Well, um — hold on, stay here. Let me go get something, and it will make showing you easier.
[She leaves him there, just briefly, and after a minute the sound of her footsteps on the stairs is audible; a minute or two passes, and then the footsteps thud-thud-thud again, and then she's back with an item in each hand, which she brings over to show him.
First, the one in her left hand — a deck of tarot cards that have clearly seen a lot of use, or at least have been made to look that way.]
This is a trick. Say you've come to me, and you want me to tell your future. That is clearly ridiculous, but I want to make sure you sit and stay a while with me, so I look you over, make you talk to me a little, learn something about you, and —
[She brings her free hand palm-up near the short side edge of the card deck, and with a slight swivel of her hand, a single card shifts to jut out of the deck.]
I make the card I want jump into my hand. The cards themselves are not magic; the magic is making the one I want appear when I need it to.
[Somewhat whimsically, she flips over the card — the Nine of Wands — and sets it face-up on top of the deck before placing the whole thing aside. Then, she takes up the other item she'd brought — a piece of paper with writing on it.]
This is a focus. On this paper is a spell. I don't know the spell, and it is not something I could simply cast whenever I please, like making fire or creating ice. But I could use this paper to cast the spell on it, once, and it would work. But then I could not cast that spell again, unless I had another paper like this.
no subject
[She leaves him there, just briefly, and after a minute the sound of her footsteps on the stairs is audible; a minute or two passes, and then the footsteps thud-thud-thud again, and then she's back with an item in each hand, which she brings over to show him.
First, the one in her left hand — a deck of tarot cards that have clearly seen a lot of use, or at least have been made to look that way.]
This is a trick. Say you've come to me, and you want me to tell your future. That is clearly ridiculous, but I want to make sure you sit and stay a while with me, so I look you over, make you talk to me a little, learn something about you, and —
[She brings her free hand palm-up near the short side edge of the card deck, and with a slight swivel of her hand, a single card shifts to jut out of the deck.]
I make the card I want jump into my hand. The cards themselves are not magic; the magic is making the one I want appear when I need it to.
[Somewhat whimsically, she flips over the card — the Nine of Wands — and sets it face-up on top of the deck before placing the whole thing aside. Then, she takes up the other item she'd brought — a piece of paper with writing on it.]
This is a focus. On this paper is a spell. I don't know the spell, and it is not something I could simply cast whenever I please, like making fire or creating ice. But I could use this paper to cast the spell on it, once, and it would work. But then I could not cast that spell again, unless I had another paper like this.