The Story of Three Cards

[Serenity Oliver]

After seeing to her mare and letting her loose in the pasture, Serenity made hasty work of wiping her saddle down and putting things away before she hurried to her room. Dropping the bag on her bed, she went to the drawer under her altar and pulled it open, ruffling through the contents until she found her Rider Waite deck. Trowing that onto her bed, she took the black reading mat from the bag with her personal deck and nodded.

After a quick shower to cleanse herself, she dressed in a velvet gown that reached her ankles and slipped her leather boots on, doing the laces up. She looked at herself in the mirror and liked the way the dress sat on her. the royal blue  dress was inspired by Renaissance fashion, a form-fitting gown was accented with yellow trim on the arms and waist and yellow satin panel inset in the front of the velvet skirt. She then picked up the cards and cloth and made her way down to rec centre and into the lounge.

She smiled when she saw that a fire was roaring in the beautifully designed fireplace and she settled herself on the floor not too far from that - yet not close enough that they were going to overheat - and she spread the black cloth on the floor. The best thing about the long dress was that with her legs tucked under her, she was always covered up. She could feel the nerves begin to take over her, and it took all of her willpower not to pick the cards up and begin shuffling them, they did not need her energy that day. She licked her dry lips, wishing that she'd thought to grab a bottle of drink from the fridge before settling herself on the floor.

Khalid Al-Kuwari

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

As much as Khalid hated it, he did have to ask Tommy for help putting his saddle away. The rack was near the top and just over the boy's head. Normally, there wasn't any problem, but today the boy was struggling to get it balanced right. He gave Nasr one final check before leaving the barn to change clothes. Back at his house, Khalid made a quick stop at the common room to fix some tea for himself. It was sweet and flavorful with a couple threads of saffron added in exchange for a little less cardamom. Spices in America could be expensive, so Khalid made sure his stuff was carefully labeled so no one would dare think about stealing it. Saffron in particular was expensive worth over $10 for just two grams.

He changed into a nice medium grey herringbone dress shirt and jeans. The shirt gave him a more put together appearance, but the dark jeans retained the feeling of casual. He was meeting Serenity for a reading, not a date. A tie and jacket would be overkill for sure. He took his tea with him down to the lounge hardly surprised to see Serenity already there. The blue gown she was wearing made her look stunning in his opinion, and he could barely hide his impressed expression. Never in a million years did he think he would be dabbling in the occult, and the idea both intrigued and terrified him.

"You look very nice, Serenity."

Khalid knelt down across from her with the black cloth and cards between them. He observed the set-up and really had no idea what he was supposed to do if anything.

"I'll follow your lead in this."

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity looked up as the energy in the room changed and she lowered her eyes again as Khalid approached. "Thank you." She replied with a smile. "You look very smart." Though from when she had seen him around campus, he never looked any other way.

She smiled as he knelt down on the opposite side of the mat. "I need to to shuffle these." She said softly as she picked up the deck of seventy-eight cards and handed them over. While you're shuffling them, think about what you would like answered. Once you feel they are shuffled enough, split the deck into three piles." She paused as she centred herself, as she could feel her heart racing with nerves. Tarot readings were nothing new to her, though she didn't often do them for others so she was feeling a little more nervous than normal about this. "When you have the three piles on the mat, hold your right hand over them until you find the one that feels right." A smile tugged at her lips again when she thought how funny it sounded, though that pile that was 'right' seemed to let off an energy of its own, either causing the hand to tingle or seeming to radiate with heat. "Trust me, you'll know. Discard the other two and from the one you are left with, turn over the first three cards."

The mental image of her sitting behind a table in a dark tent, lit only by candles and a crystal ball on the table in front of her as she laid her cards out came to mind, but she refused to allow it to form as she watched what was happening, hoping that she could read the cards properly as they were turned over. The spread was the same as the one she was writing about in her Book earlier, a past, present and future reading.

