A terse email from Kerry summoned Jasmine to the farmhouse to deliver his letter. Naturally, Jasmine was full of questions about Kerry's revelation and Tenna's reaction, and got the story. She thought Kerry was being admirably calm about the whole thing, but he reminded her about his ability to blank his outward reactions, and assured her he wasn't calm at all. He had, however, resolved not to plot any more vengeance on Brandon for the time being. That reminded Jasmine of a bit of "vengeance" she herself had executed -- one that meant she ought to make herself scarce. She had decided that, if Tyler and Melanie really wanted to spend their nights together, she would help them out *and* save herself from ever having to deal with her roommate again, by teleporting every last one of Mel's possessions into Tyler's Halfway House room. Having thought about it some, though, she wasn't sure she wanted to be particularly close to hand when Tyler and/or Mel first encountered her handiwork. Kerry also had an appointment elsewhere, to continue the education/socialization of the new Caitlin Summers. They agreed to meet later for further discussion.

So Jasmine returned to campus, found a nice tree to sit under out on the lawn, and set to work. She tapped into Tenna Gilman's brain and inserted the aphasia-encryption key. Then she delivered Kerry's letter to Ten's computer, watched as it was read, and deleted it as Kerry had instructed. Not feeling it was safe to return to her room just yet, she went on to another programming project. Sometime later, Jasmine was interrupted in her work by the sound of Tyler's voice from close behind her. Trying not to panic, she resolved to pretend she hadn't heard him. But Tyler leaned in close and rested his chin on her shoulder, and the two actual hormones in Jasmine's bloodstream began jumping up and down in a most distracting manner. Satisfied that he had her attention, Tyler moved to crouch in front of her and asked simply, "Why?" Jasmine tried to pretend she didn't know what he meant, but he simply repeated the same question. The lame dodge of "It seemed like a good idea at the time" received the same response. Finally Jasmine explained what she'd accidentally observed and why it had made her react so. Tyler sighed and chided her for acting on incomplete data -- an error Jasmine normally shunned. It turned out that Mel and Tyler's unusual sleeping arrangements had been intended neither for recreation nor for Tyler's comfort (the role which Jasmine felt was rightfully hers). Indeed, the incident hadn't been intended at all, and had resulted from Tyler counseling Mel late into the night over some problems she was having. Furthermore, it was unlikely to be repeated, as Tyler had found it entirely too tempting. Jasmine began to realize that she had made a colossal mistake. Furthermore, as Tyler pointed out, Mel's pre-existing stress hadn't been helped by Jasmine's "revenge," and Mel was now terribly upset at the thought that she had done something to mortally offend her roommate. Now appropriately guilt-tripped, Jasmine agreed to go back to her room and teleport all the stuff back, and apologize to Mel in person later.

When Kerry finished visiting with Caitlin (a part of the session that sadly was not played out or otherwise detailed; if Jimmy writes it up, I will point you folks in that direction), he went back to school and found Jasmine in her room, doing the re-teleporting. She explained her grievous error, cautioning Kerry to let that be a lesson to him the next time he felt like plotting against Brandon. Kerry, however, continued to insist that the entire business had *not* been Jasmine's fault, but the result of Tyler's rudeness. Jasmine, exasperated, asked if there were any conceivable piece of information that *wouldn't* worsen Kerry's opinion of Tyler . He thought about it for a second, and had to admit that there probably was none. When Jasmine wondered aloud how she'd managed to become friends with someone who so despised the love of her young life, Kerry suggested that perhaps both of them knew, on some level, that the "real" Tyler was somewhere in between their respective biases, and kept each other around specifically to play devil's advocate on the subject.

Mel arrived just then, and Kerry hastened to employ the traditional "I was just leaving" exit. Mel seemed pleased that her furniture was gradually returning, and Jasmine delivered the necessary apology, trying her best to explain her misapprehension. When asked about the "problems" Tyler had mentioned, Mel explained that she was starting to experience the downside of her unexpectedly successful modeling career, having to deal constantly with classmates and others who recognized her. Though Corinna had tried to teach her to enjoy the attention, Mel still found it more a nuisance than anything, and had turned to her boyfriend for comfort when the stress got to be too much. Jasmine was moved to apologize yet again, but did ask that Mel someday actually be wrong, so that she could be *righteously* angry and not have to feel bad about it later. Mel promised to try, noting that there were a few things she could say that probably would send Jasmine through the roof, but that she would save those for the next time the roommates had an argument, so they could both be cathartically furious at the same time. Jasmine agreed. Then, curious about their now-shared experience, Jasmine asked if Mel had enjoyed sleeping with Tyler. After making sure that wasn't one of the things that would drive Jasmine into jealous rage, Mel admitted that it had been quite pleasant indeed.

The next day or two passed without much incident. Kerry noticed to his satisfaction that the open affection between his sister and Brandon had been scaled back considerably, and was moved to wonder which of them had suggested that. On a less satisfying note, Ten made no move to talk to Kerry about the message he'd sent her. After awhile he met with Jasmine again and asked for a full report on the delivery. Jasmine explained that Ten had read the letter with no change in her rather neutral expression, and then had immediately turned off the computer and walked away. Kerry wondered if his sister had found some confidante with whom to share the disturbing tale of his incestuous crush, and if so, who it might be.

The next morning, Jasmine awoke and was getting dressed as usual, only to find an odd addition to the room: a Tarot card, the High Priestess, lying atop her laptop. Since she didn't own a Tarot deck and didn't think Mel did either, she wasn't sure how the card had gotten into the room. The mystery only deepened when Mel found another card -- that of Strength -- among her possessions. Magickal observation of the cards showed faint and fading traces of Correspondence magick, indicating that they had likely been teleported into place.

