Family heirloom."

"Artifact making is a bit... complex, it calls upon a lot of magical concepts. The sorcery way sacrifices part of your mana capacity."

"Permanently? How about the way with runes?"

"You can recover your lost mana capacity by training. Runes can make artifacts too, no sacrifice of mana capacity, but generally more dangerous, like any big runecasting."

"Can you just redo everything you've done before to regain mana capacity?"

"No. I mean, rebuilding mana isn't impossible, but doing the same things won't work, or at least will work just as before the ritual. And if you zero the mana it's gone for good."

"...yikes. That sounds. Um. Yikes." Pause. "How much must the Cards have cost?"

"Is there a way to regain the magic at all? Once it's lost that is."

He is talking about regaining magic much in the same way people would talk about getting back the ability to see or walk.

"None that we know of."

"Well, at least anyone can still cast from runes. I guess accidentally turning into a critter might count as getting magic in a way."

"...hooray? Also now I wanna figure out a way to make people get magic back, I bet it's possible somehow, if you can put magic into objects and even create people—" he gestures at Kero.

"Can you give specific powers to people? It seems like... something conceptually easier to do and similar enough that it would be relevant."

"Well, there is how my family has a tendency to sprout elemental powers every other generation, which was a gift from a powerful critter. But it might be a species-specific power, hard to tell."

"I wonder if Clow left notes anywhere."

"Nowhere that my family knows of and if anyone found them they managed to keep it quiet."

"How about his house? Or wizard castle?" Temple asks, and then turning to Kero, "Where did he live?"

"He lived in London, but I was already in the book when he died."

"Can you tell us where? Did he make other nifty artifacts?"

"I could find where, and he made a few but not many. I don't know how many."

"I am not aware of his residence location. We know that at some point after his death my family managed to acquire one of his artifacts."

"We use it to find the cards."

"Show us!"

Felix shows them the Rashiban.

It's a board in the shape of an eight-pointed star with various Chinese symbols in gold, including those from the I Ching. It's mostly black and white with strips of blue, green, red and yellow marking the cardinal directions.

"It's a sort of magic compass."

"How does it point?"

Felix demonstrates. It creates a white glow that turns into a beam of light. It can find specific kinds of magic, including the cards.

"Cool! That's way better than meditating."

"No wonder you got to places faster than we did!"

"Also, wow the Mirror was a jerk, you two are much nicer than it made us believe. ...why exactly did you flee that first time?"

"We are low on charged foci and we didn't know enough about you to talk under those conditions. We weren't planning to approach or be as open with you tonight, but the situation with the Mirror showed the failure modes with that."

"And you guys didn't shoot us, like we would expect the Graynorth clan to do... so there is that."

"Foci? The scrolls?"

"That is what I meant, yes."

"Did you expect the cardcaptor to end up theirs? Or evil?"

"Well, it was reasonable to be cautious. Some tales about Clow are quite extraordinary even when you factor I am a living creature of heraldry."

"Care to tell us some? Kero is the sum total of our sources of knowledge."

"Sure... mostly what we know is that Clow was a crazy and brilliant sorcerer, very extroverted, friendly, shameless, ambitious and a prankster. And then there are all the sort of rumors like how he was banned from the London Avalon, or that he was a secretly a woman, or the one about him being a sphinx, dragon, unicorn, fairy - the last two are not real - or a combination of all of those."

"Uh huh."

...

"Is something wrong?"

"He sounds like a very—interesting—person. Do you know more about him? His personality, especially?"

"Sure? Again, keep in mind there is a lot of hearsay. But he was good at finding unorthodox ways to solve problems and made efficient plans? Allegedly had very altruistic goals and had plans to use magic to improve the world, but had to constantly dodge people trying to use him for their selfish ends, which was apparently a motivator to create the cards. Oh, and 'people' usually meant sorcerer families, which he was famous for disliking because of their tendency to hoard knowledge and magic... rebuilt at least two Avalons and helped found another. Which was apparently something of a taboo in the past. Sorcerers didn't like critters and critters didn't trust sorcerers inside their Avalons."