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

Khalid wanted to think this was absurd. So much of it relied on intuition with no empirical evidence to back it up. He was directly forbidden from dealings in witchcraft, and his mother even forbade Harry Potter on the grounds that it was fiction involving magic. He had no idea what he was doing, and never in a thousand years did he think he would be sitting here. Yet, he was, and something kept him from decrying it as stupid and irrational. Curiosity, belief, something else, he wasn't sure.

He picked up the cards and started shuffling. A thousand questions came to mind almost immediately. Some were trivial such as those relating to his schoolwork. He could worry about that later. A few were about the animals in his life, Nasr, Sarab, and his falcon. He worried about them and wanted to know how to make them happy. Most were about his home and the relationships with his friends and family. Questions of sustainability didn't interest him, and he didn't have a keen grasp of politics of finance. The boy felt himself tense with anxiety. He had no idea how he was supposed to know which was the right question to ask the cards. He wasn't expecting a straight answer. Certainly none of his prayers and questions to God ever received a clear yes or no. A stray doubting thought crept forward. How could cards predict the future? They were inanimate and material. How were they better than the supreme God? Khalid pushed those doubts aside. God was silent. He took a deep breath and refocused on the questions. He wanted to know how to support his friend, but what if he couldn't support him at all? It was like living on two different islands with no way to communicate with anyone off the island. Then again, the death of Amir's father was likely to be the beginning of a string of tragedies. Youssef was about to lose his brother, and Abdullah feared the worst of his family. The question settled. What should I do for my friends? Khalid set the cards down on the cloth.

He cut the deck into three and put roughly one third on the left and the other third on the right. The piles weren't exactly even, and the left-most one was definitely the smallest. As instructed, he held his right hand over each pile of cards for a few moments before moving on to the next one. They all felt the same to him, cold and lifeless. He made a couple more passes, right to left, and still felt nothing. He wasn't even sure what he was expecting. Technically, he could just pick a deck at random. After the third pass, he paused and focused back on his question. He held the thought there as he made a fourth pass. Over the right-most deck, something definitely felt different. It felt familiar like the desert heat. If anyone asked him how he knew, the answer sounded absurd. There was no way the cards could know what a desert was like much less the odd combination of dry inland heat and wet heat from the Gulf. He pushed the other two decks to the side and flipped over the top three cards and laid them out right to left.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity remained silent as Khalid shuffled the cards, she could see the doubt running through him, and willed him to push it away and just to go with it, as his doubt could effect the reading, and not in a good way. She'd heard talk once of the cards being blank as they were turned over, but she was sure that it was just one of those stories around the bonfire that were meant to make people wonder.

As she watched him chose the pile and then turn the cards over, she had forgotten to tell him to lay them left to right, but this way she could read them easier, just reversed and she swallowed as the three cards revealed themselves. She felt the nerves flutter again as she closed her eyes and drew in a calming breath. "I don't want to know what your question in, that it between you and the universe." She said. "The spread that we have is known as the past, present and future spread." She placed her finger by the first card; the nine of cups. "This card represents your past, thing that have been: It is a card of joy. Wishes and hopes come true. The answer to the question is positive. Things are going the way they should. Creativity and achievement are at a high. Be sure to enjoy the moment."

Her finger moved to the next card; the knight of swords, reversed. "This represents your present." A smile tugged at her lips, as when upright, the card was a perfect representation of the boy opposite her. "When reversed, the Knight of Swords still strives for victory. But in this aspect, a dark side presents itself. Bravery may replaced by treachery, intelligence supplanted by cunning. The reversed knight may connive and backstab to have his way, or his revenge. The reversal could also indicate fatigue or futility, a letdown following his explosive charge. This card may also be interpreted as impending troubles with... air travel." She drew in a shuddering breath; she knew that she was just reciting what she had memorised from her studies, but the card fitted perfectly.