Meanwhile, Kerry was getting ready in his room when he also found a card -- the Hanged Man -- tucked between the bars of his pet mouse's cage. Oddly, the mouse had not nibbled on the card at all, and indeed seemed to be avoiding it. Kerry's own magickal investigation revealed Prime traces, suggesting that magick of some sort had been involved in the card's arrival. Stepping to his computer, he messaged Jasmine, and learned of the other two discoveries. The three decided to proceed on to breakfast, where they would learn if anyone else had gotten similar "gifts."

And indeed they had. Corinna produced the Empress from her cleavage. Tyler asked for guesses, and upon a unanimous cry of "Death" showed that he had indeed received that card. Ivan seemed to be suffering from the Mother of All Hangovers (which must have been a *real* doozy considering his usual near-immunity to the problem), but held up the Fool. Tenna was the last to show a card, having been gifted with the Star.

(compiler's note: Ivan does not suffer from hangovers. It was near constant study of a certain problem involving demonology. Demonology texts are famous for being densely written, poorly expository and usually never indexed. It takes too long to find anything useful. Vivarin was most likely the culprit rather than alcohol.)

Ivan being indisposed, Jasmine opened her laptop and quickly located a Tarot website. The interpretations of the cards, once revealed, worried the youngsters even more -- especially the mages. Whoever or whatever had left the cards clearly knew more about each and every one of them than they normally cared to reveal.

Quick digression: The cards, recapped, and notably spooky interpretations:

• The High Priestess (Jasmine): Intuition, knowledge that cannot be expressed in words. Overtones of defending what you believe to be yours.
• Strength (Mel): Integrity, strength of character, loyalty -- but laced with fears of weakness.
• The Hanged Man (Kerry): Tension between defiance of convention (perhaps to the point of becoming an outcast) and knuckling under to societal pressure.
• The Empress (Corinna): Passion, feminine power, motherhood (that last one engendered more than one snicker from the group).
• Death (Tyler): Tension between throwing off old burdens to seek new paths, and clinging to the old even when it is no longer useful.
• The Fool (Ivan): Overtones of being apart from and passing judgment on the normal social order -- but also of literal foolishness and recklessness.
• The Star (Tenna): Hope, idealism, and emotional insight, crossed with avoidance of one's own feelings (an implication that made Kerry's day, you can be sure).

After breakfast, the gang retired to the subterranean library to discuss the matter further. On the way, Tyler called his stepmother, who frequently employed the Tarot in her own magickal practice and also wrote error-laden pop-occultism books as a sideline. While waiting for Katy to arrive, the group confirmed that none of them had actually seen the cards appear. They appeared to be from a fairly standard Rider-Waite deck, rather than a theme deck that might have told them something about the owner. Further attempts at magickal analysis of the whole set revealed no traces of normal forensic evidence whatsoever, and indicated that no other cards belonging to the same deck were on campus (or at least that any mystically-discernable connection between them had been severed). All of this was reported to Katy on her arrival. She found particularly notable the contrast between the fading magickal traces the kids had initially noticed and the utter lack of other evidence of past handling on the cards. The latter indicated a powerfully arcane source that would resist leaving behind evidence of its passing -- but then why had the magickal traces been left? Possibly, whoever had sent the cards was deliberately leaving clues for the recipients to follow, though the trail didn't seem to lead anywhere yet. Asked if she could glean any further significance from the specific identities of the cards that had been left, Katy suggested that perhaps someone was performing a full reading on each of them, and that they had so far only received the first card of each set -- the significator, indicating the traits of the person who is the subject of the reading. Katy pointed out that all the cards the kids had received were of the Major Arcana, rarely used as significators. A large proportion of such cards in a reading would indicate that the subject's fate had been taken out of his or her hands. The kids didn't like the sound of that, and resolved to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, they needed more evidence. Acting on the supposition that there would be more cards delivered, they decided to have Jasmine secure all their rooms with teleportation alarms, in hopes of noticing the next "installment" at the moment of its arrival. Then they adjourned, still puzzling over the mystery.

A little later, Kerry was again worrying over his sister's (non-)reaction to his letter. He wanted to know more, but didn't want to accost Ten directly on the subject for fear of making things worse. He also wanted to know even more, now that the group had begun receiving extremely well-chosen Tarot cards, to whom Tenna had been speaking, if anyone. If she had chanced upon a confidante of magickal prowess, that person might have been able to use Ten's own preternatural insight to plumb the inner lives of her associates. Kerry recalled that he had promised to teach Ten how to block off her end of their psychic link, so that he could not arbitrarily invade her mind (not that he would). That might give him an excuse to raise the other subjects in conversation, but it still stood too great a chance of backfiring. If only there were someone else who could -- aha! Jasmine knew about Kerry's unfortunate situation, and she was a telepath. She could teach Ten the necessary techniques and acquire the information Kerry wanted, if she was agreeable. She eventually proved so, despite some reluctance to be entangled further in Kerry's creepy would-be love life. She did caution Kerry, however, that Tenna already knew her as Kerry's chief ally and confidante in the situation. Therefore, in order to establish trust, she might have to promise *not* to immediately blab to Kerry everything that Ten told her. Kerry told her to use her own discretion on that front, but reminded her that the question of to whom Tenna had been talking might turn out to be important to *all* of them.