"I wonder how many tropes apply to this situation."

"I kinda want to meet him, now," Sadde muses. "I think we would get along famously."

...

"Honestly, I agree completely! I wish he wasn't working with the constraints he had. I bet he would have done some incredible things."

"Mmhm. It's also really weird that he's basically me."

Temple facepalms.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Just regretting my role as an anime protagonist. Hey, guys, just curious, but does reincarnation happen to be possible? I am asking for a friend. He is the friend," Temple points at Sadde.

Blink.

"We... heard stories about reincarnation, ghosts and the afterlife, but there are stories about everything."

"Yup, but since this an anime, I bet you that Sadde is Clow Reed's reincarnation. Returned to fulfill his obligation to the cards... or something like that, I haven't worked out the narrative yet."

"What?"

"In that case I'm severely disappointed in my past self and hope he—they?—had very good reasons to do all of this."

"Well, since this is an anime. I bet you that I used to be your one true love in our past lives and I died and you decided to reunite with me in the future. And I was a girl, that is why I have a pink staff. Or I don't know."

"I think you two are jumping to conclusions. We should figure out a way to disprove this theory."

"I mean, we should figure out a way to prove it, I don't think it's at all likely."

"We need to figure out a way to tell which version of reality we are in," Fenris amends.

"Well... there are stories that the cards could be used to divine answers," Felix says turning to Kero.

"Yeah, you can ask them questions and they'll answer. Like the Tarot but real."

"...whhhhhhhyyyyy didn't you tell—never mind, let's just—what do we need to do?"

"You need at least ten Cards, and then you have to shuffle them while in a trance, thinking about your question."

"Do more cards make the answer more precise? What are the meanings of each card? Does repeating the question give you the same results?"

"There are many spreads with different numbers of cards that answer different things about the questions."

"What about the other questions? You don't know the answers? Maybe the cards kind work like some centaurs can do fortune-telling."

"I know the meanings but the person reading the Cards will know more, and the same person repeating the question gives the same results."

"Good, but then, what if I add or remove cards from the deck I am using?"

...shrug.

"Well... We could test that, but I guess it might be more important figuring out if you," Fenris points at Sadde, "are Clow's reincarnation."

"Yeah, and I guess we can ask if any of us is... whatever the term for someone that reincarnated is."

"I guess. I still think it's unlikely. How many Cards do we have?" He holds out the Change for counting.

Temple has Windy, Flower, Glow, Twin, Jump, Shield, Through, Silent, Rain, Wood, Mirror and Illusion.

The twins have Freeze, Fight, Dash, Maze and Fly.

"You can do three-, five-, and six-card spreads," Kero says.

"Okay... Let's start with three."

"The three-card spread can talk about past, present, and future, or about you, the issue, and external influences, or other things."

"So it sounds like it can answer if Sadde is or isn't Clow reincarnated. And possibly if I am the reincarnation of his long lost love or something."

"Yeah."

"Okay, let's do this. How do I do it? Do I have to hold the cards with one hand and draw with the other or something?"

"Yes. You have to go into a trance and shuffle with your left hand, reversing half of the deck sometimes, thinking about your question. You'll know when you're done, and then you have to lay the three Cards face down one after the other from left to right and turn them face up in order."

Temple follows those instructions. He focuses on the question "Did Clow Reed reincarnate as Sadde?" and asks the Cards to show the past, present and future.

The first Card he turns face-up is the Silent. "The Silent is about planning and forethought, honesty, calm, recharging."

When Kero mentions planning and forethought, Temple feels quite sure that's what the Card's telling him.

"Oooh, my sorcery sense is telling me that the card is meant to convey planning and forethought."

Sadde raises an eyebrow. "Your sorcery sense."

"Acquired when he was bitten by a radioactive sorcerer, one presumes."