With a shake of her head, she moved her finger to the last card; The Empress. "This gives a hint to your future. This card is about Birth. Growth. Development. Nurturing. The Empress is a good mother. Fruitful, benevolent, loving and caring. A person of station deserving of respect. When seeking answers about one's self, the card may indicate motherly worries about people or projects. It may raise the question of too much mothering or overprotectiveness. It may also be a reminder to the seeker that patience and persistence are necessary when nurturing growth. Traditionally, fertility, wealth, marriage, a female family member."

She sat back as she pressed her lips together, she'd given the boy the information about each card, now she had to put it all together and tell him what they were telling her as a whole, and that was the part was the bit that scared her, as she had to sort out what she knew about Khalid and what the cards were telling her, and not mix the two together. She ignored the past card, though it had at least given a positive answer to his question. She pulled at the end of the ponytail that had fallen over her shoulder. She tapped the mat by the middle card again. "While you currently feel unable to help your friend, it seems that you are where you need to be." She looked from the Knight of Swords to Khalid and back again, the card was so him, though reversed as it was it showed what needed to be seen.She didn't see him as the conniving or backstabbing type, but it was easy enough to see that he wanted revenge, and she hoped that the distance would be enough to cool his temper enough so that he could look at the situation clearly.

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she looked at the future card and laughed softly as the answer hit her. "You need to speak to your mother, you will need her guidance and wisdom to help you with this."

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

Khalid listened quietly as Serenity explained the spread and the meaning of each of the cards. His childhood certainly was good. He had a mostly loving family, plenty of friends, and could want for nothing. In school, he achieved good marks. Maybe he wasn't always at the top of his class, but he was a good student. The birth of his twin sisters marked the beginning of his fondest memories. They loved one another, and Khalid couldn't think of anything better than seeing them grow. Learning to ride was a challenge, but it also included great rewards. There was something unexplainable that came with every milestone in the saddle. Life in Qatar wasn't always perfect, but he wanted to be nowhere else.

The card for his present struck a deeper cord than even Serenity could have predicted. He was reminded of all the arguments and squabbles he had with his brothers. The boy was certainly not above playing dirty tricks to get the last laugh. Failure was never easy for him. He thought back to the show where he came in dead last despite spending hours schooling with Sarab and working so hard. At the time, he felt nothing but rage and unfairness at the outcome and in his rage, threatened to give up riding altogether. He couldn't imagine what he did wrong despite doing everything perfectly. The other horses and riders were simply better. He thought about the times when he wanted the best student in his class to fall ill on the day of a test so that he would have a shot at getting the highest marks. Success no matter the cost. The comment about air travel meant only one thing. The air strikes over Yemen. The thought left his blood boiling.

When Serenity mentioned his future, he could only think back to his conversation with Mick. His friends were his brothers, and in a way, it was like a mother's love. He always wanted to know they were safe and happy. Hearing nothing almost made him go mad. His friends all looked out for one another, supported each other in success and mourned together in tragedy. His sisters looked up to him, and every morning, he asked Allah to keep them safe from harm. Sometimes, he wished he could keep Aisha and Fatima in a bubble where they would never know hardship or sorrow. Seeing them smile was guaranteed to make his day. And if another man so much as looked at them in the wrong way, well, let Allah's wrath be upon him.

Her final comments stung. Khalid felt some assurance knowing that it wasn't wrong for him to be worried about his friends and to want to be there for them. And yet, how could he do that from across the Atlantic? He wanted to buy something sweet for Amir and just sit with him and wrap an arm around his shoulders. He wanted to tell Amir that no matter what happened in the future, they would always be friends. Somehow, they woulld find a way to keep in touch and visit. And his mother, the boy dreaded the idea of asking her for anything. He feared she would deride his concerns, tell him to stop being so emotional and be a proper man. Khalid thought his mother hated him and couldn't possibly offer guidance except for her shoe. He shook his head.

"You have not met my mother. She is the most devout Muslim I know, and I think she can recite al-Qur'an in her sleep. And I'm pretty sure she hates me. At home, it feels like everything she has to say is something I'm doing wrong. And...she wouldn't get it. I don't even think my mother has friends outside of her family."

