"We'll never be able to work if every other card makes me go 'what.'"

"It erases things temporarily, including people and memories, and they're erased forever if they stay gone for too long."

"How about we just get them all written down, then you can come point at ones that make you want clarification, I'll mark them, and we can get clarification at the end? But seriously, what even is that card."

"Fine, I guess."

"Fight is under Firey, and teaches its user martial arts. Firey controls fire. Float makes things float, under Windy. Flower is under Earthy and makes flowers. Freeze can lower temperatures and generate ice. Glow creates glowing floating balls of light. Libra can detect lies and is under Earthy. Light controls light. Little makes things smaller, and can reduce magical power as well, and is under Light. Lock is under Earthy and can lock a place and seal it off. Loop warps space to create a continuous repeating loop and is under Earthy. Maze creates a pocket labyrinth dimension and is also under Earthy. Nothing can unmake anything, and isn't under any other cards or powers. Power gives strength and is just Firey. Rain creates rain and is under Watery. Return can send you to observe the past. Sand can create and manipulate sand and is under Earthy. Shot is under Firey and attacks someone until they are destroyed if you ask it to. Silent is under the Dark and makes things quiet. Sleep makes people sleep. Snow is under Watery and can create snow and snowstorms. Song can copy any song. Storm is under Windy and can create storms and tornadoes. Sweet is under Light and can turn things into sweets. Sword is under Firey and is a powerful magical sword. Through is under Firey and can make you go through things. Thunder makes thunder and is under Firey too. The Voice can mimic or steal voices. The Watery controls water, the Wave controls waves of water, and the Wood creates plants and is under Earthy. "

"That... is a lot. Okay."

He writes a lot of notes on what to ask for each card, then goes through them, a few at a time:

"What sort of martial arts with Fight? Any? And with Libra, what actually counts as a lie? If you leave something out, does that count? What about body language, like if you shake your head when the true answer is 'yes'?"

"Any martial art, and Libra reacts differently to different types of untruth."

"I honestly don't even know where to start," Sadde confesses, looking at Theo's notes. "I'll think of something and ask I guess."

"So Libra does respond to lies through head-shakes, then?" he tries to clarify, and then continues with the long list: "How does Light control light? Can it act like Darkness, by just stopping light in an area? Little doesn't... like... obey the laws of physics and biology, does it? It won't kill people if you shrink them?"

"Right. Light isn't as good as Dark doing that, and no you can't kill anyone with Little unless you step on them."

And yet more questions: "With Maze, does the pocket dimension change each time, or can you store things there and modify it? When you say Nothing 'unmakes' things, how does it unmake them? Explosively? What does it unmake them into?"

"It's a different dimension every time. Nothing is like Erase but instead of making specific things disappear it just makes areas of things completely cease to be. It counteracts all the other fifty-two cards and is as strong as all of them together, and can make even magical things disappear."

"Okay, wow, that sounds horrible to fight," he says. On with the questions. "What kinds of strength can Power give? Just physical strength, or also like mental fortitude? How do you observe the past with Return? Can you specify exactly where, or is it random and confusing? And shot just sounds horrible."

Sadde is kinda reeling from Nothing's description.

"Power only gives physical strength, and Return sends you back to a point in time you choose. You need a lot of magic to use it."

"Surely it's not that bad? Kero basically said it's just Erase with a bit of extra juice and the ability to affect magical items, that's it." – Oh wait. What the hell, Theo? – "Nevermind, that's terrifying!"

"It's terrifying," she agrees.

Shrug.

Well, on with the questions, he supposes. He can freak out over some of the cards later on. Oh wait, no he can't, he's going to fight Shadow. He can freak out tomorrow, when it's not his birthday.

"How precisely can Silent make things quiet? Is there anything special about the properties of the sweets that Sweet makes, or are they just regular sweets?" he asks, and then actually thinks of another question. "... Why is Through under Firey?"

"Silent never told me what she could do. Sweets are just sweets. And probably because fire is intangible?" Another shrug.

"Oh, okay. I didn't realise you spoke with the cards to gather this information," he says, a little confused. He continues, "How... does Voice steal voices? What kind of plants can Wood make? Magical moving ones? Toxic ones? Ones that are really useful for making magical items when they've been cut down, maybe?"

"It just does? Wood focuses on trees, magical moving ones, but they disappear once you seal it away again. You can't turn them into anything."

"Like... why and when does Voice steal voices? Does it just find people and go 'oh, that's a nice voice' and they are somehow now unable to speak and it can use their voice? Does it have to hear them and then it literally yanks some weird ball of light out of your throat? Does it make you unable to even comprehend the idea of you speaking? There are so many ways it could 'steal your voice', and so many reasons it might do it."

"It just does. There's no ball of light, the voice's just gone and Voice has it."

"These cards go from 'harmless and cute' through 'useless' and 'freaky' to 'outright terrifying.' What's a card like that even for."