"Exactly! Okay, next card."

Present! "The Mirror represents reflection, self-knowledge, understanding, seeing oneself in others."

All of those things seem to apply to the situation.

"I got an 'all of the above' with that one. What does reflection mean in this case?"

"It can mean anything reflection means? It could be about thinking a lot about things, or finding something that's just like something else, or anything."

"Like a copy? I am going to award one point to the reincarnation theory."

How about the last card?

Future: "The Illusion is about perfection, fulfillment of desires, and imposing your will on reality."

Also all of the above.

"Another all of the above!"

"So... basically, whatever the plan was it is going to succeed?"

"That's... less clear than it could possibly be. I'm not comfortable taking that as either a yes or a no."

"I am picking yes! But I am biased. Maybe we should see if I am the reincarnation of your long-lost love?"

"I think it might be wiser to ask the question again but with a six-card spread? More information, might be able to pin it down better."

"Fair... Kero is there any spread that is better suited for yes or no questions?"

"You could try a one-card spread but they're not very direct..."

"Not direct in what sense?"

"The Cards have meanings that aren't just yes or no."

"Ah, fair enough. Let me try anyway."

Temple tries the single card spread.

The Glow: preparation, a solid plan.

"At least we can be reassured that Clow planned something and it involved a pink staff."

"The staff is pink because I used to be a girl in my past life and Clow thought I would be again in this one."

"If Clow is me I'm sure they thought gender roles would be abolished by now. Or hoped to influence things that way."

"Aw, why can't you admit your undying love for me already?"

He giggles and kisses Temple. "Might be a bit early for undyingness."

"You know, I wasn't taking it seriously, but since there is cheap divination around. I am actually curious to know if this reincarnation business is actually true. Maybe it would work better if someone else tried?"

"Sure. I can try."

Temple hands him the cards.

He goes with a six-card spread: one card in the middle, one on top of it and laid horizontally, and the four other cards are above, below, to the left, and to the right of the central two.

The first one represents himself: the Mirror, seeing oneself in others.

"You know, this could just mean that you and Clow are similar."

"I did ask directly whether I'm Clow's reincarnation." Next card, "the issue": the Silent, forethinking. "This keeps cropping up. How much did Clow plan?"

"He could see the future directly."

"Really? Hey, Clow!" Temple says then blowing a kiss and waving at a random wall.

"He might not be your boyfriend's past life, you know?"

External influences, the Jump, reversed: a challenge beyond one's reach.

"So... whatever the plan is was made because there was something Clow couldn't do?"

"Well, there was a lot he couldn't do - even with the cards - and he obviously wanted to."

"And creating the Cards itself was likely draining."

Internal influences, the Dash: surpassing yourself.

"So... seeing yourself on others, a challenge beyond reach and surpassing yourself."

Limitations, the Fight, reversed: lack of power.

"What's 'limitations'?"

"All the things that prevent the problem from being easily solvable, or anything that doesn't let you act as you would want to."

"Makes sense. And the last card, the outcome..." The Illusion: perfection. "That seems like a tentative yes-feeling to the question but it's annoying how vague this is. If I try a one-card spread..."

He does, and gets the Windy, reversed: incompleteness.

"Incompleteness in what sense? Because you are missing your memories? Missing your full power? Your plan is not yet come to completion?"

"As a direct answer to 'Am I Clow's reincarnation?' What would it mean for a reincarnation to be incomplete? Missing memories and full power make sense, but not the plan. ...also, Clow died, and he didn't really—need to, did he? He was already hundreds of years old, and if he's me, I wouldn't be content to just have my personality or whatever exist in another body while my memories disappeared."

"The plan is to capture all cards to unlock your full-power, which will also break the seal of some sort of great darkness in your soul, which I will have to defeat with the power of love."

"The anime references are getting a bit... much."

"Says the pretty white-haired boy."

"He does have a point. I'm not sure the darkness and love things are really the appropriate... style, though."