He didn't understand Hissah's parenting technique. She wanted her children to keep close to their faith in an ever more secular world and to never forget their culture. As a member of the royal family, she knew better than anyone how important it was to retain family honor. The influence and respect the Al-Kuwaris received would be lost if they had a reputation as hooligans and trouble makers. She wanted her children to grow to be honorable members of society who could represent Qatar well.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity nodded as he spoke of his mother and she frowned as she looked at the card. "If not your mother, than an important female in you life." She shrugged. "She's important so she will reveal herself, and you will know when you see her." She thought over what he had said about his mother. "Forgive me if I am overstepping, but your mother sounds lonely." But he was correct, she didn't know his mother, and all she got was from his words.

She looked at the cards again and then looked at Khalid again. "Strange question, but do you mind if I take a photo of the cards? I write about all of my readings..." She quickly shook her head and quickly went on. "Your name won't be written anywhere, I just like to write down what I read from the cards, so if anyone does find that journal it will never be traced back to you."  If it were a reading for herself, she'd keep track of how it was unfolding, but she couldn't do that for readings for other people - as that would be creepy and a form of stalking.

She drew in a deep breath as she spread her hands over the cards. "In a nutshell, that's what I was writing about when... we encountered each other on the trails." She gave a small smile. 

OOC: Sorry the reply isn't the best.

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

Unknown to Khalid, his mother loved him dearly. She nitpicked and criticized so that they would learn how to behave properly. In her ideal world, all her children would grow up to marry affluent and influential spouses. She was a pious adhered of Islam and believed she was doing what was best for her family. Even though there were a few maids to help keep the place clean, Hissah did most of the cooking herself. One by one, her children were growing up and leaving home. As soon as Muhammad married, he would go on to establish his own household not too far from where his parents lived. Ali was delaying the inevitable marriage, but he too would leave within the next few years. Khalid was in America, and Nura had plans to study in Europe for part of her education. She kept her emotions veiled behind a cold mask, but in private, she showed nothing but concern for the welfare of her children. Even if they didn't carry the Al-Thani name, her children were princes and princesses in her eyes.

The boy nodded when Serenity asked permission to write it down. These were her cards, and he still couldn't entirely make heads or tails of the guidance, though it was significantly more concrete than prayer. Praying always felt like a shot in the dark. He kept praying for the same thing, and maybe one day, God would make it come true.

"I don't mind at all if you want to take a picture. And thank you for doing this for me. I know Islam forbids fortune-telling, but this was helpful. It's a little terrifying that the cards could describe my past so perfectly. And we barely know each other, so I know it's not just that you have a good memory. Those three cards managed to describe my childhood, personality, and relationships. I don't know if it's a gift from God or some other force, but incredible is the only way to describe it."

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity bowed her head when she gained his permission to write the reading down. Part of her wanted to phone her mother about it and see if she had interpreted any of the cards the wrong way, though she was sure she hadn't as she'd been reading tarot cards when most children were learning their alphabet, so she knew the cards intimately.

She picked up her phone and snapped a photo of the cards, it wasn't like she'd need them for a memory jog, but it was just something she did, as she wouldn't touch the cards again until they had been cleansed. "Don't think of it as fortune-telling." She said with a smile. "Think of it as reading a story." She shrugged, she hated the term fortune-telling, as it conjured up images of an old gypsy woman sitting behind a round table in a tent with candles and a crystal ball, charging people to tell them their hearts greatest desire. Sure, she had the candles and the crystal ball, but she'd never consider the idea of asking for money! "I'm just sorry that they weren't a little clearer with the answer you were hoping for." She said as she began to pick the cards up, making sure to keep the three he had picked on the top of the deck and tucking the deck back into its bag.

