"WILL YOU EXPLAIN THE CHARIOT CARD?!!!"

"Good to know. What is mana? What is a familiar? What do you mean by granting a transformation?"

Yvette's creature pauses with its hand on the cards. It breathes out a sigh: it smells like rotting eggs. "If you force me to, yes."

Blair's creature blinks, slowly.

"Mana is what sustains your new body. It is expended by casting spells, and regained by killing Shadows. Your familiar is a small creature that you have control of. It contains your soul. If you combine your new body with your familiar, you will transform into a supernaturally powerful state."

"What! Does! The! Chariot! Card! Grant!"

"Temper."

Huff.

"And how can I use the Chariot card to find my brother."

"Better. What does having my soul in a small creature mean? Does something bad happen to me if something, not going to name names here," he is looking directly at the creature on Yvette with a look of disdain, "were to kill it?"

"The Chariot gives to the Body and takes from the Mind. It may enhance your vision to be effective over twice the distance as before."

Blair's creature huffs, as if the answer to the question is obvious. "You will be dependent on your familiar's presence to act upon the world. If your soul is destroyed, you will die."

"Fuck that. What does the - the - that one grant." She points at a card that hasn't yet been chosen.

"Right. Okay. Do I get to choose what form my special soul-bearing animal friend takes?"

"The Fool. Gives Fate. Takes from Identity."

The second creature keeps a perfect poker face.

"Yes."

"What do you mean by gives Fate, how does it take from Identity?"

"... How do I do that? Just tell you 'I would like my special soul-bearing animal friend to be a bird'?"

Yvette's shadow smiles.

"You will be given a close circle of four friends. All will be loyal and trustworthy. You will have an extraordinary life in the new world, with more paramours than you know how to count. You will do these things as a man."

Blair's shadow sighs.

"Yes."

... Yvette shudders a little, at 'more paramours than you know how to count.' By what mechanism does it -?

No, focus, questions.

"And what does the last card grant, and what is its price?"

"What is the animal you would have the single largest amount of trouble killing, if piloted by an intelligent individual?"

"The last card gives to the Mind, and takes from the Heart."

Blair's shadow smiles with its eyes, and grabs his hair to deliver its answer directly into his face.

"I am not required to answer that question."

"Hows does it give to the Mind, and how does it take from the Heart?"

Blair growls at the shadow grabbing his hair, but he composes himself quickly enough.

"Can I specify things like this with the other cards, too?"

Yvette's creature rolls it's shoulders. "It grants better memory, better multitasking, more flexibility. You will learn new skills faster. You will have a new talent for something. It takes your ability to express emotion."

Blair's creature shakes his head back and forth by his hair - then releases him, and growls out a "Yes."

"How complete is the inability to express emotion? Would I be incapable of feeling it?"

Growl.

"What things could be specified for the card my sister's currently asking about?"

"Exactingly. No."

...Blair's shadow appears to be fighting a compulsion to speak. It swallows, hard. Once, twice. Then the words spill from it like a fountain.

"The body type, strengths and weaknesses of their new body. Lifespan, as associated with the strength of their body's aura. The manifestation of her aura's power. The talent that she will gain. The ways that her aura will be etched, and the techniques of its use that she will know."

Jackpot.

"What is aura, what does it mean to manifest, what does the etching of mana mean, what techniques are possible, what talents are there -"

"What things could be specified for the Hanged Man card?" Since it is the only other one besides Empress and whatever-the-emotionless-one-is that doesn't make her want to screech and claw her eyes out.