The Rooms of Antiquities, the pleasant female voice can be heard from the earbuds of the electronic tour guide, contain a number of peculiar objects, many of which are not, in fact, ancient. Several of them were in fact thought to be ancient until they were discovered to be forgeries, or merely more modern pieces confused for older ones.
The scene soon appears before his non-eyes again.
And as he spends more time in there, more details can be made out. The two cards aren't just cards, it's obvious they're not. He can see the cards, and he can see their true forms, Windy smiling softly at him and Fly perched regally on an unseen object, both occupying non-spaces both larger and smaller than anything else.
And they're not just that, either. They're so much more—magic, pure and shaped, potential and power. There are... emotions, feelings, beliefs, there...
That's... inspiring. Theo manages to keep focusing on the magic, just about, but is somewhat overwhelmed by the experience.
Fly... it's subdued, yes, but not by Theo. It respects Windy. And it's slightly hurt, emotionally.
Windy doesn't see Theo as her master either, but is willing to help. Her feelings for him are an alien, almost incomprehensible version of grandmotherly; she is the wind itself, powerful, big, all-encompassing, and she's bowing to him out of—pity? love?
Well, Theo feels a little guilty about Fly, but not enough to use it for a winged broomstick. And as before, Theo feels a bit sad about Windy, but doesn't linger on that too much.
He decides to wake out of the trance, focusing back on his breathing instead of the magic, then opening his eyes.
He doesn't even need to do that; the moment he drops out of relaxation, trance ends.
"Why'd you stop?"
"I don't know, really. I saw the cards, or, like... a weird version of them, and... I'm not sure?"
"The point of meditating is getting better at perceiving magic, and developing a good relationship with it."
"Oh, right. I didn't realise. I thought you just wanted me to see what the cards were like."
He closes his eyes again and focuses again, since that's what he's supposed to do.
And more details become apparent.
The first one is Cerberus, glowing golden where his physical body would be in relation to Theo, in the bedroom. It starts out small, winged-bear-shaped, but it—grows. There's a clear sense of great power, there, but it's dormant, its shape fuzzier. In the same way the cards are simultaneously card and something else, Cerberus is bear and something else, but the something else isn't crisp enough to be made out.
Well that's potentially worrying, but it's something to deal with later. Theo tries to put it out of his mind and waits for new details.
Once again, same. The longer he stays, the more layers of meaning and detail he gets from the things around him. He knows Fly is under Windy, and both of them are under Moon. He knows Cerberus is under Sun. He sees... a connection, after a bit. A faint connection between the cards and himself, and a similar connection between Cerberus and himself.
For a while, it looks as if he's maxed out. No more details are forthcoming, and the cards are still there, moving every now and then, but otherwise dormant. A great peace falls on him, and if he's not asleep, that's only because he's aware.
And then there's—something. In the distance. Reminiscent of the two cards, dormant as well, but unrecognisable. Too far. Inactive.
He takes a while to actually respond properly, but opens his eyes.
"I think I saw the other card," he says to Cerberus.
Cerberus—
—is asleep on a cushion.
And snoring much more loudly than one would naively expect, given his size.