"Have faith, Khalid," She said as she touched his knee, "the universe has a way of putting everything exactly where it needs to be. Like the two of us on the same trail today." Serenity didn't believe in fate, because believing in fate was like saying people had no free-will, that everything is all pre-determined, but she knew that everything happened for a reason.

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

He cringed slightly at the correction. A lack of exposure to anything outside of Islam left his vocabulary on the matter weak. He wasn't about to use the term witchcraft as that was more wands and potions type stuff. The more he thought about it, the more he realized just how sheltered he was growing up. For a national, Doha was pretty idyllic. He knew the government would take care of him no matter what, and his name alone garnered a certain amount of respect.

Islam and Salam came from the same root. Peace and submission were inseparable. He understood the need to submit to God' will, but people still had free will. There was always the option to choose good or evil. The boy wondered if Serenity's Universe and Allah were the same, though Allah was transcendant of the universe. The universe was his creation.

There were answers, but also questions. He questioned his mother's warnings about how magic would make his soul burn in hell or how it was a rejection of God by putting his belief in people. It was impossible to shake a troubled countenance as he wrestled with new ideas that contradicted everything he was taught to believe. "Three months ago, last week, I would never have imagined this. At home, Islam is the only choice. I suppose I grew up in some kind of fantasy world. My mother is a princess, and my father was never much around. Two older brothers, and older sister, and two younger sisters. Maybe it sounds silly to say, but Islam dictated every aspect of life--waking and sleeping, meals, friends, activities, everything. I never even considered that other ways of thinking were possible or anyone who wasn't Muslim could be anything but crazy." The boy shrugged, not even sure why he felt comfortable saying all this. "Sometimes I think I'm the crazy one. I never once questioned my parents or the imam about Islam."

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity remained silent, knowing she had not only given Khalid a lot to think about, but that he had gone against his own beliefs to do this, and she knew that it must have taken a lot of courage for him to do this, though she wouldn't say anything alone those lines to hi, for fear of embarrassing him.

She knew that with her path she was lucky, as there were no firm rules, even the rede was just a basic guideline, unlike the christian ten commandments. There was no right or wrong way to choose which deity you wanted to worship, or even if you wanted to worship them all. She wasn't required to go to a certain place each week to worship with others, and she could freely study other beliefs without having to worry about scorn from her own. In fact, she was quite spoiled with the freedom she had, and she was thankful for it each day.

She smiled softly at his words. "You grew up in the world that your parents thought was best for you." She said. "And it doesn't sound silly at all. You live by what you believe. Similar to the Buddhist Monks who leave everything they own and love to dedicate their lives to Buddha at the temple." She shook her head. "You aren't crazy, and why would you want to question your life?" She raised her eyebrows. "Though there is nothing wrong with looking outside the box for answers at times. No one can condemn you for that."

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

Doha was a naturally cosmopolitan city. Expats outnumbered the nationals 3-1. It was so ordinary to see men in thobes walking to work next to men in western business suits. English was practically the lingua franca. And yet, his childhood was sheltered from reality. Khalid's mother made sure of that. She wanted only to preserve and protect the culture, faith, and language. Her greatest fear was to lose her children to the secular world and have them fall into a sinful life. However, her motives often fell beyond the understanding of her children. She mourned the day she realized that her son Ali cared more for the world than for Allah.

Reni's words offered assurance to his situation. Sure, she wasn't Muslim nor could be fully comprehend what it meant to grow up in a conservative Muslim house. Sometimes, even saying his family's practices aloud sounded silly. "When I first came to America, I felt anger towards my parents, my father in particular. It was tough to adjust, and I still don't think I've done a very good job at being American. Some days, I heard things in class or online that flew in the face of Islam." He didn't want to sound judgemental, but many of his first reactions were to spurn any belief that went against his religion. "My mother would definitely condemn me for looking anywhere besides an imam, fatwas, or hadiths for answers. I can't even listen to music at home without being called 'ibn al-kalb' Son of a dog is the translation."