"I am not completely serious. But the notion of you being Clow reincarnated just feels right."

"But why does it feel right?"

"Mainly the personality description, but it's weird that he could do so much and simply didn't and then died. And once you look at the whole of his capabilities, this doesn't look that extreme."

"Yeah, that's a pretty good point. Still, I think it's weird that I'd just let my memories vanish like that, I'd have to be very sure there were no alternatives—which I suppose there might not have been, after hundreds of years looking."

"They might be suppressed?" Temple shrugs, "Or could be regained later?"

"This is becoming speculative on the level of 'Elvis was actually some sort of critter'. It doesn't sound productive to just speculate like that."

"Yeah, seems rather pointless."

"We could try seeing what happens if we ask the same question about multiple people, maybe even Kero."

"Sure, sounds like a good idea."

"Okay, me first then!"

"Which spread?"

"Let's start with three for past, present and future... and one-card spreads when we do for a lot of people."

So he shuffles and draws and gets the Fly, reversed, for the past: lack of liberty of action, lack of choices.

"Uh... so, past me either existed and didn't have a lot of options or lacked options because they didn't exist."

"Sounds about right." Present, the Windy, reversed: incompleteness. "...this felt different than when I got incompleteness for me, though."

"Well... different kinds of incompleteness... it could be explained as one of you being a reincarnation but not the other? Or maybe it speaks of something unrelated altogether... keep going, but one of our future tests should be asking things we already know or things that are plainly nonsensical."

"I can qualify that, though. In his case it felt like the incompleteness is because something is missing and in mine it was more like it was... misplaced?"

Next card, the Fight, reversed: a big disaster.

"The cards."

"Hm?"

"The cards are the big disaster. Or at least they are the biggest disaster we have around, hopefully."

"...the only way that could possibly be an answer to the question would be if that were the... objective of the reincarnation? Which would imply you are in fact one?"

"I was limited in what I could do, now I am incomplete and in the future I will have to face a big disaster," Temple summarizes, "does fit me being an reincarnation, maybe you can only become a sorcerer if you are born again and that is why I needed to reincarnate?"

"So all sorcerers would be reincarnations?" He looks at the twins. "You two are sorcerers, right?"

"I meant to become a sorcerer if you aren't one already."

"Yes, we are. Just being a critter doesn't let you use the cards."

"Let's ask the question of you two, then. Three-card again?"

"Sure."

"Do three-cards for one of us and then we can try various one-card questions."

Past! The Freeze: calm, a time of peace.

"Peaceful past life...?" Fenris says incredulously.

"Or no past life at all, can hardly get more peaceful than that."

"Yeah, which of us are you divining for? I don't think I could have ever had a peaceful past life."

"I'm doing Felix."

Present, the Dash: the direct path, straightforwardness.

"I could see my past life not being peaceful, but for different reasons than Fenris."

He looks at the present card.

"Basically... nothing complicated going on?"

"Possibly? Or maybe 'the answer is straightforward,' or something."

The future is the Silent: planning and forethought.

"Peaceful, straightforwardness and planning."

"Did this feel significantly different from mine?"

"...a bit? First time it was... advance planning, sorta, this time it's more, plans will determine it? I think?"

"Which would lend some credit to the theory that I did plan to reincarnate? Or at least there was a plan to reincarnate me."

"Or maybe something else... Maybe you should do one-card draws for me and Kero next."

"I find it hard to imagine Kero reincarnated."

"Yes, the point is to see what a 'this person didn't reincarnate' looks like."

"Ah, yeah, fair enough. Okay, one-card for you..." The Freeze, a time of peace. "And for Kero..." Same. "...and for me..." The Windy, reversed, incompleteness.

"So Fenris, Kero and likely myself share the same reincarnation status..."

"That is because you all are brand new."

"That does seem to be the case."

"And we are two fated lovers! That reincarnated to be together in the next life and kick card ass."

"There is no story about Clow having one lover. And the two- we should check and see if you two knew each other in your previous lives."

"How many Cards?"

"I think in this case, we should want three."

"Which three? Past, present, and future again?"

"Yes, might as well..."

Past, the Glow, reversed: ignorance.

"Our past lives didn't know each other? At all?"

"It's not that surprising, the past is a long time."

"Aw, but I wanted us to be reincarnated lovers."

He snorts and draw the next Card, the Twin: personal connections.

"Gosh, we have a personal connection, now?" Temple says before kissing Sadde.

He giggles and kisses back.

Final card, the Mirror: understanding.

"You didn't know each other in the past, but you found each other now? And will understand things in the future?"

"Well, maybe Temple's past life wanted to reincarnate for the same reasons as Clow did?"

"Maybe we'll understand exactly why we reincarnated or whatever." Pause. "I'm a bit worried about the difference between my incompleteness and his, though."

"Why?"

"Why wouldn't I be? Yours were about how you have something missing and mine misplaced, that's worrying."

"Okay, fair. But at least if yours is misplaced it can be found."

"I have no idea what's misplaced, though. Is it the memories? The power? What does it mean for them to be misplaced? Where else could they be? The Cards? There is the Return, I suppose we could use it to past-watch, but you're the cardcaptor, somehow I doubt the Tarot reading would tell me something's misplaced and tell you it's lost if it were just about using that Card."

"Well, we already know that neither of us have memories, but yours could be... stored somewhere? While mine are just plain lost, until we use our amazing magical powers to retrieve them? ...Maybe you lost being a sphinx? It would make sense that you are no longer that too. We should check."

"How?"

"Besides the cards, which are proven vague. We can have you poke a sphinx medallion. Or other medallions, you can't be a double critter only a crossbreed."

"I thought those were very rare?"

"Yes, but there ought to be some collector somewhere and I think this is worth the money."

"Hmm, fair enough, I guess."

"I still would give a minimum of like five days to get one, and that is if we tell our grandparents everything. And well... Ideally we do want to tell them everything," Fenris looks at them questioningly.

"Sure? I told my mom everything."

"Yes... and while I have reasons to trust my grandparents, I don't think you should default to trusting everyone. People would want to take advantage of sphinx Clow reincarnated."

"We have the Cards, they're the strongest magic around, we'll win."

...

"Do you actually want to fight all these people?"

"No, that was a joke, what do you think I am, crazy?"

"It wouldn't be out of character from what I know about Clow."

"He fought lots of people?"

"No, but the word reckless might've been used to describe him a few times."

"Man, why only Sadde gets to have a cool and famous past life? I want a cool and famous past life."

"I don't think planning to fight other people counts as recklessness! ...but I see what you mean." He looks at Temple and says, "I think we've determined you have a past life, they could be famous."

"Cool, maybe I invented medallions? I hope I did. That would be cool. What other cool magical inventions are out there?"

"There are plenty? Nothing as iconic as medallions or the Cards springs to mind."

"Runes?" he suggests.

"Oooh, that would be cool."

"As far anyone knows they are discovered... but granted they might have been invented? People have no idea which came first between runecasting and sorcery. Most suspect that critters came after sorcery though."

"Why? Why do they think all those things?"

"Runes are at least old enough that no one knows who first started using them, or even where exactly, except it was in the old world. And critters are more likely to happen as a result of sorcery than as a result of runecasting. Or at least runecasting can just as likely give you an explosion or something weird. Oh, and the proportion of critter sorcerers is way higher than human sorcerers too."

"You mentioned some people suspect Clow of having invented them, so it's not out of the question."

"Well, it was more of a rumor on the level of 'Clow was secretly every important sorcerer that ever existed'. Granted, given reincarnation maybe he was a good fraction of them."

"Ha. Wouldn't that be something. Makes me feel all important and such."

"I hope you left some magical inventions for me!"