Talking made things easier. The boy could feel himself relaxing a little. He had his friend group at home, but here, they were beyond reach. "So, how about you? What's your family like. Hopefully not as weird as mine."

[Serenity Oliver]

She pressed her lips together, thinking her words through. "You have right to feel angry toward them, though you can't fault them for raising you in the best way they know." She shrugged. "You shouldn't be trying to be anyone or anything other than who you are, otherwise all you are doing is trying to fit into a role that you haven't been rehearsed in. Even I hear things in class, the teachers' or students' opinions on things that make my blood boil, but all you can do it sit there and stew until you have a moment to yourself and can release whatever you are feeling." Her fingers tingled with energy and she briefly thought about teaching Khalid how to create and energy ball, but quickly brushed it aside, as it was a form of magick and she couldn't ask him to do that.

She laughed at his question and wondered how he would react to her saying that she came from a family of witches. "Our parents are rather casual, with everything." She said with a shrug. "Everyone at our last school was under the belief that they were gypsies and Tommy and I raised ourselves while Mom and Da went around the countryside stealing kids." She shrugged. "Big enough house, they could have hidden a few dozen kids there."She laughed at the thought. "As long as we keep good grades and follow the threefold law of return, then we're pretty much free to do as we want." Her and Tommy were spoiled in the sense of how much freedom they had, but with that freedom came just as much responsibility.

[Khalid Al-Kuwari]

Khalid could definitely see wisdom in Serenity's words. As the third son, he was always in the shadow of his older brothers. They would go on to take control of the company as was their birthright, but he was simply lost. His passion lay in sports and enjoying life. The hard work that came with management positions never appealed to him, and for that, his father saw only failure. Being allowed to attend Blue Ridge seemed to be a step in the right direction towards his parents accepting the choice he made for his own life. They could have an Olympic caliber athlete in the family instead of a CEO. "Prayer helps. There's a feeling of unity with the rest of the Ummah, but the relationship with Allah (subḥānahū wa-taʿālā) is very personal. Though, I don't know of any way of thinking besides Islam. Questioning what was accepted truth before is still strange. Maybe not bad, but I could never leave Islam. I wouldn't know where to go."

With Serenity, he felt safe. She wasn't about to try and convert him even though they believed in different things. Unlike the radicals, he had nothing against people of other faiths. Atheism was rather inconceivable, but he found the idea of a world without a god rather depressing. He felt secure knowing that Allah would look after him his entire life and beyond. Death wasn't the end. His own mortality wasn't a source of fear.

"That sounds pretty nice, actually. Freedom and no one telling you all the things that had to be done. And being the gypsy kid sounds a lot better than everyone knowing your mother is the emir's niece or cousin. So, you had no limitations on the sort of books you could read or television? I've never seen a Disney movie or read Harry Potter. Strict parents are the worst."

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity smiled and bowed her head. "A person's patron... god, is always a very personal relationship." She agreed. "Just because you're questioning things of your religion, doesn't mean that you have to go anywhere else. Should it?" Life was all about questioning one's beliefs. She still questioned hers, while there were no set ground rules to Wicca. There was magick because she simply believed it existed.

She found this entire encounter ever so slightly comforting, as if Khalid had been Catholic, he'd be trying to quote bible verses at her about how they shall now allow a witch to live or some other thing like that at her, but she was getting the feeling that his religion wasn't the kind to convert others, and she wasn't going to tell him that her religion was better than his, because she was taught that it was better to respect others for their beliefs than tell them that what they believed in was wrong, she had enough people do that to her.

She shrugged. "We still had things that needed to done, as the stalls weren't going to cleans themselves, or the horses and ponies work themselves. We just didn't have anyone telling us when we had to have them done by, as Ma and Da both trusted that we would get them done. The only place they were strict was on our outside of school studies." She shrugged slightly self-consciously. "While we were encouraged to do our best at school, our... spiritual studies kind of took precedence. But no, no limitations on books or movies, not that we had a lot of time for movies." And she preferred books over the big screen any day.