"I'm not sure it'd be helpful to actually ask the Cards about it."

"I might in my free time, but it doesn't sound urgent."

"No, not particularly."

"What else were we going to discuss? I think you wanted to trade a card? Which I guess makes some sense if you can fly but not as much if doing so reveals you're critters."

"The Fly gives us wings, and even if they don't look like normal wings, if the Graynorth Clan sees us they are going to assume we are critters regardless, simply because it is more likely than it being the Cards. And stopping to explain about the Cards is not necessarily the best idea."

"How did you two find out about the Cards, anyway? Couldn't the Graynorth Clan do it?"

"Ah, the rashinban activated by itself one day because the Cards were activated. I don't know if the Graynorth Clan has that kind of detection power."

"But we can detect the Cards by merely meditating."

"Yes. But meditation takes time and patience. They likely have some sort of detection artifact, a powerful one, but obviously not powerful enough to beat the Clow Cards."

"The Cards did stay buried for what was likely years..."

"But I mean, I can do it, and I've only known I'm a sorcerer for a month and a half. It's boring but it's not difficult."

Helpless shrug. "Meditation is important to keep in tune with your artifacts," Felix admits, "but they haven't shown signs of noticing the Cards or you two so far. Maybe we got lucky, or maybe all the members with artifacts are away. It varies from clan to clan, but sorcerers can pursue things like college or simply move out of their parents houses."

"I suppose people without Cards don't meditate for them as often as we do."

"Yeah, and not every sorcerer has artifacts that require meditation."

"How often do people have to meditate with the Cards?"

"It's good to do it whenever you capture a new one to get to know it, and sometimes so they don't get lonely."

"I also ask what sort of things they like or want."

"Why?"

"Why not? They are... not actually people, but something close enough that I want to respect their preferences?"

"Define 'people.'"

Shrug. "You are the one annoyed when I tried to treat them better."

"...I was never annoyed you tried to treat them better."

Temple kisses him. "I was teasing you."

"Hmpf," he says, but kisses back.

"...I guess we could get going."

He pulls away from the kiss, grinning, to say, "We should get your contact information."

"Yeah, might be a good idea knowing where you two are staying."

They provide that. "You should swing by our home sometime. Our family rented a place."

"Cool, will do."

"Think about which cards you would like to trade."

"It was nice meeting you two."

"Yes, that too."

"Bye!" Temple says as the twins depart.

And as soon as they're gone: "So, how do you feel about polyamory?"

"Sounds like something fun to try. Interested in the twins? That sounds like another fun thing to try."

"I mean, you did meet them, right? They're ridiculously hot. And, uh, hello, twins?"

"Don't forget the anime hair." Temple snorts. "If you keep talking like that, I might get so jealous that I will ask to join in your twin threesome fantasy."

"You already are."

"Good." Temple pulls Sadde into a kiss. But then away. "I really, really should tell mom about this entire thing."

"...yes, you probably should."

"This isn't going to be a fun conversation," sigh. Kiss. "I will get going before getting too distracted. Talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay. See you."

Temple goes home and has a conversation with his mom. She is (obviously) quite mad at the likely possibility that Temple's father lied to her, but decides to be practical about it and focus on how dangerous the Graynorth clan could be and considering (again) if they should move. Temple tells Sadde all about it the next day.

"You still are the cardcaptor, I'm not sure these considerations aren't all just... extraneous to that fact."

"Yeah, I told her that. She is still considering renting a place in the part of town that is outside their range, though."

"Yours is in their range?"

"No, but she thinks it's too close. I can still go to school and do a lot of things without crossing it for anything not as important as the Cards."

"Yeah, fair enough, I suppose."

"Yeah. Can't say I am not curious about the mysterious wizard clan, but the Cards come first. How did your mom react to the whole critter and reincarnation thing?"

"Oh, with her usual aplomb. She was actually pretty relieved for me when she found out I was the reincarnation of the most powerful sorcerer of all time."